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often abbreviated - Calderon; Spanish Pedro Calderon de la Barca; full name - Calderon de la Barca Henao de la Barreda y Riaño, Spanish

Spanish playwright and poet, whose works are considered one of the highest achievements of Golden Age literature

Pedro Calderon

short biography

(his entire name sounds like Calderon de la Barca Henao de la Barreda y Rianho) is the largest Spanish playwright, poet, whose work is considered to be one of the most significant achievements of the golden age in the field of literature. Calderon's biography cannot be called rich in events and details of his life's path, especially if we compare it with the surviving information about other famous representatives of this era - Cervantes and Lope de Vega.

Calderon comes from an impoverished noble family, into which he was born in 1600, on January 17. The birthplace of the future famous playwright was Madrid. The parents hoped that their son would become a priest, so they sent him to be raised at the Madrid Jesuit College. Within its walls, a 13-year-old teenager composed his first drama, “Heavenly Chariot.” Then he received his education in Salamanca: at the local university he studied theology, law, and mathematics.

The next stage of his biography was military service, which Calderon entered in 1620. It is possible that he fought in Italy and Flanders as part of the Spanish army, but there is evidence that at that time he was in his homeland. As a creative personality, Calderon first announced himself in 1622 at the celebrations in honor of St. Isidora: he took part in a poetry competition and won first prize. Another “bonus” was praise from the famous Lope de Vega. Inspired by his success, Calderon decided not to return to law.

The following year, Calderon appeared as a playwright for the first time, presenting the play “Love, Honor and Power” to the public. The early period of creativity, until the mid-20s, passed under the sign of writing the so-called. comedies of cloak and sword. In 1625, literary activity became the main and only one for Calderon. In 1635, Lope de Vega, whom he considered his teacher, dies. By this time, his talented follower had earned the status of the country's first playwright. In the same year, the famous Calderon was appointed to the position of court playwright and director of the Royal Theater that opened in the new palace. Philip IV, who favored him, placed the most famous stage designers and musicians at his disposal. In 1637, Calderon was knighted in the Order of St. Jacob (Sant Iago).

As a person liable for military service, during 1640-1642. the playwright was in the ranks of the troops that suppressed the national separatist uprising in Catalonia. He was released from military service due to health reasons in 1642 and 3 years later he was already receiving a pension. In 1651, Calderon's life path once again took a sharp turn: he was ordained a priest, and he moved from Madrid to Toledo. Researchers claim that personal circumstances prompted him to do this, in particular, the birth of an illegitimate child, the death of his brother, as well as new trends in public life associated with the ongoing persecution of the theater.

Despite his status as a clergyman, Calderon still wrote plays and attended performances based on them, but abandoned his previous themes, now turning to biblical and other allegorical subjects of a religious nature. These so-called The playwright himself considered spiritual dramas his main achievement. From 1663 until his death he was the royal chaplain, i.e. confessor, first to Philip IV, later to Charles II. In the same year, the playwright headed the Jesuit brotherhood of St. Petra. The royal court treated Calderon very favorably, his plays did not leave the stage, nevertheless, in the last years of his life he was in great financial need. Died on May 25, 1681 in Madrid. Despite his very advanced age, Calderon de la Barca Pedro continued to write; among the papers on his desk they found a drama that was destined to remain unfinished.

Biography from Wikipedia

Pedro Calderon de la Barca, often abbreviated - Calderon(Spanish) Pedro Calderon de la Barca; full name - Calderon de la Barca Henao de la Barreda y Rianho, Spanish. Calderón de la Barca Henao de la Barreda y Riaño; 7 (January 17, 1600) - 15 (May 25, 1681) - Spanish playwright and poet, whose works are considered one of the highest achievements of Golden Age literature.

The playwright's biography, in comparison with the life of other classics of the golden age, Cervantes and Lope de Vega, is relatively poor in external events and factual data.

Calderon was born in Madrid, in the family of Don Diego Calderon, secretary of the treasury, a middle-class nobleman. The mother of the future playwright Anna Maria de Henao was the daughter of a gunsmith originally from Flanders. His father prepared Calderon for a spiritual career: he was educated at the Madrid Jesuit College and also studied at the universities of Salamanca and Alcala de Henares. However, in 1620, Calderon left his studies for military service.

According to some reports, in the years 1625-1635, Calderon served in the Spanish troops in Italy and Flanders, but there is evidence of his stay in Madrid during this period. As a playwright, Calderon made his debut with the play “Love, Honor and Power” ( Amor, honor y poder, 1623) and by the time of the death of his great predecessor and teacher, Lope de Vega, which followed in 1635, was already considered the first playwright of Spain. In addition, he received recognition at court. Philip IV knighted Calderon in the Order of St. James (Santiago) and commissioned him to play for the court theater set up in the newly built Buen Retiro Palace. Calderon was provided with the services of the best musicians and stage designers of that time. In the plays written when Calderon was a court playwright, the use of complex stage effects is noticeable. For example, the play “The Beast, Lightning and Stone” ( La fiera, el rayo y la piedra, 1652) was presented on an island in the middle of a lake in the palace park, and spectators watched it while sitting in boats.

In 1640-1642, while performing military duties, Calderon, as part of a company of cuirassiers formed by the Count-Duke of Olivares, participated in the suppression of the “Revolt of the Reapers” (national separatist movement) in Catalonia. In 1642, due to health reasons, he left military service and three years later received a pension. He later became a tertiary of the Order of St. Francis, and in 1651 Calderon was ordained a priest; This was probably caused by events in his personal life (the death of his brother, the birth of an illegitimate son), about which little reliable information has been preserved, as well as by the persecution of the theater that began.

