BIOGRAPHY

Pedro Calderón de la Barca was born in Madrid on January 17, 1600, and baptized on February 14 of the same year. He came from a family of noble distinction: his mother’s family was of the Flemish nobility, though they had long lived in Castile; his father was from Montaña and was part of a class of lower-ranked noblemen known as hidalgos. Like most hidalgos, the Calderón family had noble blood, but not the money to finance a noble lifestyle. To support his family, Pedro’s father, Diego Calderón, served as Secretary to the Treasury Board under both Felipe II and Felipe III. Pedro was the third of four Calderón children. In accordance with the laws and customs of the time, his oldest brother, Diego, inherited the family estate. The only daughter, Dorothea, turned to the order of St. Clare where she lived out her days as a nun. Like all young men who were not the family’s firstborn, Pedro and his younger brother, José, had the choice of becoming soldiers or joining the priesthood. José embraced a life in the military and died in battle in 1645. Over the course of his lifetime, Calderón followed both career paths, sustaining his playwriting throughout.

Little is known about Calderón’s early years or the nature of his family life. It is likely that Calderón’s family had some prominence in Castilian society because his father’s job kept the family in close proximity to the king. While Diego and Maria Henao Calderón have been described as "very Christian and discreet persons" and praised for giving their children good educations, Calderón’s father is also depicted as a man with a temper who ran the family with an iron fist. Inevitably, some modern critics have speculated that strained family relations might explain the playwright’s "preoccupation with the psychological and moral effects of unnatural family life," especially in regard to the father-son relationship. Calderón lost both parents at an early age — his mother died in 1610 when he was only ten years old; his father, just five years later.

At the age of eight, Calderón was enrolled at Colegio Imperial, a Jesuit College in Madrid, where for five years he received the best secondary schooling Spain had to offer. Between 1614 and 1615 he attended the University of Alcalá just outside Madrid, then transferred to the University of Salamanca, the first and oldest university in Spain. There he continued his studies in Logic, Philosophy, and Theology, earning a degree in canonical law in preparation for a life in the church. While entering the priesthood was a logical choice for young men in seventeenth century Spain, it made even more sense for Calderón. His grandmother had established a special prebend or stipend in the church for which he would be eligible should he become a priest.

Calderón’s late teenage years were not without incident. While at Salamanca, Calderón got into trouble with the church when he failed to pay rent at the convent housing him. In 1621 Calderón and his brothers were allegedly involved in the murder of Nicolás de Velasco. While the exact details of the events are not known, it seems the brothers were forced to sell their rights to their father’s position as Secretary to the Treasury Board in order to make reparations to the family of the murder victim. After graduating from the University of Salamanca at age 20, Calderón abandoned his ecclesiastic career and moved back to Madrid. Having rejected the priesthood and without a father to support him, Calderón turned to another nobleman for financial support and became a scribe in the service of the Constable of Castile. Shortly after his return to Madrid, he entered a local poetry competition in honor of the beatification and canonization of St. Isadore, patron saint of Madrid. It was during this contest that the great Spanish playwright Lope de Vega first noticed the talents of the young Calderón.

In 1623, at the age of 23, Calderón wrote his first play, Love, Honor, and Power (Amor, honor y poder) which was performed in Madrid. It is likely that he began a short career in the military service later that year, possibly serving in Italy and Flanders — areas of the Spanish Empire that were struggling for autonomy. Calderón may have been present at the Siege of Breda, an event he thoroughly documented in the 1625 play that he named for the incident. Between the ages of 25 and 30, Calderón continued to write plays, though not with enough success or frequency to support himself as a dramatist.

In the winter of 1628-29 an actor named Pedro de Villegas is alleged to have stabbed one of Calderón’s brothers. Calderón provoked outrage when he forced his way into the Convent of the Trinities in Madrid where Villegas had sought refuge. Disrespecting the sanctity of the convent was profane in the eyes of the church and Calderón was denounced from the pulpit by Fray Hortensio Paravicino, a famous court preacher. By this time, Calderón was receiving attention for his plays and satirized the priest in his next work, The Constant Prince (El príncipe constante). Fray Paravincino was so upset by this parody that a high-ranking government official was forced to intervene and make peace between the priest and the playwright.

By 1630 Calderón’s dramatic career was flourishing and he began writing frequently for both the corrales (public theaters) and the palace. 1634 brought a boost to the Spanish theater when King Felipe IV opened a new court theater, El Coliseo del Buen Retiro, an event celebrated by a performance of Calderón’s play, El nuevo palacio del Retiro. One year later, Calderón wrote Life’s a Dream (La vida es sueño), the play that many consider his masterpiece. Lope de Vega’s death in the same year secured Calderón’s place as court dramatist. While this position was not likely as formal or exclusive as a similar title would have been in other European countries, it probably gave Calderón enough financial security to abandon other forms of employment. The following year, twelve of Calderón’s early plays were published by his brother under the title First Part, with Second Part (containing twelve additional plays) published a year later.

In either 1636 or 1637 the king inducted Calderón into the Military Order of Santiago, an honor likely bestowed upon him in recognition of both his service in the military and his excellence as a playwright. This appointment required him to fight in any war and it was as a member of this order that Calderón traveled to Catalonia in 1641 to aid in suppressing a rebellion. After injuring his hand in battle a year later, he returned to Madrid. In 1645 Calderón entered the service of the Duke de Alba, probably as a scribe, though he continued writing for the court, the church, and the corrales. By 1649 Calderón had begun writing libretti for music dramas — a new kind of play that made its way to Spain from Italy. He would eventually merge this usually one-act form with the three-act comedia.

