VILLAMEDIANA, COUNT DE Spanish poet, was born at Lisbon, the son of a diplomatist. He acquired a bad reputation as a gambler and was banished from court in 16o8. On his return to Spain (1617) he proved himself a fearless, pungent satirist. So great was the resentment caused by his en venomed attacks that he was once more ordered to withdraw from court in 1618. Appointed gentleman in waiting (1621) to Philip IV.'s young wife, Isabel de Bourbon, daughter of Henri IV., his ostentatious attentions to the queen supplied his numerous foes with a weapon which was destined to destroy him. A fire broke out while his masque, La Gloria de Niquea, was being acted before the court on May 15, 1622, and Villamediana carried the queen to a place of safety. Suspicion deepened and on Aug. 21 he was
murdered as he stepped out of his coach. The responsibility for his death was divided between Philip IV. and Olivares, and naturally the crime remained' unpunished.
Villamediana's works contain not only the nervous, blighting verses which made him widely feared and hated, but a number of more serious poems embodying the most exaggerated conceits of gongorism. But, even when adopting the perverse conventions of the hour, he remains a poet of high distinction, and his satirical verses, more perfect in form, are instinct with a cold, concen trated scorn which has never been surpassed.