Hendrik Jan Schimmel


Hendrik Jan Schimmel, Dutch poet and novelist, was born at 's-Graveland, in the province of North Holland, where his father was a notary and the burgomaster.

Biography

From 1836 to 1842 Schimmel served in his father's office, and upon his death he worked in the office of the agent of the Dutch Treasury in Amsterdam, in 1849 he took a post with the Dutch Trading Company there. In 1863 he became a director of the Amsterdam Credit Association. His first volume of poems appeared in 1852; but his literary position was made as a writer of historical dramas in blank verse and one of the regenerators of the Dutch stage. His finest production was Struensee, which was preceded by Napoleon Bonaparte and Juffrouw Serklaas.
Among his other dramatic works were Joan Woutersz, Twee Tudors, Gondelbald, Schuld en boete, Het Kind van Staat ; Zege na strijd. Schimmel's renderings of Casimir de la Vigne's Louis XI., Geibel's Sophonisbe, and Ponsard's Lucréce are also still acted in the Netherlands.
His novels are distinguished by their vigorous style and able characterization. The earlier, better-known ones betray the writer's English proclivities. The plots of Mary Hollis and of Mylady Carlisle are laid in England, whereas those of his Sinjeur Semeyns, a powerful picture of the terrible year 1672, and of De kapitein van de lijfgarde, a continuation of Master Semeyns, are almost entirely centred in Holland.
He had many points of style and manner in common with Madame Bosboom-Toussaint, though both remained highly original in their treatment. Both finally reverted to essentially national subjects. To the earlier romances of Schimmel belong: Bonaparte en zijn tijd, De eerste dag eens nieuwen levens, Sproken en vertellingen, Een Haagsche joffer, De Vooravond der revolutie.
Schimmel was an early collaborator of Potgieter on the De Gids staff. His dramatic works appeared in a collected edition in 1885–1886 at Amsterdam, followed by a complete and popular issue of his novels. He spent his last years in work on spiritualistic research and died at Bussum in 1906.