GASPAR HONORATO DE AGUILAR. — Spanish man of letters, a native of Valencia, who lived from 1561 to 1623. He was among the first ten members of the Valencian Academy “de los Nocturnos” (1591), charged with drafting its statutes; he also read various highly praised poetic compositions there, which were later published, along with those of the other members, in the Academy’s Acts. He frequently organized poetic contests in which he also participated directly.
Also noteworthy are his *Fábula de Endimion y la Luna*, a fine epithalamium for the wedding of the Duke of Gandia, of whom he was secretary almost until his death, and an eight-canto historical poem in ottava rima on the expulsion of the Moors from Spain by Philip III. These constitute the essential part of A.’s lyrical and epic output; yet he was also, together with Tárrega, his fellow member in the Academy, among the first and most ardent promoters of Lope de Vega’s theatre, as well as a prolific dramatist himself. Among his plays of religious tone may be mentioned *La vida y muerte de San Luis Bertrán* and *El gran Patriarca San Juan de Ribera*, and among those of a social character, *La venganza honrosa* and *El mercader amante*, the latter praised by Cervantes. His contemporaries, in truth, were not sparing in their praise: besides the author of *Don Quijote*, Lope also spoke of him with esteem, and he was even nicknamed “the poet of wine.” He deserves to be recognized, with one of the most competent scholars of his work, F. Martí Grajales, for a free-flowing and unaffected dialogue, a style devoid of grandiloquence and conceits, descriptions and thoughts of great beauty expressed with that difficult facility found only in privileged talents.
Ruggero M. Ruggieri