biography
| name: |
Calderón de la Barca, Pedro
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pronunciation:
[kaldayrohn thay l
| sex:
| male
|
| lived:
| (1600–81)
|
| biography:
| Playwright, born in Madrid, Spain. He studied law and philosophy at Salamanca, and in 1635 was appointed to the court of Philip IV, where he began to write plays. He served in the army in Catalonia (1640–2), and in 1651 entered the priesthood. Recalled to court, he became chaplain of honour to Philip and continued to write plays, masques, and operas for the court, the Church, and the public theatres until his death. The major playwright of the Golden Age, he and his school, or cycle, are commonly distinguished from Lope de Vega and his school by stylistic differences. Where the latter rely on rapid and lyrical composition, the former are interested in special effects deriving from culteranismo and conceptismo, and greater care with the use of language and in the construction of a play's form and shape. Further, Calderonian drama is often more doctrinal and didactic than Lope's. Thematically they rely on much the same source material, though Calderón must be considered superior, by his unique understanding and mastery of the auto sacramental genre. There is no entirely satisfactory classification of Calderón's plays, but his secular drama has been divided into tragedies, histories, comedies of manners, palace plays, mythological plays, philosophical plays, plays of chivalry, and Zarzuelas and Entremeses. His religious drama is classifiable into full-length plays and autos sacramentales. The religious plays are classified as Biblical, occasional, saints, and pious legends. His autos sacramentales are not mere pious interludes dignified by that title but are of a stature comparable with his secular drama, varying in length from about 1 000 to 2 000 lines. They can be categorized as philosophical and theological, mythological, Old Testament, New Testament, historical-legendary, occasional, and Marian. Most of his vast output are masterpieces of a writer ranked by Spanish scholars with Shakespeare for variety and language. |
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