Moratín, Leandro Fernández de

Born Mar 10, 1760, in Madrid; died June 21, 1828, in Paris. Spanish dramatist. Son of N. de Moratín.

During the war for Spanish independence (1808–14), Moratín collaborated with the French government. In 1817 he emigrated to France. In 1795, Moratín translated Shakespeare’s Hamlet into Spanish. He wrote The Origin of the Spanish Theater (1820–21; Russian abridged translation, 1844), in which he traced the development of the Spanish theater from the 14th to the 17th centuries. Moratín’s aesthetic views were reflected in the play The New Comedy (1792), in which he proposed a program of Enlightenment art. He also wrote the comedies of manners Old Man and the Girl (1786, published 1795), The Baron (published 1803), The Deceitful Woman (1791, published 1804; Russian translation, 1960), and The Maiden’s Consent (1801, published 1806; Russian translation, 1840, 1940), in all of which he defended spontaneous feeling against parental tyranny.

Moratín was influenced by Molière. His comedies combine the Enlightenment principles of French classicism with elements of classical Spanish drama. Moratín’s works influenced the development of Spanish 19th-century realistic comedies of manners.