ABSTRACT
Don Francisco de Quevedo y Villegas, who played with equal facility and success the parts of court wit and moralist, statesman and novelist, erotic poet and writer of religious treatises, is one of the most distinctive and extraordinary figures in the history of Spanish literature. On leaving Alcala, Quevedo betook himself to the court at Valladolid, where he at once distinguished himself among the wits and poetasters of the day by a number of coarse but brilliant short poems. Quevedo was subsequently entrusted with the important charge of furthering Osuna’s interests at court by means of bribes. Quevedo played an important part in a curious controversy that agitated the whole of Spain about the year 1627. He set to work to reform his life, and he, the scoffer at marriage and the dread of husbands, took to himself a wife, chosen by the Countess of Olivares.
