art of rhetoric or poetry. Above all, the poet must use "aureate" terms or "schuim," for as the sun illumines the day and the moon the night, "alsoo verlicht schuym eene schoone oratie." He must begin with easier compositions, as "balladen" and "rondeelen," before attempting what is most difificult—namely, the Morality. Only one poet, whose work is definitely "Rederijkers" poetry, succeeded in impressing upon it a distinct individuality, and thatAnna Bijns. was the Antwerp poetess Anna Biins,[1] who lived about the same time as De Casteleyn. Of her life we know only what can be gathered from her "refereinen,"—that she had known the pleasures and gaieties of the world, had loved and had been disappointed, and, like others of her sex,
found consolation in religion, becoming a fiery champion of the Catholic Church against the new heresies of Luther. Of her early life she writes with the hyperbole to which the language of religious remorse has always tended. The tone of her poetry is that of the burgher class, far removed from the refined and mystical style of Zuster Hadewijch and the mediæval religious poets. She is a woman of her class and of her people, looking out on the world of everyday life with shrewd gaze, and describing it with vigour and even coarseness in images drawn
- ↑ Refereinen van Anna Bijns, uitg. Bogaers en van Helten, 1875. Nieuwe Refereinen van A. B., uitg. Jonckbloet en van Helten, 1880. Nieuwe Refereinen, Gent, 1886. On her life see Jonckbloet (Geschiedenis, &c., ii. 6), who takes very literally her expressions of remorse, and Kalff (XVIde Eeuw), who qualifies Jonckbloet's account.
