Spanish Court Theatre Flourishes
Spanish Court Theatre Flourishes
Pedro Calderon* de la Barca (1600-81), better known as Calderon*, comes as a successor to Lope de Vega*, writing about 200, mostly religious, plays, of which about eighty survive. Most of his works are autos and the bulk of his other output is written for the Spanish court. His works have considerable influence on European drama, especially through French translations. Even today his best secular work Life's A Dream* is frequently revived. Beginning about 1621 and continuing until about 1640 Calderon* writes almost all of his secular plays. He writes primarily for the court, as do most of the other best dramatists. [His contemporaries, including Francisco de Rojas Zorilla* (1607-c. 1648) and Augustin Moreto* (1618-1669), lived and worked in Madrid.]
Calderon* is particularly noted for his auto sacramentales* and is regarded as having perfected the form. Best known of his early religious plays are:
Belshazzar's Feast* (c. 1634) The Great World Theatre* (c. 1641)
After 1652 he writes secular plays on demand for the court which are short, light and somewhat similar to the Stuart masque. Many of these are performed at the royal hunting lodge and their name, zarzuela*, comes from the name of the hunting lodge. These are rather like musical comedy and become one of the most popular Spanish dramatic forms.
The importance of his work for the court lies not only in the plays themselves but also in the production of them. As in England, (with the work of Inigo Jones*) the Italinate design blossoms in the court productions. Phillip IV* brings one of Parigi*'s students, Cosme Lotti* (?-1665) from Florence in 1626 to stage the court entertainments in a large hall at the Alcazar and in the gardens at Aranjuez. The most lavish productions with professional actors occur in the next decade as will be seen below in their own time.
More influential for European drama are his secular plays. They are taken up by the French and will influence the English later through French translations. He writes two main kinds. The cape and sword comedies deal with happily resolved love intrigues and misunderstandings and are best represented by The Phantom Lady* (1629). His serious plays explore honor and jealousy and include:
No Monster Like Jealousy* (c. 1634) The Physician to His Own Honor* (1635)
The Painter of His Dishonour* (1635) Secret Vengeance for Secret Insult* (1635) The Wonder-Wroking Magician* (1637) Mayor of Zalamea* (1642)
His finest and best known play is a philosophical allegory, Life Is a Dream * (1636.) His highly personal lyrical style makes translation difficult and even in Spain his court plays are little studied.
1625 James I* dies and his son Charles I* takes over. The plague is in London again. A tobacco tax and monopoly are established in England. This will lead the English colonies in America to rebel eventually.
1625 - Philip Massinger* does A New Way to Pay Old Debts*. 1626 In America Roger Conant is settling Salem, Massachusetts; Peter Minuit (1580-1638) as
director-general of the Dutch West India Company, buys Manhattan Island; and a Dutch Colony is founded on the Hudson River.
In the Thirty Years War the German general Wallenstein* is having a series of successes. He will be used as a hero in one of the later Romantic tragedies (see Schiller in Chapter 12.)
1626 - The Spanish court imports an Italian designer, Cosme Lotti* (?-1643), who is one of Parigi*'s students. He designs elaborate Italinate scenery for court entertainments staged in a large hall at the Alcazar.
In Dresden Germany they put on the first German production of Shakespeare's Hamlet*. The Germans love his plays and will continue productions of them.
1627 - John Ford* puts on 'Tis Pity She's a Whore*. 1628 - Another influential theatrical production author, the German architect Josef
Furttenbach*, the elder (1591-1667), comes out with his Civil Architecture *. He studies for ten years in Italy, part of it with Parigi* during the 1608 festival, and takes the Italian principles of theatrical staging back home. In this work there are only two pages devoted to constructing scenery, but he will write more later.
This year they finally put on a production in the Teatro Franese* over in Parma, Italy. In Spain The Suspicious Truth* by Juan Ruiz de Alarcon* comes out. 1629 In England, Charles I* dissolves parliament again and it won't meet until 1640 when
things will go from bad to really awful. Meanwhile he grants a charter to the Massachusetts Bay Company beginning with the land around the Merrimac and Charles Rivers and, of course, running from the Atlantic to Pacific. This company has two factions, money-making and building a Puritan commonwealth in New England. The Puritans get the right to have their own governance and next year starts the great Puritan migration under Winthrop [John
Winthrop*, 1588-1649, 12 times govenor, conservative who helps shape the theocratic policies of the colony.]. They will begin with founding Boston in 1630. This year marks the beginning of the "Puritan Exodus"from England.