_The True God Pan_ may represent for us what the _Auto Sacramental_ had become in Calderon’s hands when his genius was at its fullest development.[36] Calderon was fond of taking classical myths for his _autos_, and treating them as symbols of things to come since fulfilled. He used the story of Psyche and Cupid, and also the Andromeda. The application of the myth of Pan to Christianity was not uncommon in the Renaissance. Pan in Spanish means “bread,” and the _auto_ was especially meant to set forth the mystery of the Sacrament. This play on words is the key to the whole _auto_. If the reader thinks the conceit puerile, and of more than dubious taste, he must remember that he is asked to look not at what would please us, but at what did please the Spaniards,--what was accepted by their still mediæval simplicity of piety, and was in keeping with their love for playing on words. [SN: _The_ loa.] First came the _loa_, or praise. This was an introductory piece, sometimes delivered by a single speaker, sometimes containing a little action. It was common on the secular stage, but had no necessary connection with the piece to follow, being only part of the surroundings and dependencies of the _comedia_. Calderon’s _loa_ was a regular introduction to the _auto_. In _The True God Pan_ there are five personages in the _loa_--History, Poetry, Fable, Music, and Truth. History, the _dama_, begins by announcing that in this time of general joy it becomes her to speak, since she by the mouth of Paul and John has told how the Bread (Pan) became flesh, and the Word had become flesh. She calls in Music and the other personages. A forfeit dance takes place--that is to say, all sing as they dance, and each who makes a fault is called upon to pay a small forfeit. This was, and is, a form of amusement in Spain. The songs all refer to the mystery of the Sacrament, and the faults are the successive departures of Music, Poetry, and the others from the Catholic truth. Fable promises to pay her forfeit by telling one of her stories, and beginning with the Spanish once upon a time--“Érase que se era”--gives an allegorised version of the myth of Pan. Poetry promises an _auto_ on the same subject, to show that the heathen had foreknowledge of our pure truths, but being blind, without the light of Faith, applied them to their own False Gods. The _auto_ shall be on the True God Pan. With a loyal address to Charles the Consoler--the unhappy Carlos II., then a small boy, before whom the _auto_ was performed--the _loa_ ends. [SN: _El Verdadero Dios Pan._]