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Pedro Calderon de la Barca
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Pedro Calderón de la Barca
Spanish author
born Jan. 17, 1600, Madrid, Spain
died May 25, 1681, Madrid
Main
dramatist and poet who succeeded Lope de Vega as the greatest Spanish
playwright of the Golden Age. Among his best-known secular dramas are El
médico de su honra (1635; The Surgeon of His Honour), La vida es sueño
(1635; Life Is a Dream), El alcalde de Zalamea (c. 1640; The Mayor of
Zalamea), and La hija del aire (1653; “The Daughter of the Air”),
sometimes considered his masterpiece. He also wrote operas and plays
with religious and mythological themes.
Early life
Calderón’s father, a fairly well-to-do government official who died in
1615, was a man of harsh and dictatorial temper. Strained family
relations apparently had a profound effect on the youthful Calderón, for
several of his plays show a preoccupation with the psychological and
moral effects of unnatural family life, presenting anarchical behaviour
directly traced to the abuse of paternal authority.
Destined for the church, Calderón matriculated at the University of
Alcalá in 1614 but transferred a year later to Salamanca, where he
continued his studies in arts, law, and probably theology until 1619 or
1620. Abandoning an ecclesiastical career, he entered the service of the
constable of Castile and in 1623 began to write plays for the court,
rapidly becoming the leading member of the small group of dramatic poets
whom King Philip IV gathered around him. In 1636 the king made him a
Knight of the Military Order of St. James. Calderón’s popularity was not
confined to the court, for these early plays were also acclaimed in the
public theatres, and on the death of Lope de Vega (1635) Calderón became
the master of the Spanish stage. On the outbreak of the Catalan
rebellion, he enlisted in 1640 in a cavalry company of knights of the
military orders and served with distinction until 1642, when he was
invalided out of the army. In 1645 he entered the service of the Duke de
Alba, probably as secretary. A few years later an illegitimate son was
born to him; nothing is known about the mother, and the idea that sorrow
at her death led him to return to his first vocation, the priesthood, is
pure surmise. He was ordained in 1651 and announced that he would write
no more for the stage. This intention he kept as regards the public
theatres, but at the king’s command he continued to write regularly for
the court theatre. He also wrote each year the two Corpus Christi plays
for Madrid. Appointed a prebendary of Toledo Cathedral, he took up
residence in 1653. The fine meditative religious poem Psalle et sile
(“Sing Psalms and Keep Silent”) is of this period. Receiving permission
to hold his prebend without residence, he returned to Madrid in 1657 and
was appointed honorary chaplain to the king in 1663.
Aesthetic milieu and achievement
The court patronage that Calderón enjoyed constitutes the most important
single influence in the development of his art.
The court drama grew out of the popular drama, and at first there was
no distinction in themes and style between the two. The construction,
however, of a special theatre in the new palace, the Buen Retiro,
completed in 1633, made possible spectacular productions beyond the
resources of the public stage. The court plays became a distinctive
Baroque genre, combining drama with dancing, music, and the visual arts
and departing from contemporary life into the world of classical
mythology and ancient history. Thus Calderón, as court dramatist, became
associated with the rise of opera in Spain. In 1648 he wrote El jardín
de Falerina (“The Garden of Falerina”), the first of his zarzuelas,
plays in two acts with alternating spoken and sung dialogue. In 1660 he
wrote his first opera, the one-act La púrpura de la rosa (“The Purple of
the Rose”), with all of the dialogue set to music. This was followed by
Celos, aun del aire matan (1660; “Jealousy Even of the Air Can Kill”),
an opera in three acts with music by Juan Hidalgo. As in the Italian
tradition, the music was subordinate to the poetry, and all of
Calderón’s musical plays are poetic dramas in their own right.
