J. R. Chorley in “The Athenaeum”.

THE SCARF AND THE FLOWER.

A Drama.

“The ‘Scarf and the Flower’, nice and courtly though it be, the subject spun out and entangled with infinite skill, is too thin by itself for an interest of three acts long; and no translation, perhaps, could preserve the grace of manner and glittering flow of dialogue which conceal this defect in the original”.

J. R. Chorley in “The Athenaeum”.

LOVE AFTER DEATH.

A Drama.

“‘Love after Death’ is a drama full of excitement and beauty, of passion and power, of scenes whose enthusiastic affection, self-devotion, and undying love are drawn with more intense colouring than we find in any other of Calderon’s works”.

From an article in “The Dublin University Magazine” on D. F. Mac-Carthy’s Calderon.

“Another tragedy, ‘Love after Death’, is connected with the hopeless rising of the Moriscoes in the Alpujarras (1568-1570), one of whom is its hero.  It is for many reasons worthy of note; amongst others, as showing how far Calderon could rise above national prejudices, and expend all the treasures of his genius in glorifying the heroic devotedness of a noble foe”.

Archbishop Trench.

LOVE THE GREATEST ENCHANTMENT

A Drama.

“This fact connects the piece with the first and most pleasing in the volume, ‘Love the greatest Enchantment’, in which the same myth [that of Circe and Ulysses] is exhibited in a more life-like form, though not without some touches of allegory.  Here we have a classical plot which is adapted to the taste of Spain in the seventeenth century by a plentiful admixture of episodes of love and gallantry.  The adventure is opened with nearly the same circumstances as in the tenth Odyssey:  but from the moment that Ulysses, with the help of a divine talisman, has frustrated all the spells (beauty excepted) of the enchantress, the action is adapted to the manners of a more refined and chivalrous circle”.

“The Saturday Review” in its review of “Mac-Carthy’s Three Plays of Calderon”.

THE DEVOTION OF THE CROSS.

A Drama.

“The last drama to which Mr. Mac-Carthy introduces us is the famous ‘Devotion of the Cross’.  We cannot deny the praise of great power to this strange and repulsive work, in which Calderon draws us onward by a deep and terrible dramatic interest, while doing cruel violence to our moral nature. . . .  Our readers may be glad to compare the translations which Archbishop Trench and Mr. Mac-Carthy have given us of a celebrated address to the Cross contained in this drama.  ’Tree whereon the pitying skies’, etc.  Mr. Mac-Carthy does not appear to us to suffer from comparison on this occasion with a true poet, who is also a skilful translator.  Indeed he has faced the difficulties and given the sense of the original with more decision than Archbishop Trench”.