MANUEL JOSE

See also:

• MANUEL JOSE QUINTANA (1772-1857)

QUINTANA (1772-1857)  , Spanish poet and man of letters, was born at Madrid on the 1th of April 1772, and after completing his studies at Salamanca was called to the bar . In 18oi he produced a tragedy, El Duque de Viseo, founded on M . G . Lewis's Castle Spectre; his Pelayo (18o5), written on a patriotic theme, was more successful . The first volume of his Vidas de Espanoles celebres (1807-33), containing lives of Spanish patriots, stirred the public imagination and secured Quintana the post of secretary to the Cortes during the French invasion . His proclamations and odes fanned the national enthusiasm into flame . But he was ill rewarded for his services, for on the return of Ferdinand VII. he was imprisoned at Pamplona from 1814 to 1820 . He was finally given a small post in the civil service, became tutor to Queen Isabella, and was nominated senator . Though publicly " crowned " as the representative poet of Spain (1855), he seems to have lived in poverty . He died on the filth of March 1857 . His poems, thirty-four in number, are inspired by philanthropy and patriotism; the style is occasionally gallicized, and the thought is not profound, but his nobility of sentiment and resounding rhetoric attract every generation of Spaniards . See an excellent monograph by E .

Pifieyro,

Manuel Jose Quintana, ensayo critico y biogrdfico (Paris, 1892) .