The Thirty Seals.No fewer than seven works from Bruno’s facile pen were published in England; the first of these was the Thirty Seals, and the Seal of Seals (1583) Explicatio Triginta Sigillorum, quibus adjectus est Sigillus[64] Sigillorum. It was dedicated to Mauvissière, but the introductory epistle was addressed to the Vice-Chancellor of Oxford. Bound along with it, in front, was a Modern and Complete Art of Remembering which is merely a reprint of the last part of the Cantus Circæus. The work belongs to the mnemonic and psychological writings of Bruno; the thirty seals are hints “for the acquiring, arranging, and recollecting of all sciences and arts,” the Seal of Seals “for comparing and explaining all operations of the mind. And it may be called Art of Arts; for here you will easily find all that is theoretically enquired into by logic, metaphysics, the cabala, natural magic, arts great and small.” (The part called Sigillus Sigillorum was a volume of Bruno’s Clavis Magna, perhaps the only volume published.) Cena de le Ceneri.It was followed by an Italian dialogue, “the Ash Wednesday Supper,” La Cena de le Ceneri, also dedicated to Mauvissière. Written in praise of the Copernican theory, it goes beyond Copernicus himself in its intuition of the infinity of the universe, of the identity of matter in the earth with the matter of the planets and stars, and of the possibility that such living beings inhabit them as inhabit the earth: earth and stars themselves are also said to be living organisms: so there are not seven planets or wandering stars only, but innumerable such; for every world, whether of the sun-type or of the earth-type, is in motion, its motion proceeding from the spirit within it. Finally, this philosophy is shown to be in complete accord with all true religion, to conflict only with the false. De la causa, principio et Uno, 1584.After the “Ash-Wednesday Supper” came “Cause, Principle, and Unity” (De la causa, principio et Uno), 1584; again dedicated to Mauvissière.[65] The first of its dialogues is an apology for the Cena, which, as we have seen, had caused considerable feeling in Bruno’s circle of readers, for the severity and irony of its strictures upon Oxford, and England generally. In the others the immanence or spirituality of all causation; the eternity of matter; its divinity as the potentiality of all life; its realisation in the universe as a whole (as a “formed” thing); the infinite whole and the innumerable parts, as different aspects of the same: the origin of evil and of death: the coincidence of matter and form in the One: the source of all individual and finite forms in the one material substance: the coincidence in the One of the possible and the real, the century and the moment, the solid and the point: the universe all centre and all circumference: diversity and difference as nothing but diverse and different aspects of one and the same substance: the coincidence of contraries:—these are among the chief topics of this, the freshest and most brilliant of Bruno’s philosophical writings: “a dialogue worthy of Plato,” Moritz Carrière has said. De l’ infinito universo et Mondi.In the same year appeared The Infinite Universe and its worlds (De l’ infinito universo et Mondi), dedicated to Mauvissière.[66] It contained a masterly array of reasons, physical and metaphysical, for the belief that the universe is infinite, and is full of innumerable worlds of living creatures; sense and imagination are shown to be at once the source and the limit of human knowledge. Yet the argument is mainly a priori: the infinite power of the Efficient Cause cannot be ineffective, the divine goodness cannot withhold the good of life from any possible being; the divine will is one with the divine intelligence and with the divine action: all possible existence falls within the sphere of the divine intelligence, therefore is willed; but whatever is willed is realised, for the power is infinite; and whatever is is good, for it is willed by the infinitely good. Whatever really is, is a substance, and therefore immortal. The substance of us is immutable, only the outward face or form of it changes, passes away; in the whole all things are good; where things appear evil or defective, it is because we look at the part or the present, not at the whole or the eternal.
