CENTRE
for
REFORMATION
and
RENAISSANCE
I STUDIES 1
VICTORIA
UNIVERSITY
R N
Coryat s Crudities
In Two Volumes
Volume I
GLASGOW
PRINTED AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS BY
ROBERT MACLEHOSE & COMPANY LTD. FOR
JAMES MACLEHOSE AND SONS, PUBLISHERS
TO THE UNIVERSITY OF GLASGOW
MACMILLAN AND CO. LTD. LONDON
THE MACMILLAN CO. NEW YORK
SIMPKIN, HAMILTON AND CO. LONDON
MACMILLAN AND BOWES CAMBRIDGE
DOUGLAS AND FOULIS EDINBURGH
MCMV
One thousand copies of this book have been printed
for sale in Great Britain and Ireland, of which one
hundred copies are on hand-made paper
Coryat s Crudities
Hastily gobled up in five Moneths travells in
France, Savoy, Italy, Rhetia commonly called
the Orisons country, Helvetia alias Switzerland,
some parts of high Germany and the Nether
lands ; Newly digested in the hungry aire of
Odcombe in the County of Somerset, and now
dispersed to the nourishment of the travelling
Members of this Kingdome
By
THOMAS CORYAT
VOLUME I
Glasgow
James MacLehose and Sons
Publishers to the University
MCMV
REF. & REN.
THE TABLE
PAGE
Publishers Note, . . . . . . i*
An Explication of the Emblemes of the Frontis-
pice, ...... xv
The Epistle Dedicatorie to Henry Prince of
Wales, ...... i
The Epistle to the Reader,
A Character of the Authour, . .16
A Characterisme Acrostick, .... 19
An Introduction to the Ensuing Verses, . . 20
Panegyricke Verses upon the Author and his
Booke, ....... 22
An Oration made by Hermannus Kirchnerus in
Praise of Travel, . . . . .122
Mr. Laurence Whitaker s Elogie of the Booke, . 149
Observations of France, . . . .152
Observations of Amiens, . . . . .161
Observations of Paris, . . . . .170
THE TABLE
PAGE
Observations of Fountaine Beleau, . . . 187
Observations of the City of Nevers called in
Latin Niverna, . . . . .198
Observations of Lyons, .... 203
Observations of Savoy, . . . . .215
Observations of Italy, ..... 227
Observations of Turin, ..... 229
Observations of Milan, ..... 240
Observations of Cremona, ..... 257
Observations of Mantua, ..... 262
Observations of Padua, . . . . .270
The Number of Miles betwixt Odcombe in Somer
setshire and Venice, . . . .301
Observations of the Most Glorious, Peerlesse and
Mayden Citie of Venice, . . .301
VI
ILLUSTRATIONS
PAGE
Facsimile of the Engraved Title Page, 1 6 1 1 , . x
Facsimile of the Printed Title Page, 1611,. . \x
Crest of Henry Prince of Wales, ... 8
Coryat s Shoes, in which he had walked from
Venice to London, . . . . .113
II Signior Tomaso Odcombiano. Margarita Emil-
iana bella Cortesana di Venetia, . . 408
Vll
PUBLISHERS NOTE
THOMAS CORYAT, son of the Rev. George Coryat, Rector
of Odcombe, was born in the Parsonage house at
Odcombe in Somersetshire about 1577. In the begin
ning of the year 1596 he became a commoner of
Gloucester Hall, Oxford, where continuing about three
years he attained, by the help of a great memory, to
some competency in logic, but more by far in the
Greek tongue, and in humane learning. Afterwards he
was taken home for a time, then went to London and
was received into the family of Henry, Prince of
Wales. 1 On the I4th May 1608 he sailed from Dover
on the journey of which an account is given in the
4 Crudities. On his return home he proposed to publish
his book of travels, but finding it difficult to induce any
bookseller to undertake its publication he applied to
many of the eminent men of his day to write pane-
gyricke verses upon the Authour and his booke. By
the help of Prince Henry, who seems to have had a
certain liking for him, Coryat s Crudities was published
in 1 6 1 1 with the Panegyricke Verses prefixed as an
Introduction ; the volume being printed by W. S.
