QUEVEDO, Francisco de

A Golden Age poet and prose writer born Sept. 17, 1580 in Madrid, Quevedo was the son of noble parents.

He was known to have walked with a limp due a foot deformity, while his severe near-sightedness forced him to wear pince-nez spectacles clipped on his nose (today referred to as Quevedos).

Quevedo first made his name in literary circles with satirical and burlesque works such as the picaresque novel Historia de la vida del Buscón llamado Pablos and Los sueños, five apocalyptic visions conjured up as part of a satirical attack on the general falsehood and moral stupidity of his era.

Almost a thousand Quevedo poems have been preserved for posterity, but considering that he never took it upon himself to have his works published and that those that have survived were safeguarded by those close to him, it is likely that he wrote many more.

Due to a satire he wrote on King Philip IV and a count-duke the monarch favored, Quevedo was arrested and jailed from 1639 to 1643.

His health deteriorated shortly afterward and he eventually died on Sept. 8, 1645. Two volumes of his poetry were published after his death: Parnaso español (1648) and Las tres musas (1670), the former compiled by his friend José Antonio González de Salas and the latter by his nephew Pedro Aldrete Quevedo y Villegas.

Links:

http://www.usc.es/quevd/docs/vida.html

http://www.los-poetas.com/f/quev.htm

http://www.poesia-castellana.com/quevedo.html

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