MORALES, CRISTOBAL. 



MOHATIN, LEANDUO FERNANDEZ. 



m 



a high npminn of the work* of Morale., though he blames at the asm* 

 time his rrlicioiu ruthnsiaam. 



Anbroaio th* Lelaud of Spain, but, happi-r than Lelsud, he lived 

 to make as* of the materials which h* collected, and he brought down 

 th* history of hi* country from iu early Roman period (when 

 Ocampo bad left off) to the middle of tbe 1 1th century. He accom- 

 ptubed this task with great fidelity and industry, though the reader 

 may smile at bis credulity. Tin-re i* parbap* no historian whose 

 personal character is better developed in hi* works, a circumstance 

 * Inch five* tbrm a particular interact. Although any good hutorian 

 of Spain must be more indebted to Morale, than to any of his pre- 

 deeeaeora, it ba* been wrongly supposed that Garibay drew much 

 from Morale*. Estevan de Qaribay y Zamalloa wrote first, and 

 Morale* himself prais** Qaribay'* diligence in consulting documents, 

 and commend* the good UM which be made of them. This testimony 

 i* honourable both to Qaribay and Morale*, since both bad pursued 

 tho samo eoune of roataroh among tbe archive* and th* deed* 

 beeonffinn to monasteriee and churche". 



MORA'LES, CRISTOBAL, or CRISTU'FORO, a great Spanish 

 afagr. who, about th* middle of the 16th century, became the most 

 eminent composer at th* Roman Pontifical chapel. His mae* and 

 other aacred musical works were standard compositions till they were, 

 npmrded by those of Palrstrins, who followed soon after. 



