[In the following essay, Robertson discusses various editions of, as well as the influence of, Felltham's A Brief Character of the Low-Countries on subsequent travelogues, arguing that Felltham's work was probably the first description of a nation using the character form.]

The Theophrastian Character was expanded in various ways in the second half of the seventeenth century. Fewer collections of short characters appeared, and their place was taken by descriptions or pamphlets such as The Character of a Low Churchman, The Character of a Towne Misse, and Halifax's Character of a Trimmer. Owen Felltham seems to have been the first writer to use the character form for a full-length description of a nation—unless the Perfect Description of Scotland by James Howell,¹ printed with Felltham's A Brief Character of the Low-Countries in Amsterdam in 1680, and first printed separately in 1649, was written at an earlier date: it describes the visit of James I to Edinburgh. Two pirated editions of A Brief Character of the Low-Countries appeared in 1648² and 1652, followed by several authorized editions from 1652 onwards. It was also circulated in manuscript copies: two of these are in the H. E. Huntington Library. MS. HM. 14201 is entitled Three weekes observation of the State Countrye, and especially Holland. This was written by “Mr. Jo: Silden³ to Mr. Farnaby the schoolemaster”: it is a practically full-length version, with some minor cuts and variations. MS. Harleian 6893 No. 6 in the British Museum is another copy of this version: it is entitled Three weeks observation of the States Countries, especially Holland. The heading is repeated in a different hand Three Months observations etc. The second Huntington manuscript (El. 1181) is entitled Three monethes obseruation of the Lowe Countries especially Holland, which is the title of the pirated edition. Although this text is shorter and inferior to HM. 14201, it is not as garbled or as brief as the pirated version. The text is preceded by this letter to an unknown addressee:

TOWCHINGE THE LOWE COUNTRIES

Ho^ble S^r

I should be ioyfull to heare how yo^u faire. I am well in bodie nowe, but a relapse lately had almost killed me, and I looke like an Embleme so ill drawne that you would scarce knowe me, but by the Conceipt; If drinkinge bee a cryme, I conclude my selfe faultie, for I haue typled w^th such appetite, as I had bene composed of spunge and stockfish and that recovered me, for one euill hath expelled a worse. Here I haue sent yo^u a badd old peice, newe drawne and composed in the furie of Lubecke beere, pray read it, as you like this, Ile find you a better, yo^u that haue the better part of me (my hart) may comāund.

J. S.

AEgipt this
22 Jann:

MS. Harleian 5111 No. 1 in the British Museum, Three monethes observation of the Lowe Countries, especiallee Holland, also contains this prefatory letter from Egypt signed J. S. A Brief Character was included by Felltham in the revised edition of the Resolves (1661);⁴ and there seems no reason to doubt his authorship. The best explanation of these manuscripts is that Jo: Silden wrote this letter, possibly to Mr. Farnaby, and that the correct interpretation of it is that with the help of Lubeck beer, Silden has rewritten Felltham's “badd old peice.” The scribe of HM. 14201 (who however did not take his text from El. 1181) was aware that Silden had sent a copy of A Brief Character to his friend, but apparently did not realize that Silden was not the original author.

There is reason to suppose that A Brief Character, this “badd old peice,” was written long before its first appearance in print in 1648. On the title-page it is described as “written long since”: the only clues in the text are the mention of the Queen of Bohemia's exile in the Low Countries, which lasted from 1621 to 1661; the Spanish War, 1621-1648, is still going on; and the mention of a large reclamation project “within these twenty years” is a possible reference to the draining of the Beemster Polder, which was carried out between 1608 and 1612. The first century of the Resolves, written in 1628, contains one or two passages that suggest a visit to Holland had already been made by Felltham;⁵ and the Elegy on Henry, Earl of Oxford, who died in the Netherlands in 1625, reveals a certain knowledge of Holland and the Dutch people.⁶

A Brief Character of the Low-Countries created a small vogue for the short travel book containing personal impressions, digressions, humour, and satire. Each European country was in turn “Characterized.” John Evelyn's scurrilous Character of England (165-?) was replied to by a “Character of France: To which is added, Gallus Castratus or, an answer to a late slanderous pamphlet etc.” (1659). In 1660, appeared The Character of Italy, or the Italian anatomiz'd by an English Chyrugion. The author follows the general scheme of Felltham's A Brief Character; he gives a more detailed account of his tour, and frequently interrupts the narrative to retail the kind of anecdote which is mercifully absent from A Brief Character of the Low-Countries. The author was evidently acquainted with the Resolves,⁷ which increases his debt to Felltham. Nathaniel Brooke printed a Character of Spain as well as The Character of Italy in 1660; and apparently that was the end of this brief fashion.

Notes

1. The 1660 edition of A Brief Character of the Low-Countries is erroneously attributed to Howell in the Cambridge History of English Literature, vol. VIII.

2. I have not been able to trace a copy of this edition.

3. I do not think that this can have been John Selden the lawyer and antiquary.

4. A Brief Character was retained in the subsequent editions of 1670, 1677, 1696, and 1709.

5. Cf. Resolves, I, 12: “Even the mud of the World, by the industrious Hollander, is turned to an usefull fuell”; and A Brief Character: “'Tis the Port-Esquilline of the world, where the full Earth doth vent her crude black gore, which the Inhabitants scrape away for Fuel, as men with Spoons do Excrements from Civitcats.”

   Resolves, I, 74, contains the following anecdote: “I knew a French Gentleman invited by a Dutch to his house; and according to the vice of that Nation, hee was welcom'd so long with full Cups, that in the end the drinke distemper'd him: and going away, in stead of giving him thankes, he quarrels with his Host, and strikes him. His friend blaming him, he answered, It was his Hos^ts fault, for giving him liquor so strong. It pass'd for a jest: but certain, there was something in it more.” Quotations are from the sixth edition of the Resolves (1636).

6. Lusoria VI: there is also a copy of this poem in MS. Addit. 21433 f85 (British Museum) where the title is given erroneously as “An Elegie on John Earle of Oxford.” Henry de Vere, Earl of Oxford, died of a fever in the Low Countries, and was buried in Westminster Abbey on the 25th July, 1625.

7. Cf. Resolves, I, 32, “When a man shall exhaust his very vitalitie, for the hilling up of fatall Gold” and The Character of Italy, p. 12, “Another trick that helps him to hill up his fatal riches.”

   Resolves, I, 1, “I remember Ovid's fable of the Centoculated Argus” and The Character of Italy, p. 3, “his bastards that closed the eye-lids of Centoculated Argus.”

   Resolves, I, 28, and The Character of Italy, p. 52, “Sun-bak'd Peasant.” The achievements of the past are spoken of in Resolves, I, 46 as “eaten up by the steely teeth of Time” and in The Character of Italy, p. 69 as “consumed by the iron teeth of time.”