(William Stansby). Two appendixes, Coryats Crambe,
1 Anthony a Wood^thenae Oxonienses, Ed. Bliss, 181 5, Vol. II. Col. 208.
ix
PUBLISHERS NOTE
or his Colwort twise sodden and now served in with
other Macaronicke dishes as the second course to his
Crudities, printed by William Stansby, and The Od-
combian Banquet dished foorth by T. the Coriat and
served in by a number of Noble Wits in prayse of his
Crudities and Crambe too. Imprinted for T. Thorp,
also appeared in 1 6 1 1 .
In 1612 Coryat set out again, this time for the East,
but before doing so he went to Odcombe and hung
up in the parish church the shoes in which he had
walked from Venice. These shoes, of which an illus
tration is given on page 113, were still hanging in
Odcombe Church at the beginning of the eighteenth
century. Starting on his Eastern journey on the 2Oth
October 1612 he sailed to Zante, where he arrived on
the i jth January 1613 ; he then proceeded to Troy and
on to Constantinople. From Constantinople he appears
to have proceeded to Smyrna, from Smyrna to Alexandria
and thence to Cairo. Returning to Alexandria he sailed
to Joppa and from there went to Jerusalem. From
Jerusalem he went to Sidon and sailed to Scanderoon
or Alexandretta ; he then went to Aleppo and joined
a caravan for Persia, passing through Ecbatana, Kazvin,
and Ispahan where he remained two months. From
Ispahan he journeyed with a caravan to Lahore, meeting
on the frontier of India Sir Robert Sherley, who was
travelling from f the court of the Mogul to the King
of Persia s court. From Lahore Coryat proceeded to
Agra and thence to Ajmere, where he remained for
eight months. At Ajmere he learned Persian, Turkish,
and Arabian, and became so proficient in the Indostan
or more vulgar Language, that, as the Rev. Edward
PUBLISHERS NOTE
Terry 1 tells us, there was a woman, a Landress, belong
ing to my Lord Embassador s house, who had such a
freedome and liberty of speech that she would sometimes
scould, brawl, and rail from the Sun-rising to Sun-set ;
one day he undertook her in her own language, and
by eight of the clock in the morning so silenced her,
that she had not one word more to speak. During
his stay at Ajmere he sent home a number of letters,
which were published in 1616 with the title Thomas
Coriate Traveller for the English Wits : Greeting.
From the Court of the Great Mogul, Resident at the
Towne of Asmere in Easterne India. From Ajmere
he went to Surat, but there being over-kindly used
by some of the English who gave him Sack, which
they had brought from England, he calling for it as
soon as he first heard of it and crying, " Sack,
Sack, Is there such thing as Sack ? I pray give me
some Sack " and drinking of it, though, I conceive,
moderately (for he was a very temperate man) it in
creased his Flux which he had then upon him ; and
this caused him within a few daies after his very
tedious and troublesome Travels (for he went most on
foot) at this place to come to his Journies end ; for
here he overtook Death in the Month of December,
1617. and was buried (as aforesaid) under a little
Monument, like one of those are usually made in our
Church yards. 2
It is greatly to be regretted that no complete journal
1 A Voyage to East India observed by Edward Terry (then chaplain to
the Right Honorable Sr Thomas Row Knight, Lord Ambassadour to the
Great Mogol). London. 1655.
x
PUBLISHERS NOTE
of Coryat s Eastern travels is in existence. From his
Letters from Ajmere and from the few fragments of
his Journal printed in Purchas His Pilgrimes it is
clear that had Coryat lived to publish his complete
journal it would have made a worthy sequel to the
Crudities.
