Francisco de Quevedo
Francisco Gómez de Quevedo Instituto Valencia de Don Juan) | |
---|---|
Born | Francisco Gómez de Quevedo y Santibáñez Villegas 14 September 1580 Madrid, Spain |
Died | 8 September 1645 Villanueva de los Infantes, Spain | (aged 64)
Occupation | Poet and politician |
Language | Spanish |
Alma mater | Universidad de Alcalá |
Period | Spanish Golden Age |
Genres | Poetry and novel |
Literary movement | Conceptismo |
Signature | |
Francisco Gómez de Quevedo y Santibáñez Villegas,
Biography
Quevedo was born on 14 September 1580 nobility.
Quevedo's father, Francisco Gómez de Quevedo, was secretary to
Orphaned by the age of six, he was able to attend the
In 1601, Quevedo, as a member of the Court, moved to
By this time, he was becoming noted as both a poet and a prose writer. Some of his poetry was collected in a 1605 generational anthology by Pedro Espinosa entitled Flores de Poetas Ilustres (Flowers by Illustrious Poets).
We can also date back to this time the first draft of his
Around this time, he began a very erudite exchange of letters with the humanist Justus Lipsius, in which Quevedo deplored the wars that were ravaging Europe. The Court returned to Madrid in 1606, and Quevedo followed, remaining till 1611. By then, he was a well-known and accomplished man-of-letters. He befriended and was praised by Miguel de Cervantes and Lope de Vega, the premier playwright of the age.
Enemies
Quevedo's enemies included, among others, the dramatist Juan Ruiz de Alarcón for, despite his own physical handicaps, Quevedo found Alarcón's redheaded and hunchbacked physique a source of amusement. Quevedo also attacked Juan Pérez de Montalbán, the son of a bookseller with whom he had quarrelled, satirizing him in La Perinola (The Whirligig), a piece that he included in his book Para todos (For Everyone). In 1608, Quevedo duelled with the author and fencing master Luis Pacheco de Narváez as a result of Quevedo criticizing one of Pacheco's works. Quevedo took off Pacheco's hat in the first encounter. They remained enemies all their lives.[4] In Quevedo's Buscón, this duel was parodied with a fencer relying on mathematical calculations having to run away from a duel with an experienced soldier.
Quevedo could be impulsive. He was present at the
The preferred object of his fury and ridicule, however, was the poet Góngora, whom, in a series of scathing satires, he accused of being an unworthy priest, a homosexual, a gambler, and a writer of indecent verse who used a purposefully obscure language. Quevedo lampooned his rival by writing a sonnet, Aguja de navegar cultos, which listed words from Góngora's lexicon: "He who would like to be a culto poet in just one day, / must the following jargon learn: / Fulgores, arrogar, joven, presiente / candor, construye, métrica, armonía..."[6]
Quevedo satirized Góngora's physique, particularly his prominent nose in the sonnet A una nariz, (To a Nose). It begins with the lines: Érase un hombre a una nariz pegado, / érase una nariz superlativa, / érase una nariz sayón y escriba, / érase un peje espada muy barbado.[7] (There was a man glued to a nose, / there was a superlative nose, / there was a nose that was an official and a scribe, / there was a bearded swordfish.)
Relationships with the Duke of Osuna
About that time, Quevedo grew very close to Pedro Téllez-Girón, 3rd Duke of Osuna, one of the great statesmen and generals of the age, whom he accompanied as secretary to Italy in 1613, carrying out a number of missions for him which took him to Nice, Venice, and finally back to Madrid. There he engaged in all manner of courtly intrigue to get the viceroyalty of Kingdom of Naples for Osuna, an effort that finally bore fruit in 1616. He then returned to Italy in the Duke's entourage, where he was entrusted with putting in order the Viceroyalty's finances, and sent on several espionage-related missions to the rival Republic of Venice, although it is now believed these did not involve him personally. He was rewarded for his efforts with a knighthood in the order of Santiago in 1618.
Temporary exile and retirement
With the fall from favor of Osuna in 1620, Quevedo lost his patron and protector and was exiled to
Quevedo would write some of his better poetry in this retirement, such as the sonnet Retirado a la paz de estos desiertos... or Son las torres de Joray.... He found consolation to his failed ambitions as a courtier in the Stoicism of Seneca, his study and commentary turning him into one of the main exponents of Spanish Neostoicism.
The elevation of
, recounting some of its various incidents in interesting letters.At this time he decided to denounce to the
He became known for a disorderly lifestyle: he was a heavy
None of this put a stop to his career at court, perhaps because the king had an equally rowdy reputation. In fact, in 1632 he would become secretary to the king, thus reaching the apex of his political career.
His friend
In 1634 he published La cuna y la sepultura (The Cradle and the Sepulchre) and the translation of La introducción a la vida devota (Introduction to a Life of Devotion) of
In 1635 there appeared in
Arrest and exile
In 1639, he was arrested. His books were confiscated. The authorities, hardly giving Quevedo time to get dressed, took the poet to the
Quevedo, who was frail and very ill when he left from his confinement in 1643, resigned from royal court definitively to retire at Torre de Juan Abad. He died in the Dominican convent of Villanueva de los Infantes, on 8 September 1645. One tale tells that his tomb was pillaged days later by a gentleman who wished to have the gold spurs with which Quevedo had been buried.
