Autos sacramentales
[1] The auto sacramental was always presented in the streets in connection with the celebration of the feast of Corpus Christi.
It was preceded by a solemn procession through the principal streets of the city, the houses along the route being decorated in honor of the occasion.
In the procession appeared the priests bearing the Host under a splendid canopy, followed by a devout throng, in which, in Madrid, often appeared the king and his court without distinction of rank, and last of all, in beautiful cars, came the actors from the public theatres who were to take part in the performance.
The procession usually halted before the house of some dignitary while the priests performed certain religious ceremonies, the multitude kneeling meanwhile as if in church.
These performances, and the procession as well, were given with much splendor and at great expense, being limited only by the resources of the particular town in which they took place.
These typically consisted of simple dialogue, presented at Christmas, Carnival, Good Friday, or Easter during religious festivals.
[1] During the 16th and 17th centuries these autos continued to appear, being gradually improved and elaborated until brought to their highest state of development by Calderón.
He has left about seventy autos, the best known of which are The Divine Orpheus, a work of considerable poetic merit, The Devotion to the Mass, and The Captivity of the Ark.
From time immemorial, allegory of every kind had powerfully appealed to them, and these autos took a strong hold on the popular favor, coming as they did during religious festivals, with their music and their splendor, coupled with the fact that they were given at public expense and with the sanction of the Catholic church.
[1] Citing disrespect of the Eucharist, Charles III declared the presentation and performance of autos prohibited by royal decree in 1765.
[3] Some modern authors, in particular those of the Generation of 27 and later, have tried to revitalize and revive the genre, sometimes desecrated it: Rafael Alberti, with El hombre deshabitado and Miguel Hernández, with Quién te ha visto y quién te ve y sombra de lo que eras, wrote autos sacramentales and after them, Gonzalo Torrente Ballester.
[4] Juan de la Encina (1468 – 1529): considered joint-father of Spanish Drama with Gil Vicente; in 1496 published book called Cancionero of eight églogas, the precursor for the auto sacramental.
Lope de Vega (1562 –1635): wrote around 400 autos; 42 surviving text including The Harvest and The Wolf Turned Shepherd.
Pedro Calderón de la Barca (1600 – 1681): considered most prolific of the writers of autos; two well-known autos are La cena del rey Baltaza, or Belshazzar's Feast and El gran teatro del Mundo, or The Great Theater of the World.
Vanity and Idolatry tell Belshazzar that Daniel is annoying them and they want to leave.
As they leave, Belshazzar tells Daniel he owes his life to the two queens, not to God.
Thought tells Daniel that he has learned a valuable lesson – by invoking the hand of God, his life can be spared in future situations.
They all sit down and Idolatry fans Belshazzar with the feather from her hat while Vanity sings to him about his greatness to continue to soothe him.
He draws his sword, but Daniel enters and says, “No,” while holding back the arms of Death.
Death comes to the feast in a disguise and makes a plea to God to loose his hand in order to kill Belshazzar due to his sacrilegious behavior against the Eucharist on top of his sins of Idolatry and Vanity.
A hand appears in the clouds and writes nonsense words that neither Idolatry, Vanity, Belshazzar, nor Thought can decipher.
Daniel comes and interprets the words that translate to mean that: One, God has numbered Belshazzar's days on earth.
Death says “Die, thou sinner,” draws his sword, and stabs Belshazzar in the heart.
