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 [Sidenote: 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