Publisher's Synopsis
There are two surviving versions of Calderon's play on the Faust theme, "El Magico Prodigioso". The first, preserved in an incomplete autographed manuscript, was written for performance in the town of Yepes on the feast of Corpus Christi in 1637, with staging appropriate for the traditional Corpus mystery play, the "auto sacramental". The second, first published in 1663, is an adaptation for performance in the playhouses of Madrid. The circumstances of the play's textual identity are unique in the 17th-century Spanish theatre and the purpose of this composite edition, which uses different founts for the two versions, is to reveal in action not only the dramatist's developing vision but the imperatives of a remarkable commercial theatre and its symbiotic relationship with the religious order of the day. At the same time the opportunity has been taken to provide a study of the play and its two versions, its sources and its context. An introduction, notes and a full textual apparatus accompany the composite text.
