(Enter DARIA guided by the lion.)
DARIA.
O mighty lion, whither am I led?
Where wouldst thou guide me with thy stately tread,
That seems to walk not on the earth, but air?
But lo! he has entered there
Where yonder cave its yawning mouth lays bare,
[The lion enters a cave.]
Leaving me here alone.
But now fate clears, and all will soon be known;
For if I read aright
The signs this desert gives unto my sight,
It is the very place whence echo gave
Responsive music from this mystic cave.
Terror and wonder both my senses scare,
Ah! whither shall I go?
CHRYSANTHUS (within).
Daria fair!
DARIA.
Who calls my hapless name?
Each leaf that moves doth thrill this wretched frame
With boding and with dread.
But why say wretched? I had better said
Thrice bless`ed: O great God whom I adore,
Baptize me in those tears that I outpour,
In no more fitting form can I declare
My faith and hope in thee.
CHRYSANTHUS (within).
Daria fair.
DARIA.
Who calls my name? who wakes those wild alarms?
(Enter Chrysanthus.)
CHRYSANTHUS.
Belov`ed bride, 't is one to whom thy charms
Are even less dear than is thy soul, ah! me,
One who would live and who will die with thee.
DARIA.
Belov`ed spouse, my heart could not demand
Than thus to see thee near, to clasp thy hand,
A sweeter solace for my long dismay,
And all the awful wonders of this day.
Hear the surprising tale,
And thou wilt know . . .
VOICES (within).
Search hill.
OTHERS.
And plain.
OTHERS.
And vale.
CHRYSANTHUS.
Hush! the troops our fight pursuing
Have the forest precincts entered.[17]
DARIA.
What then shall I do, Chrysanthus?
CHRYSANTHUS.
Keep thy faith, thy life surrender:--
DARIA.
I a thousand lives would offer:
Since to God I 'm so indebted
That I 'll think myself too happy
If 't is given for Him.
POLEMIUS (within).
This centre
Of the mountain, whence the sun
Scarcely ever is reflected--
This dark cavern sure must hold them.
Let us penetrate its entrails,
So that here the twain may die.
DARIA.
One thing only is regretted
By me, in my life thus losing,
I am not baptized.
CHRYSANTHUS.
Reject then
That mistrust; in blood and fire[18]
Martyrdom the rite effecteth:--
(Enter Polemius and Soldiers.)
POLEMIUS.
Here, my soldiers, here they are,
And the hand that death presents them
Must be mine, that none may think
I a greater love could cherish
For my son than for my gods.
And as I desire, when wendeth
Hither great Numerianus,
That he find them dead, arrest them
On the spot, and fling them headlong
Into yonder cave whose centre
Is a fathomless abyss:--
And since one sole love cemented
Their two hearts in life, in death
In one sepulchre preserve them.
CHRYSANTHUS.
Oh! how joyfully I die!
DARIA.
And I also, since the sentence
Gives to me the full assurance
Of a happiness most certain
On the day this darksome cave
Doth entomb me in its centre. (They are cast into the abyss.)
POLEMIUS.
Cover the pit's mouth with stones.
(A sudden storm of thunder and lightning: Enter Numerianus, Claudius,
Aurelius, and others.
NUMERIANUS.
What can have produced this tempest?
POLEMIUS.
When within the cave they threw them,
Dark eclipse o'erspread the heavens.
CLAUDIUS.
Shadowy shapes, phantasmal shadows
Are upon the wind projected.
CYNTHIA.
Lightnings like swift birds of fire
Dart along with burning tresses.
CLAUDIUS.
Lo! an earthquake's awful shudder
Makes the very mountains tremble.
POLEMIUS.
Yes, the solid ground upheaveth,
And the mighty rock descendeth
O'er our heads.
NISIDA.
While on the instant
Dulcet voices soft and tender
Issue from the cave's abysses.
NUMERIANUS.
Rome to-day strange sights presenteth,
When a grave exhibits gladness,
And the sun displays resentment.
(A choir of angels is heard singing from within the cave.)
"Happy day, and happy doom,
May the gladsome world exclaim,
When the darksome cave became
Saint Daria's sacred tomb".
(A great rock falls from the mountain, and covers the tomb, over it is
seen an angel.)
ANGEL.
This great cave which holds to-day
In its breast so great a treasure,
Never shall by foot be trodden;--
Thus it is I 've sealed and settled
This great mass of rock upon it,
Which doth shut it up for ever.
And in order that their ashes
On the wind be ne'er dispers`ed,
But while time itself endureth
Shall be honoured and respected,
This brief epitaph, this simple
Line shall tell this simple legend
To the ages that come after:
"Here the bodies are preserv`ed
Of Chrysanthus and Daria,
The two lover-saints of Heaven".
CLAUDIUS.
Wherefore humbly we entreat
Pardon for our many errors.
