Calderon Plays 1: The Surgeon of Honour; Life is a Dream; Three Judgements in One

Description

In recent years, the English-language theatre has rediscovered Calderon and a number of highly successful productions have been staged. These translations by Gwynne Edwards capture the ferocious spirit of his work in sharp and speakable translation The three plays included here represent Calderon's most celebrated work, in which he explores the extent of man's freedom in a hierarchical society often bound by anachronistic codes of conduct. The plays are The Surgeon of Honour, described by Michael Billington as 'one of the most disquieting plays in all world drama ... a dark masterpiece', Life is a Dream, Calderon's most famous play, and Three Judgements in One, less well-known but one of his finest works. "Calderon excels all modern dramatists with the exception of Shakespeare, whom he resembles in the depth of thought and subtlety of his writings" (Shelley)

Pedro Calderon de la Barca was born in Madrid in 1600, the son of the Secretary to the Royal Treasury. He studied at the Jesuit Colegio Imperial in Madrid and then studied canon law at the University of Salamanca. He began writing in 1620 and between 1625 and 1628 he served in the army in Italy and Flanders and combined the career of soldier and writer. During his life he wrote some 120 secular plays including The Surgeon of Honour (1635), Life is a Dream (1635) and Three Judgements in One (1635-1640). After a series of misfortunes in his personal life Calderon took Holy Orders in 1651 and, although he didn't write again for the public theatre, he continued to produce two religious plays (autos sacramentales) a year for another thirty years. Calderon died in 1681.