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SECOND EDITION
ELECTROCHEMICAL
METHODS
Fundamentals and
Applications
Allen J. Bard
Larry R. Faulkner
Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry
University of Texas at Austin
JOHN WILEY & SONS, INC.

New Yorke Chichester • Weinheim
Brisbane e Singapore e Toronto
Major Symbols xi
Section
Symbol Meaning Usual Units References
Ещ equilibrium potential of an electrode V 1.3.2,3.4.1

EF Fermi level eV 2.2.5, 3.6.3
Em flat-band potential V 18.2.2
Eg bandgap of a semiconductor eV 18.2.2
E; initial potential V 6.2.1
Щ junction potential mV 2.3.4
Em membrane potential mV 2.4
EP peak potential V 6.2.2
A£P (a)|£pa-£pc|inCV V 6.5
(b) pulse height in SWV mV 7.3.5
Ep/2 potential where / = /p/2 in LSV V 6.2.2
£pa anodic peak potential V 6.5
£pc cathodic peak potential V 6.5
staircase step height in SWV mV 7.3.5
£Z potential of zero charge V 13.2.2
*л switching potential for cyclic voltammetry V 6.5
Еф quarter-wave potential in V 8.3.1
chronopotentiometry
E\I2 (a) measured or expected half-wave V 1.4.2,5.4,5.5
potential in voltammetry
(b) in derivations, the "reversible" V 5.4
half-wave potential,
Eo> + (RT/nF)\n(DR/D0)l/2
Ещ potential where i/i^ = 1 / 4 V 5.4.1
Е
Ъ1А potential where ///d = 3/4 V 5.4.1
e (a) electronic charge с
(b) voltage in an electric circuit V 10.1.1,15.1
e\ input voltage V 15.2
e0 output voltage V 15.1.1
voltage across the input terminals of an /xV 15.1.1
amplifier
ег%) error function of x none A.3
erfc(x) error function complement of x none A.3
F the Faraday constant; charge on one С
mole of electrons
f (a) F/RT V" 1
(b) frequency of rotation r/s 9.3
(c) frequency of a sinusoidal oscillation s- 1 10.1.2
(d) SWV frequency s- 1 7.3.5
(e) fraction titrated none 11.5.2
/(E) Fermi function none 3.6.3
fUk) fractional concentration of species / in none B.1.3
boxy after iteration к in a simulation
G Gibbs free energy kJ, kJ/mol 2.2.4
AG Gibbs free energy change in a chemical kJ, kJ/mol 2.1.2,2.1.3
process
G electrochemical free energy kJ, kJ/mol 2.2.4
G° standard Gibbs free energy kJ, kJ/mol 3.1.2
xii Major Symbols
Section
AG° standard Gibbs free energy change in a kJ, kJ/mol 2.1.2,2.1.3

chemical process
standard Gibbs free energy of activation kJ/mol 3.1.2
дс!transfer, j
j
standard free energy of transfer for kJ/mol 2.3.6
species j from phase a into phase /3
2
(a) gravitational acceleration cm/s
2 2
(b) interaction parameter in adsorption J-cm /mol 13.5.2
isotherms
H (a) enthalpy kJ, kJ/mol 2.1.2
-l/2
s 5.5.1
Mi enthalpy change in a chemical process kJ, kJ/mol 2.1.2
A#° standard enthalpy change in a chemical kJ, kJ/mol 2.1.2
process
standard enthalpy of activation kJ/mol 3.1.2
Planck constant J-s
corrected mercury column height at a DME cm 7.1.4
/ amplitude of an ac current A 10.1.2
/(0 convolutive transform of current; C/s1/2 6.7.1
semi-integral of current
/ current phasor A 10.1.2
7 diffusion current constant for average Â-s1/2/(mg2/3-mM) 7.1.3
current
diffusion current constant for maximum M-s 1/2 /(mg 2/3 -mM) 7.1.3
current
peak value of ac current amplitude A 10.5.1
current A 1.3.2
А/ difference current in SWV = if — ir A 7.3.5
8i difference current in DPV = /(r) - Z(r') A 7.3.4
/(0) initial current in bulk electrolysis A 11.3.1
*А characteristic current describing flux of the A 14.4.2
primary reactant to a modified RDE
anodic component current A 3.2
(a) charging current A 6.2.4
(b) cathodic component current A 3.2
(a) current due to diffusive flux A 4.1
(b) diffusion-limited current A 5.2.1
average diffusion-limited current flow A
7.1.2
over a drop lifetime at a DME
Od)max diffusion-limited current at tm.dX at a A
7.1.2
DME (maximum current)
characteristic current describing diffusion A
14.4.2
of electrons within the film at a
modified electrode
(a) faradaic current A
(b) forward current A 5.7
kinetically limited current A 9.3.4
characteristic current describing A 14.4.2
cross-reaction within the film at a
modified electrode
Major Symbols xui
Section
Ч limiting current A 1.4.2

k& limiting anodic current A 1.4.2
kc limiting cathodic current A 1.4.2
migration current A 4.1
h characteristic current describing A 14.4.2
permeation of the primary reactant
into the film at a modified electrode
>P peak current A 6.2.2
'pa anodic peak current A 6.5.1
*pc cathodic peak current A 6.5.1
'r current during reversal step A 5.7
'S (a) characteristic current describing A 14.4.2
diffusion of the primary reactant
through the film at a modified electrode
(b) substrate current in SECM A 16.4.4
4s steady-state current A 5.3
h tip current in SECM A • 16.4.2
*T,oo tip current in SECM far from the A 16.4.1
substrate
h exchange current A 3.4.1,3.5.4
*0,t true exchange current A 13.7.1
Im(w) imaginary part of complex function w A.5
/jfe t) flux of species j at location x at time t mol c m " 2 s" 1 1.4.1,4.1
j (a) current density A/cm2 1.3.2
(b) box index in a simulation none B.1.2
(c)VÎ none A.5
h exchange current density A/cm 3.4.1,3.5.4
К equilibrium constant none
precursor equilibrium constant for depends on case 3.6.1
reactant j
к (a) rate constant for a homogeneous depends on order
reaction
(b) iteration number in a simulation none B.I
(c) extinction coefficient none 17.1.2
Boltzmann constant J/K
k° standard heterogeneous rate constant cm/s 3.3, 3.4
К (a) heterogeneous rate constant for cm/s 3.2
oxidation
(b) homogeneous rate constant for depends on order 3.1
"backward" reaction
kf (a) heterogeneous rate constant for cm/s 3.2
reduction
(b) homogeneous rate constant for depends on order 3.1
"forward" reaction
*?? potentiometric selectivity coefficient of
interferenty toward a measurement
none 2.4
of species /
k° true standard heterogeneous rate cm/s 13.7.1
constant
xiv Major Symbols
Section
L length of a porous electrode 11.6.2

L{f(t)} Laplace transform of/(0 = f(s) A.I
L~]{f(s)} inverse Laplace transform of f(s) A.I
I thickness of solution in a thin-layer cell cm 11.7.2
€ number of iterations corresponding to t^ none B.1.4
in a simulation
m mercury flow rate at a DME mg/s 7.1.2
1/2
m(t) convolutive transform of current; C/s 6.7.1
semi-integral of current
m-} mass-transfer coefficient of species j cm/s 1.4.2
N collection efficiency at an RRDE none 9.4.2
3
NA (a) acceptor density cm" 18.2.2
1
(b) Avogadro's number тоГ
3
ND donor density cm" 18.2.2
iVj total number of moles of species j in mol 11.3.1
a system
n (a) stoichiometric number of electrons none 1.3.2
involved in an electrode reaction
cm" 3 18.2.2
(b) electron density in a semiconductor
none 17.1.2
(c) refractive index
none 17.1.2
n complex refractive index
cm" 3 13.3.2
n° number concentration of each ion in a
z: z electrolyte
cm" 3 18.2.2
щ electron density in an intrinsic
semiconductor
mol 2.2.4, 13.1.1
щ (a) number of moles of species у in a phase
cm" 3 13.3.2
(b) number concentration of ion у in an
electrolyte -3
cm 13.3.2
n® number concentration of ion у in the bulk
electrolyte
О oxidized form of the standard system
О + ne ^ R; often used as a subscript
denoting quantities pertaining to
species О
P pressure Pa, atm
cm" 3 18.2.2
p (a) hole density in a semiconductor
s" 1 11.3.1
(b) mjA/V
P\ hole density in an intrinsic semiconductor cm" 3 18.3.2
Q charge passed in electrolysis С 1.3.2,5.8.1, 11.3.1
<2° charge required for complete electrolysis С 11.3.4
of a component by Faraday's law
gd chronocoulometric charge from a с 5.8.1
diffusing component
Qdi charge devoted to double-layer с 5.8
capacitance
cf excess charge on phase у СдС 1.2,2.2
R reduced form of the standard system,
О + ne i=^ R; often used as a subscript
denoting quantities pertaining to
species R
Major Symbols xv
Section
R (a) gas constant Jmol^K"
1
(b) resistance ft 10.1.2

(c) fraction of substance electrolyzed in none 11.6.2
a porous electrode
(d) reflectance none 17.1.2
RB series equivalent resistance of a cell ft 10.4
Ret charge-transfer resistance ft 1.3.3,3.4.3
R{ feedback resistance a 15.2
Rmt mass-transfer resistance ft 1.4.2,3.4.6
Rs (a) solution resistance ft 1.3.4
(b) series resistance in an equivalent ft 1.2.4, 10.1.3
circuit
Ru uncompensated resistance ft 1.3.4, 15.6
Ra ohmic solution resistance ft 10.1.3
r radial distance from the center of an cm 5.2.2,5.3,9.3.1
electrode
rc radius of a capillary cm 7.1.3
fo radius of an electrode cm 5.2.2, 5.3
r\ radius of the disk in an RDE or RRDE cm 9.3.5
Г2 inner radius of a ring electrode cm 9.4.1
гъ outer radius of a ring electrode cm 9.4.1
Re Reynolds number none 9.2.1
Re(w) real part of complex function w A.5
AS entropy change in a chemical process kJ/K.kJmol^K"1 2.1.2
AS0 standard entropy change in a chemical kJ/K.kJmol^K"1 2.1.2
process
AS* standard entropy of activation kJmol^K"1 3.1.2
Sr(t) unit step function rising at t = т none A. 1.7
s (a) Laplace plane variable, usually A.I
complementary to t
1
(b) specific area of a porous electrode cm" 11.6.2
T absolute temperature К
t time s
4 transference number of species у none 2.3.3, 4.2
known characteristic time in a simulation s B.1.4
чтшх drop time at a DME s 7.1.2
'p
pulse width in SWV s 7.3.5
Щ mobility of ion (or charge carrier) j cn^V'V1 2.3.3,4.2
V volume cm 3
V (a) linear potential scan rate V/s 6.1
(b) homogeneous reaction rate mol cm" 3 s~l 1.3.2,3.1
(c) heterogeneous reaction rate mol cm" 2 s" 1 1.3.2, 3.2
(d) linear velocity of solution flow, usually cm/s 1.4.1,9.2
a function of position
vh (a) "backward" homogeneous reaction rate mol cm~ 3 s" 1 3.1
(b) anodic heterogeneous reaction rate mol c m " 2 s-1 3.2
Vf (a) "forward" homogeneous reaction rate mol cm" 3 s" 1 3.1
(b) cathodic heterogeneous reaction rate mol cm" 2 s~] 3.2
V\ component of velocity in the j direction cm/s 9.2.1
xvi Major Symbols
Section
2
*>mt rate of mass transfer to a surface mol cm s ' 1.4.1
1
Wj(A,E) probability density function for species j eV" 3.6.3
w width of a band electrode cm 5.3
Wj work term for reactant j in electron eV 3.6.2
transfer
*c capacitive reactance n 10.1.2
x mole fraction of species j none 13.1.2
>
X distance, often from a planar electrode cm
X\ distance of the IHP from the electrode cm 1.2.3, 13.3.3
surface
x2 distance of the OHP from the electrode cm 1.2.3, 13.3.3
surface
Y admittance rr1 1
10.1.2
Y admittance vector ft" 10.1.2
У distance from an RDE or RRDE cm 9.3.1
z (a) impedance n 10.1.2
(b) dimensionless current parameter in none B.1.6
simulation
z impedance vector ft 10.1.2
faradaic impedance ft 10.1.3
Z\m imaginary part of impedance a 10.1.2
^Re real part of impedance ft 10.1.2
7 Warburg impedance ft 10.1.3
z (a) distance normal to the surface of a cm 5.3
disk electrode or along a cylindrical
electrode
(b) charge magnitude of each ion in a none 13.3.2
z: z electrolyte
Z
j
charge on species j in signed units of none 2.3
electronic charge
GREEK SYMBOLS
Section
(a) transfer coefficient none 3.3

