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 CALDERON

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CALDERON

Portuguese poets of the time he had pleasant rela- tions, consorting with them in one or another literary academy. His cantigas acquired great popularity, and it is sometimes difficult to single out his composi- tions from the mass of those claimed by the people as their own. Yet he was not a great genius; he was rather a minor poet of a facile vein, able to express himself simply, and to avoid the bombast and the sensuality so common in his age. His poetical defini- tion of the characteristically Portuguese quality of saudades remains famous.

See edition of his poems published under his academic name of Lereno. Viola de Lcrcno: colleccao das suas cantigas, etc. (Lisbon 1825); DE Varnhagen, Florilegio da poesia brazilara (Lisbon! lS. r >Oi, I. II. Ill (Madrid, 1S53); Wolf, Le Bresil lit- leraire (Berlin, 1S631; Sylvio Romero, Hist, da litt. brazrhira (Rio de Janeiro, 1902).

J. D. M. Ford. Calderon de la Barca, Pedro, b. 1600; d. 1681; 3. Spanish dramatist whose activity marks the second half of the golden age of Spanish literature. His time was one of social and political decay under the rule of Philip III anil Philip IV, when all things indi- cated the irretrievable loss of the mighty foreign em- pire which Spain had acquired during previous reigns; yet, even in this melancholy period Spain pro- duced a poet of lasting national significance in the person of Calderon. Undoubtedly the value of Cal- deron has been overrated, in so far as the modern world has allowed him to outshine Lope de Vega, for it should be remembered that Calderon inherited the scenic traditions of the sixteenth century, to which Lope had given a magnificent development. Yet Calderon must be credited with giving to those tra- ditions an interpretation which clearly captivated his contemporaries as it did the more recent race of the Romantics in Germany. By giving full expression in his theatre to purely national qualities he endeared himself to his own people in a way that will always safeguard his repute wherever Spanish is spoken and the past glory of Spain is revered. Like Lope de Vega, he came of a northern (Asturian) stock, although he was born in Madrid. After a preliminary training in the capital, he went to the University of Salamanca at a time when that institution was at the acme of its glory, and there he spent six years. The few facts ascertainable for the years ensuing upon his residence at Salamanca show him figuring in the Spanish cam- paigns in Italy and in the Netherlands, and then re- turning to Madrid to undertake the management of the theatre of the Buen Retiro. The reigning mon- arch, Philip IV, was exceedingly attached to him and showed him favour in various ways, as by bestowing a pension on him, by urging him to constant dramatic composition, and by providing funds for the expenses involved in splendid and costly performances of his plays. In 1637 he was appointed to membership in the Order of Santiago, and three years later he served with his order in the campaign against the rebellious Catalans. Like Lope, he turned to Holy orders when his prime was passing, for in 1651 he was or- dained to the priesthood; but, quite unlike Lope, he was an exemplary member of the ministry. Honours came to him in his new vocation; thus, in 1003 he was appointed an honorary chaplain to the sovereign, and in 1066 he was made superior of the Congregation of St. Peter. His dramatic labours wore carried on un- abated after his ordinal ion and continued down to the year of his death. ( >f less varied genius than his predecessor, Lope de Vega, Calderon gave expression to himself in his dramas only; for his non-dramatic prose works are of very minor value — a treatise on painting is perhaps the most notable — and his lyrics, although many in number, are to be sought in his plays and not in any considerable separate collections.

It is to be observed, none the less, that he is a great lyric poel, and that his lyrism saturates his dramatic compositions from first to last. With the collected

editions of his plays published during his lifetime, Calderon was not concerned at all, except that he superintended the preparation of the edition of his aulas (sacred allegorical dramas) which appeared in 1676. On the basis of a list of his pieces which he prepared in 1681, his biographer, Vera Tasis, pub- lished after his death a nine-volume edition of them. This was made up somewhat ad libitum, as the critic Menendez y Pelayo has pointed out; yet, in default of a better edition, it still remains authoritative, in spite of the fact that it was put forth by one of the most culteranistic disciples of the poet. We should be glad to believe, as some scholars are inclined to do, that the offensive Gongorism of many passages in Calderon's best pieces, their obscurity and extrava- gant bombast, should be charged to "the account of a meddlesome collector and editor, that is, to Vera Tasis, and not to Calderon. The extant works of Cal- deron embrace some 120 comedias, including individual works and those written in collaboration with others, and, furthermore, some 70 or 80 autos sacramentales (sacred allegorical dramas on the Eucharist). In so far as regards the comedias, the modern editions re- produce the text of Vera Tasis; he did not print the autos in his collection. The fullest modern edition of all Calderon's plays is that of J. G. Keil (4 vols., Leipzig, 1S27-30); the most accessible is, as yet. that in the "Biblioteca de autores espafioles", vols. VII, IX, XII and XIV, which also has some of the autos in vol. LVIII. The best edition of the autos continues to be that of J. Fernandez de Apontes (1759-60). Vera Tasis stated in his "Fama postuma de Cal- deron" that the poet had written a great number of enlrcmeses and sainetes (interludes and short farces); as a matter of fact, not more than a score of such briefer pieces, interludes and the like, can now be found. Were one to contrast Shakspeare with Lope de Vega, he would discover that, while Shakspeare belongs to all men and all time, Lope is the particular property of Spain, and is bounded by national limita- tions. The character of Calderon is even more lim- ited still; he is not only Spanish rather than universal, but, as a Spaniard, he typifies the sentiments and ideals of a narrowly restricted period, the seventeenth century. It may be added that in his theatre and in his daily life he was a model of the truly Christian and knightly poet of his period. The ideas most distinc- tive of his age which we see reflected in Calderon's dramatic works are: (1) intense devotion to the Catho- lic Faith; (2) absolute and unquestioning loyalty to the Spanish sovereign; and (3) a highly developed, even much exaggerated, feeling of honour (the pun- donor). His religious fervour is exemplified in his comedias devotas (sacred dramas not allegorical) as, for instance, in his "Principe constante" and his "Purgatorio de San Patricio", the latter being one of the most famous of the literary treatments of the legend of St. Patrick's Purgatory, and especially in his autos sacramentales. These little pieces (see Autos Sacramentales) deal only with the Eucharis- tic Myetery, which is set forth through the medium of allegorical characters. In the production of them Calderon has never been surpassed. For while "his set pieces", in the opinion of Fitzmaurice-Kelly. who is a competent judge, "are disfigured by want of humour and by over-refinement ", these faults "turn to virtues in the aulas, where abstractions are wedded

to the noblest poetry, where the Beyond is brought

down to earth, and where doctrinal subtleties are em- bellished." Typical autos are "Los encantos de la culpa", which" D. F. MacCarthy translated bo skill- fully under the title of "The Sorceries of Sin", "La vifia del Senor", "La siembra del Sefior", and La semilla y la cizafia".

In his strictly secular pieces Calderon has suc- ceeded rather 'by virtue of his lyrism, which is undoubtedly of transcendent quality, than because of