Page:Grierson Herbert - First Half of the Seventeenth Century.djvu/54

34 in spite of defects which will appear more clearly when we come to speak of his drama, at the head of Dutch poets.

The poets of whom we have spoken hitherto belong all more or less closely to the Amsterdam circle of which the "Oude Kamer" was the general, Hooft's residence the more select, centre. Of lesser lights, such as Anna and Tesselschade Visscher, it is impossible to speak here. Outside Amsterdam there were of course other chambers, centres of dramatic and poetic activity. Zeeland was "a nest of singing-birds." The Zeeuwsche Nachtegaal, published at Middelburg in 1623, contained poems "door verscheyden treffelicke Zeeuwsche Poeten." And the song-books mentioned earlier are but some of many which were issued, and not in Amsterdam alone.

The most distinguished, if not the most popular, of the poets not connected with Amsterdam is the poet and statesman of The Hague, Constantijn Huyghens (1596-1687), the famous father of a more famous son. French was the language of the Court, and Huyghens, who was all his life in the active service of the House of Orange, as well as one of the most cultured men of his day, was