In honour of his rescue he named his daughter Tesselschade, or Texel wreck, thereby, I think, eternally impairing his right to be considered a true poet.

As a matter of fact he was rather an epigrammatist than a poet, his ambition being to be known as the Dutch Martial.

Here is a taste of his Martial manner:-- Jan sorrows--sorrows far too much: 'tis true A sad affliction hath distressed his life;-- Mourns he that death hath ta'en his children two?
O no! he mourns that death hath left his wife.
I have said that Visscher was a rhetorician.

The word perhaps needs a little explanation, for it means more than would appear.

In those days rhetoric was a living cult in the Netherlands: Dutchmen and Flemings played at rhetoric with some of the enthusiasm that we keep for cricket and sport.