3. The whole of the first scene is in 'asonante' verse, the vowels
being i, e, as in "restrIctEd", "drIftlEss", "hIddEn", etc. These
vowels, or their equivalents in sound, will be found pretty accurately
represented in the last two syllables of every alternate line throughout
the scene, which ends at p. 25, and where the verse changes into the
full consonant rhyme.
4. The resemblance between certain parts of Goethe's Faust and The
Wonder-Working Magician of Calderon has been frequently alluded to, and
has given rise to a good deal of discussion. In the controversy as to
how much the German poet was indebted to the Spanish, I do not recollect
any reference to The Two Lovers of Heaven. The following passage,
however, both in its spirit and language, presents a singular likeness
to the more elaborate discussion of the same difficulty in the text.
The scene is in Faustus's study. Faustus, as in the present play, takes
up a volume of the New Testament, and thus proceeds:
"IN THE BEGINNING WAS THE WORD". Alas!
The first line stops me: how shall I proceed?
"The word" cannot express the meaning here.
I must translate the passage differently,
If by the spirit I am rightly guided.
Once more,--"IN THE BEGINNING WAS THE THOUGHT".--
Consider the first line attentively,
Lest hurrying on too fast, you lose the meaning.
Was it then Thought that has created all things?
Can thought make matter? Let us try the line
Once more,--"IN THE BEGINNING WAS THE POWER"--
This will not do--even while I write the phrase,
I feel its faults--oh! help me, holy Spirit,
I 'll weigh the passage once again, and write
Boldly,--"IN THE BEGINNING WAS THE ACT".
Anster's "Faustus", Francfort ed., 1841, p. 63.
5. The same line of argument is worked out with wonderful subtlety of
thought and beauty of poetical expression by Calderon, in one of the
finest of his Autos Sacramentales, "The Sacred Parnassus". Autos
Sacramentales, tom. vi. p. 10.
6. The metre reverts here again to the asonante form, which is kept up
for the remainder of this act. The vowels here used are e, e, or their
equivalents.
7. "This Clytie knew, and knew she was undone,
Whose soul was fix'd, and doted on the sun".
OVID, Metamorphoses, b. iv.
8. In the whole of this scene the asonante vowels are a-e, or their
equivalents.
9. The asonante in e-e, recommences here, and continues until the entry
of Chrysanthus.
10. The metre changes to the asonante in a-e for the remainder of this
Act.
11. The asonante in this scene is generally in o-e, o-o, o-a, which are
nearly all alike in sound. In the second scene the asonante is in a-e,
as in "scAttEr", etc.
12. See note referring to the auto, "The Sacred Parnassus", Act 1, p.
21.
13. The asonante changes here into five-lined stanzas in ordinary
rhyme. Three lines rhyme one way and two the other. Poems in this
metre are called in Spanish 'Versos de arte mayor,' from the greater
skill supposed to be required for their composition.
14. The asonante is single here, consisting only of the long accented
o, as in "ROme", "glObe", "dOme", etc.
15. Champion, or combater, the name generally given the Cid.
16. The metre changes to an irregular couplet in long and short lines.
17. The metre changes to the double asonante in e-e, which continues to
the end of the drama.
18. Baptism by blood and fire through martyrdom. Calderon refers here
evidently to the words of St. John the Baptist: "He shall baptize you in
the Holy Ghost and fire"--St. Matth., c. iii. v. ii. The following
passage in the Legend of St. Catherine must also have been present to
his mind:
"Et cum dolerent, quod sine baptismo decederent, virgo respondit: Ne
timeatis, quia effusio vestri sanguinis vobis baptismus reputabitur et
corona". Legenda Aurea, c. 167.
THE SPANISH DRAMA.
CALDERON'S DRAMAS AND AUTOS,
Translated into English Verse
BY DENIS FLORENCE MAC-CARTHY.
From Ticknor's History of Spanish Literature. London: 1863.
"Denis Florence M'Carthy published in London (in 1861) translations of
two plays, and an auto of Calderon, under the title of 'Love, the
greatest Enchantment; the Sorceries of Sin; the Devotion of the Cross,
from the Spanish of Calderon, attempted strictly in English Asonante,
and other imitative Verse', printing, at the same time, a carefully
corrected text of the originals, page by page, opposite to his
translations. It is, I think, one of the boldest attempts ever made in
English verse. It is, too, as it seems to me, remarkably successful.
Not that asonantes can be made fluent or graceful in English, or easily
perceptible to an English ear, but that the Spanish air and character of
Calderon are so happily preserved. Mr. M'Carthy, in 1853, had published
two volumes of translations from Calderon, to which I have already
referred; and, besides this, he has rendered excellent service to the
cause of Spanish literature in other ways. But in the present volume he
has far surpassed all he had previously done; for Calderon is a poet
who, whenever he is translated, should have his very excesses, both in
thought and manner, fully produced, in order to give a faithful idea of
what is grandest and most distinctive in his genius. Mr. M'Carthy has
done this, I conceive, to a degree which I had previously considered
impossible. Nothing, I think, in the English language will give us so
true an impression of what is most characteristic of the Spanish drama;
perhaps I ought to say, of what is most characteristic of Spanish poetry
generally".--tom. iii. pp. 461, 462.