Spaccio de la bestia trionfante.“The Expulsion of the Triumphant Beast,” Spaccio de la bestia trionfante, 1584,[67] was dedicated to Sir Philip Sidney. In form an allegorical, satirical prose poem, it is in fact an introduction to a new ethical system. A repentant Jupiter resolves to drive out the numerous beasts that occupy his heavenly firmament—the constellations—and to replace them by the virtues, with Truth as their crown. He calls a council of the gods to consider this plan, and in the discussion that follows numberless topics are touched upon—the history of religions, the contrast between natural and positive religion, and the fundamental forms of morality. The Spaccio is, however, preparatory to a future work, in which moral philosophy shall be treated “by the inner light which the divine intellectual sun has irradiated into my soul,” says Bruno;[68] in it, and other dialogues, the whole structure of the philosophy is to be completed, of which the Bestia is merely a tentative sketch.[69] Jupiter represents the human spirit; and the constellations, the Bear, the Scorpion, etc., are the vices of the age, which are to be driven out by Bruno’s hierarchy of virtues. The work, which is rich in both moral and religious suggestion, was early regarded as an attack on the Pope or the Church, the supposed “Triumphant Beast.” Gaspar Schopp, for example, writes to that effect after witnessing Bruno’s death. It is really an attack upon all religions of mere credulity as opposed to religions of truth and of deeds. The Cabala, 1585.The “Cabal” (Cabala del Cavallo Pegaseo, con l’ Aggiunta dell’ Asino Cillenico) was published in 1585.[70] It is dedicated to an imaginary Bishop of Casamarciano, who represents the spirit of backwardness, ignorant simplicity, and was not a real person, as some biographers supposed. It is a still more biting, a merciless satire on Asinity (i.e. ignorance, credulity, and unenquiring faith in religion). In a later work[71] there is a remark on the Asinus Cillenicus, “the image and figure of the animal are well known, many have written on it, we among the rest, in a particular fashion; but as it displeased the vulgar, and failed to please the wise, for its sinister meaning, the work was suppressed.” Whether this refers to the whole Cabala, or to the last part of it, is not known.
Heroici Furori, 1585.The “Enthusiasms of the Noble” (De gl’ heroici furori), 1585,[72] dedicated to Sir Philip Sidney, consists of sonnets, with prose illustrations, after the model of Dante’s Vita Nuova. Its theme is that of the Phædrus and Symposium, the rising of the love for spiritual beauty out of that for sensible beauty, reaching its height in the divine furor—an ecstatic unity with the divine life, in which all the miseries and misfortunes of the merely earthly life disappear. Many of the sonnets are of extreme beauty, although Brunnhofer goes too far when he speaks of them as surpassing Petrarca’s, except in smoothness of form, and as equalling Shakespeare’s.
VIII
The women of England.It may not be amiss to give from these works some illustrations of life in England as Bruno found it.
England, as in the days of Erasmus, was renowned on the continent for its beautiful women, and Bruno’s passionate and enthusiastic nature could not but feel the attraction of “the fair and gracious nymphs of England.” In the Cena he appeals to the muses of England, “gracious and gentle, soft and tender, young, fair and delicate, blond-haired, white of chin, pink of cheek, of enticing lips, eyes divine, breasts of ivory, 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?”[73] 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.”[74] 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, ill-handled body, behold them so many executioners and tipstaffs;—if they can pretend that you touched any one of them, you will have your back and legs as sore as if you had the heels of Mercury, or were mounted upon the Pegasean Horse, or bestrode the steed of Perseus, the Hippogriff of Astolfo, the dromedary of Madian, or had trotting under you one of the giraffes of the three Magicians: by force of blows they will make you run, helping you forward with their heavy fists,—better for you were they hoofs of ox, ass, or mule: and will not let you go till they have you fast in a prison,—and there I take my leave of you.” In the second dialogue of the Cena, there occurs incidentally, a characteristic account of the state of Elizabethan London. Fulke Greville had agreed with Bruno to have a discussion in his house on the Copernican theory, on the evening of Ash Wednesday. When the day came, no further message arriving, Bruno concluded that the meeting had been postponed, and after dinner went out to visit some Italian friends. Returning after sunset, he found Florio and Guin (Gwynne), impatiently awaiting him: a number of cavaliers, gentlemen, and doctors, had met to hear the discussion, but the chief character of the play was awanting. They hurried him off, in the dark, and thinking to shorten the road, left the straight way and made for the Thames to get a boat to take them to the Palace. “Arrived at the bridge of Lord Buckhurst’s Palace, we shouted and cried for ‘oares’—‘id est Gondolieri’—and wasted as much time as would easily have sufficed to take us by land to our destination, and to have done some business on the way. At last from afar two boatmen replied, and slowly, slowly drew up to the shore; after many interrogations and replies as to the whence, whither, why, and how much, they rested the bow on the last step of the bridge. Then one of the two, that appeared like the ancient boatman of the Tartarean world, gave his hand to the Nolan, while the other, who I think was his son, although his years were five and sixty or so, received the rest of us. Although there was no Hercules or Aeneas or Rhadamanth, king of Sarza, still
... Gemuit sub pondere cimba
Sutilis, et multam accepit limosa paludem....
