|
"As its title
indicates, this play dramatizes the same key theme and emotion that preoccupied
Shakespeare in Othello, a masterpiece with which Calderón's tragedy
of jealousy has been favourably compared. His portrayal of the mind and
passion of King Herod, a ruler traditionally vilified in Catholic Spain
during Calderón's age, on account of the Slaughter of the Innocents,
is here characterized with compassionate understanding and freedom from
prejudice. Through the madness of possessive love and jealousy Herod destroys
first his wife's love and trust and then her life." |
AHCT