Pablo de Segovia, the Spanish Sharper · Character

Master Cabra

Master Cabra, the schoolmaster whose name means goat, runs a boarding school where piety is loud and the pot is always empty.

supporting

Also known as Cabra, the wicked Cabra

First appearance: III

As a supporting figure in Pablo de Segovia, the Spanish Sharper, Master Cabra is not background color—the story leans on what they do once the chapter opens.

Referenced as a fellow-student or companion of Don Pablo in the narrative of rogues.

In the storyQuevedo and His WorksOpen this moment free

Gaunt, miserly, and grimly devout, Cabra presides over a school that is less an academy than a slow starvation dressed as education. He rations food, affection, and dignity with the same stingy hand, and his pupils learn more about hunger than Latin. As Pablo's first great instructor in human cruelty, Cabra sets the novel's tone: the world is a place where those who preach virtue often feast on those who believe them.

See Master Cabra in Quevedo and His Works Book page

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Character Web

4 connections

A slice of how Master Cabra sits in the book — open the reader for the full interactive map.

Relationship types

Other

Character groups

Nobility and Authority Figures
Pablo's Social Network

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Narrative arc

Story tension across the book — this chapter sits in Exposition.

Setup
Escalation
Breaking point
Aftermath
Closing

This is the story's dramatic climax because it marks the emotional and psychological peak of Pablos's despair,…

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In the story

Master Cabra appears across 6 companion beats. Open any chapter in the free preview to see the notes beside the text.

Quevedo and His Works
Referenced as a fellow-student or companion of Don Pablo in the narrative of rogues.
Book I
The miserly schoolmaster who starves his students, including Pablo.
III
The miserly and emaciated schoolmaster who starves his students and servants.
Chapter IV
Not directly present, but the scholar references Don Diego's grandfather who swooned at a lettuce, a possible allusion to Cabra's miserly ways.
Chapter XI
Mentioned as dead; Pablo passes by his house and notes he could only die of starvation.
Chapter VII
Referenced indirectly as part of Pablo's past; not directly present in this chapter.

Chapter companion notes

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See Master Cabra in III

See Master Cabra in Quevedo and His Works