A POEM «NUANCED WITH VARIOUS PEDROS» IN FRANCISCO SANTOS’S <em>PERIQUILLO EL DE LAS GALLINERAS</em> (1668)

Abstract

Francisco Santos’s <em>Periquillo el de las gallineras</em> (1668) is a novel that rightly belongs to the process of decline of the picaresque genre in Spain. Although it is a novel with clear educational aims, it also provides some interesting glimpses of popular culture. The poem “matizado de Pedros” (‘nuanced with Pedros’), which appears in Discourse XV, gives an account of the broad semantic possibilities offered by the character Pedro through folklore, popular poetry and proverbs. Moreover, this character’s presence in the poem, through the contrasting examples it offers, serves to highlight the virtuous figure of the protagonist <em>Periquillo</em>.