The Two Lovers of Heaven: Chrysanthus and Daria: A Drama of Early Christian Rome — John Shaqi
The Two Lovers of Heaven: Chrysanthus and Daria: A Drama of Early Christian RomeCalderón de la Barca, Pedro
Religion
The Two Lovers of Heaven: Chrysanthus and Daria: A Drama of Early Christian Rome
Calderón de la Barca, Pedro
Christian martyrs -- Italy -- Rome -- Drama
THE
TWO LOVERS OF HEAVEN:
CHRYSANTHUS AND DARIA.
A Drama of Early Christian Rome.
FROM THE SPANISH OF CALDERON.
With Dedicatory Sonnets to
LONGFELLOW,
ETC.
BY
DENIS FLORENCE MAC-CARTHY, M.R.I.A.
POR LA FE MORIRE.
Calderon's Family Motto.
DUBLIN:
JOHN F. FOWLER, 3 CROW STREET.
LONDON:
JOHN CAMDEN HOTTEN, 74 and 75 PICCADILLY.
1870.
Calderon's Family Motto.
"POR LA FE MORIRE". --
FOR THE FAITH WELCOME DEATH.
THIS motto is taken from the engraved coat of arms prefixed to an
historical account of "the very noble and ancient house of Calderon de
la Barca"--a rather scarce work which I have never seen alluded to in
any account of the poet. The circumstances from which the motto was
assigned to the family are given with some minuteness at pp. 56 and 57
of the work referred to. It is enough to mention that the martyr who
first used the expression was Don Sancho Ortiz Calderon de la Barca, a
Commander of the Order of Santiago. He was in the service of the
renowned king, Don Alfonso the Wise, towards the close of the thirteenth
century, and having been taken prisoner by the Moors before Gibraltar,
he was offered his life on the usual conditions of apostasy. But he
refused all overtures, saying: "Pues mi Dios por mi murio, yo quiero
morir por el", a phrase which has a singular resemblance to the key note
of this drama. Don Ortiz Calderon was eventually put to death with
great cruelty, after some alternations of good and bad treatment. See
"Descripcion, Armas, Origen, y Descendencia de la muy noble y antigua
Casa de Calderon de la Barca", etc., que Escrivio El Rmo. P. M. Fr.
Phelipe de la Gandara, etc., Obra Postuma, que saca a luz Juan de
Zuniga. Madrid, 1753.
D. F. M. C.
TO
HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW,
IN GRATEFUL RECOLLECTION OF SOME DELIGHTFUL DAYS SPENT WITH HIM AT
ROME,
This Drama is dedicated
BY
DENIS FLORENCE MAC-CARTHY.
TO LONGFELLOW.
I.
PENSIVE within the Colosseum's walls
I stood with thee, O Poet of the West!--
The day when each had been a welcome guest
In San Clemente's venerable halls:--
Ah, with what pride my memory now recalls
That hour of hours, that flower of all the rest,
When with thy white beard falling on thy breast--
That noble head, that well might serve as Paul's
In some divinest vision of the saint
By Raffael dreamed, I heard thee mourn the dead--
The martyred host who fearless there, though faint,
Walked the rough road that up to Heaven's gate led:
These were the pictures Calderon loved to paint
In golden hues that here perchance have fled.
II.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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