The feeling of regret with which the decay of Spanish poetry in the age of Rebolledo is beheld, yields to the agreeable surprize which arises on taking a retrospective view of the Spanish drama, the history of which must now be continued to the close of the present period. The history of the Spanish drama should properly be studied as a whole; but that combined mode of viewing the subject was not compatible with a synchronous account of all the remarkable productions of the polite literature of Spain. Having, however, in connexion with Lope de Vega, spoken of Virues, Montalvan, and others, it will, at least, be convenient not to separate the series of dramatic poets, who emulated or imitated Calderon. CALDERON. Again, in the history of Spanish poetry a writer occurs, whose name deserves to be transmitted to the latest posterity, and who flourished along with others who are also worthy of honourable remembrance. Pedro Calderon de la Barca, descended of a noble family, was born in the year 1600. He is said to have written his first dramatic work before he had completed his fourteenth year. Having finished his collegial studies at an early age, he, according to the custom of the times, attached himself to some patrons whom he found among the nobility at the court of Madrid. Not satisfied, however, with this means of introducing himself to the great world, he became a soldier, and served in several campaigns in Italy and the Netherlands. Meanwhile the fame of his talents as a dramatic poet was widely spread; and it was foretold that he would equal, if not exceed, Lope de Vega. King Philip IV. who afforded more liberal encouragement to the drama than any of his predecessors, and who was himself the author of several plays, was gratified by the idea that he had in Calderon a man capable of giving splendour to the court theatre. He called him to Madrid in the year 1636, and shortly after invested him with the order of St. Iago. From this period Calderon became permanently fixed at court, and his young sovereign, whose chief attention was devoted to amusements and festivities, kept him in constant activity. No expence was spared in bestowing pomp and brilliancy on the pieces which Calderon produced for the entertainment of the court; but on the other hand, it was expected of him to accommodate his genius to the conditions required by a courtly audience. Nevertheless his taste was consulted in the arrangement of all public festivities, and the triumphal arch through which the Queen Maria of Austria made her public entrance into Spain, was erected in conformity with his suggestions.