GONGORA Y ARGOTE, gon'g6-rit a ar-go'th, LUIS DE (1561-1627). A Spanish poet, born at Cordova. He studied law at the University of Salamanca, and there composed the greater part of his erotic poems, romances, and satires. At the age of forty-five he took orders, obtained a small prebend in the Cathedral of Cordova, and was afterwards appointed honorary chaplain to Philip III. thingora's poetic career divides it self into two periods. In his first or youthful period, he yielded himself up entirely to the nat ural tendencies of his genius and to the spirit of the nation. His lyrics of this period are letrillas, romances, and sonnets in the old genuine Spanish style, and, as regards their caustic satire and burlesque wit, are among the most admirable specimens of the class of poems to which they belong. Qingora, however, wished to outdo all his predecessors, and to furnish something wholly new and unheard of; and the result of this unfortunate ambition was the intro duction of a new poetic phraseology, called the estilo culto, or the 'cultivated style.' From this point the second period in Gongora's literary career dates. To popularize the estilo culto, he wrote his Polifemo, Soledades, and the Piranto Tisbe—productions of the most pedantic and tasteless description, poor in invention and thought, but rich in high-sounding, pompous phrases, and overloaded with absurd imagery and mythological allusions, expressed in language of studied obscurity. In this way he became the founder of a new school, the Gongoristas, or Cul toristas, who even surpassed their master in the depravity of their literary tastes. The baneful
influence of GOngorism, a style quite like that of Euphuism in England and that of Marinism in Italy and France, continued down through the eighteenth century. None of GrOngora s poems were printed during his lifetime; but in 1627, immediately after, his death, they were pub lished at Madrid by his friend Vicuña, as the Obras en verso del Romero Espafiol. Some addi tions are found in the later editions of 1633, 1654, and 1659, as well as in the edition of 1636 49, for which Saliedo Coronel prepared a com mentary, made necessary by the studied obscurity of Gongora's style. He died at Cordova. A crit ical edition of the poet's work is still a desid eratum, for the selection given in volume xxxii. of the Biblioteca de autores espaiioles is very un satisfactory as to text. Consult also: The Po esias escogidas de GOngora, con varias ineditas (Madrid, 1863), and the poems given in Quin tana, Poesias selectas, vol. iii. (Madrid, 1807), and in Maury, Espagne poetique (Paris, 1826). Rennert has published forty-nine unedited poems of in the Revue Hispanique, vol. iv. (Paris, 1897). Consult: Churton, 06ngora: An Historical and Critical Essay, with Translations (London, 1862) ; and Mrs. Shelley. Lives of the Most Eminent Literary and Scientific Men, vol. iii. (London. 1835).