The Purgatory of St. PatrickCalderón de la Barca, Pedro
Religion
The Purgatory of St. Patrick
Calderón de la Barca, Pedro
Patrick, Saint, 373?-463? -- Drama
[The visit to St. Germain in France is then described: his residence
with St. Martin of Tours, the journey to Rome, and all the other
events follow in detail, which Montalvan collected from Messingham,
Messingham's chief authority being the Life of St. Patrick, by
Jocelin. These are all briefly epitomised in the address of the
Angel Victor, as given by Calderon at the end of the first act.]
SCENE II., p. 262.
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.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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