shed July 15; Cantos IX., X., XI, August 29; Cantos
XII., XIII., XIV., December 17, 1823; and, finally, Cantos XV., XVI.,
March 26, 1824. The composition of _Don Juan_, considered as a whole,
synchronized with the composition of all the dramas (except _Manfred_)
and the following poems: _The Prophecy of Dante_, (the translation of)
_The Morgante Maggiore, The Vision of Judgment, The Age of Bronze_, and
_The Island_.

There is little to be said with regard to the "Sources" of _Don Juan_.
Frere's _Whistlecraft_ had suggested _Beppo_, and, at the same time, had
prompted and provoked a sympathetic study of Frere's Italian models,
Berni and Pulci (see "Introduction to _Beppo_," _Poetical Works_, 1901,
iv. 155-158; and "Introduction to _The Morgante Maggiore_" ibid., pp.
279-281); and, again, the success of _Beppo_, and, still more, a sense
of inspiration and the conviction that he had found the path to
excellence, suggested another essay of the _ottava rima_, a humorous
poem "_a la Beppo_" on a larger and more important scale. If Byron
possessed more than a superficial knowledge of the legendary "Don Juan,"
he was irresponsive and unimpressed. He speaks (letter to Murray,
February 16, 1821) of "the Spanish tradition;" but there is nothing to
show that he had read or heard of Tirso de Molina's (Gabriel Tellez) _El
Burlador de Sevilla y Convidado de Piedra_ (_The Deceiver of Seville and
the Stone Guest_), 1626, which dramatized the "ower true tale" of the
actual Don Juan Tenorio; or that he was acquainted with any of the
Italian (e.g. _Convitato di Pietra_, del Dottor Giacinto Andrea
Cicognini, Fiorentino [see L. Allacci _Dramaturgia_, 1755, 4