The Refrein and the Chambers of Rhetoric in the Early Modern Low Countries

While the allegorical drama of the Dutch rederijkers has received increasing attention from English-speaking critics, much less attention has been paid to the refreinen that often accompanied the plays on festival occasions. This is despite the fact that the refreins were held in high esteem by the rederijkers themselves, and even regarded as the greatest culmination of their literary principles. To redress this oversight, we offer fresh translations of three of these texts, taken from one of the most noted of the rhetorijckfeesten. This is the first time that these poems have been translated into English.