Going Dutch
North Sea Crossings: The Literary Heritage of Anglo-Dutch Relations 1066–1688
Sjoerd Levelt and Ad Putter (Bodleian Library, £40)
THIS work covers a period neatly book-ended by two sea journeys: those of Matilda, William the Conqueror’s Flemish-speaking wife, and the Dutch William of Orange in 1688. Between the two dates, the fortunes of Anglo-Dutch literary relations, like those in politics and war, sway back and forth.
Flemish writers in the 12th century, for instance, felt rather superior to Englishmen, and seemed to wonder whether they had tails or even if they could be gentlemen. Both Flemish and English-speakers, of course, gave precedence to French, which was more widely spoken everywhere.
English “had no status abroad, except in Calais”
Indeed, this book takes us back to a period when English ‘had no
