The Purgatory of St. Patrick by Pedro Calderón de la Barca (top 100 books to read txt) 📕

him so much constancy in his Torments, and having congratulated him upon his victory, said unto him: 'Courage, Brother. We know thou hast overcome the Torments which thou hast so manfully born; and that thou art purged of all thy Sins. The Sun begins now to rise in thy Country: Make haste then up to the Cave: For if the Prior, who when he hath said Mass, shall come to the Door, finds thee not there, he will lock the Door, as Despairing of thy salvation; and return to the Church.' The Soldier hereupon, having first got their Blessing, hasten'd up to the Cave, and at the very Minute that the Prior open'd the Door, the Soldier appear'd. The Prior embraced him, glorified God, and conducted him to the Church, and caused him to continue there fasting and praying for fifteen Days. Then the Soldier put on his Shoulder the mark of the Cross of Christ and went with great Devotion to the Holy Land, to visit the Sepulchre of our Lord Jesus Christ at Jerusalem, and all the holy Places round about it. Which when he had Devoutly performed he came back, and went to Stephen, King of England, to whom he had been before familiarly known, to advise with him, after what Manner he might best for the future, Warfare for the King of Kings, as he had heretofore carry'd Arms for him.

"It happen'd at the same time, that Gervasius Abbot of Lude, had got by King Stephen's Recommendation a Place in Ireland for the building of a Monastry. This Abbot sent one of his Monks, called Gilbert, to the King, to be recommended by him to the King of Ulster, and then to proceed from thence to Ireland in order to erect the said Monastry: who being Kindly received by the King, complained very much that he was a stranger to the Irish Language; I shall find you, by God's help, says the King, an excellent Interpreter. Then he called Owen, the Irish Soldier, commanded him to go with Gilbert, and to continue with him in Ireland. Owen readily obey'd the King's Orders, adding with all, that he was obliged in gratitude to serve the Monks, whose Charity he had so often and so remarkably experienced. They then went over to Ireland, and began to build the Monastry, which they finished in two years and a half. The Monk Gilbert took care of the things within the Monastry; and Owen the Soldier was a trusty Procurator, and devout Minister of the Things abroad; as also a faithful Interpreter: And having taken the Habit of a Monk; he lived an Holy and Religious Life all the rest of his days, as the said Gilbert testifieth. Whenever this Gilbert and the Soldier happen'd to be alone; Gilbert was very inquisitive to know from him the particulars of all the Things he had seen and felt in this Purgatory; and the Soldier who upon pronouncing the word Purgatory, used to burst out into Tears, told him all that he had seen and felt, which Yet he wou'd willingly have concealed, had he not been persuaded, that it might tend to the Edification, and Amendment of the Lives of many. Nay and affirmed upon his Conscience, that he had seen with his corporal Eyes all the Things which he related. Now it was by the Care and Industry of this Monk, and upon the Testimony and Credit of the Bishops of this part of the Kingdom, who had the account from the Soldier's own Mouth, and that of the other Religious and godly men of those Times that these things were committed to Posterity."

The last chapter, which is "Of the Examination and Manifold Proofs of this History," concludes with the following observations by Messingham himself.

"This History of Owen the Soldier, as to that part of it that is related by Henry Salteriensis, I borrow'd from an ancient Manuscript of the said Author now extant in the Library of St. Victor, and that related by Mathew Paris, I took from his printed History of England: But if after all, any Man chuse rather to oppose, than piously to believe the same, let him consult the Holy Fathers, St. Gregory, Venerable Bede, Dionysius Carthusianus, and carefully read the various Revelations, Visions, and Relations not unlike these recorded by them; to which as to things very probable they themselves were not afraid to give Credit, and which they would not presume to deny."

Calderon was not the only celebrated poet who made the Purgatory of St. Patrick the subject of his song. Four centuries before the great Spanish dramatist was born, a most elaborate and very lengthy poem was written on the same attractive theme by Marie de France, the first woman, as M. de Roquefort says,who ever wrote French verse, the Sappho of her age.* Nor was Marie herself the only minstrel of that early time who yielded to the fascination of this legend. Two anonymous Trouveres of a little later period were unconsciously her rivals in the attempt. M. l'Abbe de la Rue, in his valuable work on Norman and Anglo-Norman Poetry, thus writes:-


[footnote] *"Poesies de Marie de France", par B. De Roquefort. Paris, 1820. t.i., p.1.


"Quoique la celebre Marie eut, au XIIIe siecle, donne une assez ample histoire du Purgatoire de St.-Patrice, puisqu'elle est de plus de trois mille vers, deux autres Trouveres anglo-normands qui probablement ne connaissaient pas son poeme, volurent dans le siecle suivant traiter le meme sujet."**


[footnote} **"Essais Historiques sur les Trouveres", etc., par M. L'Abbe de la Rue. Caen, 1834. t. iii., p. 245.


