In brief we conclude that to take away from Catholicism its unlawful advantages, and to treat with it on strictly legal grounds, to avoid anything like fighting against ideas, and above all to give full application and expansion to the doctrine of religious freedom and equality, would be the true and only successful way of opposing Ultramontanism. To attempt to infringe any of its lawful rights would be only to exasperate it, and in the end to enhance its influence. The development of the general liberty will prove ultimately to be the most effectual as well as the noblest barrier to the progress of Ultramontanism; while strict and equitable application of the common law will furnish the State with all needful weapons of self-defence. We can conceive no better method of bringing to a happy issue in France that inevitable struggle between Ultramontanism and modern society which becomes so hopelessly involved, when the attempt is made to combat clerical assumption on any other principles than those of a firm and enlightened Liberalism. VOL. XXXIII. Y E. DE PRESSENSÉ. W ITHOUT seeking to fix the exact date when the greatest of Spanish poets wrote his lyrical tragedy of "El Magico Prodigioso," it is certain that one of the greatest of our English dramatists had previously written "The Tragical Life and Death of Doctor Faustus." It appears to have been first published in 1604 (black letter 4to), and Calderon de la Barca was not born till 1601. The subject or ruling principle of each of these extraordinary dramas is essentially the same, and is in some respects identical with the Faust of the greatest poet of Germany. There are no signs whatever that Calderon knew anything of Marlowe's tragedy, either in the original or through translation. That Goethe was conversant with both the above dramas is more than probable, although there is only a general resemblance in some of his earlier scenes. Howbeit, in our own period the richly-adorned poem of Goethe has (very unjustly, in our opinion) concentrated and absorbed the exclusive attention of the literary public in his version of the profoundly interesting legend of Dr. Faustus. The learned and admirable essay by Dr. Hueffer is scarcely an exception. The theological and philosophical arguments in the German drama differ from those of the Spanish poet, chiefly in their greater breadth and their variety of illustration; as also from those of the English Faustus, who contents himself, for the most part, with certain scholastic problems in cosmogony and astronomy, and a declaration of his determination to become a great magician. To obtain this power he is ready to barter his soul. He He says: A Good Angel and a Bad Angel appear to him, and advance their several arguments. The latter prevails with him, and then the magnificent Kit Marlowe puts these words into the mouth of Faustus: "Had I as many souls as there are stars, The Bad Angel exhorts him to “ despair in God, and trust to Belzebub." Still, he is not without serious misgivings; and, when he is about to sign the deed of gift with his blood, the influence of the Good Angel prevails, and the blood suddenly stops flowing;— "My blood congeals-and I can write no more!" He had previously asked himself, "Why waverest thou? Oh, something soundeth in mine ear,- Suddenly he sees the words "Homo, fuge!" written upon his arm. It vanishes. He does not fly. It returns! Yet he will not fly. He has duly read the Latin Incantation; and in the end, after stipulating for four-and-twenty years of magical power and human enjoyments of every kind, he signs a deed of gift in a regular legal form, which gives it a ghastly air of diabolical reality. In the" Magico Prodigioso," the sale of "the immortal soul" is effected by a similar bond, which Cyprian signs with his blood; but the preliminaries are very different from the above, and the main incentive and object is different. The Mephistopheles is also a far more learned, philosophical, and courtly person. On his first appearance, as Shelley translated it (in the Liberal), we read, "Enter the Devil as a fine Gentleman."* The surrender of Cyprian's soul to the Demon, though preceded by intense intellectual struggles, dissatisfactions with the results of philosophical studies, theological arguments, and a yearning after forbidden knowledge, is nevertheless finally determined upon for the sake of obtaining personal possession of a certain beautiful and virtuous lady. This lady (Justina) exercises an influence upon the hero (Cyprian) throughout the drama, far surpassing that of Helen in Marlowe's tragedy, and quite equal to the influence Margaret exercises over Faust. But it is of a very different kind in some respects, for Justina, besides being a boldly reasoning theologian, placing her life in peril as a heretic, is pursued in the first instance by two lovers before Cyprian sees her. Other situations * Mr. Rossetti's alteration of devil to demon loses the familiar wit and humorous irony. In Mr. Buxton Forman's edition of Shelley, we also have,-"The demon, dressed in a court-dress, enters." It is no doubt a more direct translation of "Sale el Demonio vestido de gala," and the rendering by Mr. D. F. MacCarthy, of "Enter the Demon in gala dress," is yet more rigidly literal; still one regrets that Mrs. Shelley's transcription from the first publication was not adopted. are also in the highest style of the Spanish comedy of intrigue. These two lovers are prevented from fighting a mortal duel by the mediatorial reasonings of Cyprian, who takes so much interest in what is said of the lady that he is quite prepared to fall in love with her himself. This happens shortly after. Justina's character being regarded as of immaculate purity by these three adorers, the Demon adopts a peculiarly Spanish treta fraudulenta in order to damage, if not destroy, her reputation. He secretes himself in the balcony of her bedchamber, and when the two former lovers are advancing from opposite sides under cover of the night, down slips the Demon by a rope, and suddenly diving into the earth, the two lovers come close upon each other, each one believing the other had just descended by the rope! A second duel is also prevented by the entrance of Cyprian. His love is of course much troubled by what they tell him. In some sort he is glad of it, as they agree to give her up as an unworthy object, and this relieves him of their rivalry; but partly he disbelieves the scandalous statement, and in any case his passion is too engrossing to be turned aside. He throws off his student's dress, and orders a rich court suit, with sword and feathers; away with books and studies, for "love is the homicide of genius." He calls to his servants Moscon and Clarin: From this point in the drama Cyprian pursues Justina with devoted passion. She does not encourage his hopes, and the Demon, by reason of her purity and holiness of spirit, has no real power over her. Nevertheless, he promises her to Cyprian. And the "juggling fiend brings the meeting about in the following fashion. In a lonely wood a phantom Figure of Justina appears, which Cyprian embraces, and presently carries off in his arms,-when the following scene occurs: Oh! unveil thyself, fair goddess, [He draws aside the cloak, and discovers a Skeleton."* In the brief space at our disposal in the present paper it must be obvious that no attempt can be made to give more than a synthetical view of this wonderful poem; sufficient, however, has been presented to show that it takes rank, together with Marlowe's tragedy, as the earliest of the high-class poetical, magical, amatory, philosophical, and theological treatment to which the remarkable old legend of Doctor Faustus is so manifestly open. And this would be the more palpable with respect to "El Magico Prodigioso" if we could give some of the argumentative discussions between Cyprian and the Demon; but for these, as well as the love-scenes, the reader must be referred to the original, or to the translations of Shelley as the most beautifully poetical, and to those of Mr. D. F. MacCarthy as the most complete and literal. Highly, and justly, has Milton been eulogized for his portrait of Satan, thus redeeming the "Prince of Darkness" from the old grotesque monster with horns and tail, as described and "illuminated" in monastic missals and legends. But in the intellectual sorrow and retrospective pangs of the "Archangel ruined," Milton was preceded in some degree by Marlowe, and in a direct and sustained manner, both in sorrow and intellectual grandeur, by Calderon. "Tan galan fui por mis partes, Here is Shelley's noble translation: El Magico Prodigioso.-Jornada, II. "Since thou desirest, I will then unveil In lineage so supreme, and with a genius In his high palace roof'd with brighest gems In mighty competition, to ascend His seat and place my foot triumphantly * Calderon's Dramas, translated in the metre of the original by D. F. MacCarthy. |