by Francisco de Quevedo y Villegas

Francisco Gómez de Quevedo y Villegas (1580-1645) was born to aristocratic parents in the Castilian capital of Madrid, where his father was a secretary to the Spanish royal family. Like other young men of his class, Quevedo was educated in classical Greek and Latin literature and in Catholic theology, studying at the universities in Valladolid and Alcalá. He afterward pursued a contentious political career, meanwhile establishing a reputation as one of the most versatile and stylistically gifted writers of his time. His works vary widely in tone, ranging from biting and humorous social satire to lyric love poems, to sophisticated treatises on classical philosophy and theology, but share such features as complex wordplay and ornate, sustained imagery. Quevedo was particularly acknowledged for his mastery of the conceptismo or conceit, an extended metaphor employing elaborate puns and double meanings. He...