It wurk fan Gysbert Japix n-2 - Tresoar

In his work a clear development can be observed. Thus the depiction of the Frisian
reality with a certain degree of elaboration only occurs in Friesche Tjerne and Sjolle
Kreamer, which I take to be the poet's earliest compositions, as well as in Nijschierige
Jolle (text 29), which can only have been written a few years later. Pastoral presentation
dates back in all probability not to earlier than 1648, in which yearHerders njue
to Pales (text 11) as a poem on the Peace-Treaty of Munster could well have been written.
Instead of shepherds transformed into rustics in his early work, we see real shepherds.
There is no occasional poetry celebrating the work of others before 1650. Features
such as excessive alliteration, coupling, and an extra concluding line falling
outside the rhyme-scheme and stanzaic order are typical for many later texts. I am
inclined to observe a growing orientation towards poetical virtuosity in these changes.
What began as a challenge in 1639, with the imitation of the work of Van Hichtum,
met with recognition and confirmation through its instant success, and developed
into an ever increasing learned poethood. And as far as the Frisian language is concerned,
what first was a medium apt for literature in a rustic setting within the span of
ten years became for the poet a language for elevated and learned art. In this development
he probably foliowed, with the introduction of pastoral poetry and translations
of mythological love stories of royal characters, the taste of the recent court culture
in Friesland. Moreover, with his occasional poetry, which in Frisian was new for
him, he foliowed its functional extension in Dutch literature, the way it can be observed
in Friesland about 1650.
The reality content of GJ's oeuvre is slight. Only in a very general sense do his texts
have an opiniating function in social or religious issues. Specific references are
wanting. His themes and his views are common property both of the seventeenth
Century Nadere Reformatie and of the supporters of the Frisian stadtholder and the
House of Orange. As such, GJ is a representative of the dominating cultural pattern
in the Friesland of his time. For me he has solely emerged as a man of letters, who expresses
in a literary way the literary themes of his days.
The significance of historical research for the explanation of his work is mainly
confined to the functioning of literature in a social context and in the circle of author
friends. Knowledge of his non-literary conditions of life and his political and religious
opinions only seems of potential relevance for the explanation of his choice of
themes and points of view. Of potential relevance, because further investigation will
have to determine whether and to what extent the literary tradition dominates in this
choice differences in politics or religious denominations. In the Frisian court culture
as in GJ's literary friendships people of different denominations are united.
Another desirable addition would be an investigation into formal, literary characteristics
in GJ's oeuvre. In the present study which pivots around matter and content
systematic investigation into the formal aspects is confined to genre and stanzaic
forms. In addition, one could think of the loei as a means of finding matter, and, of
course, also of dispositio and elocutio.
* The work of Gysbert Japix. I Text in facsimile. II Tradition and genesis.
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