Don Juan, who is so well known to us from literary and musical works, an insidious seducer, a destroyer of families, a seeker of pleasures and adventures, impudent and brave - had at least 2 real prototypes, the historian S. Pervushin believes.
The legend of Don Juan (although Don Juan's name sounds exactly like that) owes its appearance and existence, paradoxically as it may sound, to the Spanish clergy. It was necessary to maintain among the people the belief in the inevitability of punishment for sins: it is not only after death that those who violate God's commandments are thrown into hell. This can happen earlier, if the avenging hand of the Lord overtakes the one who has exceeded the measure of mortal sins.
“Here is death that satisfies everyone and everyone. Offended Heaven, abused laws, deceived girls, broken families, disgraced parents, depraved wives, ridiculed husbands - everyone should be happy. A terrible punishment for godlessness is the end of the legend.
To understand everything, let us turn to historical documents. Don Juan lived in the XIV century, during the time of the King of Castile, Pedro the Cruel, colloquially called Don Pedro.
Don Juan was born in Seville. His father Alonso Tenorio under King Alfonso XII was famous as a battle admiral who won many victories in battles with the Moors. He died heroically during a naval battle near Trafalgar with a sword in one and a banner in the other hand. After his death, he left the unfortunate widow Elvira with four children.
The youngest of them, João, was a peer and childhood friend of the Infante, who would eventually become King Pedro the Cruel.
On coming to power in 1350, the king appointed Don Juan's older brother, Alonso, as alguasil in Toledo. The second brother, Garcia, supported the king's brother, Henry, and therefore he was subsequently executed. Teresa, Don Juan's sister, lived in the ancestral palace, which the Tenorio had taken as spoils of war after the Moors were driven out of Seville. Don Juan, in his unbridled disposition and desire for love adventures, very similar to King Don Pedro, was on friendly terms with him.
Don Pedro's mistress was the famous Maria Padilla, who was a close relative of Don Juan.
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The adventures of the king and his friend served as constant food for gossip at court.
The beauties' husbands, their fathers and mothers were in anxiety all the time. It was then that a list of the victims of Don Juan's passion began to be drawn up, eventually documented by the diligence of corrosive historiographers.
Not only young and inexperienced Sevillian women, but also the wives of fairly well-born nobles fell into Don Juan's arms. The beauties simply did not imagine that it was possible to resist his spell. Many kidnappings and duels got away with him thanks to his friendship with the king.
Once Don Juan planned to kidnap the daughter of Commander Gonzalo Ulloa. Gold and his own dexterity helped him get into the house, get into Donna Anna's room. Father suddenly entered there. The quarrel turned into a fight, and the commander was killed. Don Juan, realizing the seriousness of what had happened, left Seville for a while.
The commander was buried in the monastery of St. Francis, in the family crypt. The relatives of the murdered man, despite their hatred of the murderer, did not dare to bring him to trial or complain to the king, knowing that he would not be on their side. They harbored a thirst for revenge and decided to wait for a better opportunity. It is not known how long they would have had to wait if the Franciscan monks had not helped. They sent Don Juan a love letter on behalf of the beauty and made an appointment with him at night in the monastery. This is supposedly less dangerous than trying to sneak into her home in Seville.
Don Juan, of course, was well aware of the danger he was exposed to in this monastery, but nevertheless he went there at the appointed hour. And he never returned from there …
The monks sprinkled blood on the statue of the commander, erected on his grave, and spread the rumor that Don Giovanni entered the tomb at night with the intention of desecrating the marble statue, but she came to life, seized the wicked and threw him into hell. No pious Spaniard, of course, would dare to doubt the truth of this story. And that was the end of the brilliant epic of Don Juan's victories in the battles of love, a series of adventures, deaths and trampled destinies …
The chapel with the statue of the commander died in a fire in the middle of the 18th century. But in the 19th century, in Seville, near Alameda Vieja, tourists were shown a dilapidated statue that Don Juan was supposedly going to offend. The Spaniards named her "The Stone Guest".
In Spain, folk traditions and customs associated with Don Juan have survived to this day. And now tourists are shown a house in Seville where he indulged in debauchery and where he was strangled by the devil in the end. This house is located on the Plaza de la Feria and has been owned by the count's family of Montijo y Teba for 200 years. Most of it is preserved in the form that it was under Don Juan, but the owners do not let tourists inside. In city cafes and rural taverns, sentimental romances are often sung about the "endless lover," whose brilliant life was cut short so tragically; about the inconsolable lovers, who have retained until their last breath the memories of Don Juan's ardent kissing; about the inevitability of retribution for violation of the biblical commandment …
Lewaldez in the Letters of Madrid said: “We know that Don Juan of Mozart, Moliere and Byron comes from Spain, but few can probably imagine that the memory of his deeds is so deeply rooted in the people. Every year on Shrove Tuesday, a procession of many thousands is organized, during which they carry the image of Don Juan, dressed in all white, kneeling on a white pillow. First, they carry him around the square where the bullfight takes place, and then they carry him to the Prado. This must mean that the famous Sevillian sinner did not have time to repent during his lifetime and only now is doing it publicly.