Calderón’s drama must be placed within the context of the court
theatre, with its conscious development of an unrealistic and stylized
art form. For two centuries after his death, his preeminence remained
unchallenged, but the realistic canons of criticism that came to the
fore toward the end of the 19th century produced a reaction in favour of
the more “lifelike” drama of Lope de Vega. Calderón appeared mannered
and conventional: the structure of his plots artificially contrived, his
characters stiff and unconvincing, his verse often affected and
rhetorical. Although he used technical devices and stylistic mannerisms
that by constant repetition became conventional, Calderón remained
sufficiently detached to make his characters, on occasion, poke fun at
his own conventions. This detachment indicates a conception of art as a
formal medium that employs its artistic devices so as to compress and
abstract the externals of human life, the better to express its
essentials.
In this direction Calderón developed the dramatic form and
conventions established by Lope de Vega, based on primacy of action over
characterization, with unity in the theme rather than in the plot. He
created a tightly knit structure of his own, while leaving intact the
formal framework of Lope’s drama. From the start he manifested his
technical skill by utilizing the characters and incidents of his plots
in the development of a dominant idea. As his art matured his plots
became more complex and the action more constricted and compact. The
creation of complex dramatic patterns in which the artistic effect
arises from perception of the totality of the design through the
inseparability of the parts is Calderón’s greatest achievement as a
craftsman. El pintor de su deshonra (c. 1645; The Painter of His Own
Dishonor) and La cisma de Ingalaterra (c. 1627; “The Schism of England”)
are masterly examples of this technique, in which poetic imagery,
characters, and action are subtly interconnected by dominant symbols
that elucidate the significance of the theme. Although rhetorical
devices typical of the Spanish Baroque style remained a feature of his
diction, his verse developed away from excessive ornamentation toward a
taut style compressed and controlled by a penetrating mind.
Secular plays
The difficulties that Calderón’s art presents to the modern reader have
tended to obscure the originality of his themes. Accepting the
conventions of the comedy of intrigue, a favourite form on the Spanish
stage, he used them for a fundamentally serious purpose: La dama duende
(1629; The Phantom Lady) is a neat and lively example. In Casa con dos
puertas, mala es de guardar (1629; “A House with Two Doors Is Difficult
to Guard”), the intrigues of secret courtship and the disguises that it
necessitates are so presented that the traditional seclusion of women on
which these intrigues are based is shown to create social disorder by
breeding enmity and endangering love and friendship. No siempre lo peor
es cierto (c. 1640; “The Worst Is Not Always True”) and No hay cosa como
callar (1639; “Silence Is Golden”) mark the peak of this development:
although the conventions of comedy remain, the overtones are tragic.
Both plays also implicitly criticize the accepted code of honour.
Calderón’s rejection of the rigid assumptions of the code of honour is
evident also in his tragedies. In the famous El alcalde de Zalamea, the
secrecy and the vengeance demanded by the code are rejected. This play
also presents a powerful contrast between the aristocracy and the
people: the degeneration of the aristocratic ideal is exposed, wealth is
associated with manual labour, and honour is shown to be the consequence
and prerogative of moral integrity regardless of class. Yet Calderón’s
humanity has been questioned in connection with El médico de su honra.
The critics who allege that he approves of the murder of an innocent
wife because honour demands it overlook the fact that the horror one
feels at this deed is precisely what he intended.
A keynote of Calderon’s tragic view of life is his deep-seated
realization that a man can be responsible through his own wrongdoing for
the wrongdoing of another. This realization probably derives from
Calderón’s own family experience. In La devoción de la cruz (c. 1625;
Devotion to the Cross) and Las tres justicias en una (c. 1637; Three
Judgments at a Blow), the heart of the tragedy lies in the fact that the
greatest sinner is also the most sinned against—in that others, before
he was born, had begun to dig his grave. El pintor de su deshonra is
built on a similar plot.
The fully developed court plays are best represented by La hija del
aire. This play in two parts dramatizes the legend of Semiramis (the
warrior queen of Babylon whose greed for political power led her to
conceal and impersonate her son on his accession). It is often
considered Calderón’s masterpiece. Highly stylized, it conveys a strong
impression of violence. It presents, with considerable complexity, the
contrast between passion and reason. Passion, in its self-seeking, in
its grasping for power and devouring of everything in the urge to
domination, breeds disorder and leads to destruction; reason, in its
sacrificing of self-interest to justice and loyalty, produces order.
