Produced by David Moynihan, D Garcia, Charles Franks and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team. [Proofreader's Note: The scenes in Act III are misnumbered in the original, they are labeled I, II, III, VI, and VII. This has been retained in the text.] DON GARCIE DE NAVARRE; OU, LE PRINCE JALOUX. COMEDIE HÉROÏQUE EN CINQ ACTES. * * * * * DON GARCIA OF NAVARRE OR, THE JEALOUS PRINCE. A HEROIC COMEDY IN FIVE ACTS. (_THE ORIGINAL IN VERSE_.) INTRODUCTORY NOTICE. Nothing can be more unlike _The Pretentious Young Ladies_ or _Sganarelle_ than Molière's _Don Garcia of Navarre_. The Théâtre du Palais-Royal had opened on the 20th January, 1661, with _The Love-Tiff_ and _Sganarelle_, but as the young wife of Louis XIV., Maria Theresa, daughter of Philip IV., King of Spain, had only lately arrived, and as a taste for the Spanish drama appeared to spring up anew in France, Molière thought perhaps that a heroic comedy in that style might meet with some success, the more so as a company of Spanish actors had been performing in Paris the plays of Lope de Vega and Calderon, since the 24th of July, 1660. Therefore, he brought out, on the 4th of February, 1661, his new play of _Don Garcia of Navarre_. It is said that there exists a Spanish play of the same name, of which the author is unknown; Molière seems to have partly followed an Italian comedy, written by Giacinto Andrea Cicognini, under the name of _Le Gelosie fortunata del principe Rodrigo_; the style, loftiness and delicacy of expression are peculiar to the French dramatist. _Don Garcia of Navarre_ met with no favourable reception, though the author played the part of the hero. He withdrew it after five representations, but still did not think its condemnation final, for he played it again before the King on the 29th of September, 1662, in October, 1663, at Chantilly, and twice at Versailles. He attempted it anew on the theatre of the Palace-Royal in the month of November, 1663; but as it was everywhere unfavourably received, he resolved never to play it more, and even would not print it, for it was only published after his death in 1682. He inserted some parts of this comedy in the _Misanthrope_, the _Femmes Savantes_, _Amphitryon_, _Tartuffe_ and _Les Fâcheux, where they produced great effect.