Da Costa

Da Costa, ISAAC, a Dutch poet, born at Amsterdam, the son of a Portuguese Jew, 14th January 1798. He studied at Leyden; and in 1822, a year after receiving the degree of doctor of philosophy, he embraced Christianity. His poems speedily gained him such reputation that, on the death in 1831 of Bilderdijk, whose warm friendship he had enjoyed, Da Costa succeeded him in the first place among the poets of Holland, which he held till his death, on 28th April 1860. His principal works are to be found in his Poëzij (2 vols. 1821–22), Politieke Poëzy (1854), and Hesperiden (1855). His Battle of Nieuport, the last of his poems, is one of his masterpieces. Da Costa also made essays in the domain of history and theology, the most important of which, his Israel and the Gentiles, has been translated into English.