This basic contrast underlies the themes of Calderón’s last period, its
various aspects being expanded in a number of interesting variations,
many directly concerned with the positive values of civilization. Though
none has the intensity of La hija del aire, most exemplify a thoughtful,
dignified, and restrained art. Mythological themes predominate, with a
more or less allegorical treatment, as in Eco y Narciso (1661; “Echo and
Narcissus”), La estatua de Prometeo (1669; “The Statue of Prometheus”),
and Fieras afemina amor (1669; “Wild Beasts Are Tamed by Love”).
Religious plays
Calderón’s vision of the human world in his secular plays is one of
confusion and discord arising out of the inevitable clash of values in
the natural order. His religious plays round off his view of life by
confronting natural values with supernatural ones. The most
characteristic of these religious plays, following the tradition
established outside Spain by the Jesuit drama, are based on stories of
conversion and martyrdom, usually of the saints of the early church. One
of the most beautiful is El príncipe constante (1629; The Constant
Prince), which dramatizes the martyrdom of Prince Ferdinand of Portugal.
El mágico prodigioso (1637; The Wonder-Working Magician) is a more
complex religious play; Los dos amantes del cielo (The Two Lovers of
Heaven) and El Joséf de las mujeres (c. 1640; “The Joseph of Womankind”)
are the most subtle and difficult. The basic human experience upon which
Calderón relies for rational support of religious faith is decay and
death and the consequent incapacity of the world to fulfill its promise
of happiness. This promise is centred in such natural values as beauty,
love, wealth, and power that, although true values if pursued with
prudence, cannot satisfy the mind’s aspiration for truth or the heart’s
longing for happiness. Only the apprehension of an “infinite Good” can
assuage the restlessness of men.
This religious philosophy is given its most moving expression, in
terms of Christian dogma, in the autos sacramentales. Seventy-six of
these allegorical plays, written for open-air performance on the Feast
of Corpus Christi, are extant. In them Calderón brought the tradition of
the medieval morality play to a high degree of artistic perfection. The
range of his scriptural, patristic, and scholastic learning, together
with the assurance of his structural technique and poetic diction,
enable him to endow the abstract concepts of dogmatic and moral theology
with convincing dramatic life. At their weakest the autos tend to depend
for their effect upon the ingenuity of their allegories, but at their
best they are imbued with profound moral and spiritual insight and with
a poetic feeling varying from tenderness to forcefulness. La cena de
Baltasar (c. 1630; Belshazzar’s Feast) and El gran teatro del mundo (c.
1635; The Great Theatre of the World) are fine examples of the early
style; the greater complexity of his middle period is represented by No
hay más fortuna que Dios (c. 1652; “There Is No Fortune but God”) and Lo
que va del hombre a Dios (1652–57; “The Gulf Between Man and God”). But
his highest achievement in this type of drama is to be found among those
autos of his old age that dramatize the dogmas of the Fall and the
redemption, notably La viña del Señor (1674; “The Lord’s Vineyard”), La
nave del mercader (1674; “The Merchant’s Ship”), El nuevo hospicio de
pobres (1675; “The New Hospital for the Poor”), El día mayor de los días
(1678; “The Greatest Day of Days”), and El pastor fido (1678; “The
Faithful Shepherd”). Here is found Calderón’s most moving expression of
his compassionate understanding of human waywardness.
To have found a dramatic form that conveys the doctrines of the
Christian faith gives Calderón a special place in literature. But his
greatness is not confined to this; the depth and consistency of his
thought, his supremely intelligent craftsmanship and artistic integrity,
his psychological insight, and the rationality and humanity of his moral
standards make him one of the major figures of world drama.
Alexander A. Parker
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LIFE IS A DREAM
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Type of work: Drama
Author: Pedro Calderon de la Barca (1600-1681)
Type of plot: Romantic melodrama
Time of plot: Sixteenth century
Locale: Poland
First presented: 1635
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A play filled with vigor and brilliance, Life Is a Dream uses its
Polish setting as freely as Shakespeare used the seacoast of Bohemia or
the forest of Arden. A gothic quality in the mountain scenes suggests
the popular atmosphere of eighteenth century fiction. There is
considerable psychological insight in this metaphysical melodrama.
