The Phantom Lady (Spanish: La dama duende) is a play by Spanish playwright Pedro Calderón de la Barca. It was written and performed in 1629 and was published for the first time in the Primera parte de comedias de don Pedro Calderón de la Barca (1636).[1]
The Phantom Lady is a cloak and sword play (de capa y espada) which follows the plot of the Invisible Mistress. This plot derives from the myth of Cupid and Psyche, but inverts the role of the protagonists. In the plot and in the Spanish play, it is the man's curiosity which leads him to meet and fall in love with the invisible woman; that is, with a woman who is either hidden, veiled or encountered in the dark. The Invisible Mistress plot is already found in Italian novelle by Masuccio Salernitano and Matteo Bandello.[2] Even though Calderón uses elements from Lope de Vega's play La viuda valenciana, his main model is an interpolated story in El soldado Píndaro by Gonzalo de Céspedes y Meneses (1626).[3] As is common in cloak and sword plays, it is the woman, in this case Doña Ángela, who propels the action. Her objective is to conquer Don Manuel while avoiding the attention of her two brothers, who watch over her. In order to communicate with Don Manuel, the lady uses an ingenious device, which creates an ambiance of supernatural mystery, thus referring to the title of the play.[4]