He could also have become acquainted with the legend through Shadwell's play or through Molière's Don Juan play, The Banquet of Stone, or through Carlo Goldoni's play, Don Juan Tenono, or through Mozart. In Byron's day a pantomime based on the Restoration dramatist Thomas Shadwell's Don Juan play, The Libertine, was frequently presented on the London stage. I'll therefore take our ancient friend Don Juan. In the first stanza of Canto I he writes: How Byron became acquainted with the Don Juan legend is not known, but it would have been impossible for a well-read poet like Byron not to have become acquainted with it. Readers and lovers of the theater seem to be fascinated by the theme of the "lady-killer." The bibliography of the Don Juan theme fills a whole volume. Few other literary characters approach Don Juan in popularity. Mozart's Don Giovanni is an example of the use of the Don Juan character in opera. The character of the unscrupulous seducer became a favorite with later writers, and of all literary characters Don Juan is the one who is most used, in plays, in pantomimes, and in narrative verse. The character of Don Juan was contributed to world literature by the Spanish writer Gabriel Tellez (1584-1648), whose pen name was Tirso de Molina, in his play El Burlador & Sevilla ( The Rogue of Seville), which appeared in the early 1630s.
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