Historical story

Between honorable amusement and dubious fornication

Contemporary discussions about what is offensive or pornographic are almost always about images. Similar discussions were held in the 17th century, but about songs. In the Golden Age there was a lot of singing, especially about love. The do's and don'ts shifted over time. At the beginning of the 17th century people were liberal, at the end of it there was a growing resistance to "lewd songs" that spoiled the youth, "who are most inclined to horny and rude frolic".

In a small collection of Minne songs, handed down in a booklet from 1675, the 'Vrijsterklacht' is shown next to it, with a passage that does not disguise itself.

Could this just be published in the 17th century? And for which audience were such songs intended? Insofar as poets or publishers of collections of songs about love respond to their target group, they always point to amusing young people. This is how Bredero speaks in the preface to his Geestigh Liedt-Boecxken (1621) "merry and merry virgins and young men" who are gathered together in "merry feasts, parties, and wedding feasts."

It is evident that views on what was or was not acceptable will have differed widely. In a sailor's pub, different standards apply than on the Herengracht in Amsterdam. However, it remains intriguing what was allowed and what was not. When did they go too far?

More than forty years ago, Eddy de Jongh, in the footsteps of Norbert Elias, devoted a consideration to the concept of the 'shame barrier'. He observes that in the late 17th century, when classicism gains the upper hand, this limit is quickly reached, whereas earlier sexual innuendo was treated fairly without concern. For example, it was common practice to conclude a wedding song with a call to enjoy the coming wedding night. But even then some will have reacted with embarrassment or shock by the slightest allusion to carnal love, while others found this only amusing.

Sometimes in the lyrics of the songs themselves there is something of a sensitivity to overly overt sexual allusions. A song in Den koddigen opdsser, full of cool songs, kisses, roundels from 1672 shows how it will be on the wedding night. A singer always sings two lines about this (up to fifty times), followed by a collectively sung 'Leen your ear nor a word. Keep your color, don't go door, in other words:don't blush and don't walk away. Early in the 17th century, composers of song collections sometimes seem to take into account the objections raised by the church against too bold songs. On the title page of Den Nieuwen Lust-hof dating from 1602, the first of a series of more chic songbooks, the 'amoreuse ende vrolijcke ghesanghen' are not only read and rhymed with the qualifications, but also 'eerelijck', that is honorable, decent. Indeed, the songbook does not contain a cross word.

Decency limit

But even with a flexible attitude towards bold songs, a limit could be crossed. In the already mentioned preface from his Geestich Liedt-boecxken Bredero lashes out at some people who unbeknownst to him have reprinted the first edition of his songs with the addition of "some dishonest and lewd songs." Apparently it has already come so far, he notes, that one can scatter one's 'filth' under the cover of someone else. So for Bredero, apart from the unauthorized reprint, a decency line had clearly been crossed here. This strikes us because his own songs do not lack a certain boldness. In his 'Fever Song', a certain Dirckje and Lijsbette get very excited:

Another example comes from his well-known 'Boeren Geselschap':

So what was possible for Bredero, a strict Reformed would not have appreciated. In fact, the stanza quoted was omitted from almost all school anthologies until the 1960s. How much further will the 'filth' in the - undelivered - pirate edition have gone? In any case, in the early 17th century, Bredero's songs quoted by the Amsterdam youth for whom he wrote them would have met with few objections, especially because they are set in a peasant environment. Farmers can be laughed at. The urban youth to whom the songbooks are addressed can feel superior to their lack of control. Because of the supposed sexual looseness among the uncivilized people, people like to be stimulated without risking their own status.

Singing together could be enlivened by games that were also considered more or less innocent. A clear example of this are the 'kiss songs'. In 1654 the collection De Olipodrigo . was published (Stew). In addition to 'happy chants', 'kiss' is announced on the title page, just like in the mentioned Koddigen opdssser. It will be clear what this encouragement is to do. Also the Dutch Nachtegaaltien of 1633 contained a 'Kiss-song', to the tune of Bayse moy ma Ianneton (Kiss me, my Janet). The closing line reads:"Friends to repentance, kiss on both sides."

It is this kind of practice which the moralist Johan de Brune, with a view to the "correction of the various faults of our age", describes himself in his Emblemata. from 1624 worries. He describes what happens to the youngsters:nothing but loose chatter and lusty pawing. Look at how many lascivious kisses there are, which the boys lie inventing at night to entertain their dark lusts, and thereby persuade the girls to do something they would otherwise have modestly refused. In its fourth emblem, the engraving shows a game of kissing in a company of smartly dressed youngsters, with the eloquent inscription:'Now, hola mond! not too furry (Ho mouth! don't go too far [with kisses]!)' In r. 3-4 of the caption we read:

We hear similar criticisms from the Amsterdam publisher and poet Dirck Pieterszoon Pers and the Enkhuizer Cornelis Pieterszoon Biens. Both sought with their honorable Christian songs to provide an antidote to the lewd songs that were so popular to their annoyance, in order to sweetly lead the youth "who is most inclined to horny and rude frolics" away from it.

'Farmer's Courtship'

Although there is therefore no lack of criticism before 1650, the decency offensive only seems to gain more ground in the second half of the century. Among civilized people, there is growing opposition to overt sexual innuendo. From now on, the older farces are rigorously purged on stage. But that also makes the violation of the taboo more stimulating.

This is apparent, for example, from the rise of pornographic novels after 1670. We also come across song books in which the boundaries of the decent are consciously sought out. This applies in particular to so-called fairground bundles. This includes, in addition to the already mentioned Olipodrigo and Den koddigen opdisser, a strikingly old-fashioned booklet with the title Uytertse hylickmaeckers [Utrecht marriage brokers, also the name of a kind of pastry], vol soetigheydt, or Amsterdamse kermiskoeck, served up for the invited fair guests and nice sangers and the sangeresses.

All three booklets with their culinary titles offer a mishmash of different kinds of humorous lyrics, including songs about girls who are only too happy to be seduced. In the more chic songbooks you will also not easily find something like 'A farcical song of three young daughters who together wed-spul, who van haer dryen pisses the featherest soude', from the Uytertse hylickmaeckers.

The peasant sex goes much further over the line in The net of voluptuousness, plus the Uytgelese love songs . The contents of this booklet, published anonymously and without the name of the printer, go back to the infamous whore conversations of the 16th-century Italian Pietro Aretino. In the 1675 edition, the text has been supplemented with thirteen songs. In addition to the 'Freedom Complaint' quoted above, we find a 'Farmer's Courtship', in which the shame limit at the time was far exceeded. The lover in the song praises the buttocks and the 'white belly' of a certain Aagt, to whom he will gladly spend his 'stiff bush'. He indicates in detail which position will please him the most. You can't come up with that in decent company, not even to laugh a little smugly about the lack of civilization and control of that strange peasant folk. Even by the more tolerant contemporaries this would have been regarded as pornography.

Thus, while an initially widely accepted boldness gives way to stricter rules of decency, more pornographic work is appearing at the same time. Perhaps something like this was sold 'under the counter'. That it could be published at all, albeit anonymously, has to do with the ineffective censorship policy in the Republic. Incidentally, that was also more focused on what was considered unacceptable in the field of religion or politics than on sex.