This edition of the Crudities is a reprint of the
original edition of 1 6 1 1 , but side-notes have been in
serted, and references to the pages of the original text
have been given in the margin. The foot-notes are
Coryat s. The letters i, j, u and v have been altered
to conform to modern usage, and ordinary printers errors,
both of spelling and punctuation, have been corrected.
Coryat s original index was much condensed, and it has
been replaced by a fuller one in this Edition.
GLASGOW,
February, 1905.
THE FIRST VOLUME
OF
Coryat s Crudities
Containing his Observations of France, Amiens,
Paris, Fountaine Beleau, Nevers, Lyons,
Savoy, Italy, Turin, Milan, Cremona,
Mantua, Padua and the Most
Glorious, Peerlesse and
Mayden Citie
of Venice
xin
CERTAINE
Opening and Drawing Distiches,
TO BE APPLYED
as mollifying Cataplasmes to the Tumors, Car-
nosities, or difficult Pimples, full of matter,
appearing in the Authors front, conflated of
Stiptike and Glutinous Vapours arising out of
the Crudities : The heads whereof are par
ticularly pricked and pointed out by
letters for the Readers better
understanding.
First, th Author here glutteth Sea, Haddocke and
Whiting
With spuing, and after the world with his writing.
Or,
Yee Haddocks twixt Dover and Calais,* speake Greeke;
For Tom fild your mawes with it in Whitsun J weeke.
T
B
I Hough our Author for s Venerie felt no whips smart,
Yet see here he rides in a Picardie Cart.
* Imperat. J Viz. anno 1608, when he beganne to travel].
xv
AN EXPLICATION OF THE
C
THis Horse pictur d showes, that out *Tatter-de-
mallian
Did ride the French Hackneyes, and lye with th Italian.
Or,
Our Author in France rode on Horse without stirrop,
And in Italic bathed himselfe in their syrrop.
Or,
His love to strange horses he sorteth out prettilie,
He rides them in France, and lies with them in Italic.
D
HE hath crost 1 Sea and 2 Land, now the cloudes
(saith the text)
Of th Ayre 3 he is climbing ; ware Tom, 4 Fire is next.
E
HEre to his Land-Friggat he s ferried by Charon,
He bords her ; a service a hot and a rare one.
Or,
Here to a Tutch-hole he s row d by his Gondelier,
That fires his Linstocke, and empties his Bandolier.
F
HEre his Friggat shootes egs at him empty of
Chickens,
Because shee had made his purse empty of Chicquins.
Or,
Here shee pelts him with egges, he saith, of Rose water,
But trust him not Reader, twas some other matter.
* A word that in the Helvetian tongue signifieth a ragged traveller.
1234 The f our e Elements.
J That is, the beauty of her countenance, and sweet smatches of
her lips did enflame his tongue with a divine & fierye enthusiasme,
and emptyed the Bandolier of his conceipts, & inventions, for that
time.
xvi
EMBLEMES OF THE FRONTISPICE
G
IN vaine here doth Coryate pipe and dispute,
His wench was, Jewes will not be caught with his
flute.
Or,
Thy Cortizan clipt thee, ware Tom, I advise thee,
And flie from the Jewes, lest they circumcise thee.
H
H
E longs for sweet grapes, but going to steale em,
He findeth soure graspes and gripes from a Dutch
*Skelum.
Or,
Here is the combat our Author may glorie at,
With Halberd the Boore lays on, and with Greeke
Coryat.
H
Ere is his Trophee victoriously dight
With case, shoes, and stockings, and lice put to
flight.
Or,
See here his poore case, his shoes clowted with cunning,
His stockings strong-smelling, and lice away running.
Or,
See our louse-bitten Travellers ragged device,
Of case, shoes, and stockings, and Canniball lice.
Or,
This Gibbet the false case and hose doth requite,
That harbour d the Vermine that their Maister did bite.
*A Rascall in Dutch
xvii
T
AN EXPLICATION OF THE
K
IHis should be his picture, tis rather his Embleme,
For by (K) it notes him, though t little J re
semble him.
