Background
Pedro Calderón de la Barca was born in Madrid on the 17th of January 1600. His mother, who was of Flemish descent, died in 1610. His father, who was secretary to the treasury, died in 1615.
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Pedro Calderón de la Barca was born in Madrid on the 17th of January 1600. His mother, who was of Flemish descent, died in 1610. His father, who was secretary to the treasury, died in 1615.
Calderon was educated at the Jesuit College in Madrid with a view to taking orders and accepting a family living. Abandoning this project, he studied law at Salamanca.
Pedro Calderón de la Barca served with the Spanish army in Italy and Flanders between 1625 and 1635; hut this statement is contradicted by numerous legal documents which prove that Calderon resided at Madrid during these years. Early in 1629 his brother Diego was stabbed by an actor who took sanctuary in the convent of the Trinitarian nuns; Calderon ana his friends broke into the cloister and attempted to seize the offender. This violation was denounced by the fashionable preacher, Hortensio Felix Paravicino (q. v. ), in a sermon preached before Philip IV. ;Calder6n retorted by introducing into El Principe constanle a mocking reference (afterwards cancelled) to Paravicino's gongoristic verbiage, and was committed to prison. He was soon released, grew rapidly in reputation as a playwright, and, on the death of Lope de Vega in 1635, was recognized as the foremost Spanish dramatist of the age. A volume of his plays, edited by his brother Jose in 1636, contains such celebrated and diverse productions as La Vida es suefio, El Purgatorio de San Patricio, La Devocidn de la cruz, La Dama duende and Peor estd que estaba. In 1636-163 7 he was made a knight of the order of Santiago by Philip IV, who had already commissioned from him a series of spectacular plays for the royal theatre in the Buen Retiro. Calderon was almost as popular with the general public as Lope de Vega had been in his zenith; he was, moreover, in high favour at court, but this royal patronage did not help to develop the finer elements of his genius. On the 28th of May 1640 he joined a company of mounted cuirassiers recently raised by Olivares, took part in the Catalonian campaign, and distinguished himself by his gallantry at Tarragona; his health failing, he retired from the army in November 1642, and three years later was awarded a special military pension in recognition of his services in the field. The history of his life during the next few years is obscure. He appears to have been profoundly affected by the death of his mistress-the mother of his son Pedro Jose-about the year 1648-1649; his long connexion with the theatre had led him into temptations, but it had not diminished his instinctive spirit of devotion, and he now sought consolation in religion. He became a tertiary of the order of St Francis in 1650, and finally reverted to his original intention of joining the priesthood. He was ordained in 1651, was presented to a living in the parish of San Salvador at Madrid, and, according to his statement made a year or two later, determined to give up writing for the stage. He did not adhere to this resolution after his preferment to a prebend at Toledo in 1653, though he confined himself as much as possible to the composition of autos sacramentales- allegorical pieces in which the mystery of the Eucharist was illustrated dramatically, and which were performed with great pomp on the feast of Corpus Christi and during the weeks immediately ensuing. In 1662 two of Calderon's autos-Las ordenes militares and Misticay real Babilonia-were the subjects of an inquiry by the Inquisition; the former was censured, the manuscript copies were confiscated, and the condemnation was not rescinded till 1671. Calderon was appointed honorary chaplain to Philip IV in 1663, and the royal favour was continued to him in the next reign. In his eighty-first year he wrote his last secular play, Hado у Divisa de Leonido у Marfisa, in honour of Charles II. 's marriage to Marie-Louise de Bourbon. Notwithstanding his position at court and his universal popularity throughout Spain, his closing years seem to have been passed in poverty. He died on the 25th of May 1681.
(The masterwork of Spains preeminent dramatistnow in a n...)
Pedro Calderón de la Barca married Devora Tésta.
A volume of his plays, edited by his brother Jose in 1636.
Early in 1629 his brother Diego was stabbed by an actor who took sanctuary in the convent of the Trinitarian nuns; Calderon ana his friends broke into the cloister and attempted to seize the offender.
