​ZORRILLA y MORAL, JOSÉ (1817–1893), Spanish poet anddramatist, son of a magistrate in whom Ferdinand VII. placedspecial confidence, was born at Valladolid on the 21st ofFebruary 1817. He was educated by the Jesuits at the RealSeminario de Nobles in Madrid, wrote verses when he wastwelve, became an enthusiastic admirer of Scott and Chateaubriand,and took part in the school performances of plays byLope de Vega and Calderon. In 1833 he was sent to read lawat the University of Toledo, but, after a year of idleness, hefled to Madrid, where he horrified the friends of his absolutistfather by making violent speeches and by founding a newspaperwhich was promptly suppressed by the government. Henarrowly escaped transportation to the Philippines, and passedthe next few years in poverty. The death of the satirist Larrabrought Zorrilla into notice. His elegiac poem, declaimed atLarra's funeral in February 1837, served as an introductionto the leading men of letters. In 1837 he published a book ofverses, mostly imitations of Lamartine and Hugo, which was sofavourably received that he printed six more volumes withinthree years. His subjects are treated with fluency and grace,but the carelessness which disfigures much of his work is prominentin these juvenile poems. After collaborating withGarcía Gutiérrez, in a piece entitledJuan Dándolo (1839)Zorrilla began his individual career as a dramatist withCadacual con su razón (1840), and during the following five yearshe wrote twenty-two plays, many of them extremely successful.HisCantos del trovador (1841), a collection of national legendsversified with infinite spirit, showed a decided advance in skill,and secured for the author the place next to Espronceda inpopular esteem. National legends also supply the themes ofhis dramas, though in this department Zorrilla somewhat compromisedhis reputation for originality by adapting older playswhich had fallen out of fashion. For example, inEl Zapateroy el Rey he recastsEl montañés Juan Pascual by Juan de laHoz y Mota; inLa mejor razón la espada he borrows fromMoreto'sTravesuras del estudiante Pantoja; inDon JuanTenorio he adapts from Tirso de Molina'sBurlador de Sevillaand from the elder Dumas'sDon Juan de Marana (which itselfderives fromLes âmes du purgatoire of Prosper Mérimée). Buthis rearrangements usually contain original elements, and inSancho García, El Rey loco, andEl Alcalde Ronquillo he apparentlyowes little to any predecessor.The last and (as hehimself believed) the best of his plays isTraidor, inconfeso ymártir (1845). Upon the death of his mother in 1847 Zorrillaleft Spain, resided for a while at Bordeaux, and settled in Paris,where his incompleteGranada, a striking poem of gorgeouslocal colour, was published in 1852. In a fit of depression,the causes of which are not known, he emigrated to Americathree years later, hoping, as he says, that yellow fever or smallpoxwould carry him off. During eleven years spent in Mexicohe produced little, and that little was of no merit. He returnedin 1866, to find himself a half-forgotten classic. His old fertilitywas gone, and new standards of taste were coming into fashion.A small post, obtained for him through the influence of Jovellarand Cánovas del Castillo, was abolished by the republican ​minister. He was always poor, and for some twelve years after1871 he was in the direst straits. The law of copyright was notretrospective, and, though some of his plays made the fortunesof managers, they brought him nothing. In his untrustworthyautobiography,Recuerdos del tiempo viejo (1880), he complainedof this. A pension of 30,000 reales secured him from want inhis old age, and the reaction in his favour became an apotheosis.In 1885 the Spanish Academy, which had elected him a membermany years before, presented him with a gold medal of honour,and in 1889 he was publicly crowned at Granada as the nationallaureate. He died at Madrid on the 23rd of January 1893.