i RELATION TO MAUVISSI&RE 27 



constantly to the Court with the Ambassador, and to 

 have known Elizabeth ; and in his works he claims 

 intimacy with Sidney and Greville. It was consequently 

 thought that he moved in the highest English society 

 of the time, and from the Cena that he belonged to a 

 literary coterie, or club, of which Sidney, Greville, 

 Dyer, Temple, and others were members. Lagarde, 

 believing Bruno (but on ludicrous grounds) 1 to have 

 sprung from the lowest of Italian society, could hardly 

 accept this familiar legend of Bruno-biographies, and 

 more recently, the Quarterly Review has questioned 

 both the friendship with Sidney and Greville, and the 

 existence of the supposed Society. As to the last, 

 there was certainly at one time a literary society, 

 Sidney's Areopagus, to which Spenser belonged in 

 1579, but which concerned itself chiefly with artificial 

 rules of versification, and the merits of various metres ; 

 the habit of meeting may have very well persisted for a 

 few years, after the first flush of enthusiasm had passed, 

 and the Ash Wednesday supper may have represented 

 one of these meetings to which Bruno the defender 

 of the Copernican theory may have been invited as 

 Protagonist. As for Bruno's position, it must have 

 been that of a secretary or tutor, perhaps both, in 

 Mauvissiere's employment. The French Ambassador 

 was constantly in want of funds, and could not very 

 well afford to support any casual stranger whom the 

 King of France recommended to him. In November 

 1584 he complained of absolute penury, of being 

 unable to obtain money due to him from the King of 

 France (the King paid him by occasional doles only), of 

 being hard pressed by London and Italian bankers, 

 while his wife was in ill health. He was not greatly 



1 Vide add. note. 