(b) absorption coefficient cm"1 17.1.2
(a) distance factor for extended charge A"1 3.6.4
transfer
(b) geometric parameter for an RRDE none 9.4.1
(c) 1 - a none 10.5.2
(a) дЕ/дС}(0, t) V-cm3/mol 10.2.2
(b) equilibrium parameter in an adsorption none 13.5.2
isotherm for species у
surface excess of species j at equilibrium mol/cm2 13.1.2
relative surface excess of species у with mol/cm2 13.1.2
respect to component r
Major Symbols xvii
Section
2
surface excess of species j at saturation mol/cm 13.5.2
(a) surface tension dyne/cm
(b) dimensionless parameter used to define none 5.4.2, 5.5.2
frequency (time) regimes in step
experiments at spherical electrodes
П activity coefficient for species у none 2.1.5
Д ellipsometric parameter none 17.1.2
l/2
8 r0(s/Do) , used to define diffusional none 5.5.2
regimes at a spherical electrode
"diffusion" layer thickness for species у at 1.4.2,9.3.2
an electrode fed by convective transfer
(a) dielectric constant none 13.3.1
(b) optical-frequency dielectric constant none 17.1.2
(c) porosity none 11.6.2
complex optical-frequency dielectric none 17.1.2
constant
molar absorptivity of species у M" 1 cm " 1 17.1.1
]
permittivity of free space m"2 13.3.1
zeta potential mV 9.8.1
overpotential, E — Eeq V 1.3.2,3.4.2
charge-transfer overpotential V 1.3.3, 3.4.6
1
viscosity of fluid у gem' " V = poise 9.2.2
mass-transfer overpotential V 1.3.3, 3.4.6
none 5.4.1
s 1/2 5.8.2
fractional coverage of an interface by none 13.5.2
species у
(a) conductivity of a solution = fl" 1 -i
(b) transmission coefficient of a reaction none 3.1.3

(c) r0kf/Do, used to define kinetic regimes none 5.5.2
at a spherical electrode
(d) double-layer thickness parameter cm" 1 13.3.2
(e) partition coefficient for the primary none 14.4.2
reactant in a modified electrode system
electronic transmission coefficient none 3.6
1
A equivalent conductivity of a solution c m 2 ! ! " 1 equiv " 2.3.3
A (a) reorganization energy for electron eV 3.6
transfer
(b) £fr1/2(l + £0)/£>o2 none 5.5.1
(c) dimensionless homogeneous kinetic none 12.3
parameter, specific to a method and
mechanism
(d) switching time in CV s 6.5
(e) wavelength of light in vacuo nm 17.1.2
inner component of the reorganization eV 3.6.2
energy
equivalent ionic conductivity for ion у cm 2 II 1 equiv ] 2.3.3
equivalent ionic conductivity of ion у cm 2 fl" 1 equiv" 1 2.3.3
extrapolated to infinite dilution
xviii Major Symbols
Section
outer component of the reorganization eV 3.6.2

energy
(a) reaction layer thickness cm 1.5.2, 12.4.2
(b) magnetic permeability none 17.1.2
electrochemical potential of electrons in kJ/mol 2.2.4, 2.2.5
К
phase a
electrochemical potential of species j in kJ/mol 2.2.4
phase a
chemical potential of species у in phase a kJ/mol 2.2.4
standard chemical potential of species j in kJ/mol 2.2.4
phase a
(a) kinematic viscosity cm2/s 9.2.2
(b) frequency of light
stoichiometric coefficient for species у in a none 2.1.5
chemical process
s" 1 3.6
nuclear frequency factor
none 5.4.1
(D0/DR)112
fl-cm 4.2
(a) resistivity
(b) roughness factor none 5.2.3
p(E) electronic density of states cm 2 eV" 1 3.6.3
(a) nFv/RT s" 1 6.2.1
(b) (1MFAV2)[/3O/£>O/2 " J3R/£>R2] 10.2.3
excess charge density on phase у C/cm2 1.2,2.2
parameter describing potential dependence none 13.3.4
of adsorption energy
(a) transition time in chronopotentiometry s 8.2.2
(b) sampling time in sampled-current s 5.1,7.3
voltammetry
(c) forward step duration in a double-step 5.7.1
experiment
(d) generally, a characteristic time defined
by the properties of an experiment
(e) in treatments of UMEs, 4Dot/rl none 5.3
start of potential pulse in pulse voltammetry s 7.3
longitudinal relaxation time of a solvent s 3.6.2
Ф work function of a phase eV 3.6.4
Ф (a) electrostatic potential V 2.2.1
(b) phase angle between two sinusoidal degrees, 10.1.2
signals radians
(c) phase angle between / a c and £ a c degrees, 10.1.2
radians
(d) film thickness in a modified electrode cm 14.4.2
(a) electrostatic potential difference V 2.2
between two points or phases
(b) potential drop in the space charge 18.2.2
region of a semiconductor
absolute electrostatic potential of phase j V 2.2.1
junction potential at a liquid-liquid interface V 6.8
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Major Symbols xix
Section
standard Galvani potential of ion transfer V 6.8
for species j from phase a to phase /3
Фо total potential drop across the solution side mV 13.3.2
of the double layer
ф2 potential at the OHP with respect to bulk V 1.2.3, 13.3.3
solution
X (12/7)1/2£fT1/2/Do/2 none 7.2.2
XU) dimensionless distance of box; in a none B.1.5
simulation
x
(bt) normalized current for a totally irreversible none 6.3.1
system in LSV and CV
x
(at) normalized current for a reversible system in none 6.2.1
LSV and CV
Xf rate constant for permeation of the primary cm/s 14.4.2
reactant into the film at a modified
electrode
Ф (a) ellipsometric parameter none 17.1.2
(b) dimensionless rate parameter in CV none 6.5.2
(a) angular frequency of rotation; s" 1 9.3
2тг X rotation rate
(b) angular frequency of a sinusoidal s" 1 10.1.2
oscillation; 2rrf
STANDARD ABBREVIATIONS
Section
Abbreviation Meaning Reference
ADC analog-to-digital converter 15.8

AES Auger electron spectrometry 17.3.3
AFM atomic force microscopy 16.3
ASV anodic stripping voltammetry 11.8
BV Butler- Volmer 3.3
CB conduction band 18.2.2
CE homogeneous chemical process preceding heterogeneous 12.1.1
electron transfer1
CV cyclic voltammetry 6.1,6.5
CZE capillary zone electrophoresis 11.6.4
DAC digital-to-analog converter 15.8
DME (a) dropping mercury electrode 7.1.1
(b) 1,2-dimethoxyethane
DMF TV, TV-dimethylformamide
DMSO Dimethylsulfoxide
DPP differential pulse polarography 7.3.4
DPV differential pulse voltammetry 7.3.4
betters may be subscripted i, q, or r to indicate irreversible, quasi-reversible, or reversible reactions.

xx Major Symbols
Section
EC heterogeneous electron transfer followed by homogeneous 12.1.1

