GONGORA Y ARGOTE, LUIS DE Spanish lyric poet, was born at Cordova. His father, Francisco de Argote, was corregidor of that city, but the poet early adopted the sur name of his mother, Leonora de Gongora, who was descended from an ancient family. He was educated at the university of Salamanca, and was already known as a poet in 1585, when Cer vantes praised him in the Galatea. Ordained priest in 1599, he settled from 1612 onwards at Madrid, where, as a contemporary remarks, he "noted and stabbed at everything with his satirical pen." In 1626 a severe illness, which impaired his memory, compelled his retirement to Cordova, where he died (1627). The collection of his poems consists of numerous sonnets, odes, ballads, songs for the guitar and of certain larger poems, such as the Soledades and the Poli f emo. Too many of them exhibit that tortuous elaboration of style (estilo culto) with which the name of Gongora is inseparably associated ; but though Gongora has been justly censured for affected Latinisms, unnatural trans positions, strained metaphors and frequent obscurity, it must be admitted that he was a man of rare genius—a fact cordially acknowledged by those of his contemporaries who were most capable of judging. It was only in the hands of those who imi tated Gongora's style without inheriting his genius that cultera nismo became absurd. Besides his lyrical poems, Gongora is the author of a play entitled Las Firmezas de Isabel and of two in complete dramas, the Comedic venatoria and El Doctor Carlino.
See E. Churton, Gongora (1862) ; L. P. Thomas, Gongora et le gongorisme consideres dans leurs rapports avec le marinisme ; M. Artigas, "D. Luis de Gongora and Argote," Biografia y estudio critico (1925).