Another ceremony is held on Wednesday in the first week of Lent. Don Juan, dressed all in black, with his legs tied, is laid on his back on a stretcher. A sausage is put into his folded hands. A huge crowd of people and clergy with lighted candles march behind the stretcher. The procession is advancing with great pomp to a distant suburb, where banquet tables have already been laid on the bank of the canal.
There Don Juan is resurrected and the fun begins. This ceremony is called "enterrar la Sardina" ("burial of a sausage"). Experts say that in the hands of a famous lover there is a “sinful male nature” imitated by a sausage. But ordinary Spaniards, to my question, what this custom means, answered: "It is so accepted here", or simply: "Because!""
But experts clarify that this custom refers to another folk hero, Don Juan de Marane. He, like Tenorio, became famous in those days for his love affairs, instilling fear in virtuous husbands and fathers of families, but ended his legendary predecessor somewhat differently.
Going one night on a love meeting with a certain lady who wants to decorate her husband's forehead with branchy horns, he met a funeral procession in a back alley. Hooded monks silently carried the luxurious coffin. Others walked with lighted candles.
The wrong time for burial, the gloomy solemnity of the procession attracted Don Juan's attention and he asked one of the monks: "Who is being buried?" - "The great sinner and libertine Don Juan de Maranho." - "So he is already there, in the coffin?" “Not yet, but soon he will be there,” replied the monk. All this had such an effect on the young rake that he immediately, without going home, went to the monastery. By strict fasting and long prayers, he atoned for his countless sins.
For a long time, the legend of Don Juan Tenorio remained almost unknown outside Spain, where it was preserved only in oral tradition. But this curious plot did not penetrate into written literature. He owes his fame, oddly enough, to a clergyman.
Gabriel Telles, better known as Tirso de Molina, a monk and writer, was the first to use Don Juan's story for his drama The Seducer of Seville. Another trip on business of the monastic brotherhood brought him to Seville, to the very monastery of the Franciscans, where the great sinner ended his days.
There he heard the story of the monks, then got acquainted with the entries in the chronicles. But he did not limit himself to this - he collected folk legends, talked with the descendants of clans, whom Don Juan inflicted grave offenses with his violent temperament; I also got to some documents that remained hitherto unknown.
All these impressions inspired Tirso de Molina to create a drama far ahead of the plays of those times. He was a contemporary of Lope de Vega and a talented predecessor of Calderon and Shakespeare.
Unfortunately, it is now almost forgotten. Monastic life, of course, was reflected in his plays. He seems ponderous and old-fashioned, but if we approach his dramas without prejudice, we will find in them a deep understanding of life and human characters; many of the author's thoughts are in tune with our time. The canvas of actual events is fully transmitted. Don Juan's father, trying to distract him from his dissolute life, sends his son to Naples to his uncle, an envoy to the royal court there. But this only gives his adventures, so to speak, international character, increasing the long series of love victories.
Shortly after arriving in Naples, Don Juan falls in love with the Duchess Isabella. Having stolen the cloak of Octavio, her fiancé, our hero enters Isabella's chambers at night. Alas, she recognizes Don Juan by his voice and screams loudly. The King and Octavio arrive. The angry king orders to give Don Juan to his uncle, so that he will punish him approximately. He is ready to bring the dissolute nephew to justice, but he manages to avoid the claws of justice and escape to Spain. All these twists and turns took place in life.
He is accompanied by the faithful servant of Catalina, the prototype of the future Sganarelle and Leporello, smart but cowardly, dodging by any means the risky assignments of his master and reading him morality on occasion.
Further in the drama - a romantic insert (though based on one of the legends about the great seducer): the ship wrecks off the coast of Spain, the fugitives were saved, and the fisherwoman Tizbeya falls in love with Don Juan, who is unconscious. Having come to himself, admired by the beauty of the girl, he remains true to himself: he tells her about his crazy love, quickly takes possession of her and runs away to Seville. The unhappy woman throws herself into the waves, but they manage to save her.
Returning to Seville, Don Juan continues his romantic adventures and meets with a longtime friend, the Marquis de la Mota, who praises his bride, Donna Anna. Don Juan is annoyed by the marquis who has taken "the right path" - he decides to take his bride away from him.
By chance, Don Juan got a letter in which Anna made an appointment with the Marquis. Arriving there, the insidious seducer unexpectedly meets her father, Commander Don Alonso, who draws out his sword to protect his daughter. In a short fight, Don Juan mortally wounds the commander. When they want to capture him, he dumps the blame on de la Mota, who came to the date with a delay and found himself at the body of the murdered when the guards appeared.