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Principal Characters
Segismundo (sa-hes-moon'do), heir to the throne of Poland, who has been
imprisoned in a tower on the Russian frontier because horrible portents
at his birth and later predictions by astrologers have convinced his
father, King Basilio, that the boy will grow up into a monster who will
destroy the land. Finally because the king sees his land split over the
matter of succession, Segismundo is drugged and transported from his
prison to the Court of Warsaw. There, uncouth and inexperienced, he
behaves boorishly. He accuses the court of wronging him and scorns his
father's explanations thus: "What man is so foolish as to lay on the
disinterested stars the responsibility for his own actions?" Impossible
as a king, he is again drugged and returned to his tower, where he is
told it was all a dream. Later liberated by an army recruited by
Rosaura, in revenge on the ambitious Astolfo, he thinks he is still
dreaming. So why should he strive in a dream for something that
disappears upon awakening? On that account he will not accept the throne
when his followers overthrow King Basilio. He treats everybody kindly
and generously, marries Estrella, and forces Astolfo to keep his promise
and marry Rosaura.
Rosaura (rro-sa'oo-ra), a Russian woman traveling with her servant Fife
to the Court of Warsaw to seek the Pole who had promised to marry her.
Crossing the Russian-Polish boundary, disguised as a man for protection
against bandits, she loses her horse and her way. She finds and
sympathizes with a young man, chained to the doorway of a tower and
bemoaning his fate. He warns her to flee, which she does, after giving
him the sword she has been carrying.
Clotaldo (klo-tal'do), a Polish general and guardian of the imprisoned
Segismundo. He captures Rosaura and Fife but sends them on their way. He
recognizes the sword as one he had left in Russia with a noblewoman with
whom he had been in love, and he supposes the disguised Rosaura is his
own son. However, duty to his king seals his lips. When Segismundo
returns to his tower prison from his unfortunate experiences in Warsaw,
Clotaldo assures the Prince that life is a dream and that in dreams
men's evil thoughts and ambitions are unchecked. Awake, one can control
his passions and behave like a sane individual. Later, when Segismundo
gets a second chance, Clotaldo is unharmed because of his earlier
advice.
King Basilio (ba-se-lyo), the father of Segismundo, faced by the problem
of succession to the Polish throne. Claimants are Astolfo, his nephew,
and Estrella, his niece; their rival supporters form political factions
that will disrupt the country in civil war. Calling an assembly, King
Basilio announces that his son, who supposedly died with his mother, is
really alive. With the consent of the claimants, he will send for the
prince and see what sort of king he might make.
Astolfo (as-toTfo), one claimant for the Polish throne. While in Russia,
he had contracted matrimony with Rosaura, but now he wants to marry
Estrella so that he can be sure of becoming king of Poland. When
Segismundo awakes from his drugged sleep, he manhandles Astolfo for
daring to touch the attractive Estrella.
Estrella (es-tra'lya), a princess whom Segismundo embraces, to the
consternation of the courtiers. Eventually, after his second visit to
the court, where he acts with proper dignity because of his conviction
that life is a dream, Estrella becomes his queen.
Fife(fe'fa), the "gracioso," or comic servant of Rosaura, who adds humor
and philosophy to the comedy.
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The Story
One night, in the wild, mountainous country between Poland and Russia, a
Russian noblewoman, Rosaura, and her servant, Fife, found themselves in
distress. Their horses had bolted, and they feared that they would have
to make on foot the remainder of their journey to the
royal court of Poland. Rosaura, for protection through that barbarous
frontier country, was disguised as a man.
