In 1780 with Batilo, a pastoral in the manner of Garcilaso de la Vega, he won a prize offered by the Spanish academy; next year he was introduced to Jovellanos, through whose influence he was appointed to a professorship at Salamanca in 1783.

[1] The pastoral scenes in Las Bodas de Camacho (1784) do not compensate for its undramatic nature, but it gained a prize from the municipality of Madrid.

In 1797 he dedicated to Godoy an enlarged edition of his poems, the new matter consisting principally of unsuccessful imitations of John Milton and Thomson; but the poet was rewarded by promotion to a high post in the treasury at Madrid.

[1] On the fall of Jovellanos in 1798 Meléndez Valdés was dismissed and exiled from the capital; he returned in 1808 and accepted office as a Minister of Public Instruction in 1811, under Joseph Bonaparte.

[1] Many of his successors, including Manuel José Quintana, recognized him as the outstanding poet of eighteenth-century Spain, and he continues to be judged so today.