Segismundo's Fear at the End of La vida es sueo

Author(s): Stephen H. Lipmann

Source: MLN, Vol. 97, No. 2, Hispanic Issue (Mar., 1982), pp. 380-390
Published by: Johns Hopkins University Press
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2906110
Accessed: 27-02-2016 00:00 UTC

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at http://www.jstor.org/page/
info/about/policies/terms.jsp
JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content
in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship.
For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

Johns Hopkins University Press is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to MLN.

http://www.jstor.org

This content downloaded from 200.52.254.249 on Sat, 27 Feb 2016 00:00:52 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

Segismundo'sFear at the End of

La vida es sueno
Stephen H. Lipmann
A number of critics have considered the third encounter between Rosaura
and Segismundo to be the crucial moment of La vida es sueno. Edward M.
Wilson states that at their meeting in the third act, "The scales fall from
[Segismundo's] eyes."' Others have reinforced and developed the idea that
Rosaura prepares the ground for Segismundo's "conversion" by informing
him that he actually lived the day at court.2 My concerns here will be
Rosaura's omissions and the vestige of confusion they create in
Segismundo's view of his experience. Her failure to mention that he was
drugged, taken back to the tower, and deceived by Clotaldo has a direct
bearing on the third soliloquy and on the conclusion of the play. Thematic
interpretations of La vida es sueno have overlooked important details of
action and dialogue in both passages. In discussion of the third soliloquy,
emphasis has been placed on Segismundo's decision to "acudir a lo eterno"
and defend Rosaura's honor rather than indulge his lust. I believe that the
primary problems Segismundo confronts in the speech are logical and
semantic, and that his attempt to solve them envelops his ethical struggle.3
Much of the soliloquy is a sustained effort to reconcile the inference that
he did not dream the day at court with Rosaura's statement that "fue la
pompa / de tu majestad un suefio" (2721-22).4 On the basis of limited,
partial information, Segismundo moves laboriously from the notion that
life and dream are literally the same to a grasp of their figurative
equivalence. The process of moral choice is interwoven with his
decipherment of her figure of speech. Had Rosaura told him precisely
how he was tricked into believing that he dreamed the day at court, there
would have been no "confusi6n," no occasion for this meditation, and
perhaps no surrender to Basilio.
Segismundo's ignorance may indeed serve to limit his animosity toward
his father and thus make reconciliation possible. It has another important
function: to dramatize the fact that he has not fully achieved the
self-mastery he claims as the greatest victory of the day. Most analyses of
the ending have focused on the justice (or injustice) of imprisoning the
Rebel Soldier and the moral, legal, or political implications of this act.5 I

0026-7910/82/0972-0380

MLN Vol. 97 Pp. 380-390

$01.00
? 1982 by The Johns Honkins University Press

This content downloaded from 200.52.254.249 on Sat, 27 Feb 2016 00:00:52 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

M L N

381

will argue that Calder6n introduces the Rebel Soldier to jolt Segismundo
with the memory of his second, still unexplained stay in the tower.6 The
justice of imprisoning the soldier is manifest to the members of the court
who praise Segismundo, and as a representative of the vulgo, the Rebel
Soldier is not likely to have received much sympathy from the playwright
or his audience, however offensive his punishment may seem to modern
readers. What is most striking about the ending is Segismundo's reaction to
the praise he receives. He reveals that Basilio, Astolfo, and Rosaura have
not grasped his underlying motive: the fear that accompanies the residue
of uncertainty left by Rosaura's omissions.7 Calder6n thus isolates his
protagonist at the close of the play, forcing him to relive momentarily his
memoriade la muerte, an experience the others have neither shared nor
understood.
When Segismundo meets Rosaura in the third act, he is still not certain
whether he is awake or dreaming. It is well established that after Clotaldo
tells him that he dreamed his day at court, Segismundo infers that waking
and sleeping are identical states and concludes his soliloquy at the end of
the second act with the affirmation that the metaphor of the play's title is
literally true: "Toda la vida es suefio ..." (2186).8 One of the rebels who
free him from the tower entices him back into the world with the
suggestion that the experience at court was a dream prophesying future
glory. Segismundo thus has a provisional basis for accepting his sense
experience as real, but he expresses his continuing uncertainty in several
asides and statements (2383, 2399, 2413, 2421, 2667).
Rosaura creates a puzzle for Segismundo, apparently without realizing
it. She first refers to his experience at court as a dream:
Tres veces son las que ya
me admiras ....

