The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1901-10-20
Che Spanish esBamzef''
BY HUBERT M. SKINNER.

Does matter really exist? Many of the
worlds most profound thinkers deny
that it does. All the followers of "mod-
ern subjective idealism'' hold that the
phenomena of the world around us are
only conceptions of the mind. and nave
no objective existence. over $50 years
ago Bishop Berkeley, of the Anglican
church, taught this. Hume Fichte, Schel-
ing, Emerson, and a host of others in
many lands have taken up the idea
Inc controversy would seem to have
been precipitated upon the modern world
by means of an astonishing drama of
calderon, the Shakespeare of Spain.'
This is entitled, La Vida es Sueno"
Qlfe is dream)s and may be termed
the Spanish Hamlet though it has a
far deeper meaning than the great trag-
edy of that name by the bard of Avon
The nations are slowsto incorporate into
their familiar literature the works of for
eign writer's, especially when these have
to be translated and recast. However,
we have fully adopted Goethe's Faust
in the translation by Bayard Taylor, and
the Germans have appropriated Shakes
peare's Hamlet" and Macbeth" as
their very own. 1 believe the day is near
at hand when we shall appreciate some
of the great works of Spanish literature
besides Don Quixote." and among them
CGIldl1t plctyS VI Od1UGTOn Will HOlu IllS
first rank. The difficulty lies in the fact
that good translators are few, and that
there are not many scholars who really
understand drama of dilierent school
from their own. Fitzgerald, who achieved
so wonderful a success in translating
from the Persian the "Rubaiyat' OF
Khayyam, made a miserable failure in
his attempt to work over Calderons
Life Is a Dream, and no one else has
oft ratn cd II raSult
was poor farce, which was not even
funny.
The scene of the drama is in Poland,
in the time when that kingdom was one
of the great and advanced nations of
Europe, distinguished for its learning
and for the freedom of its upper classes
before the period when it's kings be-
came elective. King Basiio Ga fictitious
nance had an only son, Ligismond
whom the astrologers declared to be des-
tined to bring disaster upon the king
and kingdom. To thwart the prediction
the king had the prince brought up Sc
cretly in lonely tower in the noun
tains, knowing nothing Of his birth or Of
the world of men, seeing but one COM
panion, and limited in his education to
the reading of books The boy grew to
be willful and passionate young man,
with nothing to soften his manners or
to awaken tender sentiments in his
heart. As the king grew old, and saw
that the throne must soon pass to a
foreign relative who would be hated by
his subjects, he was led to consider if
he might not change his plan Perhaps.
after all, mans life was not so fore
ordained but that he might direct mis-
own fate. Basilio decided to give the
prince chance to prove himself. Real
ling the danger incident to the expert
ment. he guarded against it by novel
cheme Clotaldo, the guardian of the
prince, slyly administers to the latter a
soporifc draught like that which Juliet
takes in Shakespeare's play; and while
ne is talking about an eagle, Ligismond
Tails asleep in his chains. The prince