Extracts from Continental Reviews.
From "Blaeater fuer Literarische Unterhaltung". 1862. Erster Baude,
479 Leipzig, F. A. Brockhans.
"Erwaehnenswerth ist folgender Kuehne versuch einer Rachdildung
Calderon' scher stuecke in Englishchen Assonanzen.
"Love, the greatest enchantment; The Sorceries of Sin; The Devotion of
the Cross, from the Spanish of Calderon, attempted strictly in English
Asonante, and other imitative verse. By Denis Florence Mac-Carthy".
Diese Uebersetzung ist dem Verfasser der "History of Spanish
Literature", George Ticknor, zugeeignet, der in einem Schreiber au den
Uebersetzer die Arbeit "marvellous" nennt und dam fortfaehrt:
"Richt das sie die Assonanzen dem englischen Ohr so hoerbar gemacht
haetten, wie dies mit den Spanischen der Fall ist; unsere widerhaarigen
consonanten machen dies unmoeglich; das Wunderbare ist nur, das sie
dieselben ueberhaupt hoerbar gemacht haben. Meiner Meinung nach nehme
ist Ihre Assonanzen so deutlich wahr, wil die Von August Schlegel oder
Gries und mehr als diejenigen Friedrich Schlegel's. Aber dieser war der
erste, der den versuch dazu machte, und ausserdem bin ich Kein
Deutscher. Wurde es nicht lustig sein, wenn man einmal ein solches
Experiment in franzoeschicher Sprache wolte?"
"Ohne zweifel wuerde MacCarthy Ohne den vorgaug deutscher Nachbilder des
Calderon ebenso wenig darauf gekommen sein englische Assonanzen zu
versuchen, als man ohne das ermunternde Beispiel deutscher Dichter und
Uebersetzer darauf gekommen sein wurde, in Uebersetzungen und
originaldichtungen unter welchen letztern wol besonders Longfellow's
'Evangeline', zu nennen ist, englische Hexameter zu versuchen, was in
letzter zeit gar nicht selten geschehen ist".
From "Boletin de Ferro-Carriles". Cadiz: 1862.
"La novedad que nos comunica de la existencia de traducciones tan
acabadas de nuestro grande e inimitable Calderon, ostendando, hasta
cierto punto, las galas y formas del original, estamos seguros sera
acogida con favor, si no con entusiasmo, per los verdaderos amantes de
las letras espanolas. A ellos nos dirijimos, recomendandoles el ultimo
trabajo del Senor Mac-Carthy, seguros de que participaran del mismo
placer que nosotros hemos experimentado al examinar su fiel, al par que
brillante traduccion; y en cuanto a la dificil tentativa de los
asonantes ingleses, nos sorpende que el Senor Mac-Carthy haya podido
sacar tanto parido, si se considera la indole peculiar de los dos
idiomas".
Extracts from Letters addressed to the Author.
From Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Esq.
Cambridge, near Boston, America, April 29, 1862.
"I thank you very much for your new work in the vast and flowery fields
of Calderon. It is, I think, admirable; and presents the old Spanish
dramatist before the English reader in a very attractive light.
"Particularly in the most poetical passages you are excellent; as, for
instance, in the fine description of the gerfalcon and the heron in 'El
Mayor Encanto'.--11 Jor.
"Your previous volumes I have long possessed and highly prized; and I
hope you mean to add more and more, so as to make the translation as
nearly complete as a single life will permit. It seems rather appalling
to undertake the whole of so voluminous a writer. Nevertheless, I hope
you will do it. Having proved that you can, perhaps you ought to do it.
This may be your appointed work. It is a noble one.
"With much regard, I am, etc.,
"HENRY W. LONGFELLOW.
"Denis Florence Mac-Carthy, Esq.".
From the Same.
Nahant, near Boston, August 10, 1857.
"MY DEAR SIR,
"Before leaving Cambridge to come down here to the sea-side, I had the
pleasure of receiving your precious volume of 'Mysteries of Corpus
Christi'; and should have thanked you sooner for your kindness in
sending it to me, had I not been very busy at the time in getting out my
last volume of Dante.
"I at once read your work, with eagerness and delight--that peculiar and
strange delight which Calderon gives his admirers, as peculiar and
distinct as the flavour of an olive from that of all other fruits.
"You are doing this work admirably, and seem to gain new strength and
sweetness as you go on. It seems as if Calderon himself were behind you
whispering and suggesting. And what better work could you do in your
bright hours or in your dark hours than just this, which seems to have
been put providentially into your hands!
