ABSTRACT
Francisco de Paula Martinez de la Rosa played an important part in politics and letters. He was a deputy to the Cortes of 1813–1814, and was exiled by Fernando VII to El Penon de la Gomera. Martinez de la Rosa opened the door of Romanticism. Jose de Espronceda leads us well within. Unruly in school, a conspirator as quickly as he left the colegio, jailed in 1824, he was soon an exile visiting Gibraltar, Lisbon, London and Paris. El estudiante de Salamanca, based on a fantastic old Spanish legend, is more original. It displays the poet's imagination at its best, and this poem has become popular and taken its place in the memories of Spaniards, beside Zorrilla's legends. The poem Granada itself contains nine books, and recounts the court intrigues which preceded the city's fall. The plot is trivial. But, as in a Moorish palace, the mediocre frame is beautified by splendid ornamentation and coloring.
