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
"Taking for example, the great German authority on this point, Dr.
Lorinzer [Lorinser], as our guide, we see his poet looming dimly through
a cloud of incense, which may embalm his memory, but certainly does not
improve our eyesight. Indeed, according to him, any appreciation of
Calderon is not to be dreamt of by a Protestant". Lectures, pp. 109,
110.
With every respect for Sir F. H. Doyle, Dr. Lorinser says no such thing.
He was too well informed of what had been done in Germany on the same
subject, before he himself undertook the formidable task of attempting a
complete translation of all the Autos of Calderon, to have fallen into
such an error. Cardinal Diepenbrock, Archbishop of Breslau, who, in his
"Das Leben ein Traum" (an Auto quite distinct from the well known drama
"La Vida es Sueno") first commenced this interesting labour in Germany,
was of course a Catholic. But Eichendorff and Braunfels, who both
preceded Dr. Lorinser, were Protestants. Augustus Schlegel and Baron
von Schack, who have written so profoundly and so truly on the Autos,
are expressly referred to by Dr. Lorinser, and it is superfluous to say
that they too were Protestants. Sir F. H. Doyle, in using my
translation of the passage which will presently be quoted, changes the
word 'thoroughly' into 'properly', as if it were a more correct
rendering of the original. Unfortunately, however, there is nothing to
represent either word in the German. Dr. Lorinser says, that by many,
not by all, Calderon cannot be enjoyed as much as he deserves, because a
great number of persons best competent to judge of his merits are
deficient in the knowledge of Catholic faith and Catholic theology which
for the understanding of Calderon is indispensible--"welche fuer
Calderons Verstaendniss unerlaesslich ist". Sir F. H. Doyle says that
to him these Autos are not "incomprehensible at all" (p. 112), but then
he understands them all the better for being a scholar and a churchman.
Sir F. H. Doyle thus continues his reference to Dr. Lorinser. "Even
learned critics", he says, "highly cultivated in all the niceties of
aesthetics, are deficient in the knowledge of Catholic faith and
Catholic theology properly to understand Calderon" (Lectures, p. 110,
taken from the Introduction to my volume, p. 3). "Old traditions",
continues Dr. Lorinzer, "which twine round the dogma like a beautiful
garland of legends, deeply profound thoughts expressed here and there
by some of the Fathers of the Church, are made use of with such
incredible skill and introduced so appositely at the right place,
that . . . . frequently it is not easy to guess the source from whence
they have been derived" (Lectures, p. 111, taken from the Introduction
to my volume, p. 6).
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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