After his ordination, Calderon abandoned the composition of secular plays and turned to autos sacramentales- allegorical plays based on plots borrowed mainly from the Bible and Sacred Tradition, dramatically illustrating the sacrament of the Eucharist. In 1663 he was appointed personal confessor to Philip IV (royal chaplain); This honorary position was retained by Calderon and the king's successor, Charles II. Despite the popularity of the plays and the favor of the royal court, Calderon's last years were spent in noticeable poverty.

Creation

Calderon's dramaturgy is the baroque completion of the theatrical model created at the end of the 16th - beginning of the 17th century by Lope de Vega. According to the list of works compiled by the author himself shortly before his death, Calderon wrote about 120 comedies (including “cloak and sword”) and dramas, 80 autos sacramentales, 20 interludes and a considerable number of other works, including poems and poems. Although Calderon is less prolific than his predecessor, he brings to perfection the dramatic “formula” created by Lope de Vega, purifying it of lyrical and ineffective elements and turning the play into a magnificent baroque action. He, unlike Lope de Vega, is characterized by special attention to the scenographic and musical side of the performance.

There are many classifications of Calderon's plays. Most often, researchers identify the following groups:

Title page of Calderon's collection of comedies (Madrid, 1640)

• Dramas of honor. These works are dominated by traditional Spanish Baroque themes: love, religion and honor. The conflict is associated either with a deviation from these principles, or with the tragic need to comply with them, even at the cost of human life. Although the action is often set in Spain's past, the setting and themes are close to contemporary Calderon. Examples: “The Steadfast Prince”, “The Alcalde of Salamea”, “The Physician of His Honor”, ​​“The Painter of His Dishonor”.

• Philosophical dramas. Plays of this type touch on fundamental issues of existence, first of all - human fate, free will, and the causes of human suffering. The action most often takes place in “exotic” countries for Spain (for example, Ireland, Poland, Russia); the historical and local flavor is emphatically conventional and is intended to emphasize their timeless issues. Examples: “Life is a Dream”, “The Magician”, “Purgatory of St. Patrick”.

• Comedy of intrigue. The most “traditional” group of Calderon’s plays includes comedies, built according to the canons of the Lope de Vega theater, with an intricate and fascinating love affair. Women most often become the initiators and most active participants in the intrigue. Comedies are characterized by the so-called “Calderon move” - objects that accidentally came to the heroes, letters that arrived by mistake, secret passages and hidden doors. Examples: “The Invisible Lady”, “In the Still Waters...”, “Aloud in Secret.”

Regardless of the genre, Calderon’s style is characterized by increased metaphor, vividly figurative poetic language, logically structured dialogues and monologues, where the character of the characters is revealed. Calderon's works are rich in reminiscences from ancient mythology and literature, Holy Scripture, and other writers of the Golden Age (for example, allusions to the characters and situations of “Don Quixote” are in the text of “The Lady of the Ghost” and “The Mayor of Salamea”). The characters of his plays simultaneously have one dominant feature (Cyprian (“The Magician”) - a thirst for knowledge, Segismundo (“Life is a Dream”) - the inability to distinguish between good and evil, Pedro Crespo (“The Alcalde of Salamea”) - the desire for justice) and complex internal device.

The last significant playwright of the Golden Age, Calderon, after a period of oblivion in the 18th century, was rediscovered in Germany. Goethe staged his plays at the Weimar theater; The influence of “The Magician” on the concept of “Faust” is noticeable. Thanks to the works of the Schlegel brothers, who were especially attracted by the philosophical and religious component of his works (“Calderon is the Catholic Shakespeare”), the Spanish playwright gained wide popularity and firmly took his place as a classic of European literature. Calderon's influence on German-language literature in the 20th century was reflected in the work of Hugo von Hofmannsthal.

Among the European romantics who were influenced by Calderon or who translated his works, one can also note Percy Bysshe Shelley, Juliusz Słowacki, and Wilhelm Küchelbecker.

Major works

Monument to Calderon in Madrid on St. Anna Square (Russian) Spanish. (sculptor J. Figueres Vila, 1880)

• "The Steadfast Prince" ( El príncipe constante, drama of honor, 1629)
• "Invisible Lady" ("Ghost Lady") ( La dama duende, comedy, 1629)
• "Worship of the Cross" ( La devoción de la Cruz, philosophical drama, 1634)
• "Life is a dream" ( La vida es sueño, philosophical drama, 1635)
• "Doctor of his honor" ( El medico de su honra, drama of honor, 1635)
• "Magic Mage" ( El magico prodigioso, philosophical drama, 1635)
• "Purgatory of St. Patrick" ( El purgatorio de San Patricio, philosophical drama, 1643)
• "Alcalde of Salamea" ("Alcade in Salamea") ( El alcalde de Zalamea, drama of honor, approx. 1645)
• "The Great Theater of the World" ( El gran teatro del mundo, auto, 1649)
• “In the still waters...” ( Guardate del agua mansa, comedy, 1649)
• "The Rose and the Man" (sonnet)
• “With gaiety, both magnificent and carefree...” (sonnet)
• “They were a charm to the eyes...” (sonnet)
• “To the Flowers” ​​(“The flowers of the garden seemed to be the pride of the garden...”) (sonnet)
• “No, it doesn’t amuse me...” (sonnet)
• “The luminaries scattered across the sky...” (sonnet)
• "To the Roses" (sonnet)
• "Roses" (sonnet)

Calderon in Russia

N. G. Kovalenskaya as Prince Fernando (“The Steadfast Prince” by Calderon, production by Vs. Meyerhold, Petrograd, Alexandrinsky Theater, 1915)

The first experience of translating Calderon’s works into Russian belonged to Catherine II, who was fond of theater, who made a “free transcription” of the first seven scenes of the comedy “The Hidden Caballero” ( El escondido y la tapada). In the 19th century, through the German romantics, Calderon gradually gained fame in Russia. Judgments about his work are found in Pushkin, Belinsky, Nadezhdin, Bulgarin, Turgenev. Translations of Calderon's plays appear, including those made from the original language (for example, “Life is a Dream” and “The Alcalde of Salamey,” translated by K. I. Timkovsky). In the second half of the century, the production of Calderon's works on the Russian stage began.