1
chemical reaction
EC' catalytic regeneration of the electroactive species in a following 12.1.1
1
homogeneous reaction
ECE heterogeneous electron transfer, homogeneous chemical reaction, 12.1.1
and heterogeneous electron transfer, in sequence
ECL electrogenerated chemiluminescence 18.1
ECM electrocapillary maximum 13.2.2
ЕЕ step wise heterogeneous electron transfers to accomplish a 12.1.1
2-electron reduction or oxidation of a species
EIS electrochemical impedance spectroscopy 10.1.1
emf electromotive force 2.1.3
EMIRS electrochemically modulated infrared reflectance spectroscopy 17.2.1
ESR electron spin resonance 17.4.1
ESTM electrochemical scanning tunneling microscopy 16.2
EXAFS extended X-ray absorption fine structure 17.6.1
FFT fast Fourier transform A.6
GCS Gouy-Chapman-Stern 13.3.3
GDP galvanostatic double pulse 8.6
HCP hexagonal close-packed 13.4.2
HMDE hanging mercury drop electrode 5.2.2
HOPG highly oriented pyrolytic graphite 13.4.2
IHP inner Helmholtz plane 1.2.3, 13.3.3
IPE ideal polarized electrode 1.2.1
IRRAS infrared reflection absorption spectroscopy 17.2.1
IR-SEC infrared spectroelectrochemistry 17.2.1
ISE ion-selective electrode 2.4
ITIES interface between two immiscible electrolyte solutions 6.8
ITO indium-tin oxide thin film 18.2.5
LB Langmuir-Blodgett 14.2.1
LCEC liquid chromatography with electrochemical detection 11.6.4
LEED low-energy electron diffraction 17.3.3
LSV linear sweep voltammetry 6.1
MFE mercury film electrode 11.8
NHE normal hydrogen electrode = SHE 1.1.1
NCE normal calomel electrode, Hg/Hg2Cl2/KCl (1.0M)
NPP normal pulse polarography 7.3.2
NPV normal pulse voltammetry 7.3.2
OHP outer Helmholtz plane 1.2.3, 13.3.3
OTE optically transparent electrode 17.1.1
OTTLE optically transparent thin-layer electrode 17.1.1
PAD pulsed amperometric detection 11.6.4
PC propylene carbonate
PDIRS potential difference infrared spectroscopy 17.2.1
PZC potential of zero charge 13.2.2
QCM quartz crystal microbalance 17.5
1
Letters may be subscripted /, q, or r to indicate irreversible, quasi-reversible, or reversible reactions.
Major Symbols xxi
Section
QRE quasi-reference electrode 2.1.7
RDE rotating disk electrode 9.3
RDS rate-determining step 3.5
RPP reverse pulse polarography 7.3.4
RPV reverse pulse voltammetry 7.3.4
RRDE rotating ring-disk electrode 9.4.2
SAM self-assembled monolayer 14.2.2
SCE saturated calomel electrode 1.1.1
SECM scanning electrochemical microscopy 16.4
SERS surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy 17.2.2
SHE standard hydrogen electrode = NHE 1.1.1
SHG second harmonic generation 17.1.5
SMDE static mercury drop electrode 7.1.1
SNIFTIRS subtractively normalized interfacial Fourier transform infrared 17.2.1
spectroscopy
SPE solid polymer electrolyte 14.2.6
SPR surface plasmon resonance 17.1.3
SSCE sodium saturated calomel electrode, Hg/Hg2Cl2/NaCl (sat'd)
STM scanning tunneling microscopy 16.2
swv square wave voltammetry 7.3.5
TBABF4 tetra-/2-butylammonium fluoborate
TBAI tetra-ft-butylammonium iodide
TBAP tetra-w-butylammoniumperchlorate
TEAP tetraethylammonium perchlorate
THF tetrahydrofuran
UHV ultrahigh vacuum 17.3
UME ultramicroelectrode 5.3
UPD underpotential deposition 11.2.1
XPS X-ray photoelectron spectrometry 17.3.2
VB valence band 18.2.2
CHAPTER
1
INTRODUCTION
AND OVERVIEW
OF ELECTRODE
PROCESSES
1.1 INTRODUCTION
Electrochemistry is the branch of chemistry concerned with the interrelation of electri-
cal and chemical effects. A large part of this field deals with the study of chemical
changes caused by the passage of an electric current and the production of electrical en-
ergy by chemical reactions. In fact, the field of electrochemistry encompasses a huge
array of different phenomena (e.g., electrophoresis and corrosion), devices (elec-
trochromic displays, electro analytical sensors, batteries, and fuel cells), and technolo-
gies (the electroplating of metals and the large-scale production of aluminum and
chlorine). While the basic principles of electrochemistry discussed in this text apply to
all of these, the main emphasis here is on the application of electrochemical methods to
the study of chemical systems.
Scientists make electrochemical measurements on chemical systems for a variety of
reasons. They may be interested in obtaining thermodynamic data about a reaction. They
may want to generate an unstable intermediate such as a radical ion and study its rate of
decay or its spectroscopic properties. They may seek to analyze a solution for trace
amounts of metal ions or organic species. In these examples, electrochemical methods are
employed as tools in the study of chemical systems in just the way that spectroscopic
methods are frequently applied. There are also investigations in which the electrochemi-
cal properties of the systems themselves are of primary interest, for example, in the design
of a new power source or for the electrosynthesis of some product. Many electrochemical
methods have been devised. Their application requires an understanding of the fundamen-
tal principles of electrode reactions and the electrical properties of electrode-solution in-
terfaces.
In this chapter, the terms and concepts employed in describing electrode reactions
are introduced. In addition, before embarking on a detailed consideration of methods
for studying electrode processes and the rigorous solutions of the mathematical equa-
tions that govern them, we will consider approximate treatments of several different
types of electrode reactions to illustrate their main features. The concepts and treat-
ments described here will be considered in a more complete and rigorous way in later
chapters.
2 • Chapter 1. Introduction and Overview of Electrode Processes
1.1.1 Electrochemical Cells and Reactions

In electrochemical systems, we are concerned with the processes and factors that affect
the transport of charge across the interface between chemical phases, for example, be-
tween an electronic conductor (an electrode) and an ionic conductor (an electrolyte).
Throughout this book, we will be concerned with the electrode/electrolyte interface and
the events that occur there when an electric potential is applied and current passes. Charge
is transported through the electrode by the movement of electrons (and holes). Typical
electrode materials include solid metals (e.g., Pt, Au), liquid metals (Hg, amalgams), car-
bon (graphite), and semiconductors (indium-tin oxide, Si). In the electrolyte phase,
charge is carried by the movement of ions. The most frequently used electrolytes are liq-
+ +
uid solutions containing ionic species, such as, H , Na , Cl~, in either water or a non-
aqueous solvent. To be useful in an electrochemical cell, the solvent/electrolyte system
must be of sufficiently low resistance (i.e., sufficiently conductive) for the electrochemi-
cal experiment envisioned. Less conventional electrolytes include fused salts (e.g., molten
NaCl-KCl eutectic) and ionically conductive polymers (e.g., Nation, polyethylene
oxide-LiClO4). Solid electrolytes also exist (e.g., sodium j8-alumina, where charge is car-
ried by mobile sodium ions that move between the aluminum oxide sheets).
It is natural to think about events at a single interface, but we will find that one cannot
deal experimentally with such an isolated boundary. Instead, one must study the proper-
ties of collections of interfaces called electrochemical cells. These systems are defined
most generally as two electrodes separated by at least one electrolyte phase.
In general, a difference in electric potential can be measured between the electrodes in
an electrochemical cell. Typically this is done with a high impedance voltmeter. This cell
potential, measured in volts (V), where 1 V = 1 joule/coulomb (J/C), is a measure of the
energy available to drive charge externally between the electrodes. It is a manifestation of
the collected differences in electric potential between all of the various phases in the cell.
We will find in Chapter 2 that the transition in electric potential in crossing from one con-
ducting phase to another usually occurs almost entirely at the interface. The sharpness of
the transition implies that a very high electric field exists at the interface, and one can ex-
pect it to exert effects on the behavior of charge carriers (electrons or ions) in the interfa-
cial region. Also, the magnitude of the potential difference at an interface affects the
relative energies of the carriers in the two phases; hence it controls the direction and
the rate of charge transfer. Thus, the measurement and control of cell potential is one of the
most important aspects of experimental electrochemistry.
Before we consider how these operations are carried out, it is useful to set up a short-
hand notation for expressing the structures of cells. For example, the cell pictured in Fig-
ure 1.1.1a is written compactly as
Zn/Zn 2 + , СГ/AgCl/Ag (l.l.l)
In this notation, a slash represents a phase boundary, and a comma separates two compo-
nents in the same phase. A double slash, not yet used here, represents a phase boundary
whose potential is regarded as a negligible component of the overall cell potential. When
a gaseous phase is involved, it is written adjacent to its corresponding conducting ele-
ment. For example, the cell in Figure 1.1.1ft is written schematically as
Pt/H2/H+, СГ/AgCl/Ag (1.1.2)
The overall chemical reaction taking place in a cell is made up of two independent
half-reactions, which describe the real chemical changes at the two electrodes. Each half-
reaction (and, consequently, the chemical composition of the system near the electrodes)
1.1 Introduction 3
Pt H2
Zn Ag
СГ СГ
j
Excess Excess
AgCI AgCI
(а) (Ь)
Figure l.l.l Typical electrochemical cells, (a) Zn metal and Ag wire covered with AgCI immersed
in a ZnCl2 solution, (b) Pt wire in a stream of H2 and Ag wire covered with AgCI in HC1 solution.
responds to the interfacial potential difference at the corresponding electrode. Most of the
time, one is interested in only one of these reactions, and the electrode at which it occurs
is called the working (or indicator) electrode. To focus on it, one standardizes the other
half of the cell by using an electrode (called a reference electrode) made up of phases
having essentially constant composition.
The internationally accepted primary reference is the standard hydrogen electrode
(SHE), or normal hydrogen electrode (NHE), which has all components at unit activity:
Pt/H2(a - l)/H + (a = 1, aqueous) (1.1.3)
Potentials are often measured and quoted with respect to reference electrodes other than
the NHE, which is not very convenient from an experimental standpoint. A common ref-
erence is the saturated calomel electrode (SCE), which is
Hg/Hg2Cl2/KCl (saturated in water) (1.1.4)
Its potential is 0.242 V vs. NHE. Another is the silver-silver chloride electrode,
Ag/AgCl/KCl (saturated in water) (1.1.5)
with a potential of 0.197 V vs. NHE. It is common to see potentials identified in the litera-
ture as "vs. Ag/AgQ" when this electrode is used.
Since the reference electrode has a constant makeup, its potential is fixed. Therefore,
any changes in the cell are ascribable to the working electrode. We say that we observe or
control the potential of the working electrode with respect to the reference, and that is
equivalent to observing or controlling the energy of the electrons within the working elec-
trode (1, 2). By driving the electrode to more negative potentials (e.g., by connecting a
battery or power supply to the cell with its negative side attached to the working elec-
trode), the energy of the electrons is raised. They can reach a level high enough to transfer
into vacant electronic states on species in the electrolyte. In that case, a flow of electrons
from electrode to solution (a reduction current) occurs (Figure 1.1.2a). Similarly, the en-
ergy of the electrons can be lowered by imposing a more positive potential, and at some
point electrons on solutes in the electrolyte will find a more favorable energy on the elec-
trode and will transfer there. Their flow, from solution to electrode, is an oxidation cur-
rent (Figure 1.1.2b). The critical potentials at which these processes occur are related to
the standard potentials, E°, for the specific chemical substances in the system.
4 Chapter 1. Introduction and Overview of Electrode Processes
Electrode Solution Electrode Solution
Vacant
0 MO
Potential
Energy level
of electrons
0j Occupied
MO
A + e —> A
(a)
Electrode Solution Electrode Solution
Vacant
0 Energy level
MO
of electrons
Potential
0l Occupied
MO
A - e -^ A+
(b)
Figure 1.1.2 Representation of (a) reduction and (b) oxidation process of a species, A, in
solution. The molecular orbitals (MO) of species A shown are the highest occupied MO and the
lowest vacant MO. These correspond in an approximate way to the E°s of the A/A~ and A + /A
couples, respectively. The illustrated system could represent an aromatic hydrocarbon (e.g.,
9,10-diphenylanthracene) in an aprotic solvent (e.g., acetonitrile) at a platinum electrode.
Consider a typical electrochemical experiment where a working electrode and a ref-

