The Cows, the Herdsman, and the Wolf

On 24 April 1690, the Haarlem plate printer Claes van Hoeck appeared before the notary Joannes Paerslaken in Amsterdam and testified that Romeyn de Hooghe, on some date in February he could not remember exactly, had handed him the copperplate of The Fable of the Cows, the Herdsman, and the Wolf. Romeyn had asked him, so testified van Hoeck, to find him a book printer, as he was engaged in writing ‘a verse’ that was to appear under the print.

The Fable of the Cows, the Herdsman, and the Wolf (fig. 8.1) is a satire on Amsterdam’s opposition to William iii during the early months of 1690. Undated, it is signed ‘Marlais’, a nom de plume Romeyn used several times in the course of that year. It carries the fake imprint ‘At Amsterdam, printed for Coppen Heerschops in the Mirror for the Councillors’. The motto under the print reads Fat cow of Pharaoh, you must know that you may be eaten by the lean ones, a reference to the Pharaoh's dream in Genesis 24 about seven ‘ill-favoured and lean-fleshed kine [cows]’ emerging from the River Nile and devouring seven fat cows. This prophesied that the previous seven prosperous years would be followed by seven austere ones.

The print shows a herd of seven cows. Six animals stand in a defensive position with their horns pointing outwards. A recalcitrant seventh cow has broken away and is threatening the herd. The herdsman and his cattle, representing the stadtholder and the Dutch Republic's seven provinces, are standing in a meadow bordered with an osier fence, the traditional symbol for the Hollandse tuin (Dutch Garden), the ‘enclosure’ of Holland or, more broadly, the United Netherlands. Outside the fence, a wolf representing Louis xiv is roaming against the background of a burning village, a tell-tale sign of warfare. Within the enclosure, a fox (Amsterdam) incites the unruly cow (Holland) against her herdsman. Amsterdam, with its landmark town hall, is visible in the background behind the herdsman. The theme is derived from a parable by the popular poet Jacob Cats entitled ‘Fighting Cows band together when the Wolf comes’.