The real divergence between the poems--and it is a wide one--is due, as Eichler intimates, to the characters of the authors. Whistlecraft’s words:-- “I’m strongly for the present state of things: I look for no reform or innovation,”[195] summarize Frere’s conservative position. He was a Tory, and Byron was a radical. Frere approached his theme from the standpoint of a scholar; Byron, from that of a man of the world. The former, actuated by antiquarian interest, built up a background in a fabulous age and took his characters from legend; the latter, urged by a desire for vividness and reality, laid his action in a city which he knew well and placed his men and women in modern times. The Tristram and Gawain of _The Monks, and the Giants_ are puppets and abstractions; Laura and the Count, on the other hand, are drawn from life and consequently seem to throb with warmth and passion. There are no women in Frere’s poem who receive more than cursory notice; in _Beppo_ the central figure is a woman, and the atmosphere vibrates with love and intrigue. One result of these contrasts is that _The Monks, and the Giants_, unexceptionable in morality, lacks charm and is somewhat chastely cold; while _Beppo_, sensuous and frequently sensual, is never dull. It is obvious, then, that the two poems, however much they may resemble each other superficially, have fundamentally little in common. What, then, did Byron take from Frere to substantiate his assertion that _Beppo_ is “in the excellent manner of Mr. Whistlecraft”? He may have learned from him some lessons in the management of the English octave, particularly as employed in humorous verse; he probably accepted a hint concerning the use of the language of every-day life; and he may have drawn a suggestion as to the value of the colloquial and discursive method. In each of these features, as we have seen, he surpassed his predecessor. Specifically in the matter of direct satire he could have gained little from Frere, for the latter was but a feeble satirist. Eichler sums up the logical conclusion: “Die _Monks and Giants_, eine amuesante Burleske, haben in Beppo eine moralische Satire gezeugt.”[196] The same idea is brought out by the anonymous writer of a _Letter to Lord Byron, by John Bull_ (1820), in comparing Frere’s poem with _Don Juan_;--“Mr. Frere writes elegantly, playfully, very like a gentleman, and a scholar, and a respectable man, and his poem never sold, nor ever will sell. Your _Don Juan_, again, is written strongly, lasciviously, fiercely, laughingly--and accordingly the _Don_ sells, and will sell, until the end of time.” In habits of mind and in temperament, Byron was more akin to Frere’s Italian masters than he was to Frere himself; and therefore, in his knowledge of Casti, later of Berni and Pulci, and possibly of Ariosto, Forteguerri, Tassoni, and Buratti, we shall be more likely to discover the sources of the spirit of _Beppo_ and _Don Juan_.