‘De ene les na de andere deelt hij uit.’

Abstract

Instruction or reflection? ‘Lessons’ in Huygens’ Hofwijck Constantijn Huygens’ country house poem Hofwijck (written 1650-1651, first edition 1653) is usually regarded as a poem providing religious and moral instruction. The author has been called a moralist who ‘hands out one lesson after another’. This article challenges that view. Not only do the so-called ‘lessons’ seem quite trivial for the readers addressed by Huygens (‘friends’ and even ‘wise friends’), but also, in close reading and attention to the socio-cultural context, the poem turns out much less to ‘teach’ than to challenge and incite contradiction. It asks for an active reader.