ZORRILLA Y MORAL, José. — Spanish poet, b. in Valladolid on 21 Feb. 1817, d. in Madrid on 23 Jan. 1893.
Having abandoned the study of law to devote himself to literature and politics, he took a firm stand against absolutism, risking deportation. Leaving Spain because of family disagreements, he went to France and from there to Mexico, where he directed the national theatre. In 1860 he returned to his homeland and in 1889 received the poetic crown in the Alcázar of Granada.
He cultivated lyric, epic and dramatic poetry. Firm in his religious convictions, he sang, in collaboration with the Venezuelan García de Quevedo, the glories of the Mother of God in the work *María, corona poética de la Virgen*. *Non poma Granada* recalled the reconquest of the city by Ferdinand the Catholic. A significant document of his activity as a playwright is the drama *Don Juan Tenorio*, a reworking of the Molinian theme elevated to national significance. He was a spontaneous poet, of inexhaustible vein and intense evocative power.