This is the first thorough study of Calderon in comparison with other important dramatists of the period.

Preface; Acknowledgments; Note on texts and notes; Introduction; 1. La vida es sueno: Calderón's idea of a theatre; 2. La dama duende; 3. Calderón and Tirso: El galán fantasma; 4. El secreto a voces: language and social illusion; 5. Toward tragedy; 6. El médico de su honra; 7. Herod and Hercules: theatrical space and the body; 8. El mágico prodigioso and the theatre of alchemy; 9. The illusions of history; 10. Authority and illusion: En la vida todo es verdad y too mentira; 11. The use of myth: Eco y Narciso; 12. Prometheus and the theatre of the mind; 13. Calderón's last play: the comedia as technology and romance; Notes; Index.