Note 586 — Chapter XXII
Reading edition
The unpublished works of Calderon, as enumerated by Vera Tassis, Baena, and Lara, are:—
(1.) “Discurso de los Quatro Novísimos”; or what, in the technics of his theology, are called the four last things to be thought upon by man: viz., Death, Judgment, Heaven, and Hell. Lara says Calderon read him three hundred octave stanzas of it, and proposed to complete it in one hundred more. It is, no doubt, lost.
(2.) “Tratado defendiendo la Nobleza de la Pintura.”
(3.) “Otro tratado, Defensa de la Comedia.”
(4.) “Otro tratado, sobre el Diluvio General.” These three tratados were probably poems, like the “Discurso.” At least, that on the Deluge is mentioned as such by Montalvan and by Lara.
(5.) “Lágrimas, que vierte un Alma arrepentida á la Hora de la Muerte.” This, however, is not unpublished, though so announced by Vera Tassis. It is a little poem in the ballad measure, which I detected first in a singular volume, where probably it first appeared, entitled “Avisos para la Muerte, escritos por algunos Ingenios de España, á la Devocion de Bernardo de Obiedo, Secretario de su Majestad, etc., publicados por D. Luis Arellano,” Valencia, 1634, 18mo, 90 leaves; reprinted, Zaragoza, 1648, and often besides. It consists of the contributions of thirty poets, among whom are no less personages than Luis Vélez de Guevara, Juan Perez de Montalvan, and Lope de Vega. The burden of Calderon’s poem, which is given with his name attached to it, is “O dulce Jesus mio, no entres, Señor, con vuestro siervo en juicio!” The two following stanzas are a favorable specimen of the whole:—
O quanto el nacer, O quanto, Al morir es parecido! Pues, si nacimos llorando, Llorando tambien morimos. O dulce Jesus mio, etc. Un gemido la primera Salva fué que al mundo hizimos, Y el último vale que Le hazemos es un gemido. O dulce Jesus mio, etc.
How much resembles here our birth The final hour of all! Weeping at first we see the earth, And weeping hear Death’s call. O, spare me, Jesus, spare me, Saviour dear, Nor meet thy servant as a Judge severe! When first we entered this dark world, We hailed it with a moan; And when we leave its confines dark, Our farewell is a groan. O, spare me, Jesus, spare me, Saviour dear, Nor meet thy servant as a Judge severe!
The whole of the little volume in which it occurs serves curiously to illustrate Spanish manners, in an age when a minister of state sought spiritual comfort by such means and in such sources.