erence electrode are immersed in a solution, and the potential difference between the elec-
trodes is varied by means of an external power supply (Figure 1.1.3). This variation in
potential, £, can produce a current flow in the external circuit, because electrons cross the
electrode/solution interfaces as reactions occur. Recall that the number of electrons that
cross an interface is related stoichiometrically to the extent of the chemical reaction (i.e.,
to the amounts of reactant consumed and product generated). The number of electrons is
measured in terms of the total charge, Q, passed in the circuit. Charge is expressed in
units of coulombs (C), where 1 С is equivalent to 6.24 X 10 1 8 electrons. The relationship
between charge and amount of product formed is given by Faraday's law; that is, the pas-
sage of 96,485.4 С causes 1 equivalent of reaction (e.g., consumption of 1 mole of reac-
tant or production of 1 mole of product in a one-electron reaction). The current, /, is the
rate of flow of coulombs (or electrons), where a current of 1 ampere (A) is equivalent to 1
C/s. When one plots the current as a function of the potential, one obtains a current-poten-
tial (i vs. E) curve. Such curves can be quite informative about the nature of the solution
and the electrodes and about the reactions that occur at the interfaces. Much of the re-
mainder of this book deals with how one obtains and interprets such curves.
1.1 Introduction 5
Power
supply
-Ag
Pt
-AgBr
Figure 1.1.3 Schematic diagram of the
electrochemical cell Pt/HBr(l M)/AgBr/Ag attached
to power supply and meters for obtaining a current-
1МНВГ
potential (i-E) curve.
Let us now consider the particular cell in Figure 1.1.3 and discuss in a qualitative
way the current-potential curve that might be obtained with it. In Section 1.4 and in later
chapters, we will be more quantitative. We first might consider simply the potential we
would measure when a high impedance voltmeter (i.e., a voltmeter whose internal resis-
tance is so high that no appreciable current flows through it during a measurement) is
placed across the cell. This is called the open-circuit potential of the cell.1
For some electrochemical cells, like those in Figure 1.1.1, it is possible to calculate
the open-circuit potential from thermodynamic data, that is, from the standard potentials
of the half-reactions involved at both electrodes via the Nernst equation (see Chapter 2).
The key point is that a true equilibrium is established, because a pair of redox forms
linked by a given half-reaction (i.e., a redox couple) is present at each electrode. In Figure
1.1.1/?, for example, we have H + and H 2 at one electrode and Ag and AgCl at the other.2
The cell in Figure 1.1.3 is different, because an overall equilibrium cannot be estab-
lished. At the Ag/AgBr electrode, a couple is present and the half-reaction is
AgBr + e ±± Ag + Br = 0.0713 Vvs. NHE (1.1.6)
Since AgBr and Ag are both solids, their activities are unity. The activity of Br can be
found from the concentration in solution; hence the potential of this electrode (with re-
spect to NHE) could be calculated from the Nernst equation. This electrode is at equilib-
rium. However, we cannot calculate a thermodynamic potential for the Pt/H+,Br~
electrode, because we cannot identify a pair of chemical species coupled by a given half-
reaction. The controlling pair clearly is not the H2,H+ couple, since no H 2 has been intro-
duced into the cell. Similarly, it is not the O 2 ,H 2 O couple, because by leaving O 2 out of
the cell formulation we imply that the solutions in the cell have been deaerated. Thus, the
Pt electrode and the cell as a whole are not at equilibrium, and an equilibrium potential
*In the electrochemical literature, the open-circuit potential is also called the zero-current potential or the rest
potential.
2
When a redox couple is present at each electrode and there are no contributions from liquid junctions (yet to be
discussed), the open-circuit potential is also the equilibrium potential. This is the situation for each cell in
Figure 1.1.1.
Chapter 1. Introduction and Overview of Electrode Processes
does not exist. Even though the open-circuit potential of the cell is not available from
thermodynamic data, we can place it within a potential range, as shown below.
Let us now consider what occurs when a power supply (e.g., a battery) and a mi-
croammeter are connected across the cell, and the potential of the Pt electrode is made
more negative with respect to the Ag/AgBr reference electrode. The first electrode reac-
tion that occurs at the Pt is the reduction of protons,
+
2H + 2 e - * H 2 (1.1.7)
The direction of electron flow is from the electrode to protons in solution, as in Figure
1.12a, so a reduction (cathodic) current flows. In the convention used in this book, ca-
3
thodic currents are taken as positive, and negative potentials are plotted to the right. As
shown in Figure 1.1.4, the onset of current flow occurs when the potential of the Pt elec-
+
trode is near E° for the H /H 2 reaction (0 V vs. NHE or -0.07 V vs. the Ag/AgBr elec-
trode). While this is occurring, the reaction at the Ag/AgBr (which we consider the
reference electrode) is the oxidation of Ag in the presence of Br~ in solution to form
AgBr. The concentration of Br~ in the solution near the electrode surface is not changed
appreciably with respect to the original concentration (1 M), therefore the potential of the
Ag/AgBr electrode will be almost the same as at open circuit. The conservation of charge
requires that the rate of oxidation at the Ag electrode be equal to the rate of reduction at
the Pt electrode.
When the potential of the Pt electrode is made sufficiently positive with respect to the
reference electrode, electrons cross from the solution phase into the electrode, and the ox-
Pt/H+, ВГ(1 M)/AgBr/Ag Cathodic
1 : /
Onset of H +
reduction on Pt.
1 I i
\
\y
1
1.5 0 -0.5
L
/ \
1 \
/ Onset of Br"
/ oxidation on Pt
Cell Potential Anodic
Figure 1.1.4 Schematic current-potential curve for the cell Pt/H + , Br~(l M)/AgBr/Ag, showing
the limiting proton reduction and bromide oxidation processes. The cell potential is given for the Pt
electrode with respect to the Ag electrode, so it is equivalent to £ P t (V vs. AgBr). Since Âg/AgBr =
0.07 V vs. NHE, the potential axis could be converted to EPt (V vs. NHE) by adding 0.07 V to each
value of potential.
3
The convention of taking / positive for a cathodic current stems from the early polarograhic studies, where
reduction reactions were usually studied. This convention has continued among many analytical chemists and
electrochemists, even though oxidation reactions are now studied with equal frequency. Other
electrochemists prefer to take an anodic current as positive. When looking over a derivation in the literature
or examining a published i-E curve, it is important to decide, first, which convention is being used (i.e.,
"Which way is up?").
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1.1 Introduction 7
idation of Br~ to Br2 (and Br^~) occurs. An oxidation current, or anodic current, flows at
potentials near the E° of the half-reaction,
Br2 + 2 e ^ 2 B r ~ (1.1.8)
which is +1.09 V vs. NHE or +1.02 V vs. Ag/AgBr. While this reaction occurs (right-
to-left) at the Pt electrode, AgBr in the reference electrode is reduced to Ag and Br~ is
liberated into solution. Again, because the composition of the Ag/AgBr/Br~ interface
(i.e., the activities of AgBr, Ag, and Br~) is almost unchanged with the passage of modest
currents, the potential of the reference electrode is essentially constant. Indeed, the essen-
tial characteristic of a reference electrode is that its potential remains practically constant
with the passage of small currents. When a potential is applied between Pt and Ag/AgBr,
nearly all of the potential change occurs at the Pt/solution interface.
The background limits are the potentials where the cathodic and anodic currents start
to flow at a working electrode when it is immersed in a solution containing only an elec-
trolyte added to decrease the solution resistance (a supporting electrolyte). Moving the
potential to more extreme values than the background limits (i.e., more negative than the
limit for H2 evolution or more positive than that for Br2 generation in the example above)
simply causes the current to increase sharply with no additional electrode reactions, be-
cause the reactants are present at high concentrations. This discussion implies that one can
often estimate the background limits of a given electrode-solution interface by consider-
ing the thermodynamics of the system (i.e., the standard potentials of the appropriate half-
reactions). This is frequently, but not always, true, as we shall see in the next example.
From Figure 1.1.4, one can see that the open-circuit potential is not well defined in
the system under discussion. One can say only that the open-circuit potential lies some-
where between the background limits. The value found experimentally will depend
upon trace impurities in the solution (e.g., oxygen) and the previous history of the Pt
electrode.
Let us now consider the same cell, but with the Pt replaced with a mercury electrode:
Hg/H + ,Br-(l M)/AgBr/Ag (1.1.9)
We still cannot calculate an open-circuit potential for the cell, because we cannot define a
redox couple for the Hg electrode. In examining the behavior of this cell with an applied
external potential, we find that the electrode reactions and the observed current-potential
behavior are very different from the earlier case. When the potential of the Hg is made
negative, there is essentially no current flow in the region where thermodynamics predict
that H2 evolution should occur. Indeed, the potential must be brought to considerably
more negative values, as shown in Figure 1.1.5, before this reaction takes place. The ther-
modynamics have not changed, since the equilibrium potential of half-reaction 1.1.7 is in-
dependent of the metal electrode (see Section 2.2.4). However, when mercury serves as
the locale for the hydrogen evolution reaction, the rate (characterized by a heterogeneous
rate constant) is much lower than at Pt. Under these circumstances, the reaction does not
occur at values one would predict from thermodynamics. Instead considerably higher
electron energies (more negative potentials) must be applied to make the reaction occur at
a measurable rate. The rate constant for a heterogeneous electron-transfer reaction is a
function of applied potential, unlike one for a homogeneous reaction, which is a constant
at a given temperature. The additional potential (beyond the thermodynamic requirement)
needed to drive a reaction at a certain rate is called the overpotential. Thus, it is said that
mercury shows "a high overpotential for the hydrogen evolution reaction."
When the mercury is brought to more positive values, the anodic reaction and the po-
tential for current flow also differ from those observed when Pt is used as the electrode.
8 • Chapter 1. Introduction and Overview of Electrode Processes
Hg/I-Г, ВГ(1 M)/AgBr/Ag

