Providence in Vondel'sJeptha of offerbelofte

See J. F. M. Stercket al. (eds.),De Werken van Vondel vol. VIII, pp. 769–850 (Amsterdam, 1935). The usual English transliteration of the name is “Jephthah”.Google Scholar

The story is told inJudges, 10:17–12:7. It is not without intriguing similarities with contemporary stories related to the Trojan War: the sacrifice of Iphigenia, much exploited by Greek playwrights, and the Cretan tale of Idomeneus' rash vow, recorded by Servius, a fourth-century commentator of Virgil.Google Scholar

Franz Blatt (ed.),The Latin Josephus I (Aarhus: Universitets forlaget, 1958), p. 340: “filiam pater immolavit nec legitimum faciens holocaustum nec deo carum, non utique deliberans apud animum suum, qualis apud ceteros huius facti causa videretur”. It is intriguing that this appraisal should have come barely a century after Lucretius had quoted the sacrifice of Iphigenia as an example of the crimes induced by religious superstitions: ... illa religio peperit scelerosa atque impia facta. Aulide quo pacto Triviai virginia aram Iphianassai turparunt sanguine foede ductores Danaum delecti, prima virorum ... tantum religio potuit suadere malorun. (De rerum natura, I, 82–101)Google Scholar

SeeEncyclopaedia Judaica s. v. “Jephthah” (IX, 1341–3), “Judges” (X, 448–9) and “Vows” (XVI, 227–8). Vondel was informed of opinions and controversies concerning Jephthah through his reading of the three commentators mentioned in his Preface : Arias Montanus,De varia republica sive commentaria in librum judicum (Antwerp, 1592), Nicolaus Serarius,Commentarij in sacros Bibliorum libros Iudicum et Ruth (Paris, 1611) and Jacobus Salianus,Annales ecclesiastici Veteris Testamenti, vol. II (Paris, 1620). For a discussion of those sources, see J. G. Bromhoff,Vondels drama. Studie en pleidooi (Amsterdam, Ploegsma, 1950), pp. 62–108. Their reasonings involved a considerable amount of acrobatic sophistry because they were out to reconcile the concept of a providential God with the scriptural text. For example, Rabbi Arias claims that Jephthah's daughter was not killed but consecrated to a life of prayer and virtue in solitude (op. cit., p. 484). As to Nicolaus Serarius S. J., he assumes that Jephthah must have repented and atoned for the murder of his daughter, since the Scripture calls him “holy” (op. cit., p. 320).Google Scholar

On the Jephthah-motif in western literature, see Wilbur O. Sipherd,Jephthah and his Daughter (Newark: University of Delaware, 1948). It is likely that it was as a reminder of the Greek myth that Jephthah's nameless daughter was first given the name Ifis in a Latin school play,Jephta (1554), by a Scot humanist teaching in Bordeaux, George Buchanan (1506–1582). This was one of the sources acknowledged (and criticized) by Vondel in his own Preface (op. cit.: Arias Montanus,De varia republica sive commentaria in librum judicum (Antwerp, 1592), Nicolaus Serarius,Commentarij in sacros Bibliorum libros Iudicum et Ruth (Paris, 1611) and Jacobus Salianus,Annales ecclesiastici Veteris Testamenti, vol. II (Paris, 1620). For a discussion of those sources, see J. G. Bromhoff,Vondels drama. Studie en pleidooi (Amsterdam, Ploegsma, 1950), pp. 62–108. Their reasonings involved a considerable amount of acrobatic sophistry because they were out to reconcile the concept of a providential God with the scriptural text. For example, Rabbi Arias claims that Jephthah's daughter was not killed but consecrated to a life of prayer and virtue in solitude (op. cit., p. 484). As to Nicolaus Serarius S. J., he assumes that Jephthah must have repented and atoned for the murder of his daughter, since the Scripture calls him “holy” (op. cit., p. 773).Google Scholar

Albert S. Gérard, “Baroque and the Order of Love: Structural Parallels in Corneille'sLe Cid and Vondel'sJeptha”,Neophilologus, 49 (1965), 118–31 and 210–20.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

