[36] Ep. Lips. ad Belgas, Cent. 3. p. 83.

[37] Ep. 130.

[38] Fab. Bib. Gr. lib. 3. c. 18.


XIII. These grave and profound studies did not hinder Grotius from
cultivating Poetry. He had made some verses in his childhood which were
thought very pretty: he continued this manner of writing in the midst of
his greatest occupations, and with such success, that he was looked on
as one of the best Poets in Europe.

The Prosopopoeia[39] in which he makes the city of Ostend speak, after
being three years besieged by the Spaniards, is reckoned one of the best
pieces of verse since the Augustan age. Public fame gave it at first to
Scaliger because he was considered as the greatest poet of that time.
The celebrated Peyresc[40] hinted it to that learned man, who made
answer, he was too old not to be the aversion of the Virgins of Helicon;
and that the verses were not written by him, but by Grotius, a most
accomplished youth. Notwithstanding this declaration, Mathieu, in the
_Life of Henry IV._ ascribes them to Scaliger. They were thought so
excellent, several men of learning set about translating them into
French, particularly Du Vair, afterwards Keeper of the Seals; Rapin,
grand Provost of the Constabulary, and Stephen Pasquier. Malherbe
himself, the Oracle of the French Parnassus, did not think it beneath
him to put this Epigram into French verse: and Casaubon translated it
into Greek.