[195] The Monks, and the Giants, III., 59.
[196] Eichler’s Frere, 184.
[197] In his Studies in Poetry and Criticism (London, 1905), Churton Collins pointed out Byron’s indebtedness to Casti, but mentioned only Casti’s Novelle. See Collins’s volume, pp. 96–98.
[198] Eichler’s Frere, 163.
[199] Letters, iv., 217.
[200] Born in 1721 in Italy, Casti had been a precocious student at the seminary of Montefiascone, where he became Professor of Literature at the age of sixteen. In 1764 he moved, with the musician, Guarducci, to Florence, where he was created Poeta di Corte by the Grand Duke Leopold. Here he came to the attention of Joseph II., who invited him to Vienna and bestowed upon him several posts of honor. A lucky friendship with Count Kaunitz enabled him to visit most of the capitals of Europe in company with that Prime Minister’s son, and he gained in this way an inside knowledge of court life in several countries. In 1778 he took up his residence in St. Petersburg, where Catharine II. received him cordially. Later he returned to Vienna and was crowned Court Poet by the Emperor Leopold. The attraction of the French Revolution drew him to Paris in 1796, where he lived until his death, February 16, 1804.
[201] Quarterly Review, April, 1819.
[202] Churton Collins, however, makes the statement that “Don Juan is full of reminiscences of the Novelle,” and points out definite parallelisms between Novella IV., La Diavolessa, and the plot of Don Juan. He adds: “To Casti, then, undoubtedly belongs the honour of having suggested and furnished Byron with a model for Don Juan.” (Studies in Poetry and Criticism, pp. 97–98.) It seems probable, however, that Byron took even more from Il Poema Tartaro than he did from the Novelle. Casti’s Gli Animali Parlanti and Il Poema Tartaro are not mentioned in Collins’s study.
[203] To this work Byron refers in a letter to Murray, March 25, 1818: “Rose’s Animali I never saw till a few days ago,—they are excellent.” (Letters, iv., 217.)
[204] Gli Animali Parlanti, VII., 6 ff.