"The extracts from the 'Sacred Parnassus' in the Chronicle, which
reached me yesterday, are also excellent.
"For this and all, many and many thanks.
"Yours faithfully,
"HENRY W. LONGFELLOW.
"Denis Florence Mac-Carthy, Esq.".
From George Ticknor, Esq., the Historian of Spanish Literature.
"Boston, 16th December, 1861.
"In this point of view, your volume seems to me little less than
marvellous. If I had not read it--indeed, if I had not carefully gone
through with the "Devocion de la Cruz", I should not have believed it
possible to do what you have done. Titian, they say, and some others of
the old masters, laid on colours for their groundwork wholly different
from those they used afterwards, but which they counted upon to shine
through, and contribute materially to the grand results they produced.
So in your translations, the Spanish seems to come through to the
surface; the original air is always perceptible in your variations. It
is like a family likeness coming out in the next generation, yet with
the freshness of originality.
"But the rhyme is as remarkable as the verse and the translation; not
that you have made the asonante as perceptible to the English ear as it
is to the Spanish; our cumbersome consonants make that impossible. But
the wonder is, that you have made it perceptible at all. I think I
perceive your asonantes much as I do those of August Schlegel or Gries,
and more than I do those of Friederich Schlegel. But he was the first
who tried them, and, besides, I am not a German. Would it not be
amusing to have the experiment tried in French?"
From the Same.
"Boston, March 20, 1867.
"The world has claims on you which you ought not to evade; and, if the
path in which you walk of preference, leads to no wide popularity or
brilliant profits, it is, at least, one you have much to yourself, and
cannot fail to enjoy. You have chosen it from faithful love, and will
always love it; I suspect partly because it is your own choice, because
it is peculiarly your own".
From the Same.
"Boston, July 3, 1867.
"Considered from this point of view, I think that in your present volume
["Mysteries of Corpus Christi", or "Autos Sacramentales" of Calderon]
you are always as successful as you were in your previous publications
of the same sort, and sometimes more so; easier, I mean, freer, and more
happily expressive. If I were to pick out my first preference, I should
take your fragment of the 'Veneno y Triaca', at the end; but I think the
whole volume is more fluent, pleasing, and attractive than even its
predecessors".
From the first of English religious painters.
"I cannot resist the impulse I have of offering you my most grateful
thanks for the greatest intellectual treat I have ever experienced in my
life, and which you have afforded me in the magnificent translations of
the divine Calderon; for, surely, of all the poets the world ever saw,
he alone is worthy of standing beside the author of the Book of Job and
of the Psalms, and entrusted, like them, with the noble mission of
commending to the hearts of others all that belongs to the beautiful and
true, ever directing the thoughtful reader through the love of the
beautiful veil, to the great Author of all perfection.
"I cannot conceive a nation can receive a greater boon than being helped
to a love of such works as the religious dramas of this Prince of Poets.
I have for years felt this, and as your translations appeared, have read
them with the greatest possible interest. I knew not of the publication
of the last, and it was to an accidental, yet, with me, habitual
outburst of praise of Calderon, as the antidote and cure for the
trifling literature of the day, that my friend (the) D---- made me aware
of its being out".
[The work especially referred to in the latter part of this interesting
letter is the following: "Mysteries of Corpus Christi (Autos
Sacramentales), from the Spanish of Calderon, by Denis Florence
Mac-Carthy". Duffy, Dublin and London, 1867.]
Extracts from American and Canadian Journals.
From an eloquent article in the "Boston Courier", March 18, 1862,
written by George Stillman Hillard, Esq., the author of "Six Months in
Italy"--a delightful book, worthy of the beautiful country it so
beautifully describes.
"Calderon is one of the three greatest names in Spanish literature, Lope
de Vega and Cervantes being the other two. He is also a great name in
the universal realm of letters, though out of Spain he is little more
than a great name, except in Germany, that land so hospitable to famous
wits, and where, to readers and critics of a mystical and transcendental
turn, his peculiar genius strongly commended him. To form a notion of
what manner of man Calderon was, we must imagine a writer hardly
inferior to Shakespeare in fertility of invention and dramatic insight,
inspired by a religious fervour like that of Doune or Crashaw, and
endowed with the wild and ethereal imagination of Shelley. But the
religious fervour is Catholic, not Protestant, Southern, not Northern:
it is intense, mystical, and ecstatic: like a tongue of upward-darting
flame, it burns and trembles with impassioned impulse to mingle with
empyrean fire. The imagination, too, is not merely southern, but with
an oriental element shining through it, like the ruddy heart of an
opal". . .
"But our purpose is not to speak of Calderon, but of his translator Mr.
MacCarthy; and to make our readers acquainted with his very successful
effort to reproduce in English some of the most characteristic
productions of the genius of Spain, retaining even one of the
peculiarities in the structure of the verse which has hardly ever been
transplanted from the soil of the peninsula". . . .
