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Artist/Maker/Publisher/Author Details |
Breton de los Herreros, Manuel
Nationality: Spanish
Lifespan: (1796 ~ 1873)
Spanish dramatist, was born at
Quel (Logroño) on the 19th of December 1796 and was educated at Madrid.
Enlisting on the 24th of May 1812, he served against the French in Valencia
and Catalonia, and retired with the rank of corporal on the 8th of March
1822. He obtained a minor post in the civil service under the liberal
government, and on his discharge determined to earn his living by writing
for the stage. His first piece, _Á la vejez viruelas_, was produced on the
14th of October 1824, and proved the writer to be the legitimate successor
of the younger Moratin. His industry was astonishing: between October 1824
and November 1828, he composed thirty-nine plays, six of them original, the
rest being translations or recasts of classic masterpieces. In 1831 he
published a translation of Tibullus, and acquired by it an unmerited
reputation for scholarship which secured for him an appointment as
sub-librarian at the national library. But the theatre claimed him for its
own, and with the exception of _Elena_ and a few other pieces in the
fashionable romantic vein, his plays were a long series of successes. His
only serious check occurred in 1840; the former liberal had grown
conservative with age, and in _La Ponchada_ he ridiculed the National
Guard. He was dismissed from the national library, and for a short time was
so unpopular that he seriously thought of emigrating to America; but the
storm blew over, and within two years Bretón de los Herreros had regained
his supremacy on the stage. He became secretary to the Spanish Academy,
quarrelled with his fellow-members, and died at Madrid on the 8th of
November 1873. He is the author of some three hundred and sixty original
plays, twenty-three of which are in prose. No Spanish dramatist of the
nineteenth century approaches him in comic power, in festive invention, and
in the humorous presentation of character, while his metrical dexterity is
unique.
Compiled/Authored By: Public Domain (US) Material
References: Public Domain (US) Material
Noted Works: Marcela o a cual de los trés? (1831)
Muérete; y verás! (1837)
La Escuela del matrimonio (1852)
Also listed in:
 Publishers/Authors
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