Pedro Calderón de la Barca (Spanish: Pedro Calderón de la Barca) was born on January 17, 1600 in Madrid, Spain. His father, Don Diego Calderon, held a major government position: he worked as Secretary of the Treasury. His mother Anna Maria de Henao came from Flanders and was the daughter of a simple gunsmith. Calderon, seeking to build a spiritual career under the instructions of his father, graduated from the Madrid Jesuit College and also received his education at the universities of Alcala de Henares and Salamanca. However, in 1620, the future playwright left the university and entered military service. There is evidence that Pedro Calderon served in Spanish forces in Flanders and Italy between 1625 and 1635. According to other information, during these years he stayed in Madrid.

The famous Spanish playwright, poet and prose writer Lope de Vega was considered Calderon's mentor and predecessor. By the time of his teacher's death, Calderon had become a famous playwright in Spain, recognized at the royal court. The poet made his debut in drama with his play “Love, Honor and Power” in 1623. Soon, King Philip IV expresses his recognition to the playwright and orders plays from him for productions at the court theater. The king loved Calderon's work so much that he even awarded him the knightly Order of St. James.

In the period from 1640-1642. The playwright continues his military service and suppresses the Reaper's Revolt in Catalonia. After the famous poet leaves military service for health reasons, tragic events occur in his life: he becomes the father of an illegitimate son, and the playwright’s brother dies. In this regard, in 1651, Calderon was ordained a priest. In 1663, Calderon became the personal spiritual mentor of Philip IV, and then of his successor Charles II. However, the great Spanish playwright spent his last years in poverty. He died on May 25, 1681.

Plays by Pedro Calderon

Calderon's works include plays of various genres. These are earlier religious dramas “The Adoration of the Cross” (1625), “The Steadfast Prince” (1629), “The Magician” (1637); and comedies of intrigue “The Pretending Astrologer” (1632), “The Ribbon and the Flower” (1632), “Sam in His Custody” (1637); and honor dramas “The Physician of His Honor” (1635), “The Painter of His Dishonor” (1650). In addition, his work includes mythological, folk-heroic dramas “The Statue of Prometheus” (1668), “The Mayor of Salamea” (1644-1649) and a play with a historical plot “Daughter of the Air” (1650).

In 1629, Calderon wrote two of the most famous comedies of intrigue, “The Invisible Lady” and “A House with Two Exits is Hard to Guard.” Both plays are characterized by the use of a similar stage technique: a lady enters a room through a secret passage in order to achieve the love of the man she likes. The main idea of ​​both comedies of intrigue is that human will cannot be locked away. Calderon also develops in them the idea that only a person himself can become a defender of his honor.

One of the playwright’s most famous plays is considered to be “Life is a Dream,” written around 1635. Various genres are intertwined here: the play contains elements of drama of honor, religious drama and even comedy of intrigue. In the play, the playwright examines the purpose of man and how much he is ready to control his destiny, as well as the question of what should be the ideal ruler capable of maintaining order and harmony in the world.

Pedro Calderon [Don Pedro Calderon de la Barca Henao de la Barreda y Riaño; Pedro Calderón de la Barcay Barreda González de Henao Ruiz de Blasco y Riaño; 01/17/1600, Madrid - 05/25/1681, Madrid] - one of the greatest Spanish writers, his work is the pinnacle of Baroque literature.

Calderon was a younger contemporary of W. Shakespeare. He was born in Madrid, belonged to an aristocratic family, graduated from the Jesuit College in Madrid, studied law and theology at the universities of Alcala and Salamanca. Spent a turbulent youth; While serving in the army, he visited Flanders and Italy. Calderon was closely linked to tradition Lope de Vega, began as a representative of his school, but over time created his own “personal model,” which had a huge influence on the formation of various philosophical genres in literature. Calderon wrote 120 comedies (i.e. dramas), 78 autos (religious plays), 20 interludes. Since Calderon was a court playwright from 1635, all of them were published during the author’s lifetime and have come down to us. In 1651, Calderon was ordained as a Catholic priest, was an honorary chaplain of the Spanish King Philip IV, and from 1666 - rector of the Brotherhood of St. Petra.

Calderon was the creator of a new dramatic genre - religious and philosophical drama, in which the traditional structure of a dramatic work changes: philosophical ideas become the main characters, and the characters turn out to be only their mouthpieces. The plot is constructed in such a way as to reveal a certain philosophical and religious idea. The philosophical aspect is reflected in the actions and speeches of the characters, in the title of the work, and at all other levels of the artistic whole. One of the most striking examples of this genre is Calderon’s drama “The Adoration of the Cross” (c. 1630-1632, published 1634). At the end of the drama, it turns out that the criminal heroes Eusebio and Julia, connected by love, are brother and sister. Eusebio is killed, but is resurrected by the appearance of a priest whom he once pitied, and he absolves him of his sins. Reconciled with heaven, Eusebio dies, and Julia, over whom her father raised his sword, clasps the cross and turns to heaven in prayer. Prayer and the cross save her, and she disappears into the air like smoke. This whole fantastic and intricate plot, the heroes committing actions inexplicable by human logic, are called upon to embody the religious and philosophical idea, which Calderon expressed with the words: “This is what veneration before the cross means.”