Style
Quevedo was an adherent of the style known as conceptismo, a name derived from concepto, which has been defined as "a brilliant flash of wit expressed in pithy or epigrammatic style."[9] Conceptismo is characterized by a rapid rhythm, directness, simple vocabulary, witty metaphors, and wordplay. In this style, multiple meanings are conveyed in a very concise manner, and conceptual intricacies are emphasised over elaborate vocabulary. Conceptismo can effect elegant philosophical depth, as well as biting satire and humor, such as in the case of the works of Quevedo and Baltasar Gracián.[10]
The first tercet from Quevedo's sonnet ¡Ah de la vida! is considered to exemplify conceptismo in poetry at its peak:[10][11]
- Ayer se fue, mañana no ha llegado,
- Hoy se está yendo sin parar un punto;
- Soy un fue, y un será y un es cansado.
Works
Poetry
Quevedo produced a vast quantity of poetry.[12] His poetry, which was not published in book form during his lifetime, "shows the caricature-like vision its author had of men, a vision sometimes deformed by a sharp, cruel, violently critical nature."[13] This attitude is of a piece with the "black seventeenth century"[14] he lived in. Despite his satirical work, however, Quevedo was primarily a serious poet who valued love poems.[13]
His poetry gives evidence not only of his literary gifts but also of his erudition (Quevedo had studied
Quevedo constantly attacked
His love poetry includes such works as Afectos varios de su corazón, fluctuando en las ondas de los cabellos de Lisi (Several Reactions of his Heart, Bobbing on the Waves of Lisi's Hair). As one scholar has written, "Even though women were never very much appreciated by Quevedo, who is labeled as a
- Within a curly storm of wavy gold
- must swim great gulfs of pure and blazing light
- my heart, for beauty eagerly athirst,
- when your abundant tresses you unbind.[17]
His work also employed mythological themes, typical of the age,[15] though it also employs satirical elements, for example in his To Apollo chasing Daphne:
- Ruddy silversmith from up on high,
- in whose bright beams the rabble pick their fleas:
- Daphne, that nymph, who takes off and won't speak,
- if you'd possess her, pay, and douse your light.[18]
Quevedo's poetry also includes pieces such as an imagined dedication to Columbus by a piece of the ship in which the navigator had discovered the New World:
- Once I had an empire, wanderer,
- upon the billows of the salty sea;
- I was moved by the wind and well-respected,
- to southern lands I forged an opening.[19]
Novel
The only novel written by Quevedo is the
Theological works
Quevedo produced about 15 books on theological and
Literary criticism
His works on
Satire
Quevedo's satire includes Sueños y discursos, also known as Los Sueños (1627; Dreams and Discourses). Quevedo employed much word-play in this work, which consists of five "dream-visions." The first is The Dream of the Last Judgment, in which Quevedo finds himself witnessing the Day of Judgment, and closes with a glimpse of Hell itself. The second dream is The Bedeviled Constable in which a constable is possessed by an evil spirit, which results in the evil spirit begging to be exorcised, since the constable is more evil of the two. The third dream is the long Vision of Hell. The fourth dream-vision is called The World from the Inside The last dream is Dream of Death in which Quevedo offers examples of man's dishonest ways.[22]
In the Dreams, the somewhat misanthropic Quevedo showcased his antipathy for numerous groups, including but not limited to tailors, innkeepers, alchemists, astrologers, women, the Genovese, Protestants, constables, accountants, Jews, doctors, dentists, apothecaries, and hypocrites of all kinds.
He wrote too, in a satirical tone, La hora de todos y la Fortuna con seso (1699), with many political, social and religious allusions. He shows in it his ability in the use of language, with word-play and fantastic and real characters.
Political works
His political works include La política de Dios, y gobierno de Cristo (1617–1626; "The Politics of the Lord") and La vida de Marco Bruto (1632–1644; The Life of
Popular culture
- In Giannina Braschi's novel Yo-Yo Boing! contemporary Latin American poets have a heated, drunken debate about Quevedo's profile in defining the Spanish Golden Age.
- Quevedo is a main character of Captain Alatriste's books written by Arturo Pérez-Reverte. In the movie Alatriste, he was played by Juan Echanove.
- He is also a main character in the Andrew Dennis.
- And he is a main character in the 2013 novel Sudden Death (Spanish title "Muerte subita") by Alvaro Enrigue, where he is pitted in a tennis match against the Italian Baroque painter Caravaggio.
See also
- Siglo de Oro
- Spanish Literature
- Spanish poetry
References
- ^ EFE (31 July 2008). "Una carta de Quevedo permite fijar la fecha exacta de su nacimiento". El País (in Spanish). Toledo: Ediciones El País S.L. Retrieved 16 October 2014.
