JOSE IGNACIO JAVIER ORIOL ENCARNACION DE See also:ESPRONCEDA (1808-1842)
, See also:Spanish poet, son of an officer in the See also:Bourbon See also:regiment, was See also:born at or near See also:Almendralejo de los See also:Barros on the 25th of See also:March 18o8
.
On the See also:close of the See also:war he was sent to the preparatory school of See also:artillery at See also:Segovia, and later became a See also:- PUPIL (Lat. pupillus, orphan, minor, dim. of pupus, boy, allied to puer, from root pm- or peu-, to beget, cf. "pupa," Lat. for " doll," the name given to the stage intervening between the larval and imaginal stages in certain insects)
pupil of the poet Lista, then See also:professor of literature at St See also:Matthew's See also:College in See also:Madrid
.
In his fourteenth See also:year he had attracted his See also:master's See also:attention by his verses, and had joined a See also:secret society
.
Sentenced to five years' seclusion in the Franciscan See also:convent at See also:Guadalajara, he began an epic poem entitled Pelayo, of which fragments survive
.
He escaped to See also:Portugal and thence to See also:England, where he found the famous Teresa whom he had met at See also:Lisbon; here, too, he became a student of See also:Shakespeare, See also:Milton and See also:Byron
.
In 183o he eloped with Teresa to See also:Paris, took See also:part in the See also:July revolution, and soon after joined the See also:raid of Chapalangarra on See also:Navarre
.
In 1833 he returned to See also:Spain and obtained a See also:commission in the See also:queen's See also:guards
.
This, however, he soon forfeited by a See also:political See also:song, and he was banished to Cuellar, where he wrote a poor novel entitled Sancho Saldana o el Castellano de Cuellar (1834)
.
He took an active part in the revolutionary risings of 1835 and 1836, and, on the See also:accession to See also:power of the Liberal party in 184o, was appointed secretary of See also:legation at the See also:Hague; in 1842 he was elected See also:deputy for See also:Almeria, and seemed likely to See also:play a See also:great part in See also:parliamentary See also:life
.
But his constitution was undermined, and, after a See also:short illness, he died at Madrid on the 23rd of May 1842
.
His poems, first published in 1840, at once gained for him a reputation which still continues undiminished
.
The See also:influence of Byron pervades See also:Espronceda's life and See also:work
.
It is See also:present in an ambitious variant on the See also:Don Juan See also:legend, El Estudiante de See also:Salamanca, See also:Elvira's See also:letter being obviously modelled on Julia's letter in Don Juan; the Canci6n del Pirata is suggested by The See also:Corsair; and the Byronic See also:inspiration is not wanting even in the See also:noble fragment entitled El Diablo Mundo, based on the See also:story of See also:Faust
.
But in El Mendigo, in El Reo de Muerte, in ElVerdugo, and in the sombre vehement lines, A Jarifa en una orgia, Espronceda approves himself the most potent and See also:original lyrical poet produced by Spain during the 19th See also:century
.
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