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Quintana was a follower of the Salamancan school. The cleric Juan Nicasio GALLEGO (1777-1853) rivaled Quintana as a writer of patriotic verses. A liberal in politics like Quintana, Gallego also took the page xxxiii side of his people against the French invaders and against the servile Spanish rulers. He is best known by the ode _El dos de mayo_, in which he exults over the rising of the Spanish against the French on the second of May, 1808; the ode _A la defensa de Buenos Aires_ against the English; and the elegy _A la muerte de la duquesa de Frias_ in which he shows that he is capable of deep feeling. Gallego was a close friend of Quintana, whose salon in Madrid he frequented. Gallego wrote little, but his works are more correct in language and style than those of Quintana. It is interesting that although the writings of these two poets evince a profound dislike and distrust of the French, yet both were in their art largely dominated by the influence of French neo-classicism. This is but another illustration of the relative conservatism of belles-lettres. In the year 1793 there had been formed in Seville by a group of young writers an Academia de Letras Humanas to foster the cultivation of letters. The members of this academy were admirers of Herrera, the Spanish Petrarchist and patriotic poet of the sixteenth century, and they strove for a continuation of the tradition of the earlier Sevillan group. The more important writers of the later Sevillan school were Arjona, Blanco, Lista and Reinoso. Manuel Maria de ARJONA (1771-1820), a priest well read in the Greek and Latin classics, was an imitator of Horace. Jose Maria BLANCO (1775-1841), known in the history of English literature as Blanco White, spent much time in England and wrote in English as well as in Castilian. Ordained a Catholic priest he later became an Unitarian. The best-known and most influential writer of the group was Alberto LISTA (1775-1848), an educator and page xxxiv later canon of Seville. Lista was a skilful artist and like Arjona an admirer and imitator of Horace; but his ideas lacked depth. His best-known poem is probably a religious one, _A la muerte de Jesus,_ which abounds in true poetic feeling. Lista exerted great influence as a teacher and his _Lecciones de literatura espanola_ did much to stimulate the study of Spanish letters. Felix Jose REINOSO (1772-1814), also a priest, imitated Milton in _octav
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