CATS, JAKOB (1577-166o), Dutch poet and humorist, was born at Brouwershaven in Zeeland. He studied law at Leyden and at Orleans, and, returning to Holland, settled at The Hague, where he began to practise as an advocate. His pleading in de fence of a wretched creature accused of witchcraft brought him many clients and some reputation. He had a serious love affair "Cato, the grammarian, the Latin siren, who alone reads aloud the works and makes the reputation of poets." about this time, which was broken off on the very eve of marriage by his catching a tertian fever which defied all attempts at cure for some two years. For medical advice and change of air Cats went to England, where he consulted the highest authorities in vain. He returned to Zeeland to die, but was cured mysteriously by a strolling quack. He married in 1602 a lady of some property, Elisabeth von Valkenburg, and thenceforward lived at Gryps kerke in Zeeland, where he devoted himself to farming and poetry. His best works are : Emblemata or Minnebeelden with Maegden plicht (1618) ; Spiegel van den ouden en nieuwen Tijt (1627) ; Hou welijck . . . (1625) ; Selfstrijt (1620) ; Ouderdom en Buyten leven op. Zorgh-Vliet (1655) ; and Gedachten op. slapelooze nachten (1661). In 1621, on the expiration of the 12 years' truce with Spain, the breaking of the dykes drove him from his farm. He was made pensionary (stipendiary magistrate) of Middelburg; and two years afterwards of Dort. In 1627 Cats came to England on a mission to Charles I., who made him a knight. In 1636 he was made grand pensionary of Holland, and in 1648 keeper of the great seal; in 1651 he resigned his offices, but in 1657 he was sent a second time to England on what proved to be an unsuccess ful mission to Cromwell. In the seclusion of his villa of Sorgvliet, near The Hague, he lived from this time till his death, occupied in the composition of his autobiography (Eighty-two Years of My Life, first printed at Leyden in '734) and of his poems. He is still spoken of as "Father Cats" by his countrymen.
Cats was contemporary with Hooft and Vondel and other dis tinguished Dutch writers in the golden age of Dutch literature, but his Orangist and Calvinistic opinions separated him from the liberal school of Amsterdam poets. He was intimate with Con stantin Huygens, whose political opinions were more nearly in agreement with his own. For an estimate of his poetry see DUTCH LITERATURE. Hardly known outside Holland, among his own people for nearly two centuries he enjoyed an enormous popularity.
See G. Derudder, Un poete neerlandais : Cats, sa vie, son oeuvre (Calais, 1898) ; G. Kalif, Jakob Cats (1902).