(Don). A Spanish libertine. His valet, Leporello, says
his master had “in Italy 700 mistresses, in Germany 800, in Turkey and
France 91, in Spain 1,003.” When “the measure of his iniquity was
full,” the ghost of the commandant whom he had slain came with a legion
of “foul fiends,” and carried him off to a “dreadful gulf that opened
to devour him.” (Mozart: Don Giovanni, Libretto by Lorenzo da Ponte.
)
Source: Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, E. Cobham Brewer, 1894