For comparatively recent discussions of the play, see notably the relevant passages in W. A. P. Smit,Van Paschatot Noah.Een verkenning van Vondels drama's naar continuïteit en ontwikkeling in hun grondmotief en structuur, Vol. II (Zwolle: Tjeenk Willink, 1962); Kåre Langvik Johannessen,Zwischen Himmel und Erde. Eine Studie über Joost van den Vondels biblische Tragödie in gattungsgeschichtlicher Perspecktive (Oslo: Universitetsforlaget and Zwolle: Tjeenk Willink, 1963); W. A. P. Smit and Pierre Brachin,Vondel. Contribution à l'histoire de la tragédie au XVII^e (Paris: Didier, 1964); Lieven Rens,Het priester-koning-conflict in Vondels drama (Hasselt: Heideland, 1965).Google Scholar

It seems that the character of Jephthah's wife was first invented by an English humanist, John Christopherson for his Greek playJephthae (1544) as a counterpart to Clytemnestra in Euripides'Iphigenia in Aulis and in order to voice opposition to the sacrifice. The mother in Vondel's play does not come from Christopherson but from Buchanan, who was first to give her a name, Storgé.Google Scholar

This syncretic aspect of the baroque world view was underscored by Leo Spitzer: “un medievalismo persistente y un Renacimiento recién llegado se conjugan y engendran una hibrida criatura, compuesta de Weltsucht y Weltflucht ... No se puede concebir el arte barroco ni sin el trascendentalismo medieval, ni sin la vida sensual del Renacimiento”. “El barroco español” in hisRomanische Literaturstudien (Tübingen: Niemeyer, 1959), p. 799.Google Scholar

There is little doubt that the Steward and the Chaplain in Vondel's play ultimately derive from Jephthah's friend Symmachus and from an anonymous priest in Buchanan's. But the function of both characters is far more elaborate in the Dutch play. For a detailed discussion of Buchanan'sJephta, see Raymond Lebègue,La tragédie religieuse en France: Les débuts (1514–1573) (Paris: Champion, 1929), pp. 225–54.Google Scholar

Vondel,op. cit. Contribution à l'histoire de la tragédie au XVII^e (Paris: Didier, 1964); Lieven Rens,Het priester-koning-conflict in Vondels drama (Hasselt: Heideland, 1965): ... hier wil des hemels vloeck, of zegen Op volgen. eer of schande hangt hier aen. De schael van 't brein zal heene en weder slaen, Haer tong u wijs, of onvoorzichtigh noemen, Elck, naer zijn drift, dit kroonen, of verdoemen. d'Een schaft u vroom, in 't houden van Godts eedt; Een ander schelt u godeloos, en wreet. (885–90)Google Scholar

Ibid. Vondel. Contribution à l'histoire de la tragédie au XVII^e (Paris: Didier, 1964); Lieven Rens,Het priester-koning-conflict in Vondels drama (Hasselt: Heideland, 1965): ... d'uitspraeck en het oordeel van de wet Is aen den mont der priesteren gezet ... Ick rade u bij den priester raet te zoecken, En wetgeleerde, om niet zoo los te gaen ... Zij zullen niets besluiten, zonder reên, En klaer bewijs. zoo leert men onderscheên De letter, en den zin van 's hemels woorden; Wat offeren verschilt van kindermoorden ... Dus wort de schult, van uwen hals, geschoven Op 's priesters hals, indien'er is gefaelt. (941–61)Google Scholar

Ibid. Vondel. Contribution à l'histoire de la tragédie au XVII^e (Paris: Didier, 1964); Lieven Rens,Het priester-koning-conflict in Vondels drama (Hasselt: Heideland, 1965): Ick zalze ... belezen, En smeecken, en involgen, zacht en zoet, Ten leste door troostmiddelen 't gemoedt Ophelpen, door beloften 't hart verlichten. (1892–5)Google Scholar

Ibid. Vondel. Contribution à l'histoire de la tragédie au XVII^e (Paris: Didier, 1964); Lieven Rens,Het priester-koning-conflict in Vondels drama (Hasselt: Heideland, 1965): Leer uw verlies geduldigh overzetten. De hemel kon dien slagh des doots beletten, Indien het hem beliefde: maer hij wou dat ieder zich aen Jeptha spieglen zou, En wachten van dit reuckeloos beloven ... (1950–63)Google Scholar