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.
Grotius did not confine himself to writing small pieces of verse: he rose to tragedy.