“The sweet harmony (of its creaking and whistling) like love, invited us to forget our misfortunes, the times and the seasons, and to accompany the sounds with song. Florio (recalling his days of love) sang Dove senza me dolce mia vita, and the Nolan replied with Saracin dolente or Femenil ingegno, and the like; and so little by little we advanced as the barque permitted. Although worms and age had reduced it to something like cork, it seemed from its festina lente all of lead, and the arms of the two ancients worn out. So with much time we made little way, and before we had covered a third of the distance—a little beyond the place they call the Temple—our old fathers, instead of hurrying, ran their prow alongside the shore. To the Nolan asking if they wished a little breathing time, they answered that they were not going any further, for this was their stance. In conclusion, they would not budge for us, and when we had paid them and thanked them (there is nothing else to do when you suffer a wrong from one of these canaille), they showed us the direct road for getting on to the street. Now, oh for your help, Maphelina, muse of Merlin! That was a road which commenced in a black mud, from which there was no escape even by good luck. The Nolan, who had studied and practised in the schools more than we, bade us follow him through a passage, that he thought to see, filthy though it was. But he had not ceased speaking when he was planted in the mire so firmly that he could not drag out his limbs, and so with mutual help we went through the midst of it, hoping that the purgatory would be of short duration; but by unjust and hard fate he and we found ourselves engulfed in a slimy passage, that, just as if it were the ‘field of jealousy’ or the ‘garden of delights,’ was bounded on this side and on that by good walls, and because there was no light to guide us we could not distinguish between the way we had come and the way we ought to go, hoping at every step for the end.” ... “Higher up the street we found a lava which on one side left a stony place where we could walk dry; step by step we stumbled like drunk men—and not without danger of breaking a head or a leg. To make a long story short at last the Elysian fields appeared, viz. the broad, ordinary street—and then from the houses we discovered we were about twenty steps from the place where we had set out to find the boatman, and not far from the Nolan’s rooms!” The temptation to give up the expedition was overcome, and after sundry adventures with apprentices, servitors, and bravos of the gentle class, they arrived safely at Fulke Greville’s, where supper was already in progress.
Hostility in England.In the Italian dialogues the personal note of complaint sounds more highly than in Bruno’s other works, and we may imagine that Bruno himself felt neglected in England more than in other countries, while English hostility to his teaching was probably more contemptuous, therefore more galling and more difficult to overcome. He might repeat as he did, the bold saying that “to the true philosopher every country is fatherland,” or call himself with Socrates a citizen of the world; but a touch of despair sounds through the words:—“a citizen and servant of the world, son of Father Sol and Mother Earth; because he loves the world too much, he must be hated, cursed, persecuted, and rejected by it. Meanwhile let him not be idle, nor ill-occupied while awaiting death, transmigration, change.”[75] Elsewhere there is almost a savage stoicism; he cries that he is attacked not by one but by many, almost by all, and the reason is that he hates the people, cares not for the multitude, adores one thing only:—”That through which he in subjection is free, in pain content, in necessity rich, in death living, and through which he envies not those who in freedom are slaves, in pleasure pained, in riches poor, in life dead, because in the body they have a chain that binds them, in the spirit an inferno that depresses them, in the soul error that weakens them, and in the mind lethargy that slays, etc.”[76] Yet the climate of England seems to have pleased Bruno: “there more than in any other region the climate is temperate; for the excessive rigour of the snows is driven out by the earth beneath, and the superfluous fervour of the sun blesses it with a continuous, a perpetual spring, as is testified by the ever green and flowery land.”[77] From the Spaccio, it appears that he was struck in England, inter alia, with the multitude of crows, the richness of the sheep and the sleekness of the cattle, the stern game-laws, and the land-hunger of the people.[78]