Note 226 — Chapter V

Fynes Moryson had a great deal to say on this subject. In particular, he instances the Germans as reprehensible in living only with their own countrymen in Italy, "never attaining the perfect use of any forreigne Language, be it never so easy. So as myselfe remember one of them, who being reprehended, that having been thirty yeeres in Italy hee could not speake the Language, he did merrily answer in Dutch: Ah lieber was kan man doch in dreissig Jahr lehrnen? Alas, good Sir, what can a man learne in thirty yeeres?" (Itinerary, vol. in. p. 379).