1100FT, PETER CORNELIUS, one of the most eminent poets and prone writers of Holland, was born on the 16th of March 1581, at Amsterdam, where his father was an eminent burghermaster. After studying at the high-school at Leyden he travelled to Italy, the study of whose literature and poetry chiefly occupied him during his stay there. On his return in 1601, after an absence of three years, he published his tragedy of Granidn,' which for harmony and elegance of diction is still considered one of the choicest specimens of the Dutch language. Thus he may be said to have polished his native idiom all at once, and to have refined it, from the harshness and stiff nese in which ho found it, into such melodiousness and flexibility that he left others more to imitate than to improve upon. lie composed saversl other tragedies, and may be considered in some degree as the founder of the Dutch stage. These pieces, like those of his great contemporary Vondel, are all on the Greek model, and interspersal with choruses. Rut it is in his lesser productions, his
or amatory compositions, that Hoeft displays most originality. Many of these are replete with Annereoutio pleyffilness, naivete, and elegance. Ilooft attnined equal celebrity as a prose writer; for he succeeded in the difficult task of establishing a correct and harmonious style of prose, of which his ' History of the Netherlands' is esteemed n model, remarkable both for its purity and its vignur. Hoeft was twice married : his first wife died in 162i, his second survived him. In her society and that of his numerous friends tho last twenty years of his life were passed In lettered ease and enjoyment. Hie chateau at Muiden was the rendezvous of all who were dietinguialied for talents. Ho died May 21st, 1647.