24 GIORDANO BRUNO PART 



and Muscovy. 1 Whether Alasco succeeded in this 

 design or not, he seems to have found life in England 

 too fast for his purse " A learned man of graceful 

 figure, with a very long beard, in decorous and 

 beautiful attire, who was received kindly by the Queen, 

 with great honour and praise by the nobles, by the 

 university of Oxford with erudite delectations (oblecta- 

 tionibus) and varied spectacles ; but after four months, 

 being harassed for debt, he withdrew secretly/' 2 The 

 arrival of this tragic-comic figure in Oxford appears to 

 have gratified the city and university ; he was most 

 hospitably received, and put up at Christ Church. On 

 the following day there was a dinner at All Souls, 

 at which "he was solemnlie satisfied with scholar lie 

 exercises and courtlie fare." That evening was per- 

 formed a " pleasant comedie," the Rtvates, and on the 

 following night a " statelie tragedie," Dido? and there 

 were in the intervals shows, disputations in philosophy, 

 physics, and divinity, in all of which, we are glad 

 to know, " these learned opponents, respondents, 

 and moderators, acquitted themselves like themselves, 

 sharplie and soundlie." Let us hope that Bruno too, 

 The dispu. who took part in one of these disputations, made this 

 impression. According to his own account the pro- 

 tagonist put forward by the university could not reply 

 to one of his arguments, and was left fifteen times by 

 as many syllogisms, " like a hen in the stubble," 

 resorting accordingly to incivility and abuse, in face of 

 the patience and humanity of the Neapolitan " reared 

 under a kinder sky." The result was unfortunate for 

 Bruno ; it put an end to the public lectures, which he 



1 Op. >., p. 693. 2 Camden's Elizabeth. 



3 The MS. of Dido, which was acted by Christ Church men, is still preserved in 

 the library of Christ Church. 



tation. 