La segunda me admiraste
mujer, cuando fue la pompa
de tu majestadun suefio,
una fantasma,una sombra.
(2712-13; 2720-23)
But later in the speech she gives a less embellished account of their
meetings, providing details of the intrigue at court and mentioning
Estrella and Astolfo by name (2851-69). Her metaphoric use of the word
"suefio" thus bewilders him. Much of the following soliloquy-actually a
long aside-is devoted to working out the figurative equivalence of life and
dream in terms of his experience.
Segismundo's response to Rosaura's long speech (2690-2921) shows that
the validity of his sense impressions is his foremost concern, far more
pressing than his lust. After expressing his sense of vertigo in the face of so
much new information, Segismundo begins to use his reason, inferring
from the details she provides that he did not dream what happened at

This content downloaded from 200.52.254.249 on Sat, 27 Feb 2016 00:00:52 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

382

STEPHEN H. LIPMANN

court: "Luego fue verdad, no suefio" (2934). As he recalls the image she
used near the beginning of her speech, his perplexity increases:
Y si fue verdad, que es otra
confusiony no menor,
,c6mo mi vida le nombra
suefio?
(2935-38; emphasis mine)

Segismundo misquotes her slightly, changing "la pompa / de tu majestad"

(2721-22) to the "vida" of his soliloquy at the end of the second act, but the
following lines suggest that he is thinking of his lost "dicha" rather than his
life in general. Since he sees that life and dream are not one, her statement
seems contradictory, and he asks a series of questions as he gropes toward
an understanding of Rosaura's figure of speech. Given the premise that
"glorias" and "suefios" are not the same things, he tries to guess what they
have in common that would lead her to equate them. In light of his recent
disorientation, it is not surprising that he first asks himself whether they
might appear indistinguishable.
Pues ~tan parecidas
a los suefos son las glorias
que las verdaderas son

tenidas por mentirosas,

y las fingidas por ciertas?
(2938-42)

His next question is effectively another inference, moving from the

hypothetical similarity in appearance to the more fundamental problem of
sense impressions' validity.
JTan poco hay de unas a otras
que hay cuesti6n sobre saber
si lo que se ve y se goza
es mentirao es verdad?
(2943-47)
Segismundo is unconsciously slipping back toward the equation of all life
with dreaming: he speculates that if "glorias" and "sueios" are virtually
identical, the senses may be unreliable. His third question is more abstract,
moving toward doubt of the possibility of knowing the truth.
CTansemejantees la copia
al original que hay duda
en saber si es ella propia?
(2947-49)
However, Segismundo does not go farther, but sums up his new
assumptions in terms of the old experience, focusing on the transience that
dreams and glory, being so similar, must share. Lust seems to have

This content downloaded from 200.52.254.249 on Sat, 27 Feb 2016 00:00:52 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

M L N

383

interrupted his questioning, for the apprehension of glory's transience

becomes the rationale for indulging in pleasure.
Sepamos aprovechar
este rato que nos toca,
pues solo se goza en ella
lo que entre sueniosse goza.
(2954-57)
At this point Segismundo assumes that he is awake; when he says "Esto es
suefo; y pues lo es, / sofiemos dichas ahora" (2964-65), he uses the verb
"sofiar" figuratively. When Segismundo then says, "Que despues seran
pesares" (2966), he continues the figure to express the lesson he learned
from awaking in the tower: that happiness and glory are transitory.
What is generally referred to as Segismundo's "conversion" is more a
matter of aligning Rosaura's limited information with previous
perceptions, and correcting faulty logic. The recollection of his earlier loss
of power again leads him to restrain himself, as it did earlier in the act
when he met Clotaldo (2411 ff.) and when he imagined himself a hero in
Roman times (2656 ff.): "Mas con mis razones propias /vuelvo a
convencermea mi" (2967-68; emphasis mine). For the experience of waking
in the tower gave him a vision of life sub specie aeternitatiswhich his new
knowledge cannot erase. Segismundo thus continues to meditate on the
dream metaphor, now grasping its moral significance; in light of his
memoriade la muerte, it implies illusion as well as transience.
Si es suefo, si es vanagloria,
cquien por vanagloriahumana
pierde una divina gloria?
(2969-71)
Rosaura's metaphor has finally led him to frame a choice which makes
self-restraint a matter of common sense. Then he sees that her image may
also provide a key to the puzzling experience that led him to equate living
and dreaming. Focusing on the act of recollecting what he had lost, he
finds that the metaphor suggests a psychological explanation of his
disorientation.
iQu6 pasado bien no es sueio?
iQuien tuvo dichas heroicas
que entre si no diga, cuando
las revuelve en su memoria:
sin duda que fue sofado
cuanto vi?
(2972-77)

With the aid of a selective memory that avoids the fact of his
imprisonment, Segismundo uses the dream metaphor to make the effects

This content downloaded from 200.52.254.249 on Sat, 27 Feb 2016 00:00:52 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

384

STEPHENH. LIPMANN

of Basilio's hoax intelligible, almost mundane.