Though Calderón never married, he fathered an illegitimate son sometime between 1645 and 1650. The name of the child’s mother is unknown, but historians believe she and Calderón were long term lovers. Unlike Lope de Vega, who wrote frequently of the women in his life, Calderón never mentioned his son’s mother in his writing. Nonetheless, scholars have managed to fix her death in 1650. Calderón publicly recognized his son as his own after the death of the child’s mother and provided for the care of the boy. Tragically, the child died at the age of twelve. Some postulate that grief over his lover’s death, coupled with the deaths of his two brothers in 1645 and 1647, led Calderón to enter the priesthood in 1651. In becoming a priest, Calderón may have had access to a steadier source of income, making it easier for him to care for his young son.

It is also possible that Calderón’s return to the church reflected a discontent with writing for the popular theater. The 1640s were a turbulent decade in Spanish history and the corrales were closed several times over the course of the ten years. More and more theologians were speaking out against the immorality of the theater. It is impossible to know why Calderón returned to the church: for the care of his son, a change in his life as a playwright, or because his religious calling was finally made clear.

After his ordination, Calderón stopped writing for the corrales. He continued to write plays for the court, but focused most of his attention on writing for the church. Twice a year, the city of Madrid presented plays in honor of Corpus Christi. Between 1648 and 1681 Calderón wrote all of these plays, known as autos. In 1653 he accepted a prebend at Toledo Cathedral requiring him to relocate from Madrid to Toledo. Because he continued to write autos for Madrid, Calderón frequently returned to the capital city, frustrating many in his Toledo congregation.

In 1663 Calderón was appointed honorary chaplain to Felipe IV, a position he held until the king’s death in 1665. In 1669 Calderón was appointed chaplain to the Chapel of the Kings at Toledo. Calderón’s Third Part and Fourth Part were published in 1664 and 1672 respectively. His Fifth Part was published in 1677, though of the ten plays included, Calderón disowned four.

Pedro Calderón de la Barca died on May 25, 1681, at the age of 81. Three thousand torch-bearing mourners attended his funeral and his remains were laid to rest in the parish church of San Salvador.

LIST OF MAJOR WORKS

• 1629 La gran Cenobia (The Great Cenobia)
• La dama duende (The Phantom Lady)
• El príncipe constante (The Constant Prince)
• 1634 La devoción de la cruz (Devotion to the Cross)
• 1635 La vida es sueño (Life’s a Dream)
• El médico de su honra (The Surgeon of His Honor)
• La hija del aire (Daughter of the Air —Part 1)
• 1637 El mágico prodigioso (The Wonder-Working Magician)
• 1639 No hay cosa como callar
• 1645 El pintor de su deshonra (The Painter of His Own Dishonor)
• 1653 La hija del aire (The Daughter of the Air - complete)
• 1658 El laurel de Apolo (Apollo’s laurel)
• 1661 Eco y Narciso (Echo and Narcissus)

SYNOPSIS

For many years, King Basilio has been ruling Poland without a recognized heir. Unbeknownst to his subjects, the king has a son named Sigismund who is now grown and imprisoned in a tower in the mountains of Poland. Sigismund was sent away at birth because his father feared he would violently take the throne and become a tyrannical king. Basilio’s fear is founded on a disturbing omen dreamt by his wife before she died in childbirth and the solar eclipse on the day of Sigismund’s birth. Though a learned man with great mathematical abilities, Basilio also places a great deal of faith in astrology. It was in an effort to outsmart fate that Sigismund was imprisoned and the decree made that the child died along with its mother. Sigismund’s existence is known only to Clotaldo, his jailer and teacher. Basilio has decreed that anyone who sees the prince in the tower must be put to death in order to keep his existence a secret.

Should Basilio die without a recognized heir, the throne would either fall to Princess Estrella, the daughter of his eldest sister, or to Astolfo, the Duke of Muscovy and son of Basilio’s youngest sister. Recognizing the uncertainty of the transfer of power, Astolfo has come to Poland to woo his cousin Estrella as their marriage would cement his claim to the throne. Though Estrella loves Astolfo, she is reluctant to wed a man who still wears the picture of a former lover around his neck and refuses his advances. Basilio has called his niece and nephew to the palace promising to reconcile them and announce his intentions for the future of Poland’s throne.

Meanwhile, a young woman named Rosaura has traveled from Muscovy to Poland disguised as a man with the intention of avenging her honor. When she is thrown from her horse, she and her travelling companion, Clarion the Clown, find themselves lost in the mountains of Poland near the tower where Sigismund is kept prisoner. When they discover Sigismund chained and imprisoned, Clotaldo arrests them and orders their execution. When he captures Rosaura, Clotaldo takes her sword. Rosaura tells him that the sword belonged to her father, a man she never knew. Recognizing the sword as his own, Clotaldo assumes he has a son in Rosaura, who is still dressed as man. Torn between his duty to help his child and his duty to his king to carry out the execution, Clotaldo keeps silent about his identity and goes to Basilio to plead for his child’s life.

Back at the palace, Basilio tells Estrella, Astolfo, and his court of the existence of Sigismund. He also announces his plan to make Sigismund "king for a day" in order to test his fitness as a ruler. Astolfo and Estrella profess their support for Basilio’s plan. Clotaldo arrives at court to tell Basilio of Rosaura and Clarion’s encounter with Sigismund. Before Clotaldo can reveal his relationship to Rosaura, Basilio declares that since he has publicly acknowledged the existence of Sigismund it is no longer necessary to kill those who have seen the prince. Greatly relieved, Clotaldo relays the king’s pardon to his prisoners and sets out to give his son (Rosaura) some fatherly advice. He counsels that the boy must carry out his expressed intention to avenge his honor on the man that has wronged him and swears to assist him anyway he can. However, when Rosaura reveals that the man she has come to find is Astolfo, Duke of Muscovy, Clotaldo realizes that he cannot keep his oath to help Rosaura — it would mean killing a Duke. Rosaura finally reveals her identity as a woman and the facts behind her case against Astolfo. He wooed her under the pretenses that he would marry her and has now betrayed her by coming to Poland to court Estrella. Clotaldo discourages her from pursuing her claim against Astolfo and promises to find her a position as a lady-in-waiting to Estrella.