"Mr. MacCarthy's translations strike us as among the most successful
experiments which have been made to represent in our language the
characteristic beauties of the finest productions of other nations.
They are sufficiently faithful, as may be readily seen by the Spanish
scholar, as the translator has the courage to print the original and his
version side by side. The rich, imaginative passages of Calderon are
reproduced in language of such grace and flexibility as shows in Mr.
MacCarthy no inconsiderable amount of poetical power. The measures of
Calderon are retained; the rhymed passages are translated into rhyme,
and what is more noticeable still, Mr. MacCarthy has done what no writer
in English has ever before essayed, except to a very limited extent--he
has copied the asonantes of the original". . . .
"We take leave of Mr. MacCarthy with hearty acknowledgments for the
pleasure we have had in reading his excellent translations, which have
given us a sense of Calderon's various and brilliant genius such as we
never before had, and no analysis of his dramas, however full and
careful, could bestow".
From a Review of "Love the Greatest Enchantment", etc., in the "New York
Tablet", July 19, 1862, written by the gifted and ill-fated Hon. Thomas
D'Arcy M'Gee, of Montreal.
"This beautiful volume before us--like virtue's self, fair within and
without--is Mr. Mac-Carthy's second contribution to the Herculean task
which Longfellow cheers him on to continue--the translation into English
of the complete works of Calderon. Two experimental volumes,
containing six dramas of the same author, appeared in 1853, winning the
well-merited encomium of every person of true taste into whose hands
they happened to fall. The Translator was encouraged, if not by the
general chorus of popular applause, by the precious and emphatic
approbation of those best entitled by knowledge and accomplishments to
pronounce judgment. So here, after an interval of seven years, we have
right worthily presented to us three of those famous Autos, which for
two centuries drew together all the multitude of the Madrilenos, on
the annual return of the great feast of Corpus Christi. On that same
self-same festival, in a northern land, under a gray and clouded sky, in
the heart of a city most unlike gay, garden-hued, out-of-door Madrid, we
have spent the long hours over these resurrected dramas, and the spell
of both the poets is still upon us, as we unite together, in dutiful
juxtaposition, the names of Calderon and Mac-Carthy.
"How richly gifted was this Spanish priest-poet! this pious
playwright! this moral mechanist! this devout dramatist! How rare his
experience! how broad the contrasts of his career, and of his
observation. . . . . Happy poet! blessed with such fecundity! Happy
Christian! blessed with such fidelity to the divine teachings of the
Cross. . . .
"Very highly do we reverence Calderon, and very highly value his
translator; yet, if it be not presumptuous to say so, we venture to
suggest that Mac-Carthy might find nearer home another work still
worthier of his genius than these translations. Now that he has got the
imperial ear by bringing his costly wares from afar, are there not
laurels to be gathered as well in Ireland as in Spain? The author of
'The Bell-Founder', of 'St. Brendan's Voyage', of 'The Foray of Con
O'Donnell', and 'The Pillar Towers', needs no prompting to discern what
abundant materials for a new department of English poetry are to be
found almost unused on Irish ground. May we not hope that in that field
or forest he may find his appointed work, adding to the glory of first
worthily introducing Calderon to the English readers of this century,
the still higher glory of doing for the neglected history of his
fatherland what he has chivalrously done for the illustrious Spaniard".
A LIST
OF
Calderon's Dramas and Autos Sacramentales,
Translated into English Verse
BY DENIS FLORENCE MAC-CARTHY, M.R.I.A.
THE PURGATORY OF SAINT PATRICK.
"With the 'Purgatory of St. Patrick' especial pains seem to have been
taken".
"Considerable license has been taken with the prayer of St. Patrick; but
its spirit is well preserved, and the translator's poetry must be
admired".
"If Calderon can ever be made popular here, it must be in the manner
generally adopted by Mr. Mac-Carthy in the specimens, six in number,
which are here translated, preserving, namely, the metrical form, which
is one of the characteristics of the old Spanish drama. This medium,
through which it partakes of the lyrical character, is no accident of
style, but an essential property of that remarkable creation of a poetic
age--remarkable, because while the drama so adorned was entirely the
offspring of popular impulse, in opposition to many rigorous attempts in
favour of classical methods, it was at the same time raised above the
tone of common expression by the rhythmical mode which it assumed, in a
manner decisive of its ideal tendency. It thus displays a combination
rare in this kind of poetry: the spirit of an untutored will, embodied
in a form the romantic expression of which might seem only congenial to
choice and delicate fancies. . . . .
"In conclusion, what has now been said of Calderon, and of the stage
which he adorned, as well as of the praise justly due to parts of Mr.
Mac-Carthy's version, will at least serve to commend these volumes to
curious lovers of poetry".
From an elaborate article in "The Athenaeum", by the late eminent
Spanish scholar, Mr. J. R. Chorley, on the first two volumes of Mr.
