EIGHT DRAMAS
OF
CALDERON
FREELY TRANSLATED
BY
EDWARD FITZGERALD
London
MACMILLAN AND CO., LIMITED
NEW YORK: THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
1906
_All rights reserved_
In apologizing for the publication of so free translations of so famous a
poet as Calderon, I must plead, first, that I have not meddled with any
of his more famous plays; not one of those on my list being mentioned
with any praise, or included in any selection that I know of, except the
homely Mayor of Zalamea. Four of these six indeed, as many others in
Calderon, may be lookt on as a better kind of what we call melodramas.
Such plays as the _Magico Prodigioso_ and the _Vida es Sueño_ (I cannot
rank the _Principe Constante_ among them) require another translator,
and, I think, form of translation.
Secondly, I do not believe an exact translation of this poet can be very
successful; retaining so much that, whether real or dramatic Spanish
passion, is still bombast to English ears, and confounds otherwise
distinct outlines of character; Conceits that were a fashion of the day;
or idioms that, true and intelligible to one nation, check the current
of sympathy in others to which they are unfamiliar; violations of the
probable, nay _possible_, that shock even healthy romantic licence;
repetitions of thoughts and images that Calderon used (and smiled at) as
so much stage properties—so much, in short, that is not Calderon’s own
better self, but concession to private haste or public taste by one who
so often relied upon some striking dramatic crisis for success with a not
very accurate audience, and who, for whatever reason, was ever averse
from any of his dramas being printed.
Choosing therefore such less famous plays as still seemed to me suited to
English taste, and to that form of verse in which our dramatic passion
prefers to run, I have, while faithfully trying to retain what was fine
and efficient, sunk, reduced, altered, and replaced, much that seemed
not; simplified some perplexities, and curtailed or omitted scenes that
seemed to mar the breadth of general effect, supplying such omissions
by some lines of after-narrative; and in some measure have tried to
compensate for the fulness of sonorous Spanish, which Saxon English at
least must forgo, by a compression which has its own charm to Saxon ears.
That this, if proper to be done at all, might be better done by others,
I do not doubt. Nay, on looking back over these pages, I see where in
some cases the Spanish individuality might better have been retained,
and northern idiom spared; and doubtless there are many inaccuracies I
am not yet aware of. But if these plays prove interesting to the English
reader, I and he may be very sure that, whatever of Spain and Calderon be
lost, there must be a good deal retained; and I think he should excuse
the licence of my version till some other interests him as well at less
expense of fidelity.