tti's _Fille du regiment_
and one of his earlier Italian operas. But here the parallel ends. As
regards artistic genius Donizetti can by no means be compared with his
illustrious countrymen. He has little of Bellini's melancholy sweetness,
less of Rossini's sparkle, and is all but devoid of spontaneous dramatic
impulse. For these shortcomings he atones by a considerable though by no
means extraordinary store of fluent melody, and by his rare skill in
writing for the voice. The duet in the last act of the _Favorita_ and
the ensemble in _Lucia_ following upon the signing of the contract, are
masterpieces of concerted music in the Italian style. These advantages,
together with considerable power of humorous delineation, as evinced in
_Don Pasquale_ and _L'Elisir d'amore_, must account for the unimpaired
vitality of many of his works on the stage.

DONJON (from a Late Lat. accusative form _domnionem_, connected with
_domnus_ or _dominus_, a lord), the French term for the keep of a
medieval castle, used now in distinction to "dungeon" (q.v.), the
prison, which is only an anglicized spelling (see also KEEP).

DON JUAN, a legendary character, whose story has found currency in
various European countries. He was introduced into formal literature in
the Spanish _El Burlador de Sevilla y convidado de piedra_, a play which
was first printed at Barcelona in 1630, and is usually attributed to
Tirso de Molina; but the story of a profligate inviting a dead man to
supper, and finding his invitation accepted, was current before 1630,
and is not peculiar to Spain. A Don Juan Tenorio is said to have
frequented the court of Peter the Cruel, and at a later period another
Don Juan Tenorio, a dissolute gallant, is reported as living at Seville;
but there is no satisfactory evidence of their existence, and it is
unlikely that the Don Juan legend is based on historical facts. It
exists in Picardy as _Le Souper de fantome_, and variants of it have
been found at points so far apart as Iceland and the Azores; the
available evidence goes to show that Don Juan is a universal type, that
he is the subject of local myths in many countries, that he received his
name in Spain, and that the Spanish version of his legend has absorbed
certain elements from the French story of Robert the Devil. Some points
of resemblance are observable between _El Burlador de Sevilla_ and
_Dineros son calidad_, a play of earlier date by Lope de Vega; but these
re