In accordance with Basilio’s orders, Sigismund is given a sleeping potion and is brought to the palace where he is dressed in the king’s robe and put in the king’s bed. When Clotaldo asks why Sigismund was brought to the palace in his sleep, Basilio explains that if the prince behaves like a cruel king, he can be put to sleep again and returned to the tower. He may then be told he has been asleep the whole time and only dreamt of being a king. Basilio instructs Clotaldo to tell Sigismund the truth about his birthright and his imprisonment, believing he will have a better chance of defying the stars if he understands his predicament. Sigismund is outraged by Clotaldo’s explanation of his imprisonment, accuses his jailer of treason, and condemns him to death.

Astolfo is the next to greet Sigismund. Full of praise and courtly greetings for the prince, he is insulted when his cousin does not treat him in a manner appropriate to his station. When Estrella appears, Sigismund is taken by her beauty and becomes aggressive in wooing her. When a servant intervenes on Estrella’s behalf, Sigismund throws him out the window of the palace, landing him in a lake. Basilio arrives and reprimands Sigismund for killing the servant. He advises Sigismund to act better and warns that this may all be a dream.

Rosaura has become Astraea, lady-in-waiting to Princess Estrella. Emboldened by the fact that Astolfo still wears her picture around his neck, she vows to win back his love. Sigismund walks in on Rosaura and, declaring that she is much more beautiful than Estrella, attempts to seduce her. When she resists, he becomes violent. Clotaldo intervenes and again warns Sigismund that he might be dreaming and should behave better. Astolfo appears in time to prevent Sigismund from killing Clotaldo and challenges the prince to a duel. When Basilio interrupts them, Sigismund threatens to kill the king. Fearing the omen has been proven true, Basilio and his servants subdue and drug Sigismund, returning the prince to the tower. Basilio proclaims Astolfo and Estrella will rule Poland together.

In celebration of their promised union, Astolfo professes his love to Estrella. Estrella, however, has seen the portrait of Rosaura around his neck and demands he bring it to her as proof of his love. Not knowing that Astraea is in fact Rosaura, Estrella leaves her to claim the portrait. When Astolfo returns, he recognizes Rosaura and refuses to give her the portrait. When they begin to fight, Estrella interrupts and demands to know what is happening. In order to keep her identity secret and reclaim her portrait from Astolfo, Rosaura tells Estrella that Astolfo has not yet returned the portrait he was carrying and has just now stolen the portrait she wears around her own neck. Estrella is infuriated by Astolfo’s flirtatious behavior and tells him she will never see him again.

When Astolfo and Rosaura are again alone, Astolfo explains to Rosaura that he cannot marry her because she does not know her father’s name. Rosaura announces that she has come to Poland either to marry Astolfo or to kill him. Astolfo challenges her to uphold her oath, declaring she will never have the courage to kill him.

Sigismund, meanwhile, has been returned to the tower. When he wakes, Clotaldo persuades him that everything he remembers from his day in the palace was in fact a dream. Sigismund meditates on the relationship between life and dreams — perhaps we dream ourselves into being. Perhaps all our life is only a dream.

After learning of the existence of the true heir to the throne, and desperate not to be ruled by Astolfo the Muscovite, rebel soldiers find the tower where Sigismund is being held and break in to free him. Sigismund, however, believes he is again dreaming and is not truly the prince they say he is. Once the rebel soldiers convince him he is in fact the rightful heir, Sigismund recognizes his duty to his subjects and sets out with the soldiers to fight his father and Astolfo for control of the throne. On his way, he tries to convince Clotaldo to come with him and be his advisor. When Clotaldo refuses, Sigismund promises to meet him in battle.

In the palace, Estrella arranges for Rosaura (who is still playing the role of Astraea, the lady-in-waiting) to meet Astolfo in the garden and kill him for her. Clotaldo vows to find another way to restore her honor. Rosaura refuses his help and leaves to kill Astolfo. Rosaura arrives on the battlefield dressed for battle and offers her services to Sigismund. Sigismund promises to avenge her honor. When Astolfo is wounded in battle, he begs Rosaura to keep her oath and kill him. Instead, she bandages his wounds.

Basilio’s forces retreat, admitting defeat at the hands of Sigismund, and Clotaldo tries to save the king by disguising him. Basilio refuses to hide and instead offers himself up for slaughter when Sigismund arrives. Sigismund announces that he will not prove the omens true by becoming a tyrant and spares her father’s life. Recognizing the triumph of freewill in his son, Basilio gives the crown to Sigismund. Sigismund keeps his promise to Rosaura and restores her honor by arranging for her marriage to Astolfo. When Astolfo protests that she still does not know her father’s name, Clotaldo reveals himself as her father, proving her noble blood. Sigismund next asks Estrella for her hand in marriage. When the rebel soldiers demand their reward for putting Sigismund on the throne, Sigismund ends the play by ordering their death — the proper punishment for traitors.