Cathodic
Onset of H +
reduction ,
0.5 -0.5 -1.5

Onset of Hg
oxidation
Anodic
Potential (V vs. NHE)
Figure 1.1.5 Schematic current-potential curve for the Hg electrode in the cell Hg/H + , Br (1
M)/AgBr/Ag, showing the limiting processes: proton reduction with a large negative overpotential
and mercury oxidation. The potential axis is defined through the process outlined in the caption to
Figure 1.1.4.
With Hg, the anodic background limit occurs when Hg is oxidized to Hg2Br2 at a poten-
tial near 0.14 V vs. NHE (0.07 V vs. Ag/AgBr), characteristic of the half-reaction
Hg 2 Br 2 + 2e«±2Hg 2Br" (1.1.10)
In general, the background limits depend upon both the electrode material and the solu-
tion employed in the electrochemical cell.
Finally let us consider the same cell with the addition of a small amount of Cd 2 + to
the solution,
Hg/H + ,Br"(l M), Cd 2+ (10" 3 M)/AgBr/Ag (1.1.11)
The qualitative current-potential curve for this cell is shown in Figure 1.1.6. Note the
appearance of the reduction wave at about -0.4 V vs. NHE arising from the reduction
reaction
CdBr|~ + 2e S Cd(Hg) + 4Br~ (1.1.12)
where Cd(Hg) denotes cadmium amalgam. The shape and size of such waves will be cov-
ered in Section 1.4.2. If Cd 2 + were added to the cell in Figure 1.1.3 and a current-poten-
tial curve taken, it would resemble that in Figure 1.1.4, found in the absence of Cd 2 + . At a
Pt electrode, proton reduction occurs at less positive potentials than are required for the
reduction of Cd(II), so the cathodic background limit occurs in 1 M HBr before the cad-
mium reduction wave can be seen.
In general, when the potential of an electrode is moved from its open-circuit value to-
ward more negative potentials, the substance that will be reduced first (assuming all possi-
ble electrode reactions are rapid) is the oxidant in the couple with the least negative (or
most positive) E®. For example, for a platinum electrode immersed in an aqueous solution
containing 0.01 M each of F e 3 + , Sn 4 + , and N i 2 + in 1 M HC1, the first substance reduced
will be F e 3 + , since the E° of this couple is most positive (Figure 1.1.7a). When the poten-
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his chat with the reader than he did in the story. In Beppo he
constantly wanders from the tale to pursue varied lines of thought,
192
returning to the plot more from a sense of duty than from desire.
In these talks with his audience, full of satiric references to English
manners and morals, and tinctured with mocking observations on his
contemporaries, Byron follows Casti rather than Frere.
These resemblances in outward form seem to indicate along
what lines Byron was affected by Frere’s poem. The differences in
spirit and motive between the two men are indeed striking. The
Monks, and the Giants belongs unmistakably to the burlesque
division of satire: it is, said Frere, “the burlesque of ordinary rude
uninstructed common sense—the treatment of lofty and serious
subjects by a thoroughly common, but not necessarily low-minded
193
man—a Suffolk harness maker.” The poem is, for the most part,
satiric only in an indirect and impersonal way, and there is in it very
little straightforward destructive criticism, like that in English Bards.
Nor is there any underlying bitterness or indignation; it would be
futile to seek, in these verses so marked by mildness, geniality, and
urbanity, for any purpose beyond that of amusing, in a quiet way, a
cultivated circle of friends. Even in the gossipy introduction there are
few allusions to current events, and if, as has been claimed, the
knights of the Round Table are intended to represent prominent
living personages, no one uninitiated could have discovered the
secret. Frere himself said of it: “Most people who read it at the time
it was published would not take the work in a merely humorous
sense; they would imagine it was some political satire, and went on
hunting for a political meaning.” When we recall that Byron spoke of
194
Beppo as “being full of political allusions,” we comprehend the
gap which separates the two works.
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:
195
I look for no reform or innovation,”
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
196
in Beppo eine moralische Satire gezeugt.” 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.
Of these men it is probable that Giambattista Casti (1721–1804)
is the nearest congener of Byron in the satiric field. The fact that his
work has never been subjected to careful scrutiny by critics in either
Italy or England accounts possibly for the general ignoring of Casti
197
as an inspiration for Byron’s Italian satires. In spite of Eichler’s
positive statement that the Italians “aus zeitlichen Gruenden” may
198
be neglected as sources for Byron’s work, it is certain that Byron
had read Casti before he wrote Beppo; for in 1816 he said to Major
Gordon, referring to a copy of Casti’s Novelle which the latter had
presented to him at Brussels: “I cannot tell you what a treat your
gift of Casti has been to me: I have got him almost by heart. I had
read his Animali Parlanti, but I think these Novelle much better. I
199
long to go to Venice to see the manners so admirably described.”
Not until March 25, 1818, does he mention Berni, and he does not
refer to Pulci until November, 1819. There is, then, presumptive
evidence for maintaining that Byron, coming in 1816 or before in
contact with the work of Casti, found in him some inspiration for the
satiric method of Beppo, a method somewhat modified in Don Juan
after a perusal of Berni and Pulci.
The Novelle, praised so highly by Byron, consist of forty-eight
tales in ottava rima, printed together in 1804, although at least
eighteen had been completed by 1778. Their author, a sort, of
200
itinerant rhymester, had acquired notoriety through his attacks
on the reigning sovereigns of Europe, especially on Catharine II,
whom he had assailed in Il Poema Tartaro, a realistic and venomous
portrayal of Russian society and politics, containing a violent assault
on the Empress. Although Casti’s poems are now forgotten, their
vogue during his lifetime was considerable. His greatest work, Gli
Animali Parlanti, was translated into several languages, including
English, and Casti, as an apostle of revolt, was recognized as
energetic and dangerous. His coarseness and vulgarity, however,
combined with his slovenly verse structure and his neglect of art,
prevented him from reaching a high position as a poet, and his
literary importance was thus only temporary, occasioned principally
by the popular interest in his timely satiric allusions. He, like Byron,
was at heart a rebel, and in his own uncultivated way, he anticipated
the spirit of the English poet. Indeed it is curious how often the two
pursue the same general plan of attack on their respective ages.
The Novelle Amorose are verse tales of the type which
Boccaccio, and after him, Bandello, Straparola, and their imitators,
had made popular in prose. Dealing in a laughing and lenient fashion
with the indiscretions of gallants, usually monks and priests, they are
marred by grossness and indecency in plot and language. The
cynical immorality of the stories has subjected Casti to much
unfavorable criticism. Foscolo, his countryman, speaks of him as
“spitting his venom at virtue and religion, as the sole expedient by
201
which he can palliate his own immorality.” However, the coarse
tone of the Novelle is hardly unique with Casti; he is merely adhering
to the standard of the earlier prose novelists.
The likeness between Beppo, which is an English novella in
verse, and some of Casti’s Novelle, is one in manner and spirit rather
202
than in plot and style. Byron’s story, taken as it was from an
episode with which he had met in his own experience, has no exact
parallel in Casti’s collection, but his method of handling it is not
unlike that followed by the Italian in treating of themes not greatly
dissimilar. Choosing practically at random among the Novelle—for
Casti’s plan was much the same in all—we may discover certain
peculiarities which have their counterparts in Beppo. Novella IX, Lo
Spirito, has, like Beppo, a humorous introduction, in which the
narrator, speaking, like Byron, in the first person, analyzes what is
meant by “spirit” in man or woman. He then proceeds with the
adventure of the Lady Amalia and her two lovers, describing each of
the three in a rather clever character sketch, not unlike the pictures
which Byron gives of Laura and the Count. The rival suitors pursue
different tactics in their struggles to win the lady’s favors and in
dwelling on their actions, Casti often pauses to indulge in a chuckling
aside to the reader, never so long continued as Byron’s digressions,
but in very much the same vein. Finally one of the wooers meets
with success, and the tale concludes with a bantering moral.
Doubtless this summary of Lo Spirito fails to bring out any
convincing parallelisms between it and Beppo; and it must be
granted at once that the alleged relationship is somewhat elusive.
But there are some features common to the two poems: an easy-
going tolerance towards gallantry and the social vices; a pretence of
taking the reader into the author’s confidence; a general lack of
formality and rigidity in stanza structure; and a witty and burlesque
manner of turning phrases. Although one or two of these
characteristics had appeared singly in Byron’s work before 1818,
they had appeared in conjunction in no poem of his previous to
Beppo, with the possible exception of The Devil’s Drive, which was
not in ottava rima. Obviously he could not have learned the secret of
this new mood from Frere. Thus, when we consider that until
Byron’s acquaintance with Casti’s work, this specific quality of
mockery had not existed in his satire, we have reason for thinking
that he was indebted to some extent to the Italian poet. Somehow
the English writer, once a pretended defender of clean morals, began
to take a tolerant attitude towards lapses from virtue; he changed
from formal and dignified discourse to a style easy and colloquial;
and he partly abandoned savage invective for scornful and ironic
mockery. In Beppo we realize the full purport of the transformation
which had been taking place in Byron’s satiric mood ever since his
return from Greece. Credit for this development must be given partly
to Moore and partly to Frere; but it must be assigned even more to
Casti, who first put Byron in touch directly with the Italian burlesque
spirit.
If only the Novelle were considered, however, Byron’s obligation
to Casti would be confined chiefly to Beppo, for in his tales the
Italian seldom leaves his theme, as Byron does in Don Juan, to assail
individuals or institutions. He touches lightly on the weaknesses of
human nature, on the frailties and illicit indulgences of full-blooded
men and women, but he is swayed by no impelling purpose, and he
wants the fundamental seriousness of the genuine satirist. Byron, on
the other hand, in Beppo, and still more in Don Juan, never quite
forgot the vituperative vigor which he had shown in English Bards.
But before he had seen the Novelle, Byron had read Gli Animali
Parlanti, a mammoth work which, in its scope, in its antipathies, and
in its manner, has some likeness to Don Juan. Published first in Paris
in 1802, it was pirated in a London edition a year later, and before
long had been translated into several languages. An English version
in a greatly abridged paraphrase appeared in 1816 under the title
The Court of Beasts, in seven cantos, without the translator’s
203
name. The same volume, with revisions and additions, was
reprinted in 1819 as The Court and Parliament of Beasts,—freely
translated, by Wm. St. Rose.
The Italian poem in three parts and twenty-six cantos is written,
not, as has been often taken for granted, in the ottava rima, but in
the less common sesta rima, a stanza of six endecasyllabic lines,
rhyming ababcc. As its title suggests, it is a beast epic, an
elaboration of the fables of Æsop and La Fontaine; but the allegory
veils deliberate and continuous satire. In his prose preface, Casti
explains his object as being the presentation, with talking animals as
actors, of “un quadro generale delle costumanze, delle opinioni, e
dei pregiudizi dal pubblico adottati, riguardo al governo, all’
amministrazione ed alla politica degli Stati, come delle passioni
dominanti di coloro, che in certe eminenti e pubbliche situazioni
collocati si trovano, colorandolo con tinte forti, ed alquanto caricate,
le quali facilmente ne relevino l’expressione—un quadro in somma
della cosa, e non delle persone.” Casti, then, planned a
comprehensive satire on his own age, and despite his assertion that
his poem is “a picture of things, and not of persons,” his real object
was, like Byron’s, to “play upon the surface of humanity.”
The actual plot of Gli Animali Parlanti may be briefly told. The
animals gather to organize a scheme of government, and, deciding
on an hereditary monarchy, choose the lion for their king. At his
death, a regency, headed by the lioness, is established for his son,
and conspiracy and corruption develop. The dog, the first Prime
Minister, is superseded by the wolf, and becomes a rebel. Civil war
ensues, and when, at length, all the conflicting parties unite for a
conference, they are destroyed by a terrible storm. This, of course,
is the barest outline of the story; the framework is filled out by
argument and criticism by the various protagonists, many of whom,
notably the dog, the horse, and the bear, represent political factions,
conservative, moderate, and progressive. No small amount of satire
lies in the actions and speeches of the beasts, who are intended to
represent different types of humanity; their court is a mirror of the
courts of western Europe, and the abuses which pervade it are those
which Casti had seen on his travels. The animals are, in all save
external appearances, like men.
Not enough of a reformer to evolve remedies, Casti was,
nevertheless, alert in detecting faults in the inert institutions of his
time and daring in his methods of assailing them. His poem, thus, is
a hostile picture of politics and society in the Europe of the latter half
of the eighteenth century, painted by a man who had studied his
subject from a cosmopolitan standpoint. Gli Animali Parlanti is a
radical document, designed to expose the flaws in existing systems.
Even fads and foibles are not beneath its notice. It jeers at the
academies so popular in Italy in Casti’s youth, especially the
204
notorious Accademia dell’ Arcadia ; it makes sport of pedants and
205 206
antiquaries ; it scorns literary and political sycophants ; it is
207
bitter against theological quibbles, against monks, and against
208
superstitious practices. Throughout it all runs Casti’s hatred of
despotism, and his dislike of hypocrisy and cant. It is not, indeed,
unfair to Byron to declare that the scope of Gli Animali Parlanti is, in
some respects, as broad and comprehensive as that of Don Juan.
It is interesting, as far as the material of Casti’s poem is
concerned, to notice that Casti is an advocate of what were to be
some of Byron’s pet theories. For both men liberty is a favorite
watchword. The horse, who seems to be spokesman for Casti
himself, cries out,
209
“Noi d’ogni giogo pria liberi, e sciolti,”
an assertion exactly in the spirit of Byron’s words,
“I wish men to be free

210
As much from mobs as kings—from you as me.”
A similar mood led them both to lay an emphasis on the seamy and
gruesome side of war, and to condemn it as unnecessary and
degrading. Casti, after picturing all the horrors of a battle-field,
exclaims,
“Crudelissime bestie! O bestie nate

