Online Encyclopedia

VICENTE MARTINEZ ESPINEL (1551-1624)

Online Encyclopedia
Originally appearing in Volume V09, Page 775 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
Spread the word: del.icio.us del.icio.us it!

VICENTE MARTINEZ ESPINEL (1551-1624)  ,
See also:
Spanish poet and novelist, was baptized on the 28th of December 1551, and educated at Salamanca . He was expelled from the university in 1572, and served as a soldier in Flanders, returning to Spain in 1584 or thereabouts . He took orders in 1587, and four years later became
See also:
chaplain at
See also:
Ronda, absented himself from his living, and was deprived of his cure; but his musical skill obtained for him the
See also:
post of choirmaster at
See also:
Plasencia . His Diversas Rimas (1591) are undeniably good examples of technical accomplishment and caustic wit . Espinel, however, survives as the author of a
See also:
clever
See also:
picaresque novel entitled Relaciones de la vida del Escudero Marcos de ObregOn (1618) . It is, in many passages, an autobiography of Espinel with picturesque embeIlishments . Marcos is not a chivalresque " esquire," but an adventurer who seeks his fortune by attaching himself to
See also:
great men; and the
See also:
object of the author is to warn young men against such a
See also:
life . Apart from the unedifying confessions of the hero, the
See also:
book contains curious anecdotes concerning prominent contemporaries, and the episodical stories are told with great spirit; the style is extremely correct, though somewhat diffuse . Le Sage has not scrupled to borrow from Marcos de Obregdn many of the incidents and characters in Gil Blas—a circumstance which induced Isla to give to his Spanish
See also:
translation of Le Sage's
See also:
work the jesting title, Gil Blas restored to his Country and his Native Tongue . In the 1775 edition of the Siecle de Louis XI V . Voltaire grossly exaggerates in saying that Gil Blas is taken entirely from Marcos de Obregon . Espinel was a clever musician and added a fifth
See also:
string to the guitar .

He revived the measure known as decimas or espinelas, consisting of a

stanza of ten octosyllabic lines . Most of the poems which he
See also:
left in
See also:
manuscript remain unpublished owing to their licentious character .

End of Article: VICENTE MARTINEZ ESPINEL (1551-1624)
[back]
ESPINAY
[next]
ESPIRITO SANTO

Additional information and Comments

There are no comments yet for this article.
» Add information or comments to this article.
Please link directly to this article:
Highlight the code below, right click and select "copy." Paste it into a website, email, or other HTML document.