MORA'LES, LUIS, lurnamed El Divine," from having devoted 

 hi* pencil exclusively and moat suoceaafully to aaorrd subjects iu 

 which respect however be i* far from standing alone among the 

 nnmerou. S|*nih painters waa born at badajos at tbe beginning of 

 tho 16lb orntury. His Saviours and Magdal. us exhibit the extreme 

 of human inOering endured with a celestial meeknet*. The sain* 

 work, ba.ily imitated, or rather earicaturrd, by his son and several 

 scholars, have created a prejudice against Morales, such performances 

 bating been imputed to him either ignoruntly or wilfully. Thus 

 1'acbrco (' Arto de U Pintura ') considers him a* a man who had a 

 reputation which he did not deserve. Alto Palomino, by whom 

 Bryan (' Diet, of Paint.') has been misled, has affirmed that Morales 

 never drew the human figure at full length. He must have done it 

 however in some cases, according to the description of Morales's prin- 

 cipal works given by the industrious Cean Bermudea (' Diceion. de 

 Profeaaor. de Bell. Art en Etpana '). This ta>teful and judicious critic 

 moreover finds in Morales correct design, knowledge of the naked 

 form, a flue gradation of tints, and the moat perfect expression of 

 sorrow, or true Christian grief. Philip H., passing through Badajos 

 on his return from Lisbon, in 1581, relieved Morales, who was then 

 suffering from poverty and old age, with a yearly pention of 800 

 ducats, lie thus made some flight amends for having dismissed him, 

 and refused to employ bis talent, at the Escuriul, after Morale* had 

 gone there by the king's express command. Morales died at Badajoc 

 at a very advanced age, in 1586, 



MORATIN, NICOLAS FERNANDEZ (the elder Moratiu), was 

 born at Madrid in 1737. Coming shortly after tbe poetical reformers 

 Luxan and Montiano, Nicola* Moratiu became tbe practical reformer 

 of the Spanish theatre iu the hut century. His comedy 'La 1'eti- 

 metra ' contain* some fine passages, but want* comic power. In hi* 

 tragedy of l.ucr. cia,' which has greater merit, the style is not always 

 adapted to the dignity of the subject Neither of these pieces was 

 performed; neb waa the prejudice against what was denominated 

 French test*. Moratin'* time discourse*, 'Deaengano* al Teatro 

 Espabol,' drove from tho stage, with th* aid of an injunction from 

 government, the 'Auto* Sacramantalea.' Besides remodelling the 

 drama, Moratin was a still more successful restorer of lyric poetry iu 

 Spain. Hi* talente and bis amiable character gained him the friend- 

 ship of th* warned of the time tbe Maestro Floras tbe minister 

 LUguno, the tranaUtor of the Athalie ; the botanut and humauUt 

 Ortega; the eloquent CUvijo F.jardo, the translator and anuotator of 

 Bofloo, and the editor of ' El Penaador,' tbe be*t periodical of that 

 Unto; hU own competitors or rivals, a* it were, Montiano, Ayala, 

 Oadah.Uo, and others iii a word, native* a* well as foreigners all 

 ought Moratin's friendship. Tbe Arcadians of Rome gave him the 

 name of Ftumiabo Tbermodoneiaoo a* a fellow-member. In 1764 be 

 pabhah.d periodically tome of hi* light poetry, under the title of ' El 

 Soon after appeared hi* didactic poem on th* chase, ' La 

 Diana,' which thi> into tho ahad* HI Piecator Salmantiuo, Castro, 

 Kilo, Cemadaa, and many other writer* of that obua, who were then 

 cormipling tho public test* and dugusting the lover* of genuine 



In 177. . through bis patron tbe Conde de Aranda, he overcame tbe 

 opposition of the anti reformist performers to exhibiiing on the (tag* 

 ormeaood*,' a tragedy which i* far fiom being perfect, though 

 it U the beet of hi* drama*. This great effort of Moratiu encouraged 



Ayala to write hi* ' N 



Tbi* great effurt 



'da;' C.dababo, bis 



Garcia,' and HotrU, hi* 'Ragoel,' in order to support tragedy in her 

 new garb on th* Spanish *teg*. From a like impuU tbe ' Haotr quo 

 bnesiii**,' ' Kl ScftorMo Mimado,' arid ' U :-. iW.ta nisi criada ' of 

 young Thomas Irhte or Yriarte, and ' El Drlinqiirute hoi,rado ' of 

 Jovclknos, advanced that reform in comedy which Moratin'* (on 

 Leandro aceeapliebed. Moratin wrote another tragedy, Ouimau el 

 Baeoo. hioh contain* several fin* psassges, but it we* not performed. 

 Unsmnniiiig nod of too retired habits to make his ay in the world, 



totally helplea* when brought among place hunters, Moratin 

 importuned the great, not even those to whom be had free aoeeat. 

 H* a*ked nothing, and be got nothing. He practised the law merely 

 for tbe sake of providing for hi* wife and sou. From this uncongenial 

 labour be was at hut released by his friend Ayula, who, quitting 

 .Madrid for the brut-fit of his health, selected Moratin as the person 

 best qualified to fill bis chair of Poetica, a situation for which these 

 two friends had before been competitors. A poet is hardly at home 

 in the field of practical utility. However, by a ' Memoir on the means 

 uniting Agriculture in Spain without injuring the breed of 

 Cattle,' Moratiu attracted the attention of the Economical Society of 

 Msdrid, and soon became an active member of it He always refused 

 to make any application to the Spanish Academy and to that of 

 Hutory to become a member of those bodies. " What absurdity," he 

 once wrote to Llsguno, "to compel an aspirant to literary honours to 

 bog for them, just a* a person wanting a place in the Excise has to 

 petition for it" Accordingly hii beautiful canto, ' Las Naves de 

 Cortes,' passed unnoticed when th" Spanish Academy crowned a much 

 inferior composition of Joed Vaca de Guzman. He died at Madrid 

 in 1780. 



Many of Moratin's Pjose writings, and the whole of his interesting 

 correspondence with Bayer, Cunti, Llaguno, Cadabalso, and others, 

 have been lost in consequence of repeated searches and nei/.ures of 

 the family papers in !' rdinand'a reign. Among them was perhaps hi* 

 ' Historical Letter on Bull-fights,' proving them to be not derived from 

 the Roman*, but peculiar to Spain. This work however ii not men- 

 tioned by his son Leaudro Moratin, in the biographical notice of hi* 

 father, which be prefixed to the ' Ubras Postumas do Don Nicola* 

 Moratin' (Barcelona, 1821, and London, 1825). This edition is 

 founded on a collection of the author's poetry, which he himself gave 

 in a corrected form, a few months befora his death, to his friend 

 Bernascone. Interspersed in it are the following pieces, which have 

 particular merit; 'Las Naves de Cortes,' 'Amor y Honor,' 'Don 

 Sancho en Zamora,' ' Abdelcadir y Qalinna,' ' Con suelo de uua 

 Auseuci.,' 'Fiestas de Toros en Madrid,' 'La Einpresa de Micer 

 Jaques Borgonon.' There is a collection of Dramas and other works 

 of Moratin, but it is a very rare book. 



