Note 452 — Scene 1.—The Hall of the Council of Ten assembled with the additional Senators, who, on the Trials of the Conspirators for the Treason of Marino Faliero, composed what was called the Giunta,—Guards, Officers, etc., etc. Israel Bertuccio and Philip Calendaro as Prisoners. Bertram, Lioni, and Witnesses, etc.
Reading edition
{436}["I know what Foscolo means about Calendaro's spitting at Bertram: that's national—the objection, I mean. The Italians and French, with those 'flags of Abomination,' their pocket handkerchiefs, spit there, and here, and every where else—in your face almost, and therefore object to it on the Stage as too familiar. But we who spit nowhere—but in a man's face when we grow savage—are not likely to feel this. Remember Massinger, and Kean's Sir Giles Overreach—
'Lord! thus I spit at thee and thy Counsel!'"
Letter to Murray, October 8, 1820, Letters, v. 1901, 89.
"Sir Giles Overreach" says to "Lord Lovel," in A New Way to Pay Old Debts, act v. sc. 1, "Lord! thus I spit at thee, and at thy counsel." Compare, too—
"You call me misbeliever, cut-throat dog, And spit upon my Jewish gaberdine."
Merchant of Venice, act i. sc. 3, lines 106, 107.]