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Don Juan in a French Play of 1630
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 December 2020
Extract
None of the numerous studies devoted to the Don Juan tradition mention a French play of 1630 which contains certain of its elements and is earlier in date than any other extant French or Italian version, as early, indeed, as the printed Burlador itself. This striking fact deserves, I think, some consideration. Let us see first what is the prevailing opinion with regard to the origin and early history of the Don Juan legend, then what place in the list of versions should be assigned to this French play, and finally what confirmation or modification of the present theory may be deduced from the fact of its existence.
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- Research Article
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- Copyright © Modern Language Association of America, 1923
References
1 Cf. Gendarme de Bévotte, la Légende de Don Juan, Paris, Hachette, 1906 and the books referred to in his bibliography, pp. 517-521; T. Schröder, “Die Dramatischen Bearbeitungen der Don Juan-Sage,” Z. R. Ph., XXXVI Heft, 1912; Said Armesto, la Leyenda de Don Juan, Madrid, sucesores de Hernando, 1908.
2 J. E. Gillet in “Cueva's ‘Comedia del Infamador’ and the Don Juan Legend,” M. L. N., 1922, pp. 206-212, shows that “there are in the play, even though not in the character of Leucino, certain traits which announce . . . the Burlador.”
3 Chiefly known as the author of a pastoral called la Climène, published in 1629 and imitated from the Isabelle of Paul Ferri. Cf. the Bibl. dram. de M. de Soleinne, no. 1034 and M. Marsan, la Pastorale dramatique, Paris, 1905, p. 342. For La Croix cf. R. Toinet, la Climène et les poésies diverses du sieur de la Croix, Tulle, Crauffon, 1898; on p. 21 he states that he has never read l'Inconstance punie.
4 The meter changes with every scene in a manner that suggests foreign influence. It may be indicated as follows, the figures within parentheses indicating the number of syllables in the lines and the letters the rime scheme for each scene: I, 1 (12 aabccb), 2 (12 abab), 3 (12 abbc, 6 c, 12 b); II, 1 (12 aabb), 2 (12 aa, 8 b, 12 c, 8 b, 12 c); III, 1 (8 ababccdede), 2 (8 abab, 12 cdc, 8 d); IV, 1 (12 aabb), 2 (12 a, 6 a, 12 bc, 6 c, 12 b); V, 1 (12 a, 6 b, 12 ab), 2 (8 aa, 12 b, 8 cc, 12 b), 3 (8 aa, 12 b, 8 cc, 12 b), 4, Melanie's first two speeches (8 abab, 12 cdc, 6 d), Calirie's first speech (8 aabcbcbc, 12 dd), the rest in Alexandrine couplets except the four lines uttered by the supernatural voice (12 aba, 6 b). This scheme makes it evident that Corneille's Agésilas is not the first example in French of a five act play written in varied meters, whatever Voltaire and M. Pierre Louys may have said to the contrary.
5 The only copy of the first edition known to me is at the Bibliothèque de l'Arsenal. There is a copy of the second edition at Harvard.
6 III, 1.
7 IV, 1.
8 V, 4.
9 Cf. Brander Matthews, French Dramatists of the Nineteenth Century, New York, Scribner, 1901, p. 142.
10 Cf. the Tisbea episode in the Burlador, I, 10 ff.
11 Cf. the Aminta episode, ibid., III, 5, 7.
12 Cf. the death of Don Gonzalo, ibid., II, 13.
13 Notice La Croix's lack of originality as shown in la Climène and in his imitation of the Astrée in l'Inconstance punie.
14 Op. cit., p. 66.
15 T. Schröder, op. cit., pp. 209, 210.
16 Op. cit., pp. 67-74.
17 Op. cit., pp. 49, 102.
18 “And I have been told by a worthy Gentleman, that many Years agone (when first a Play was made upon this Story in Italy) he has seen it acted there by the Name of Atheisto [sic] Fulminato, in Churches on Sundays, as a Part of Devotion.” Cf. Works of Thomas Shadwell, London, Knapton and Tonson, 1720, II, 87, 88.
19 Op. cit., pp. 77 ff., III, 170, 191, 203.
20 Clarimant is not an atheist, for he calls on the gods in the earlier part of the play, but at the end, just before he is struck by lightning, he denies their power in a way that may have been suggested by l'Ateista Fulminato.
21 Op. cit., pp. 96, 97.
22 Op. cit., pp. 80, 81.