i GREVILLE : SPENSER 33 



tion, along with the generous and humane spirit, Sir 

 Fulke Greville." There was some disagreement, how- Greviiie. 

 ever, between Greville and Bruno, " the invidious 

 Erinnys of vile, malignant, ignoble, interested persons, 

 had spread its poison " between them, in Bruno's 

 emphatic words. What the ground of division was 

 we do not know ; possibly the tone in which the Cena 

 spoke of Oxford men, and of English scholars generally, 

 had offended Greville, and this may have called out 

 the partial retractation in the Causa. As is well 

 known the friendship of the two men, Sidney and 

 Greville (with whom Edward Dyer was closely 

 associated), was of the noblest type. Greville died in 

 1628 in the fulness of years and of honours, but had 

 retained the impress of his young friendship fresh to 

 the end. 1 It may be added that he became an intimate 

 of Francis Bacon, who may through him have been 

 introduced to Bruno's works. It must have been in 

 some such way also that Spenser knew of Bruno, as it is Spenser, 

 probable that the Cantos on Mutability (first published 

 posthumously in 1609, but written probably after his 

 visit to England in 1596) were "suggested" by 

 Bruno's Spaccio? The " new poet " certainly could 

 not have met Bruno, for he was in Ireland continuously, 

 as secretary, from 1580 till 1589, when he came over 

 to publish the first three books of the Faerie Queen. 



It is possible, on the other hand, that Bruno met 

 Bacon, who was a rising young barrister and member Bacon. 

 of Parliament when he arrived in England, and had 

 already achieved some fame as a critic of Aristotle. 

 The idea, however, that he knew and influenced 



1 Vide add. note. 



2 First pointed out, I believe, by Mr. Whittaker in Essays and Nonces, 1895 

 (f . the note to Giordano Bruno, p. 94). 



D 



