PrefaceSome early modern poets never lose their attraction. One of them is Shakespeare. Another one is the Dutch playwright Joost van den Vondel (1587-1679), whose lifetime roughly coincides with the Dutch Golden Age. To the same degree to which the figure of Shakespeare is an elusive one, the life and work of Vondel are clear and well-documented. He was a famous and well-known figure in political and artistic circles of Amsterdam, a contemporary and acquaintance of Rembrandt (1606-1669). He was familiar with Latin humanists, Dutch scholars, authors and Amsterdam burgomasters. He interfered in literary, religious and political debates. His writings include over thirty plays, epics, epigrams, rhymed treatises, hundreds of poems and occasion poems, songs, eulogies and elegies.

His tragedy Gysbreght van Aemstel was played on the occasion of the opening of a new town theatre hall in 1638, was to become the most famous play in Dutch history, and can probably boast holding the record for the longest tradition of annual performance in Europe. In general, Vondel's texts are literary works in the full sense of the word, attracting attention throughout the centuries because of their use of language and the multi-layered ambiguities that are hidden within them.This volume is dedicated to the playwright Vondel, and therefore to his plays. Its aim is to present scholars, students and lay readers of Vondel's plays with a series of well-documented and readily intelligible essays that were made for the occasion and that will enhance the reader's ability to deal with the plays by bringing in a store of knowledge on a wide range of relevant topics. Secondly, our aim is to increase the knowledge of Vondel's work internationally. In this context, the volume fits in with a growing attempt to disclose Dutch literature to an international audience, witness the increasing number of Dutch literary histories in English, the latest ones being A Literary History of the Low Countries, edited by Theo Hermans (2009) and the two volumes Women's Writing from the Low Countries (2010). A third aim of this volume is to fuel scholarly discussion on Vondel's plays, nationally and internationally, not only because they are deserving of it, but because they are of relevance to both his and our times.In the first part of the volume Vondel's place in history is dealt with, in terms of his own times, of the centuries that followed these, and our own times.

This is to say that the 'actual potential' of his work is taken into account throughout history. The second part of the volume offers a survey of Vondel's life and works, of his literary, historical and social contexts, and of the reception of his plays in other countries of Europe. The third part discusses most of Vondel's plays, each considered from a specific point of view, approached from a different methodological or scholarly angle. The final part presents a bibliography with regard to Vondel's life and dramatic oeuvre. The volume is designed so that individual contributions can be read either on their own or in conjunction with other ones. The essays in the third part, for instance, all discuss a play in relation to a specific approach. This does not imply, however, that other approaches are not equally applicable to that work. Readers are encouraged to make their own connections between the theories or methods employed, and between Vondel's plays.

The idea to compile this volume arose when the editors were having a cup of coffee waiting for their plane at Newcastle Airport after having been to a conference in Durham in September 2007. It should not have come as a surprise, but the road from idea to realization was longer than we thought or wished for. Nevertheless, considering that we sent out our first invitation in February 2008, we are happy to be concluding a three-year collaboration with such an impressive collection of essays, provided by such a rich diversity of scholars, from emeritus professors to young scholars at the beginning of their career, and from those within the walls of Dutch studies and Dutch literary scholarship to those in other fields and disciplines.We wish to thank in the first place all contributors for taking the effort to write, rewrite, revise and correct all the texts and then wait for the final result. The translations of the chapters by Schenkeveld-van der Dussen, Grootes, Smits-Veldt and Spies were financed by the Translation Fund of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences and Stichting Reprorecht. The translations were made by Liz Waters. The final English correction, carried out by Will Kelly (Minerva Professional Language Services), was financially supported by the Dr. C.

Louise Thijssen-Schoute Stichting and the Leiden University Fund. We wish to thank Becky Stamps who helped us with proofreading the text for the last mistakes and errors.Special thanks are due to Stefan van der Lecq, who not only contributed one essay, but also co-edited a number of essays in his characteristically thoroughgoing and precise way, before deciding that there were other paths to be explored than just scholarly ones.Finally we thank the publisher, Royal Brill, who was so kind as to turn this volume into the one that opens the series Drama and Theatre in Early Modern Europe.Frans-Willem KorstenJan Bloemendal.