Francisco de Quevedo: Life, Works, and Baroque Style
Francisco de Quevedo: A Literary Giant of the Baroque Era
Francisco de Quevedo wrote abundant poetry and prose, combining cultured and popular elements with a serious and mocking tone, reflecting the typical Baroque contrast. His grimly reflective lyricism explores themes like love, death, Spanish decadence, deception, and the impermanence of life. His burlesque poetry addresses trivial, anecdotal matters. Born in Madrid, he pursued humanistic and theological studies and engaged in intense political activity, which he combined with writing. He was a friend of Cervantes and Lope de Vega, and a great enemy of Góngora.
Quevedo’s Work
His work is varied in all aspects. He translated classic poets and wrote burlesque, political, moral, and allegorical satires in prose, as well as a picaresque novel.
Poetry
His compositions circulated as manuscripts and *canciones*. His poetic work features two styles:
- Serious, thoughtful poetry: Reflections on the meaning of life, death, and time, with pessimistic themes and disappointment.
- Poetry as a game of wits: Satirical poems, dominated by the poet’s taste for linguistic experimentation.
Style
Quevedo’s style tends towards *conceptismo*, aiming to surprise with new concepts. Typical features include:
- Highly original metaphors
- Creation of new words
- Special use of grammatical categories
- Conceptist wordplay
Narrative and Didactic Prose
Developments in prose include the picaresque novel, short fiction, and the allegorical narrative triumph. In didactic prose, satire prevails. Cervantes’s influence is reduced to the realm of the Byzantine novel and short story. The chivalric novel disappears, and the picaresque novel appears in abundance. Didactic prose also abounds, manifested in satires or through symbols (a combination of a drawing with an explanatory phrase).
Quevedo’s Prose
His prose addresses political and moral issues with a pessimistic tone. Several works are distinguished:
- Moral satire and allegorical works
- Political and moral philosophical works
- Works of literary criticism
- Burlesque or festival works
- Picaresque novel
“El Buscón” is a great picaresque work by Quevedo that reflects the moral decay of the time and his style. Quevedo followed the gender model of *Lazarillo* and *Guzmán de Alfarache*. It is an autobiographical tale about the misadventures of a humble hero in the service of many masters. The different episodes explain the protagonist’s final, disgraceful state, but he also receives an unwanted legacy, and a social situation that is satirized. It is a social, critical, but ambiguous novel in terms of intention.
Theater in the Baroque Period
Religious Theater
Manifested through religious plays (*autos sacramentales*), short pieces with abstract characters presented in the form of allegory, with the religious theme of the Eucharist and communion. It presented a conflict between good and evil. The theater is related to the Counter-Reformation, explaining the dogma of Catholicism to the people.
Courtier Theater
Represented in halls of palaces and gardens, set design innovations included special effects, lavish sets, and music.
Theater of the *Corrales*
Works representing social events. Because the theater was the most popular show, they were performed at one end of the courtyard where a stage with a curtain was usually set up. It began with a “praise”, then the first act, followed by an interlude, then the second act, followed by a song or dance, and ended with a farce. These works were known as “comedies”, a word that acquired a wider meaning.