Chapter XXII

CALDERON.--HIS LIFE AND VARIOUS WORKS.--DRAMAS FALSELY ATTRIBUTED TO HIM.--HIS SACRAMENTAL AUTOS.--HOW REPRESENTED.--THEIR CHARACTER.--THE DIVINE ORPHEUS.--GREAT POPULARITY OF SUCH EXHIBITIONS.--HIS FULL-LENGTH RELIGIOUS PLAYS.--PURGATORY OF SAINT PATRICK.--DEVOTION TO THE CROSS.--WONDER-WORKING MAGICIAN.--OTHER SIMILAR PLAYS.

Turning from Lope de Vega and his school, we come now to his great successor and rival, Pedro Calderon de la Barca, who, if he invented no new form of the drama, was yet so eminently a poet in the national temper, and had a success so brilliant, that he must necessarily fill a large space in all inquiries concerning the history of the Spanish theatre.

He was born at Madrid, on the 17th of January, 1600;[570] and one of his friends claims kindred for him with nearly all the old kings of the different Spanish monarchies, and even with most of the crowned heads of his time, throughout Europe.[571] This is absurd. But it is of consequence to know that his family was respectable, and its position in society such as to give him an opportunity for early intellectual culture;--his father being Secretary to the Treasury Board under Philip the Second and Philip the Third, and his mother of a noble family, that came from the Low Countries long before. Perhaps, however, the most curious circumstance connected with his origin is to be found in the fact, that, while the two masters of the Spanish drama, Lope de Vega and Calderon, were both born in Madrid, the families of both are to be sought for, at an earlier period, in the same little picturesque valley of Carriedo, where each possessed an ancestral fief.[572]

[570] There has been some discussion, and a general error, about
the date of Calderon’s birth; but in a rare book, entitled
“Obelisco Fúnebre,” published in his honor, by his friend Gaspar
Augustin de Lara, (Madrid, 1684, 4to), written immediately after
Calderon’s death, it is distinctly stated, on the authority of
Calderon himself, that he was born Jan. 17th, 1600. This settles
all doubts. The certificate of baptism given in Baena, “Hijos de
Madrid,” Tom. IV. p. 228, only says that he was baptized Feb.
14th, 1600; but why that ceremony, contrary to custom, was so
long delayed, or why a person in the position of Vera Tassis y
Villarroel, who, like Lara, was a friend of Calderon, should
have placed the poet’s birth on January 1st, we cannot now even
conjecture.

[571] See the learned genealogical introduction to the “Obelisco
Fúnebre,” just cited. The name of _Calderon_, as its author tells
us, came into the family in the thirteenth century, when one of
its number, being prematurely born, was supposed to be dead, but
was ascertained to be alive by being unceremoniously thrown into
a caldron--_calderon_--of warm water. As he proved to be a great
man, and was much favored by St. Ferdinand and Alfonso the Wise,
his nickname became a name of honor, and five _caldrons_ were,
from that time, borne in the family arms. The additional surname
of _Barca_ came in later, with an estate--_solar_--of one of
the house, who afterwards perished, fighting against the Moors;
in consequence of which, a castle, a gauntlet, and the motto,
_Por la fé moriré_, were added to their escutcheon, which, thus
arranged, constituted the not inappropriate arms of the poet in
the seventeenth century.

[572] See the notice of Calderon’s father in Baena, Tom. I.
p. 305; that of Calderon himself, Tom. IV. p. 228; and that
of Lope de Vega, Tom. III. p. 350; but, especially, see the
different facts about Calderon scattered through the dull prose
introduction to the “Obelisco Fúnebre,” and its still more dull
poetry. The biographical sketch of him by his friend Vera Tassis
y Villarroel, originally prefixed to the fifth volume of his
Comedias, and to be found in the first volume of the editions
since, is formal, pedantic, and unsatisfactory, like most notices
of the old Spanish authors.

When only nine years old, he was placed under the Jesuits, and from them received instructions which, like those Corneille was receiving at the same moment, in the same way, on the other side of the Pyrenees, imparted their coloring to the whole of his life, and especially to its latter years. After leaving the Jesuits, he went to Salamanca, where he studied with distinction the scholastic theology and philosophy then in fashion, and the civil and canon law. But when he left the University in 1619, he was already known as a writer for the theatre; and when he arrived at Madrid, he seems, probably on this account, to have been at once noticed by some of those persons about the court who could best promote his advancement and success.

