volume made use of by Sir F. H.
Doyle, Dr. Newman implies that up to that period he had not devoted any
particular attention even to this most important and unique development
of Spanish religious poetry. The only complete Auto of Calderon that
had previously appeared in English--my own translation of The Sorceries
of Sin, had, indeed, been in his hands from 1859, and I wish I could
flatter myself that it had in any way led to the production of a
master-piece like The Dream of Gerontius. But I cannot indulge that
delusion. Dr. Newman had internally and externally too many sources of
inspiration to necessitate an adoption even of such high models as the
Spanish Autos. Besides, The Dream of Gerontius is no more an Auto than
Paradise Lost, or the Divina Commedia. In these, only real personages,
spiritual and material, are represented, or monsters that typified human
passions, but did not personify them. In the Autos it is precisely the
reverse. Rarely do actual beings take part in the drama, and then only
as personifications of the predominant vices or passions of the
individuals whose names they bear. Thus in my own volume, Belshazzar is
not treated so much as an historical character, but rather as the
personification of the pride and haughtiness of a voluptuous king. In
The Divine Philothea, in the same volume, there are no actual beings
whatever, except The Prince of Light and The Prince of Darkness or The
Demon. In truth, there is nothing analogous to a Spanish Auto in
English original poetry. The nearest approach to it, and the only one,
is The Prometheus Unbound of Shelley. There, indeed, The Earth, Ocean,
The Spirits of the Hours, The Phantasm of Jupiter, Demogorgon, and
Prometheus himself, read like the 'Personas' of a Spanish Auto, and the
poetry is worthy the resemblance. The Autos Sacramentales differ also,
not only in degree but in kind from every form of Mystery or Morality
produced either in England or on the Continent. But to return to the
lecture by Sir F. H. Doyle. Even in smaller matters he is not accurate.
Thus he has transcribed incorrectly from my Introduction the name of the
distinguished commentator on the Autos of Calderon and their translator
into German--Dr. Lorinser. This Sir F. H. Doyle has printed throughout
his lecture 'Lorinzer'. From private letters which I have had the
honour of receiving from this learned writer, there can be no doubt that
the form as originally given by me