HISTORICAL CONTEXT: SPAIN

The seventeenth century was a turbulent time for the Spanish Empire. Between 1598 and 1700, three Spanish kings lost much of the empire that had been accumulated by Carlos I of Spain, also known as Charles V of the Holy Roman Empire, (1516-55) and his son, Felipe II (1555-98). While most of Europe saw the defeat of the "invincible" Spanish Armada in 1588 as the beginning of the decline, Spain’s hope of maintaining its empire truly began to fade with the death of Felipe II in 1598. His son, Felipe III (1598-1621), did not share the imperial dreams of his father and grandfather. Instead, he relinquished the majority of his power to the Duke of Lerma who essentially ruled the kingdom in his place. Felipe IV came to the throne in 1621 and like his father, abandoned most of his power to an advisor, the Count-Duke of Olivares. It was not until Olivares’ tyrannical reign produced an uprising in both Catalunya and Portugal that Felipe IV resumed control and attempted to restore Spain’s political agenda to its former imperial strategy. Unfortunately, the king returned too late and was unable to save the empire amassed by his predecessors. Calderón was in his early twenties at this time and probably fought in uprisings in Italy and Flanders. When Felipe IV died in 1665, the crown passed to his son, Carlos II. Carlos II, nicknamed the "Bewitched," became known as one of the most incompetent rulers in Spanish history. It is believed that extensive inbreeding in the generations preceding him made him both crazy and physically unable to produce heirs. Although the wars that had plagued his father ended, the result was the final loss of Spain's great empire.

Both the frequent internal upheavals and the loss of Spain’s imperial greatness during the seventeenth century fostered a feeling of disillusionment (desengaño) among the Spanish people. It was not, however, only political troubles that preoccupied the public. While other European nations were experiencing the rise of the middle, or bourgeois, class, Spain remained distinctly divided between the wealthy nobility and the poverty-stricken lower classes. Spain’s closest equivalent to a middle-class were the hidalgos, quite different from the merchant class that is frequently associated with the European bourgeoisie. The hidalgos boasted a noble blood-line, but usually lacked great family wealth. Like our playwright, they often found jobs with higher-ranking noblemen in order to survive.

HISTORICAL CONTEXT: POLAND

The Poland of Calderón’s time played an important role in Spain’s religious and military history during the sixteenth and the seventeenth centuries. On the religious front, Poland officially remained a Catholic kingdom and like Spain was seen as a key player in the Counter-Reformation. Understandably, the threat of Protestantism in such a large kingdom made European Catholics anxious. While the Counter-Reformation worked to hold off the spread of newly formed Protestant religions, the Ottoman empire continued to loom in the east. Poland’s borders were an important frontier and the country’s Catholicism necessary for the continued strength of a European Catholic monarchy.

On a military front, Spain viewed Poland as a potential ally in a struggle to maintain control of its imperial conquests. In the early seventeenth century, the Dutch began to rebel against the Spanish empire. Spain hoped to cut Dutch supply lines with the construction of a naval base in one of the Baltic ports. In order to implement these plans, however, Spain relied upon the continued support of Poland in that region.

It is highly unlikely that Life’s a Dream, was intended to be a historically based drama. Many playwrights of this time believed setting their plays in "exotic" or mythical locations gave them popular appeal. Though Sigismund III was king of Poland at the time the play was written, there is nothing to suggest that he in any way served as a model for Calderón’s prince. Neither Sigismund nor his two sixteenth century ancestors of the same name were ever imprisoned by their father. Nor is there any indication that they came to the throne under strange circumstances. In fact, Poland was ruled by an elected kingship; the monarchy that appears in Life’s a Dream is more clearly modeled after the Spanish absolute monarchy. It is also possible that Calderón used Poland as his setting in order to escape criticism from the Inquisitorial censors. Censors may have condemned a play that described turmoil in a Spanish monarchy, but telling the story of those same events under the guise of the Polish monarchy was potentially less threatening.

LITERARY INFLUENCES

Pedro Calderón de la Barca was the last great dramatist during one of the most fertile literary periods in Spanish history — the Golden Age or Siglo de Oro. The traditional literary Golden Age includes both the Renaissance and Baroque time periods. While it is difficult to assign specific dates to such encompassing movements, the time between the late fifteenth century and the mid to late sixteenth century is generally considered the Renaissance. The Baroque period began in the latter part of the sixteenth century and ended roughly with Calderón’s death in 1681. Students of the Golden Age of Spanish theater are primarily concerned with the accomplishments of playwrights during the Baroque era. It was during this time that the first permanent Spanish theaters flourished and the greatest writers blossomed.

Calderón was the youngest of the Baroque dramatists coming on the heels of Lope de Vega (author of Fuente Ovejuna, or A Sheep’s Well) and Tirso de Molino (El burlador de Sevilla, or The Trickster from Seville). The theater was finding new life in Spain as well as across Europe where the likes of Shakespeare, Jonson, Corneille, and Racine were achieving great success in their own countries. Though Spanish comedias (dramas) are not as well known to the English-speaking audience, the genius of Spanish Golden Age dramatists equals the work of their contemporaries in England and France.

Spanish theater during the Golden Age has more in common with the Elizabethan style of drama than with French theater of the same time. The French were firmly entrenched in neo-classical theater and closely followed the precepts described in Aristotle’s Poetics. Neo-classical theorists looked to Aristotle for guidance on the three "unities": time, space, and action. Although there was great debate over the exact definitions laid out by Aristotle, the general consensus was that the play must take place in a 24 hour time period (unity of time), in one location (unity of space), with one unifying plot (unit of action). Coincidentally, both Elizabethan and Golden Age theater rejected the ideals of neo-classical theater and simultaneously created a different genre for the plays.

