The Silver Skates

by Mary Mapes Dodge

  p.104, Sir William Temple: Sir William Temple (1628–99) was an English diplomat, statesman and essayist. He had many important dealings with what is now called the Netherlands.

  p.107, van Speyk blowing up his ship… yield to the enemy: Jan van Speyk (1802–31) was a Dutch naval lieutenant who blew up his ship during the Belgian Revolution (1830–31) after it was boarded by Belgian troops.

  p.107, Wasn’t that van Tromp?: The Dutch naval hero Maarten Tromp (1598–1653) was sometimes mistakenly referred to as “van Tromp” in the English-speaking world.

  p.107, Delft Haven… where the Pilgrims took ship for America: Delfshaven was where some of the Pilgrim Fathers – the English founders of the Plymouth Colony in Massachusetts, United States – set sail for the English coast. They eventually departed for America from the port of Plymouth, in Devon.

  p.108, Hold up… wasn’t it?: Ben is referring to the English victory in the First Anglo-Dutch War (1652–54), and particularly to the Battle of Scheveningen (1653). It was the last naval battle in the war, and Tromp was killed in action.

  p.109, Gerrit Dou… as close as a bandbox: Gerrit Dou (1613–75) was a Dutch master. A bandbox was a box used for carrying hats, but it was also used idiomatically to describe things as being neat and smart. It’s used here in an unconventional way and puns on the term, saying that the studio is tiny and neat, as well as suggesting that everything is packed away in boxes.

  p.111, Paulus Potter… Dutch and English: Paulus Potter (1625–54) was a Dutch painter who specialized in animals within landscapes; Rembrandt van Rijn (1606–69) was a Dutch master, and is widely considered to be one of the greatest painters of all time; Bartholomeus van der Helst (1613–70) was a leading Dutch portrait painter. For van der Venne, see note to p. 54.

  p.119, Beckmann: A reference to Johann Beckmann (1739–1811), who was a German author of primarily scientific works. The translated book Lambert read will have been A History of Inventions, Discoveries and Origins (1797).

  p.120, the name tulip… signifying turban?: It comes from the Turkish pronunciation of the Persian “dulband”, meaning turban, which the blooming flower was thought to resemble.

  p.130, Halfweg: “Halfway” (Dutch); Halfweg is also the name of the town – so named because it lies halfway between Haarlem and Amsterdam – in which “Zwanenburg Castle” is located. It is not a castle, however – rather it was the headquarters of one of the water boards of the Netherlands.

  p.141, Donder and Bliksem: “Thunder and lightning” (Dutch).

  p.166, organ of St Bavo: See note to p. 46. The Grote Kerk in Haarlem is also often referred to as Saint-Bavokerk.

  p.171, Handel, the great composer: Georg Friedrich Händel, or George Frederick Handel (1685–1759), was an Anglo-German Baroque composer.

  p.174, Metius and Janssen… fellows were born: References to the astronomer Adriaan Metius (1571–1635), the spectacle-maker Zacharias Janssen (b. 1585) and the friar and philosopher Roger Bacon (c.1219–c.1292).

  p.174, Willem Beuckel: A fourteenth-century fisherman from Zeeland in the Netherlands.

  p.178, Peter the Great: Peter I (1672–1725) was a Russian ruler, known for turning Russia into a significant European power.

  p.184, Wouwerman… Xanthippe: The Dutch painters Philips Wouwerman (1619–68), Jacob van Ruisdael (c.1628–82) and Nicolaes Pieterszoon Berchem (1620–83). Xanthippe was an Athenian woman who lived between the fifth and fourth centuries bc. She was married to the philosopher Socrates (c.470–399 bc) and was famed for being ill-tempered and quarrelsome.

  p.185, Wouwerman… Berchem: Actually 1619. See previous note.

  p.186, St Hubert kneeling… last night: The painting is called The Conversion of St Hubert (1660).

  p.195, Haarlemmermeer: The Haarlem Lake.

  p.197, Dutchman’s pipe… American woods: The name in the US for the plant Aristolochia Sipho.

  p.206, Tuyfels: This isn’t a word in Dutch. Perhaps the author was thinking of the German word “Teufel”, which means “devil”. However, the plural would remain “Teufel” in German.

