rgin of the Sanctuary, and The Two Lovers of
Heaven. The editor, Sr. D. P. De La Escosura, seems to think it
necessary to offer some apology for not including The Two Lovers of
Heaven among the philosophical instead of the mystical dramas. He says:
"There is a great analogy and, perhaps, resemblance between "El Magico
Prodigioso" (The Wonder-working Magician), and "Los dos amantes del
cielo" (The Two Lovers of Heaven); but in the second, as it seems to us,
the purely mystical predominates in such a manner over the
philosophical, that it does not admit of its being classified in the
same group as the first (El Magico Prodigioso), and La Vida es Sueno
(Life's a Dream)". Introduccion, p. cxxxvii. note. Whether this
distinction is well founded or not it is unnecessary to determine. It
is sufficient for our purpose that it establishes the high position
among the greatest plays of Calderon of the drama which is here
presented to the English reader in the peculiar and always difficult
versification of the original. Whether less philosophical or more
mystical than The Wonder-working Magician, The Two Lovers of Heaven
possesses a charm of its own in which its more famous rival seems
deficient. In the admirable "Essay on the Genius of Calderon" (ch. ii.
p. 34), with which Archbishop Trench introduces his spirited analysis of
La Vida es Sueno, he refers to the group of dramas which forms, with one
exception, the seventh and eighth divisions of the classification above
referred to, and pays a just tribute to the superior merits of Los dos
amantes del cielo. After alluding to the dramas, the argument of which
is drawn from the Old Testament, and especially to The Locks of Absalom,
which he considers the noblest specimen, he continues: "Still more have
to do with the heroic martyrdoms and other legends of Christian
antiquity, the victories of the Cross of Christ over all the fleshly and
spiritual wickednesses of the ancient heathen world. To this theme,
which is one almost undrawn upon in our Elizabethan drama,--Massinger's
Virgin Martyr is the only example I remember,--he returns continually,
and he has elaborated these plays with peculiar care. Of these The
Wonder-working Magician is most celebrated; but others, as The Joseph of
Women, The Two Lovers of Heaven, quite deserve to be placed on a level,
if not higher than it. A tender pathetic grace is shed over this last,
which gives it a peculiar charm. Then too he has occ