MORATIN, LEANDRU FERNANDEZ, son of the preceding, a 

 greater dramatist than his father, and also one of the Arcades of 

 Home under the poetical appellation of Inarco Celeuio. He was born 

 at Madrid, on the 10th of March, 1760, began to veraify at six or seven 

 yean of age, and obtained at the age of eighteen a second prize or 

 ' aooeagit ' from the Spanish Academy for hu heroic poem entitled 

 'Toiua de Granada.' In order to obtain this precocious sncceea, be 

 H.'cr.'tly availed himself of the few leisure moments which he could 

 steal from the mechanical occupation of a jeweller, to which bis 

 father had bound him, in order to divert his mind from poetry, and 

 rave him from the evils of poverty. Fortunately, the daily wages of 

 eighteen real, (about St. tid. of our money), which he gained by his 

 humble occupation, enabled him, after the early loss of his father, to 

 support himself and hi. mother. But soon losing her also, Mor.itiu 

 joined an uncle, who was a jeweller of the king, without however 

 discontinuing his intercourse with the learned, such :n Melon, and 

 Fathers Kstala and Nnvarrcte. Directed by these distinguished 

 individual*, his muse was further encouraged by the above Socit ty 

 with another ' acceaait ' for his ' Leccion Poetica,' a satire, as it was 

 required to be by the academical programme, against poetasters. It 

 is iu fact a short 'Ars Poetica.' fur more methodical and critical than 

 the previous metrical compilation of rules by 'Juan de la Cueva,' 

 but it was superseded in its turn by tbe more appropriate and didactic 

 ' i'ootiea' of Martinez de la Rosa, in 1837. 



At the suggestion of Jovellauos, Mora' iu became secretary to Cabar- 

 rus, who was sent, in 1786, by tbe Spanish government to Paris. On 

 his return in 1780, the young poet chastise.), in witty prose, the 

 intruders into Parnassus, in his anonymous ' Derrota de los Pedante*,' 

 written in the fashion of the ' Tiage al l*arnaso ' of Cervantes. In tho 

 same year, the minister Floridablauca rewnrdeil his ode to the new 

 king, Charles IV., with a small pension ; but ha wat at last raised to 

 independence by a much greater patron, ' El Principe de la Pax,' 

 Qodoy. To Moratin's credit, it ought to be remembered, that be 

 never kicked, as so many di.l, the fallen political lion. 



In 1790 he brought out on the stage hi* play of 'El Vipjo y la 

 Niba ' (which shows tbe consequences of great disparity of age in 

 marriages), his fimt and moxt felicitous drama. In 17U2 followed 

 ' La Cuuiodia i-iieva,' or ' El Cafd,' a very comic satire against stage 

 absurditiis and bad toato. About this time Moratin travelled through 

 Franco, England, Belgium, Germany, Switzerland, and Italy, both to 

 observe KKnety and the art of reflecting it on the stage. He returned 

 in 1796, and in 1798 he published bis translation of Hamlet, which is 

 a complete failure. More fortunate afterwards, hu i :i 1803 



' El llaron ' (or th Iuipotor), which though not one of his best per- 

 formaucaa, rclipatd th* nimilar piece of La Lugarcna orgulluw ; ' iu 

 1804, ' La Mogigata' (a hy|K>critical young lady preparing her. 

 the cloister in order the better to carry on her intrigue.); in 1806, 

 ' 1.1 .si de las Nibax,' the subject of which also is a female who defeats 

 all her mother's attempts at rentraint, and the ni.j. .!. 1.1 i 

 instructor*. It was represented twenty consecutive days, reprinted four 

 time* in the aame year, and afterwards translated into many languages. 



