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DON JUAN

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Originally appearing in Volume V08, Page 417 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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DON JUAN , a legendary See also:character, whose See also:story has found currency in various See also:European countries. He was introduced into formal literature in the See also:Spanish El Burlador de Sevilla y convidado de piedra, a See also:play which was first printed at See also:Barcelona in 1630, and is usually attributed to Tirso de See also:Molina; but the story of aprofligate inviting a dead See also:man to supper, and finding his invitation accepted, was current before 163o, and is not See also:peculiar to See also:Spain. A Don Juan Tenorio is said to have frequented the See also:court of See also:Peter the Cruel, and at a later See also:period another Don Juan Tenorio, a dissolute gallant, is reported as living at See also:Seville; but there is no satisfactory See also:evidence of their existence, and it is unlikely that the Don Juan See also:legend is based on See also:historical facts. It exists in See also:Picardy as Le Souper de fantome, and variants of it have been found at points so far apart as See also:Iceland and the See also:Azores; the available evidence goes to show that Don Juan is a universal type, that he is the subject of See also:local myths in many countries, that he received his name in Spain, and that the Spanish version of his legend has absorbed certain elements from the See also:French story of See also:Robert the See also:Devil. Some points of resemblance are observable between El Burlador de Sevilla and Dineros son calidad, a play of earlier date by Lope de See also:Vega; but these resemblances are superficial, and the character of Don Juan, the incarnation of perverse sensuality and arrogant See also:blasphemy, may be considered as the creation of Tirso de Molina, though the ascription to him of El Burlador de Sevilla has been disputed. The Spanish See also:drama was apparently more popular in See also:Italy than in Spain, and was frequently given in See also:pantomime by the See also:Italian actors, who accounted for its permanent See also:vogue by saying that Tirso de Molina had sold his soul to the devil for fame. A See also:company of these Italian mimes took the story into See also:France in 1657, and it was dramatized by Dorimond in 1659 and by De See also:Villiers in 1661; their attempts suggested Le Festin de See also:Pierre (1665) to See also:Moliere, who, apparently with the Spanish See also:original before his eyes, substituted See also:prose for See also:verse, reduced the supernatural See also:element, and interpolated comic effects completely out of keeping with the earlier conception. Later adaptations by Rosimond and See also:Thomas See also:Corneille were even less successful. The story was introduced into See also:England by See also:Sir See also:Aston Cokain in his unreadable Tragedy of See also:Ovid (1669), and was the theme of The Libertine (1676), a dull and obscene play by See also:Shadwell. See also:Goldoni's D. Giovanni Tenorio osia Il Dissoluto, based upon the adaptations of Moliere and Thomas Corneille, is one of his least interesting productions. Tirso de Molina's play was recast, but not improved, by See also:Antonio de See also:Zamora See also:early in the 18th See also:century.

A See also:

hundred years later the character of Don Juan was endowed with a new name in See also:Espronceda's Estudiante de See also:Salamanca; Don See also:Felix de Montemar is plainly modelled on Don Juan Tenorio, and rivals the original in licentiousness, impiety and grim See also:humour. But the most curious resuscitation of the type in Spain is'the protagonist in Zorrilla's Don Juan Tenorio, which is usually played in all large cities during the first See also:week in See also:November, and has come to be regarded as an essentially See also:national See also:work. It is in fact little more than an See also:adaptation of the See also:elder See also:Dumas' Don Juan de Marana, which, in its turn, derives chiefly from See also:Merimee's novel, See also:Les See also:Ames du purgatoire. Less See also:exotic are Zorrilla's two poems on the same subject—El Desafio del diablo and El Testigo de bronce. See also:Byron's Don Juan presents a Regency See also:lady-killer who resembles Ulloa's murderer in nothing but his name. The sustained popularity of the Don Juan legend is undoubtedly due in See also:great measure to See also:Mozart's incomparable setting of Da See also:Ponte's mediocre libretto. In this See also:pale version of El Burlador de Sevilla the French romantic school made acquaintance with Don Juan, and hence, no doubt, the See also:works of Merimee and Dumas already mentioned, See also:Balzac's Elexir d'une longue See also:vie, and See also:Alfred de See also:Musset's Une Matinee de Don Juan and Namouna. The legend has been treated subsequently by See also:Flaubert and See also:Barbey d'Aurevilly in France, by See also:Landau and See also:Heyse in See also:Germany, and by Sacher-Masoch in See also:Austria. It has always fascinated composers. Mozart's Don Giovanni has annihilated the earlier operas of Le Tellier, Righini, Tritto, Gardi and Gazzaniga; but See also:Gluck's See also:ballet-See also:music still survives, and See also:Henry See also:Purcell's setting—the See also:oldest of all—has saved some of Shadwell's insipid lyrics from oblivion.

End of Article: DON JUAN

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