Moratín, Leandro Fernandez de (1760-1828), was a Spanish writer and scholar. Moratín was the most important Spanish dramatist writing in the Neoclassical style. His five plays are a blend of traditional Spanish drama and French classicism. They were intended to instruct audiences with their gentle satire of middle-class customs and of the popular drama of the time. El Sí de las Ninas (The Consent of Girls, 1806) is considered his masterpiece. It is a charming comedy that attacks the tyranny of parents over their children. El Café (The Coffee House, 1791) is a satire on the dramatists of Moratín’s day.
Moratín was born on March 10, 1760, in Madrid, Spain, where his father, Nicolas, was a poet and playwright. Moratín translated the English playwright William Shakespeare’s tragedy Hamlet and several plays by the French dramatist Molière into Spanish. He died in Paris on June 21, 1828.
