Flooded, like the Netherlands...

[Phil Walsh]

Hi all,

At the end of Chapter 105, we find

"if ever the world is to be again flooded, like the Netherlands, to kill
off its rats..."

When were the Netherlands flooded to kill off rats? Is this an
historical event, or a mythical one? I've searched a bit on-line but
haven't found anything that would explain this reference. None of the
footnoted editions of MD that I have elaborate on this, either.

Thanks,

Phil Walsh

[Clare Spark]

Given that Maria G. Melville was of Dutch heritage, the statement
sounds like a dream begging for analysis by a better psychologist than
I am.

Clare Spark

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[Clare Spark]

Mother's tears cleansing Herman the Rat of all rebellious impulses and books?
Clare
ps if anybody can find a real event in Netherlandish history, I will
bow to real events.

[Phil Walsh]

Hi Clare,

Thanks for the suggestion. It hadn't even occurred to me that perhaps
the event was a fabrication (I guess that would make it neither
historical nor mythical but, rather, Melvillean?).

Phil

[Stephen Hoy]

In Noah's flood he despised Noah's Ark; and if ever the world is to be again flooded, like the Netherlands, to kill off its rats, then the eternal whale will still survive, and rearing upon the topmost crest of the equatorial flood, spout his frothed defiance to the skies.

- Ch 105 Does the Whale's Magnitude Diminish? — Will He Perish?

This closing passage displays Melville's wit. The key to the passage is recognition that the Flood was justified because humans were depraved. To find the allusion, we look for some event in which the "rats" drowned in the Netherlands are, in some witty sense, men who are justifiably drowned. 

This points to the 1672 action of William of Orange, who ordered the countryside around Amsterdam flooded during the war of Spanish Succession. This drowned a portion of the invading armies of Louis XIV while preventing the greatly superior forces of the French from completely overwhelming and conquering the United Provinces.

Melville's source is likely some grade school reader. Compare Duyckinck's History of the World (1858) p34.

While we're onto the Dutch, there's another passage that merits elaobration.

Why did the Dutch in De Witt's time have admirals of their whaling fleets?

- Ch 24 The Advocate

From 1622 to 1644, the charter of the Dutch Greenland Company (a whaling enterprise) specified the company held sole responsibility for the defense of its whale ships from pirates (mostly hailing from England). Melville's source is probably Scoresby's Arctic Voyages, who in turn references Johan de Witt. The true interest and political maxims of the Republick of Holland and West Friesland. 

This passage ties (somewhat obliquely) to the closing passage in Ch 105. In the early stage of the War of Spanish Succession, the De Witts offered to surrender the Netherlands wholesale to the invading French. In contrast, William publicly vowed "There's one certain means by which I can be sure never to see my country's ruin: I will die in the last ditch." The De Witts were deposed and imprisoned, where they were executed by a mob.

[Fernando Velasco]

Thank you, Stephen. I've always preferred hard facts to "psychological readings".

On the other hand, excuse me for being punctilious, but the war of the Spanish Succession broke out in 1701. Louis XIV expansionist policies are a whole different affair.

 

Fernando Velasco

[Stephen]

Thank you for the correction. I'm sure there's a good psychological
explanation for my error, but I'd probably have to pay someone $120 an
hour to figure it out.

[Phil Walsh]

Thanks much, Stephen. 

Phil

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