superficial between Donne's subtle mind and bizarre imagination and the fundamental simplicity of Huyghens' character. In poetry such as Huyghens' much depends upon the personality of the author, and it is the simplicity and freshness of his nature, combined with wide culture, insight, and a noble piety, which made Potgieter call him "one of the most lovable men that ever lived."
Huyghens' friend, the first of Zeeland poets, and for long the most popular of Dutch poets, Jacob CatsCats.[1] (1577-1660), is a difficult author for a foreigner to appreciate. He is the incarnation of all that is most bourgeois and practical in the Dutch character. He was, like Huyghens, a man of means. He grew rich by reclaiming "polders" from the sea, and was a sharp—at times, Huyghens affirmed, too sharp—business man. He acknowledges that—
"Het is een deftigh [difficult] werk en waert te zijn gepresen
Godtzalig en met een oock rijck te mogen wezen."
Cats was a learned man, and served his country as Raedpensionaris, visiting England twice as an am-
- ↑ Many old and handsome editions, with finely-engraved emblems and illustrations. Most of his works have been republished in the Pantheon. Cats' long-established reputation as the most popular and edifying of Dutch poets was assailed by Potgieter in his Rijks-Museum, 1844. He was followed by Busken-Huet in De Gids, 1863, who made great sport of the "God-fearing money-maker and his low-toned morality." Jonckbloet was more judicial but equally severe. Cats has been defended by Dr A. Kuyper—recently Prime Minister of Holland—in Het Kalvinisme en de Kunst, 1888. All that can be said for Cats as a poet by a discriminating critic will be found in Professor Kalff's Jacob Cats, Haarlem, 1901.
