state of which the writer has been deprived, and where he
is obliged to leave his beloved Lydia; in the _Lydia_, on the other
hand, the estate is regarded with envy as the possessor of his
charmer. Joseph Justus Scaliger was the first to attribute the poem
(divided into two by F. Jacobs) to Valerius Cato, on the ground that
he had lost an estate and had written a _Lydia_. The question has been
much discussed; the balance of opinion is in favour of the _Dirae_
being assigned to the beginning of the Augustan age, although so
distinguished a critic as O. Ribbeck supports the claims of Cato to
the authorship. The best edition of these poems is by A.F. Nake
(1847), with exhaustive commentary and excursuses; a clear account of
the question will be found in M. Schanz's _Geschichte der romischen
Litteratur_; for the "new" school of poetry see Mommsen, _Hist. of
Rome_, bk. v. ch. xii.; F. Plessis, _Poesie latine_ (1909), 188.

FOOTNOTE:

[1] "Cato, the grammarian, the Latin siren, who alone reads aloud the
works and makes the reputation of poets."

CATS, JACOB (1577-1660), Dutch poet and humorist, was born at
Brouwershaven in Zeeland on the 10th of November 1577. Having lost his
mother at an early age, and being adopted with his three brothers by an
uncle, Cats was sent to school at Zierikzee. He then studied law at
Leiden and at Orleans, and, returning to Holland, he settled at the
Hague, where he began to practise as an advocate. His pleading in
defence of a wretched creature accused of witchcraft brought him many
clients and some reputation. He had a serious love affair about this
time, which was broken off on the very eve of marriage by his catching a
tertian fever which defied all attempts at cure for some two years. For
medical advice and change of air Cats went to England, where he
consulted the highest authorities in vain. He returned to Zeeland to
die, but was cured mysteriously by a strolling quack. He married in 1602
a lady of some property, Elisabeth von Valkenburg, and thenceforward
lived at Grypskerke in Zeeland, where he devoted himself to farming and
poetry. His best works are: _Emblemata_ or _Minnebeelden_ with
_Maegdenplicht_ (1618); _Spiegel van den ouden en nieuwen Tijt_ (1632);
_Houwelijck ..._ (1625); _Selfstrijt_ (1620); _Ouderdom, Buitem leven
... en Hofgedachten op Sorgvliet_ (1664); and _Gedachten op slapelooze
nachten_ (1661). In 1621, on the expiration of the