With anybody in a ride or walk.”[216]
At the end of cantos this affectation of taking the public into confidence often becomes in Gli Animali Parlanti a kind of sham humility, coupled usually with the poet’s promise to return another day, if encouraged. Thus Casti closes a canto in this fashion:
“Ma spossatello omai mi sento e roco,
Ne in grado più proseguire il canto,
Permettetemi dunque, almen per poco,
Ch’io prenda fiato, e mi riposi alquanto.
Che poi, qualor vi piaccia, io sarò pronto
A riprendere il fil del mio racconto.”[217]
There is space for quoting only one of several similar endings from Don Juan:
“But, for the present, gentle reader! and