Finally the latter, recalled to St. Petersburg, dies in the arms of his earlier love, Zelmira, and is buried with elaborate ceremony. The Catharine II episode in _Don Juan_ begins with Canto IX, 42, and ends with Canto X, 48. That, there is a superficial resemblance between the adventures of the two heroes, Tomasso and Juan, is sufficiently obvious. Both are modern picaresque knights at the sport of circumstances. Each comes to St. Petersburg from Turkey, bringing with him a Turkish girl; each is installed as a favorite at the court and attains, at one bound, nobility and riches; each falls from his lofty state, and is sent away. It is evident, of course, that Byron in no sense borrowed from Casti’s plot as he did from other writers in his description of the shipwreck. However, since Casti’s poem is probably the only one of the period dealing with the court of Catharine II, and since Byron was well acquainted with the other two long works of the Italian, there are grounds for surmising that he took _Il Poema Tartaro_, in its general scheme, as a model for a part of _Don Juan_. This supposition is strengthened by some resemblances in details between the two poems. Catharine II is portrayed by both authors in much the same way. Casti says of her that, “Per uso e per natura Ne’ servigi d’amor troppo esigea,”[220] and Byron echoes precisely the same idea: “She could repay each amatory look you lent With interest, and, in turn, was wont with rigor To exact of Cupid’s bills the full amount At sight, nor would permit you to discount.”[221] She is generous to her favorites: Casti makes her confess, “Amare e premiar l’amato ogetto Sole è per me felicita e diletto,”[222] And Byron refers particularly to her Kindness: “Love had made Catharine make each lover’s fortune.”[223] Tomasso himself is described in language which might apply to Juan: “Éra grande e bel giovine,-- Forte, complesso, capel biondo, e un paio D’occhi di nobilita pieni e di fuoco; Un carattere franco, un umor gaio, E colle donne avea sempre un buon giucco.”[224] The scene in which Tomasso has just been especially favored by the Empress and is receiving congratulations from courtiers is paralleled by that in which Juan is being flattered after a warm greeting by Catharine.[225] Another curious coincidence occurs in the efforts of the court physician to cure the apparent debility of Tomasso and Juan.[226] These similarities are striking enough to furnish some probability that Byron was familiar with the plot of _Il Poema Tartaro_, and, consciously or unconsciously, reproduced some of its features in _Don Juan_. Casti’s satire in this poem, as in _Gli Animali Parlanti_, is comprehensive. Like Byron, he ridicules the Russian language,[227] attacks literary fads, criticises customs-duties,[228] and enters into a vigorous denunciation of war. In speaking of soldiers who clash in civil strife, he says, with bitter truth: