QUEVEDO Y VILLEGAS, FRANCISCO GÓMEZ. — Polymath, born in Madrid on 17 Sept. 1580, died at Villanueva de los Infantes on 8 Sept. 1645. Of noble family, he was raised as a child at court and remained attached to that environment throughout his life.
It was at court that in 1609 he met Pedro Téllez Girón, Duke of Osuna, who granted him his protection and took him with him when he was appointed viceroy of Sicily and later of Naples, entrusting him with important diplomatic missions. Later, Quevedo fell out with him and retired permanently to Spain, where he alternately suffered imprisonment and release.
A writer of exceptional fecundity, he poured into his prose and verse works the riches of his vast learning, his human experience, his keen and biting wit, and his meditative spirit.
The corpus of his writings presents all of Spain in the first half of the 17th century in its court life (Vida de la corte) and picaresque existence (Historia de la vida del Buscón); in its satire on vice (Los Sueños; Discurso de todos los diablos; La hora de todos, etc.), its politics (España defendida; Política de Dios; Grandes anales de quince días; Vida de Marco Bruto, etc.), its literary and philosophical life (Aguja de navegar cultos; La culta latiniparla; La Perinola; De los remedios de cualquier fortuna; Nombre, origen, intento de la doctrina estoica, etc.) and its religious life (Consideración sobre el Testamento Nuevo; Declarción de Jesucristo; La cuna y la sepultura; Providencia de Dios; Vida de s. Pablo, etc.). His poetry too is varied, embracing love, burlesque, satire and sacred themes, while his entremeses are full of life. The reality depicted by Quevedo is, however, often grotesque, owing to the concision with which the author captures the essence of every thing and person and to the rapidity with which he expresses it, almost in a continuous, nervous rush of images and thoughts. Hostile to the prevailing “cultura,” he is regarded as the leading exponent of conceptismo, though he sought to link himself to traditional classical forms, aiming for clarity through synthesis. To this end he often forces words beyond their usual meaning, while violent contrasts and daring hyperboles produce considerable artifice. His religious stance, tinged with classical Stoicism, is the essence of Quevedo’s personality, in which his bitter view of the world is harmonised with his meditative struggles through asceticism.