Joost van den Vondel (Dutch: [ˈjoːst fɑn də(ɱ) ˈvɔndəl]; 17 November 1587 – 5 February 1679) was a Dutch playwright, poet, literary translator and writer. He is generally regarded as the greatest writer in the Dutch language as well as an important figure in the history of Western literature. In his native country, Vondel is often called the "Prince of Poets" and the Dutch language is sometimes referred to as "the language of Vondel". His oeuvre consists of 33 plays, a large number of poems in different genres and forms, an epic poem and many translations of predominantly classical literature. Vondel lived in the Dutch Republic during the Eighty Years' War and became the leading literary figure of the Dutch Golden Age.

Although Vondel was born in Cologne, his family, who were Mennonites, originally came from Antwerp, but had to flee after the fall of the city in 1585. They settled in Cologne, but were persecuted there as well. Eventually they moved to Amsterdam in the then newly formed Dutch Republic. In Amsterdam, Vondel joined the Chamber of rhetoric, a literary society where members studied and composed poetry together. This was the start of his long career as a writer. In 1610 he married Mayken de Wolff, with whom he had five children, of which three died in infancy. A pivotal moment in Vondel's life was his conversion to Catholicism, which was met with controversy in the then dominant Protestant society of the Dutch Republic. In his later life Vondel dedicated himself almost exclusively to his dramatic work and religious poetry. He wrote plays until he was 80 years old and eventually died in Amsterdam at the age of 91.

Vondel's earliest known poem dates from 1605. The first play Vondel wrote was Het Pascha in 1612 and his last Noach, written in 1667. Vondel primarily wrote tragedies, of which a great deal were written in the period between 1654 and 1667. Although his Palamedes (1625) and Gijsbrecht van Aemstel (1637) are acclaimed works, the tragedies he wrote after 1654 are considered to be the highlights of his oeuvre. Plays like Lucifer, Jephta, Adam in ballingschap (Adam in exile) and Noach are among Vondel's most celebrated works and are consistently ranked among the greatest works of Dutch literature. Especially Lucifer is almost by common consent regarded as Vondel's masterpiece. Like his plays, Vondel's poetry is acclaimed as well, in particular for the virtuosic style and mastery of verse. Notable poems include Het stockske van Oldenbarneveldt ("The Cane of Oldenbarnevelt"), Roskam (Curry Comb) and Kinder-lijck (Childlike), about the death of his son.

Vondel was born on 17 November 1587 on the Große Witschgasse in the Free imperial city of Cologne, Holy Roman Empire. His family were originally Catholics from Antwerp (at the time part of the Spanish Netherlands), but had to flee in 1585 after the fall of the city, for becoming Anabaptists of the Mennonite faith. His father, also named Joost van den Vondel, and mother, Sara Cranen (who was the daughter of Peter Cranen, an important poet from Antwerp), lived in Cologne when their eldest son Joost was born. As Mennonites, however, they were barely tolerated in Cologne and eventually the repression against Mennonites grew to such an extent that, in 1595, the city officials informed that all local Mennonites had to leave Cologne within fourteen days. The Vondel family was left adrift and lived at Frankfurt am Main, Bremen, Emden, and Utrecht, before eventually settling at Amsterdam in the newly formed Dutch Republic.

Joost van den Vondel the Elder managed to acquire Dutch citizenship, which enabled him to set up a business, on 27 March 1597, and he became a silk merchant on the Warmoesstraat. Amsterdam at the time was in the process of taking over the position of Antwerp as the most important trading centre of the Low Countries and was soon becoming the wealthiest city of the Dutch Republic. In part this was made possible by the enormous influx of migrants, chiefly from the Southern Netherlands (roughly 60.000 to 80.000 people migrated from the south to Amsterdam, on a population of around 115.000 in 1622). These migrants brought their own (literary) culture, especially the Chamber of rhetoric - a literary society that occupied an important place in the culture of the Low Countries - would prove to be vital for the (literary) upbringing of Vondel.

