The Italian dramatic company, who were naturalised in Paris at the theatre of the Hötel de Bourgogne, were accustomed to appoint one of their number to arrange the plan of the pieces which they performed, but the actual performance was improvised. In this fashion they played an improvised version of Giliberti's "Convitato di Pietra," which had an extraordinary run.[91] The chief situations of the Spanish drama, much simplified and coarsened, are compressed into five acts, and Arlecchino, who appears here as Don Juan's servant, is brought into the foreground and made the mouthpiece of a great deal of very questionable badinage:--
The first act represents Isabella's seduction in Naples. Don Pedro, her father and Don Juan's uncle, agrees with her to denounce Ottavio, her lover, as her seducer, which causes the latter to take flight.[92] In the second act Don Juan and Arlecchino swim to shore [a very favourite scene, richly garnished with jokes], and Don Juan's love passages with the lovely fisher-maiden Rosalba take place. On her claiming his promise of marriage, he mockingly refers her to Arlecchino, who unrolls the long list of his master's mistresses. It was customary to allow the end of the roll to fall, as if by chance, into the pit, and the audience delighted themselves by looking for the names of their friends or connections in the list. Rosalba, in despair, casts herself into the sea.[93]
The third act shows Ottavio in great favour at the court of Castile, on the point of marriage with Donna Anna. He is attended by Pantaloon, who carries on the usual by-play with Arlecchino. Don Juan intercepts the letter in which Donna Anna summons Ottavio, steals in to her, Arlecchino keeping watch outside, and slays the Commandant, her father, who surprises them. In the fourth act Donna Anna demands justice from the King; a reward of 6,000 thalers is placed upon the head of the murderer, and Arlecchino is greatly tempted to gain it, which gives rise to much jesting between him and Pantaloon. In the fifth act Don Juan is discovered before the statue of the Commandant, which he mocks. Arlecchino is made to invite it to supper, whereupon it nods, and, upon Don Juan's repetition of the invitation, answers him in words. Don Juan's supper gives opportunity for much comic display of greediness and cunning on the part of Arlecchino, continuing even after the appearance of the Commandant, who invites Don Juan and departs. The King, made acquainted with Don Juan's crimes, commands him to be seized and brought to justice. Before escaping he keeps his appointment with the Commandant in the church, and is dragged below by the spectre. The closing tableau shows Don Juan burning in hell, and expressing his torment and his remorse:--