Slegten-tyd, mengeldichten, gezangen, en nacht-wachts, kluchtspel - Regt, Jan de 1665-1715; Smids, Ludolph 1649-1720; Schijnvoet, Jacobus 1704-1733 (Amsterdam Groot, de, 1733)
Dedicated to Ludolph Smids, physician, antiquarian and poet.
engravings by J. Schijnvoet
Very little is known about Jan de Regt (1665-1715). He was the eldest son of Michiel Michielsz de Regt, sailmaker, and Lijsbet Jans van Riet, a baker's daughter. The De Regt family lived in the Jordaan where Jan was baptised in the Noorderkerk, and later on the Waal (the Kromme or the Oude, it is not clear). When Jan de Regt registered as a citizen of Amsterdam in 1694, he gave 'merchant' as his profession. This is a vague designation that could indicate anything from shopkeeper to international trader. He was explicitly not a bread-poet, but a leisure poet. His oeuvre is small: occasional poems, a 'In Praise of Amsterdam', a farce (De nachtwachts) and a number of 'Gezangen' (Songs), mostly on everyday subjects, such as 'Knorhanen gegeten' (Roosters eaten), 'Waar schuil ik voor de lonken' (Where do I hide from the ogres), and 'Al 't gedruis aan ons huis' (All the commotion at our house). Those 'Gezangen' were in fact songs, to be sung to then-familiar tunes like 'En de bok sprong op het geitje'. For the song tune of some others, such as the 'Vechtzang' (poem in praise of the Vecht), De Regt refers to the compositions of 'Sr. Andreas Parchem [= Parcham], given name Musician'. Occasionally, his poets' pen lent itself to current affairs, such as the death of Maria Stuart (1695) and the battle of Oudenaarde (1708). Some noise arose after De Regt's long poem Slechten tyd (1711), to which Jan van Gijsen wrote a counter-poem entitled Goeden tyd. A pamphleteer claimed that the gentlemen had entered into a 'war of poets'. But Van Gijsen vehemently disputed that. Never, he argued, 'was I an enemy of De Regt./ That gentleman never harmed me with works nor with words,/ 'I did sin' so 'I said that I ever heard anything to the man's slander./ I know his good behaviour and praise his poetry,/ which is also ten times as good as mine'. De Regt unfortunately kept quiet on the matter. Jan de Regt died as a 'young man' or bachelor in Amsterdam.
Ex libris Anthomius Gijsbert Goris (manuscript)
Derde druk met plaaten
Keywords: 18th Century (1701-1800); Play (theater); Poetry; Netherlands; blokfluit; op de wijze van; druk-/schrijffouten; tempo; Heinsius, N; viool; Willem III; zangers; schalmei; sinterklaas; Koopman; maanden van 't ja(ar); Regt, J. de; Regt, J. de_Nachtwacht toneelstuk; Schenk, P