FRANCISCO**, a celebrated Spanish poet, born at Madrid in the year 1570. He was descended from a noble family, and was made a knight of St James; but he was thrown into prison by order of Count Olivares, whose administration he satirized in his verses, and was not set at liberty until after that minister's disgrace. Quevedo wrote some heroic, lyric, and factious poems. He also composed several treatises on religious subjects; and translated some authors into Spanish. He died in 1644.

The best known of his works are, 1. The Spanish Parnassus; 2. The Adventurer Buscon; 3. Visions of Hell Reformed. 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 by the utmost sagacity and prudence. His moral discourses prove the soundness of his doctrine and his religious sentiments, whilst the correctness of his literary pieces display his accurate judgment and refined taste. His great knowledge of Hebrew is apparent from the report of the historian Maimonides 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 Scioippius, sufficiently illustrates. As a poet, he excelled both in the serious and burlesque style, and was singularly happy in that particular turn which we have since admired in Butler and Swift.