Christiaan Huygens – A family affair - Proeven van Vroeger

A same strategic use of his musical talents can be discerned, but from an even younger
age. Starting with the viola da gamba on the age of six and-a-half and participating around the
age of seven in an elite “master class” in Amsterdam under the auspices of the Dutch Jan
Pieterszoon Sweelinck (1562 – 1621), music brought Huygens in contact with people of
considerable standing. It resulted in musical ties with noblemen at the house of the English
diplomat Henry Wotton (1568 - 1639) 28 and it brought Constantijn before socially and
professionally very appealing people. Constantijn Sr. sang and played the lute for the Venetian
ambassador to the Dutch Republic in 1610 (he was fourteen) as he had done before for the
Danish ambassadors. 29
Aside from sheer pleasure and pleasantry, there was a clear element of socio-
professional fashioning to these artistic activities that pleased the eyes and ears of many. Pushed
by his father, Constantijn learned to appreciate the utilitarian facet of being artistically and
culturally well versed. Handily employing one medium (words and music) to stimulate another
(connections, his social network) Constantijn learned to estimate the value of his talents for
both his social and his professional position. Though one will find hardly any direct mention of
the socio-professional importance of both poetry and music for Huygens, in a piece of advice
to his children on diplomatic negotiations Huygens did lift a corner of the veil: his sons should
remember that earnestness could be reached with musical and poetic amusement: “where
someone’s talents are, his favor can be won”. 30
ii. Early self-fashioning through the eyes of a honnête homme
Constantijn Huygens’s own narration of these stories often entails a laconic recounting
of both youthful innocence, playfulness and, of course, talent. As a courtier or honnête homme, 31
28
HUYGENS, C. & HEESAKKERS, C. L. (1987) Mijn jeugd, Amsterdam, Querido., p24-6, p29-30.
My translation.
29
HUYGENS, C. (1911) BW., Vol. I, Lett. 12, Constantijn Sr. to Christiaan Sr. (May, 1610). The
second occasion, which was made possible by the Venetian ambassador of the Republic, whose marriage
Constantijn would later rhyme on, was spoiled by the breaking of the lute’s fifth string. The moody
ambassador, expressing his discontentment (“basta, basta”) left the room and a disenchanted
Constantijn.
30
HUYGENS, C. & BLOM, F. R. E. (2003) Mijn leven verteld aan mijn kinderen in twee boeken (De vita
propria sermonum inter liberos), Amsterdam, Prometheus., p159
31
The terms “courtier” and “honnête homme” (in contemporary French: honneste homme) do not have the
exact same meaning. The concepts as such changed meaning over time (see ELIAS, N. (1994) The
civilizing process, Oxford [England] ; Cambridge, Mass., Blackwell., p499-502), as the aristocratic elite
needed to adjust or redefine its own character and behavior so as to keep the ambitious bourgeois from
entering their realms. I will use the terms interchangeably nonetheless, for both were objects of
15