Calderon's most significant religious and philosophical drama is “Life is a Dream” (c. 1632-1635, post. and pub. 1635). The drama was written with extraordinary skill; it is one of the pinnacles of all Spanish literature. The philosophical idea developed by Calderon in the drama is indicated in its title. Characters, symbolism, and plot are subordinated to the revelation of the idea. The action takes place in Polonia (Poland), but many details show that this is only a conventional location. The king of Polonia, Basilio, doubted the prediction of twenty years ago, guided by which he imprisoned his son Segismundo in a dungeon in the middle of a dense forest. While Segismundo sleeps, he is carried to the palace. Waking up, he finds out that he is the heir to the throne, and begins to commit outrages, including killing a person. The unfortunate prediction begins to come true, and so that the most terrible part of it does not come true - the overthrow of the king, the fallen Segismundo is again transferred to prison, and when he wakes up, his strict mentor Clotaldo informs him that everything he saw in the palace was just a dream. Meanwhile, the prophecy continues to come true: the rebel people of Polonia overthrow Basilio and offer the crown to Segismundo. However, he refuses it, because he is convinced of the idea that life is just a dream. The theme “life is a dream” was repeated many times by Calderon (in the autonomous work of the same name, the plays “Devil of the Gardens”, “Daughter of the Air”, “Chains of the Devil”, “Apollo and Clymene”, “Echo and Narcissus”, “In this life everything is true and everything lie”, etc.). This theme became one of the most significant in all subsequent Spanish culture until the twentieth century (see, for example, the film by L. Buñuel and S. Dali “Un Chien Andalusian,” 1928, filmed in France).

A large place in Calderon's dramatic work is occupied by the genre of auto sacramentale (literal translation - “sacred action”) - a religious allegorical one-act play. Auto "Belshazzar's Feast" is a striking example of Calderon's plays of this kind. Among the characters are the biblical character King Belshazzar, Vanity (Belshazzar's first wife), Idolatry (his new wife), Thought (the jester), Death, etc. The Prophet Daniel predicts Belshazzar's imminent death. During the feast, Belshazzar has a dream in which voices sound: “Humble yourself and repent,” but, waking up, the king continues to feast. It's getting dark. The fiery hand writes three words on the wall: “Measured, counted, weighed.” Death overtakes Belshazzar. The prophet Daniel turns the banquet table into an altar. Idolatry bows before the almighty God.

Calderon also worked in the genre of “drama of honor.” The most significant works of this group are “The Steadfast Prince” (1628), “The Physician of His Honor” (c. 1633-1635), “For a Secret Insult - Secret Revenge” (1635), “The Mayor of Salamea” (c. 1645). Calderon develops the motif of honor as the highest value for a Spaniard, presented in the national Spanish drama (plays Lope de Vega, Guillena de Castro, Alarcona , Tirso de Molina and etc.). German romantics called Calderon the “poet of honor.” A refined technique of dramatic intrigue is present in Calderon’s comedies, the most striking example being “The Phantom Lady” (1629, published 1636).

Don Pedro Calderon de la Barca Henao de la Barreda y Rianho died in Madrid at the age of 82, in honor, but in poverty.

Calderon was 16 years old when Shakespeare died; by that time he had not yet written a single play. There is no reason to assume that Calderon was ever influenced by Shakespeare throughout his life; it is obvious that he not only did not read Shakespeare's plays, but also did not hear of such a playwright. Nevertheless, even the German romantics, starting with the brothers A. W. and F. Schlegel, established the idea of ​​Calderon as a “Catholic Shakespeare,” while placing Calderon even higher than the English playwright in terms of relevance for modern literature. Thus, F. Schlegel wrote: “It is not equally possible for us to apply the external form of the Spaniards, which must be carefully distinguished from the internal form, for this latter, in terms of the more lyrical development that dominates it, undoubtedly comes closer to us than the conciseness of Shakespeare, more epic-historical. The multi-colored fullness of images and paintings born of the fertile imagination of the South, which constitutes a special distinctiveness of the external form and poetic language of the Spanish tragedy, can be considered beautiful where such abundance is natural: it is not given to the re-embracement of art” (Schlegel F. History of Ancient and Modern Literature. St. Petersburg, 1830. Part 2. pp. 137-138). A. V. Schlegel in his “Course of Dramatic Literature” argued that in Calderon’s dramas and, to a lesser extent, in Shakespeare’s plays, two elements coexist and mutually enrich each other: folk and more ideal, “court”. (Schlegel A. W. Cours de littérature dramatique. T. 2. P. 326-340; the works of the Schlegel brothers, who were in the library of A. S. Pushkin, are cited from: Bagno V. E. Pushkin and Calderon // Bagno V. E. Russia and Spain: Common border. St. Petersburg, 2006. pp. 244, 252).

The comparison of Shakespeare and Calderon makes sense only in typological terms. But in this vein, many similarities are revealed. Academician N. I. Balashov highlighted such common points for the two authors as the depiction of heroes-villains (“Machiavellian”) or the appearance in Calderon of a kind of analogue of the “Falstaffian background”. There are similarities in the creation of the ideality of female figures in the late dramas of Shakespeare and in the “dramas of honor” of Calderon: “The tragic pattern appears in the “dramas of honor” of Calderon (as later in many romantics) through a heap of accidents, in the drama - fatal and at the same time real . For example, a wife cannot, before eternal separation (and as if it is her fault!), not explain herself to the person she previously loved, and the information reaching her husband about the chaste farewell scene is interpreted by him as evidence of betrayal. All of Calderon's sympathy - no less than it was among the writers of the Renaissance - is on the side of the woman, who in these dramas is more completely angelic in him than in Lope or Shakespeare, although she is not endowed with such vital plasticity as the ideal heroines of Cymbeline. , “Winter's Tale”, “Storm”. But Calderon highlights another very important circumstance for the Spanish viewer: the heroine is pure before the sky. This is the only crack through which a thin ray of moral light, as Calderon’s contemporaries understood it, penetrates into the “dramas of honor,” into the dramas “without God”” (Balashov N.I. On the way to the not fully open Calderon // Calderon. Dramas : In 2 books / Translated by K. D. Balmont; ed. prepared by N. I. Balashov, D. G. Makogonenko. M., 1989. T. 1. P. 809-810). In “The Magic Magician” (or, as N.I. Balashov suggests translating the title of this play by Calderon, in “The Extraordinary Magician”), a commonality of artistic solutions with Shakespeare’s “The Tempest” is revealed: “The difficult path to the Christian martyrdom of Cyprian goes against the backdrop of beautiful nature - forests, gardens, slender towers, against the backdrop of love madness, duels, visions, staged shipwrecks (Calderon didn’t leaf through Shakespeare’s “The Tempest,” unknown to anyone in Spain!), the sufferings and joys of Justina, her temptations and what she demonstrated like nowhere else Descartes’ treatise on the passions (I, § 41), the firmness of “free will”, unconditionally powerful, if not over thoughts, then over actions” (Ibid. p. 813).