Mac-Carthy's translations from Calderon.
THE CONSTANT PRINCE.
A Drama.
"In his dramas of a serious and devout character, in virtue of their
dignified pathos, tragic sublimity, and religious fervour, Calderon's
best title to praise will be found. In such, above all in his Autos, he
reached a height beyond any of his predecessors, whose productions, on
religious themes especially, striking as many of them are, with
situations and motives of the deepest effect, are not sustained at the
same impressive elevation, nor disposed with that consummate judgment
which leaves nothing imperfect or superfluous in the dramas of Calderon.
'The Constant Prince' and 'The Physician of his own Honour', which Mr.
Mac-Carthy has translated, are noble instances representing two extremes
of a large class of dramas".
From the same article in "The Athenaeum", by J. R. Chorley.
THE PHYSICIAN OF HIS OWN HONOUR.
"'The Physician of his own Honour' is a domestic tragedy, and must be
one of the most fearful to witness ever brought upon the stage. The
highest excess of dramatic powers, terror and gloom has certainly been
reached in this drama".
From an eloquent article in "The Dublin University Magazine" on "D. F.
Mac-Carthy's Calderon".
THE SECRET IN WORDS.
A Drama.
"The ingenious verbal artifice of 'The Secret in Words', although a
mere trifle if compared to the marvellous intricacy of a similar cipher
in Tirso's 'Amar por Arte Mayor', from which Calderon's play was
taken--loses sadly in a translation; yet the piece, even with this
disadvantage, cannot fail to please".
J. R. Chorley in "The Athenaeum".
THE SCARF AND THE FLOWER.
A Drama.
"The 'Scarf and the Flower', nice and courtly though it be, the subject
spun out and entangled with infinite skill, is too thin by itself for an
interest of three acts long; and no translation, perhaps, could preserve
the grace of manner and glittering flow of dialogue which conceal this
defect in the original".
J. R. Chorley in "The Athenaeum".
LOVE AFTER DEATH.
A Drama.
"'Love after Death' is a drama full of excitement and beauty, of passion
and power, of scenes whose enthusiastic affection, self-devotion, and
undying love are drawn with more intense colouring than we find in any
other of Calderon's works".
From an article in "The Dublin University Magazine" on D. F.
Mac-Carthy's Calderon.
"Another tragedy, 'Love after Death', is connected with the hopeless
rising of the Moriscoes in the Alpujarras (1568-1570), one of whom is
its hero. It is for many reasons worthy of note; amongst others, as
showing how far Calderon could rise above national prejudices, and
expend all the treasures of his genius in glorifying the heroic
devotedness of a noble foe".
Archbishop Trench.
LOVE THE GREATEST ENCHANTMENT
A Drama.
"This fact connects the piece with the first and most pleasing in the
volume, 'Love the greatest Enchantment', in which the same myth [that of
Circe and Ulysses] is exhibited in a more life-like form, though not
without some touches of allegory. Here we have a classical plot which
is adapted to the taste of Spain in the seventeenth century by a
plentiful admixture of episodes of love and gallantry. The adventure is
opened with nearly the same circumstances as in the tenth Odyssey: but
from the moment that Ulysses, with the help of a divine talisman, has
frustrated all the spells (beauty excepted) of the enchantress, the
action is adapted to the manners of a more refined and chivalrous
circle".
"The Saturday Review" in its review of "Mac-Carthy's Three Plays of
Calderon".
THE DEVOTION OF THE CROSS.
A Drama.
"The last drama to which Mr. Mac-Carthy introduces us is the famous
'Devotion of the Cross'. We cannot deny the praise of great power to
this strange and repulsive work, in which Calderon draws us onward by a
deep and terrible dramatic interest, while doing cruel violence to our
moral nature. . . . Our readers may be glad to compare the translations
which Archbishop Trench and Mr. Mac-Carthy have given us of a celebrated
address to the Cross contained in this drama. 'Tree whereon the pitying
skies', etc. Mr. Mac-Carthy does not appear to us to suffer from
comparison on this occasion with a true poet, who is also a skilful
translator. Indeed he has faced the difficulties and given the sense of
the original with more decision than Archbishop Trench".
"The Guardian", in its review of the same volume.
THE SORCERIES OF SIN.
An Auto.
"The central piece, the 'Sorceries of Sin', is an 'Auto Sacramental', or
Morality, of which the actors represent Man, Sin, Voluptuousness, etc.,
Understanding, and the Five Senses. The Senses are corrupted by the
influence of Sin, and figuratively changed into wild beasts. Man,
accompanied by Understanding and Penance, demands their liberation and
encounters no resistance; but his free-will is afterwards seduced by the
Evil Power, and his allies reclaim him with difficulty. Yet the plan of
the apologue is embellished with many ingenious conceits and artifices,
and conformed in the leading circumstances with an Homeric myth--the
names of Ulysses and Circe being frequently substituted for those of the
Man and Sin".