  p.208, Vertigo… Hans Andersen writes: Vertigo is a feeling of whirling and dizziness caused by looking down from a height or by disease affecting the inner ear. The Danish writer Hans Christian Andersen (1805–75) loosely personified the condition in his writings.

  p.216, Sinbad… Pegasus: Sinbad, the fictional sailor, escaped from an island by clinging to the roc, a giant mythical bird of prey. The mythological Greek hero Bellerophon rode the winged horse Pegasus in his fight against the chimera, a monstrous creature that was part lion, part goat and part snake.

  p.221, Utrecht water: The water in many parts of the Netherlands was not deemed drinkable. Drinking water was transported from Utrecht, and thus “Utrecht water” was asked for at inns and hostelries.

  p.231, Siege of Haarlem: From December 1572 to July 1573, the army of Philip II of Spain laid siege to Haarlem. The siege came to an end when the city surrendered, and many of the garrison were then executed. See second note to p. 12.

  p.251, Professor Luzac: Johan (known as Jean in England) Luzac (1746–1807), a Dutch lawyer, newspaper editor and professor.

  p.252, van der Werff: During the Siege of Leiden (1573–74), Pieter Adriaanszoon van der Werff (1529–1604), the burgomaster, is said to have inspired the starving townsfolk to hold on by offering them his own body to eat. The town was then relieved soon afterwards. Van der Werff’s sacrifice then became a popular subject for Dutch artists.

  p.252, Bilderdijk: Willem Bilderdijk (1756–1831) was a Dutch historian and poet.

  p.255, van der Does… defended the city like a brick: Jan van der Does (c.1545–1604), also known as Janus Dousa, was a Dutch statesman, poet and historian. He took on a key military command during the Siege of Leiden, and, like van der Werff, his own determination to keep defending the city inspired others.

  p.256, Rome… goose who saved the Capitol: The Senones, a tribe from Gaul, invaded northern Italy and defeated the Romans at the Battle of the Allia. The Gauls then entered Rome itself and sacked it. Those defending the city had entrenched themselves on the Capitoline hill. A stealthy night attack on the hill ensued, and while the guards and guard dogs failed to warn the Romans of the Gallic approach, the sacred geese of the goddess Juno made enough noise to alert the Roman force.

  p.257, Kenau Hasselaer… Duke of Alba: Kenau Simonsdochter Hasselaer (1526–88) became a folk hero due to her role in the defence of Haarlem during the siege, repairing the walls damaged by the enemy’s cannon fire. The stories of her deeds that arose later, such as her leading an army of women against the Spanish, are legendary rather than factual. Fadrique Álvarez de Toledo, 4th Duke of Alba (1537–83), was a Spanish commander during the Eighty Years’ War, and led the siege on Haarlem. His father, Fernando Álvarez de Toledo, 3rd Duke of Alba (1507–82), was a Spanish general known in the Netherlands as the Iron Duke. He was extremely tough and ruthless, and is widely considered to be one of the great generals of his age.

  p.261, children of Israel… departed out of Egypt: In Exodus, the Israelites, who were slaves in Egypt, were ordered to leave by the Pharaoh after God sent ten plagues to Egypt. When the children of Israel left Egypt, they “borrowed of the Egyptians jewels of silver, and jewels of gold, and raiment” (Exodus 12:35).

  p.261, Bunker Hill Monument: An obelisk (tapering stone pillar) erected in Charlestown, Massachusetts, to commemorate the Battle of Bunker Hill (1775), which took place during the American War of Independence (1775–83).

  p.262, Simplex sigillum veri: “Simplicity is the seal of truth” (Latin).

  p.262, round tower… Holland: De Burcht, as it is called, was built in the Middle Ages, and has nothing to do with Hengist.

  p.265, Lucas van Leyden… years ago: The Dutch painter Lucas van Leyden was born in 1484, so “three hundred and seventy
years ago” is not quite correct, as the book is set in the 1840s, and was written in the 1860s.

  p.266, Carel de Moor: Carel de Moor (1655–1738) was a Dutch painter born in Leiden. He was taught by Gerrit Dou (see first note to p. 62).

  p.268, Don Quixote… I suppose?: Don Quixote (1605–15) is a novel by the Spanish author Miguel de Cervantes (1547–1616). In it, Don Quixote, who sees himself as a knight errant, fights windmills, imagining them to be giants.

