DON JUAN.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 86, 4 January 1908, Page 13

DON JUAN.

A book has been written by M. do Bovotto on tho placo of Don Jtian in European literature and the doyolopment of the Don Juan legend. Tho legend originated' in 1 Southern. Spain, in Andalusia;. in.' the beginning of tho seventeenth celitiiry, when El Btirla:lor dp Sevilla, y couvidadb do piedra— "Tho Deceiver of Sevillo and tho Guest 1 of Stone" —was put upon tho stage._ .In'this play, after a succession of abominable gallantries, Don Juan i 3 brought back to his n'atjyo Seville, where tho, coiiScfiuencos, of his 'misdeeds 'gather about his head,, though ho remains undismayed. Coming by chance upon tho tomb of Commander d'Uilori, whom he -had . killed' .aft-Or'.-ani, .attempt.. on tho hou-.-our of. his daughter, Don Juan reads tho opitaph which declares that the knight there awaits tho vengeance of Heaven, oil a traitor.", Don Juan coolly plucks tho beard of tho statuo and ironically invites it to supper, promising "satisfaction" afterwards. As later ho sits at supper in his inn, a knock comes at tlio door. Tho valet returns,from' answering the summons ,in a paby of fear. Don Juan takos a light and goes himself to the door, to find the ntstuo of tho commandcr confronting him. Undaunted, ho welcomes and entertains his uncanny guest, and in tho orid receives a return invitation to sup the next ovening, with tho, statue at tho tomb. Don Juan duly presents himself at the grim feast, whore tho table is laid 'with a black cloth and scorpions and vipors are the viands. Overcome at last by tho terrors of. hell,' Don Juan cries in vain for mcrcy. In tho rolontloss grasp of tho statue ho is led away, to h.is doom, and vengeance, human and divine, is satisfied. M. do Bovotto shows how ill this original story Don Juan represents, certain enduring elements of human nature, and yet how plastic these elements- aro, so that in different countries and in successive epochs tho type of tho hero of tho story changes. At first ho is simply tho man of strong passions, courageous, selfish, unscrupulous, who takes a delight in bursting tho restraints of morality and. religion to gratify his desires. In Italy a coniic strain was introduced into tho story, and Cicognini concoives Don Juan as an extremo individualist, rebelling against all bonds of religion, of family and of sooioty. _ In Franco, undor the influence of philosophical thcorios, ho becomes a typo of tho revolt of tho human spirit from tho tyranny of dogma and a vindicator of tho lifo according to nature, Moliero had a complex object in his troatUK.'/it of tho story. Ho wished to hold up to tho light certain immoralities and hypocrisies of his time. Ho develops Don Juan systematic and scientific freothinker, making him ail altogether groat&r, if moro csvil, character. . Aiid especially Don Juan's victim, Elvira, becomes under tho touch of Moliero's genius a new and altogether finer type of womail. With Moliero tho legend takes a fresh start; it becomes moro human, a moro profound study of character. Byron's concoption roso entirely out of his own experience, and was not a continuation of tho old legend, but. quite new. The poet's, object was to writo a satiro on European, society at tho beginning of the nineteenth conturv. M. de Bovotto touches on tho Don Juan of Germany and Holland, shows how tho story affords opportunity for Tory varying characterisations of wonian, and points out how modern romanticism has idealised Don Juan as tho hero who has been misunderstood.