Their weary way brought them at last to a forbidding fortress. There
they overheard a young man, chained to the doorway of the castle,
deliver a heart-rending soliloquy in which he lamented the harshness of
his life. Rosaura approached the youth, who greeted her eagerly, with
the excitement of one who had known little of sympathy or kindness
during his brief span of years. At the same time he warned her to beware
of violence. No sooner had he spoken these words than a shrill trumpet
blast filled the night. Rosaura tossed her sword to the captive before
she and Fife hid themselves among the rocks.
Clotaldo, a Polish general and the keeper of the youth, galloped up to
the young man. Seeing the sword in his prisoner's hand, he ordered his
men to seek the stranger who must be lurking nearby. Apprehended,
Rosaura explained that she and Fife were Russian travelers on their way
to the Polish court and that they were in distress because of the loss
of their horses. Fife inadvertently hinted that Rosaura was really a
woman. But the sword interested Clotaldo most of all, for he recognized
the weapon as one which he had owned years before and which he had left
in the keeping of a young noblewoman with whom he had been deeply in
love. He decided that Rosaura must be his own son, but torn between his
sworn duty to his king and his paternal obligation toward his supposed
son, he decided at last to say nothing for the time being. The fact that
Rosaura possessed the sword obligated him to protect the travelers and
to escort them safely through the mountains.
Meanwhile, in King Basilio's royal castle, the problem of succession to
the Polish throne was to be decided. To this purpose, the king welcomed
his nephew Astolfo and his niece Estrella, cousins. The problem of the
succession existed because it was generally believed that the true heir,
King Basilio's son, had died with his mother in childbirth many years
before. The need for a decision was pressing; both Astolfo and Estrella
were supported by strong rival factions which in their impatience were
threatening the peace of the realm.
King Basilio greeted his niece and nephew with regal ceremony and then
startled them with the news that his son Segismundo was not really dead.
The readings of learned astrologers and horrible portents which had
accompanied Segismundo's birth had led the superstitious king to
imprison the child in a mountain fortress for fear that otherwise the
boy might grow up to be a monster who would destroy Poland. Now, years
later, King Basilio was not sure that he had done right. He proposed
that Segismundo be brought to the court in a drug-induced sleep,
awakened after being dressed in attire befitting a prince, and observed
carefully for evidence of his worthiness to wear his father's crown.
Astolfo and Estrella agreed to that proposal.
In accordance with the plan, Segismundo, who dressed in rough wolfskins
in his captivity, was drugged, taken to the royal castle, and dressed in
rich attire. Awaking, he was disturbed to find himself suddenly the
center of attention among obsequious strangers. Force of habit caused
him to recall sentimentally his chains, the wild mountains, and his
former isolation. Convinced that he was dreaming, he sat on the throne
while his father's officers and the noble courtiers treated him with the
respect due his rank. When they told him that he was the heir to the
throne, he was mystified and somewhat apprehensive, but before long he
began to enjoy his new feeling of power.
Clotaldo, his former guard and tutor, appeared to confirm the fact that
Segismundo was really the prince. The young man then demanded an
explanation of his lifelong imprisonment. Clotaldo patiently explained
King Basilio's actions in terms that Segismundo might understand, but
the youth, blinded by the sudden change in his fortunes, could see only
that he had been grievously mistreated by his father. Declaring that he
would have revenge for his unwarranted imprisonment, he seized
Clotaldo's sword, but before he could strike the old general, Rosaura
appeared out of the crowd, took the weapon from him, and reproved him
for his rashness.
Segismundo, in a calmer mood, was introduced to Astolfo, whose courtly
bearing and formal speech the prince could not bear. Sick of the whole
aspect of the court, he ordered the guards to clear the audience hall.
But again he was mollified, this time by the appearance of Estrella and
her ladies in waiting. Unaccustomed to feminine society, he behaved in a
boorish manner, even attempting to embrace Estrella. The courtiers
advised him to behave in a manner befitting a prince, and Astolfo, who
hoped to marry his beautiful cousin, cautioned Segismundo about his
behavior toward the princess. Unfamiliar with the formalities of court
life, Segismundo lost all patience. Holding all present responsible for
his long exile, he reminded them of his exalted position and defied
anyone to touch Estrella. When Astolfo did not hesitate to take her by
the hand, Segismundo seized Astolfo by the throat.