Don Juan's crimes begin to be revealed, and his victims decide to act against him together. First, Isabella comes to Seville, and the king of Spain offers Don Juan to marry her, thereby restoring her outraged honor. Having met her, he falls in love again and is ready to end his stormy life with a legal marriage.
Suddenly, the commander comes to Don Juan's feast and takes his word that he, in turn, will come to him.
On the appointed night, Don Juan appears in the church, groping his way forward, until he stumbles upon a statue that has come out to meet him. After the "grave" supper, to which no one has touched, retribution comes. The stone master takes Don Juan by the hand and drags him along. The desperate hidalgo grabs his sword and tries to stab the commander a second time. The blade only pierces the air. Don Juan turns to God, swears that Donna Anna's honor was not tarnished, and demands a confessor. Late: the earth opens up and both fall into hell.
In the documents of those times, there are sometimes passages that are surprising for us. The chronicler Guido de Bonifacio witnessed Don Giovanni's brief stay in Naples.
Returning to his native Palermo, Guido writes rather freely about a series of “exploits for the glory of Venus”: “Through the efforts of angry fathers, some saddened girls very quickly acquired husbands. Soon, adorable offspring will appear in their families, and although no one dares to call them bastards, the Tenorio family will continue in the Kingdom of Naples.
This hidalgo is noble and brave, has a pleasant face and, if it were not for his adherence to carnal sin, he would be a welcome husband and father in any family. His death was predetermined from above. Death in the arms of a stone statue for unbridled multi-sin is a warning for other violators of God's Commandments."
Despite the viciousness of his nature and endless selfishness, Don Juan is still one of the most popular heroes of the past. Almost four centuries ago, his name was first heard throughout Europe in a play by a pious monk and has since become a household name. His image was repeated in many literary and musical works.
At the end of the 18th century, a letter was found in the archives of the Diocese of Salamanca, which mentions Tirso de Molina ("brother Gabriel"). There is no date, but from the content it is possible to assume that it was written in the 40s of that century, when the "Seville Seducer" became widely known in Europe.
Cartagena de Almeida, licentiate of Cordoba, visited Seville 50 years after the death of Don Juan. Among his memories of this journey, a record was found in 1522 concerning subsequent events. She remained almost unknown until the time of Tirso de Molina, who found her in the collection of manuscripts of a certain noble family. But she did not attract the attention of an inquisitive monk, because she did not fit into the plot of his story about Don Juan. These memories were re-brought to light only at the end of the 17th century.
De Almeida visited the monastery of St. Francis, and one of the monks, in a confidential conversation, under great secrecy, said where the ashes of the legendary seducer, whose soul was plunged into hell, rest. The monk showed him a grave mound without a tombstone in the depths of the monastery garden outside the walls of the monastery. He also explained that the devil took away the soul of the sinful hidalgo, having moved into the statue of the commander, and threw the mortal body at the tomb.
Don Juan sold his soul long ago, but he was in no hurry to fulfill his promise and found more and more evasions. In addition, he managed to carry on himself the relic of Saint Iago of Compostela. One of Don Juan's lovers, dying in his arms from a fatal wound inflicted by a jealous husband, made the seducer swear that until his death he would not part with the relic that she put around his neck with weakening hands. Don Juan complained to his servant that the incense burns him all the time like red-hot metal. Attributing this to his sinfulness, he did not break the word given to the dying woman.
The monks decided to bury Don Juan in secret. One of the monks saw a chain on the dead man's neck and wanted to remove it so as not to leave the sacred relic in the sinner's grave. But with a cry he pulled back his hand - the chain was red-hot. Another monk decided to remove it using a branch, but the prior forbade it. The relic remained on the wicked's chest.
Some of Don Juan's mistresses, having spent a lot of money on bribery, were able to find out where he was buried. They came to sob inconsolably, brought flowers to his grave. The power of sin was such that the flowers quickly crumbled to dust.
And then came the age-old oblivion (incomplete, because Don Juan continued to live in folk tales and romances), the chronicles are hidden under lock and key, the inconsolable lovers gradually left for another world, they were followed (or outstripped) by their parents and unvenged husbands and suitors. It took the curiosity of an unusual monk, his luck in his search, the talent of a playwright - and before admiring readers and spectators Don Juan was resurrected. Full of life, thirst for sensual pleasures, unbridled courage, sophisticated cunning.
When he confesses his love - this feeling is strong, true for the moment, passionate, and therefore his next victims so violently respond to his call. But disappointment sets in just as quickly: today's chosen one no longer attracts more, he strives for another, new one, hoping to find in her that ideal to which he is in vain striving.
It is not for nothing that in Pushkin's work Don Juan recalls Anna in the last moments of his life - the one to whom he strove all his life, he strove, in vain wasting spiritual forces in a kaleidoscope of love adventures.
N. Nepomniachtchi