Reaffirming that pleasure is
ephemeral, he makes his decision.
Pues si esto toca
mi desengano, si se
que es el gusto llama hermosa
que le convierte en cenizas
cualquieraviento que sopla,
acudamos a lo eterno ....

(2977-82)
It is significant that when Segismundo at last addresses the matter of
Rosaura's speech-her request for aid in redeeming her honor-he does
not speak to her directly. Calder6n gives dramatic emphasis to the isolation
in which Segismundo has worked out a course of action
by having the
protagonist leave her in a state of confusion, barely speaking to her as he
departs. Segismundo's intellectual effort must be admired, but not without
the recognition that it depends in part on his
continuing ignorance. If
Rosaura had told Segismundo that he had been drugged and that Clotaldo
had lied to him, rather than give him a clue to the truth
together with an
enigma, there would have been little occasion for meditation. After his
meeting with Rosaura, Segismundo knows that the power he lost was real
and that life and dreaming are not literally identical. He thus is
virtually
certain that he is awake, but his ignorance of the hoax leaves him with a
residue of uncertainty. Calder6n uses this residue at the end of the
play to
isolate Segismundo once more.
In the concluding scene of the play, which begins with
Segismundo's
entrance at line 3135, Calder6n combines resolution of conflict and
reconciliation with a recapitulation of Segismundo's experience.
During
the first part of the scene, Segismundo is generally in control of the action
and displays considerable theatrical flair, thus
creating the impression that
he has planned certain moves in advance. His long
harangue to the court
and his father contains a selective review of the events
leading up to the
present moment, and an interpretation of their significance: the
exemplary tableau of father vanquished by son proves that destiny is
ineluctable and shows that Basilio took the wrong measures to avert it. But
Segismundo then creates a counter-tableau, exchanging places with his
father to give a dramatic demonstration of the
self-mastery he has
achieved after his second confinement in the tower. The
punctuation of
this passage in early editions suggests that Segismundo asserts his
ability to
succeed where his father has failed.
Sentenciadel cielo fue,
por mas que quiso estorbarla
el no pudo, y podre yo,
que soy menor en las canas,
en el valor y en la ciencia

This content downloaded from 200.52.254.249 on Sat, 27 Feb 2016 00:00:52 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

M L N

385

vencerla: Sefior levanta,

dame tu mano, . . .
rendido estoy a tus plantas.
(3236-42; 3247)9
Segismundo's action is magnanimous, but his words point to a competition
which paradoxically he wins by relinquishing victory.
Whether or not Segismundo's
surrender
in
is a gambit calculated
advance, he gains his father's acceptance and the applause of all. Lest
anyone miss the meaning of his act, he draws the moral of this surprising
reversal.
Pues que ya vencer aguarda
mi valor grandes victorias,
hoy ha de ser la mas alta
vencerme a mi.
(3255-58)
He continues to display his self-mastery by making good his promise to
defend Rosaura's honor; with the help of Clotaldo, who identifies himself
as her father, Segismundo secures her marriage to Astolfo. Segismundo
continues to show a dramatic flair in the following speech.
Pues, porque Estrella
no quede desconsolada,
viendo que principe pierde
de tanto valor y fama,
de mi propia mano yo
con esposo he de casarla
que en meritos y fortuna,
si no le excede, le iguala.
Dame la mano.
(3278-86)
Segismundo's praise of Astolfo and his modesty in comparing their merits
and fortunes can be read as ironic, since Astolfo hasjust been disappointed
in his quest for the throne of Poland and has displayed poor grace in his
reluctance to accept Rosaura's claim. The speech builds to the unexpected
gesture of taking Estrella's hand, another coup de theatre.
Segismundo's reconciliation with Clotaldo would seem to round out the
harmonious resolution which Segismundo
has brought about largely on
his own. An embrace accompanies his promise of generosity, but the words
preceding the final dramatic gesture leave much unsaid.
A Clotaldo, que leal
sirvi6 a mi padre, le aguardan
mis brazos, con las mercedes
que 1l pidiere que le haga.
(3288-91)

