GOLDEN AGE

in Latin literature, the period, from approximately 70 BC to AD 18, during which the Latin language was brought to perfection as a literary medium and many Latin classical masterpieces were composed. The Golden Age can be subdivided into two major sections, the Ciceronian period (q.v.; 7043 BC), dominated by Marcus Tullius Cicero, and the Augustan Age (q.v.; 43 BCAD 18), a period of mature literary achievements by such writers as Virgil, Horace, and Livy. See also Silver Age. Spanish Siglo De Oro, the period of Spanish literature extending from the early 16th century to the late 17th century, generally considered the high point in Spain's literary history. The Golden Age began with the partial political unification of Spain about 1500. Its literature is characterized by patriotic and religious fervour, heightened realism, and a new interest in earlier epics and ballads, together with the somewhat less-pronounced influences of humanism and Neoplatonism. During the Golden Age such late medieval and early Renaissance forms as the chivalric and pastoral novels underwent their final flowering. They were replaced by the picaresque novel, which usually described the comic adventures of low-born rogues and which was exemplified by the anonymously written Lazarillo de Tormes (1554) and by the works of Mateo Alemn and Francisco Gmez de Quevedo y Villegas. Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra's monumental novel Don Quixote (Part I, 1605; Part II, 1615), a satirical treatment of anachronistic chivalric ideals, combined pastoral, picaresque, and romantic elements in its narrative and remains the single most important literary work produced during the Golden Age. Spanish poetry during the period was initially marked by the adoption of Italian metres and verse forms such as those used by Garcilaso de la Vega. Spanish poetry eventually became marked by the elaborate conceits and wordplay of the Baroque movements known as culteranismo and conceptismo (qq.v.), whose chief practitioners were Luis de Gngora y Argote and Quevedo, respectively. The Golden Age also witnessed the almost singlehanded creation of the Spanish national theatre by the extremely productive playwright Lope de Vega. His establishment of a dramatic tradition using characteristically Spanish themes, values, and subject matter was further developed by Tirso de Molina and by Pedro Caldern de la Barca. Among the highlights of the period's religious literature are the mystical glorifications of spirituality by St. Teresa of vila, Luis de Len, and St. John of the Cross. The end of the Golden Age is marked by Caldern's death in 1681.