Don Garcia of Navarre

Don Garcia of Navarre

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Title: Don Garcia of Navarre
Author: Moliere
Release Date: October, 2004 [EBook #6740] [Yes, we are more than
one year ahead of schedule] [This file was first posted on January 20,
2003]
Edition: 10

Language: English
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*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK DON
GARCIA OF NAVARRE ***

Produced by David Moynihan, D Garcia, Charles Franks and the
Online Distributed Proofreading Team.

[Proofreader's Note: The scenes in Act III are misnumbered in the
original, they are labeled I, II, III, VI, and VII. This has been retained
in the text.]

DON GARCIE DE NAVARRE;
OU,
LE PRINCE JALOUX.
COMEDIE HÉROÏQUE EN CINQ ACTES.
* * * * *
DON GARCIA OF NAVARRE
OR,
THE JEALOUS PRINCE.
A HEROIC COMEDY IN FIVE ACTS.
(THE ORIGINAL IN VERSE.)

INTRODUCTORY NOTICE.
Nothing can be more unlike The Pretentious Young Ladies or
Sganarelle than Molière's Don Garcia of Navarre. The Théâtre du
Palais-Royal had opened on the 20th January, 1661, with _The
Love-Tiff_ and Sganarelle, but as the young wife of Louis XIV., Maria
Theresa, daughter of Philip IV., King of Spain, had only lately arrived,
and as a taste for the Spanish drama appeared to spring up anew in
France, Molière thought perhaps that a heroic comedy in that style
might meet with some success, the more so as a company of Spanish
actors had been performing in Paris the plays of Lope de Vega and
Calderon, since the 24th of July, 1660. Therefore, he brought out, on
the 4th of February, 1661, his new play of Don Garcia of Navarre. It is
said that there exists a Spanish play of the same name, of which the
author is unknown; Molière seems to have partly followed an Italian
comedy, written by Giacinto Andrea Cicognini, under the name of _Le
Gelosie fortunata del principe Rodrigo_; the style, loftiness and
delicacy of expression are peculiar to the French dramatist.
Don Garcia of Navarre met with no favourable reception, though the
author played the part of the hero. He withdrew it after five
representations, but still did not think its condemnation final, for he
played it again before the King on the 29th of September, 1662, in
October, 1663, at Chantilly, and twice at Versailles. He attempted it
anew on the theatre of the Palace-Royal in the month of November,
1663; but as it was everywhere unfavourably received, he resolved
never to play it more, and even would not print it, for it was only
published after his death in 1682. He inserted some parts of this
comedy in the Misanthrope, the Femmes Savantes, Amphitryon,
Tartuffe and _Les Fâcheux, where they produced great effect.
Though it has not gained a place on the French stage, it nevertheless
possesses some fine passages. Molière wished to create a counterpart of
Sganarelle, the type of ridiculous jealousy, and to delineate passionate
jealousy, its doubts, fears, perplexities and anxieties, and in this he has
succeeded admirably. However noble-minded Don Garcia may be,
there rages within his soul a mean passion which tortures and degrades

him incessantly. When at last he is banished from the presence of the
fair object of his love, he resolves to brave death by devoting himself to
the destruction of her foe; but he is forestalled by his presumed rival,
Don Alphonso, who turns out to be the brother of his mistress, and she
receives him once again and for ever in her favour. The delineation of
all these passions is too fine-spun, too argumentative to please the
general public; the style is sometimes stilted, yet passages of great
beauty may be found in it. Moreover the jealousy expressed by Don
Garcia is neither sufficiently terrible to frighten, nor ridiculous enough
to amuse the audience; he always speaks and acts as a