"The Saturday Review" on "Mac-Carthy's Three Plays of Calderon".
BELSHAZZAR'S FEAST.
An Auto.
"The first auto translated is 'Belshazzar's Feast', a fortunate
selection, for it is probably unsurpassed in dramatic effect and poetic
description, and withal is much less encumbered with theology than most
others".
From an article in "The New York Nation", by a distinguished professor
of Cornell University, on "Mac-Carthy's Translations of Calderon".
THE DIVINE PHILOTHEA.
An Auto.
"'The Divine Philothea', probably the last work of the kind written by
Calderon, and as such worthy of attention, inasmuch as it is the
composition of an old man of eighty-one, is conceived with much boldness
and executed with marvellous skill. No fewer than twenty personages are
represented on the stage, and these have their several parts allotted to
them with great discrimination, ingenuity, and judgment. The Senses,
the Cardinal Virtues; Paganism and Judaism; Heresy and Atheism; the
Prince of Light and the Power of Darkness, figure amongst the
characters".
"The Bookseller", June 29, 1867, on Mac-Carthy's "Mysteries of Corpus
Christi (Autos Sacramentales), from the Spanish of Calderon".
THE TWO LOVERS OF HEAVEN.
A Drama.
"Of these 'The Wonder-working Magician' is most celebrated; but others,
as 'The Joseph of Women', 'The Two Lovers of Heaven', quite deserve to
be placed on a level if not higher than it. A tender pathetic grace is
shed over this last, which gives it a peculiar charm".
Archbishop Trench.
Calderon's Autos Sacramentales, or Mysteries of Corpus Christi. Duffy:
Dublin and London, 1867.
From "The Irish Ecclesiastical Record".
"In conclusion, we heartily commend to our readers this most interesting
and valuable specimen of Spanish thought and devotion, wrought, as it
is, into such pure and beautiful English. . . . . When we remember the
great literary advantages which Spain once possessed in the intellect
and faith of her literary giants, we may well rejoice in the appearance
among us of one of the greatest of that noble race in the person of
Calderon, especially when introduced to us by a poet whose claim upon
our consideration has been so emphatically made good by his own original
productions as Denis Florence Mac-Carthy".
THE SPANISH DRAMA
Just ready, double columns, price 2s. 6d.,
THE TWO LOVERS OF HEAVEN,
From the Spanish of Calderon,
BY DENIS FLORENCE MAC-CARTHY,
Author of The Voyage of St. Brendan, The Bell-Founder,
Waiting for the May, etc.
DUBLIN: W. B. KELLY, 8 GRAFTON STREET.
BY THE SAME AUTHOR.
In one vol. small 4to, double columns, with the Spanish text,
beautifully printed by Whittingham, Price 7s. 6d.,
THREE DRAMAS OF CALDERON,
FROM THE SPANISH,
BY DENIS FLORENCE MAC-CARTHY.
From Ticknor's History of Spanish Literature.
"It is, I think, one of the boldest attempts ever made in English verse.
It is, too, as it seems to me, remarkably successful . . .
"Nothing, I think, in the English language will give us so true an
impression of what is most characteristic of the Spanish drama: perhaps
I ought to say, of what is most characteristic of Spanish poetry
generally".--tom. iii. pp. 461, 462.
BERNARD QUARITCH, 15 PICCADILLY, LONDON.
Transcriber's Notes.
General. I have rendered instances of small capitals as all capitals.
In most instances I have made no attempt to indicate here instances of
italics in the original publication. Accents and other diacritical
marks have also been dropt. However, where the original has an acute
accent over the "e" in a past participle for poetical reasons, I have
marked this with a grave accent (as in "learn`ed") to indicate the
intended pronunciation. For a fully formatted version, with italics,
extended characters, et cetera, please refer to the HTML version of
this play, released by Project Gutenberg simultaneously with this plain
text edition.
General. Only the most obvious of printer's errors have been corrected
in this electronic edition. Some inconsistent use of quotation marks
and several forms of ellipses (with varying numbers of dots and spaces)
have been retained as originally published. I have also retained the
original's format of contractions, namely to include a space as in
"I 'll" rather than "I'll."
Play, General. Stage directions following lines of spoken text are
typically right justified in the printed source. In this electronic
edition they simply follow the line of spoken text.
Play, General. In a few places, Denis Florence MacCarthy's (1817-1882)
translation as published differs noticeably from a Spanish (or more
properly, Castillano) text of the drama, published after this
translation, available to this transcriber. I do not have access to the
Spanish edition that Mr. MacCarthy used as the basis of his translation,
so perhaps a better preserved version of Pedro Calderon de la Barca's
(1600-1681) drama was discovered. Or perhaps Mr. MacCarthy used some
poetic license in editing the drama. Some differences may be due to
printer's errors. Whatever the reason, I have noted below these
differences so that a reader comparing this e-book to a Spanish edition
will not be confused about these omission, and think them caused by a
transcription error of mine, or pages missing from the printed source.
