JOSE CADALSO VAZQUEZ (1741-1782)  ,

Spanish author, was born at Cadiz on the 8th of October 1741 . Before completing his twentieth year he had travelled through Italy, Germany, England, France and Portugal, and had studied the literatures of these countries . On his return to Spain he entered the army and rose to the rank of colonel . He was killed at the siege of Gibraltar, on the 27th of February 1782 . His first published work was a rhymed tragedy, Don Sancho Garcia, Conde de Castilla (1771) . In the following year he published his Eruditos k la Violeta, a prose satire on superficial knowledge, which was very successful . In 1773 appeared a volume of miscellaneous poems, Ocios de mi juventud, and after his death there was found among his MSS. a series of fictitious letters in the style of the Lettres Persanes; these were issued in 1793 under the title of Cartas marruecas . A good edition of his works appeared at Madrid, in 3 vols., 1823 . This is supplemented by the Obras ineditas (Paris, 1894) published by R . Foulche-Delbosc .