ABSTRACT

This article aims to show that Geeraerdt Brandt’s popular revenge tragedy De veinzende Torquatus (1645) engages with the political debates concerning the rightful succession of monarchs based on primogeniture, and – be it in a grotesque, even parodic way – the Calvinistic belief that the Dutch stadtholders were God’s providential instruments, assigned to guide His chosen people. Subsequently, I show that the play offers a confrontation between two conflicting conceptions of power. The play’s eponymous protagonist holds what I call an intellectual (idealistic) conception of power, in which man's rational faculty, including his capacity for rational deception, is all-decisive. This vision, though, clashes with the more physical (materialistic) conceptualization of power which Torquatus’s antagonist Noron upholds.

摘要

本文旨在表明Geeraerdt勃兰特流行的复仇悲剧德veinzende Torquatus（1645）参与了有关基于长子继承制的君主的正确继承的政治辩论，并且-以一种怪诞的甚至是滑稽的方式-加尔文主义认为荷兰的史塔夫持持者是上帝的天命工具，被指派来指导他的被选民。随后，我展示了该剧在两个相互冲突的权力观念之间产生了对抗。戏剧的同名主角持有我所谓的知识性（意识形态）权力概念，其中人的理性能力（包括理性欺骗的能力）是决定性的。不过，这种愿景与托夸特斯的反对者诺伦（Noron）坚持的更物理的（物质的）权力概念相冲突。