At this crucial moment in Segismundo's test, King Basilio entered the
throne room and saw his son behaving like a wild beast. Crushed, he
feared that the forecast had been true after all. Segismundo faced his
father with shocking disrespect. Pressed for an explanation of his son's
imprisonment, the king tried to prove that it had been written in the
stars. Segismundo scoffed at the folly of man in putting responsibility
for his actions on the disinterested heavens. Then he cursed his father
and called the guards to seize the king and Clotaldo. But at a trumpet
blast the soldiers quickly surrounded Segismundo himself and took him
prisoner.
Having failed the test of princehood, Segismundo was drugged and
returned in chains to the mountain fortress. In his familiar
surroundings once more, he had full opportunity to reflect on his late
experiences. When he spoke to Clotaldo about them, the old general
assured him that all had been a dream. Since the prince had been drugged
before he left the fortress and before he returned, he was quite
convinced that he had suffered an unpleasant dream. Clotaldo assured him
that dreams reveal the true character of the dreamer. Because Segismundo
had conducted himself with violence in his dream, there was great need
for the young man to bridle his fierce passions. Meanwhile Rosaura,
aware of Segismundo's plight and anxious to thwart the ambitions of
Astolfo, who had once promised to marry her, stirred up a faction to
demand the prince's release. The rebels invaded the mountains and seized
the fortress they failed, however, to seize Clotaldo, who had already
returned to the royal castle to report to King Basilio. When the rebel
army carried the sleeping Segismundo out of the fortress and awakened
him with trumpet blasts, the unhappy prince would not be persuaded that
his new experience was real, and he doubted the assurance that he had
been rescued from his imprisonment. The rebel leader finally convinced
him that it would be well for him to join the dream soldiers and fight
with them against King Basilio's very real army, which was approaching.
Clotaldo was taken prisoner by Segismundo's forces, but the young
prince, remembering the advice to curb his passions, ordered the old
general's release. A great battle then took place, in which Segismundo
proved his princely valor and chivalric bearing. King Basilio, defeated
but refusing Clotaldo's and Astolfo's pleas to flee to safety, in
admiration surrendered his crown to his son.
King of Poland in his own right, Segismundo ordered the marriage of
Astolfo to Rosaura, who had, in the meantime, been revealed as
Clotaldo's daughter. Estrella became Segismundo's queen. The young king
made Clotaldo his trusted adviser.
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Critical Evaluation
A dramatic genius and eminent mind of Spain's "Golden Century," Calderon
resembled the gaunt, ascetic figures of El Greco's canvases. He was
calm, withdrawn, reserved and courtly, and, as time went on, ever more
religious and theological. Calderonian theater mirrored Christian
principles but was best known for its "Cape and Sword" dramas featuring
the delicate Spanish "point of honor." At one time, Calderon rivaled
Shakespeare in European esteem.
Orphaned as an adolescent, Calderon wrote his first book while still a
lad. He was sixteen years old when Cervantes and Shakespeare died.
Between 1615 and 1619 he attended the famous Golden Century universities
of Alcala de Henares and Salamanca "the Golden." Even though declining
at this time, Spain was still great, its red and gold flag floating over
an immense world empire and its citizens excelling in many aspects of
human activity. During his first literary phase following graduation,
Calderon wrote poetry and one-act, sacred allegorical plays called autos
sacramentales. He wrote his first major play in 1623, entitling it Love,
Honor, and Power. As Calderon's star truly began to rise in drama—at
which Spaniards were then considered Europe's masters—the "giants" of
the Spanish Golden Age drama, such as Lope de Vega, Tirso de Molina, and
Alarcon were closing their careers. El Greco had died in 1614, but
Spain's most famous painting masters, including Ribera, Zurbaran, and
Velasquez, produced some of their richest canvases during Calderon's
ascendancy.