In 1620, he entered, with the leading spirits of his time, into the first poetical contest opened by the city of Madrid in honor of San Isidro, and received for his efforts the public compliment of Lope de Vega’s praise.[573] In 1622, he appeared at the second and greater contest proposed by the capital, on the canonization of the same saint; and gained--all that could be gained by one individual--a single prize, with still further and more emphatic praises from the presiding spirit of the show.[574] In the same year, too, when Lope published a considerable volume containing an account of all these ceremonies and rejoicings, we find that the youthful Calderon approached him as a friend, with a few not ungraceful lines, which Lope, to show that he admitted the claim, prefixed to his book. But, from that time, we entirely lose sight of Calderon as an author, for ten years, except that in 1630 he figures in Lope de Vega’s “Laurel of Apollo,” among the crowd of poets born in Madrid.[575]

[573] His sonnet for this occasion is in Lope de Vega, Obras
Sueltas, Tom. XI. p. 432; and his _octavas_ are at p. 491. Both
are respectable for a youth of twenty. The praises of Lope, which
are unmeaning, are at p. 593 of the same volume. Who obtained the
prizes at this festival of 1620 is not known.

[574] The different pieces offered by Calderon for the festival
of May 17, 1622, are in Lope de Vega, Obras Sueltas, Tom. XII.
pp. 181, 239, 303, 363, 384. Speaking of them, Lope (p. 413)
says, a prize was given to “Don Pedro Calderon, who, in his
tender years, earns the laurels which time is wont to produce
only with hoary hairs.” The six or eight poems offered by
Calderon at these two poetical joustings are valuable, not only
as being the oldest of his works that remain to us, but as being
almost the only specimens of his verse that we have, except his
dramas. Cervantes, in his Don Quixote, intimates, that, at these
poetical contests, the first prize was given from personal favor,
or from regard to the rank of the aspirant, and the second with
reference only to the merit of the poem presented. (Parte II. c.
18.) Calderon took, on this occasion, only the _third_ prize for
a _cancion_; the first being given to Lope, and the second to
Zarate.

[575] Silva VII.

Much of this interval seems to have been filled with service in the armies of his country. At least, he was in the Milanese in 1625, and afterwards, as we are told, went to Flanders, where a disastrous war was still carried on with unrelenting hatred, both national and religious. That he was not a careless observer of men and manners during his campaigns, we see by the plots of some of his plays, and by the lively local descriptions with which they abound, as well as by the characters of his heroes, who often come fresh from these same wars, and talk of their adventures with an air of reality that leaves no doubt that they speak of what had absolutely happened. But we soon find him in the more appropriate career of letters. In 1632, Montalvan tells us that Calderon was already the author of many dramas, which had been acted with applause; that he had gained many public prizes; that he had written a great deal of lyrical verse; and that he had begun a poem on the General Deluge. His reputation as a poet, therefore, at the age of thirty-two, was an enviable one, and was fast rising.[576]

[576] Para Todos, ed. 1661, pp. 539, 540. But these sketches were
prepared in 1632.

A dramatic author of such promise could not be overlooked in the reign of Philip the Fourth, especially when the death of Lope, in 1635, had left the theatre without a master. In 1636, therefore, Calderon was formally attached to the court, for the purpose of furnishing dramas to be represented in the royal theatres, and in 1637, as a further honor, he was made a knight of the Order of Santiago. His very distinctions, however, threw him back once more into a military life. When he was just entering on his brilliant career as a poet, the rebellion excited by France in Catalonia burst forth with great violence, and all the members of the four great military orders of the kingdom were required, in 1640, to appear in the field and sustain the royal authority. Calderon, like a true knight, presented himself at once to fulfil his duty. But the king was so anxious to enjoy his services in the palace, that he was willing to excuse him from the field, and asked from him yet another drama. In great haste, the poet finished his “Contest of Love and Jealousy,”[577] and then joined the army; serving loyally through the campaign in the body of troops commanded by the Count Duke Olivares in person, and remaining in the field till the rebellion was quelled.

[577] It has been said that Calderon has given to none of his
dramas the title Vera Tassis assigns to this one, viz., “Certámen
de Amor y Zelos.” But this is a mistake. No play with this
precise title is to be found among his printed works; but it is
the last but one in the list of his plays furnished by Calderon
himself to the Duke of Veraguas, in 1680.

After his return, the king testified his increased regard for Calderon by giving him a pension of thirty gold crowns a month, and by employing him in the arrangements for the festivities of the court, when, in 1649, the new queen, Anna Maria of Austria, made her entrance into Madrid. From this period, he uniformly enjoyed a high degree of the royal favor; and, till the death of Philip the Fourth, he had a controlling influence over whatever related to the drama, writing secular plays for the theatres and _autos_ for the Church with uninterrupted applause.

In 1651, he followed the example of Lope de Vega and other men of letters of his time, by entering a religious brotherhood; and the king two years afterwards gave him the place of chaplain in a chapel consecrated to the “New Kings” at Toledo;--a burial-place set apart for royalty, and richly endowed from the time of Henry of Trastamara. But it was found that his duties there kept him too much from the court, to whose entertainment he had become important. In 1663, therefore, he was created chaplain of honor to the king, who thus secured his regular presence at Madrid; though, at the same time, he was permitted to retain his former place, and even had a second added to it. In the same year, he became a Priest of the Congregation of Saint Peter, and soon rose to be its head; an office of some importance, which he held during the last fifteen years of his life, and exercised with great gentleness and dignity.[578]

[578] “He knew how,” says Augustin de Lara, “to unite, by
humility and prudence, the duties of an obedient child and a
loving father.”

