R.M. van Goens: balling of eerder wereldburger?

Samenvatting

R.M. Van Goens (1748-1810), the child prodigy of yore, leaves the Netherlands in 1786. He is dangerously ill and on bad terms with friends and enemies. He stays abroad for nearly a quarter of a century and dies in Wenigerode in Germany. May he be called an exile? On the basis of his remarks in his correspondance with his brother-in-law H. van Alphen the designation 'cosmopolitan' seems more appropriate.