HOOFT, PIETER CORNELISSEN Dutch poet and historian, was born at Amsterdam on March 16, 1581. His father was for some time burgomaster of Amsterdam. As early as 1598 the young man was made a member of the chamber of rhetoric In Lie f de bloeiende, 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, Venice, Flor ence and Rome, and in 1600 to Naples. During his Italian so journ he made a deep and fruitful study of the best literature of Italy. He returned through Germany, reaching Amsterdam in May 1601. In 1602 he brought out his second tragedy, Theseus and Ariadne (pr. 1614). In 1605 he completed his beautiful pastoral drama Granida (pr. 1615) . Hoof t produced three other plays: Geeraerdt van Velzen (1612, pr. 1613) ; Ware-nar (1614, pr. 1617), adapted from the Aulularia of Plautus; and Baeto (1616, pr. 1626) . He studied law and history at Leyden from 1606 to 1609, and in June of the latter year received from Prince Maurice of Orange the appointment of steward of Muiden, bailiff of Gooiland and lord of Weesp, a joint office of great emolument. He repaired and adorned the decayed castle of Muiden, where he lived for the rest of his life. There he enter tained the poet Vondel, the scholar Barlaeus, Constantin Huygens, Vossius, Laurens Reael and others.
In 1618 he abandoned poetry for history. His prose works are History of Henry the Great (Henry IV. of France) (1626) ; Miseries of the Princes of the House of Medici (Amsterdam, 1638) ; a Dutch History (in 20 books, 1642), embracing the period from 1555 to 1585, a magnificent performance, to the perfecting of which he had given 15 years of labour. The seven concluding books were published posthumously in 1654. Hoof t died on a visit to The Hague, on May 21, 1647, and was buried in the New Church at Amsterdam.
Hoof t is one of the most brilliant figures that adorn Dutch literature at its best period. He was the first writer to introduce a modern and European tone into belles lettres, and the first to refresh the sources of native thought from the springs of antique and Renaissance poetry. His lyrics and his pastoral of Granida are strongly marked by the influence of Tasso and Sannazaro ; his later tragedies belong more exactly to the familiar tone of his native country. But high as Hooft stands among the Dutch poets, he stands higher—he holds perhaps the highest place—among writers of Dutch prose. His historical style has won the warmest eulogy, and his letters are the most charming ever published in the Dutch language.
Hooft's poetical and dramatic works were collected in 2 vols. (1871, 1875) by P. Leendertz. His letters were edited by B. Huydecoper (Leyden, 1738) and by van Vloten (Leyden, 4 vols., 1855). The best original account of Hooft is given by G. Brandt in his Leven van P.C. Hooft (1677), and his funeral address (1647), edited together by J. C. Matthes (Groningen, 1874) . There is an account of the Muiden circle in Edmund Gosse's Northern Studies (1879). See also P. Prinsen, P. C. Hooft (1922).