  p.272, Van Dyck… they were in form: Sir Anthony Van Dyck (1599–1641) was a Flemish artist who became the court painter to Charles I of England in 1632. The author is referring to family portraits of the Stuarts, a British ruling dynasty. Charles I was executed in 1649, which led to the creation of a republic known as the Commonwealth of England, until, in 1660, the monarchy was restored and Charles I’s son, Charles II, became king. Charles II’s brother, James II, succeeded him, but he was overthrown in the Glorious Revolution of 1688, where the Protestant William of Orange was invited to rule with Mary, his wife, who was the daughter of James II.

  p.274, Fortunatus: A popular legendary character in Europe in the fifteenth, sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. He receives magical gifts and wanders through many lands.

  p.277, Titania: Queen of the fairies in Shakespeare’s play A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

  p.280, William of Orange and his queen: See note to p. 154.

  p.280, King William’s visit… neighbouring square: The reference here is to the English politician and historian Thomas Babington Macaulay (1800–59), who wrote the poem Ivry (1824) about the Battle of Ivry (1590), a conflict during the French Wars of Religion (1562–98). He also wrote a description of William of Orange’s visit to The Hague.

  p.281, long live the king: It would be rather odd if they did shout this, as William of Orange was never king of Holland. He was, as is clear in this section, a stadtholder, which was like a governor or chief magistrate.

  p.282, Quentin Matsys… works: Quentin Matsys (1466–1530) was a Flemish painter.

  p.296, Of how Holland… under foreign conscription: Holland had not “resolutely jerked” her head out of French rule. Rather, it was the Battle of Leipzig in 1813 that ended French dominion over Holland, and that battle was fought and won by a coalition of Russian, Prussian, Austrian and Swedish forces.

  p.299, Hermit Empire: A reference to Japan, because it actively cut itself off from the rest of the world for over 220 years. Trade was severely limited, and nearly all foreigners were barred from entering the country.

  p.299, Gulliver… Japanese Lilliput: In the Anglo-Irish poet and satirist Jonathan Swift’s (1667–1745) Gulliver’s Travels (1726), Gulliver is shipwrecked on the island of Lilliput, where the inhabitants are less than six inches tall.

  p.300, krits: Perhaps the author means a “kris”, which is a Malaysian or Indonesian dagger.

  p.300, Beggar confederates… tyranny of Spain: There was more than one Prince of Orange who played a key role in the Eighty Years War, but the author is probably referring to William the Silent (1533–84) here, whose revolt against the Spanish set off the Eighty Years’ War and led to the creation of an independent United Provinces in 1581.

  p.301, massacre of St Bartholomew: The St Bartholomew’s Day massacre (1572) was a wave of assassinations and widespread violence by Catholics towards Huguenots in France. Louise de Coligny’s (1555–1620) father, Gaspard de Coligny (1519–72), was the leader of the Huguenots.

  p.191, Celsus: Aulus Cornelius Celsus (c.25 bc–c.50 ad) wrote De Medicina (On Medicine), one of the most famous medical works of the ancient world.

  p.210, dekbed: “Duvet” (Dutch).

  p.241, shooting at a comrade… university at Göttingen: Perhaps the author is thinking of the practice of Mensur, a form of fencing particularly popular at German universities, such as the one at Göttingen. It was not a common practice, however, to shoot at one another.

  extra material

  for young readers

  The Writer

  Mary Elizabeth Mapes was born in New York on 26th January 1831. She was the daughter of Professor James Mapes – an academic and chemist who became a well-known figure for his advancement of scientific agriculture – and Sophia Furman. Mary did not attend school; rather she was taught at home by tutors and governesses, and showed an early propensity for literary composition. Little is known about her childhood, but in 1848 the family moved to a farm on the outskirts of Newark, New Jersey. The purchase of the property was financed with the help of a family friend, a New York lawyer named William Dodge. In 1851, Mary and William Dodge were married, and she moved with him to New York City. Two sons swiftly followed, named James and Harrington, yet William, faced with severe financial difficulties, left his family in 1858. His body was found soon afterwards: the coroner’s verdict was “death by drowning”. Mary returned to her family home in Newark, where she devoted her life to the raising of her sons. It was to procure money for their education that she turned to writing as a profession. Her first published article was ‘Shoddy Aristocracy in America’, a well-observed satirical piece, which appeared in The Cornhill Magazine, a world-renowned English publication that for a period was edited by William Makepeace Thackeray, and serialized some of the great novels of the nineteenth century, such as George Eliot’s Romola and Thomas Hardy’s Far from the Madding Crowd. A short story, ‘My Mysterious Enemy’, was then published in Harper’s Magazine, and another, ‘The Insanity of Cain’, proved extremely popular.

