 | Coryats crudities |  |
To Topographicall Typographicall THOMAS.
I sing the man, I sing the wofull case,
The shirt, the shoes, the shanks that seru'd to trace
Seuen Countries wide, the greater was his paine,
That two to one he euer came againe,
Yet two for one he came: O Muse, O Maid,
(If Maid or Muse) say what hath so beraid
This silly soule, and droue him to such labours,
As had his hide bene onely made for tabours?
Recount my Girle, what did he with the French,
Before he courted the Venetian wench?
How could he leaue his well boyl'd beere, & scape,
To drinke the raw bloud of the Germane grape?
Wherewith his watrie teeth being set on edge,
He nigh had lost of teeth his double hedge.
At home much did he suffer, much abroad,
And neuer once (poore Asse) did cast his load,
Yet further went then Scaracalasino,
And after litter'd lay at Bergomo.
This vsage did he beare abroad vnciuill,
At home too was he borne not farre from Euill.
In Odcombe parish yet famous with his cradle,
A chicke he hatcht was of an egge vnaddle.
Whence a yong Cockrel he was sent for knowledge
To Winchester, and planted in the Colledge:
Not there to proue a goose (for he is none)
But that he might with other Cocks come on.
Where loe a dwarfe in stature he so pliant
Grew in the Greeke, that he became a Giant,
Pronouncing then Demosthenes each letter
More plaine, and reading all then Homer better,
This Prince of Poets, that of Rhetoritians.
His Latine too deserues more praise then Priscians,
For Coryate liues, and Priscian he is dead,
No maruaile; Coryate brake so oft his head.
Now when in Greeke and Latin he could grauel
His schoole fellowes, forsooth he needs will trauell;
Not for bare language, but (his charges earning
On the by) on the maine, for reall learning.
Be Basil proofe and Zurick too, and Frankfor't
As thou in print maist see, if thou him thanke for't.
What would he with more tongues? he hath enough,
That which he hath is fine neat-leather tough:
And yet at Calais to confound the Masse
Some say he spake the tongue of Balaams Asse.
And others, that with Sampsons Asses iawbone
He slew whole hoasts: so is he rough and rawbone.
T'were but a frump to name the Asses backe,
Each common traueller beares thereon his packe:
I therefore leaue the Asse for feare he doubt,
Or others for him, that I should him flout.
But as the Serpent (not the goose) that hisses,
So is he wise, and equald with Vlysses.
Who townes of many men hath seene & manners:
The more was he beholding to the manners.
If he had but one onely paire of shoes,
Then how much leather thinke ye could he loose?
The shirt, the shoes, the shanks that seru'd to trace
Seuen Countries wide, the greater was his paine,
That two to one he euer came againe,
Yet two for one he came: O Muse, O Maid,
(If Maid or Muse) say what hath so beraid
This silly soule, and droue him to such labours,
As had his hide bene onely made for tabours?
Recount my Girle, what did he with the French,
Before he courted the Venetian wench?
How could he leaue his well boyl'd beere, & scape,
To drinke the raw bloud of the Germane grape?
Wherewith his watrie teeth being set on edge,
He nigh had lost of teeth his double hedge.
At home much did he suffer, much abroad,
And neuer once (poore Asse) did cast his load,
Yet further went then Scaracalasino,
And after litter'd lay at Bergomo.
This vsage did he beare abroad vnciuill,
At home too was he borne not farre from Euill.
In Odcombe parish yet famous with his cradle,
A chicke he hatcht was of an egge vnaddle.
Whence a yong Cockrel he was sent for knowledge
To Winchester, and planted in the Colledge:
Not there to proue a goose (for he is none)
But that he might with other Cocks come on.
Where loe a dwarfe in stature he so pliant
Grew in the Greeke, that he became a Giant,
Pronouncing then Demosthenes each letter
More plaine, and reading all then Homer better,
This Prince of Poets, that of Rhetoritians.
His Latine too deserues more praise then Priscians,
No maruaile; Coryate brake so oft his head.
Now when in Greeke and Latin he could grauel
His schoole fellowes, forsooth he needs will trauell;
Not for bare language, but (his charges earning
On the by) on the maine, for reall learning.
Be Basil proofe and Zurick too, and Frankfor't
As thou in print maist see, if thou him thanke for't.
What would he with more tongues? he hath enough,
That which he hath is fine neat-leather tough:
And yet at Calais to confound the Masse
Some say he spake the tongue of Balaams Asse.
And others, that with Sampsons Asses iawbone
He slew whole hoasts: so is he rough and rawbone.
T'were but a frump to name the Asses backe,
Each common traueller beares thereon his packe:
I therefore leaue the Asse for feare he doubt,
Or others for him, that I should him flout.
But as the Serpent (not the goose) that hisses,
So is he wise, and equald with Vlysses.
Who townes of many men hath seene & manners:
The more was he beholding to the manners.
If he had but one onely paire of shoes,
Then how much leather thinke ye could he loose?
He hath seene Paris garden and the Lions,
And Paris Garden of all France, and Lyons,
With all the townes that lye twixt this and Venice,
Where (howbeit some say he played at tennis)
He more preuaild against the 'xcoriate Iewes,
Then Broughton could, or twenty more such Hughs.
And yet but for one pettie poore misprision,
He was nigh made one of the Circumcision.
But holla, that's a part that must be priuy,
Now go we to the towne of learned Liuy.
VVhere being before Licentiat, he proceeded
To beg like a poore Paduan, when he needed.
Then through Vicenza and Brescia doth he goe
Among the Cogleons, those of Bergomo.
Who made him lye in litter like a Villan:
Then viewes he, in his case of fustaine, Milan.
(Not Milan fustaine though) yet such a trophæ
As might become a Soldan or a Sophe.