Lope de Vega (1562-1635) is the dramatist who most significantly influenced the development of Spanish theater. In 1609 he published his treatise, New Art of Writing Plays in Modern Times (Arte nuevo de hacer comedias en este tiempo), setting forth his methods of playwrighting and rejecting the neo-Aristotelian model for playwrighting in favor of creating plays that would win popular approval. Lope prescribed the abandonment of the unities of time and space (unity of action remained), maintained that all plays should contain a mixture of comedy and tragedy as well as noble and base characters, and categorized various verse styles according to the corresponding dramatic action. Due to his success with Spanish audiences, Lope’s dramatic style was quickly adopted by other playwrights. Calderón’s plays incorporated many of the devices that Lope espoused in his treatise, though his plays were quite different from Lope's popular dramas. While Lope catered to a larger audience, Calderón’s work was more complex in both language and theme.

Calderón’s writing style was heavily influenced by literary techniques that grew out of Spanish poetry of the time. Francisco de Quevedo and Luis de Góngora were the most popular poets during the Golden Age and each became known for a specific "school" of poetry. Both men prided themselves on creating art for a minority, resulting in brilliant but often obscure and incomprehensible verse. Góngora created poetry that was intended to make interpretation difficult. Gongorismo or culteranismo was a deliberate obscuring of style. The culteranistas wanted to create a poetic vocabulary distinct from ordinary language. Their verses were full of metaphor, hyperbaton (a change in the traditional grammatical order of a phrase), antithesis, oxymoron, and latinisms. Quevedo was the major spokesman for the school of poetry known as conceptismo. Writers from this school accorded greater significance to meaning than manner or style of writing. This idea is very similar to the notion of conceit found in John Donne’s poetry.

Calderón examined themes that were quite familiar to seventeenth century audiences. One of the most important subjects in Golden Age literature was the punto de honor, or point of honor. For instance, almost all of the characters in Life’s a Dream pursue honor in love relations or in their quest to fulfill a given role in life. In his treatise on playwriting, Lope de Vega claimed that honor is the best subject for a play since it is a theme that deeply moves everyone. Lope’s view reflected the rigid code that developed during this time concerning a man’s honor. To ensure his honor, a man needed to protect his wife and/or daughters (i.e., by avoiding the label of cuckold and preventing the deflowering of his virgin girls). The mere suggestion of dishonor required that a man avenge himself with blood. The importance that honor played in the life of every Spaniard cannot be overemphasized.

Perhaps one of the more troubling aspects of Life’s a Dream for the present day audience is its ending. Some spectators find it odd that Sigismund abruptly arranges for a double marriage ceremony during the final scene. This is especially disturbing if seen through the eyes of Rosaura. The contemporary Spanish audience, however, would have expected such an ending. Plays frequently ended in double wedding ceremonies arranged by the king, a variation on deux ex machina. In the ending, Sigismund proves himself by forsaking his personal desire for the good of the kingdom and for a higher goal: he chooses the eternal over the mundane. He avoids temptation in favor of morality and spirituality. He also allows Rosaura to regain her honor by marrying the man who dishonored her.

SOURCES

Calderón’s Life’s a Dream is based not on a single source, but is rather an amalgamation of several stories and ideas. Twentieth century scholars have uncovered many possible sources for the play and determined that, like Shakespeare, Calderón may have been influenced by earlier literary and historic events. Ultimately, however, the dramatist's telling of his story is unlike any other in scope or vision.

Other versions of the story in Life’s a Dream appear in two earlier plays by Calderón: The Great Cenobia (La gran Cenobia) and Errors of Nature and the Success of Fortune (Yerros de la naturaleza y acierto de la fortuna). In Life’s a Dream and The Great Cenobia, kings are brought to or deprived of the throne by oracles or omens. Both plays emphasize man’s dual nature and his need to use reason to control his baser instincts. Like Life’s a Dream, Errors of Nature and the Success of Fortune is set in Poland, where the royal succession is in question. At the end of the play, the throne is restored to the proper heir. The heir, Sigismund, shares the name of our protagonist and while he is not imprisoned in a tower, he chooses to hide there for protection. It is likely that Calderón combined various elements from both of these plays to produce an "improved" version in Life’s a Dream.

Since Golden Age writers showed a definite affinity for literature from the classical period, it is not surprising that Calderón seems to have used well known Greek and Roman works as sources for his play. One of the most obvious classical references in Life’s a Dream is to the Platonic cave, described in Books VI and VII of The Republic. In Plato’s work, man is "imprisoned" in a cave. He is blind to the reality of the world and is only able to see its reflections or shadows. One man finally ventures beyond the confines of the cave, discovering truth when he sees reality for the first time on the outside of the cave. Sigismund’s journey from the tower and primitive instinct to the castle and a state of knowledge parallels the figure that leaves the cave and finally encounters the light.

The story of Sigismund and Basilio brings to mind a father-son pair from Greek literature: Oedipus and Laius. Just as the stars foretold Sigismund’s fate, the oracle at Delphi predicted that Oedipus would one day kill his father and marry his mother. Consequently, Laius sent Oedipus to be killed and Basilio imprisoned Sigismund. Like Oedipus, Sigismund is haunted by the need to uncover his true identity. The similarities between the Greek myth and Life’s a Dream do not, however, include their endings. In the Greek story, Oedipus, who cannot escape his fate, discovers he has lived the life the oracle predicted. Calderón’s play has an ending that his critics consider more Catholic. In Life’s a Dream, Sigismund, who uses his free will, triumphs over what seemed to be his destiny.

