General. To simplify the Hypertext Markup Language
programming I have rendered most instances of SMALL
CAPITALS as bold text (i.e. text within
<b> </b> tags) which I consider to be logically
comparable. Bold text does not appear in the original printed
source book.
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."
[Contents]. The table of
contents is not in the original printed version of this play.
I have added it in this HTML version to facilitate internal navigation
by hyperlinks.
[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. Various lines are indented
in the original to show continuation of a verse line from one speaker to the
next. Above I have employed white/transparent graphics with different
numbers of horizontal pixels to approximate the relative indentation of these
lines as they appear in the printed source.
[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 Calderón 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]. 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 blesséd rapture of forgetting", the printed source has "blessed"
without an acute 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 tú tan de su parte /
Estás, que á ellos los ensalzas? / [C.] Sí; 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 mí me ha dejado á
mí.
[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.