It wurk fan Gysbert Japix n-2 - Tresoar

8.3. Concise Summary*
This study consists of two parts, a facsimile edition of the oeuvre of Gysbert Japix
(Part I), foliowed by a commentary (Part II). The numbers after the headings in the
summary below refer to the chapters in Part II, unless preceded by an I, in which case
they refer to the pages of Part I.
Object (1.1)
The object of the present investigation are matter and contents of the oeuvre of the
Frisian poet Gysbert Japix (Bolsward 1603-1666; henceforth GJ) in relation to their
literary and historical context. His work consists of poems in both Frisian and
Dutch, and three rather short prose translations in Frisian, of which two were certainly
translated from French. A large part of the Frisian work was collected in the
posthumously published Friesche Rymlerye (1668) and in its second edition with Supplements
in 1681/1684 (both henceforth FR). The latter also includes letters in Frisian
(and one in Dutch). GJ's Dutch poetry is scattered in literary anthologies and as
liminal verses in the works of others, particularly in collections of sermons. Some of
the poems, especially fhose in Dutch, have come down to us only in manuscript. GJ
may also have composed poetry in Latin but, as far as is known, none of it has survived.
Copies of some of his Frisian poems are held in the Bodleian Library at Oxford.
They were made about 1646 by F. Junius F.F.
For purposes of orientation I first present a survey of earlier opinions of GJ's work
and of currents in the history of criticism. The opinions up to ca. 1770 - there were as
yet no critical studies then - give the impression that they were conceived from a
common point of view. Three elements can be distinguished: 1. GJ is a poet, rieh in
spirit and inventiveness; 2. His work is elegant and artful; and 3. It displays affects.
Together these elements evoke the image of a learned poet. After 1770 this view still
prevails, for the time. GJ is seen as a classical poet, who must be judged on the basis
of classical poetics. New, however, is the notion that his work is characterized by
simplicity and a feeling for nature. His artfulness which was observed besides, is attributed
to the bad influence of Gabbema, a friend of the poet. His naturalness was
seen as a characteristic of Frisian and the Frisians (as Stijl wrote as early as 1777) and
equivalent to Greek simplicity. Toward the end of the nineteenth Century, psychological
interpretations of his work set in. About the middle of the twentieth Century, research
begins which aims at accounting for GJ's work by putting it into either its historical
or literary context. Since 1966, this applies particularly to the work of Feitsma,
who has examined its social context, and to the work of Visser, who has pointed out
literary models and parallels.
Aims and working method (1.2)
This study aims at making a contribution to explaining the genesis of literary texts
in the seventeenth Century. My research is limited to matter and contents. Language
and style are paid attention to only if they contain elements which are significant for
the argument. The level of research is the individual text, the formulation of the
problem is the relation of the text to other literary texts and to the non-literary reality
in which it came into being. Research into relations with other texts focusses on the
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