176 TRANSACTIONS OF THE PLYMOUTH INSTITUTION. 
CALDEKON AS POET AND DEAMATIST. 
ABSTRACT OF LECTURE BY MISS A. G. COOPER. 
(Read 13th December, 1888.) 
To estimate Calderon aright it is necessary to begin by a brief 
sketch of Spain and the Spanish drama. 
Spain had passed through a long period of struggle with the 
Moorish power; had risen to her greatest height, which placed 
her in the van of European nations ; and this pre-eminence was 
beginning to decline when the subject of this paper appeared. 
The long crusade against the Moors, which ended in the con- 
solidation of the kingdom of Spain, left ineffaceable marks on 
Spanish literature, especially on the drama. The strong imagination 
of an Eastern people lent a peculiarly romantic colouring to the 
incidents and even to the form of that drama. Spain was still 
the first power in Europe. Wealth, which seemed inexhaustible, 
poured in from the rich ]STew World, of which she had still the 
monopoly. This successful national life bore fruit in literature. 
The drama especially produced a rich harvest, and — like Athens 
under Pericles, England under Elizabeth — Spain, when at the 
height of prosperity, developed a rich and, moreover, national 
drama. The Inquisition attempted to check the love for theatrical 
performances, but ineffectually, and Lope de Kueda, in 1540, 
formed a strolling company, for which he wrote comedies. Lope 
de Yega succeeded him, and though professing to believe in the 
"unities," wrote, as he said, "to please the multitude," and in 
so doing established the nationality of the Spanish drama. The 
Spanish drama employed as subjects for plays the stories told in 
the old ballads, and also adopted the old ballad metres. What 
the Iliad was to the Greek dramatists these ballads were to the 
Spanish. Several attempts were made by Argensola, Gongora, 
and others to introduce the classic or Greek form, with choruses ; 
but these failed. The Greek dramatists took the crisis of a story, 
whilst the Spanish and English told the whole story, and developed 