The debate over divine providence and free will was especially strong in sixteenth and seventeenth century Europe. Jesuit schooling would have addressed these subjects in a number of ways. Perhaps because of the attention it paid to free will, Senecan philosophy was a major part of Jesuit training at the time. It should come as no surprise that Calderón’s Sigismund has been compared to the Senecan Hercules found in Hercules Furens and Hercules Oetaenus. Both Senecan works describe a character who is born to adverse circumstance, looses his reign, and is restored at the end of the play. The Jesuit curriculum also incorporated Erasmus’ stand that some part of a man’s course in life, however small, must be left to individual human will. The Jesuits, though, took this theory one step further in their espousal of "scientia media," meaning that God predisposes man to certain actions but does not determine which actions man will take. Calderón embraced this idea in his portrait of Sigismund who overcomes his destiny through the force of will.

Yet another source for the play can be found in the Buddhist legend of an Indian prince imprisoned at birth. The legend was christianized by Saint Aristides in the second century and translated into Spanish in 1608 by Juan Arce Solórzano. Some version of the story caught the attention of Lope de Vega, who used it as the basis for his play, Barlaán y Josafat (1611). In Lope’s play, King Avenir imprisons his son based on a horoscope. While the play begins with the son, Josafat, lamenting his fate and lack of free will like Sigismund, the plot soon diverges to produce a work distinct from Life’s a Dream.

The events of Life’s a Dream also call to mind two men from the Spanish royal family in the sixteenth century. Juan de Austria (1547-1578) was the illegitimate son of Carlos I who was taken from his mother at a young age and brought up in concealment in Spain. After Carlos’ death, Juan’s brother, Felipe II, formally recognized him as his half brother and gave him a title and money. Felipe II also fathered a child who, like Sigismund, was heir to the throne and raised away from his father. The boy, Carlos de Austria (1545-1568), did not see his father until age 14. It is said that Don Carlos was mentally unstable and experienced violent outbursts, perhaps factors in Felipe’s decision to bar him from succeeding to the throne. Unlike Sigismund, Carlos never regained his father's favor and died in prison later that year.

Another story of royal succession and hidden heirs comes from the Russian Time of Troubles and the story of the False Dmitry. Tsar Ivan the Terrible’s son Dmitry is believed to have died in 1591 when he was still a child. In 1604, when Boris Gudunov was on the Russian throne, the man now known as False Dmitry appeared in Lithuania. Backed by Lithuanian and Polish nobles and emboldened by a claim to royal lineage, False Dmitry invaded Russia and eventually became tsar. Though his reign was short, his story spread quickly to Spain where Lope de Vega dramatized it in his play, The Grand Duke of Muscovy (El gran duque de Moscovia).

After looking at possible sources for Life’s a Dream, it becomes clear that Calderón did not draw from one story or event. It is important to remember that he lived in an era of absolute monarchy when disputes over succession were fairly typical. The "heir imprisoned" is a common theme both in mythology and in history of the time. Nevertheless, the play is neither a simple redramatization of an earlier story nor a basic reconstruction of the debate over predestination and free will. Rather, Calderón infused Life’s a Dream with complexity, producing a masterpiece of the Spanish stage that has withstood the test of time.

PRODUCTION HISTORY

Calderón’s Life’s a Dream was published in 1636 in the first collection of his plays. Most scholars agree that it was written and first performed in 1635. There were three possible venues for plays in the Spanish Golden Age. Plays composed for the court were performed in special court constructed theaters. The autos, written specifically for religious occasions, were performed on moveable carts, and plays written or performed for the general public, like Life’s a Dream, were presented in the corrales.

The corrales were similar in construction to theaters like the Globe in Elizabethan England. The performance space developed from courtyards and contained a large patio space enclosed on the sides by buildings. The patio was unroofed but often covered by a canopy. This section was similar to the English pit and was occupied by standing spectators. Along the sides of the courtyard were rows of seats that climbed to the second floor of the adjoining buildings or gradas. The windows of the houses above the gradas functioned as box spaces for the more wealthy patrons. The galleries at the rear of the patio held two special sections: the cazuela and the tertulia. The tertulia was reserved for intellectuals and church officials. The cazuela, which translates as "stew-pot," was a space exclusively reserved for women. Not only did women frequent the theater, but unlike their British counter-parts who used boy actors for women’s roles, the Spanish theater employed women actors. There was, however, the restriction that actresses be married to a male member of the company. There was also a great deal of concern that the ladies in the audience not mix with men during or after the play’s performance. Of course there are several written accounts of men dressing as women in order to sneak into this area of the theater.

There were two principal theaters during the Golden Age in Madrid, the Corral de la Cruz (built in 1579) and the Corral del Príncipe (1582). Unlike English theaters, which were banned from the city proper, the corrales encountered much less resistance from the religious community since the theaters funded a variety of charitable institutions including the hospital of Madrid.

It is not known how frequently Life’s a Dream was performed during Calderón’s lifetime, though it has long been one of his best loved plays. It is a testimony to Calderón’s significance in the Spanish speaking world that his plays quickly found their way across the Atlantic to the Spanish colonies in the Americas. These colonies were still too young to have developed their own playwrights and relied on the transfer of Golden Age dramas and other literature from Spain, frequently in the hands of Jesuit priests. There are records of performances of Calderón’s plays in both Argentina and Peru during Calderón’s lifetime and it is likely that Life’s a Dream was among these. During the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, Life’s a Dream was performed numerous times in the colonies, frequently in celebration of a significant political event or the opening of a new theater.

It is interesting to note that Calderón was known in England during his lifetime. George Digby, the Second Earl of Bristol, was possibly the first to translate and present a Calderón play in English. In his famous diary, Samuel Pepys noted that he attended a performance of one of these plays in London in 1664. Further research indicates translations by other English dramatists during this time period, though there is no evidence that Life’s a Dream was among the plays translated.