Vondel's parents valued good education and made sure their son went to a proper school. It is thought that Vondel may have been a pupil of the famous mathematician and educator Willem Bartjens, to whom he would later dedicate an ode. Apart from mathematics, Bartjens taught German, French and wrote poems. Not long after Vondel received his first education he started writing poems. Vondel's first biographer, Gerard Brandt, remarked that Vondel was very young when he first started writing poetry. It is not known how old Vondel was when he wrote his first poems, though his earliest known poem dates from 1605 and was written when he was 17 years old. The poem was written for the marriage of a girl in his neighborhood and was signed with Liefde verwinnet al (Love conquers all), with which Vondel signed all of his early verses. By 1606 he was a member of the Chamber of rhetoric Het Wit Lavendel (The White Lavender), a literary society founded by Flemish Protestant refugees from the Spanish Netherlands. The choice for this Chamber of rhetoric was understandable considering the recent history of Vondel's family. It was at this place where Vondel wrote the first of his occasional poetry. In 1606 he received Mennonite adult baptism from the congregation led by Cornelis Claesz Anslo and the following year his father died, so Vondel was brought into the family silk business as a partner. Vondel's early poetry was still heavily influenced by the Flemish poetry of the Chamber of rhetoric, especially the poetry fellow Mennonite Karel van Mander. His early poems were eventually anthologized in the work Den nieuwen verbeterden lust-hof (The New Improved Pleasure Garden) of 1607. In the last months of 1610 Vondel married Mayken de Wolff, with whom he had five children, of which three died in infancy.

In 1612 Vondel wrote his first play titled Het Pascha (Passover), which dramatizes the events of the Book of Exodus and features an epilogue comparing the liberation of the enslaved Israelites from Biblical Egypt to Christ's redemption of the human race and to the success of the Dutch Revolt against King Philip II of Spain, which was still ongoing at the time when Vondel wrote his play. It has been said that, though the power and splendor of his verse is already apparent in Het Pascha, it also lacked consistency. Nonetheless, the work was received well by both the public and critics, and was praised by Gerbrand Bredero in an ode. Apart from the virtuosic poetry, Het Pascha already contained two important aspects that would later turn out to be exemplary for Vondel's work: firstly the usage of literature to comment on political matters, and secondly an admiration for classical antiquity. After this Vondel continued to write occasional poetry and went on to write the play Hierusalem verwoest (Jerusalem destroyed) in 1620. This work was the first play that was structurally entirely based upon classical literature, in this case Seneca's Troades. Apart from classical literature, Vondel's work also underwent a strong influence from French literature, in the case of Hierusalem verwoest the work of Robert Garnier, and in general the work of Guillaume de Salluste Du Bartas. In the period between 1613 and 1620 Vondel learnt Latin at the local Latin school, and by 1620 he was able to read the most important Latin writers, particularly Virgil, Seneca and later Ovid.

In this period two other significant events occurred in his life. Firstly, Vondel apparently recovered from what Gerard Brandt called "a long, languishing sickness, which greatly weakened him, exhausting his spirits and making him long for death". It is now thought that Vondel probably suffered from depression, since he mentioned he was suffering from "melancholia" in a letter. Secondly, in 1618 the tragedy of the arrest and execution of Johan van Oldenbarnevelt happened, which may also have contributed to Vondel's melancholy. At the time there was a conflict in the Dutch Republic between the Arminians (also called Remonstrants) on the one side, and the Calvinists led by Franciscus Gomarus (also called Counter-Remonstrants), on the other side. Vondel, who gradually became one of the most vocal advocates for religious toleration, sided with the Arminians and had great admiration for the religious tolerance propagated by Johan van Oldenbarnevelt (who was not only the political leader of the Remonstrants, but also as Land's Advocate the de facto leader of the Dutch Republic). As a consequence, the trial and subsequent execution of Johan van Oldenbarnevelt by Maurice of Orange not only had a great impact on Vondel, it also resulted in religious persecution of followers of Roman Catholicism, Anabaptism and Arminianism.