In addition to the typological one, a thesaurus rapprochement between Shakespeare and Calderon can be carried out, which is expressed in the attribution of these writers to the constants of world and domestic culture, their highest values. In Russian literature, this rapprochement was carried out by A. S. Pushkin in the article “On folk drama and the drama “Martha the Posadnitsa””: “With all this, Calderon, Shakespeare [ir] and Racine stand at an unattainable height - and their works constitute an eternal subject our studies and delights" (Pushkin A.S. Complete collected works. M.; L., 1949. T. XI. P. 72).

Op.: Obras completas. V. 1-3. Madrid, 1959; in Russian lane — Plays: In 2 vols. M., 1961; Dramas: In 2 books. / Per. K. D. Balmont; ed. prepared by N. I. Balashov, D. G. Makogonenko; Art. N. I. Balashova et al. M., 1989.

Lit.: Menéndes y Pelayo M. Calderón y su theatro. Madrid, 1910; Critical essays on the theater of Calderón. N.Y., 1965; Balashov N.I. Religious and philosophical drama of Calderon and the ideological foundations of the Baroque in Spain // XVII century in world literary development. M., 1969; Durán M., Gonsáles Echeverría R. Calderón y la crítica. V. 1-2. Madrid, 1976; Iberica: Calderon and world culture. L., 1980; Stein A. L. Literature of the Spanish Baroque. M., 1983; Silyunas V. Lifestyle and art styles (Spanish theater of mannerism and baroque). St. Petersburg, 2000; Sokolova N. Calderon // Foreign writers. Part 1. M., 2003; Bagno V.E. Russia and Spain: Common border. St. Petersburg, 2006; Pedro Calderon de la Barca: Bibliographic Index / Comp. V. G. Ginko. M., 2006.

Bibliographer. description: Lukov Vl. A. Pedro Calderon, a Spanish contemporary of Shakespeare [Electronic resource] // Information and research database “Shakespeare’s Contemporaries”. URL: .

CALDERON DE LA BARCA (full surname Calderon de la Barca Henao de la Barreda y Riaño, Calderon de la Barca Henao de la Barreda y Riaño) Pedro (17.1.1600, Madrid - 25.5.1681, ibid.), Spanish playwright, one of the most prominent representatives of the Baroque theater. The son of the nobleman Diego Calderon, who served as secretary of the State Property Management Council, and the German noblewoman Anna Maria de Henao. He studied at the Jesuit college in Madrid, at the universities of Alcala de Henares and Salamanca (the latter graduated with a bachelor's degree in law). He served in military service, which he combined with service at the courts of the Spanish nobility. In 1623-25, accompanying the Duke de Frias, he visited Flanders and Italy. In 1642, after being wounded, he resigned. In 1651 he accepted the priesthood, received the position of chaplain in Toledo (1653), and from 1663 he served at court.

Since 1623 he acted as a writer of plays for theaters. In 1635, King Philip IV, who highly valued Calderon de la Barca's talent, appointed him director of the Colosseum Theater in the Madrid royal residence of Buen Retiro, where sophisticated production techniques and lavish scenery could be used, as well as various lighting effects and musical accompaniment; some of Calderon de la Barca's later plays approach the zarzuela genre.

Calderon de la Barca owns over 110 three-act plays of various genres and themes (“comedies” in the broad modern sense of the word) and about 80 one-act plays (loas, interludes, autos, etc.). As a comedian, he developed the traditions of Lope F. de Vega Carpio, achieving greater compositional harmony of plays by reducing the number of episodes and characters, moving away from improvisation and spontaneity in the development of action. The comedies of intrigue “The Invisible Lady” (“La dama duende”) and “A House with Two Exits is Hard to Guard” (“Casa con dos puertas mala es de guardar”, both 1629) became Calderon de la Barca’s first theatrical success, earning him patronage king. The plot of both plays is structured in a similar way: a lady, using the secret entrance to the house, intrigues and achieves the love of the young man she likes. Some of the most popular comedies by Calderon de la Barca include the plays “El alcalde de si mismo” (“El alcalde de si mismo”, 1627?), “The Imaginary Astrologer” (“El astrólogo fingido”, 1632), “No joke with love” "("No hay burlas con el amor", 1632?), etc. Among his "serious" plays, a special place is occupied by the so-called dramas of honor: "Luis Perez the Galician" ("Luis Pérez el gallego", 1627), "The Doctor his honor" ("El médico de su honra", published 1637), "The Painter of his dishonor" ("El pintor de su deshonra", published 1650), as well as folk-heroic "dramas of honor" ("The Alcalde of Salamea" , “El alcalde de Zalamea”, ed. 1651, etc.); they are based on the conflict of public duty and the Christian value system.

