'Alva'. Unknown stage work by Vondel discovered

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During renovation work in the Stadsbank van Lening building on Amsterdam's Oudezijds Voorburgwal, a manuscript of a work of poetry that has since been attributed by literary historians to Joost van den Vondel (1587-1679) has recently turned up. It is a rough, unfinished version of a play entitled 'Alva' and is dated around 1660. During that period, the most prolific of Vondel's life, the greatest poet our country has known worked on a number of major stage works, including Jephta and King Edipus.

A satirical poem by Vondel was already known, dedicated to Alva's thumb, which the Spanish general lost during the siege of Antwerp. According to Vondel expert Ties Gerbrandi, the now-discovered play 'Alva' bears great similarities to Edipus. It therefore seems likely that Vondel worked on a new historical play based on that ancient Greek myth, just as he initially based his most famous masterpiece Gysbrecht van Aemstel on the story of the fall of Greek Troy, as described by Virgil in his work De Aeniis.

In this case, venue is the South Holland town of Brielle. The capture of that town by the Sea Beggars in 1572 marked a turning point in the Eighty Years' War. Tradition has it that Alva lost his 'Glasses' on that day. The same theme also appears in the myth of Oidipus, first described in the fourth century BC by the Greek playwright Sophocles: after the king of Thebes discovers that he has married his own mother and killed his father against his knowledge, he gouges his eyes out and leaves the country.

Vondel's hitherto unknown masterpiece will be presented at Amsterdam's Stadsschouwbrug this afternoon, with a lecture to which Gijs Scholten van Aschat and Pierre Bokma, among others, will contribute.