Calderón: Three Comedies by Pedro Calderón de la Barca

Pedro Calderón de la Barca

Jul 2014 · University Press of Kentucky

About this ebook

This volume is a sequel to Four Comedies of Calderón (1980), which was hailed by reviewers as superb, faithful, and actable. The three comedies in the present volume are generally counted among Calderón's masterpieces: Casa con dos puertas mala es de guardar (A House with Two Doors Is Difficult to Guard); No hay burlas con el amor (No Trifling with Love); Mañanas de abril y mayo (Mornings of April and May). For the first time theaters will have the opportunity of staging these three masterpieces of the Golden Age drama of Spain in accurate and charming English versions. The verse used is flexible and musical, preserving the atmosphere and much of the poetic quality of the originals. An introduction deals with the characteristics of the plays and with the problems they pose for the translator. Concise explanatory notes clarify Golden Age dramatic practices.

About the author

Kenneth Muir, emeritus professor of English literature at Liverpool University, has translated Racine and Corneille, and is best known as a critic and editor of Shakespeare, with some fifty books and editions to his credit. Ann L. Mackenzie, senior lecturer in the department of Hispanic Studies at Liverpool University, and associate editor of the Bulletin of Hispanic Studies, has written numerous articles and reviews on Golden Age drama. She collaborated with Kenneth Muir in Four Comedies, to which she contributed valuable notes and introductions.