Don Juan Tenorio
Don Juan Tenorio is José Zorrilla's romantic drama set in sixteenth-century Seville, opening amid Carnival as the notorious libertine Don Juan finishes a letter in Buttarelli's inn. He and his rival Don Luis Mejía have wagered who can do more harm in a year, tallying seductions and duels. Don Juan boasts of conquering a novice, the convent-bound Doña Inés, and abducts her from her cloister. But where legend always damned him, Zorrilla swerves: Inés genuinely loves him, and after Don Juan kills her father and flees, her pure devotion reaches beyond the grave to plead for his soul, offering a chance at redemption in his final hour.
Written in 1844, the play became Spain's most beloved Romantic verse drama, traditionally staged every All Souls' season. Its themes—reckless honor, defiance of God and society, and above all the redemptive power of love—transform the cynical seducer of earlier Don Juan tales into a figure capable of grace. Zorrilla's swift, musical octosyllables and theatrical spectacle keep it perennially alive on the Spanish stage.
How it begins
The Inn of Cristófano Buttarelli. A door at the back leads out to the street: tables, jugs and other utensils appropriate for such a place. ESCENA PRIMERA SCENE I (Don Juan, con antifaz, sentado a una mesa escribiendo. Buttarelli y Ciutti, a un lado esperando. Al levantarse el telón, se ven pasar por la puerta del fondo máscaras, estudiantes y pueblo con hachones, músicas, etc.) (Don Juan, masked, seated at a table, writing. Buttarelli and Ciutti, to one side, waiting. As the curtain rises, in the background one can see through the door at the back people wearing masks, students, people with torches, musicians, etc.) DON JUAN: ¡Cuál gritan esos malditos! How they shout those devils! Pero ¡mal rayo me parta Let me be damned by forked lightning si, en concluyendo la carta , if when this letter I’m writing no pagan caros sus gritos! is done, I don’t end their revels! (Sigue escribiendo.) (He continues writing.) BUTTARELLI: (¡A Ciutti.) (To Ciutti) Buen carnaval. A good Carnival. CIUTTI: (A Buttarelli.) (To Buttarelli) Buen agosto A good harvest para rellenar la arquilla. for re-filling the coffers. BUTTARELLI: ¡Quiá! Corre ahora por Sevilla Hey! No fun and plenty of bother poco gusto y mucho mosto. running around in Seville’s dust.
Text from Project Gutenberg, public domain.