JEREMIAS DE

DEKKER (1610-1666)  , Dutch poet, was born at Dort in 161o . His father was a native of Antwerp, who, having embraced the reformed religion, had been compelled to take refuge in Holland . Entering his father's business at an early age, he found leisure to cultivate his taste for literature and especially for poetry, and to acquire without assistance a competent knowledge of English, French, Latin and Italian . His first poem was a paraphrase of the Lamentations of Jeremiah (Klaagliedern van Jeremias), which was followed by translations and imitations of Horace, Juvenal and other Latin poets . The most important of his original poems were a collection of epigrams (Puntdichten) and a satire in praise of avarice (Lof der Geldzucht) . The latter is his best-known work . Written in a vein of light and yet effective irony, it is usually ranked by critics along with Erasmus's Praise of Folly . Dekker died at Amsterdam in November 1666 . A complete collection of his poems, edited by Brouerius van Nideck, was published at Amsterdam in 1726 under the title Exercices poetiques (2 vols . 4to.) . Selections from his poems are included in Siegenbeck's Proeven van nederduitsche Dichtkunde (1823), and from his epigrams in Geijsbeek's Epigrammatische Anthologie (1827) .