Huerta

Huerta, VICENTE GARCIA DE LA, a Spanish poet and critic, was born in 1730 at Zafra, in Estremadura, but spent the greater part of his life in Madrid, where he was head of the Royal Library, and where he died on 12th March 1787. His tragedy of Raquel (1778), founded upon the story of the love of King Alfonso VIII. for the fair Jewess Rachel, was received with great enthusiasm, and is still esteemed one of the best of modern Spanish tragedies. Huerta was a zealous but not always consistent opponent of the prevailing Gallicism of his own day. As a lyric and dramatic poet he shows great command of language and versification. His poems were published in two volumes in 1778-79, and again in Biblioteca de Autores Españoles (vol. lxi.). Huerta edited the Teatro Español (17 vols. 1785-86), a collection of the best works of the older Spanish dramatists.