The Spanish poet, satirist, novelist, and wit Francisco Gómez de Quevedo y Villegas (1580-1645) ranks as one of the major writers of Spain's Golden Age.

Francisco de Quevedo was born in Madrid to an aristocratic family and orphaned very young. He studied the humanities at the University of Alcalá and theology at Valladolid. He learned Latin, Greek, Hebrew, and several modern languages and became a classics scholar. He published his first poem at the age of 25. In 1613 he accompanied the Spanish viceroy, the Duke of Osuna, to Italy to serve as diplomatic adviser. Quevedo became involved in a political conspiracy in Venice in 1618 and was recalled to Madrid in disgrace and kept under house arrest.

Freed but unchastened, Quevedo engaged in acrid literary and political controversies. His adverse criticism of the government soon incurred the disapproval of the Conde-Duque de Olivares, who was the royal...