Segismundo's Soliloquy on Liberty in Calderon's La Vida es Sueño

Abstract

Spanish poets of the seventeenth century were very fond of the contrast between the physical limitations of men, especially when prisoners,—“ ces eternels envieux des mouches et des oiseaux” (Victor Hugo)—and the freedom of birds that fly at will, or of “ fishes that tipple in the deep.” But nowhere has the comparison been given such artistic form and signal appropriateness as in the mouth of Calderon's hero, Segismundo. This young Titan felt himself fettered by stone walls. They were a real prison to him and he rebelled against his lot. He was not in a mood to admit, had it even occurred to him to do so, the superior advantage of man's mental freedom over the physical freedom of fishes and birds and brutes, or running brooks. But the thought was not original with Calderon, nor, according to Sr. Menéndez y Pelayo, was it original with any of Calderon's immediate predecessors, but went back to the Greek philosopher, Philo. Lope de Vega was probably the first to transplant the conceit to Spanish soil,—and it bore abundant fruit. In one of his early plays, El Remedio en la desdicha, written before the close of the sixteenth century, occur the following verses: Rendido estoy á tu nobleza, y veoQue mi ignorancia fué mi propio engaño;Aunque si amor á todos da disculpa,¿ Porqué no la tendrán mi amor y celos ?Si tú, si tus soldados, si los hombresSi las aves, los peces, si las fieras,Si todo sabe amor, si todo temePerder su bien, y con sus celos propiosDefiende casa, nido, mar y cueva,Llora, lamenta, gime, y brama; advierteQue celos y sospechas me obligaronAl desatino que á tus pies me rinde.