Act 1, Scene 2. Ovid's 'Remedy of Love' is referred to three times, but
as 'Remedies of Love' on the third occasion. A Spanish text has
"Remedio" the first time, and "Remedios" elsewhere. I have found
references to the work as both 'Remedium Amoris' and 'Remedia Amoris.'
Act 1, Scene 2. There is an apparent discrepancy in the play. Chloris
is clearly present in the grove, and in "Persons" is listed as one of
four priestesses of Diana, yet the lines "We three share;--'t is thy
delight" and "For here three objects we behold" imply she is not part of
the group of priestesses. There is no stage direction [such as:
(Chloris sits behind a tree.] in the printed source, nor in a Spanish
text of the play, to explain this. Perhaps (as may be guessed from the
line "From their tender years go thither" in the previous scene) the
character is an acolyte or novice priestess played by a child. She
only appears in this scene.
Act 1, Scene 2. "My blessings on your choice and you! / . . . Are
nothing to a pretty face." A Spanish text gives Escarpin seventeen
lines here, rather than five. The last dozen lines contain a story of a
clever vixen and a comely partridge.
Act 1, Scene 3. The line "Yes, God and Man is Christ" is not indented
in the printed source, but logically should be, and is in a Spanish text
of the play. I have indented it above.
Act 1, Scene 3. The line "Why delay? Arrest them." in the printed
source is shown as two lines ("Why delay? / Arrest them."), but this
seems to be a printer's error as it breaks the asonante verse pattern.
Act 1, Scene 3. In order to preserve the verse, I have indented the
line "Why, why, O heavens!"
Act 2, Scene 1. I have indented the line "What then?"
Act 2, Scene 1. With the line "Clemency in fine had won," there is
another apparent discrepancy in the play. Polemius is angry at
Chrysanthus when the soldiers return in Act 1, Scene 3.
Act 2, Scene 3. In the line "Here the jasmin doubly white," the word
jasmine is spelt without an "e."
Act 2, Scene 3. In Nisida's song, in the line "The bless`ed rapture of
forgetting", the printed source has "blessed" without an accent on the
second "e." Because this line is repeated twice more in the scene with
the accent, I have added it to this first instance in the text above.
Act 2, Scene 3. The printed source lists Escarpin as the speaker of the
lines "My lord, oh! hearken / To my song once more." A Spanish text
indicates that Nisida speaks here, as is only logical, so I have listed
Nisida as speaker in the text above.
Act 2, Scene 3. There seems to be a gap in the dialog after "Not
myself, no aid is granted." A Spanish text has four additional lines
here: [D.] Luego tu tan de su parte / Estas, que a ellos los ensalzas?
/ [C.] Si; que he visto muchas cosas / Hoy en mi favor obradas.
Act 3, Scene 1. In a Spanish text, after the line "I could listen to
such nonsense?" Escarpin has five lines of monolog.
Act 3, Scene 1. In a Spanish text the line "Whence did sound the
voice?" is spoken by Chrysanthus, which would naturally agree with
Polemius' reply to Chrysanthus immediately below. Also, just before
this line, Chrysanthus says: Sin mi me ha dejado a mi.
Act 3, Scene 1. In the line "The two lover saints of Heaven." the
phrase "lover saints" is not hyphenated, although the same phrase is
hyphenated just before the end of the play. The Spanish text has "Los
dos amantes del cielo" in both places.
Act 3, Scene 1. After the line "The two lover saints of Heaven." there
are forty lines of dialog between Escarpin and Polemius. In typical
Escarpine style, it contains a story. Here is a free translation: A
man is on trial for killing his father and loving his mother. The judge
berates the lawyer, "How dare you defend a man who has committed the
worst possible crime." The lawyer replies, "I disagree, your Honor, for
to kill his mother and love his father would, indeed, have been a worse
crime."
Act 3, Scene 2. There is a break in the asonante verse at the line
"They the open country seek".
Act 3, Scene 2. In the line "So part pagan and part christian", near
the end of the scene, Christian is not capitalized in the printed
source.
Note 3. The scene actually ends on page 17 rather than 25 in the source
publication. This page numbering problem also occurs in Note 12 and
probably corresponds to a draught version of the publication--a detail
not caught in the final editing. The last phrase of this note was
actually printed: "the fu ll consonant rhyme." As no letters seem to
logically fit in the empty space between "fu" and "ll," I have replaced
this with the word "full" in the text above.
Note 12. This refers to Note 5, which is actually on page 12 in the
source publication, rather than page 21.
Note 13. The Spanish text in the section of the drama noted is in
five-lined stanzas. However, although Mr. MacCarthy's English generally
follows that metre here, he does break the format in a several places.