Life Is a Dream by Calderón de la Barca, Pedro, 1600-1681, MacCarthy, Denis Florence, 1817-1882

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

A word from our supporters: File extension NDS

Calderon's Dramas. Life Is A Dream. By Denis Florence Mac-carthy. Introduction.

* * * * * Scene Ii.

* * * * * Scene Iii. * * * * * Scene Iv.

* * * * * Scene V. A Hall In The Royal Palace.

* * * * * Scene Vi.

* * * * * Scene Vii. * * * * * Scene Viii.

* * * * * Act The Second. A Hall In The Royal Palace. * * * * * Scene I.

* * * * * Scene Ii.

* * * * * Scene Iii.

* * * * * Scene Iv. * * * * * Scene V. Estrella. - The Same.

* * * * * Scene Vi.

* * * * * Scene Vii.

* * * * * Scene Viii.

Scene Ix. * * * * * Scene X. * * * * * Scene Xi.

* * * * * Scene Xii.

Scene Xiii. * * * * * Scene Xiv.

* * * * * Scene Ii. * * * * * Scene Iii.

* * * * * Scene Iv.

* * * * * Scene V. Hall In The Royal Palace.

Scene Vi. * * * * * Scene Vii. * * * * * Scene Viii.

* * * * * Scene Xiv.

It is curious to find that the same anecdote which formed the Induction to the original "Taming of a Shrew", and which, from a comic point of view, Shakespeare so wonderfully developed in his own comedy, Calderon invested with such solemn and sublime dignity in "La Vida es Sueno". He found it, as Senor Hartzenbusch points out in the edition of 1872 already quoted, in the very amusing "Viage Entretenido" of Augustin de Rojas, which was first published in 1603. Hartzenbusch refers to the modern edition of Rojas, Madrid, 1793, tomo I, pp. 261, 262, 263, but in a copy of the Lerida edition of 1615, in my own possession, I find the anecdote at folios 118, 119, 120. There are some slight differences between the version of Rojas and that of Goulart, but the incidents and the persons are the same. The conclusion to which the artizan arrived at, in the version of Goulart, that all had been a dream, is expressed more strongly by the Duke himself in the story as told by Rojas.

"Y dijo entonces el Duque: 'veis aqui, amigos, "Lo que es el Mundo: Todo es un Sueno", pues esto verdaderamente ha pasado por este, como habeis visto, y le parece que lo ha sonado.'" --

The story in all probability came originally from the East. Mr. Lane in his translation of the Thousand and One Nights gives a very interesting narrative which he believes to be founded on an historical fact in which Haroun Al Raschid plays the part of the good Duke of Burgundy, and Abu-l-Hasan the original of Christopher Sly. The gravity of the treatment and certain incidents in this Oriental story recall more strongly Calderon's drama than the Induction to the "Taming of the Shrew". "La Vida es Sueno" was first published either at the end of 1635 or beginning of 1636.

The "Aprobacion" for its publication along with eleven other dramas (not nine as Archbishop Trench has stated), was signed on the 6th of November in the former year by the official licenser, Juan Bautista de Sossa. The volume was edited by the poet's brother, Don Joseph Calderon. So scarce has this first authorised collection of any of Calderon's dramas become, that a Spanish writer Don Vicente Garcia de la Huerta, in his "Teatro Espanol" (Parte Segunda, tomo 3o), denies the existence of this volume of 1635, and states that it did not appear until 1640. As if to corroborate this view, Barrera in his "Catalogo del Teatro antiguo Espanol" gives the date 1640 to the "Primera parte de comedias de Calderon" edited by his brother Joseph.