This content downloaded from 200.52.254.249 on Sat, 27 Feb 2016 00:00:52 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

386

STEPHENH. LIPMANN

Clotaldo is rewarded for loyalty to the king, but no mention is made of

their former relationship or of Clotaldo's precepts. Both men know that
Clotaldo served Basilio as ajailer; while vaguely alluding to this unpleasant
fact, Segismundo draws attention to what was objectively praiseworthy
about Clotaldo's actions, showing much tact.
After this speech, the Rebel Soldier's request for a reward has the flavor
of a gracioso's impertinence.
Si asi a quien no te ha servido
honras, ca mi, que fui causa
del alborotodel reino,
y de la torre en que estabas
te saqu6, que me daras?
(3292-96)
The soldier speaks as a member of the underclass, to whom Segismundo's
dispensation of justice can only seem artificial and hypocritical. Much has
been said about treason and the justice of the punishment Segismundo
metes out, but the key word in Segismundo's reply to the soldier is "torre."
The unexpected and intrusive reminder of his second imprisonment robs
Segismundo of his composure, and he hurls the word back at the soldier.
La torre; y porque no salgas
della nunca hasta morir,
has de estar alli con guardas;
que el traidor no es menester,
siendo la traicion pasada.
(3297-3301)
Segismundo first responds spontaneously to this interruption of his
carefully orchestrated finale, then offers the conventional wisdom about
traitors and treason to justify his sentence.
This rationale proves acceptable to Segismundo's onstage audience, as it
has to many modern readers. The members of the court party who speak
interpret Segismundo's action as an improvised exemplum,further evidence
of the self-conquest he has proclaimed. Each of the three responses reflects
a distinct perspective. Basilio, as the old ruler watching his reformed heir
apparent in action, still speaks for the whole group: "Tu ingenio a todos
admira." How clever of you to put this rebellious scoundrel into the tower
where your own rebellion was punished! Astolfo, who still thinks of
Segismundo as a savage, now is impressed by the rapidity and astuteness of
the Prince's reaction, perhaps recalling that the last member of the lower
class who challenged Segismundo had been thrown off a balcony. He says,
"iQue condici6n tan mudada!" Rosaura, whom Segismundo was about to
rape in the palace, has a more direct experience of his brutality. In her
long plea for help, she called him "valiente" and "fuerte caudillo" but
threatened to kill him if he made physical advances. She may' have his
earlier violence in mind as she praises the intellect and judgment she sees
here: "iQue discreto y que prudente!"
This content downloaded from 200.52.254.249 on Sat, 27 Feb 2016 00:00:52 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

M L N

387

While Segismundo's previous actions in this scene have been symbolic

and his words, measured and carefully chosen, in this instance he has not
sought to make an impression. The court's surprise and amazement are
unexpected, and he reveals that his underlying motive is a private fear.
iQu6 os admira?iQu6 os espanta,
si fue mi maestro un suefo,
y estoy temiendo en mis ansias
que he de despertar y hallarme
otra vez en mi cerrada
prisi6n?
(3305-10)
By introducing the Rebel Soldier, Calder6n drives Segismundo back into
psychological isolation. Although the soldier may represent a threat to
Segismundo's newly acquired power, he has more immediately threatened
Segismundo's renewed faith in his sense perceptions. The harsh sentence
is a spontaneous, defensive act with a more personal motive than to warn
against treason. Segismundo still does not understand how he came to find
himself in the tower again. His response to the soldier's reminder of this
mystery is to make the soldier his surrogate: not to imprison him so much
as to put him in the space that he himself had occupied in the tower.
After revealing his fear, of which neither the soldier nor the court party
was aware, Segismundo catches himself up. He realizes that he is awake,
but affirms that merely imagining that he might reawaken in the tower
would have the same effect as fearing it in earnest.
Y cuando no sea,
el sofarlo s6lo basta;
pues asi llegu6 a saber
que toda la dicha humana,
en fin, pasa como un sueno.
(3310-14)
Calder6n uses the residue of confusion from Segismundo's encounter with
Rosaura to make him reexperience his radical disorientation and thus
recall vividly his memoria de la muerte. The dramatic recapitulation of
Segismundo's growth thus concludes with a reprise of the means by which
Segismundo achieved his victory over himself, and he recites the lesson he
learned about good fortune, not by rote but with feeling. It is also
significant that in this concluding speech, virtually a monologue,
Segismundo expresses the relationship between "dicha" and "suenfo"as a
simile; the confusion of his soliloquy at the end of Act Two is now behind
him. The adjective "humana" implies a contrast with the divine and thus
recalls the moral sense of the life/dream metaphor that Segismundo
discovered in his third soliloquy. But in his last lines, he returns to the first
sense of the metaphor, life's transience.
Y quiero hoy aprovecharla
el tiempo que me durare,

