[571] See the learned genealogical introduction to the “Obelisco Fúnebre,” just cited. The name of Calderon, as its author tells us, came into the family in the thirteenth century, when one of its number, being prematurely born, was supposed to be dead, but was ascertained to be alive by being unceremoniously thrown into a caldron—calderon—of warm water. As he proved to be a great man, and was much favored by St. Ferdinand and Alfonso the Wise, his nickname became a name of honor, and five caldrons were, from that time, borne in the family arms. The additional surname of Barca came in later, with an estate—solar—of one of the house, who afterwards perished, fighting against the Moors; in consequence of which, a castle, a gauntlet, and the motto, Por la fé moriré, were added to their escutcheon, which, thus arranged, constituted the not inappropriate arms of the poet in the seventeenth century.
[572] See the notice of Calderon’s father in Baena, Tom. I. p. 305; that of Calderon himself, Tom. IV. p. 228; and that of Lope de Vega, Tom. III. p. 350; but, especially, see the different facts about Calderon scattered through the dull prose introduction to the “Obelisco Fúnebre,” and its still more dull poetry. The biographical sketch of him by his friend Vera Tassis y Villarroel, originally prefixed to the fifth volume of his Comedias, and to be found in the first volume of the editions since, is formal, pedantic, and unsatisfactory, like most notices of the old Spanish authors.
[573] His sonnet for this occasion is in Lope de Vega, Obras Sueltas, Tom. XI. p. 432; and his octavas are at p. 491. Both are respectable for a youth of twenty. The praises of Lope, which are unmeaning, are at p. 593 of the same volume. Who obtained the prizes at this festival of 1620 is not known.
[574] The different pieces offered by Calderon for the festival of May 17, 1622, are in Lope de Vega, Obras Sueltas, Tom. XII. pp. 181, 239, 303, 363, 384. Speaking of them, Lope (p. 413) says, a prize was given to “Don Pedro Calderon, who, in his tender years, earns the laurels which time is wont to produce only with hoary hairs.” The six or eight poems offered by Calderon at these two poetical joustings are valuable, not only as being the oldest of his works that remain to us, but as being almost the only specimens of his verse that we have, except his dramas. Cervantes, in his Don Quixote, intimates, that, at these poetical contests, the first prize was given from personal favor, or from regard to the rank of the aspirant, and the second with reference only to the merit of the poem presented. (Parte II. c. 18.) Calderon took, on this occasion, only the third prize for a cancion; the first being given to Lope, and the second to Zarate.
[575] Silva VII.
[576] Para Todos, ed. 1661, pp. 539, 540. But these sketches were prepared in 1632.
[577] It has been said that Calderon has given to none of his dramas the title Vera Tassis assigns to this one, viz., “Certámen de Amor y Zelos.” But this is a mistake. No play with this precise title is to be found among his printed works; but it is the last but one in the list of his plays furnished by Calderon himself to the Duke of Veraguas, in 1680.
[578] “He knew how,” says Augustin de Lara, “to unite, by humility and prudence, the duties of an obedient child and a loving father.”
[579] “Murió sin Mecenas.” Aprobacion to the “Obelisco,” dated Oct. 30th, 1683. All that relates to Calderon in this very rare volume is important, because it comes from a friend, and was written,—at least the poetical part of it,—as the author tells us, within fifty-three days after Calderon’s death.
[580] “Estava un auto entonces en los fines, como su autor.” (Obelisco, Canto I., st. 22. See also a sonnet at the end of the volume.) Solís, the historian, in one of his letters, says, “Our friend Don Pedro Calderon is just dead, and went off, as they say the swan does, singing; for he did all he could, even when he was in immediate danger, to finish the second auto for the Corpus. But, after all, he went through only a little more than half of it, and it has been finished in some way or other by Don Melchior de Leon.” (Cartas de N. Antonio y A. Solís, publicadas por Mayans y Siscar, Leon de Francia, 1733, 12mo, p. 75.) I cite three contemporary notices of so small a fact, to show how much consequence was attached to every thing regarding Calderon and his autos.