Francisco de Quevedo Villegas, the great satirical poet and prose author, was born in Madrid in 1580. His parents were of patrician stock, and his mother was one of the royal household. Quevedo was sent to the college of Alcalá de Henares, where he was instructed in several subjects, including law and medicine. A quarrel with a hidalgo, whom he seriously injured in a duel, caused the flight of the young student to Italy. Upon his return to his native country, Quevedo was arrested, and kept in prison for about three years. Later, he was again put into confinement for a satire upon the Count, Duke de Olivares. Quevedo was a voluminous writer. His works have been collected in the “Biblioteca de Autores Españoles,” in three big volumes of poetry and prose, while many of his compositions were left unpublished. The “Visions” are perhaps his most popular work. They were translated into English in 1668, and published in London, and met with such success that the volume reached an eleventh edition in 1715. Since then there have been other editions issued in this country. Calderon lived at number seventy-five in the Calle Mayor, formerly called the Calle de Almudena, and in the same street was born Lope de Vega, the most prolific of Spanish dramatists. In the Plaza de Santa Ana, near the Teatro Español, is a monument to Calderon erected in 1879. It is the work of Figuéras, and a figure of Fame stands by the dramatist; the base of the statue has reliefs from scenes in the plays. Calderon was of noble blood, and found influential patronage in Madrid. We read that Philip IV. gave him the order of Santiago, and appointed him director of the theatre and public entertainments. Pedro Calderon entered the church at the age of fifty-two. He died in the year 1681. At number fifteen Calle de Cervantes there is a memorial tablet to Lope de Vega, with the inscription that the writer set upon his house: “A small possession of one’s own is great; a great possession of another is small.” Lope de Vega was born in Madrid in 1562. For a time he was secretary to the Duke of Alba, but, after wounding an opponent in a duel, he fled from the city. His power of production was marvellous, and it is said that he wrote a play of three acts, in verse, in twenty-four hours. He died in 1631. Cervantes was intimately associated with Madrid, though Alcalá de Henares is claimed as his birthplace. The greatest author of Spain came to the capital in his youth, to study for one of the learned professions, and here he lived under the tutelage of Juan Lopez de Hoyos.