Tomás de Iriarte

At 18 Tomás began his literary career by translating French plays for the royal theatre, and in 1770, under the anagram of Tirso Imarete, he published an original comedy entitled Hacer que hacemos.

In 1780 he authored a didactic poem in silvas entitled La Música, which attracted attention in Italy as well as at home.

[2] The Fábulas literarias (1782), with which his name is most intimately associated, are composed in a variety of metres, and was known for humorous attacks on literary men and methods,[2] as was the case repeatedly, with Juan Bautista Pablo Forner (1756–97).

[citation needed] During his later years, partly as a consequence of the Fábulas, Iriarte was entangled in personal controversies, and in 1786 was reported to the Spanish Inquisition for his sympathies with French philosophers.

He is the subject of an 1897 monograph[2] by Emilio Cotarelo [es] (1857–1936), a member of the Royal Spanish Academy.