- ^ Contraction of hijos de algo, meaning sons of someone or something who were a middle class of landed gentry just below the nobility
- ^ a b c d Francisco de Quevedo Biography and Analysis
- ^ "Famous Duels and Duellists". Destreza Translation & Research Project. Ghost Sparrow Publications. 2005. Archived from the original on 8 October 2007. Retrieved 5 October 2017.
- ^ Epton, Nina (1961). Love and the Spanish. London: Cassell. p. 61.
- Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, Instituto Miguel de Cervantes: 114.
- ^ Ingber, Alix. "A un hombre de gran nariz". Golden Age Sonnets (in Spanish). Sweet Briar College. Archived from the original on 9 March 2001. Retrieved 7 January 2008.
- Fernández-Guerra y Orbe, Aureliano; Menéndez y Pelayo, Marcelino (1859). Obras de Don Francisco de Quevedo Villegas. Madrid: M. Rivadeneyra. p. 590.
- ISBN 9781442234093.
- ^ a b Bleiberg, Ihrie & Pérez 1993, p. 425.
- ^ Bleiberg, Ihrie & Pérez 1993, p. 426.
- ^ "Francisco de Quevedo y Villegas (1580-1645)". Poesía en español (poesi.as). Retrieved 10 October 2018.
- ^ a b Eugenio Florit, Introduction to Spanish Poetry (Courier Dover, 1991), 67.
- ^ Dorschel, Andreas (9 February 2004). "Herrsche in Dir selbst" [Rule yourself]. Süddeutsche Zeitung (in German). p. 14.
- ^ a b c d e Bitternut, Paul (2 June 2005). "Faltar pudo el mundo al gran Quevedo pero no a su defensa sus poesías". Lenguas de fuego. Archived from the original on 17 July 2018. Retrieved 10 October 2018.
- ^ Zarucchi, Jeanne Morgan (1997). "Du Bellay, Spenser, and Quevedo Search for Rome: A Teacher's Peregrination". The French Review. 17:2: 192–203.
- ^ Quoted and translated at "Afectos varios..." Archived from the original on 21 August 2007. Retrieved 21 August 2007.
- ^ Quoted and translated in "A Apolo siguiendo a Dafne". Archived from the original on 5 August 2007. Retrieved 5 August 2007.
- ^ Quoted and translated in "Túmulo Colón". Archived from the original on 5 August 2007. Retrieved 5 August 2007..
- ^ Quevedo, Francisco de (1670). "The Life and Adventures of Buscon the Witty Spaniard. Put into English by a Person of Honour. To which is added, the Provident Knight. With a dedicatory letter signed: J. D."
- ISBN 9780521079341.
- ^ Dreams and Discourses – Francisco de Quevedo
- ^ Joseph Pérez. Los Judíos en España.
- ^ Stuczynski, Claude B. (1997). "El antisemitismo de Francisco de Quevedo: ¿obsesivo o residual? Apuntes crítico-bibliográficos en torno a la publicación de la Execración contra los judíos" (PDF). Sefarad. 57 (1): 198.
- ^ Martínez-Pinna, Javier; Peña, Diego (2017). "Francisco de Quevedo. Su obra más polémica". Revista Clío Historia: 88–91.
Bibliography
- Bleiberg, Germán; Ihrie, Maureen; Pérez, Janet, eds. (1993). Dictionary of the Literature of the Iberian Peninsula. Vol. 1: A–K. Westport, Conn.; London: ISBN 0-313-28731-7.
- Crosby, James O., The sources of the text of Quevedo's Política de Dios. Millwood, New York: Kraus Reprint Co., 1975 (first edited, 1959). ISBN 0-527-20680-6.
- Ettinghausen, Henry, Francisco de Quevedo and the Neostoic movement. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1972. ISBN 0-19-815521-2.
- Hennigfeld, Ursula, Der ruinierte Körper. Petrarkistische Sonette in transkultureller Perspektive. Würzburg: Königshausen & Neumann, 2008. ISBN 978-3-8260-3768-9.
- Quevedo, Francisco de. Edited and Translated by Christopher Johnson (2009). Selected Poetry of Francisco de Quevedo: A Bilingual Edition. University of Chicago Press. )
- Ariadna García-Bryce, Transcending Textuality: Quevedo and Political Authority in the Age of Print (University Park, Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania State University Press, 2011).
External links
- Works by Francisco de Quevedo in eBook form at Standard Ebooks
- Works by Francisco de Quevedo at Project Gutenberg
- Works by or about Francisco de Quevedo at Internet Archive
- Works by Francisco de Quevedo at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks)
- English translations of some of Quevedo’s sonnets
- English translation of Quevedo's Miré los muros de la patria mía
- (in Spanish) Fundación Francisco de Quevedo
- (in Spanish) Author's page on the Miguel de Cervantes Virtual Library
- (in Spanish) Portal dedicated to the author on the Universidad de Santiago de Compostela website
- (in Spanish) Quevedo y la crítica on the Centro Virtual Cervantes[permanent dead link]
- (in Spanish) Works by the author
- (in Spanish) El Colegio Imperial y el Instituto de San Isidro, Quevedo's high school
- (in Spanish) Analysis of Francisco de Quevedo: Life and Works
- (in Spanish) Biography and short analysis of his works by Paul Bitternut