Life Is A Dream | Page 3

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Etext prepared by Dagny, [email protected]

Emma Dudding,
[email protected]

and John Bickers, [email protected]
LIFE IS A DREAM
by PEDRO CALDERON DE LA BARCA
Translated by
Edward Fitzgerald
INTRODUCTORY NOTE
Pedro Calderon de la Barca was born in Madrid, January 17, 1600, of
good family. He was educated at the Jesuit College in Madrid and at
the University of Salamanca; and a doubtful tradition says that he
began to write plays at the age of thirteen. His literary activity was
interrupted for ten years, 1625-1635, by military service in Italy and the
Low Countries, and again for a year or more in Catalonia. In 1637 he
became a Knight of the Order of Santiago, and in 1651 he entered the
priesthood, rising to the dignity of Superior of the Brotherhood of San
Pedro in Madrid. He held various offices in the court of Philip IV, who
rewarded his services with pensions, and had his plays produced with
great splendor. He died May 5, 1681.
At the time when Calderon began to compose for the stage, the Spanish
drama was at its height. Lope de Vega, the most prolific and, with
Calderon, the greatest, of Spanish dramatists, was still alive; and by his
applause gave encouragement to the beginner whose fame was to rival
his own. The national type of drama which Lope had established was
maintained in its essential characteristics by Calderon, and he produced
abundant specimens of all its varieties. Of regular plays he has left a
hundred and twenty; of "Autos Sacramentales," the peculiar Spanish
allegorical development of the medieval mystery, we have
seventy-three; besides a considerable number of farces.
The dominant motives in Calderon's dramas are characteristically

national: fervid loyalty to Church and King, and a sense of honor
heightened almost to the point of the fantastic. Though his plays are
laid in a great variety of scenes and ages, the sentiment and the
characters remain essentially Spanish; and this intensely local quality
has probably lessened the vogue of Calderon in other countries. In the
construction and conduct of his plots he showed great skill, yet the
ingenuity expended in the management of the story did not restrain the
fiery emotion and opulent imagination which mark his finest speeches
and give them a lyric quality which some critics regard as his greatest
distinction.
Of all Calderon's works, "Life is a Dream" may be regarded as the most
universal in its theme. It seeks to teach a lesson that may be learned
from the philosophers and religious thinkers of many ages--that the
world of our senses is a mere shadow, and that the only reality is to be
found in the invisible and eternal. The story which forms its basis is
Oriental in origin, and in the form of the legend of "Barlaam and
Josaphat" was familiar in all the literatures of the Middle Ages.
Combined with this in the plot is the tale of Abou Hassan from the
"Arabian Nights," the main situations in which are