This content downloaded from 200.52.254.249 on Sat, 27 Feb 2016 00:00:52 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

388

STEPHENH. LIPMANN
pidiendo de nuestrasfaltas
perd6n, pues de pechos nobles
es tan propio el perdonarlas.
(3315-19)

Calder6n elegantly elides the image of life as a dream with the theatrum
mundi metaphor, reminding us that with the end of the performance and
the play, Segismundo's existence as a character comes to a close.
After allowing Segismundo to superintend most of the play's resolution,
the dramatist assumes control. He leaves us with the final impression that
the prince has reformed but remains deeply shaken by experiences that
his future subjects do not understand. The emblematic tableau in which
his father and he humble themselves to one another gives way to an
image of the hero once again reflecting on his experience in dialogue
with himself. Alan K. G. Patterson has suggested that the earlier tableau
depicts The Rise and Fall of Princes10; I find an apt motto for this
final vision of Segismundo in a novel by Joseph Conrad, who knew La vida
es sueno well: "We live, as we dream-alone."11
WesternMaryland College

NOTES
1 "On La vida es suenio,"in Critical Essays on the Theatre of Calder6n, ed. Bruce W.
Wardropper (New York: New York University Press, 1965), p. 77.
2 Cf. A. E. Sloman, "The Structure of Calder6n's La vida es sueno," MLR, 48
(1953), 293-300; and William M. Whitby, "Rosaura's Role in the Structure of La
vida es sueno," HR, 27 (1960), 16-27. Segismundo's third meeting with Rosaura
also figures prominently in the work of critics who stress the play's affinities with
Plato's myth of the cave. Cf. Michele F. Sciacca, "Verdad y sueno de 'La vida es
sueno,' de Calderon de la Barca," Clav, 1, No. 5 (1950), 1-9; Jackson I. Cope,
"The Platonic Metamorphoses of Calder6n's La vida es sueho," MLN, 86 (1971),
225-41, and The Theater and the Dream: From Metaphor to Form in Renaissance
Drama (Baltimore and London: Johns Hopkins, 1973), pp. 245-60; and Harlan
G. Sturm, "From Plato's Cave to Segismundo's Prison: The Four Levels of
Reality and Experience," MLN, 89 (1974), 280-89.
3 Cesareo Bandera, "El itinerario de Segismundo en La vida es sueno," HR, 35
(1967), 69-84, and Angel L. Cilveti, El significado de La vida es suenio (Valencia:
Albatr6s, 1971), pp. 114-19, offer the most detailed accounts of Segismundo's
transformation as a conversion experience. Neither they nor readers who use
the term to indicate a conversiovitae have seen the extent to which
ignorance and
puzzlement about Rosaura's figurative use of the word "suefo" shape the course
of his "acudamos a lo eterno" speech.
4 References are to the edition of A. E. Sloman (Manchester: The University
Press, 1961).
5 The following are devoted primarily to the Rebel Soldier and the
ending of La
vida es sueno: H. B. Hall, "Segismundo and the Rebel Soldier," BHS, 45 (1968),
A.
A.
189-200;
Parker, "Calder6n's Rebel Soldier and Poetic Justice," BHS, 46
(1969), 120-27; Hall, "Poetic Justice in La vida es sueno: A Further Comment,"
BHS, 46 (1969), 128-31; T. E. May, "Segismundo y el soldado rebelde," inHacia

This content downloaded from 200.52.254.249 on Sat, 27 Feb 2016 00:00:52 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

