nglish. And Calderon, of
all Spanish poets, best pleased his people. He was the favorite poet of
the court under Philip IV., and director of the theatre in the palace of
the Buen Retiro. The skill in the art of construction which he had begun
to acquire when he wrote 'The Devotion of the Cross' at the age of
nineteen, was turned to stage management at the age of thirty-five, when
he produced his gorgeous pageant of 'Circe' on the pond of the Buen
Retiro. How elaborate this spectacle was, the directions for the
prelude of the greater splendor to come will show. They read in this
way:--

"In the midst of this island will be situated a very lofty
mountain of rugged ascent, with precipices and caverns,
surrounded by a thick and darksome wood of tall trees, some of
which will be seen to exhibit the appearance of the human form,
covered with a rough bark, from the heads and arms of which will
issue green boughs and branches, having suspended from them
various trophies of war and of the chase: the theatre during the
opening of the scene being scantily lit with concealed lights;
and to make a beginning of the festival, a murmuring and a
rippling noise of water having been heard, a great and
magnificent car will be seen to advance along the pond, plated
over with silver, and drawn by two monstrous fishes, from whose
mouth will continually issue great jets of water, the light of
the theatre increasing according as they advance; and on the
summit of it will be seen seated in great pomp and majesty the
goddess Aqua, from whose head and curious vesture will issue an
infinite abundance of little conduits of water; and at the same
time will be seen another great supply flowing from an urn which
the goddess will hold reversed, and which, filled with a variety
of fishes leaping and playing in the torrent as it descends and
gliding over all the car, will fall into the pond."

This 'Circe' was allegorical and mythological; it was one of those
soulless shows which marked the transition of the Spanish drama from
maturity to decay. It is gone and forgotten with thousands of its kind.
Calderon will be remembered not as the director of such vain pomps, but
as the author of the sublime and tender 'Wonderful Magician,' the weird
'Purgatory of St. Patrick,' 'The Constant Prince,' 'The Secret in
Words,' and 'The Physician of His Own Honor.' The scrupulous student