One of the cross-cutting motifs of Calderon de la Barca's work - the rebellion of a son against a tyrant father - is unfolded in the early religious and philosophical drama "The Adoration of the Cross" ("La devocion de la Cruz", published 1636). The plays “The Purgatory of St. Patrick” (“El purgatorio de san Patricio”, published in 1636) and “The Magician” (“El mágico prodigioso”, 1637) belong to the same genre. “Serious” dramas also include plays on historical subjects (“The English Heresy”, “La cisma de Inglaterra”, 1627?; “The Steadfast Prince”, “El principe constante”, 1629; “The Daughter of the Air”, “La hija del aire” ”, ed. 1650), on Renaissance-knightly subjects (“Mantible Bridge”, “La puente de Mantible”, 1630), biblical (“The Hair of Absalom”, “Los cabellos de Absalón”, 1651), mythological (“The Beast, lightning and stone", "La fiera, el rayo y la piedra", 1652; "Echo and Narcissus", "Eco y Narciso", 1661; "Statue of Prometheus", "La estatua de Prometeo", circa 1668). Calderon de la Barca's most famous drama, “Life is a Dream” (“La vida es sueno”, published 1636), contains elements of philosophical drama, “drama of honor” and comedy of intrigue. In it, he tried to find answers to questions about the purpose of man, his fate and free will, about the qualities of a perfect ruler, as well as how order and harmony are possible in a world where different wills and aspirations collide.

Of the one-act plays by Calderon de la Barca, the most famous are the autos, which figuratively present the main dogmas of the Catholic faith associated with the sacrament of the Eucharist: “The Feast of Balthazar” (“La cena del rey Baltazar”, 1634), “The Great Marketplace of the World” (“El gran mercado del mundo”, 1635), “The Divine Hunter” (“El divino cazador”, 1642), “The Great Theater of the World” (“El gran teatro del mundo”, circa 1645), etc.

In the productions of most of Calderon de la Barca's plays, various kinds of miracles and transformations were depicted on stage; the abundance of symbolic objects, names, “sign” locations (cave, labyrinth, palace, desert area), prophecies and signs is a distinctive feature of his poetics, close to culturism.

Calderon de la Barca became widely known in Europe during the era of romanticism (German romantic critics put him on a par with W. Shakespeare). The first attempts to translate Calderon de la Barca into Russian (from French) were undertaken by Empress Catherine II; the first translator from Spanish was P. V. Kireevsky. The peak of Calderon de la Barca’s popularity in Russia came at the beginning of the 20th century, when the first collection of his dramas appeared, translated by K. D. Balmont, and productions by V. E. Meyerhold (“Adoration of the Cross,” 1910; “The Steadfast Prince,” 1915) were staged. ), A. Ya. Tairova (“Life is a Dream”, 1914), etc.

Works: Obras completas. Madrid, 1960-1967. Vol. 1-3; Plays: In 2 vols. M., 1961; Obras. Madrid, 1981. Vol. 1-2; Dramas: In 2 books. M., 1989.

Lit.: Petrov D.K. About the tragedies of Calderon. St. Petersburg, 1901; Honig E. Calderon and the seizures of honor. Camb. (Mass.), 1972; Marcos Villanueva V. La ascética de los jesuitas en los autos sacramentales de Calderón. Bilbao, 1973; Calderon y la crítica. Historia y antologia / Ed. M. Duran, R. G. Echevarria. Madrid, 1976. Vol. 1-2; Valbuena-Briones A. Calderón y la comedia nueva. Madrid, 1977; Moron Arroyo S. Calderón: pensamiento y teatro. Santander, 1982; Iberica. Calderon and world culture. L., 1986; Estudios sobre Calderón. Salamanca, 1988; Amadei-Pulice M. Calderón y el barroco. Amst., 1990; Silyunas V. Lifestyle and art styles. St. Petersburg, 2000; P. Calderon de la Barca. Bibliographic index. M., 2006.

CALDERON DE LA BARCA, Pedro(Calderon de la Vags, Pedro - 01/17/1600, Madrid - 05/25/1681, ibid.) - Spanish playwright.

The life of the outstanding baroque playwright of Spain, Pedro Calderon de la Barca, Yenao de la Barreda y Riagno (this is the full surname of Calderon de la Barca), would seem to be very far from what is reflected in his artistic works. He belonged to an ancient but impoverished noble family. He studied at the Jesuit College and the University of Salamanca, where he studied civil and canon law. In 1619-1623 pp. turned to drama, and from 1625 pp. Calderon de la Barca devoted himself entirely to literary activity. In 1637 he was accepted into the knightly order of Santiago. U1638 p. Calderon de la Barca took part in the war with France, and in 1640 in suppressing the uprising in Catalonia.

After the death of his beloved and minor son, Calderon de la Barca, a deeply religious man, became a priest, court chaplain and rector of the Cathedral Church of St. Petra in Madrid. As a court chaplain, he was closely associated with the royal court and the highest nobility of Spain. A deep expert in metaphysics, the history of Roman law, moral and dogmatic theology, Calderon de la Barca lived in seclusion in the last years of his life. In 1680, he compiled a list of his plays, which included 111 comedies and 70 autos. Currently, 120 comedies, 78 autographs and 200 plays of small genres are known; some works have not been found and are known only by title.

As a playwright, Calderon de la Barca belongs to the national dramaturgical school of L. de Vega. His work developed in two directions. He wrote religious-fantastic plays - such as “The Purgatory of St. Patrick”, “Adoration of the Cross”, and real plays - “comedies of cloak and sword”, “dramas of honor”, ​​historical ones. However, one should not contrast his real plays with real-fantasy plays, since there is an internal relationship between them. Calderon de la Barca's dramaturgy is built on the opposition of the ordinary and the exceptional, light and shadow, earthly and heavenly. The last major representative of Spanish literature of the "golden age" who summed up three centuries of the ideological development of Spain, Calderon de la Barca was primarily an artist-thinker who tried to find a philosophical concept of existence.