Calderón’s plays were also making their way to France in the seventeenth century. Between 1640 and 1660, Spanish Golden Age plots were frequently borrowed by French dramatists. At the time, France was in the grips of Neo-Classicism, a movement that would later take hold in Spain. The neoclassicists were inspired by the Italian Renaissance to return to the teachings of Aristotle’s Poetics. They followed the unities of time, space, and action religiously. Like all Golden Age comedias, Calderón’s plays were frequently presented in sharp contrast to these standards. French dramatists took the rough material of a Spanish plot and rewrote it in such a way that it came in line with neoclassic principles. In 1657 the Abbé de Boisrobert completed a prose fiction translation of Life’s a Dream called La vie est un songe. It was the only French adaptation of Life’s a Dream published in the seventeenth century. The next translation, also in novella form, was completed in 1711. The first theatrical translation was written in 1732.

In the meantime, Spanish theater was in a series state of decline as Calderón neared the end of his life. Several members of the royal family died in the middle of the seventeenth century and the lengthy theater closings to mourn their passing could not have helped the state of Spanish theater. It is also probable that the theologians who had been attacking the morality of the theater were finally being heard. It became increasing difficult for playwrights to find actors and by 1670 Spanish acting troupes were nearly obsolete.

Though there were still 4000 practicing playwrights in Spain at the time of Calderón’s death, the end of his life is usually recognized as the end of the Spanish Golden Age in literature. Though his popularity was significantly diminished by the end of the seventeenth century, his plays were continually performed throughout the Spanish speaking world until well into the eighteenth century. Even with the advent of Spanish Neoclassicism, audiences continued to embrace the celebrated playwright. The tide was turning against him, however, and eventually the neoclassic theater supported by the upper classes pushed Calderón’s plays out of every level of society. By 1788, his work had fallen under such criticism that the following particularly critical assault was levied at the playwright and his masterpiece:

From Diario de Madrid (1788) by Cándido María Trigueros

Calderón experienced his first major renaissance in the early nineteenth century when he was rediscovered and embraced by the German Romantics. This group of writers, philosophers, and academics believed in poetry that was both philosophical and mythological, ironic and religious. The man responsible for reviving an interest in Calderón was August Wilhelm von Schlegel, the German scholar and critic who may be best known for his German translations of William Shakespeare. It is said that he discovered Calderón while he was working on Shakespeare and became so enamored with the Spanish playwright that he lost his motivation to continue the Shakespeare translations. Between 1803 and 1809 Schlegel completed partial translations of five Calderón plays, including Life’s a Dream. It was Schlegel’s Lectures on Dramatic Art and Literature (1809-1811) that secured Calderón’s reemergence. In these lectures, Schlegel attacks French Neoclassical theater, the movement responsible for the decimation of Calderón in the eighteenth century, and holds up Calderón as a model for the Romantic poet. Schlegel was joined in his praise for Calderón by his younger brother, Friedrich, whose History of Ancient and Modern Literature also looked to the Spanish playwright as inspiration for the Romantic movement.

The Schlegel brothers’ attention to Calderón prompted a major revival of his work, both in Germany and abroad. It is said that in Germany between 1817 and 1824, Calderón’s plays were performed more frequently than those of Shakespeare. Another source lists 37 productions of Life’s a Dream between 1822 and 1875. In the early 1800s, Franz Grillparzer and Josef Schreyvogel completed plays inspired by Life’s a Dream. Grillparzer’s partial translation was published in 1813, with Schreyvogel’s adaptation appearing three years later. After completing the partial translation and seeing Schreyvogel’s full production, Grillparzer began writing Der Traum ein Leben, a play that was inspired by Life’s a Dream. Der Traum ein Leben took Grillparzer seventeen years to complete, but when it finally appeared it was immediately performed and was well received.

Back in Spain, the neoclassicists maintained their grip on the artistic sensibility of the country. Still, the Duque de Rivas, who was born the same year as Grillparzer, found influence in Calderón. Ten years after Grillparzer’s Austrian version, he wrote The Disillusionment in a Dream (El desengaño en un sueño) which he based on Life’s a Dream and regarded as his masterpiece. Unfortunately, it was not popular and was never performed during his lifetime.

About this time, George Ticknor, a scholar from the United States, wrote his monumental History of Spanish Literature. This massive treatise was published in three volumes in 1849 and is generally considered the first comprehensive study of Spanish literature in any language. Ticknor’s affection for Calderón was shared by the nineteenth century American poet, James Russell Lowell, who composed this famous ode to Calderón:

Birds of to-day, thy songs are stale
To his, my singer of all weathers,
My Calderón, my nightingale,
My Arab soul in Spanish feathers.

Despite Calderón’s initial popularity in England, his presence there had also subsided over the course of the eighteenth century. However, just as the German Romantics found a compatriot in Calderón, the English Romantics, most notably Percy Bysshe Shelley, also discovered him. Many believe that Calderón was one of the motivating influences behind Shelley’s composition of The Cenci. It is possible that Shelley had read the works of the Schlegels, though he never directly mentions their writings.

Nineteenth century England’s most important contribution to Calderón’s legacy comes from Edward FitzGerald, best known for his translations of the Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám. FitzGerald was one of the earliest English translators of Calderón. His first collection of Calderón’s plays was published in 1853 with Life’s a Dream appearing in a two play addition published in 1865. Inspired by similarities he found in Life’s a Dream and Shakespeare’s The Tempest, FitzGerald titled his translation Such Stuff as Dreams are Made of, based on Shakespeare’s famous lines: "We are such stuff/As dreams are made on, and our little life/Is rounded with a sleep."

