ABSTRACT
Besides displaying the author's erudition, the pamphlet revealed Deloney's strongly Protestant sympathies; furthermore, when the work was printed in 1583 by John Wolfe of London, it was dedicated to the Bishop of London. Far from being merely ambivalent or even good-natured jests about dietary habits, these repeated references to the Flemish love of butter betrayed an English anxiety about Flemish prosperity. In fact, he devoted little attention to all foreigners in this work, although the humiliation of an amorous Italian merchant discovered in a compromising position with a grunting sow. As the lovers part, Walgrave emphasized the connection between the breeding of Englishmen and the redemption of England: "Weele worke our landes out of Pisaros Daughters: / And cansell all our bondes in their great Bellies". Quite possibly Dekker implies a contrast between the acceptance of criticism and the refusal of the foreign churches to accept such animadversions as the Dutch Church Libel and the Complaint of the Yeomen Weavers.
