Francisco de Quevedo: Life, Philosophy, and Literary Legacy
Francisco de Quevedo: Life and Legacy
Born in Madrid in 1580 and died in 1645 in Villanueva de los Infantes, Francisco de Quevedo possessed solid scholarship. He was actively involved in political activity and was protected by the Duke of Osuna, though he did not gain the favor of the Duke of Olivares. He faced confinement in jail, notably in San Marcos de León. Lawsuits, disease, economic hardships, and a failed marriage beset him in the last years of his life.
His personality was complex and contradictory: pessimistic, anxious, and deeply unsatisfied. His vehemence often led to insolence and provocation. He was capable of profound thoughts and brazen mockery, often directed at men, their vices, and habits. This dichotomy is evident in his poetic compositions, ranging from profound to grimly satirical and burlesque.
Quevedo’s Enduring Themes and Philosophy
Quevedo’s thought was rooted in Stoicism (a doctrine proposing nonchalance to misfortune and scorn for earthly goods), influenced by his reading and translation of Seneca, and partly by Christian asceticism (as seen in Fray Luis de León).
Key Transcendent Themes
Four transcendent themes recur extensively and variedly in his work:
- Importance of self-knowledge
- The consideration of the deceptive appearance of things
- The transience of life
- The inevitable presence of death
However, the writings that brought Quevedo fame include the picaresque novel (e.g., El Buscón, ‘The Hustler’) and his burlesque compositions. He viewed the world from a negative and grotesque perspective, highlighting all sorts of miseries and ‘ruindades’ (moral decay). He transformed this into material for his linguistic virtuosity.
Quevedo’s Poetic Works
Three years after his death, Quevedo’s poetic works were published. The first collection, El Parnaso Español, monte en dos cumbres dividido con las nueve musas (‘The Spanish Parnassus, Mountain Divided into Two Peaks with the Nine Muses’), was published. Nine years later, Las Nueve Musas y Segunda Parte del Parnaso Español (‘The Nine Muses and Second Part of the Spanish Parnassus’) followed.
Based on their content, his poetic works can be classified into:
- Philosophical, Religious, and Moral Poetry
- Political Poetry
- Love Poetry
- Satirical and Burlesque Poetry
Philosophical, Religious, and Moral Poetry
This group obsessively reflects the author’s major concerns. A recurring idea is that man is slowly dying while living, encapsulated in his famous line: ‘Nacer es empezar a morir’ (To be born is to begin to die). A sharp skepticism is perceived in his moral poems. Quevedo attacks abstract vices such as injustice, ambition, flattery, hypocrisy, and violent or unjust prosperity. A major work in this vein is his Epístola satírica y censoria contra las costumbres presentes de los castellanos (‘Satirical and Censorious Epistle Against the Present Customs of the Castilians’), addressed to the Duke of Olivares.
Political Poetry
Quevedo offers a defeatist view of Spain in his time, keenly aware of the material decay and bankruptcy of the empire.
Love Poetry
Quevedo’s love poetry, while influenced by Garcilaso’s poetic renewal, achieves original development through his wit and mastery, introducing new images and novel themes. Despite explicit misogyny (hatred of women) in some of his works, one is surprised by the intensity of the feeling of love conveyed in other compositions, such as Amor constante más allá de la muerte (‘Constant Love Beyond Death’).
Satirical and Burlesque Poetry
His sonnets, jácaras, ballads, and satirical-burlesque letrillas brought him fame among his contemporaries. He wrote against doctors, pharmacists, husbands and cuckolds, and composed obscenities against women (old women, procuresses, and false maidens). He also wittily mocked human failings. Examples include A un hombre de gran nariz (‘To a Man with a Big Nose’) and Érase un hombre a una nariz pegado (‘There Was a Man Glued to a Nose’). Quevedo also mocked the heroes and gods of antiquity through parody. Even Alarcón (a follower of Lope de Vega) and Góngora did not escape his satirical darts. He composed celebrated ballads, a genre often obscene and typical of taverns and brothels, using a romance language and germanía (thieves’ cant) very fashionable in the late sixteenth century. The best known is the Jácara del Escarramán.