42 GIORDANO BRUNO PART 



and hearts of adamant : how many thoughts do I weave 

 for you in my mind, how many emotions besiege my 

 spirit, how many passions fill my life, how many tears 

 pour from my eyes, sighs burst from my breast, fires 

 sparkle from my heart " ? l Nature was taking its 

 revenge indeed for the long years of suppression in the 

 Church. If this dark, slender, " interesting " Italian 

 found favour with the fair and cultured inhabitants of 

 England, he was the less successful with the people in 

 general, the Plebs, then as now uncompromisingly 

 opposed to the " foreigner." In his belief England 

 " could boast of a Plebs which for want of respect, 

 rudeness, roughness, rusticity, savagery, ill training, 

 was second to none in the world." 2 No doubt he 

 writes from experience when he describes the greater 

 part of them as " appearing like so many wolves and 

 bears, when they see a foreigner one part of them, 

 the artisans, shopkeepers, knowing you as some kind of 

 foreigner, screw their noses at you, call you dog ! 

 traitor ! stranger ! which is with them a term of high 

 abuse, and renders its object liable to all the injuries in 

 the world, no matter what manner of man he is, young 

 or old, in gown or in uniform, noble or gentleman. 

 They will come upon you with a rustic fury, careless of 

 the who or why, where, or how, not referring to one 

 another, but every one, giving vent to the natural hatred 

 he has for the foreigner, will try with his own hand and 

 his own rod to take the measure of your doublet, and 

 if you are not careful to save yourself, of the hair of 

 your head ; and when at length you think you may be 

 allowed to go to the barber's, and to rest your wearied, 



1 Lag. IZ3. 3. Cf. Her. Fur. 747. 19 "le belle et gratiose Ninfe del Padre 

 Tamesi," 749. 40, " Leggiadre Nimphe, ch'a le' herbose Sponde del Tamesi gentil 

 fatte Soggiorno," and 753. 10. 



2 Lag. 144. 10. 



