C.D. Warner, et al., comp.
The Library of the World’s Best Literature. An Anthology in Thirty Volumes. 1917.
Pedro Calderón de la Barca (1600–1681)
Calderón de la Barca, Pedro (käl-dā-rōn’ dā lä bär’kä). A great Spanish dramatist; born at Madrid, Jan. 17, 1600; died on May 25, 1681. Of ‘Sacramental Acts’—out-door plays for Corpus Christi day—he wrote 72 on themes scriptural, classical, or moral: of these, ‘The Divine Orpheus’ is reputed the best. Of religious dramas he wrote 16, among them ‘The Wonder-Working Magician,’ the action of which centers on a human soul’s surrender to Satan; it was translated by Shelley and beautifully paraphrased by Fitzgerald. Another drama of this series is ‘Life is a Dream.’ Of his dramas of secular history may be cited the powerful domestic tragedy, ‘The Alcalde of Zalamea.’ His dramas include: ‘No Magic Like Love,’ founded on the myth of Circe, and ‘Echo and Narcissus’; while his best-known comedies of intrigue, or “of the cloak and sword,” are: ‘The Fairy Lady’ and ‘’Tis Ill-Keeping a House with Two Doors.’ (See Critical and Biographical Introduction).