The story of Luis Enius, as given by Calderon in this long address, seems to be entirely the invention of Montalvan. It is told in the sixth chapter of his "Vida y Purgatorio de San Patricio", and in the edition of 1628 fills over forty pages. Calderon follows the narrative very closely, but in one noticeable incident he greatly improves upon his predecessor. This is in the celebrated skeleton scene of the third act. The corresponding scene in Montalvan's story is puerile enough. In Montalvan Luis Enius has no interview with the skeleton, so powerfully described by Calderon. His conversion is effected by a floating piece of paper which had eluded his grasp for two nights, but which he seized on the third, and examined by a mysterious light at the foot of a cross. On the paper he perceived the representation of a skull, under which is written, "I am Luis Enius". How utterly ineffective and commonplace this is compared with the fine scene in Calderon need not be pointed out.
The story of the vision of himself at Lerici, as recorded in some of the lives of the poet Shelley, which is almost identical with that in Calderon, was evidently suggested by this scene. Shelley's reference to the "Purgatorio de San Patricio" in a note to "The Cenci" shows the attention with which he read this drama. The "Embozado" which Captain Medwin and others supposed to be the name of one of Calderon's dramas, and which, as might be expected, Washington Irving vainly looked for in Spain, was the "Hombre embozado," the "Muffled Figure" of Calderon's "Purgatorio de San Patricio", act 3, scene i.
A vivid description of this scene by Shelley to one of his friends may have been mistaken for a circumstance that had actually happened to the poet himself.
SCENE VIII.
The "Athenaeum", in its elaborate review of the earlier translation of this drama, thus writes:—
"With the prayer of St. Patrick considerable licence has been taken; but its spirit is well preserved, and the translator's poetry must be admired.
"PATRICK. Thou art of all created things,
O Lord, the essence and the cause —
The source and centre of all bliss;
What are those veils of woven light,
Where sun and moon and stars unite —
The purple morn, the spangled night —
But curtains which thy mercy draws
Between the heavenly world and this?
The terrors of the sea and land —
When all the elements conspire,
The earth and water, storm and fire —
Are but the shadows of thy hand;
Do they not all in countless ways —
The lightning's flash — the howling storm —
The dread volcano's awful blaze —
Proclaim thy glory and thy praise?
Beneath the sunny summer showers
Thy love assumes a milder form,
And writes its angel name in flowers;
The wind that flies with winged feet
Around the grassy gladdened earth,
Seems but commissioned to repeat
In echo's accents — silvery sweet —
That thou, O Lord, didst give it birth.
There is a tongue in every flame —
There is a tongue in every wave —
To these the bounteous Godhead gave
These organs but to praise his name!
O mighty Lord of boundless space,
Here canst thou be both sought and found —
For here in everything around,
Thy presence and thy power I trace.
With Faith my guide and my defence,
I burn to serve in love and fear;
If as a slave, Oh, leave me here!
If not, O Lord, remove me hence!"
The "Athenaeum", Oct. 26, 1853.
ACT THE THIRD.
SCENE X.
The account of St. Patrick's Purgatory given by Luis Enius in this long narrative is taken immediately from the seventh, eighth, and ninth chapters of Montalvan's "Vida y Purgatorio de San Patricio", which, as already stated, are themselves a translation from the "Florilegium Insulae Sanctorum" of Messingham. The following extracts are taken from the tract referred to in the Introduction, the full title of which is as follows:—