The Purgatory of St. Patrick

The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Purgatory of St. Patrick by Pedro
Calderon de la Barca
#3 in our series by Pedro Calderon de la Barca
Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the
copyright laws for your country before downloading or redistributing
this or any other Project Gutenberg eBook.
This header should be the first thing seen when viewing this Project
Gutenberg file. Please do not remove it. Do not change or edit the
header without written permission.
Please read the "legal small print," and other information about the
eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of this file. Included is
important information about your specific rights and restrictions in how
the file may be used. You can also find out about how to make a
donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved.
**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts**
**eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since
1971**
*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of
Volunteers!*****
Title: The Purgatory of St. Patrick
Author: Pedro Calderon de la Barca
Release Date: August, 2004 [EBook #6371]
[Yes, we are more than
one year ahead of schedule]
[This file was first posted on December 2,
2002]
Edition: 10
Language: English
Character set encoding: ASCII

0. START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE
PURGATORY OF ST. PATRICK ***
Produced by Sue Asscher [email protected]

CALDERON'S DRAMAS.
THE PURGATORY OF ST. PATRICK.
NOW FIRST TRANSLATED FULLY FROM THE SPANISH IN
THE METRE
OF THE ORIGINAL.
BY
DENIS FLORENCE MAC-CARTHY.
LONDON: HENRY S. KING & CO.,
65 CORNHILL, AND 12,
PATERNOSTER ROW.
1873.
INTRODUCTION.
Two of the dramas contained in this volume are the most celebrated of
all Calderon's writings. The first, "La Vida es Sueno", has been
translated into many languages and performed with success on almost
every stage in Europe but that of England. So late as the winter of
1866-7, in a Russian version, it drew crowded houses to the great
theatre of Moscow; while a few years earlier, as if to give a signal proof
of the reality of its title, and that Life was indeed a Dream, the Queen
of Sweden expired in the theatre of Stockholm during the performance
of "La Vida es Sueno". In England the play has been much studied for
its literary value and the exceeding beauty and lyrical sweetness of
some passages; but with the exception of a version by John Oxenford
published in "The Monthly Magazine" for 1842, which being in blank
verse does not represent the form of the original, no complete
translation into English has been attempted. Some scenes translated
with considerable elegance in the metre of the original were published
by Archbishop Trench in 1856; but these comprised only a portion of
the graver division of the drama. The present version of the entire play
has been made with the advantages which the author's long experience

in the study and interpretation of Calderon has enabled him to apply to
this master-piece of the great Spanish poet. All the forms of verse have
been preserved; while the closeness of the translation may be inferred
from the fact, that not only the whole play but every speech and
fragment of a speech are represented in English in the exact number of
lines of the original, without the sacrifice, it is to be hoped, of one
important idea.
A note by Hartzenbusch in the last edition of the drama published at
Madrid (1872), tells that "La Vida es Sueno", is founded on a story
which turns out to be substantially the same as that with which English
students are familiar as the foundation of the famous Induction to the
"Taming of the Shrew". Calderon found it however in a different work
from that in which Shakespeare met with it, or rather his predecessor,
the anonymous author of "The Taming of a Shrew", whose work
supplied to Shakespeare the materials of his own comedy.
On this subject Malone thus writes. "The circumstance on which the
Induction to the anonymous play, as well as to the present Comedy
[Shakespeare's "Taming of the Shrew"], is founded, is related (as
Langbaine has observed) by Heuterus, "Rerum Burgund." lib. iv. The
earliest English original of this story in prose that I have met with is the
following, which is found in Goulart's "Admirable and Memorable
Histories", translated by E. Grimstone, quarto, 1607; but this tale
(which Goulart translated from Heuterus) had undoubtedly appeared in
English, in some other shape, before 1594:
"Philip called the good Duke of Burgundy, in the memory of our
ancestors, being at Bruxelles with his Court, and walking one night
after supper through the streets, accompanied by some of his favourites,
he found lying upon the stones a certaine artisan that was very dronke,
and that slept soundly. It pleased the prince