Walter H. Burritt was born in Upper Canada of Loyalist parents. From 1831 to 1835 he served a medical apprenticeship with Dr. Basil Church of Merrickville, Upper Canada, and attended the College of Physicians and Surgeons, Western District, New York in 1834-1835. His son, Horatio Charles Burritt went to Bishop's College in 1859, but transferred to the Medical Faculty of McGill, where he graduated in 1863 as class valedictorian. He served as a medical officer with the Confederate Army in the American Civil War, and later practiced medicine in Ontario.

Giovanni Francesco Busenello was born in Venice and studied law at the University of Padua. He sustained a successful practice as a lawyer in Venice while pursuing a literary career. His fame rests on a prolific output of poetry and drama, including the libretto for Claudio Monteverdi's opera L'incoronazione di Poppea (1642).