i FLORIO 35 



had been marked as printed in England, they would 

 have sold with greater difficulty in those parts." It is 

 doubtful, however, whether Vautrollier was really the 

 printer ; in any case it was not on that account that 

 he went to Edinburgh. 1 



Of the Italians in England during Elizabeth's reign 

 the most familiar to us is Florio, whose father had been riorio. 

 preacher to the Protestant Italians in London. Florio 

 had been at Oxford, from which university he dedicated 

 his " First Fruites " to Leicester in 1578, so that he was 

 already well known as a scholar when Bruno came 

 to England and made his acquaintance. This may have 

 occurred through Sidney ; or vice versa, Sidney's 

 attention may have been called to Bruno by Florio. 

 The latter was described by Cornwallis as one who 

 looked " more like a good fellow than a wise man," 

 yet was " wise beyond his fortune or his education." 

 It was long after Bruno's departure that Florio devoted 

 himself to the charming translation of Montaigne 

 (published in 1603), f which a copy has been found 

 bearing Shakespeare's name, while to Shakespeare is 

 attributed a sonnet in praise of Florio. Curiously, we 

 find him in his translation acknowledging assistance from 

 one with whom Bruno also has casually connected him 

 in the Cena, viz. Matthew Gwinne. Of Bruno's more 

 intimate acquaintance in England we know little : there 

 are two whose names occur in the dialogues, " Smith " 

 in the Cena y and Dicson in the Causa, both sympathetic Alexander 

 listeners and adherents of Theophilo, who is Bruno's DlC80n - 

 representative. The former it is naturally difficult to 

 place : he may however have been the poet William 

 Smith, a disciple of Spenser, who published a pastoral 

 poem c ' Chloris, or the Complaint of the Passionate 



1 Vide add. note. 



