|
|
Article: Ideal men: masculinity and decline in seventeenth-century Spain.
- Article from:
- Renaissance Quarterly
- Article date:
- June 22, 2008
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2008 The Renaissance Society of America. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
|
1. INTRODUCTION
In a sermon preached in 1635 in Baena, the Dominican Francisco de Leon makes a series of startling statements about the men of his day. "Where are there men in Spain?" he queries angrily. "What I see are effeminate men ... I see men converted into women." (1) Using the occasion of a funeral sermon preached in honor of a renowned local nobleman, Gonzalo Fernandez de Cordoba, Leon delivers a fiery attack on what he regards as compromised standards of masculinity: "These days I do not see captains, nor soldiers, nor money, nor honorable occupations in the most important duties, but rather a perpetual idleness, and pleasures, entertainments, eating, ...