ESPINOSA, PEDRO. - Spanish poet, b. at Antequera in 1578, d. at Sanlúcar de Barrameda on 21 Oct. 1650. After a disappointment in love, he led an eremitical life under the name Pedro de Jesús and, having been ordained priest at Malaga, governed the native Colegio de S. Ildefonso.
In the first period of his activity he composed the Fábula del Genil, ingenious in composition and florid in style, as well as the Soledad de Pedro Jesús, sonnets, and translations of psalms. Later he inclined toward cultismo and, at times, toward concettismo. The period of transition from Herrera’s manner to cultismo is documented by his Primera parte de las flores de poetas ilustres de España (1605). In prose he wrote El perro y la calentura and the ascetical treatise on a good death, El espejo de cristal, reprinted several times.