Calder�n de la Barca, Pedro 1600-81
Spanish dramatist

Born in Madrid, he was educated by the Jesuits, studied law and philosophy at Salamanca (1613-19), and for 10 years served in Italy and Flanders. In 1635 he was summoned by Philip IV to Madrid, and appointed a sort of master of the revels. The Catalonian rebellion in 1640 made him return to the army, but in 1651 he entered the priesthood, and in 1653 withdrew to Toledo. Ten years later he was recalled to court and to the resumption of his dramatic activity, and he continued to write for the court, the Church, and the public theatres till his death. His autos sacramentales, outdoor plays for the festival of Corpus Christi, number 72, and have been divided into seven classes - biblical, classical, ethical, 'cloak and sword plays', dramas of passion, and so forth. The finest of them is El divino Orfeo ('Divine Orpheus'). Of his regular dramas 118 are extant, of which the most famous are La vida es sue�o ('Life's a Dream') and El alcalde de Zalamea ('The Mayor of Zalamea'), both probably written in the 1630s.

Bibliography: E W Hesse, Calder�n (1967)