LIFE IS A DREAM vida es sue no). Calderon's (Life is a Dream' was writ ten about 1635 and published in 1636. The play was probably composed for the theatre of the Royal Palace at Madrid. In grandeur of con ception, if not in style and execution, it is one of the masterpieces of Spanish dramatic litera ture. To develop the theme that "life is such stuff as dreams are made of," and that this transitory life is hut a preparation for the real life of the next world, Calderon adapted to his purpose a story told of Philip Duke of Burgundy, but of Oriental origin. '['he jest of bewildering a drunken man found in a market place into the idea that he is a duke, who, upon meditating on the princely life he has led for a day, is tin certain whether it has been reality or a dream, was also used by Shakespeare, but for comic effect, in the induction to the 'The Taming of the Shrew.' Not content with one theme, Calderon wove into his play another, suggested to him by the story of Barlaam and Josaphat, likewise of Oriental origin, which he found in one of the many lives of the saints and in Lope de Vega's play, 'Barlan y Josafa,' 1611. This story of a prince who is brought up in a prison in order to forestall the predictions of astrolo gers was used by Calderon to illustrate the doc trine of free will, a subject hotly debated at the time in Spanish universities. Finally, as all Spanish plays had a love element, and ended happily in the marriage of all the characters, the dramatist added a further complication,— love intrigue. This element of his play Cal deron treated as an unwilling concession to the taste of the time, interlarding the dialogue de voted to it with hackneyed quibbling about honor, and the conventional, euphuistic verbiage so popular in comedies of the 17th century. The main themes he developed withgreat sim plicity of diction, and a wealth of fine lyrical passages which atone for the blemishes just noted. Chief of these lyrical outbursts is the soliloquy of Segismundo, "Ah, woe is me .. (II. 102-172), in which the physical limitations and Promethean promptings of an imprisoned soul are contrasted with the freedom of birds that fly at will and of "fishes that tipple in the deep." This monologue, like many another fine
passage in Calderon's works, was not original with the author, but was a mosaic of words and Imagery borrowed from other writers. Almost as famous are the closing lines of the second act, in which Segismundo expresses his disillusion ment. "What," he asks, "is life? An illusion, a shadow, fiction, and the greatest good is small, for all life is a dream, and dreams are dreams." Such a pessimistic, non-Christian conception of life, the poet makes haste to correct in the last act (11. 2359-2371, 2423-2427). There too he defines his conception of free will : "No mortal can forestall the decrees of fate (predestina tion), but the wise man can so prepare himself by prudence, moderation and humility that he is fortified against its blows." (11. 3215-3227).
The strength of the play lies in its grandiose conception and its lyrical passages. The de fects are equally conspicuous. Chief of these is the failure—common to most Spanish plays of the 17th century— to develop the character of the protagonist. The transition from a sav age state, in which Segismundo is a Caliban without knowledge of the world; his titanism and eagerness to rule and impose his will on everybody when brought to the palace; his disil lusionment upon realizing that life is only a dream, and the final conviction that if life is only a dream, truth is eternal, and that he must curb his passions, as the safest procedure against the time when he may awake— all these transitions are abrupt and unconvincing, and mar one of the world's masterpieces. Con sult the edition by Buchanan (Toronto 1909) ; 'La Vita a un Sogno,' Farinelli (Torino 1916) ; the translation in the metre of the original by D. F. McCarthy in 'Calderon's Dramas' (Lon don 1875), and the adaptation by Edward Fitz gerald, 'Letters and Literary Remains' (Lon don and New York 1889).