Abstract

In this chapter, I discuss the meanings of ‘druggist’, ‘drug’ and ‘spice’ in the early modern Dutch Republic, with a view, on the one hand, to locating the druggist-poet Joannes Six van Chandelier within a socio-medical landscape and, on the other, to determining what associations the druggist’s ‘dry spices’ had for his contemporaries. In contrast to the view that literary historians have taken of Six’s profession, as an everyday activity from which he derived his realistic view of life, I argue that the drug trade was a cause for concern among readers of his poems who were focused on whether it was morally acceptable. ‘Spices’ and ‘drugs’ were associated with strangeness and opulence, and even the miraculous. In order to avoid these negative associations, then, Six presented himself in many of his poems as a sober and rational druggist-poet.

Keywords: Drugs, spices, medical profession, panacea, hemp, self-presentation

Wat mannen sie ik in dit boek,

Wyl ik syn geestenhof doorsoek!

Hier schynt een heemelsch hof vol licht

Van sonne, maane, en stargesigt,

En alles geeft zo schoonen glans,

Slechts tot meer luisters eenes mans.

Hoe past myn naam in deese saal?

Syn kaars licht niet by zulk gestraal.

Neen, Heiblok, ik blyf hier van daan:

Een koopman mag by koopmans staan.

What men do I see in this book,

As I search through this court of spirits!

A heavenly court full of light is shining here

From faces of the sun, the moon and the stars,

And everything gives off a beautiful sheen,

Which only strengthens the illustriousness of these men.

How does my name belong in this hall?

Its candlelight cannot be seen against all this brilliance.

No, Heiblok, I shall stay away from this court:

A merchant should stay among merchants.