This extravaganza was extraordinarily successful. In 1673 a second
version, with additions and new scenery ("Aggiunta al Convitato di
Pietra"), was announced.[95] The new Italian company of the Duke of
Orleans replaced the improvised "Convitato di Pietra" upon the stage in
1717, and it was revived in 1743.[96] This gave rise to a dispute with
the French actors, who were not willing to renounce their claim to so
taking a piece.[97] Dorimon first produced a translation of Giliberti's
piece with the title of "Le Festin de Pierre,[98] ou le Fils Criminel,"
at Lyons in 1658, when
{DON GIOVANNI.}
(152)
Louis XIV. met the Princess of Savoy there, and it was performed again
at the Théätre de la Rue des Quatre Vents, in Paris, during 1661. But
De Villiers had been beforehand with him here, having produced his
_tragi-comédie_ with the same title and almost verbal identity in 1659
at the theatre of the Hötel de Bourgogne.[99] Don Juan's afflicted
father, exposed to the insolence of his son and the mockery of the
servant, appears quite at the beginning of the piece. Afterwards Don
Juan changes clothes with his servant Philippin in order to elude
justice, robs a monk of his cowl, and in this disguise slays Don
Philippo (Ottavio), the lover of Amarillis (Donna Anna). After the
Commandant has supped with him and invited him, Don Juan again seduces a
newly married woman, and then repairs to the chapel, where he is struck
by lightning as he sits at table.
Molière did not neglect so promising a subject for the use of his
company, and his "Don Juan, ou le Festin de Pierre" was first performed
at the Palais-Royal on February 15, 1665. In contrast with the
buffoonery of the Italians he has tried to raise the subject into the
sphere of genuine comedy, and has thereby obliterated the last trace of
the national-historical character of the drama in its Spanish form. Both
sensual passion and chivalric boldness have disappeared. Molière's "Don
Juan" is a cold-blooded egotist in his love and his want of faith, an
enlightened rationalist, even when preserving his honour as a cavalier
with personal bravery; his servant Sganarelle reasons as morally as his
master immorally, but is quite as great an egotist, and a coward into
the bargain. The striking situations, in which the original was so rich,
are either merely related, as in the case of the seduction of Donna Anna
and the murder of the Commenda-tore, or they have lost all their lively
colouring by a new turn, as in the case of the adventures with the
fisher-girl and the peasant; everything that might shock or injure the
{MOLIÈRE'S "FESTIN DE PIERRE."}
(153)
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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