Or,
This picture unlike him, showes hee s not come home as
He went, but chang d, and turn d travelling Thomas.
Or,
This picture unlike him, showes hee s not himselfe,
But chang d since he proved a Travelling Elfe.
Or,
Know Reader, the notes and contents of this booke,
Are not to be ghessed by th Authors carv d looke.
THese be the three countries with their Cornu-copia,
That make him as famous, as Moore his Utopia.
Or,
Here France gives him scabs, Venice a hot Sunne,
And Germanic spewes on him out of her Tunne.
M
THe horse he bestrid till he mounted his chaire
Doth kindly bestride him at Bergamo faire.
Or,
He courted a wench, but pennance for his game 6
He doth by lying with horses at Bergamo.
As being the first letter of his name in Greeke.
J But you differ in opinion (Mr. Laurence) from all my other
friendes that have compared together the counterfaited and the
living figure.
xvni
EMBLEMES OF THE FRONTISPICE
Or,
The Italian horse more then French his love feeles,
For he rode on the one, and lay at th others heeles.
M
N
Ost Politicke Thomas, now thou art no * fol I see,
For wanting no money, thou beggest in Policie.
LAURENCE WHITAKER.
Here follow certaine other Verses, as Charmes
to unlocke the mystery of the Crudities.
A
Ere, like Arion, our Coryate doth draw
All sorts of Fish with Musicke of his maw.
B
Ere, not up Holdborne, but downe a steepe hill,
Hee s carried twixt Montrell and Abbeville.
H
H
A
Horse here is sadled, but no Tom him to backe,
It should rather have bene Tom that a horse did
lack.
D
HEre up the Alpes (not so plaine as to Dunstable)
Hee s carried like a Cripple, from Constable to
Constable.
E
APunke here pelts him with egs. How so ?
For he did but kisse her, and so let her go.
R
Eligiously here he bids, row from the stewes,
He will expiate this sinne with converting the Jewes.
* The French word for a Foole.
xix
EMBLEMES OF THE FRONTISPICE
_
A
Nd there, while he gives the zealous Bravado,
A Rabbin confutes him with the Bastinado.
H
Ere, by a Boore too, hee s like to be beaten,
For Grapes he had gather d before they were eaten.
I
Ld Hat here, torne Hose, with Shoes full of gravell,
And louse-dropping Case, are the Armes of his
travell.
K
HEre, finer then comming from his Punke you him
see,
*F. shews what he was, K. what he will bee.
H
O
H
A
B
L
Ere France, and Italy both to him shed
Their homes, and Germany pukes on his head.
M
Nd here he disdain d not, in a forraine land,
To lie at Livory, while the Horses did stand.
N
Ut here, neither trusting his hands, nor his legs,
Beeing in feare to be rob d, he most learnedly begs.
BEN JONSON.
*Not meaning by F. and K. as the vulgar may peevishly and wit
tingly mistake, but that he was then comming from his Courtesan a
Freshman, and now having seen their fashions, and written a description
of them, he will shortly be reputed a knowing, proper, and well traveld
scholer, as by his starch d beard and printed ruffe may be as properly
insinuated.
xx
THT(EE
CRVDE VEINES
ARE PRESENTED IN
This B o o K E following (beficles the fore-
faid C a v D i T i E s) no lefle flowing in the
body of the B o o K E , then the CRVDITIES
tbtwfelucs 3 two 0/Rhetorickeand one
Of P O H S I E.
That is co fay, a mod elegant Oration, firft written
in the Latine tongue byHERMANsvs KIRCUNERVS, a
Ciuill Lawyer , Oratour^ Cjefare&n Poet , andprofetfor of Eh-
qtience and Antiquities in the famous Vniucrfitie
of M A R p v R G in the Langrauiat of Hafsia , in
praife of Trauell in general).
