Joost van den Vondel was a Dutch poet, writer and playwright. He is considered the most prominent Dutch poet and playwright of the 17th century. His plays are the ones from that period that are still most frequently performed, and his epic Joannes de Boetgezant, on the life of John the Baptist, has been called the greatest Dutch epic.
Vondel's theatrical works were regularly performed until the 1960s. The most visible was the annual performance, on New Year's Day from 1637 to 1968, of Gijsbrecht van Aemstel.
Vondel remained productive until a very old age. Several of his most notable plays like Lucifer and Adam in Exile were written after 1650, when he was already 65, and his final play Noah, written at the age of eighty, is considered one of his finest.