Abstract

Calderón combines inherited elements together with original ones, and in his versification he tends to simplification.The author’s analysis focuses on ten works of Calderón written between 1628 and 1652, an auto sacramental and nine comedies (La vida es sueño, El príncipe constante, La dama duende, La cena del rey Baltasar, El médico de su honra, Los cabellos de Absalón, El mágico prodigioso, El alcalde de Zalamea, La cisma de Ingalaterra, El mayor monstruo del mundo y A secreto agravio, secreta venganza) that include the silva. The examples (at the end there’s a summary chart with dates, percentages, etc.) are useful to show the close relation those works bear between dramatic content and the silva metrical form, which is used at important moments of the dramatic conflict, in scenes where the characters go through negative feelings and emotional or physical suffering.