CALDER6N DE LA BARCA, Pedro, Spanish poet and playwright: b. Madrid, 17 Jan. 1600; d. there, 25 May 1681. His long life, which embraced the reigns of three kings, one of whom, Philip IV, was a generous patron, and exerted a profound influence upon the dramatist's art by demanding of him spectacular plays for his theatre in the royal palace, co incided with the golden age of the Spanish drama, and his death marked its close.
Of Calderon's life little is known except that it was uneventful and blameless, in which re spect he contrasts favorably with his famous contemporary and rival, • Lope de Vega. His father, who was of noble origin, served as secre tary to the Treasury Board under Philip II and Philip III. When nine years of age, Cal deron was sent to the Jesuit College at Madrid, from which, at the age of 14, he entered the University of Salamanca, not without first giv ing evidence of precocity and an interest in the drama by writing a play, known now only by title, 'The Chariot of Heaven' (i.e., Eli jah's). The influence of Jesuit teaching is seen in his plays, where the dramatist reveals an unusual fondness for dialectics. Some of his most successful dramas defend the attitude of Jesuits toward the doctrine of freewill. These influences were continued at the Univer sity of Salamanca, whose professors stoutly championed the Jesuit cause against the pro fessors of the University of Coimbra. At Sala manca Calderon studied mathematics, philoso phy, geography, history, civil and canon law, and graduated in 1619. While at the university he continued to write plays, and, according to his panegyrist and earliest biographer, Vera Tassis, with such marked success that his name became known throughout Spain. Nevertheless, he planned to enter the legal profession in his native city, but, as he himself records, the de sire to win a prize in a poetical tournament organized in 1620 to honor the patron saint of Madrid, Saint Isidor, made a poet of him. He failed, however, to win a prize, but in a second contest two years later he was awarded a third prize for a euphuistic poem of little promise. More significant, as indicating the esteem in which he was already held by contemporary writers, is the fact that he contributed one of three commendatory poems to the official ac count of the second contest prepared by Lope de Vega. In 1625 Calder6n entered the army for service in Lombardy and Flanders. Upon his return to Spain he became attached to the court of Philip IV as a kind of official play wright and master of the revels. For these services he was honored with knighthood in 1636, and later was granted a pension. In order to qualify for a chaplaincy endowed by his maternal grandmother in his parish church, San Salvador, he became a priest in 1651. It is usually stated in biographies of Calder6n that he now ceased to write for the secular stage and produced only "autos sacramentales" for the feast of Corpus Christi. Documents pub lished by Perez Pastor (1905) show,' however, that he wrote plays at rare intervals for the royal theatre in the palace of the Buen Retiro. Calderon was by nature a serious and pious man, and his literary production from 1651 on consists almost . entirely of "autos sacra mentales,* most of which were adaptations of his earlier secular plays. In 1653 Philip IV appointed Calderon to a chaplaincy in Los Reyes Nuevos at Toledo, but the absence of the poet from the court proved unsatisfactory to the King, and so in 1663 he made him one of his honorary chaplains at Madrid. On his death,
in 1681, all Spain mourned for him. Foreign scholars vied with Spaniards in paying tribute to his memory. .
During his long life he hid been honored by royalty, and the principal cities of Spain commissioned him annually to write their "autos sacramentales." Many of his plays had been translated into French and Italian. In Spain his dramatic works remained popular until about the middle of the 18th century, when pseudo-classical critics singled him out as the special butt of their attacks on the national drama. In 1763 the performance of "autos sacramentales" was forbidden by law. Cal deron's plays were censured for the importance given in them to intrigue, with the consequent neglect of character study. His brilliant, but at times pompous and euphuistic style—especially in plays composed for the royal theatre — also met with disapproval. About the year 1800 romantic critics of Germany, especially Fried rich Schlegel, started a furore for Calder& which made him during two decades the most popular dramatist of modern times. This ex travagant enthusiasm for the Spaniard is well exemplified in Shelley, who read his plays "with inexpressible wonder and delight," and was inspired to throw over their perfect and glowing forms the grey veil of my own words," with what success is seen in his famous, al though often inaccurate, rendering of parts of 'The Wonder-Working Magician.' At present, partly because of a natural reaction, and partly because critics like Grillparzer and Menendez y Pelayo have set up the counterclaim of his more spontaneous and less conventional con temporary, Lope de Vega, Calderon is held in less esteem than formerly.
Calderon's plays can be grouped under five headings, as follows: (1) Religious or sacred plays, to which class belong three of his most successful works, 'The Wonder-Working Magician' (q.v.), The Devotion to the Cross' and (The Firm Prince.' These plays have as their themes conversion from paganism, the repentance of a sinner, who thereby receives pardon, and the fortitude of a Christian hero. (2) Philosophical plays, the best-known being (Life is a Dream' (q.v.). (3) Tragedies, or so-called honor plays, a representative work of this peculiarly Spanish type of play being (The Mayor of Zalamea> (q.v.). (4) and sword* comedies, plays of intrigue which re flect the customs of the dramatist's age. It was of these plays that Goethe was thinking when he remarked that Calderon's characters are as alike as bullets or leaden soldiers cast in the same mould. In this type of play Cal deron was surpassed by Lope de Vega, Tirso de Molina and Alarcon. (5) °Autos sacra inentales,* in which Calderon was acknowledged a master without a peer. The modern reader is interested only in the few lyrical passages which occur at rare intervals in arid wastes of philosophical or theological discussions and abstractions.
Bibliography.— (Biblioteca de Autores Es pafioles> (Vols. VII, IX, XII, XIV, LVIII) ; 'Select Plays' (ed. N. MacColl, London ; 'Six Dramas of Calderon' (freely trans. by E. Fitzgerald, London 1903) ; Schmidt, F. M. V., Schauspiele Calderon's) (Elberfeld 1857) ; M. Menendez y Pelayo, (Calderon y su Teatro) (Madrid 1881) ; Breymann, H., (Calderon Studien' (a pretentious but incomplete and in accurate bibliography, Munich 1905).
MiLrojc A. BUCHANAN, Professor of Italian and Spanish, University of Toronto.