Spanish & Portuguese
Pedro Calderón de la Barca
Pedro Calderón de la Barca (1600–1681) was born in Madrid and educated by the Jesuits before studying at Alcalá and Salamanca. After soldiering in Italy and Flanders he became court dramatist to Philip IV, was made a knight of the Order of Santiago, and in 1651 was ordained a priest. He wrote for the court theatre and the public stage, and he was the chief author of the sacred one-act plays called autos sacramentales.
Among the best known of his comedias are La vida es sueño and El alcalde de Zalamea. Edward FitzGerald, later famous for the Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám, translated eight of them very freely: six were printed in 1853 and two more in 1865. Those versions are given here as eight verse plays, with the prose speeches of the comic servants kept as FitzGerald wrote them.
Major Works (8)
- Beware of Smooth Water — translated by Edward FitzGerald (1853)
- Gil Perez, the Gallician — translated by Edward FitzGerald (1853)
- Keep Your Own Secret — translated by Edward FitzGerald (1853)
- The Mayor of Zalamea — translated by Edward FitzGerald (1853)
- The Mighty Magician — translated by Edward FitzGerald (1865)
- The Painter of His Own Dishonour — translated by Edward FitzGerald (1853)
- Such Stuff as Dreams Are Made Of — translated by Edward FitzGerald (1865)
- Three Judgments at a Blow — translated by Edward FitzGerald (1853)