in heraldry, signifies the tail of a beast; thus, if a lion be borne with a forked tail, he is blazoned double-queued.

QUEVEDO de Villegas (Francisco), a celebrated Spanish poet, born at Madrid in 1570. He was descended from a noble family, and was made a knight. of St James; but was thrown into prison by order of Count Olivarez, whose administration he satirized in his verses, and was not set at liberty till after that minister's disgrace. Quevedo wrote some heroic, lyric, and facetious poems. He also composed several treatises on religious subjects, and has translated some authors into Spanish. He died in 1645. The most known of his works are, 1. The Spanish Parnassus. 2. The Adventurer Bufcon. 3. Visions of Hell Reformed, &c. Quevedo was one of the greatest scholars and most eminent poets of his time. His youth was spent in the service of his country in Italy, where he distinguished himself with the utmost sagacity and prudence. His moral discourses prove his sound doctrine and religious sentiments, while his literary pieces display his infinite judgment and refined taste. His great knowledge of Hebrew is apparent from the report of the historian Mariana to the king, requesting that Quevedo might revise the new edition of the Bible of Arias Montanus. His translations of Epictetus and Phocylides, with his imitations of Anacreon, and other Greek authors, show how well he was versed in that language: that he was a Latin scholar, his constant correspondence, from the age of twenty, with Lipsius, Chifflet, and Scipio, will sufficiently illustrate. As a poet, he excelled both in the serious and burlesque style, and was singularly happy in that particular turn we have since admired in Butler and Swift. His library, which consisted of about five thousand volumes, was reduced at his death to about two thousand, and is preserved in the convent of St Martin at Madrid.