211
Per lo sterminio della vostra spezie.”
This is in the same tone as Byron’s remark about the futility of war:
“Oh, glorious laurel! since for one sole leaf

Of thine imaginary deathless tree,
212
Of blood and tears must flow the unending sea.”
Again and again in the two poems we meet with marked
coincidences in the manifestations of the revolt of the two poets
against the laws and customs of their respective periods.
Don Juan, moreover, has many of the peculiar methods which,
partly the product of tradition in Italian burlesque poetry, and
occasionally the idiosyncrasies of Casti himself, are used regularly in
Gli Animali Parlanti. Casti, for instance, protests continually in
humorous fashion that he is dealing only with facts:
“Poeta son io, non son causidico,

213
E mio difetto è sol d’esser veridico.”
His unfailing insistence on this point gives his repeated professions

an air of stock conventionality. Byron also employs this mocking
manner of calling attention to the verisimilitude of his own work:
“My muse by no means deals in fiction;

214
She gathers a repertory of facts.”
More significant, perhaps, is the colloquial tone which Casti

habitually adopts towards his readers, turning to them constantly to
speak about himself, his plans, and his difficulties, sometimes to
apologize, sometimes to make a confession:—
“M’attengo a ciò che tocco, a ciò che vedo,

215
Ne mi diverto a far castella in aria.”
This sort of intimate gossip is also characteristic of Don Juan; indeed

Byron has elucidated his theory of procedure:
“I rattle on exactly as I’d talk
216
With anybody in a ride or walk.”
At the end of cantos this affectation of taking the public into

confidence often becomes in Gli Animali Parlanti a kind of sham
humility, coupled usually with the poet’s promise to return another
day, if encouraged. Thus Casti closes a canto in this fashion:
“Ma spossatello omai mi sento e roco,

Ne in grado più proseguire il canto,
Permettetemi dunque, almen per poco,
Ch’io prenda fiato, e mi riposi alquanto.
Che poi, qualor vi piaccia, io sarò pronto
217
A riprendere il fil del mio racconto.”
There is space for quoting only one of several similar endings from
Don Juan:
“But, for the present, gentle reader! and

Still gentler purchaser! the Bard—that’s I—
Must, with your permission, shake you by the hand,
218
And so—‘your humble servant, and Good-bye!’”
These asides recall the personal paragraphs and short essays which
Fielding, and after him, Thackeray, were accustomed to insert in
their novels. Their importance in Don Juan cannot be overestimated,
for, as it will be necessary to emphasize later, the satiric element in
that poem is brought out chiefly through these digressions, in which
the author gives free vent to his personality. Some traces of this
method had appeared even in the first two cantos of Childe
219
Harold ; and, to some degree, it had been utilized in several of
Byron’s short verse epistles to friends. However the discursive style
is not common in the poet’s work before Beppo, and after that, at
least in his satires, it comes to be conspicuous. Even Frere, familiar
as he was with the Italians, did not realize the full value of the
digression until he wrote the last two cantos of The Monks and the
Giants, and, moreover, he never used it as an instrument for satire.
It is, therefore, reasonable to suppose that Byron found a pattern for
his procedure in the burlesque writers themselves and particularly in
Casti. There are, however, some variations in Byron’s employment of
this device. He extended the colloquial aside until it verged almost
into a prolonged monologue or satirical sermon; and whereas Casti,
in Gli Animali Parianti, seldom made use of the digression as an
opportunity for personal satire, Byron improved the chance to speak
out directly, in the first person, against his enemies. Casti advanced
his destructive criticism largely through his narrative, by allusion,
insinuation, and irony, in a manner quite indirect, keeping himself, as
far as open satire was concerned, very much in the background. In
Don Juan, on the contrary, as the poem lengthened into the later
cantos, Byron tended more and more to neglect the plot and to
reveal himself as a commentator on life.
In many respects, Casti’s third poem, Il Poema Tartaro, which
has never been mentioned in connection with Byron and which was
never referred to by the English poet, is even more closely akin than
Gli Animali Parlanti to Don Juan. It is possible that it may have
offered a suggestion for a portion of the plot of Don Juan—the
episode of Catharine II. It shows Casti speaking, for once, directly
against great personages, bestowing upon them fictitious titles, but
not at any pains to conceal the significance of his allusions. As Il
Poema Tartaro is little known, it is essential to dwell somewhat upon
its plot and general character.
The poem, which is made up of twelve cantos in ottava rima,
treats mainly of the Russia of the Empress Catharine II. Most of the
important actors are historical figures, disguised under pseudonyms:
thus Catharine is called Cattuna or Turrachina; Potemkin, her famous
minister, is Toto; and Joseph II, who receives his share of adulation,
is Orenzebbe. No one of these characters is drawn with any effort at
secrecy; indeed, in most editions, a complete key is provided.
In its chief features the narrative element of Il Poema Tartaro is
not unlike that of some sections of Don Juan. The hero, a wandering
Irishman, Tomasso Scardassale, like Juan a child of pleasure and
fortune unembarrassed by moral convictions, joins a pilgrimage to
the Holy Land. Eventually he is captured by the infidels, falls into the
hands of the Caliph of Bagdad, and while a prisoner at his court,
engages in a liaison with Zelmira, a member of the harem. An
appointment to the office of Chief Eunuch having been forced upon
him, he flees with his inamorata and, after some escapades, arrives
at St. Petersburg, where he has the good luck to please the
Empress. Soon, without any manifest reluctance on his part, he
occupies the position of official favorite, is loaded with money and
honors, and becomes, for a time, the second highest personage in
the realm. After various incidents, including a rebellion against the
empress suppressed only with difficulty, and visits of many
contemporary monarchs to the capital, Potemkin, Catharine’s former
lover, jealous of Tomasso’s rise to power, succeeds in bringing about
his downfall, and the discarded Irishman, suffering the usual penalty
of the Empress’s caprices, is exiled to a far corner of Russia. At this
point, Casti’s poem, becoming prophetic, diverges entirely from
history. There is an uprising led by the Grand Duke; Catharine and
Potemkin are seized and banished; and the Grand Duke is declared
emperor. Somewhat dramatically the poet describes the meeting
between the dethroned Catharine and Tomasso. 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

220
Ne’ servigi d’amor troppo esigea,”
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
221
At sight, nor would permit you to discount.”
She is generous to her favorites: Casti makes her confess,
“Amare e premiar l’amato ogetto

222
Sole è per me felicita e diletto,”
And Byron refers particularly to her Kindness:

223
“Love had made Catharine make each lover’s fortune.”
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,
224
E colle donne avea sempre un buon giucco.”
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
225
Catharine. Another curious coincidence occurs in the efforts of
the court physician to cure the apparent debility of Tomasso and
226
Juan. 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
227
comprehensive. Like Byron, he ridicules the Russian language,
228
attacks literary fads, criticises customs-duties, and enters into a
vigorous denunciation of war. In speaking of soldiers who clash in
civil strife, he says, with bitter truth:
“Non è nobil coraggio e valor vero

Con queste schiere e quello incontro mena,
Ma l’impunito di ladron mestiero
229
Cui legge alcuna, alcun poter non frena.”
Byron makes a charge of the same kind in portraying mercenary

warriors as,
“Not fighting for their country or its crown,
But wishing to be one day brigadiers;
230
Also to have the sacking of a town.”
The whole of Canto VI in Il Poema Tartaro may be compared with

Byron’s description of the siege of Ismail in Don Juan, VII and VIII.
Both scenes are presented with grim and graphic realism, without
any softening of the horrors and disgusting incidents of warfare.
In Il Poema Tartaro, more than in his other productions, Casti
ventured to resort to genuine personal satire. He assailed not only
Catharine, but also Potemkin, Prince Henry of Prussia, Gustavus III
of Sweden, the Sultan of Egypt, and the king of Denmark, to
mention only figures who have a prominent place in history. His
method being still usually indirect and dramatic, Casti seldom lets
himself appear as accuser, but puts criticism of these sovereigns into
the mouths of his characters, especially Tomasso’s friend, Siveno,
who acts as the favorite’s mentor and guide. A whole race may
arouse Casti’s anger—
“Contro il mogol superbo, e vile

Mi sento in sen esaltar la bile”—
but he is too wise to let himself be entangled in any controversy.

This discretion does not, necessarily, imply cowardice or fear, for his
indirect attacks are often as malignant as any of Byron’s more direct
invectives, and their victims cannot be mistaken. Byron, however,
always wished to meet his enemies face to face, while Casti
preferred to reach his in a less open way.
In general, the methods employed in Il Poema Tartaro are those
used in Gli Animali Parlanti. There are the same short digressions,
illustrated in such passages as,
“Ciò di Toto piccar dovea la boria
231
E con ragion; ma proseguiam la storia,”
in which the author pulls himself away in order to continue his

narrative, and which have frequently almost the same phraseology
as Byron’s “Return we to our story.” Sometimes the digressions take
the form of philosophical reflections on various abstract subjects
such as death, mutability, or love:
“Amor, la bella passion che i petti

232
Empie si soavissima dolcezza.”
We meet often with the familiar insistence on the veracious

233
character of the author’s writing. Irony occurs intermittently,
mingled at times with sarcasm.
One peculiarity of Casti’s manner deserves particular attention,
although it is not unique with him and is derived originally from the
earlier burlesque poets. This is his habit of shifting the mood from
the serious to the ludicrous by the use of unexpected phrases.
Examples of this sudden turn in thought are numerous in Il Poema
Tartaro. When the report of rebellion arrives at the Russian court,
the description of terrible alarm ends with the couplet,
“Costernata è la corte epicurea

