Writing exercises for Napoleon

In the spring of 1806, Bilderdijk returned to the Netherlands. Nothing came of the dreamed professorship and he did not get another position either. However, the odds turned when a few months later, Emperor Napoleon appointed his younger brother Lodewijk King of Holland. French culture had a rich and truly regal tradition of patronage – in contrast to the stingy support of the Oranges for the arts and sciences. King Lodewijk therefore gave the impoverished poet Bilderdijk a fixed annual salary and provided him with prestigious assignments such as cultural advisor, as translator of the Code Pénal (the French penal code) and as his private Dutch teacher.

Bilderdijk produced the teaching material for the King’s Dutch lessons himself. It is striking that, contrary to what might be expected, he paid a lot of attention to ordinary spoken language, with sentences such as: 'It rains every day' – Il pleut tous les jours'. He also taught Lodewijk typical Bilderdijkian expressions such as: 'That affects my nerves / Cela m'attaque les nerfs.' Like a true schoolteacher, he placed pluses and minuses in the margins.

Lodewijk's stay in the Netherlands was too short to really learn Dutch well, and like most French people, he continued to struggle with pronunciation. A well-known anecdote is that he once declared to a large audience: ‘I am rabbit of Olland’ (‘Iek ben konijn van Olland’), which caused much hilarity.