ABSTRACT
El Burlador de Sevilla , written by a monk, Gabriel Téllez, under the pen-name of Tirso de Molina and first published in Barcelona in 1630, is the earliest complete surviving play on the subject of Don Juan Tenorio. The work begins with Don Juan’s seduction of Isabela, achieved through the ruse of pretending to be her betrothed, Don Octavio. Don Juan escapes. Tirso’s Don Juan is an insatiable womanizer who relies on deceit as much as on charm or persuasion. Indeed, the title of the play means ‘the Trickster of Seville’. Don Juan is accompanied on his adventures by his servant, Catalinón, who is an earthy and commonsensical character, sharing neither the vices nor the virtue of his master. By the middle of the seventeenth century, the Don Juan theme had been taken into the repertoire of the commedia.
