Francisco de Quevedo
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Francisco Gómez de Quevedo y Villegas (September 17, 1580–September 8, 1645) was a Spanish writer during the Siglo de Oro (Spanish Golden Age). The son of noble parents, he was born in Madrid. He is one of Spain's most important Baroque poets.
Quevedo's poetry first appeared in an anthology by Pedro de Espinosa, Flores de poetas ilustres ("Flower of Illustrious Poets") (1605); his complete works were not published until after his death. Espinosa's anthology was mainly interested in Quevedo's metaphysical and love poems, and his mocking sonnets.
Quevedo was a master of conceptismo, from concepto ("conceit"), an elaborate, fanciful and witty metaphor used especially as a literary signpost in poetry. He was strongly opposed to culteranismo (extreme subtilization and concealment of meaning, often with Latinate expressions and syntax, and obscure mythological allusions) and he scurrilously attacked Luis de Góngora, whose name was synonymous with culteranismo.
Besides his literary activity, Quevedo was an operative in the service of an important Spanish XVII Century grandee and politician, Pedro Téllez-Girón, 3rd Duke of Osuna. Osuna was Spanish viceroy in Naples and involved in a notorious (and top-secret) attempt to subvert the republican government of Venice. The failure of the conspiracy, and the Spanish government's pursuit of "plausible deniability", brought about the spectacular fall of Osuna and of the deeply compromised Quevedo, who had been Osuna's go-between in Venice. In an attempt to vindicate Osuna, Quevedo prepared an anonymous verse "Memorial" ("memorandum") which materialized under King Philip IV's napkin at breakfast, blasting the policies of Philip's all-powerful favourite, Gaspar de Guzmán y Pimentel, Count-Duke of Olivares. But Quevedo's famous wit was impossible to disguise, and his act landed the poet under house arrest which lasted until Olivares' fall in 1643.
Quevedo also carried on an interminable and Dickensian lawsuit with the town of which he was hereditary Lord of the Manor, La Torre de Juan Abad in Castile, from whose feudal duties he derived his livelihood and where his ancestral seat, today a fascinating museum, is situated.
Homely Quevedo was famously lame and wore pince-nez spectacles clipped on his nose (to this day called quevedos in Spanish). That didn't stop him from being a notorious ladies' man and accomplished swordsman and duellist, ready to cross swords in matters of honor, literature or politics.
As a prose-writer Quevedo was noted for his pessimistic stoicism wrapped in an inimitably ironic style. Quevedo's anti-Semitism was typical of his age and his misogyny emblematic of the pessimism of Spanish writers of this period. This last was highly influential on German thinkers, notably Arthur Schopenhauer.
Besides being a supreme Castilian poet, Quevedo is Spain's most famous literary satirist and one of the great masters in the history of Spanish prose.
- Picaresque novel: Historia de la vida del Buscón llamado don Pablos (The Life Story of the Sharper, called Don Pablos) (1626; there are several early English translations)
- Satire: Los sueños (Dreams) (1627), La cuna y la sepultura (The Crib and the Grave) (1635); La culta latiniparla (The Latin-prattling blue-stocking, mocking a female culteranist, 1631)
- Against Luis de Góngora and Culteranismo: Aguja de navegar cultos (A Compass-needle to navigate culteranos)
- Political works: Política de Dios, gobierno de Cristo (The Polity of God and Government of Christ) (1626); Vida de Marco Bruto (The Life of Marcus Brutus) (1632–1644); Execración contra los judíos (Execration Against the Jews) (1633).
- Biography: life of St Thomas of Villanova
Francisco de Quevedo appears as a character in the series of novels about Captain Alatriste, by Spanish author Arturo Pérez-Reverte. In an upcoming film adaptation, Quevedo will be played by Juan Echanove.