Calderon became a skilled swordsman, soldier, playwright, courtier, and
eventually priest and theologian. He produced his masterpiece, Life Is a
Dream, when he was thirty-five years old, whereas Shakespeare's Hamlet
and Goethe's Faust were products of their respective author's ripest
maturity. Life Is a Dream premiered at the Royal Court of Spain, and in
the same year of 1635 Calderon was appointed Court dramatist upon the
death of Lope de Vega. He was made a Knight of Santiago in 1637 (Spain
had three great exclusive military-monastic orders dating from its
earliest, medieval crusades against the Moors: Santiago, Calatrava, and
Alcantara) and spent much of his life at the Royal Court, where
intrigues and points of honor were rife. He eventually became the last
giant literary figure of the vanishing Golden Age, far outliving all
other greats. Information on the last three decades of his life is
scant, but he is known to have lived calmly and in almost mystic
seclusion.
Life Is a Dream has mysterious appeal, a will-o'-the-wisp lure. It is a
metaphysical drama difficult to interpret, but moves its audiences
deeply. It merits its fame as one of Spain's greatest plays, but puzzles
commentators who strain to summarize it or probe its mysteries. Its
verses are lyrical and beautiful, and it is prismatic, since new
meanings can be derived from each rereading. Its basic theme is that
life is a dream, filled with chaos, beauty, and torment. Thus it is
partially based on the awakened sleeper theme (which Calderon did not
originate; it dates from antiquity). Segismundo, Prince of Poland,
represents man, but the play also stresses the evanescent nature of
human life and the vanity of human affairs. It also emphasizes that
salvation can be gained through good works and that, despite a strain of
divine predestination, free will defeats astrological fatalism. Human
bestiality is conquered by reason, while threads of freedom, grace, sin,
and unreality are also a part of the play. The dramatic scenes in the
tower and palace have often been praised. Life Is a Dream has basked in
international fame for more than three centuries and still rates as one
of Spain's most representative plays.
Oddly, few critics have detected that Calderon seems to have set his
masterpiece in Poland because the latter nation was akin to Spain in its
devout Catholicism, rich seventeenth century culture, and, above all,
its heroic historic role as a defender of Christendom's "marches"
against nonbelievers (in Poland's case against pagan invaders from the
endless East; in Spain's against Moors, Turks, and all anti-Catholics).
George Tyler Northrup was evidently the first scholar to notice that
Calderon borrowed much for Life Is a Dream from Yerros de la Naturaleza
у Acierto de la Fortuna, a work that he and Antonio Coello wrote in
1634, also set in Poland. Most of the characters in Life Is a Dream,
excepting Astolfo and Estrella, had their prototypes in Yerros de la
Naturaleza у Aciertos de la Fortuna.
Calderon was Spain's most poetic dramatist. He was thus influenced by
the stylistic obscurities of the Cor-doban bard, Gongora, "the Prince of
Darkness." "Gon-gorism" was richly obscure and featured
classical-mythological references, metaphors, contrived words, strained
comparisons, and the flaunting of erudition. Other features of the
Spanish Golden Century have to be studied to understand Calderon. To
appreciate his "Cape and Sword" theater, for example, the modern reader
must comprehend the "point of honor" with which Spain was obsessed. A
Spaniard's honor was a cherished possession while personal dignity and
family honor were also sacred. Men were expected to be vehement
defenders of their families, and Spanish husbands were obsessed with
wifely fidelity; indeed, they were prone to avenge even supposed
breaches of it by dispatching their spouses.
The erudite Menendez у Pelayo labeled Calderon a less spontaneous
dramatist than Lope de Vega. He also felt that Calderon was Tirso de
Molina's inferior in characterization, but Menendez у Pelayo also rated
Calderon above everyone in conceptual grandeur, poetry, symbolism, and
Christian depth. In short, alleged Menendez, Calderon was history's
greatest playwright after Sophocles and Shakespeare.
Calderon died on Pentecost Sunday in 1681, while writing an auto. He had
ordered that his coffin be left ajar so as to stress the corruptible
nature of the human body. His death left a void in Spanish literature,
which declined into a long sterility; Calderon's theater, however,
especially Life Is a Dream, has remained popular with Spanish and
foreign audiences.
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