United States or Hong Kong ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
The list of authorities at the end of the third act has been, and not without reason, a source of great perplexity. Calderon is blamed even by so thoughtful a critic as Mr. Ticknor for putting into the mouth of Enius himself the names of a number of writers who have in some way alluded to the Purgatory of St.
In Montalvan Luis Enius has no interview with the skeleton, so powerfully described by Calderon. His conversion is effected by a floating piece of paper which had eluded his grasp for two nights, but which he seized on the third, and examined by a mysterious light at the foot of a cross.
In Henry of Saltrey's account, as given by Messingham in 1624 and Colgan in 1647, this portion of the life of Enius is despatched even with more succinctness, but in Montalvan's 'Vida y Purgatorio de San Patricio', all his early crimes are detailed nearly in the order and almost in the very words that Calderon has used.
If not, O Lord, remove me hence!" The "Athenaeum", Oct. 26, 1853. The account of St. Patrick's Purgatory given by Luis Enius in this long narrative is taken immediately from the seventh, eighth, and ninth chapters of Montalvan's "Vida y Purgatorio de San Patricio", which, as already stated, are themselves a translation from the "Florilegium Insulae Sanctorum" of Messingham.
Notwithstanding the length of these notes, the following summary, taken with some corrections from the Introduction to the former translation of this drama , may still be useful: The curious history of Luis Enius, on which the principal interest of the play depends, has been alluded to, and given more or less fully by many ancient authors.
Patrick's Purgatory is "Mensignano," with the reference in the margin of Montalvan's 'Vida y Purgatorio' to his 'Florilegium'. This of course is Messingham, out of whose book, aided by his own wild imagination, Perez de Montalvan created the character of Luis Enius, who is presented to us with such dramatic power by Calderon.
In their versions of the story the early life of Enius, previous to his undertaking to enter the Purgatory, is passed over with a few general remarks as to its extreme wickedness while they give in great detail all that he saw and heard therein.
Martin of Tours, the journey to Rome, and all the other events follow in detail, which Montalvan collected from Messingham, Messingham's chief authority being the Life of St. Patrick, by Jocelin. SCENE II., p. 262. The story of Luis Enius, as given by Calderon in this long address, seems to be entirely the invention of Montalvan.
"Enrique Saltarense" is Henry of Saltrey, a Benedictine monk of the Abbey of Saltrey in Huntingdonshire, who about the middle of the twelfth century first reduced to writing the Adventures of Owain, or Enius, in the Purgatory of St. Patrick. Of him Messingham writes thus. Referring to his authorities, he says: He flourished in the year of Grace 1140." "A Brief History of St.
Matthew Paris, for instance, opens the story of Enius in these words: "Miles quidam Oenus nomine, qui multis annis sub Rege Stephano militaverat licentia a Rege impetrata, profectus est in Hyberniam ad natale solum, ut parentes visitaret.
Word Of The Day