During the period of “apprenticeship” (until about 1625), Calderon de la Barca, under the influence of L. de Vega, created “comedies of cloak and sword”: “Love, honor and power” (“Amor, honor in poder”, 1623; view. 1637), “The Imaginary Astrologer” (“El astrologo fingido”, 1624; view 1637), “The Game of Love and Chance” (“Lances de amogu fortuna”, 1625; view 1636), etc. These comedies are based on several plots schemes that vary in detail. The famous Spanish critic M. Menendez y Pelayo established these schemes:

1. A young nobleman arrives in the city, most often a soldier who fought in Flanders and has now returned to his homeland, sometimes a student. It happens that he comes on business related to some lawsuit. In one version, the hero had a beloved in this city, in the other, he, having arrived in the city, falls in love and begins a love affair.

2. The plot of the comedy is based on incidents and misunderstandings. Sometimes a young nobleman thinks that during his absence the lady has cheated on him. He is jealous and reproaches her, and his father or brother catches him doing this. The lady is forced to run away from home, finds shelter with a friend or with the same gentleman who knightly protects her honor.

3. Others are intertwined with the main intrigue of the comedy. The lady's brother, who plays the role of her vigilant watchman, himself happens to be in love and is a participant in another love story. After a series of events caused by a game of chance, everything ends in a happy marriage.

4. The intrigue becomes somewhat different when the gentleman, having arrived in the city, meets the lady for the first time. In such a situation, the initiative is often with the lady, but even here chance and coincidence play a big role.

Of course, these schemes were developed and improved by Calderon de la Barca, but their general outlines are just that. The playwright seems to be solving the same problem in different ways, and the curiosity of the comedy lies in what original moves and new options he will surprise with this time. Calderon de la Barca’s depiction of Spanish love life differs from the way it was portrayed by L. de Vega and T. de Molina. The field of action of their comedies is all of Spain, and everything is decided primarily by the will, ingenuity, and energy of the characters. But Calderon de la Barca confines the action to one or several noble interiors, only occasionally taking his heroes outside. At the same time, he closely connects the action of the comedy with the house in which the characters live, a secret room, things like a disguised closet, which allows one to penetrate from one room to another. It is these specific conditions and things that create misunderstandings, confusion, and mistakes.

The heroes of the comedy change internally. Women in the comedies of L. de Vega and T. de Molina bravely went into the wide world and energetically fought for their happiness, while the heroines of Calderon de la Barca are more passive. The only thing they can afford is to have an affair with a young guest who is staying in their house, and their only concern is preserving their honor.

Calderon de la Barca's most significant plays include the dramatized "lives of the saints" and philosophical plays.

They reflected the idea of ​​a person inherent in the Baroque era: a demonic robber who commits cruel crimes, and a righteous man who dedicated himself to God, a man of high spiritual impulses. He embodies the positive ideal that the era suggested. Calderon de la Barca portrayed such a positive ideal in the drama “The Steadfast Prince” (“El principe constante”, 1628-1629, view 1636). This play is nothing more than a dramatized “life”: Prince Fernando was captured by the infidels. He is offered freedom, but the whole city must come under Muslim rule - and Fernando refuses the freedom bought at such a price.

Prince Fernando is a man who suffers for an idea and dies for it. But the image of a hero and patriot in the drama of Calderon de la Barca is complicated by the features of humility and ascetic disregard for the flesh. This ideal was suggested to Calderon de la Barca not only by Christian teaching, but also by the philosophy of Stoicism, which formed one of the foundations of his worldview.

If the center of the drama “The Steadfast Prince” is the image of a holy ascetic, then the play “Adoration of the Cross” (“La devocien de la cruz”, 1630 - 1632) depicts a demonic personality who chose the path of evil. The hero of the drama, Eusebio, kills his beloved's brother in a duel, becomes a robber and engages in robbery. He enters the monastery where Julia, his beloved, is located and wooes her, not realizing that she is his sister. But Eusebio’s soul is saved by the fact that he honors the cross: he sees a cross on Julia’s chest, and this keeps him from incest. The fact that Eusebio retained faith in goodness somewhere deep in his soul helped him repent and take the path of salvation.

Finally, the third drama - “The Purgatory of St. Patrick” (“El purgatorio de san Patricio”, 1634) - seems to synthesize the content of the first two. After a shipwreck, two people find themselves on the Irish coast - Saint Patrick and Ludovico Enio, who committed terrible crimes during his life. The play is built on a direct comparison between the holy ascetic and the demonic robber, who ultimately chooses the path of good.

However, Calderon de la Barca, as an outstanding artist, is not limited to expressing the ascetic idea. He contrasts this idea with life. For example, in The Steadfast Prince, Calderon de la Barca combines the story of a holy ascetic with a story of a purely secular nature - he depicts the love of Princess Phoenix for the Moorish commander Muley, and also introduces the image of the jester, the soldier Brito. In the play “Worship of the Cross,” a sober, skeptical note is brought by the narrow-minded peasants - Gil and Menga. The same applies to the play “The Miraculous Magician” (“El magico prodigioso”, 1637), dedicated to the birth of Christianity and its clash with another great worldview of the old world - paganism.

The central work of Calderon de la Barca was the philosophical drama “Life is a Dream” (“La vida es sueno”, 1635), in which the playwright with extraordinary depth managed to express not only his personal worldview, but the worldview of the entire era that he represented. Calderon de la Barca's concept is polemically opposed to the concept of life developed by Renaissance artists.

The play takes place in Catholic Poland, of which the then Spaniard could not have had any real idea. By moving the action to Poland and making one of the characters the Duke of Moscow, Calderon de la Barca freed himself from the need to adhere to historical accuracy. The content and style of the work not only explains, but also gives it semantic symbolic illumination.

