DON JUAN.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 10441, 22 April 1912, Page 2

DON JUAN.

A PERFECT HUSBAND. Another historical turpitude has been revealed by a minute examination of laig-ncglected documents lying in tho Biijiioiiiequo National,'-' of Paris. Among tho SSS volumes of manuscripts carried away from the Vatican in l"i) 7, by the armies of'tho Corsicau commander, Napoleon Bonaparte, there has own found one that sets the whole p. dig roc of Don J'uan topsy-turvy. In all languages, in ail legends, in all gay romance, the name of Don Juan typiiii .■> tiia unrestrained libertine, the Lothario or lugh or low degree. In the d cument numbered •' H 12j8," mouldering among the masses in the library, you may read, if conversant with the Latin tongue, tho eaiiying history oi tho veritable Don Juan, who gave posterity the synonym for libertines' exploits.

In every known toi;g::o literature is enlivened by lomaunts of the Don Juanesqite. Mohere has made the typo immortal in the " commander," a sort of Prometheus chained to his deadly sins lor perpetual punishmmt. In tho up.la of Mosart the romances of Byron, Merimee, in the Gorman tho Italian, even the Russian tongue, Don Juan is always the conquering Adonis, strewing shattered hearts on his march through gai'.ty and adventure. The. astonishing Don, whose name is taken in vain every time it covers the doings of an enormous scapegrace, was born in tho delicious city of Sevilla, the son of Don Tomasco Manara and his wife Girolama Anfriano, in the year lti26.

Tho young Michael was a roguishly comely lad, who kept all the damsels of Sevilla on the alert to resist his witcheries. Hence on to the age of thirty, he ravaged the countryside, breaking the hearts of the susceptible maids and even disturbing the peace of sober families. Purgatory" reveals something of the amorous turpitudes of the direful gallant.

In his thirtieth year he thought to vary his adventures by marrying his one thousand and fourth sweetheart. This damsel, the donna Carillo Mendoza, possessed all the charms that the most fastidious lover could dream.

As a consequence, Michael, master of the feminine nature through vast and various experience, became a tractable, adoring husband., sedulous in everything appertaining to the perfect spouse. But the cup of joy was Michael's goblet of poison, for the- most perfect of wives survived the marriage only four months, leaving a desperately heartbroken husband. His first task after the burial of his beloved was to sell and give all she left to the poor, together with his own worldly possessions, and betake himself to the Convent " de la Caridad," still standing in Seville, where he straightway stupefied the venerable brethren by the extravagance of the penitence he forced upon his body. •Lentils, cooked in water, were his only food; his garments were the coarsest sackcloth; his recreation acting as the "valet" of the domestics of the mansion. The humblest and most repugnant menial tasks were, if not his delight, his constant practice. He passed from door to door soliciting alms for the poor, then missions in other lands; he made it his calling, above all, to collect money to enable poor girls to marry, thus making restitution for his incontinence. The marvels of his devout doings reached the ears of the hierarchy as far away as Madrid, and even the great Ximenes, Cardinal-Archbishopof Toledo, looked with compassionate interest upon the reformed profligate, whose ministrations brought about a long-continued revival of piety in the " joy town," as Sevilla was immediately known to be. He lived in an ecstasy of humiliating repentance, and died one day in 1679 m a paroxysm of religious exaltation. In his last will it was enjoined upon the convent folk that his body should be wrapped in sackcloth and* la id under the slab at the entrance of the Caridad Convent, in order that it might be trampled on forever by the pious brethren and the habitues of the reverend He likewise directed that on the slab should be engraved the words " Hero lies the wickedest man that ever lived. But as the fame of his repentance and edifying last years spread, when pilgrim;? flocked to Seville to gaze upon the slab, the convent folk thought the lowly grave unfitting for such anero of piety. The body was removed with fitting ceremonial and enshrined in the convent chapel, where for centuries it was guarded by the nuns who in later times supplanted the monks. His fame took hold of the Spanish imagination. It was presently demanded that Rome should take cognisance of the last years of the saintly penitence and give the hero recognition either by consecrating him or canonising the ijame. During fifty years the cause was heard, witnesses summoned and masses of facts laid before the authorities charged with such offices. In 1779, nearly a hundred years after the death, the congregation of ritee recognised the exemplary life of the convert and recommended the next step, but Spain was bankrupt from long wars and the apparition of the disturbances in France. Further steps in the sanctification of Don Juan were blocked by the removal of the documents in the case to Paris by Bonaparte. When the crabbed Latin and patois Spanish, in which his story is embedded, are translated the world may expect a very thrilling tale of the man whose name stands in all tongues as a synonym for youthful ardour, amorous adventure und daredevil disregard of the sanctities of domestic life.