ion of a monument in his honor in his native city, and
the painting of his portrait by Rembrandt in 1635, were therefore
well-deserved tributes to a man strangely representative of his
nation. Yet, even in Holland, voices have been raised against his
popularity. Busken Huet has called him "a miserable character, a
personified mediocrity, a vulgar and vulgarizing spirit."

Jacob Cats, the youngest of four children, was born in Brouwershaven
on the 10th of November, 1577. His mother died when he was only a few
years old, and his father, member of the council in Brouwershaven,
soon gave his children a stepmother. Cats praises her "good deeds and
good management" in his verses; but it would seem as if her management
were not in accordance with what the family considered beneficial to
the children. One of the uncles adopted little Jacob, and sent him to
the school of Master Dirk Kemp in Zierikzee. Here he met a young boy
from Brabant who was cultivating poetry, and their daily comradeship
awakened the same tastes in Cats. Master Kemp was a man who, although
of good intentions, had not the power to carry them out; Jacob's uncle
accordingly took him out of school and sent him to the University of
Leyden to study law.

From Leyden he went to Orleans, where he took his degree, and then to
Paris. When he had been here for some time, his uncle thought it
wisest to call him back; and Cats's career dates from his return to
The Hague, where he settled as a lawyer. Very soon after he had taken
up his practice he succeeded in saving a woman accused of witchcraft,
and won the case of a young man who, in defending his father from a
murderous attack, had killed the assailant. These cases called
attention to Cats; he soon made a name for himself. His activity was
then suddenly interrupted by a severe illness. He was forced to leave
the damp climate of Holland, and went to England to seek the counsel
of Queen Elizabeth's famous physician Butler. The treatment gave him
no relief, however; and he did not improve until after his return to
Holland, where he met a learned alchemist, to whose skill he ascribed
his cure. In 1603 he moved to Middelburg, and began life with new
strength. He tells in one of his poems of his meeting in the French
church with a young girl, with whom he fell in love at first sight; of
his growing affection for her and his intention to marry her; of the
report that her father had just lost all his money in a speculation