Espronceda y Delgado, José de

▪ Spanish poet

born March 25, 1808, Almendralejo, Spain

died May 23, 1842, Madrid

      Romantic poet and revolutionary, often called the Spanish Lord Byron (Byron, George Gordon Byron, 6th Baron).

      He fled Spain in 1826 for revolutionary activities and in London began a tempestuous affair with Teresa Mancha (the subject of Canto a Teresa) that dominated the next 10 years of his life. He participated in the July Revolution of France (1830), and following the death of Ferdinand VII in 1833 he was allowed to return to Spain, where he was a founder-member of the Republican Party and was imprisoned several times for revolutionary activities. His historical novel Sancho Saldaña (1834), influenced by Sir Walter Scott (Scott, Sir Walter, 1st Baronet), was written in prison in Badajoz. El estudiante de Salamanca (1839; “The Student of Salamanca”), a milestone of Iberian Romanticism, is a variant of the Don Juan legend that carries to extremes the antisocial and antireligious attitudes of its protagonist. Espronceda was most admired for his lyric poetry, and his Poesías (1840; “Poems”) shows the influence of both Lord Byron and Scott. The unfinished poem El diablo mundo (“The Devilish World”) contains ideological reflections and is considered one of his best works. Espronceda served as secretary of the diplomatic legation to The Hague (1840) and deputy to the Cortes from Almeria (1842). He also wrote several plays—Blanca de Borbón (1870), Ni el tío ni el sobrino (1834; “Neither the Uncle nor the Nephew”), and Amor venga sus agravios (1838; “Love Avenges Its Affronts”).

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