SOURCE: “Francisco Martínez de la Rosa,” in Modern Poets and Poetry of Spain, Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, 1852, pp. 169-82.

In the following excerpt, Kennedy recounts the life of Martínez de la Rosa and briefly examines his principal writings.

Throughout the civilized world, and even beyond it, this eminent statesman has long been heard of, as one who, while devoting his life faithfully to promote the welfare of his own country, had exerted himself no less assiduously for the general interests of mankind. As an orator, a statesman and a political writer, he has thus obtained a deservedly high European reputation, due to his services and merits. In Spain he is further known as one of the first literary characters of whom his country has to boast, and as a dramatist and lyric poet of a very superior order.

Martinez de la Rosa was born the...