Sonnets on the Death of the Lion of the North: Lope de Vega and Quevedo on Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden

• Main Authors: Jacobo Llamas Martínez, Antonio Sánchez Jiménez
• Format: Article
• Language: Catalan
• Published: Universitat de Girona; Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona 2014-12-01
• Series: Studia Aurea: Revista de Literatura Española y Teoría Literaria del Renacimiento y Siglo de Oro
• Subjects: lope de vega; francisco de quevedo; gustavo adolfo de suecia; sonetos; poesía funeral
• Online Access: https://studiaaurea.com/article/view/121

This articles examines how two Golden Age Spanish writers, Lope de Vega and Francisco de Quevedo, interpreted the figure of king Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden and how they received the news of his death in two sonnets dedicated to it. By examining the texts together, we contrast which images and structures the poets used, and how that style reflected the emotions they wanted to evoke and the tradition in which they chose to inscribe themselves. After a short review of the funeral tradition in poetry, we examine the controversy around Gustavus Adolphus and analyze Lope’s sonnet--focusing on the changes between the 1632 and 1634 versions--and Quevedo’s. Comparing them, we learn that the two writers chose some parallel images and, above all, the same leitmotiv: a condemnation of ambition.