magne, Orlando, and his
cousin Rinaldo of Montalban. Morgante has two brothers, both of them
giants, and, in the first canto of the poem, Morgante is represented with
his brothers as carrying on a feud with the abbot and monks of a certain
convent, built upon the confines of heathenesse; the giants being in the
habit of flinging down stones, or rather huge rocks, on the convent.
Orlando, however, who is banished from the court of Charlemagne, arriving
at the convent, undertakes to destroy them, and, accordingly, kills
Passamonte and Alabastro, and converts Morgante, whose mind had been
previously softened by a vision, in which the 'Blessed Virgin' figures.
No sooner is he converted than, as a sign of his penitence, what does he
do but hastens and cuts off the hands of his two brothers, saying--

'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 prate 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? {326} 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 his been received? Let those who are in quest of bigotry seek
for it amongst 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