Jauregui
JAUREGUI Y AGUILAR, JUAN MARTJNEZ DE (1583-1641), Spanish poet, was baptized at Seville on the 24th of November 1583. In due course he studied at Rome, returning to Spain shortly before 1610 with a double reputation as a painter and a poet. A reference in the preface to the Novelas exemplares has been taken to mean that he painted the portrait of Cervantes, who, in the second part of Don Quixote, praises the translation of Tasso's Aminla published at Rome in 1607. Jauregui's Rimas (1618), a collection of graceful lyrics, is preceded by a controversial preface which attracted much attention on account of its outspoken declaration against culteranismo. Through the influence of Olivares, he was appointed groom of the chamber to Philip IV., and gave an elaborate exposition of his artistic doctrines in the Discurso poelico contra el hablar culto y oscuro (1624), a skilful attack on the new theories, which procured for its author the order of Calatrava. It is plain, however, that the shock of controversy had shaken Jauregui's convictions, and his poem Orfeo (1624) is visibly influenced by Gongora. Jauregui died at Madrid on the nth of January 1641, leaving behind him a translation of the Pharsalia which was not published till 1684. This rendering reveals Jauregui as a complete convert to the new school, and it has been argued that, exaggerating the affinities between Lucan and G6ngora both of Cordovan descent he deliberately translated the thought of the earlier poet into the vocabulary of the later master. This is possible; but it is at least as likely that Jauregui unconsciously yielded to the current of popular taste, with no other intention than that of conciliating the public of his own day.
Note - this article incorporates content from Encyclopaedia Britannica, Eleventh Edition, (1910-1911)