King Basilio of Poland - an astrologer and magician - learned from an irresistible prophecy that his son would become a traitor and a tyrant, encroach on his father’s life and bring great troubles to the state. Caring for the interests of the empire and fatherland, Basilio, who believed in prophecies, acted cruelly to his son - he imprisoned him in a tower and bound him in chains. For Segismundo, the tower must be both cradle and grave. Sehismundo is a “natural” person. He is also morally constrained, because he depends on nature, on his passions. The hero himself calls himself a combination of man and beast. He is a man because he thinks, because he is inquisitive and turns to heaven with questions, and he is a beast because he is a slave to his animal nature. The famous monologue of Segismundo in the first scene of the first act is the result of a deep thought:

As if in mad despair

I'm screaming like Vesuvius,

It would rip my heart out of my chest!

Where is the truth here? Where is the mind?

Where is the law that puts the measure?

To a person - no, I don’t believe it! -

The Lord God did not give this,

What did he give so generously?

River and fish, bird and beast?!

(Translated by M. Lukash)

The movement of the plot is connected with the fact that Basilio doubted and decided to check the prophecy. Sehismundo was given sleep-grass to drink, the sleeping man was carried to the palace and, when he woke up, he was declared a prince. Once in the palace, the hero turned from a slave into a tyrant, becoming a symbol of a tyrannical ruler: he throws a servant through a window, threatens his father, etc. When Segismundo wakes up again in prison, he is told that everything that happened to him in the palace was a dream. But the hero is endowed with reason, and the logic of his reasoning is as follows: what happened in the palace is no different from what happens in prison. And if his life in the palace was a dream, then our whole life is a dream. A dream is something in the past. Segismundo awoke from the dream of being a prince, but he did not awaken from the sleep of life. Everything is an illusion and a mirage. Under the influence of this thought, the rebirth of Sehismundo begins. The play expresses the utopian idea of ​​the prince's self-education. In the last act of the tragedy, the ruler Sehismundo acts wisely and benevolently. He conquered his passions, and now power does not belong only to him, since he is an instrument of God. Thus, Calderon de la Barca develops in the play the opinion that for the sake of the vain and petty things of earthly life one should not give up eternal life.

In addition to comedies, the section of Calderon de la Barca's domestic theater also includes his “dramas of honor”; the playwright wrote several such dramas. As in L. de Vega, they depict his wife’s betrayal and how a man punishes the traitor by restoring the honor of the family. The most famous of them are “The Physician of His Honor” (“E1 medico de su honra”, 1633-1635), “Hidden Revenge for a Hidden Offense” (“A secreto agravio secreta venganza”, 1635), “The Artist of His Shame” (“ El pintor de su deshonra", 1650). Reproducing the same situation in these plays, Calderon de la Barca describes different human types, different psychological relationships between spouses, and varies the development of the plot.

Calderon de la Barca took plots not only from the history of Spain, but also from the history of other countries, as, for example, in the drama “Heresy in England” (“La cisma de Inglaterra”, 1633), which is dedicated to the reign of the English king Henry VIII and the beginning of the Reformation in this country. Regarding plays on the theme of Spanish history, it is worth highlighting the drama “Love after Death” (“Amor despues de la muerte”, ca. 1633), in which there are two plans, two storylines - the knightly love of the Moor Alvaro Tusani for the beautiful Moorish Clara Malek and the uprising of the Morisco Alpujari, suppressed by the Spaniards, “The Siege of Breda” (“El sitio de Breda”, 1625) - about the siege of a Dutch fortress in northern Brabant. The third historical play by Calderon de la Barca, dedicated to the era of Philip II, is “El Alcalde de Zalamea”, 1640-1645. The plot of “The Alcalde of Salama” is based on the fact that the noble captain Don Alvaro de Atayda kidnapped and dishonored the daughter of the peasant Pedro Crespo, and Pedro Crespo, having become the alcalde, condemned and executed the offender.

In the last period of his life, Calderon de la Barca wrote only "autos sacramentales" - plays that can be called theological treatises in dramatic form. Autos - a dramatic performance related to the secret of the sacrament, which was played in the squares for the common people, Calderon de la Barca reformed and gave it a theological-scholastic character. One of the most famous philosophical autographs of the playwright is “The Great Theater of the World” (“El gran teatro del mundo”). In addition to philosophical ones, Calderon de la Barca wrote autoses on mythological subjects with theological interpretation, on themes from the Old Testament, on legendary and historical subjects, inspired by parables from the Gospel.

The work of Calderon de la Barca has a unique integrity and generally presents a deep concept of the relationship between man and social conditions. The very view of man and his capabilities distinguishes Calderon de la Barca from the writers of the Renaissance. It is no coincidence that he puts forward the theme of jealousy and suspicion as one of the most important themes. Awareness of the complexity and inconsistency of man is one of the foundations of Calderon de la Barca's worldview.

In his plays, the action unfolds dynamically and violently, the elements of life push his heroes to crimes and violations of existing laws. At the same time, the playwright builds his plays rationalistically, achieves symmetry, unfolding the intrigue with mathematical precision and leading it to a harmonious ending. Famous researcher H.M. where Cossio noted that the intellectualism and rationalism of Calderon de la Barca are contained not only in the intellectual and philosophical monologues of his characters, but also in the depiction of passions. The Spanish playwright's skill is impressive, focused on expressing the baroque concept of life. The dynamics of life, its instability and disharmony are shaded by stable order and grandeur.

In Ukraine, I. Franko first turned to the work of Calderon de la Barca, making a stage version of the play called “Starosta Zalameysky” for the Russian People's Theater in Lviv (post. 1895). Theaters in Ukraine staged performances based on plays by Calderon de la Barca: “The Invisible Lady” (Dnepropetrovsk, Donetsk), “No joke with love” (Zaporozhye, Lvov, Cherkasy, etc.), “In my own custody” (Cherkasy) . An opera based on the plot of Calderon de la Barca's play “Life is a Dream” was written by the Ukrainian composer P. Senitsa. Some works of Calderon de la Barca were translated by V. Mokrovolsky, D. Pavlychko, M. Lukash, M. Litvinets, S. Borshchevsky and others.