Johan van Heemskerk (1597–1656),

Dutch Dutch commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands * Dutch people () * Dutch language () Dutch may also refer to: Places * Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States * Pennsylvania Dutch Country People E ...

poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator ( thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems ( oral or wri ...

, was born at

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the capital and most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population of 907,976 within the city proper, 1,558,755 in the urban ar ...

. He was educated as a child at Bayonne, and entered the

University of Leiden Leiden University (abbreviated as ''LEI''; nl, Universiteit Leiden) is a public research university in Leiden, Netherlands. The university was founded as a Protestant university in 1575 by William, Prince of Orange, as a reward to the city of Le ...

in 1617. In 1621 he went abroad on the grand tour, leaving behind him his first volume of poems, ''Minnekunst'' (The Art of Love), which appeared in 1622. He was absent from Holland four years. He was made master of arts at Bourges in 1623, and in 1624 visited Hugo Grotius in Paris. On his return in 1625 he published ''Minnepligt'' (The Duty of Love), and began to practise as an advocate in the Hague. In 1628 he was sent to England in his legal capacity by the

Dutch East India Company The United East India Company ( nl, Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie, the VOC) was a chartered company established on the 20th March 1602 by the States General of the Netherlands amalgamating existing companies into the first joint-stock ...

, to settle the dispute respecting Amboyna. In the same year he published the poem entitled ''Minnekunde'', or the "Science of Love." He proceeded to Amsterdam in 1640, where he married Alida, sister of the patrician regent Geurt van Beuningen. In 1641 he published a Dutch version of

Corneille Pierre Corneille (; 6 June 1606 – 1 October 1684) was a French tragedian. He is generally considered one of the three great seventeenth-century French dramatists, along with Molière and Racine. As a young man, he earned the valuable patronag ...

's ''The Cid'', a tragi-comedy, and in 1647 his most famous work, the pastoral romance of ''Batavische Arcadia'', which he had written ten years before. During the last twelve years of his life Heemskerk sat in the upper chamber of the states-general. He died at Amsterdam on the 27th of February 1656. The poetry of Heemskerk, which fell into oblivion during the 18th century, is once more read and valued. His famous pastoral, the ''Batavische Arcadia'', which was founded on the ''Astrée'' of

Honoré d'Urfé Honoré d'Urfé, marquis de Valromey, comte de Châteauneuf (11 February 15681 June 1625) was a French novelist and miscellaneous writer. Life He was born at Marseille, the grandson of Claude d'Urfé, and was educated at the Collège de T ...

, enjoyed a great popularity for more than a century, and passed through twelve editions. It provoked a host of more or less able imitations, of which the most distinguished were the ''Dordrechtsche Arcadia'' (1663) of Lambert van den Bos (1610–1698), the ''Saanlandsche Arcadia'' (1658) of Hendrik Sooteboom (1616–1678) and the ''Rotterdamsche Arcadia'' (1703) of Willem den Elger (died 1703). But the original work of Heemskerk, in which a party of nymphs and shepherds go out from

the Hague The Hague ( ; nl, Den Haag or ) is a city and municipality of the Netherlands, situated on the west coast facing the North Sea. The Hague is the country's administrative centre and its seat of government, and while the official capital o ...

Katwijk Katwijk (), also spelled Katwyk, is a coastal municipality and town in the province of South Holland, which is situated in the mid-western part of the Netherlands. The Oude Rijn ("Old Rhine") river flows through the town and into the North Se ...

, and there indulge in polite and pastoral discourse, surpasses all these in brightness and versatility.

References

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Heemskerk, Johan van 1597 births 1656 deaths 17th-century Dutch poets 17th-century Dutch novelists 17th-century Dutch lawyers Dutch male poets Dutch East India Company people Writers from Amsterdam Dutch male novelists 17th-century male writers