# Master Cabra — Pablo de Segovia, the Spanish Sharper character guide

> Master Cabra in Pablo de Segovia, the Spanish Sharper by Francisco de Quevedo.

**Role:** supporting

**Also known as:** Cabra, the wicked Cabra

**First appearance:** 0005-iii

## Snapshot

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

## Who they are

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.

## In the story

### [Quevedo and His Works](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/pablo_de_segovia_the_spanish_sharper_se/chapters/quevedo-and-his-works)

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

### [Book I](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/pablo_de_segovia_the_spanish_sharper_se/chapters/book-i)

The miserly schoolmaster who starves his students, including Pablo.

### [III](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/pablo_de_segovia_the_spanish_sharper_se/chapters/iii)

The miserly and emaciated schoolmaster who starves his students and servants.

### [Chapter IV](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/pablo_de_segovia_the_spanish_sharper_se/chapters/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](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/pablo_de_segovia_the_spanish_sharper_se/chapters/xi)

Mentioned as dead; Pablo passes by his house and notes he could only die of starvation.

### [Chapter VII](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/pablo_de_segovia_the_spanish_sharper_se/chapters/vii)

Referenced indirectly as part of Pablo's past; not directly present in this chapter.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/pablo_de_segovia_the_spanish_sharper_se/characters/cabra
- Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/pablo_de_segovia_the_spanish_sharper_se
- All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/pablo_de_segovia_the_spanish_sharper_se/characters