“Io vo’ tagliar le mani a tutti quanti
E porterolle a que’ monaci santi.”

And he does cut off the hands of his brethren, and carries them to the abbot, who blesses him for so doing.  Pulci here is holding up to ridicule and execration the horrid butchery or betrayal of friends by popish converts, and the encouragement they receive from the priest.  No sooner is a person converted to Popery, than his principal thought is how he can bring the hands and feet of his brethren, however harmless they may be, and different from the giants, to the “holy priests,” who, if he manages to do so, never fail to praise him, saying to the miserable wretch, as the abbot said to Morgante:-

“Tu sarai or perfetto e vero amico
A Cristo, quanto tu gli eri nemico.”

Can the English public deny the justice of Pulci’s illustration, after something which it has lately witnessed?  Has it not seen equivalents for the hands and feet of brothers carried by popish perverts to the “holy priests,” and has it not seen the manner in which the offering has been received?  Let those who are in quest of bigotry seek for it among the perverts to Rome, and not amongst those who, born in the pale of the Church of England, have always continued in it.

CHAPTER III

On Foreign Nonsense.

With respect to the third point, various lessons which the book reads to the nation at large, and which it would be well for the nation to ponder and profit by.

There are many species of nonsense to which the nation is much addicted, and of which the perusal of Lavengro ought to give them a wholesome shame.  First of all, with respect to the foreign nonsense so prevalent now in England.  The hero is a scholar; but, though possessed of a great many tongues, he affects to be neither Frenchman, nor German, nor this or that foreigner; he is one who loves his country, and the language and literature of his country, and speaks up for each and all when there is occasion to do so.  Now what is the case with nine out of ten amongst those of the English who study foreign languages?  No sooner have they picked up a smattering of this or that speech than they begin to abuse their own country, and everything connected with it, more especially its language.  This is particularly the case with those who call themselves German students.  It is said, and the writer believes with truth, that when a woman falls in love with a particularly ugly fellow, she squeezes him with ten times more zest than she would a handsome one, if captivated by him.  So it is with these German students; no sooner have they taken German in hand than there is nothing like German.  Oh, the dear delightful German!  How proud I am that it is now my own, and that its divine literature is within my reach!  And all this whilst mumbling the most uncouth speech, and crunching the most crabbed literature in Europe.