A month after the publication of cantos I and II, in a letter (12 August 1819) to publisher John Murray, Byron said: “You ask me for the plan of Donny Johnny; I have no plan — I had no plan; but I had or have materials. . . . You are too earnest and eager about ["Don Juan"] a work never intended to be serious. Do you suppose that I could have any intention but to giggle and make giggle? — a playful satire, with as little poetry as could be helped, was what I meant.”