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146 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1665
SGANARELLE
(...)I know my Don Juan inside and out, and I know that your heart is the most restless thing in the world; it likes to slither from one sacred bond to another, and it can't bear to settle in one place.
DON JUAN
And have I a right, do you think, to behave that way?
SGANARELLE
Well, Sir....
DON JUAN
What? Go on.
SGANARELLE
Certainly it's your right, if you insist one wouldn't dare contradict you. But if you
didn't insist, one might answer otherwise.
SGANARELLE
(...)just to prepare you for the worst, I tell you inter nos that the person you've known as Don Juan, my master, is the greatest scoundrel who ever walked the earth, a mad dog, a demon, a Turk, a heretic who doesn't believe in Heaven, or Hell, or werewolves even. He lives like a brute beast, an Epicurean
swine, an absolute Sardanapalus, closing his ears to all reproaches and treating all our noblest credences as nonsense.
DON JUAN
It's a delicious thing to subdue the heart of some young beauty by a hundred sweet attentions; to see yourself making some small progress with her every day; to combat her modest innocence, and her reluctance to surrender, with tears and sighs and rapturous
speeches; to break through all her little defenses, one by one; to vanquish her cherished scruples, and gently bring her round to granting your desires. But once
one is the master, there's nothing more to say or wish for: the joy of passionate pursuit is over, and all that remains is the boredom of a placid affection—until some new beauty appears and revives one's desires, enchanting the heart with the prospect of a new conquest (...).Nothing can withstand the
impetuousness of my desires: I feel my heart capable of loving all the earth; and, like Alexander, I wish that there were still more worlds in which to wage my amorous campaigns.
SGANARELLE
What! You still don't believe in anything at all, and yet you intend to pose as a pious, right-thinking man?
DON JUAN
Why not? There are plenty of others who play that game, and who wear the same mask as I to deceive the world.
SGANARELLE
Oh, what a man! What a man!
DON JUAN
It's no longer shameful to be a dissembler, hypocrisy is now a fashionable vice, and all fashionable vices pass for virtues. The part of God-fearing man is the best possible role to play nowadays, and in our present society the hypocrite's profession has extraordinary advantages. It's an art whose dishonesty always goes unchallenged; even if the whole world sees through the imposture, no one
dares denounce it.
DON JUAN
Come, now, let's give no thought to the bad things that might happen to us; let's think only of what might bring us pleasure.
DONA ELVIRA
I tell you once again, faithless man, that Heaven will punish you for the wrong you've done me; and if you have no fear of Heaven,
fear at least the anger of an outraged woman.
SGANARELLE
Oh! My back wages! What about my wages? My master's death gives satisfaction to everyone: the Heaven he offended, the girls he ruined, the families he dishonored, the laws he broke, the parents he outraged, the wives he led astray, the husbands he drove to despair—they're all well pleased. I'm the only
one who's unhappy. Alas, my wages! My wages! Who'll pay me my wages?
-critique de l’hypocrisie, comme dans , avec la duplicité enjôleuse de Dom Juan avec les femmes et avec monsieur Dimanche,
-critique de la bigoterie et des faux dévots comme dans le , avec le faux repentir du héros,
-critique d’une noblesse usurpée car non fondée sur la vertu, comme dans , avec la tirade du père de Don Juan Tenorio et les remontrances du valet,
-critique de la médecine ignorante et imbue de principes faux, comme dans ou le , avec les sottises de Sganarelle,
-critique de la pédanterie et des abus de la rhétorique, comme dans ou la , avec les beaux discours paradoxaux de Dom Juan, et les raisonnement stupides du valet,
-critique du mariage, comme dans , avec cette promesse qui parvient à vaincre curieusement toutes les résistances, tous les dégoûts et toutes les prudences.