  While Mary’s writing had hitherto been for an adult audience, her first book, published in 1864, was a collection of short tales for children. The Irvington Stories, as it was named, proved such a success that the publisher requested a second collection of stories for young readers. Mary, however, had begun to work on a novel inspired by John Lothrop Motley’s The Rise of the Dutch Republic (1856) and The United Netherlands (1860–67). Motley’s works were extremely successful and influential, yet many viewed them as popular histories, in the sense that they were written to appeal to the masses, and thus accusations were made that historical facts, at times, were secondary to the telling of a good tale.

  What had begun for Mary as an improvised bedtime story for her sons about life in the Netherlands soon grew into the germ of an idea for a children’s novel, and Mary worked assiduously, gathering all the information about Dutch life and history that she could find in order to paint a vivid picture of a country that she had never visited. The book, titled Hans Brinker, or The Silver Skates, was published in 1865 to immediate acclaim, and became a bestseller.

  The following year saw the death of Mary’s father, who left debts that she spent the next fifteen years paying off. Furthermore, throughout this period, Mary not only supported her sons, but also her mother and two unmarried sisters. Despite the success of her literary works, she required a regular, secure income, and thus turned to editing. She worked for a brief period as the associate editor of Hearth and Home, one of whose editors was the author Harriet Beecher Stowe. In 1873, Mary was asked to found a magazine for younger readers, which would serve as a companion to Scribner’s Monthly. Passionate about education, and an advocate of a children’s style of writing that was not mired in didacticism or facile simplicity, Mary eagerly accepted the post. She was also allowed to name the publication, and she did so: it was called St Nicholas. The magazine became known for publishing the leading literary figures of the day, such as Robert Louis Stevenson, Rudyard Kipling and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, and it also pulled off the coup of enticing Louisa May Alcott from a rival publication. Frances Hodgson Burnett’s Little Lord Fauntleroy was also serialized in the pages of St Nicholas, and became an international phenomenon, thrusting its author into literary stardom. Mary was associated with the magazine for thirty-two years, leaving an immeasurable mark in the children’s literature of the English-speaking world.

  Yet Mary still found time to continu
e her own literary endeavours. 1874 saw the publication of Rhymes and Jingles, followed three years later by a collection of short stories for an adult readership entitled Theophilus and Others. Along the Way, a book of poetry, was brought out in 1879, and several more collections for young readers, both in verse and prose, followed over the next two decades.

  With her health failing, Mary relocated to her cottage near the village of Tannersville, New York. It was there, among the beautiful natural scenery of the Catskill Mountains, that she died in August 1905, at the age of seventy-four.

  The Book

  Published in 1865 as Hans Brinker, or The Silver Skates, Mary Mapes Dodge’s portrayal of life in the Netherlands in the mid-nineteenth century immediately captured the imagination of the reading public. It sold in prodigious quantities, outselling all books in the first year of its publication except for Charles Dickens’s Our Mutual Friend, and was swiftly translated into French, German, Russian, Dutch and Italian. Since 1865, the novel has remained continuously in print. It is one of the most successful children’s books ever written, and more than one hundred editions were published within thirty years of its initial publication. It has inspired several film adaptations, and helped to popularize the legendary tale of the boy who put his finger in the dyke.

  Yet it is an unusual book in many ways. Mary Mapes Dodge knew the history, geography, culture and customs of the Netherlands almost exclusively from the pages of books. As a result, the novel can read a little like a travelogue to modern readers. It is very clear when reading it that the text has been suffused with a great deal of historical knowledge, rather than first-hand experience, and it feels, at times, that the narrative fits around the historical information, whereas one would ordinarily expect it to be the other way round. However, despite these eccentricities and the presence of passages that are somewhat jarring to our modern sensibilities, the story itself is moving and poignant, witty and gripping – and with its moral message, its heroic, honest, diligent protagonists and its propensity towards the historical, it foreshadows many of the virtues that St Nicholas became known for under Mary Mapes Dodge’s editorship.