Hendrik Jan Schimmel

Who was Hendrik Jan Schimmel?

Hendrik Jan Schimmel, Dutch poet and novelist, was born at 's-Graveland, in the province of North Holland, where his father was a notary and the burgomaster.

From 1836 to 1842 Schimmel served in his father's office, and upon his death he worked in the office of the agent of the Dutch Treasury in Amsterdam, in 1849 he took a post with the Dutch Trading Company there. In 1863 he became a director of the Amsterdam Credit Association. His first volume of poems appeared in 1852; but his literary position was made as a writer of historical dramas in blank verse and one of the regenerators of the Dutch stage. His finest production was Struensee, which was preceded by Napoleon Bonaparte and Juffrouw Serklaas.

Among his other dramatic works were Joan Woutersz, Twee Tudors, Gondelbald, Schuld en boete, Het Kind van Staat; Zege na strijd. Schimmel's renderings of Casimir de la Vigne's Louis XI., Geibel's Sophonisbe, and Ponsard's Lucréce are also still acted in the Netherlands.