Towards a Definition of Calderonian Tragedy

Abstract

It is generally considered that Spain has made no significant and original contribution to tragic drama. The belief is in fact prevalent that the Spanish drama possesses no real tragedies. This is often explicitly stated in general histories of the European theatre. In particular studies of Tragedy it is explicitly stated, for instance, in Herbert Muller's The Spirit of Tragedy, where there are separate sections on the tragedy of the Greeks, of the Elizabethans, of the French and of modern times, and where the Spanish drama is dismissed in eighteen lines, among which we find this statement: “For Spain remained orthodox, Catholic, hierarchical; and Spain wrote no tragedy. Its greatest dramatist, Calderon, presented some nominally tragic actions but always arrived at a pious or patriotic conclusion, resounding with devotion to God, king or country.”