At the end of nearly every canto of the _Morgante_ is a promise of continuation, so phrased as to seem conventional: _e. g._, “Come io diro ne l’altro mio cantare.” The same custom became common with Byron, in such lines as, “Let this fifth canto meet with due applause, The sixth shall have a touch of the sublime.”[257] There is, however, one important distinction between the two poets in their use of the digression: Pulci employs it for cursory comment on his story, or for chat about himself; Byron utilizes it not only for these purposes, but also for the expression of satire. It is in his digressions that he speaks out directly against individuals, institutions, and society in general. The _Morgante_ is a tale, with an occasional remark by the author; _Don Juan_ is a monologue, sustained by a narrative framework. Pulci’s comparison of his poetry to a boat is introduced so frequently that it may possibly have suggested the figure to Byron. A typical instance of its usage may be quoted in the lines:-- “Io me n’andro con la barchetta mia, Quanto l’acqua comporta un picciol legno.”[258] Byron’s employment of the metaphor is also somewhat frequent:-- “At the least I have shunned the common shore, And leaving land far out of sight, would skim The Ocean of Eternity: the roar Of breakers has not daunted my slight, trim, But _still_ seaworthy skiff; and she may float, Where ships have foundered, as doth many a boat.”[259] It should be added that the brief “grace before meat,” so apparently truely devotional in phraseology, which Pulci prefixed to each of his cantos, and the equally orthodox epilogues in which he gave a benediction to his readers, are his own peculiarity, borrowed unquestionably from the street improvisatori. There is nothing corresponding to them in _Don Juan_. Both Pulci and Byron were men of wide reading, and not averse to displaying and making use of their information. Pulci treats the older poets without reverence: he quotes Dante’s “dopo la dolorosa rotta” without acknowledgment[260]; he burlesques the famous phrase about Aristotle by having Morgante call Margutte “il mæstro di color che sanno”; and he alludes to Petrarch with a wink:-- “O sommo amore, o nuova cortesia! Vedi che forse ognun si crede ancora, Che questo verso del Petrarca fa: Ed è gia tanto, e’ lo disse Rinaldo; Ma chi non ruba è chiamato rubaldo.”[261] This recalls Byron’s exhortation at the end of _Don Juan_, I, when, after quoting four lines from Southey, he adds: “The first four rhymes are Southey’s every line: For God’s sake, reader! take them not for mine.” In a similar way Byron gives four lines from Campbell’s _Gertrude of Wyoming_, and comments upon them in _Don Juan_, I, 88–89.