M L N

389

Calder6n, ed. H. Flasche (Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 1970), pp. 71-75; Eugenio
Suarez-Galban, "Vuelta a Segismundo y el soldado rebelde," RomN, 13 (1971),
143-46; Premraj Halkhoree, "A Note on the Ending of Calder6n's La vida es
sueio," BCom, 24 (1972), 8-11; Eileen M. Connolly, "Further Testimony in the
Rebel Soldier Case," BCom, 24 (1972), 11-15; Daniel L. Heiple, "The Tradition
Behind the Punishment of the Rebel Soldier in La vida es sueno,"BHS, 50 (1973),
1-17; Barry W. Ife, "Castigos y premios en La vida es sueno," in Hacia Calderon,
ed. H. Flasche (Berlin and New York: Walter de Gruyter, 1976), pp. 32-46;
Enrique Rull, "La literalidad del 'Soldado Rebelde' en La vida es sueno," Seg,
21-22 (1975), 117-25; and Cesareo Bandera, Mimesis Conflictiva (Madrid:
Gredos, 1975), pp. 253-260. Cf. also Marc Vitse, Segismundo et Serafina
(Toulouse: Institut d'Etudes Hispaniques et Hispano-Americaines, Universite
de Toulouse-Le Mirail, 1980), n. 139, p. 176. Vitse points out that the
designation "Uno" given the soldier in the last scene is simply a transcription of
the numeral used in early editions to indicate the first of the two soldiers who
speak.
6 R. D. F. Pring-Mill discusses the hoax in "La victoria del hado en La vida es
sueno," in Hacia Calderon, ed. H. Flasche (Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 1970), pp.
53-70. He believes that at the end of the play, Clotaldo's lie "ya se ha desechado"
(p. 70); this is true insofar as Segismundo can infer that he did not dream the
court experience, but he is never told the whole truth concerning his second
imprisonment. Robert R. Wilson places the hoax in a comparative context in
"Spooking Oedipa: On Godgames," CRCL, 4 (1977), 186-204.
7 Edwin Honig believes that Segismundo's expression of fear is ironic (Calder6n
and the Seizuresof Honor [Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press,
1972], p. 174). Segismundo's use of the word "ansias" and the fact that he
catches himself up cast doubt on this interpretation. Leopoldo Eulogio Palacios
draws attention to Segismundo's fear of waking in the tower at the close of the
play, but does not link it with the Rebel Soldier and Segismundo's specific
circumstances, seeing it as a dramatic equivalent of the fear of death and
judgment ("La vida es sueno," Finisterre, 2 [1949], 50). T. E. May calls the
imprisonment of the Rebel Soldier Segismundo's "primer error de gobierno"
and identifies its motive as fear of the future, paralleling the fear that caused
Basilio to imprison his son ("Segismundo y el Soldado Rebelde," pp. 74-75).
Although May makes several astute observations, he does not give enough
attention to the background of the act and overlooks the differences between the
motives of father and son.
8 Numerous studies discuss the dream metaphor and Segismundo's apprehension
of its meaning; the following have helped me define the position I take here:
Wilson, "On La vida es sueno"; Palacios, "La vida es sueno"; Humberto Pifiera
Llera, "(Descartes en Calder6n?", La Torre (Puerto Rico), 6, No. 21 (1958),
145-65; A. Salvador, "Concepci6n de la vida como suefo," CHA, 45, No. 135
(1961), 370-76; Everett W. Hesse, "El motivo del suefo en La vida es sueno," Seg,
3 (1967), 55-62; Pring-Mill, "La victoria del hado en La vida es sueno"; Cilveti, El
significado de La vida es suefio, especially pp. 85-121; Francisco E. Porrata, "El
sueno en La vida es sueio," Abside, 36 (1972), 305-19; Vitse, Segismundoet Serafina,
especially pp. 60-68.
9 I retain Sloman's spelling but use the punctuation of the 1636 Primera Parte in
Calder6n, Comedias, Vol. 2, eds. D. W. Cruickshank and J. E. Varey
(Farnborough, England: Gregg International, 1973).
10 Alan K. G. Paterson, "The Traffic of the Stage in Calder6n's La vida es sueno,"
RenD, 4 (1971), 175.
11 The words are spoken by Charlie Marlow, the primary narrator in Conrad's

This content downloaded from 200.52.254.249 on Sat, 27 Feb 2016 00:00:52 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

390

STEPHENH. LIPMANN

Heart of Darkness, and are cited by Gloria L. Young in "Conrad and Calder6n:
Stein and Segismundo as Existential Men," Conradiana, 9 (1977), 134. Conrad
used the lines "El delito mayor / del hombre es haber nacido" as the
epigraph of
An Outcastof the Islands.
This article was completed during an NEH Summer Seminar on Comedy in the
Drama of the Spanish Golden Age, held at Duke University in 1981. I am grateful to
Professor Bruce W. Wardropper for offering valuable criticism and suggestions.

This content downloaded from 200.52.254.249 on Sat, 27 Feb 2016 00:00:52 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions