The sustained popularity of the Don Juan legend is undoubtedly due in great measure to Mozart's incomparable setting of Da Ponte's mediocre libretto. In this pale version of _El Burlador de Sevilla_ the French romantic school made acquaintance with Don Juan, and hence, no doubt, the works of Mérimée and Dumas already mentioned, Balzac's _Élexir d'une longue vie_, and Alfred de Musset's _Une Matinée de Don Juan_ and _Namouna_. The legend has been treated subsequently by Flaubert and Barbey d'Aurevilly in France, by Landau and Heyse in Germany, and by Sacher-Masoch in Austria. It has always fascinated composers. Mozart's _Don Giovanni_ has annihilated the earlier operas of Le Tellier, Righini, Tritto, Gardi and Gazzaniga; but Gluck's ballet-music still survives, and Henry Purcell's setting--the oldest of all--has saved some of Shadwell's insipid lyrics from oblivion.
BIBLIOGRAPHY.--F. de Simone Brouwer, _Don Giovanni nella poesia e nell' arte musicale_ (Napoli, 1894); A. Farinelli, _Don Giovanni: Note critiche_ (Torino, 1896); A. Farinelli, _Cuatro palabras sobre Don Juan y la literatura donjuanesca del porvenir_ in the _Homenaje á Menéndez y Pelayo_ (Madrid, 1899), vol. i. pp. 205-222. (J. F.-K.)
DONKIN, SIR RUFANE SHAW (1773-1841), British soldier, came of a military family. His father, who died, a full general, in 1821, served with almost all British commanders from Wolfe to Gage. Rufane Donkin was the eldest child, and received his first commission at the age of five in his father's regiment; he joined, at fourteen, with eight years' seniority as a lieutenant. Becoming a captain in 1793, he was on active service in the West Indies in 1794, and (as major) in 1796. At the age of twenty-five he became lieutenant-colonel, and in 1798 led a light battalion with distinction in the Ostend expedition. He served with Cathcart in Denmark in 1807, and two years later was given a brigade in the army in Portugal, which he led at Oporto and Talavera. He was soon transferred, as quartermaster-general, to the Mediterranean command, in which he served from 1810 to 1813, taking part in the Catalonian expeditions. Sir John Murray's failure at Tarragona did not involve Donkin, whose advice was proved to be uniformly ignored by the British commander. In July 1815 Major-General Donkin went out to India, and distinguished himself as a divisional commander in Hastings' operations against the Mahrattas (1817-1818), receiving the K.C.B. as his reward. The death of his young wife seriously affected him, and he went to the Cape of Good Hope on sick leave. From 1820 to 1821 he administered the colony with success, and named the rising seaport of Algoa Bay Port Elizabeth in memory of his wife. In 1821 he became lieutenant-general and G.C.H. The rest of his life was spent in literary and political work. He was one of the original fellows of the Royal Geographical Society, and was a member of the Royal Society and of many other learned bodies. His theories as to the course of the river Niger, published under the title _Dissertation on the Course and Probable Termination of the Niger_ (London, 1829), involved him in a good deal of controversy. From 1832 onwards he sat in the House of Commons, and in 1835 was made surveyor-general of the ordnance. He committed suicide at Southampton in 1841. He was then a general, and colonel of the 11th Foot.