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DramaLife Is a DreamPedro Calderón de la BarcaLife Is a Dream

Life Is a Dream

Pedro Calderón de la Barca

DramaEnglish
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Prince Segismundo of Poland has been kept chained in a tower in the mountains since birth, because the stars foretold that he would become a tyrant and…

Catalogue details

Author
Pedro Calderón de la Barca
Category
Drama
Language
English
Source
Project Gutenberg

About this book

Prince Segismundo of Poland has been kept chained in a tower in the mountains since birth, because the stars foretold that he would become a tyrant and humble his father, King Basilio. To test the prophecy, the king has him drugged and carried to the palace, where he wakes as a prince and behaves with violent cruelty; drugged again, he wakes in his chains and is told it was all a dream. Unsure what is real, Segismundo must decide how to act in a world where life itself may be a dream.

Context and significance

Pedro Calderón de la Barca (1600–1681), the great playwright of Spain's Golden Age, wrote the play in the 1630s, and it was first printed in 1636. This is the free English version by Edward FitzGerald, best known for his translation of the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam. Compare Hamlet, another prince who struggles with how to act.

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