Hans, surnamed Vander Goes, an eminent Dutch poet, was born at Goes in Zealand on the 3d of April 1647. His parents were Anabaptists, people of good character, but in poor circumstances. They went to live at Amsterdam when Antonides was about four years old; and in the ninth year of his age he began his studies, under the direction of Hadrian Junius and James Cocceius. The study of the Latin poets first awakened his poetic spirit. His earliest attempts were translations from Horace and Ovid; and, having formed his taste on these excellent models, he at length ventured to write a tragedy, entitled Tracez, or the Invasion of China; which, however, his modesty prevented him from publishing.

His parents designed him for an apothecary; but his remarkable genius for poetry soon gained him the esteem and friendship of several persons of distinction, and particularly of Buiser, one of the lords of the admiralty at Amsterdam, who sent him at his expense to pursue his studies at Leyden. There he took his degree of doctor of physic, after which his patron gave him a place in the admiralty. He died on the 18th September 1684, at the early age of 37. A complete edition of his works, with a life of the poet, was printed at Amsterdam, 4to, 1714. The most esteemed of his poems, which are characterised by warmth and vigour, is his epic on the river Y., entitled Y-stroom.