Samuel Coster (1 September 1579,Birth certificate
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Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the Capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population ...

– 1665) was a Dutch playwright. Coster was the fifth child of Adriaen Lennaertz, sexton and carpenter, and Aeltgen Jansd. By around 1605, he was a member of the Amsterdam rederijkerskamer "De Eglantier". Presumably he was helped into the society by rich friends, but then got himself to

Leiden University Leiden University (abbreviated as ''LEI''; nl, Universiteit Leiden) is a Public university, public research university in Leiden, Netherlands. The university was founded as a Protestant university in 1575 by William the Silent, William, Prince o ...

in 1607. He began as a student of the

humanities Humanities are academic disciplines that study aspects of human society and culture. In the Renaissance, the term contrasted with divinity and referred to what is now called classics, the main area of secular study in universities at the t ...

, but he graduated in 1610 as a doctor in medicine. He was appointed a physician at the Hospital on his return to Amsterdam. Coster for 10 years played a leading role in the literary life of

, making his name in the theatre. "Teeuwis de boer" (Teeuwis the farmer), a comedy in all probability already written during his years in Leiden, was in 1612 put on by "De Eglantier". Inspired by the national anthem, Coster laid out in it comical motives and characters: a voluptuous man married with an old woman, a farmer opposite a city-dweller, a bragging Westfaals talking with a bald nobleman, and a sly and knowing French lawyer. In 1613 the "Spel van Tiisken vander Schilden" (Play of Tiisken vander Schilden) appeared, at first anonymous but later attributed to Coster on the basis of stylistic resemblance with other works of his. The first ' classical' tragedy in

Dutch Dutch commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands * Dutch people () * Dutch language () Dutch may also refer to: Places * Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States * Pennsylvania Dutch Country People E ...

has been written also by Coster: " Ithys", probably put on by "Eglantier" in 1615. Although largely in the

pastoral A pastoral lifestyle is that of shepherds herding livestock around open areas of land according to seasons and the changing availability of water and pasture. It lends its name to a genre of literature, art, and music (pastorale) that depicts ...

style, it is an extremely bloody drama, take from one of the cruellest episodes in

Ovid Pūblius Ovidius Nāsō (; 20 March 43 BC – 17/18 AD), known in English as Ovid ( ), was a Roman poet who lived during the reign of Augustus. He was a contemporary of the older Virgil and Horace, with whom he is often ranked as one of the th ...

's ''

Metamorphoses The ''Metamorphoses'' ( la, Metamorphōsēs, from grc, μεταμορφώσεις: "Transformations") is a Latin narrative poem from 8 CE by the Roman poet Ovid. It is considered his ''magnum opus''. The poem chronicles the history of the wo ...

'': the story of

Tereus In Greek mythology, Tereus (; Ancient Greek: Τηρεύς) was a Thracian king,Thucydides: ''History of the Peloponnesian War'' 2:29 the son of Ares and the naiad Bistonis. He was the brother of Dryas. Tereus was the husband of the Athenian prin ...

and

Procne Procne (; grc, Πρόκνη, ''Próknē'' ) is a minor figure in Greek mythology. She was an Athens, Athenian princess as the elder daughter of a king of Athens named Pandion I, Pandion. Family Procne's mother was the naiad Zeuxippe and he ...

. Around 1615, the "De Eglantier" began to break up, with pressures from old versus new, Dutch versus foreign, self-praise versus critical talent. Hooft's attempts to reconstruct it came to nothing. The final break came in 1617, when a small group of talented members led by Coster, Hooft and

Bredero Gerbrand Adriaenszoon Bredero (16 March 1585 – 23 August 1618) was a Dutch poet and playwright in the period known as the Dutch Golden Age. Life Gerbrand Adriaenszoon Bredero was born on 16 March 1585 in Amsterdam in the Dutch Republic ...

split off to found the ' Duytsche Academy'. The intention was to practice not only poetry and theatre, but also to organize scientific research lectures in Dutch, unlike the universities of Leiden,

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and

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, which gave their classes at that time in Latin. In November 1617, a new classical drama of Coster was performed: "

Iphigenia In Greek mythology, Iphigenia (; grc, Ἰφιγένεια, , ) was a daughter of King Agamemnon and Queen Clytemnestra, and thus a princess of Mycenae. In the story, Agamemnon offends the goddess Artemis on his way to the Trojan War by hunting ...

". The drama was a disguised criticism of the current religious disputes and fanatical drive of the Calvanistic preachers, making these preachers protest to the mayor of Amsterdam and getting him to declare (wrongly) that the Academie was

anticlerical Anti-clericalism is opposition to religious authority, typically in social or political matters. Historical anti-clericalism has mainly been opposed to the influence of Roman Catholicism. Anti-clericalism is related to secularism, which seeks to ...

. Successful productions of plays like Bredero's "Spaanschen Brabander" and Hooft's "Warenar" could do nothing to change this. The death of Bredero in August 1618, combined with tragic political events that very same month and the execution of Oldenbarnevelt in May 1619, limited the Academy's chances. Samuel Coster 1579-1665 Erfgoedcentrum Rozet 300 191 d 2 A-10

Samuel Coster 1579-1665 Erfgoedcentrum Rozet 300 191 d 2 A-10

Due to his medical work, that took up much of his time, Coster published little in later years, besides revising and reprinting his earlier works. He remained friendly with the aforenamed Amsterdam literary circles, and so the Academy's objectives were finally realised in 1632 and 1637, with the foundation of the Athenaeum Illustre and the new

Theater Theatre or theater is a collaborative form of performing art that uses live performers, usually actor, actors or actresses, to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place, often a stage. The p ...

– not founded by Coster himself, but by a younger generation realizing his aims.

References

Works

*Boere-klucht van Teeuwis de Boer, en men Juffer van Grevelinckhuysen (1612, 1e druk 1627) *Ithys (1615) *Spel van de rijckeman (1615) *Warenar (1617, samen met P.C. Hooft) *Iphigenia (1617) *Isabella (tekst tot vers 362 van Hooft) (1619) *Polyxena (1619) *Duytsche Academi (1619), gelegenheidsspel *Ghezelschap der Goden vergaaert op de ghewenste bruyloft van Apollo (1618) *Nederduytsche Academijs Niemant ghenoemt, niemant gheblameert (1620)

References

Works

Further reading