SECUNDUS, Johannes, or Johann Evekts (1511- 1536), Latin poet, was born at The Hague on 10th November 1511. He was descended from an ancient and honourable family in the Netherlands; his father, Nicholas Everts, or Everard, seems to have been high in the favour of the emperor Charles V. On what account the son was called Secundus is not known. His father intended him for the law; but though he took his degree at Bourges it does not appear that he devoted much time to legal pursuits. Poetry and the sister arts of painting and sculpture engaged his mind at a very early period. In 1533 he went to Spain, and soon afterwards became secretary to the cardinal-archbishop of Toledo, in a department of business which required no other qualification than that which he possessed in a very eminent degree,—a facility in writing with elegance the Latin language. It was during this period that he composed his most famous work, the Basia, a series of amatory poems, of which the fifth, seventh, and ninth Carmina of Catullus seem to have given the hint. In 1534 he accompanied Charles V. to the siege of Tunis, but gained few laurels as a soldier. After quitting the service of the archbishop, Secundus was employed as secretary by the bishop of Utrecht; and so much did he distinguish himself by the classical elegance of his compositions that he was called upon to fill the important post of private Latin secretary to the emperor, who was then in Italy. But, having arrived at St Amand, near Tournay, he was cut off by a violent fever on 8th October 1536.