These poems, still unedited, are to be found in the Cottonian and Harleian MSS. The reader is also referred to the very interesting and exceedingly rare volume, 'Owain Miles' (Edinburgh, 1837), and 'The Visions of Tundale' (Edinburgh, 1843), in the Prefaces to both of which, by the late lamented W.B.D.D. Turnbull, much curious information on the subject will be found.


* * * * *


THE AUTHORITIES FOR THE LEGEND, AS GIVEN BY CALDERON.

ACT III., SCENE X. (the concluding lines.)

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. Patrick, all of whom were of periods long subsequent to the time at which he represents himself to have lived, several of them being the very writers who nearly a thousand years later described his own adventures. But this is quite usual on the Spanish stage. There is scarcely a drama of Calderon that does not end in the same way. The last speaker, whoever he may be, and he is frequently the 'gracioso', abandons, for the last few lines of his speech, his assumed character, and addresses the audience as an actor in a brief epilogue. The list of authorities at the end of "El Purgatorio de San Patricio" is nothing more. It is simply an epilogue, perhaps a little longer than usual, which the curious nature of the subject to some extent justifies. The manner in which the names are printed is a different matter. But the reader should recollect that this drama was not printed by Calderon himself, but by his brother Joseph, who certainly in this instance at least considered it no part of his duty as editor to verify the correctness of the poet's references. Some of the confusion certainly is attributable to Calderon himself, as he has separated and transposed names for the purpose of adapting them to his versification. But other mistakes remain behind which we may fairly divide between Don Joseph and the printer.

The original lines, as given in all the editions, that of Hartzenbusch included, are the following:-

"Para que con esta acabe La historia, que nos refiere Dionisio el gran Cartusiano, Con Enrique Saltarense, Cesario, Mateo Rodulfo, Domiciano Esturbaquense, Membrosio, Marco Marulo, David Roto, y el prudente Primado de toda Hibernia, Belarmino, Beda, Serpi, Fray Dimas, Jacob Solino, Mensignano, y finalmente La piedad y la opinion Cristiana, que lo defiende."

Some of these names are obvious enough; it is with regard to those that are rendered more obscure by the manner in which they are presented that the difficulty arises. The list is taken for the most part from the fourth chapter of Montalvan's "Vida y Purgatorio de San Patricio", but with the names singularly disconnected and misplaced. They are turned, too, so completely into Spanish as to be scarcely recognised. Even in Messingham's "Florilegium", where they are all to be found, though not in one place, they are not always correctly printed. The following attempt at identification, now made for the first time, will be found, it is believed, to be perfectly accurate.

The first name, "Dionisio el gran Cartusiano," scarcely requires any explanation. The work referred to, in an edition of which I have a copy, is as follows:-

"D. Dionysii Carthusiani liber utilissimus de quatuor hominis novissimis, etc.," Parisiis, 1551.

The account "De Purgatorio Sancti Patritii" extends from fol. 235 to fol. 237.

"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:-

"What you shall find under the letter B, is taken from Henry Salteriensis, an English monk of the Cistercian order, who had been taught most excellent Precepts of a good Life as well as good Letters by Florentianus, an Irish bishop, and Gilbert de Luda [Louth, in Lincolnshire], Abbot of the Cistercian Monks, who also, being himself well instructed, used to teach others the fear of the Lord as the beginning of wisdom. . . . . And hence it is that he wrote unto Henry Abbot of Sartis one Book of the Purgatory of St. Patrick and one Book of the Pains of Purgatory. He flourished in the year of Grace 1140." - "A Brief History of St. Patrick's Purgatory". Paris, 1718. Preface.

"Cesario," which carelessness or the exigency of metre has separated from the "Esturbaquense," of the next line is Caesarius of Heisterbach, a well-known hagiological writer of whom Adrien Baillet thus speaks:- "Un religieux Allemand de l'ordre de Citeaux nomme 'Cesaire de Heisterbach', qui mourut du tems de l'empereur Frederic II. travailla aussi a la vie des Saints." He adds in a note:- "Cesaire se fit moine l'an 1198, au Val de Saint de Pierre, dit autrement Heisterbach, pres de la ville de Bonne, dans le diocese de Cologne, et ne mourut que pres de quarante ans apres. Il avoit ete maitre des novices dans son couvent, et ensuite prieur de la maison de Villiers." - 'Discours sur l'histoire de la Vie des Saints. Les Vies Des Saints'. Paris, 1739. T. i., p. xlvii.

"Mateo Rodulfo," printed as the names of one author in Calderon, separate into two persons in Messingham and Montalvan. The first is the well-known Mathew Paris, whose 'Relation of the vision of Owen the Irish Soldier' is expressly referred to in