He had a serious engagement about this time, which was broken off on the very eve of marriage by his catching a tertian fever (a form of malaria) which defied all attempts at cure for some two years.

[2] He married on 26 April 1605 a lady of some wealth, Elisabeth van Valckenburg from Antwerp,[1] and thenceforward lived at Grijpskerke in Zeeland, where he devoted himself to farming and poetry.

During his tenure, Andries Bicker and his cousin Cornelis de Graeff of Amsterdam took over the leadership of the republican-leaning Dutch regents.

Here he lived from this time until his death, occupied in the composition of his autobiography (Eighty-two Years of My Life, first printed at Leiden in 1734) and of his poems.

He became famous in his own lifetime from his moralistic Emblem books, most notably Sinne en Minnebeelden, for which Adrian van der Venne cut the plates.

Although hardly known outside of Holland, among his own people for nearly two centuries he enjoyed an enormous popularity[2] – the complete collection of his poems is said to have sold around 50,000 copies, and was reputedly the only book, other than the Bible, to be found in many Dutch homes.

[2] See Jacob Cats, Alle de wercken, so ouden als nieuwe (complete works, old and new), published by Jan Jacobsz.

A selection of these, Klagende Maeghden en andere liederen, was recorded in 2008 by the Utrecht ensemble Camerata Trajectina.