JOHN, an eminent Dutch poet, born at Goes in Zealand, the 3d of April 1647. His parents were Anabaptists, people of good character, but of low circumstances. They went to live at Amsterdam when Antonides was about four years old; Antonides, old; and, in the ninth year of his age, he began his studies under the direction of Hadrian Junius and James Cocceius. Antonides took great pleasure in reading the Latin poets, and carefully compared them with Grotius, Heinsius, &c. By this means he acquired a taste for poetry, and enriched his mind with noble ideas. He first attempted to translate some pieces of Ovid, Horace, and other ancients; and, having formed his taste on these excellent models, he at length undertook one of the most difficult tasks in poetry, to write a tragedy: This was entitled Trozil, or, The Invasion of China. Antonides, however, was so modest, as not to permit it to be published. Vondel, who was then engaged in a dramatic piece, which was taken also from some event that happened in China, read Antonides's tragedy; and was so well pleased with it, that he declared, if the author would not print it, he would take some passages out of it, and make use of them in his own tragedy. He accordingly did so; and it was reckoned much to the honour of Antonides, to have written what might be adopted by so great a poet as Vondel was acknowledged to be by all good judges.

Upon the conclusion of the peace between Great Britain and Holland, in the year 1674, Antonides wrote a piece, entitled Bellona aan band, i.e. "Bellona chained;" a very elegant poem, consisting of several hundred verses. He next wrote an ingenious heroic poem, which he entitled The River Y (the river on which Amsterdam is built).

Antonides's parents had bred him up an apothecary; but his remarkable genius for poetry soon gained him the esteem and friendship of several persons of distinction; and particularly of Mr Buifero, one of the lords of the admiralty at Amsterdam, and a great lover of poetry, who sent him at his expense to pursue his studies at Leyden, where he remained till he took his degree of doctor of physic, and then his patron gave him a place in the admiralty. In 1678, Antonides married Sufanna Berman, a minister's daughter, who had also a talent for poetry. His marriage was celebrated by several eminent poets, particularly by the famous Peter Francius, professor of eloquence, who composed some Latin verses on the occasion. After marriage, he did not much indulge his poetic genius; and within a few years he fell into a consumption, of which he died on the 18th September 1684, being then but thirty-seven years and a few months old. He is esteemed the most eminent Dutch poet after Vondel. His works have been printed several times, having been collected by Father Antony Tansz. The last edition was printed by Nicholas Ten Hoom, at Amsterdam, in the year 1714, in 4to, under the direction of David Van Hoogstraaten, one of the masters of the Latin school of that city, who added to it also the life of the poet.