2°d S. N» 112., Fer. 20. '58.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



151 



DON JUAN. 



(2°<> S. V. 13. 56.) 



CuRiosus asks, " Where is the first representa- 

 tion of Do?i Juan ? " 



Assuming, I suppose, that the Querist meant 

 his question to take the following form: — "When 

 and where was Don Juan first represented ? " — 

 your correspondent, Delta, replies (p. 5Q^, 

 " Don Juan was by J. B. Poquelin de Moliere," 

 &c. &c. According to M. Bret, the latest and best 

 commentator on Moliere's plays, the Commedie 

 Don Juan, ou le Festin de Pierre, was first per- 

 formed at the Theatre du Palais Royal, in Paris, in 

 1665. But if CuRiosus intended to ask, — as seems 

 to me to be probable, — for information relative to 

 the time and place of the first performance of the 

 original Spanish drama, the subjoined account, 

 from the Preface to the Libretto, or book, of the 

 Opera of Don Giovanni, as given for the first time 

 in London in April, 1817, may perhaps be a satis- 

 factory answer to his inquiry : — 



" This drama was first represented on the stage at Ma- 

 drid as a comedy, under the title of El Burlador de 

 Sevilla, y Combidado de Piedra ( The Joker of Seville and 

 the Guest of Stone), early in the 17th century, by its 

 author, Gabriel Tellez. It was soon translated into Ita- 

 lian by Cicognini, and also by Giliberto, and performed 

 with so much success in that language, not only in Italy, 

 but even in Paris, that Molibre, being strongly solicited 

 by his company of comedians to write an imitation of it, 

 produced Le Festin de Pierre, a comedy in five acts, in 

 prose, which was first given in 1665. It was shortly 

 afterwards put into verse by T. Corneille, who added two 

 scenes, and thus it long continued to be performed on the 

 French stage. 



"In 1676, Shadwell, the poet-laureate, introduced the 

 subject into this country in his tragedy, TTie Libertine ; 

 but he drew his hero so wantonly and unboundedly 

 wicked that the piece, though written with vigour, was 

 soon laid aside, is now forgotten, and Don Juan only for 

 awhile appeared on the English stage in a pantomimic 

 form. 



" About the middle of the last century Goldoni added 

 one more to the list of dramas founded on the history of 

 the same licentious Spanish grandee, under the title of 

 L>on Giovanni, o sia, II Dissoluto. -In the preface to this 

 comedy he names Calderon della Barca as the author of 



the original piece He was probably misled and 



reduced to a conjecture by the disguised name under 

 which the comedy is printed in the Spanish editions. 



"This drama in its present state was written and 

 adapted for musical representation by Lorenzo da Ponte, 

 who was engaged for some time at Vienna, and afterwards 

 in London, in the poetical department of the Italian Opera 

 House. He arranged other operas for Mozart, and suc- 

 ceeded as well as could reasonably be expected, if the 

 difiiculties which a lyric poet has to encounter are duly 

 weighed in forming an estimate of his ability." 



It may not be irrelevant to add, for the farther 

 information of Curiosus, and indeed of all who 

 take any interest in an opera whose renown spread 

 far and wide from the day when it was so splen- 

 didly produced in London, to add a few particu- 



lars concerning the original drama, from the 

 Preface which has supplied most of the forego- 

 ing : — 



" Gabriel Tellez was one of the brethren of a religious 

 order in Spain, and is mentioned by Nicolas Antonio in 

 his Bibliotheca Hispana Nova as a poet, scholar, and 

 divine of the greatest merit. He wrote under the ficti- 

 tious name of Tyrso de Molina; but that this was only a 

 pseudonyme seems to have been unknown even to Voltaire, 

 who, in his Melanges de Litterature, ascribes the comedy 

 to the author under his assumed appellation. ' M. Bret, in 

 his Avertissement sur le Festin de Pierre, is betrayed into 

 the same mistake ; and both these critics write the name 

 Triso instead of Tyrso. In the Dictionnaire Raisonne de 

 Bibliologie is also another error respecting the Spanish 

 author ; he is there stated to have been a • Religieux 

 Italien.' Tellez died about the year 1650." 



The Preface from which are gathered the fore- 

 going particulars is signed W. A., the initials of 

 the Director of the Italian Opera in 1817, and 

 two subsequent seasons. He was enabled to gain 

 the necessary information concerning the literary 

 history of this Spanish comedy through the kind- 

 ness of the late Lord Holland, who, with that 

 liberality which was a marked feature in his cha- 

 racter, made his rare and valuable library at Hol- 

 land House available to the purpose. The Preface 

 was afterwards translated and printed in extenso 

 at Milan, St. Petersburg, and other places, but 

 without any acknowledgment of its English origin. 



Alfha. 



Athenaeum Club. 



GHOSTS and apparitions. 



(2"i S. V. 89.) 



The following extraordinary account of an ap- 

 parition may be of interest to your correspondent 

 Pixie, and amusing to the general readers of " N. 

 & Q." ; I lately met with it duly registered among 

 the records preserved in the Consistorial Court of 

 the diocese of Cork, when engaged in seeking for 

 information relative to the history of the cathedral 

 of St. Tinn-Barrs, and now send it verbatim from 

 the MS. as it was taken down and deposed before 

 the then Bishop of Cork, Dr. Edward Weten- 

 hall : — 



" An account given on examination by Mary Cudmore 

 of a Spectre or apparition which she saw several! times, 

 and particularly on thursday night being the second day 

 of May, 1689, between the hours of twelve and one of the 

 clock or thereabouts, as near as she can compute, in the 

 house of M''. John Pallfryman in Milstreet in Corke, the 

 s"! Mary Cudmore being a Serv'. in the family. 



" This same Spectre had formerly appeared to her & 

 told her that he was murdered, concerning w'=^ her exa- 

 minations, together w*'' the examinations of M^ Palfry- 

 man & his wife, were taken upon oath before the Mayor 

 of Cork, and the ground digged & bones found. But 

 on thursday night being May 2°''. 1689 (after much dis- 

 turbance w'='' for many nights before had been made in 

 the house) it again appeared to her as she lay awake in 

 her bed (a candle being lighted & burning in the cham- 

 ber) and making noe manney of noise nor disturbance i^ 



