Neo-classicism was an artistic movement that prevailed in art and literature during the second half of the eighteenth century. The most prominent theorists of neo-classicism was the French poet and critic Nicolas Boileau (1636-1711). The Art of Poetry, written by this author in 1674, served as a source of inspiration to many men of letters of that period. Among his followers was the Frenchman Pierre Marivaux (1688-1763).
In England excelled John Dryden (1631-1700), author of essays on dramatic poetry, Sir Alexander Pope (1688-1744), who wrote his Essay on Man and the Epistles, and Dr. Samuel Johnson (1709-1784), responsible for the life of the English Poets. The principal representatives of Neoclassicism in Spain were Moratín Leandro Fernandez (1760-1828), Gaspar Melchor de Jovellanos (1744-1811), Juan Antonio Meléndez Valdés (1754-1817) and Nicolas Fernandez de Moratin (1737 -1780).
The literature, especially the theater, was structured according to certain units, raised by the Greek philosopher Aristotle in his Poetics. These units are: action, according to which the fabric of the work should focus on a specific issue and not branch out, the time, which specifies that the action should not demand more than a day, and the place, under which the drama must be developed in one area.