Samuel Mareel

Rhetorijkelick ghestelt: beschrijvingen in verzen van blijde intredes en andere stedelijke feesten ter ere van de vorst

The present article aims at elucidating the earliest development of separately published descriptions of urban princely festivities in Dutch. The focus lies on two short poems about joyous entries held by Philip the Fair in Ghent and in Bruges in 1497. These are the oldest known examples of this genre, but we know practically nothing about the context in which they originated. By contrasting them with comparable texts, I show that the poetical form, the ballade, in which these poems are composed, is a typical feature of early Dutch descriptions of princely festivities because they owe their authorship to urban rhetoricians. I then explore why this kind of text first emerged in the Low Countries during the last years of the fifteenth century. Finally I examine to what extent the relatively well-documented background and function of early sixteenth-century accounts that use the ballade-form are relevant for the entry poems of 1497.

In woord en beeld: gesproken intredetoneel in de Zuidelijke Nederlanden op de overgang tussen Middeleeuwen en Moderne Tijd

Within the relatively recent interest for the theatrical aspects of joyous Entries in the Netherlands, most attention has gone to tableaux vivants, generally dumb and motionless scenes that were mounted along the entry route. However, from a number of sources we learn that these festivities also gave rise to the performance of dramatic forms including more elaborate speech. The aim of the present article is to describe the origin and nature of spoken drama in joyous Entries in the Southern Netherlands. I will also look at the performers of these plays and at the relationship between spoken entry-drama and mute tableaux vivants. My starting point will be the highly influential theory of George R. Kernodle about theatre and joyous Entries, which will prove to be hard to maintain. Special attention will be given to a chronicle description of a theatre contest at the occasion of the entry of Philip the Good into Ghent in 1458 and to a drama text that was probably written for a visit of Charles the Bold to Brussels in 1466, the only entry-play in Dutch that has come down to us.