Popular Culture Review Vol. 1, December 1989 | Page 7

THE HUMOROUS DON JUAN IN
POPULAR LITERATURE
At first thought, the idea of humor, at least in the traditional
Don Juan legend, seems strange. What could be humorous about
a vile seducer who misuses women, mocks his king, his father, the
norms of their society, and tempts even God himself? When the
probable author of the first Don Juan play — Tirso de Molina (El
burlador de Sevilla,uThe Playboy of Seville”), circa 1620 —
constructed the legend as we know it today, seducing women may
have been considered a more venial sin than feminists rightly
would call it today, but the act was not arguably laudable, and
mocking king, father, society, and God was definitely a serious,
risky business. As for pulling statues’ beards or otherwise demean
ing the dead, all that could be expected to provoke dire conse
quences. Even moral Christian I-told-you-so’s should scarcely be
laughing, whatever their opinion of the miscreant’s character. Yet,
there are a good number of laughable incidents in this play, despite
its being penned by a Spanish priest o f H