Until the latter part of this century, FitzGerald’s translations were considered by many the most respectable English language versions of the plays of Calderón. Those who criticized him did so for the many alterations he made to Calderón’s text in the process. FitzGerald explained these changes, and his views on translation in general, by saying:

From The Letters of Edward FitzGerald

In 1881, at the bicentennial of Calderón’s death, FitzGerald received a medal from the Spanish Royal Academy in recognition of his Calderón translations. As for his version of Life’s a Dream, it was not produced until after his death when William Poel directed an 1899 production for the Elizabethan Stage Society at St. George’s Hall.

While Calderón was being rediscovered by the English speaking world, he was again being denounced in his homeland. By 1881, at the tender age of 25, Marcelino Menéndez y Pelayo had occupied the Chair of Literature at the University of Madrid for three years. It was in this year, the bicentennial of Calderón’s death, that he published what many considered a damning review of Calderón’s work. Menéndez y Pelayo called Calderón and the rest of the Spanish Baroque writers too unrealistic and criticized Calderón in particular for his inability to create characters. Unfortunately, Menéndez y Pelayo became the nineteenth century authority on Spanish literature and his views on Calderón were widely accepted for almost fifty years.

Calderón was finally reborn in his homeland when a group of Spanish avant-garde poets went searching for their roots. Calling themselves "the Generation of ‘27", these poets were at the heart of the revival of Spanish Golden Age literature. Today, Life’s a Dream is taught to the youngest Spanish schoolchildren who know at least one of Sigismund’s speeches by heart. Unfortunately, the current adoration for Calderón, and specifically Life’s a Dream, has created a climate in Spain where the most celebrated directors are afraid to revive the classic. In 1998 Calixto Bieito, a young, award-winning Spanish director, produced the play in Edinburgh to avoid the criticism he feared would inevitably be levied against a production of the play in his homeland.

In this century, in the United States and Great Britain, Calderón and Life’s a Dream has been paid some attention, though until recently most of it was academic. The greatest obstacle to English language productions of Life’s a Dream seems to be the absence of good English translations. When translated literally, Calderón’s text becomes virtually unspeakable and is too "affected" to be taken seriously by modern audiences. Translations made by modern translators are frequently criticized for being inaccurate representations of the original text, far closer to adaptation than translation.

For more than a century, Edward FitzGerald’s translation was the best known, though even this version has received only two professional productions. In 1925 Frank Birch and J.B. Trend completed a translation of Life’s a Dream that they described as "meant to be spoken not read." In an attempt to appease both the traditionalists and the modern theater audience, Birch and Trend set aside lines in brackets to indicate passages that could be omitted in performance, a method that is probably not the most effective means of translation.

The first major modern English production took place Off-Broadway in 1964 when a single theater presented dueling productions of Life’s a Dream: one with a Spanish cast and director, the other, an English language performance of the play translated by Roy Campbell and directed by Jay Broad. The idea of presenting both Spanish and English performances on alternating nights was reprised in 1981 by INTAR, a New York based Spanish theater. Maria Irene Fornes acted as both translator and director.

The script for Court Theatre’s production was first presented in 1984 at London’s Barbican Pit. It is a collaborative adaptation by the director John Barton and the playwright Adrian Mitchell and is one of the most frequently used translations today. For her 1990 production at American Repertory Theatre (ART), Anne Bogart used a translation by Edwin Honig.

The last few years have brought Life’s a Dream into the awareness of the English speaking theater audience through several major revivals. Calixto Bieito’s aforementioned production at the Edinburgh International Festival was the favorite of most festival critics. Likewise, Laird Williamson received rave reviews for his production and translation at the Denver Center Theatre in 1998. The much anticipated Sueño, an adaptation by renowned American playwright José Rivera, was not well-received, but stepped boldly into an arena of modern translation, daring others to tackle this time-honored but little known classic.

SUGGESTED READING

Allen, John J. The reconstruction of a Spanish Golden Age Playhouse: El Corral de Príncipe, 1583-1744. Gainesville: University Presses of Florida, 1983.

de Armas, Frederick A., ed. The Prince in the Tower: Perceptions of La vida es sueño. Lewisburg: Bucknell University Press, 1993.

---. ed. A Star Crossed Golden Age. Lewisburg: Bucknell University Press, 1998.

Elliott, J.H. Imperial Spain, 1469-1716. Harmondworth, Middlesex: Pelican, 1970 (Originally published 1963).

Hesse, Everett W. Calderón de la Barca. New York: Twayne Publishers, 1967.

Honig, Edwin. Calderón and the Seizures of Honor. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1972.

McKendrick, Melveena. Theatre in Spain, 1490-1700. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1989.

Shergold, N.D. A History of the Spanish Stage: From Medieval Times Until the End of the Seventeenth Century. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1967.

Wilson, Margaret. Spanish Drama of the Golden Age. Oxford: Pergamon Press, 1969.

OTHER TRANSLATIONS

Calderón de la Barca, Pedro. Life Is A Dream. Trans. Roy Campbell. The Harcourt Brace Anthology of Drama. Ed. W.B. Worthen. Fort Worth: Harcourt Brace & Company, 1993.

---. Life Is A Dream. Trans. Edwin Honig. New York: Hill and Wang, 1970.

SPANISH VERSIONS

Calderón de la Barca, Pedro. La vida es sueño. Ed. Evangelina Rodríguez Cuadros. Madrid: Austral, 1997.

---. La vida es sueño. Ed. Ciriaco Morón. Madrid: Catedra, 1995.