And so this volume ends, oh reader mine!
“So the visions flee,
So the dreams depart;
And the sad reality,
Now must act its part.”
Ite, lector benevole,
Ite, missa est.
Printed by Ballantyne, Hanson & Co.
Edinburgh and London
Footnotes:
[3a] Nel miglio salotto di recevimento. This is all an accurate picture of old Florentine customs.
[3b] Necessità fa la vecchia trottare. On which proverb Matteo Villani comments as follows: “And thus he truly verified the saying of Valerius Maximus, that ‘the wants caused by human weakness are a common bond of security,’ all of which is briefly expressed in the French proverb, ‘Need makes the old woman (or old age) bestir herself.’” Valerius Maximus was the prototype of Guicciardini.
[8] “Chiese alla regina di dormir seco.” Which was certainly very plain blunt speaking, even for the time.
[14] “Le cattive nove volano,
Le male son sempre vere;
Prima l’annunzio, poi malanno,
Chi me ne da una calda, e chi una fredda.”
—Italian Proverb.
[15] The cappa is a cloak with a hood or “capuchin;” a cotta is the stole worn by Catholic priests.