234
E venne a Toctabei la diarrea.”
The exiled Empress, coming upon her old favorite, Tomasso, cries,
“Ah, non m’inganno no, quegli è Tomasso
235
Mel dice il core e lo cognosco al naso.”
No reader of Don Juan needs to be reminded how often Byron cuts

short a sentimental passage with a remark which makes the entire
situation ridiculous. The secret of this continual interplay between
gravity and absurdity had never been mastered by Frere;
undoubtedly it is one of the tricks for which Byron was particularly
indebted to Casti and to Casti’s predecessors, Pulci and Berni.
Casti’s style and language is usually flat and insipid,
undistinguished by beauty or rhythm. “His diction,” says Foscolo, “is
without grace or purity.” He is often coarse and unnecessarily
obscene. These considerations make it improbable that Byron could
have been affected by Casti’s poetic style, for, despite the
sensuousness of some portions of Don Juan, the English poet rarely
allowed himself to sink into the positive indecencies so common in
Casti’s work.
On the other hand, the two men are united by their aims and
motives. With all that is petty and offensive in Casti’s satire, there is
mingled a real love of liberty and an unswerving hatred of
despotism. No other poet in English or Italian literature of the latter
eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries attempted an indictment
of his age, at once so hostile and so comprehensive as those which
Casti and Byron tried to make. More significant still, Casti, unlike
Pulci, Berni, and Frere, was modern in spirit, and played with vital
questions in society and government. He was close to Byron’s own
epoch, and the objects of his wrath, as far as systems and
institutions are concerned, were the objects of Byron’s satire. Up to
a certain point, too, Byron followed Casti’s methods: he is colloquial,
discursive, and gossipy; he cares little for plot structure; he employs
irony and mockery, as well as invective; and he skips, in a single
stanza, from seriousness to absurdity. The differences between the
two poets are to be attributed chiefly to the Englishman’s genius and
powerful personality. He was more of an egotist than Casti, more
vehement, more straightforward, more impulsive, and was able to fill
Don Juan with his individuality as Casti was never able to do with Gli
Animali Parlanti and Il Poema Tartaro.
Certain facts in the relationship between Casti and Byron seem,
then, to be clear. At a period before the composition of Beppo, Byron
had read and enjoyed in the original Italian, the Novelle and Gli
Animali Parlanti. Numerous features in Beppo and Don Juan which
resemble characteristics of Casti’s poems had, apparently, existed
combined in no English work before Byron’s time. In addition,
internal evidence makes it a possibility that Byron was familiar with
Il Poema Tartaro, and that he borrowed from it something of its
material and its spirit. The probability is that Byron was influenced,
to an extent greater than has been ordinarily supposed, by the
example and the methods of Casti.
Byron’s acquaintance with Pulci and Berni did not, apparently,
begin until after the publication of Beppo. On March 25, 1818, he
wrote Murray, in speaking of Beppo: “Berni is the original of all—
Berni is the father of that kind of writing, which, I think, suits our
236
language, too, very well.” On February 21, 1820, while he was
busy with his translation of Pulci’s Morgante Maggiore, he said of
Pulci’s poem, to Murray: “It is the parent, not only of Whistlecraft,
237
but of all jocose Italian poetry.” These assertions indicate that
Byron classed Beppo and Don Juan with the work of the Italian
burlesque writers, eventually coming to recognize Pulci as the
founder of the school.
Luigi Pulci (1432–1484), a member of the literary circle which
gathered at the court of Lorenzo de’ Medici in the latter half of the
sixteenth century and which included, among others, Poliziano,
Ficino, and Michelangelo, composed the Morgante Maggiore, “the
first romantic poem of the Renaissance.” Designed probably to be
read or recited at Lorenzo’s table, it was finally completed in
February, 1483, as a poem in ottava rima, containing twenty-eight
238
cantos and some 30,000 lines. Although the plotting and
consummation of Gan’s treason against Charlemagne lends a crude
unity to the romance, it is actually a series of battles, combats, and
marvellous adventures loosely strung together. The titular hero,
Morgante, dies in the twentieth canto. The matter is that of the
Carolingian legend, now so well-known in the work of Pulci’s
successors.
Historically, as the precursor of Berni, Ariosto, and the other
singers of Carolingian romance, Pulci occupies the position of
pioneer. For our purposes, however, the significance of his work lies
less in the incidents of his narrative, the greater part of which he
purloined, than in the poet’s personality and the transformation
which his grotesque and fanciful genius accomplished with its
material. Through much humorous and ironic digression, through
some amusing interpolated episodes, through a balancing of the
serious and the comic elements of the story, through a style popular
in origin and humorous in effect, and through the creation of two
new characters, the giant Margutte and the demon Astarotte, he
made his poem a reflection of his own bourgeois individuality, clever,
tolerant, and irrepressible in its inclination to seize upon the
burlesque possibilities in men or events.
That the Morgante Maggiore is a burlesque poem is due not so
much to deliberate design on Pulci’s part as to the unconscious
reflection of his boisterous, full-blooded, yet at the same time,
meditative nature. It is unwise to attribute to him any motive beyond
that of amusing his audience. In spite of its apparent irreverence,
the Morgante was probably not planned as a satire on chivalry or on
the church, Pulci—“the lively, affecting, hopeful, charitable, large-
hearted Luigi Pulci,” as Hunt called him—was at bottom kindly and
sympathetic, and his work displays a robust geniality and good-
humor which had undoubtedly some influence on Don Juan. We
rarely find Pulci in a fury; at times his merriment is not far from
Rabelaisian, however always without a trace of indignation, for his
levity and playfulness seem genuine. This very tolerance is perhaps
the product of Renaissance skepticism, which viewed both
dogmatism and infidelity with suspicion. Deep emotion, tragedy, and
pathos are all to be met with in the Morgante, but each is counter-
balanced by mockery, comedy, or realism. It is this recurring
antithesis, this continual introduction of the grotesque into the midst
of what is, by itself, dignified and serious, that is the distinctive
peculiarity of Pulci’s manner. The mere turn of a phrase makes a
situation absurd. There is no intensity about this Florentine; he
espouses no theories and advocates no creeds; he is content to have
his laugh and to set others chuckling.
This summary may be of service in suggesting one reason why,
in the later cantos of Don Juan, we sometimes are met with a
tolerance almost sympathetic, widely differing from the passionate
narrowness of English Bards. Pulci, unlike Byron, was not a declared
satirist; his theme was in the past, steeped in legend and myth; but
something of his spirit, difficult to analyze as that spirit may be,
tempered and modified the satire of the older Byron.
Byron’s first definite reference to Pulci occurs in a portion of Don
Juan written in November, 1819:
“Pulci was sire of the half-serious rhyme,

Who sang when chivalry was not Quixotic,
And revelled in the fancies of the time,
239
True knights, chaste dames, huge giants, Kings despotic.”
However, Don Juan, III, 45, presenting a possible parallelism with

the Morgante, XVIII, 115, would indicate that Byron was familiar
240
with Pulci’s poem at least some months before. On February 7,
1820, he wrote Murray: “I am translating the first canto of Pulci’s
241
Morgante Maggiore, and have half done it.” In speaking of the
completion of the translation, of which he was very proud, he told
Murray, February 12, 1820: “You must print it side by side with the
original Italian, because I wish the reader to judge of the fidelity; it
242
is stanza for stanza, and often line for line, if not word for word.”
In the Preface to the translation, printed with it in The Liberal, July
30, 1823, Byron uttered his final word on the Italian writer: “Pulci
may be regarded as the precursor and model of Berni altogether....
He is no less the founder of a new style of poetry lately sprung up in
England. I allude to that of the ingenious Whistlecraft.” It is evident,
then, that Byron estimated Pulci’s work very highly, that he was
acquainted, probably, with the entire Morgante Maggiore and had
studied the first canto, at least, in detail, and that he considered him
the original model of Berni and Frere.
It remains to point out specific qualities in manner and style
243
which link the two poets together. Towards the narrative portion
of the Morgante, Byron seems to have been indifferent. In Don Juan
there is but one clear allusion to the Carolingian legend:
“Just now, enough; but bye and bye I’ll prattle

244
Like Roland’s horn in Roncesvalles’ battle.”
There is a fairly close parallel already pointed out between the

response of a servant to Lambro in Don Juan, III, 45, and Margutte’s
speech in the Morgante, XVIII, 115. There are, however, no other
incidents in Don Juan which resemble any part of the earlier poem.
Pulci’s realism, a quality which is usually in itself burlesque when
it is applied to a romantic subject, is shown in his fondness for
homely touches and minute details, in his use of words out of the
street and proverbs from the lips of the populace. The interjection of
the lower-class spirit into the poem helped to make the Morgante in
actuality what Frere had tried to produce in The Monks, and the
Giants—a treatment of heroic characters and deeds by a bourgeois
mind. The spectacle of the common vulgar details in the every-day
life of men supposedly great naturally somewhat degrades the
heroes. When Byron portrays General Suwarrow as
245
“Hero, buffoon, half-demon, and half-dirt,”
he is following the methods of Pulci, who made his giants gluttons
246
and his Rinaldo a master of Billingsgate. In the Morgante
warriors are continually being put into ludicrous situations: Morgante
fights his battles with a bell-clapper; Rinaldo knocks a Saracen into a
247
bowl of soup ; and the same noble, turned robber, threatens to
steal from St. Peter and to seize the mantles of St. Ursula and the
248
Angel Gabriel. Pulci compares Roncesvalles to a pot in much the
249
same spirit that Byron likens a rainbow to a black eye. Pulci is
fond of cataloguing objects, especially the varieties of food served at
banquets; and Byron shows the same propensity in describing in
detail the viands provided for the feast of Haidée and Juan, and the
dinner at Norman Abbey. Pulci’s realism is also manifest in his use of
slang and the language of low life. In this respect, too, Byron is little
behind him: Juan fires his pistol “into one assailant’s pudding”; slang
phrases are frequently introduced into Don Juan, and elevated poetic
style is made more vivid by contrast with intentionally prosaic
passages.
Another peculiarity of Pulci is his tendency to make use of many
Tuscan proverbs and to coin sententious apothegms of his own. The
framework of the octave lends itself easily to compact maxims in the
final couplet, and perhaps it is due to this fact that Don Juan and the
Morgante are both crammed with epigrams. In Pulci’s poetry one
meets on nearly every page with such apt sayings as
250
“La fede è fatta, come fa il solletico”
and
251
“Co’ santi in chiesa, e co’ ghiotti in taverna.”
One example out of the many in Don Juan will suffice for
quotation:—
252
“Adversity is the first path to truth.”
Possibly the fact that the Morgante was first recited to the
members of Lorenzo’s circle is chiefly responsible for Pulci’s habit of
turning often to his listeners, inviting them, as it were, to draw
nearer and share his confidence. Thus he confesses:
“Non so se il vero appunto anche si disse;

Accetta il savio in fin la veria gloria;
253
E cosi seguirem la nostra storia.”
Byron speaks repeatedly in this sort of mocking apology:
“If my thunderbolt not always rattles,

Remember, reader! you have had before,
254
The worst of tempests and the best of battles.”
Both poets assume, at times, an affected modesty: thus at the very

end of the Morgante Pulci asserts that he is not presumptuous:
“Io non domando grillanda d’alloro,

Di che i Greci e i Latini chieggon corona....
Anzi non son prosuntuoso tanto,
Quanto quel folle antico citarista
A cui tolse gia Apollo il vivo ammanto;...
E cio ch’ io penso colla fantasia,
255
Di piacere ad ognuno e ’l mio disegno.”
So Byron refers to his own lack of ambition:

“I perch upon an humbler promontory,
Amidst Life’s infinite variety;
256
With no great care for what is nicknamed Glory.”
At the end of nearly every canto of the Morgante is a promise of

continuation, so phrased as to seem conventional: e. g.,
“Come io diro ne l’altro mio cantare.”
The same custom became common with Byron, in such lines as,
“Let this fifth canto meet with due applause,

257
The sixth shall have a touch of the sublime.”
There is, however, one important distinction between the two poets
in their use of the digression: Pulci employs it for cursory comment
on his story, or for chat about himself; Byron utilizes it not only for
these purposes, but also for the expression of satire. It is in his
digressions that he speaks out directly against individuals,
institutions, and society in general. The Morgante is a tale, with an
occasional remark by the author; Don Juan is a monologue,
sustained by a narrative framework.
Pulci’s comparison of his poetry to a boat is introduced so
frequently that it may possibly have suggested the figure to Byron. A
typical instance of its usage may be quoted in the lines:—
“Io me n’andro con la barchetta mia,

258
Quanto l’acqua comporta un picciol legno.”
Byron’s employment of the metaphor is also somewhat frequent:—

“At the least I have shunned the common shore,
And leaving land far out of sight, would skim
The Ocean of Eternity: the roar
Of breakers has not daunted my slight, trim,
But still seaworthy skiff; and she may float,
259
Where ships have foundered, as doth many a boat.”
It should be added that the brief “grace before meat,” so

apparently truely devotional in phraseology, which Pulci prefixed to
each of his cantos, and the equally orthodox epilogues in which he
gave a benediction to his readers, are his own peculiarity, borrowed
unquestionably from the street improvisatori. There is nothing
corresponding to them in Don Juan.
Both Pulci and Byron were men of wide reading, and not averse
to displaying and making use of their information. Pulci treats the
older poets without reverence: he quotes Dante’s “dopo la dolorosa
260
rotta” without acknowledgment ; he burlesques the famous
phrase about Aristotle by having Morgante call Margutte “il mæstro
di color che sanno”; and he alludes to Petrarch with a wink:—
“O sommo amore, o nuova cortesia!

