JUAN NICASIO GALLEGO. — Spanish poet, b. at Zamora on 14 Dec. 1777, d. at Madrid on 9 Jan. 1853. He studied the humanities at Salamanca, where he was ordained and came into contact with the group of neoclassical poets at that university.
To this period belong the amorous poems composed in adherence to the models set by the bucolic school of the time. With the arrival of the French invasion (1808), G. moved to Seville and, after the war, adhered to liberalism. Notable among his elegies are: A la muerte de la Duquesa de Frías, A la memoria de Garcilaso and, above all, El Dios de Mayo, a vibrant exaltation of the revolt against Napoleon. He translated Manzoni’s I Promessi sposi under the title Los novios.
Bibl.: Le Obras poéticas.