HOOFT, Pieter Cornelissen (1581-1647), Dutch poet and historian, was born at Amsterdam on the 16th of March 1581, His father was one of the leading citizens of Holland, both in politics and in the patronage of letters, and for some time burgomaster of Amsterdam. As early as 1598 the young man was made a member of the chamber of rhetoric of the Eglantine, and produced before that body his tragedy of Achilles and Polyxena, not printed until 1614. In June 1598 he left Holland and proceeded to Paris, where on the 10th of April 1599 he saw the body of Gabrielle d’Estrees lying in state. He went a few months later to Venice, Florence, and Rome. In 1600 he proceeded to Naples, and during all this Italian sojourn he made a deep and fruitful study of the best literature of Italy. In July 1600 he sent home to the Eglantine a very fine letter in verse, which is considered to mark an epoch in the development of Dutch poetry. He returned through Germany, and after an absence of three years and a half found himself in Amsterdam again on the 8th of May 1601. He soon after brought out his second tragedy, the Ariadne, in 1602. In 1605 he completed his beautiful pastoral drama Granula, not published until 1615. He studied law at Leyden from 1606 to 1609, and in June of the latter year received from the prince of Orange the appointment of steward of Minden, bailiff of Gooiland, and lord of Weesp, a joint office of great emolument. He occupied himself with repairing and adorning the decayed castle of Minden, which was his residence during the remainder of his life. In August 1610 he married the famous botanist, Christina van Erp. In 1612 Hooft produced, and in 1613 printed, his national tragedy of Geeraerdt van Velsen, a story of the reign of Count Floris V. In 1614 was performed at ...