It is in _Beppo_, as has been said, that this new mood first has full expression. Yet, curiously enough, we are at once forced into the paradox that Byron may have been taught something of the Italian spirit in _Beppo_ through the medium of an English poem, to which he explicitly turns our attention. In 1817 a book was published by Murray with the odd title, _Prospectus and Specimen of an Intended National Work, by William and Robert Whistlecraft, of Slowmarket, in Suffolk, Harness and Collar Makers, Intended to Comprise the Most Interesting Particulars Relating to King Arthur and his Round Table_. The volume contained only two short cantos in ottava rima, the whole making up, with the eleven stanzas of introduction, 99 stanzas, exactly the length of _Beppo_. Early in 1818 two more cantos were added, and in the same year the entire poem was printed as _The Monks, and the Giants_. Although no author’s signature was attached, credit was rightfully bestowed upon John Hookham Frere (1769–1846), already mentioned as a brilliant contributor to the poetry of the _Anti-Jacobin_.[183] Like Mathias, Roscoe, Rose, and others among his contemporaries, Frere had been an assiduous student of Italian, and had read extensively in the Italian romantic and burlesque poets from Pulci to Casti. It was doubtless interest in this literature that led him to the composition of _The Monks, and the Giants_, for which work he borrowed from the Italians their octave stanza, an occasional episode, and as much of their manner as his nature could absorb.[184] Byron’s first mention of _Beppo_ occurs in a letter of October 12, 1817, to Murray:--“I have written a poem (of 84 octave stanzas), humourous, in or after the excellent manner of Mr. Whistlecraft (whom I take to be Frere), on a Venetian anecdote which amused me.”[185] On October 23d he repeats this assertion:--“Mr. Whistlecraft has no greater admirer than myself. I have written a story in 89 stanzas, in imitation of him, called _Beppo_.”[186] Although the definiteness of these statements is unquestionable, it is, nevertheless, essential to ascertain just how literally we are to accept Byron’s confession that _Beppo_ is “in the excellent manner of Mr. Whistlecraft.”