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Mac-Carthy's translations from Calderon.
THE CONSTANT PRINCE.
A Drama.
"In his dramas of a serious and devout character, in virtue of their dignified pathos, tragic sublimity, and religious fervour, Calderon's best t.i.tle to praise will be found. In such, above all in his Autos, he reached a height beyond any of his predecessors, whose productions, on religious themes especially, striking as many of them are, with situations and motives of the deepest effect, are not sustained at the same impressive elevation, nor disposed with that consummate judgment which leaves nothing imperfect or superfluous in the dramas of Calderon.
'The Constant Prince' and 'The Physician of his own Honour', which Mr.
Mac-Carthy has translated, are n.o.ble instances representing two extremes of a large cla.s.s of dramas".
From the same article in "The Athenaeum", by J. R. Chorley.
THE PHYSICIAN OF HIS OWN HONOUR.
"'The Physician of his own Honour' is a domestic tragedy, and must be one of the most fearful to witness ever brought upon the stage. The highest excess of dramatic powers, terror and gloom has certainly been reached in this drama".
From an eloquent article in "The Dublin University Magazine" on "D. F.
Mac-Carthy's Calderon".
THE SECRET IN WORDS.
A Drama.
"The ingenious verbal artifice of 'The Secret in Words', although a mere trifle if compared to the marvellous intricacy of a similar cipher in Tirso's 'Amar por Arte Mayor', from which Calderon's play was taken--loses sadly in a translation; yet the piece, even with this disadvantage, cannot fail to please".
J. R. Chorley in "The Athenaeum".
THE SCARF AND THE FLOWER.
A Drama.
"The 'Scarf and the Flower', nice and courtly though it be, the subject spun out and entangled with infinite skill, is too thin by itself for an interest of three acts long; and no translation, perhaps, could preserve the grace of manner and glittering flow of dialogue which conceal this defect in the original".
J. R. Chorley in "The Athenaeum".
LOVE AFTER DEATH.
A Drama.
"'Love after Death' is a drama full of excitement and beauty, of pa.s.sion and power, of scenes whose enthusiastic affection, self-devotion, and undying love are drawn with more intense colouring than we find in any other of Calderon's works".
From an article in "The Dublin University Magazine" on D. F.
Mac-Carthy's Calderon.
"Another tragedy, 'Love after Death', is connected with the hopeless rising of the Moriscoes in the Alpujarras (1568-1570), one of whom is its hero. It is for many reasons worthy of note; amongst others, as showing how far Calderon could rise above national prejudices, and expend all the treasures of his genius in glorifying the heroic devotedness of a n.o.ble foe".
Archbishop Trench.
LOVE THE GREATEST ENCHANTMENT
A Drama.
"This fact connects the piece with the first and most pleasing in the volume, 'Love the greatest Enchantment', in which the same myth [that of Circe and Ulysses] is exhibited in a more life-like form, though not without some touches of allegory. Here we have a cla.s.sical plot which is adapted to the taste of Spain in the seventeenth century by a plentiful admixture of episodes of love and gallantry. The adventure is opened with nearly the same circ.u.mstances as in the tenth Odyssey: but from the moment that Ulysses, with the help of a divine talisman, has frustrated all the spells (beauty excepted) of the enchantress, the action is adapted to the manners of a more refined and chivalrous circle".
"The Sat.u.r.day Review" in its review of "Mac-Carthy's Three Plays of Calderon".
THE DEVOTION OF THE CROSS.
A Drama.
"The last drama to which Mr. Mac-Carthy introduces us is the famous 'Devotion of the Cross'. We cannot deny the praise of great power to this strange and repulsive work, in which Calderon draws us onward by a deep and terrible dramatic interest, while doing cruel violence to our moral nature. . . . Our readers may be glad to compare the translations which Archbishop Trench and Mr. Mac-Carthy have given us of a celebrated address to the Cross contained in this drama. 'Tree whereon the pitying skies', etc. Mr. Mac-Carthy does not appear to us to suffer from comparison on this occasion with a true poet, who is also a skilful translator. Indeed he has faced the difficulties and given the sense of the original with more decision than Archbishop Trench".
"The Guardian", in its review of the same volume.
THE SORCERIES OF SIN.
An Auto.
"The central piece, the 'Sorceries of Sin', is an 'Auto Sacramental', or Morality, of which the actors represent Man, Sin, Voluptuousness, etc., Understanding, and the Five Senses. The Senses are corrupted by the influence of Sin, and figuratively changed into wild beasts. Man, accompanied by Understanding and Penance, demands their liberation and encounters no resistance; but his free-will is afterwards seduced by the Evil Power, and his allies reclaim him with difficulty. Yet the plan of the apologue is embellished with many ingenious conceits and artifices, and conformed in the leading circ.u.mstances with an Homeric myth--the names of Ulysses and Circe being frequently subst.i.tuted for those of the Man and Sin".
"The Sat.u.r.day Review" on "Mac-Carthy's Three Plays of Calderon".
BELSHAZZAR'S FEAST.
