Pieter Corneliszoon Hooft

For the Dutch ocean liner, see MV Pieter Corneliszoon Hooft.

P.C. Hooft

Pieter Corneliszoon Hooft (16 March 1581 – 21 May 1647) - Knight in the Order of Saint Michael - was a Dutch historian, poet and playwright from the period known as the Dutch Golden Age.

Life

Pieter Corneliszoon Hooft, often abbreviated to P.C. Hooft, was born in Amsterdam as the son of the then mayor, Cornelis Hooft. Hooft was also the uncle of Cornelis and Andries de Graeff.

He founded the Muiderkring, a literary society located at his home, the Muiderslot, the castle of Muiden in which he got to live due to his appointment as sheriff of Muiden. Among the members were the poets and playwrights G.A. Bredero and Joost van den Vondel. He, Bredero, and Vondel were also founders of the First Nederduytsche Academy.

In 1647, he died at the age of 66 in The Hague.

Work

Hooft was a prolific writer of plays, poems and letters, but he concentrated from 1618 onwards on writing his history of the Netherlands (Nederlandsche historiën), inspired by Roman historian Tacitus. His focus was primarily on the Eighty Years' War between the Netherlands and Spain.

As a poet, he was influenced by his Renaissance contemporaries in France and Italy.

Plays

• Geeraerdt van Velsen ( 1613)
• Achilles en Polyxena (1614)
• Theseus en Ariane (1614)
• Granida (1615)
• Warenar (1616)
• Baeto, oft oorsprong der Holanderen (1626)

Poems

• Emblemata amatoria: afbeeldingen van minne (1611)

History

• Nederlandse historiën (1642-1656)

Present-day legacy

In present-day Amsterdam Pieter Corneliszoon Hooft gives his name to P. C. Hooftstraat, the city's main destination for expensive designer clothes shopping. The south-western end of P. C. Hooftstraat runs into the city's main park, the Vondelpark, named for his friend Joost van den Vondel (see Life above). In many other Dutch cities, there are other streets named after Hooft, many of them also called P. C. Hooftstraat.

In 1947, 300 years after P.C. Hooft died, a literary prize in his name was instituted by the Dutch government. An independent foundation annually awards the prize. Initially it was awarded for specific works, but in recent years it is awarded based on the entire collection of a writer.

He is also erroneously mentioned as "Denmark's most famous poet" on episode three of the television program Metalocalypse.

Gallery

• 

  Sculpture of P.C. Hooft in the castle Muiderslot

• 

  Sculptor Frits Sieger with bust of P.C. Hooft. Amsterdam; 22 March 1947

External links

• Works of Hooft in the Laurens Janszoon Coster project (Dutch)
• P.C. Hooft (1581-1647) - pictures of P.C. Hooft