of Don Juan Tenorio,[79] who invited to supper the statue of a warrior slain by him in a duel, and who, warned in vain to repent, was doomed to everlasting perdition, is of ancient origin or not, would be difficult to determine from the contradictory accounts given of it.[80] It is said to have been performed in monasteries from an early date, adapted by an unknown writer with the title of "El Ateista Fulminado:"[81] the first authentic dramatic version of the story being that by Gabriel Tellez, contemporary of Lope de Vega, monk and prior of a monastery in Madrid. His active ecclesiastical life did not prevent his acquiring, under the name of Tirso de Molina, an honourable place in Spanish literature as a dramatic poet.[82] His "Burlador de Sevilla y Convidado de Piedra" belongs, according to Schack, both in design and workmanship to his most fugitive pieces, but contains portions which could only have been written by a poet of the first rank.[83] The plot is briefly as follows:-- First Day [The scene is laid in Naples].--The Duchess Isabella is having a parting interview with her lover, Duke Ottavio, when she discovers that Don Juan has stolen into her apartment in Ottavio's stead. Her cries for assistance bring the King, who gives Don Juan into the custody of his uncle, Don Pedro Tenorio, the Spanish {TIRSO DE MOLINA'S "CONVIDADO DE PIEDRA."} (147) Ambassador; the latter, discovering his relationship with his prisoner, allows him to escape, and denounces Don Ottavio to the King as Isabella's seducer. Don Pedro is thereupon commanded to arrest Don Ottavio, to whom, however, he declares that a man having been found with Isabella, she reported him to be Ottavio; the lover believes himself to be deceived and betrayed, and Don Pedro connives at his escape. [Coast scene in Tarragona.] Catalinon, Don Juan's servant, bears his shipwrecked master lifeless to shore, where they are discovered by Tisbea, a fisher-girl; Don Juan awakes to consciousness upon her bosom, and they fall violently in love with each other.[84] Their love-making is interrupted by a scene in which the Commandant, Don Gonzalo de Ulloa gives Don Albeso, King of Castile, an account of his diplomatic mission to Portugal. Then the story returns to Tisbea, who is deceived and deserted by Don Juan, and left to her passion of despair.