the Duke of Rivas and Espronceda.

[Footnote 2: Cf. _l'Épopée castillane_, Ramón Menéndez
Pidal, Paris, 1910, pp. 249-252.]

[Footnote 3: The father of Fernán Caballero.]

In this period of transition one of the first prominent
men of letters to show the effects of romanticism was
Francisco MARTÍNEZ DE LA ROSA (1787-1862). Among his
earlier writings are a _Poética_ and several odes in honor
of the heroes of the War of Independence against the
French. After his exile in Paris he returned home imbued
with romanticism, and his two plays, _Conjuración de
Venecia_ (1834) and _Abén Humeya_ (1836: it had already
been given in French at Paris in 1830), mark the first
public triumph of romanticism in Spain. But Martínez de
la Rosa lacked force and originality and his works merely
paved the way for the greater triumph of the Duke of
Rivas. Ángel de Saavedra, DUQUE DE RIVAS (1791-1865), a
liberal noble, insured the definite triumph of romanticism
in Spain by the successful performance of his drama
_Don Álvaro_ (1835). At first a follower of Moratín and
Quintana, he turned, after several years of exile in
England, the Isle of Malta and France, to the new romantic
school, and casting off all classical restraints
soon became the acknowledged leader of the Spanish
romanticists. Among his better works are the lyric _Al
faro de Malta_, the legendary narrative poem _El moro
expósito_ and his _Romances históricos_. The _Romances_