Contents.
[Calderon's Family Motto]
[Dedicatory Sonnets to Longfellow]
[Prefatory Note]
[Introduction]
[The Two Lovers of Heaven]
ACT THE FIRST
[Scene I]
[Scene II]
[Scene III]
ACT THE SECOND
[Scene I]
[Scene II]
[Scene III]
ACT THE THIRD
[Scene I]
[Scene II]
[Scene III]
[Scene IV]
[Reviews of Calderon's Dramas and Autos Translated by D. F. MacCarthy]
[List of Calderon's Dramas and Autos Translated by D. F. MacCarthy]
[Advertisements]
[[Transcriber's Notes]]
Calderon's Family Motto.
"Por la Fe Moriré". —
For the Faith welcome Death.
This motto is taken from the engraved coat of arms prefixed to an historical account of "the very noble and ancient house of Calderon de la Barca"—a rather scarce work which I have never seen alluded to in any account of the poet. The circumstances from which the motto was assigned to the family are given with some minuteness at pp. 56 and 57 of the work referred to. It is enough to mention that the martyr who first used the expression was Don Sancho Ortiz Calderon de la Barca, a Commander of the Order of Santiago. He was in the service of the renowned king, Don Alfonso the Wise, towards the close of the thirteenth century, and having been taken prisoner by the Moors before Gibraltar, he was offered his life on the usual conditions of apostasy. But he refused all overtures, saying: "Pues mi Dios por mi muriò, yo quiero morir por èl", a phrase which has a singular resemblance to the key note of this drama. Don Ortiz Calderon was eventually put to death with great cruelty, after some alternations of good and bad treatment. See Descripcion, Armas, Origen, y Descendencia de la muy noble y antigua Casa de Calderon de la Barca, etc., que Escrivió El Rmo. P. M. Fr. Phelipe de la Gandara, etc., Obra Postuma, que saca a luz Juan de Zuñiga. Madrid, 1753.