Vedi che forse ognun si crede ancora,
Che questo verso del Petrarca fa:
Ed è gia tanto, e’ lo disse Rinaldo;
261
Ma chi non ruba è chiamato rubaldo.”
This recalls Byron’s exhortation at the end of Don Juan, I, when,

after quoting four lines from Southey, he adds:
“The first four rhymes are Southey’s every line:

For God’s sake, reader! take them not for mine.”
In a similar way Byron gives four lines from Campbell’s Gertrude of
Wyoming, and comments upon them in Don Juan, I, 88–89.
This discussion would be incomplete if it did not mention Pulci’s
fondness for philosophical reflection, meditations on life and death,
on joy and sorrow. Volpi has attempted to demonstrate that Pulci,
like many so-called humorists, was really, under the mask, a sad
man. In making good this thesis he takes such lines as these as
indicative of Pulci’s true attitude towards the problems of
existence:—
“Questa nostra mortal caduca vista

Fasciata ē sempre d’un oscuro velo;
E spesso il vero scambia alia menzogna;
262
Poi si risveglia, come fa chi sogna.”
However this may be, it is certain that Pulci, in his more thoughtful
moods, inclined to pessimism and intellectual scepticism.
“Pulci’s versification,” says Foscolo, “is remarkably fluent; yet he
is deficient in melody.” Another critic, the author of the brief note in
the Parnaso Italiano, mentions his rapidity and his compression: “Tu
troverai pochi poeti, che viaggino so velocemente, come il Pulci, il
qualo in otti versi dice spesso piu di otte cose.” For this fluency and
its corresponding lack of rhythm, the conversational tone of the
Morgante is largely responsible. The many colloquial digressions and
the use of common idioms hinder any approach to a grand style.
Pulci’s indifference to the strict demands of metre, his employment
of abrupt and disconnected phrases, and his frequent sacrifice of
melody to vigor and compactness, are also characteristic of Byron’s
method in his Italian satires. Although Don Juan contains some of
Byron’s most musical passages, it nevertheless gives the impression
of having been, like the Morgante, composed for an audience, the
speaker being, perhaps, governed by rough notes, but tempted from
his theme into extemporaneous observations, and caring so little for
regularity or unity of structure that he feels no compunction about
obeying the inclination of the moment. It is not without some
acuteness that he alludes to,
“Mine irregularity of chime,

Which rings what’s uppermost of new or hoary,
263
Just as I feel the Improvvisatore.”
Specifically in the field of satire, Pulci’s work, important though it

264
was in some features of style and manner, exercised its greatest
influence on Byron’s mood. The chastening effect of Byron’s life on
his poetic genius had made him peculiarly receptive to the spirit of
Pulci’s poem; and accordingly the Italian poet taught him to take life
and his enemies somewhat less seriously, to be more tolerant and
more genial, to make playfulness and humor join with vituperation in
his satire. Byron’s satiric spirit, through his contact with Pulci,
became more sympathetic, and therefore more universal.
To Berni, whom he, at one time, considered to be the true
master of the Italian burlesque genre, Byron has few references. We
have seen how he was induced to revise his first opinion and to
recognize in Pulci “the precursor and model of Berni altogether.” In
the advertisement to the translation of the Morgante he asserted
that Berni, in his rifacimento, corrected the “harsh style” of Boiardo.
These meagre data, however, furnish no clue to the possible
influence of Berni’s work upon Don Juan.
265
Francesco Berni (1496?-1535) is important here chiefly
because of his rifacimento, or revision, of Boiardo’s Orlando
Innamorato. In accomplishing this task he completely made over
Boiardo’s romance by refining the style, polishing the verse-
structure, inserting lengthy digressions of his own and following a
scheme instituted by Ariosto, prefacing each canto with a sort of
essay in verse. Berni’s purpose, indeed, was to make the Innamorato
worthy of the Furioso. His version, however, owing probably to the
malice of some enemy, has reached us only in a mutilated form. As it
stands, nevertheless, it possesses certain features which distinguish
it from the work of Pulci on the one hand and that of Casti on the
other.
The influence which Berni may have had on Byron’s satires
comes mainly from two features of the former’s work: his
introductions to separate cantos, and his admirable style and
versification. It was Berni’s habit to soliloquize before beginning his
story: thus Canto IX of the Innamorato commences with a
philosophical disquisition on the unexpected character of most
human misfortunes, leading, by a natural step, to the plot itself. So,
in Don Juan, only one canto—the second—begins with the tale itself;
266
every other has a preliminary discussion of one sort or another. It
was also Berni’s custom to take formal leave of his readers at the
267
end of each canto, and to add a promise of what was to come.
This habit, all but universal with the Italian narrative poets, Byron
followed, although his farewell occurs sometimes even before the
very last stanza. A typical example may be quoted:
“It is time to ease

This Canto, ere my Muse perceives fatigue.
The next shall ring a peal to shake all people,
268
Like a bob-major from a village steeple.”
Berni’s style and diction are far superior to Pulci’s. Count

Giammaria Mazzuchelli, in the edition of Berni in Classici Italiani,
says of this feature of his work: “La, facilita della rima congiunta alia
naturallezza dell’ espressione, e la vivacita de’ pensieri degli scherzi
uniti a singolare coltura nello stile sono in lui si maravigliose, che
viene egli considerate come il capo di si fatta poesia, la quale percio
ha presa da lui la denominazione, e suol chimarsi Bernesca.” He
alone of the three Italian burlesque writers considered, succeeded in
269
creating a masterpiece of literary art. In this respect, then, his
influence on Byron may have been salutary.
Henri Beyle (1783–1842), the self-styled M. Stendhal, is
responsible for the theory, since repeated by other critics, that
Byron’s Italian satires owe much to the work of the Venetian dialect
poet, Pietro Buratti (1772–1832). When Beyle was with Byron in
Milan in November, 1816, he heard Silvio Pellico speak to Byron of
Buratti as a charming poet, who, every six months, by the governor’s
orders, paid a visit to the prisons of Venice. Beyle’s account of the
ensuing events runs as follows: “In my opinion, this conversation
with Silvio Pellico gave the tone to Byron’s subsequent poetical
career. He eagerly demanded the name of the bookseller who sold
M. Buratti’s works; and as he was accustomed to the expression of
Milanese bluntness, the question excited a hearty laugh at his
expense. He was soon informed that if Buratti wished to pass his
whole life in prison, the appearance of his works in print would
infallibly lead to the gratification of his desires; and besides, where
could a printer be found hardy enough to run his share of the risk?—
The next day, the charming Contessina N. was kind enough to lend
her collection to one of our party. Byron, who imagined himself an
adept in the language of Dante and Ariosto, was at first rather
puzzled by Buratti’s manuscripts. We read over with him some of
Goldoni’s comedies, which enabled him at last to comprehend
Buratti’s satires. I persist in thinking, that for the composition of
Beppo, and subsequently of Don Juan, Byron was indebted to the
270
reading of Buratti’s poetry.”
A statement so plain by a man of Beyle’s authority deserves
some attention. The first question which arises in connection with
his assertion is naturally, what work Buratti had done before 1817,
271
when Byron began the composition of Beppo. After a dissipated
boyhood, Buratti had become a member of the Corte dei Busoni, a
pseudo-Academy which devoted its attention chiefly to satire.
Although he was the author of several early lampoons, his first
political satire was recited in 1813 among a party of friends at the
home of Counsellor Galvagna in Venice. It is, in substance, a
lamentation over the fate of Venice, with invective directed against
the French army of occupation; Malamani styles it “a masterpiece of
subtle sarcasm.” Eventually, through the treachery of apparent
friends, the verses came to French ears, and Buratti was imprisoned
for thirty days, his punishment, however, being somewhat lightened
by powerful patrons. Shortly after this episode, he circulated some
quatrains of a scurrilous nature on Filippo Scolari, a pedantic youth
who had criticised contemporary literary men in a supercilious way.
For these insults, Scolari tried to have Buratti apprehended again,
but the latter, although he was forced to sign an agreement to write
no more satires, received only a reprimand. During this period he
had also directed several pasquinades at an eccentric priest, Don
Domenico Marienis, who seems to have been a general object of
ridicule in Venice.
Such, according to Malamani, was the extent of Buratti’s work up
to 1816. His masterpiece, the Storia dell’ Elefante, was not written
until 1819, too late to have been a strong influence even on Don
Juan. Of this early satiric verse, no one important poem was
composed in ottava rima. The poems, all short and of no especial
value as literature, used the Venetian dialect, as far removed from
pure Tuscan as Scotch is from English. Their most noticeable
characteristic is their prevailing irony, a method of satire of which
Byron only occasionally availed himself. With these facts in mind,
and with the additional knowledge that Byron was unquestionably
influenced by the burlesque writers, it is improbable that Beyle’s
theory deserves any credence. Beyle has made it clear that Byron, at
one time, read Buratti’s work with interest; but he has failed to show
how the English poet could have acquired anything, either in matter
272
or in style, from the Italian satirist.
Of other Italian poems sometimes mentioned as possibly
contributing something to Don Juan, no one is worth more than a
cursory notice. La Secchia Rapita, by Tassoni (1565–1635), is a
genuine mock-heroic, the model for Boileau’s Lutrin and, to some

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summarize Frere’s conservative position. He was a Tory, and Byron

“I wish men to be free

“Crudelissime bestie! O bestie nate

“Oh, glorious laurel! since for one sole leaf

“Poeta son io, non son causidico,

His unfailing insistence on this point gives his repeated professions

“My muse by no means deals in fiction;

More significant, perhaps, is the colloquial tone which Casti

“M’attengo a ciò che tocco, a ciò che vedo,

This sort of intimate gossip is also characteristic of Don Juan; indeed

At the end of cantos this affectation of taking the public into

“Ma spossatello omai mi sento e roco,

“But, for the present, gentle reader! and

“Per uso e per natura

and Byron echoes precisely the same idea:

“She could repay each amatory look you lent

She is generous to her favorites: Casti makes her confess,

“Amare e premiar l’amato ogetto

And Byron refers particularly to her Kindness:

“Éra grande e bel giovine,—

“Non è nobil coraggio e valor vero

Byron makes a charge of the same kind in portraying mercenary

The whole of Canto VI in Il Poema Tartaro may be compared with

“Contro il mogol superbo, e vile

but he is too wise to let himself be entangled in any controversy.

in which the author pulls himself away in order to continue his