TWELVE YEARS' TRUCE].

Een Oud Schipper van Monickendam, Daer ons den Vromen Held uyt Quam .[Amsterdam], [1608]. Small 4to. Political pamphlet in the form of a parable told by an old ship's captain. With a full-page engraved illustration headed by the title poem, a decorated woodcut initial letter and a band of cast arabesque ornaments. Modern wrappers.

      - (5) pp. + the engraving. Asher 28/38; Knuttel 1467; Tiele 677; STCN (7 copies); cf. Alden & Landis (4 copies, eds. not distinguished); Simoni O-46 to 48 (other eds.); OCLC WorldCat (4 copies, eds. not distinguished); not in JCB; for the engraving, see also Atlas van Stolk 1221; Muller, Historieprenten 1254c. A political pamphlet urging the Dutch not to agree to a truce with Spain, presented as a parable told by an old ship's captain, about a sailor who is winning a tug-of-war with the King of Spain, the two pulling on the East and West ends of a staff representing the East and West Indies. This tug-of-war is illustrated in the (landscape-format) copperplate that bears a four-line verse serving as the title of the pamphlet (repeated as a drop-title on the first letterpress page). "One of the most charming pamphlets against the peace" (Tiele). The title alludes to Admiral Cornelis Dirksz, Burgomaster of Monnickendam, who defeated the Spanish fleet in 1573. The engraving is also interesting for the clothing of the eight figures, one of whom may be Prince Maurits. In passing, the ship's captain also mentions that he has dropped anchor at Tierra del Fuego, refers to his compass and book of charts, and mentions Spain's relations with the Moors and Sarasans. The golden staff is the source of the King's power, and he has not only used it to mow down people in the Indies and the Netherlands as though they were wheat: he has also fooled them into mowing down each other. The King now ranges so widely that he begins to feel cramped in the world, and the parable refers to him as "Ghy Valck" (Dutch for "you falcon," but alluding to Guy Fawkes, the Catholic who tried to blow up the English Parliament less than three years before). There are also references to the Indian produce that has made him rich (oranges, lemons, limes, figs and grapes) and to his braiding "Vijghe-korfkens", literally fig baskets, but possibly a typesetting error for or elliptical allusion to "Bije-korfkens," referring to the Netherlands as beehives (see below). It also notes that the King has a medicinal herb he calls "long-term truce" that makes one fall asleep for several years. The closing advice is: hold fast to the East end of the staff, work your way toward the West end, regard that medicinal herb as rat poison, and those who stand and watch should join in to help.The pamphlet must have appeared too late to be issued with the first two editions of the Nederlandtsche Bye-Korf (the second around July 1608) but appeared with the third edition and was explicitly named when most of the Bye-Korf pamphlets were banned on 27 August 1608. The authorities apparently considered it one of the most dangerous pamphlets against the proposed truce, and it was certainly one of the most popular, surviving in about ten different editions, most or all published in July or August 1608. It is also the only one to include an engraved illustration. The order of the editions remains unclear, but this is one of the earliest. Knuttel lists eight, with the present as the first of three under the original title, with a good impression of the illustration and without the additions in some later versions of the plate. The engraving shows dunes in the background and no line around the title, so it is apparently Muller 1254c.With a sharp fold near the side of the engraving, but still a very good copy. The slight trim just touches the lower right corner of the engraving, without loss. The only illustrated Bye-Korf pamphlet and in many ways the most interesting.