Comedias, 1760, Tom. II. p. 264.
There is, however, a good deal that is solemn in this wild drama. Enio, when he goes to the infernal world, talks, in the spirit of Dante himself, of
Treading on the very ghosts of men.
[611] See Chapters 4 and 6 of Montalvan’s “Patricio.”
[612] It is beautifully translated by A. W. Schlegel. A drama of Tirso de Molina, “El Condenado por Desconfiado,” goes still more profoundly into the peculiar religious faith of the age, and may well be compared with this play of Calderon, which it preceded. It represents a reverend hermit, Paulo, as losing the favor of God, simply from want of trust in it; while Enrico, a robber and assassin, obtains that favor by an exercise of faith and trust at the last moment of a life which had been filled with the most revolting crimes.
[613] An interesting, but somewhat too metaphysical, discussion of the character of this play, with prefatory remarks on the general merits of Calderon, by Karl Rosenkranz, appeared at Leipzig in 1829, (12mo), entitled, “Ueber Calderon’s Tragödie vom wunderthätigen Magus.”
[614] How completely a light, worldly tone was taken in these plays may be seen in the following words of the Madonna, when she personally gives St. Ildefonso a rich vestment,—the chasuble,—in which he is to say mass:—
Receive this robe, that, at my holy feast,
Thou mayst be seen as such a gallant should be.
My taste must be consulted in thy dress,