José Zorrilla y Moral () was a Spanish poet and dramatist, who became National Laureate.
Biography
Zorrilla was born in Valladolid to a magistrate in whom Ferdinand VII placed special confidence. He was educated by the Jesuits at the Real Seminario de Nobles in Madrid, wrote verses when he was twelve, became an enthusiastic admirer of Walter Scott and Chateaubriand, and took part in the school performances of plays by Lope de Vega and Calderón de la Barca.
In 1833, he was sent to study law at the university of Toledo, but after a year of idleness, he fled to Madrid, where he horrified the friends of his absolutist father by making violent speeches and by founding a newspaper that promptly was suppressed by the government. He narrowly escaped transportation to the Philippines, and spent the next few years in poverty.