Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- List of Illustrations
- Acknowledgements
- Part I Introduction
- Part II Medicinal and Sacred Drugs
- Part III Divine Blood for Sale
- Appendix I ‘Rariteiten te koop’
- Appendix II Family and business network of Joannes Six van Chandelier
- Bibliography
- General index
- Index of poems by Joannes Six van Chandelier
- Plate Section
6 - Drugs as Explosives
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 21 November 2020
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- List of Illustrations
- Acknowledgements
- Part I Introduction
- Part II Medicinal and Sacred Drugs
- Part III Divine Blood for Sale
- Appendix I ‘Rariteiten te koop’
- Appendix II Family and business network of Joannes Six van Chandelier
- Bibliography
- General index
- Index of poems by Joannes Six van Chandelier
- Plate Section
Summary
Abstract
In this chapter I focus on gunpowder, both in the sense of materials for warfare, and fireworks for public celebrations. The Dutch word for gunpowder, buskruit, proves the close connection with the topic for this study, kruid, ‘spice’. I show how in his poems Six distances himself from gunpowder by demonstrating a punishment on the ‘Dutch body’, both on his own body and ‘the body’ of the city of Delft. I argue that this is the theme of two poems Six wrote on accidents with his loaded pistols, and a poem he wrote to the explosion of the gunpowder depot in Delft in 1654. But in this Chapter too, we learn to know Six as a pragmatic poet. I show how glorifying poems to the Orange Prince Frederick Henry were furnished with references to gunshots and fireworks.
Keywords: Jan Vos, gunpowder, fireworks, saltpetre, gunpowder explosion in Delft in 1654, Frederick Henry
Jupijn zal op ‘t geluidt van huilen, schreeuwen, gillen,
En donderen, verbaast van zijne zetel zien,
En vraagen of’er, om de werreldt te gebien,
Een nieuwe Jupiter zijn godtheidt komt braveeren:
Dan geeft men deeze stof, daar ‘t oorlog by zal zweeren,
De naam van bussekruid, jaa booskruidt in de strijdt.
Jupiter will, because of the sound of crying, shouting, screaming,
And thundering, look in surprise. from his throne,
And ask whether, in order to rule the world,
A new Jupiter is coming to defy him as a god:
Therefore, this substance, by which war will swear,
Shall be given the name of ‘gunpowder’, even ‘wicked powder’ in battle.
– Jan VosGunpowder
The previous chapters have given us a good picture of the use of the ‘pharmaceutical’ vocabulary used in the poetry of Joannes Six van Chandelier. This is reflected in the ornatus, embellishing metaphors that are full of references to seventeenth-century fragrances and dyes. As can be seen from my interpretations, multifunctional drugs cannot be regarded in an unambiguously positive way as poetic ornaments. And this is how the masking and alluring effects of cosmetics come up for discussion. But what is most striking are the medical-scientific arguments against drug use. Drugs were conceived of as substances that heated up the body and aroused dangerous desires.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Dangerous DrugsThe Self-Presentation of the Merchant-Poet Joannes Six van Chandelier (1620–1695), pp. 203 - 226Publisher: Amsterdam University PressPrint publication year: 2020