Which in his frontispice he doth extoll,
Like those of Marius in Romes Capitoll.
And well the case was lin'd with poudred Ermin:
Though others thinke it was some stranger vermin.
Now should I tell his trauels with the Dutch,
But that my Muse doth feare to drinke too much.
For, if the water of poore Hippocrene
Doth make her drunke, what wil the wine of Rhene?
Both Heidelberg I passe, and the great hogshead,
Which he bestrid him selfe, like a great hogs-head.
Who list the paines or pleasure take to looke,
Shall this and more finde printed in the booke.
Whose merits here I will no further raise:
That were my friend to sell, and not to praise.
Perhaps I know some that haue seene the Turke,
Yet would be whipt ere they wrote such a worke.
But what a volume here will rise anone,
VVhen he hath seene both Turke and Prester Iohn?
Enough: yet in his Crudities behoofe,
This will I say: It is a booke of proofe.
VVherein himselfe appeares (I will be plaine)
No foole in print, nor yet a knaue in graine.
And Paris Garden of all France, and Lyons,
With all the townes that lye twixt this and Venice,
Where (howbeit some say he played at tennis)
He more preuaild against the 'xcoriate Iewes,
Then Broughton could, or twenty more such Hughs.
And yet but for one pettie poore misprision,
He was nigh made one of the Circumcision.
But holla, that's a part that must be priuy,
Now go we to the towne of learned Liuy.
VVhere being before Licentiat, he proceeded
To beg like a poore Paduan, when he needed.
Among the Cogleons, those of Bergomo.
Who made him lye in litter like a Villan:
Then viewes he, in his case of fustaine, Milan.
(Not Milan fustaine though) yet such a trophæ
As might become a Soldan or a Sophe.
Which in his frontispice he doth extoll,
Like those of Marius in Romes Capitoll.
And well the case was lin'd with poudred Ermin:
Though others thinke it was some stranger vermin.
Now should I tell his trauels with the Dutch,
But that my Muse doth feare to drinke too much.
For, if the water of poore Hippocrene
Doth make her drunke, what wil the wine of Rhene?
Both Heidelberg I passe, and the great hogshead,
Which he bestrid him selfe, like a great hogs-head.
Who list the paines or pleasure take to looke,
Shall this and more finde printed in the booke.
Whose merits here I will no further raise:
That were my friend to sell, and not to praise.
Perhaps I know some that haue seene the Turke,
Yet would be whipt ere they wrote such a worke.
But what a volume here will rise anone,
VVhen he hath seene both Turke and Prester Iohn?
Enough: yet in his Crudities behoofe,
This will I say: It is a booke of proofe.
VVherein himselfe appeares (I will be plaine)
No foole in print, nor yet a knaue in graine.
A parallell betweene Don Vlysses of Ithaca and Don Coryate of Odcombe.
The Preamble to the Parallell.
If morall Plutarch had done nothing else,Yet should we praise him for his parallels;
Where he with euery Greeke doth match a Roman.
I that would be his Ape, can fancie no man,
(Though learned Hackluyt hath set many forth)
Amongst our English, who for wit and worth
May be compared with the Ithacan,
Vnlesse that Brute the braue Odcombian.
What doe you tell me of your Drakes or Candishes?
We neuer were beholding to their standishes.
This man hath manners seene, and men outlandish;
And writ the same: so did not Drake nor Candish.
If Drake be famous because he did wander
About the Seas, Tom may be well a Gander,
That rauisheth with his harmonious quill
More eares then any Swan on Parnasse hill.
The Parallell it selfe.
Vlysses was a merry Greeke they say,So Tom is, and the Greeker of the tway.
Vlysses left at home an aged Syre,
And Tom an aged mother by the fyre.
Vlysses was an Islander I trow,
How then? I pray you is not Coryate so?
Perhaps Vlysses did in wit excell,
Our Coryate though doth of more learning smell.
And Coryate went to Calais in a hulke.
Vlysses in the Troian horse was hid,
The Heidelbergian barrell Tom bestrid.
Good harnesse did Vlysses guarde and grace,
VVhere Coryate nought had but a fustian case
Vlysses hardly from his Circe sluncke,
As hardly Tom from his Venetian Puncke
By land Vlysses in a Chariot rode,
And Coryate in a Cart, the greater lode.
Vlysses with sterne Aiax had to doe,
With the Dutch Boore so had poore Coryate too.
At home left Vlix store of beasts and chattell,
And Coryate home came guarded with more cattell.
Vlysses vs'd to drinke the Æthiop wine,
With whitson-ale his cap doth Coryate line.
Iust twenty yeares Vlysses with his Greeks
Did wander: Coryate iust as many weeks.
Vlysses all that while had but one caruell,
Tom but one paire of shoes, the greater maruell.
Minerua holpe Vlysses at a lift,
And Pacience Coryate, for there was no shift.
Vlysses heard no Syren sing: nor Coryate
The Iew, least his præpuce might proue excoriate.
Vlysses had a wife to lust vnprone,
But Coryate hath a chaster, hauing none.
Vlysses seem'd a beggar all to torne,
So Coryate did; and was, I dare be sworne.
Vlysses in his trauell builded Flushing,
Where Coryate ending, or'e the Sea came brushing.
One Homer only sung Vlysses praise,
But Coryats all the Poets of our daies.
The Epilogue of the Parallel.
Take Reader with a laughing lookeThis Odcome new-come well-come booke.
In sober sadnesse we shall marre all else.
For Coryate with vs both will quarell,
And teare himselfe out of his parell.
In each point though they doe not jumpe,
I trust they doe yet in the lumpe.
Nor would I ioyne them head and feete;
Lines parallell doe neuer meete.
Yet one day meete may thou and I,
And laugh with Coryate ere we die.
| Coryats crudities | |