Giovan´ni

( Don ), a Spanish libertine of the aristocratic cla . His valet, Leporello, says, “He had 700 mistre es in Italy, 800 in Germany, 91 in France and Turkey, and 1003 in Spain.” When the measure of his iniquity was full, a legion of foul fiends carried him off to the devouring gulf.—Mozart’s opera, Don Giovanni (1787). (The libretto of this opera is by Lorenzo da Ponte). ⁂ The origin of this character was Don Juan Teno´rio, of Seville, who lived in the fourteenth century. The traditions concerning him were dramatized by Tirso de Mo´lin a; thence pa ed into Italy and France. Glück has a musical ballad called Don Juan (1765); Molière, a comedy on the same subject (1665); and Thomas Corneille (brother of the Grand Corneille ) brought out, in 1673, a comedy on the same subject, called Le Festin de Pierre , which is the second title of Molière’s Don Juan . Gold on i, called “The Italian Molière,” has also a comedy on the same favorite hero.