The _autos_ were neglected until 1829, when Cardinal Diepenbrock published a translation of _Life is a Dream_ (counterpart of comedy of same name); this was followed in 1846-53 by _Geistliche Schauspiele_, von Calderon (Stuttgart, two volumes), containing eleven _autos_ translated by J. von Eichendorff, a writer well known in other walks of literature. In this translation the original metre is preserved, and they are in every way worthy of admiration. In 1856 Ludwig Braunfels published two volumes of translations from Lope de Vega, Iviso de Molina, and Calderon; the second volume contains the _auto_ of _Baltassar’s Feast_. In 1855 Dr. Franz Lorinser, an ecclesiastic of Regensburg, an enthusiastic admirer of Spanish literature, began the translation of all of Calderon’s _autos_, and has now translated some sixty-two of the seventy-two into German trochaic verse, without any attempt to preserve the original _asonante_. This translation is accompanied by valuable notes and explanations, very necessary for the non-Catholic reader, as these plays are in many instances crowded with scholastic theology. If the Germans, with their genius for translation, shrank from the labor necessary for the faithful rendering of the _autos_, the English, with their more unmanageable language, may well be excused for suffering these remarkable plays to remain so long unknown. Occasional notices and analyses had been given in literary histories and periodicals, but the first attempt at a metrical translation was by Dean Trench in his admirable little work (reprinted in New York 1856) on Calderon, which contains a partial translation of _The Great Theatre of the World_. It is needless to say it is beautifully done, and on the whole is the most poetical translation yet made into English. The first complete translation of an _auto_ was made by Mr. D. F. MacCarthy, published in 1861 in London, under the title, _Three Dramas of Calderon, from the Spanish_, and containing the _auto_, _The Sorceries of Sin_. The author was favorably known for his previous labors in this field, which had won him the gratitude of all interested in Spanish literature. He has since published a volume, entitled _Mysteries of Corpus Christi_, Dublin and London, 1867, containing complete translations of _Baltassar’s Feast_, _The Divine Philothea_, and several scenes from _The Poison and the Antidote_, in all of which the original metre is strictly preserved. There are few translations in the English language where similar difficulties have been so triumphantly overcome. The _asonante_ can never be naturalized in English verse, but Mr. MacCarthy has done much to reconcile us to it, and make its introduction in Spanish translations useful, if not indispensably necessary. It may be doubted whether in any other way a correct idea of the Spanish drama can be conveyed to those unacquainted with the Spanish language. TO BE CONCLUDED NEXT MONTH. ARE YOU MY WIFE?