Villegas, Esteban Manuel de

▪ Spanish poet

born 1589, Matute, near Nájera, Spain

died Sept. 3, 1669, Matute

      Spanish lyric poet who achieved great popularity with an early book of poems, Poesías eróticas y amatorias (1617–18).

      He first studied classics at the University of Madrid, translating works of the 6th-century-BC Greek poet Anacreon at the age of 14, and later obtained a law degree from the University of Salamanca. Intending to devote his life to literature, he was forced to practice law to support his family. In 1659 he was jailed by the Inquisition because of satires he had published. Returning to Nájera, he spent his remaining years on a translation of the 5th-century-AD Roman scholar Boethius' De Consolatio philosophiae (Consolation of Philosophy).

      Villegas was a poet who essentially exhausted his art in his early youth. The Poesías eróticas, most of which were written in his teens, are a mixture of translations and imitations of Horace and Anacreon, satires, and idylls. Some critics regard these poems as possessing a grace and delicacy unequaled in Spanish literature.

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