This accumulation of religious benefices, however, did not lead him to intermit in any degree his dramatic labors. On the contrary, it was rather intended to stimulate him to further exertion; and his fame was now so great, that the cathedrals of Toledo, Granada, and Seville constantly solicited from him religious plays to be performed on the day of the Corpus Christi,--that great festival, for which, during nearly thirty-seven years, he furnished similar entertainments regularly, at the charge of the city of Madrid. For these services, as well as for his services at court, he was richly rewarded, so that he accumulated an ample fortune.

After the death of Philip the Fourth, which happened in 1665, he seems to have enjoyed less of the royal patronage. Charles the Second had a temper totally different from that of his predecessor; and Solís, the historian, speaking of Calderon, with reference to these circumstances, says pointedly, “He died without a Mæcenas.”[579] But still he continued to write as before for the public theatres, for the court, and for the churches; and retained, through his whole life, the extraordinary general popularity of his best years. He died in 1681, on the 25th of May,--the Feast of the Pentecost,--while all Spain was ringing with the performance of his _autos_, in the composition of one more of which he was himself occupied almost to the last moment of his life.[580]

[579] “Murió sin Mecenas.” Aprobacion to the “Obelisco,” dated
Oct. 30th, 1683. All that relates to Calderon in this very rare
volume is important, because it comes from a friend, and was
written,--at least the poetical part of it,--as the author tells
us, within fifty-three days after Calderon’s death.

[580] “Estava un auto entonces en los fines, como su autor.”
(Obelisco, Canto I., st. 22. See also a sonnet at the end of the
volume.) Solís, the historian, in one of his letters, says, “Our
friend Don Pedro Calderon is just dead, and went off, as they
say the swan does, singing; for he did all he could, even when
he was in immediate danger, to finish the second _auto_ for the
Corpus. But, after all, he went through only a little more than
half of it, and it has been finished in some way or other by Don
Melchior de Leon.” (Cartas de N. Antonio y A. Solís, publicadas
por Mayans y Siscar, Leon de Francia, 1733, 12mo, p. 75.) I cite
three contemporary notices of so small a fact, to show how much
consequence was attached to every thing regarding Calderon and
his _autos_.

The next day, he was borne, as his will required, without any show, to his grave in the church of San Salvador, by the Priests of the Congregation over which he had so long presided, and to which he now left the whole of his fortune. A more gorgeous funeral ceremony followed a few days later, to satisfy the claims of the popular admiration; and even at Valencia, Naples, Lisbon, Milan, and Rome, public notice was taken of his death by his countrymen, as of a national calamity.[581] A monument to his memory was soon erected in the church where he was buried; but in 1840 his remains were removed to the more splendid church of the Atocha, where they now rest.[582]

[581] Lara, in his “Advertencias,” speaks of “the funeral
eulogies _printed_ in Valencia.” Vera Tassis mentions them also,
without adding that they were printed. A copy of them would be
very interesting, as they were the work of “the illustrious
gentlemen” of the household of the Duke of Veraguas, Calderon’s
friend. The substance of the poet’s will is given in the
“Obelisco,” Cant. I., st. 32, 33.

[582] An account of the first monument and its inscription is to
be found in Baena, Tom. IV. p. 231; and an account of the removal
of the poet’s ashes to the convent of “Our Lady of Atocha” is in
the Foreign Quarterly Review, April, 1841, p. 227. An attempt
to do still further honor to the memory of Calderon was made
by the publication of a life of him, and of poems in his honor
by Zamacola, Zorilla, Hartzenbusch, etc., in a folio pamphlet,
Madrid, 1840, as well as by a subscription.

Calderon, we are told, was remarkable for his personal beauty, which he long preserved by the serenity and cheerfulness of his spirit. The engraving published soon after his death shows, at least, a strongly marked and venerable countenance, to which in fancy we may easily add the brilliant eye and gentle voice given to him by his friendly eulogist, while, in its ample and finely turned brow, we are reminded of that with which we are familiar in the portraits of our own great dramatic poet.[583] His character, throughout, seems to have been benevolent and kindly. In his old age, we learn that he used to collect his friends round him on his birthdays, and tell them amusing stories of his childhood;[584] and during the whole of the active part of his life, he enjoyed the regard of many of the distinguished persons of his time, who, like the Count Duke Olivares and the Duke of Veraguas, seem to have been attracted to him quite as much by the gentleness of his nature as by his genius and fame.

[583] His fine capacious forehead is noticed by his eulogist,
and is obvious in the print of 1684, which little resembles the
copies made from it by later engravers:--

Considerava de su rostro grave
_Lo capaz de la frente_, la viveza
De los ojos alegres, lo suave
De la voz, etc.