Now diftilledintoEnglifh Spirit through the ODCOMBIAN
Limbecke. This precedetb the C R VD 1 T 1 E S. Another 4fo com-
pofed by the Author of the former, in praife ofTraucll of Germanic
in particular, fttbltnted and brought ottsr the Helm fin
the Stillitorie of the-faid Trauclling TH o M A s:
This about the Center or NaufKofthc
CRUDITIES.
Then in the Poftcrne of them looke , and thoit fhalt find the
Poftbume Poems of the Authors Father , comming at neerc
Kinfcmen to the worke,being next of blood to the
Booke , and yonger brothers to the
Author himielfe.
LONDON,
Trintedby W. S. dnno Domini
16 n.
TO THE HIGH AND MIGHTY PRINCE
Henry, Prince of Wales, Duke of Cornwall
and Rothsay, Earle of Chester, Knight
of the most noble Order of the
Garter, &c.
Hough I am very confidently perswaded The Epistle
(most gracious Prince the Orient Pearle
of the Christian world) that I shall expose
my selfe to the severe censure at the least,
if not the scandalous calumniations of
divers carping criticks, for presuming to
dedicate to your Highnesse the greene
fruits of my short travels, especially since I am no schollar,
but a man altogether unworthy to be dignified with so
laudable a title : yet there are some few reasons that have
emboldned and encouraged me to present these my silly
Observations unto your Highnesse, whereof these two
are the chiefest. First, that if your Highnesse will deigne
to protect them with your favourable and gracious
Patronage, as it were with the seven-fold shield of Ajax,
or the segis of Pallas (a favour that I most humbly crave
at your Highnesse hands) against the envious cavillations
of such criticall Momi as are wont to traduce the labours
of other men ; it may perhaps yeeld some little encourage
ment to many noble and generose yong Gallants that
follow your Highnesse Court, and give attendance upon
your Peerlesse person, to travell into forraine countries,
and inrich themselves partly with the observations, and
partly with the languages of outlandish regions, the
principall meanes (in my poore opinion) to grace and
c.c. i A
CORYAT S CRUDITIES
The Epistle adorne those courtly Gentlemen, whose noble parentage,
Deduatone. m g enuous education, and vertuous conversation have
made worthy to be admitted into your Highnesse Court :
seeing thereby they will be made fit to doe your Highnesse
and their Country the better service when opportunity
shall require. For the description of many beautifull
Cities, magnificent Palaces, and other memorable matters
that I have observed in my travels, may infuse (I hope)
a desire to them to travel into transmarine nations, and
to garnish their understanding with the experience of
other countries. Secondly, because amongst other things
that I exhibite in this my Journall to your Princelie view,
that most glorious, renowned, and Virgin Citie of Venice,
the Queene of the Christian world, that Diamond set in
the ring of the Adriatique gulfe, and the most resplendent
mirrour of Europe, I have more particularly described,
then it hath been ever done before in our English tongue.
The description of which famous Citie (were it done with
such a curious and elegant stile as it doth deserve) I dare
boldly say is a subject worthy for the greatest Monarch
in the world to reade over. But for mine owne part I am
no schollar (as I have already said) and therefore unable
to delineate & paint out the singular beauty thereof in
her genuine colours with such an exquisite pensill as an
eloquent historiographer ought to doe. Notwithstanding
those Observations that I gathered thereof during the time
of my aboade there (which was about the space of sixe
weekes) I have written though not as eloquently as a
learned traveller would have done, yet as faithfully and
truly as any man whatsoever ; Being often holpen both
by the discourse of learned men, and certaine Latin
bookes that I found in Italic, wherehence (I confesse) I
derived many principall notes, with which I have beautified
the description of many other Italian Cities.
But me thinks I seeme to heare some Momus objecting
unto me now I speake thus of Venice, that this is Crambe
bis cocta, as it is in the proverbe. For we have the
historic of Venice (he will perhaps say) already translated
THE EPISTLE DEDICATORIE
out of Italian into English. Therefore what neede we The Epistle
more descriptions of that Citie? Truly I confesse that
Cardinall Contarens Commonwealth of Venice hath beene
so elegantly translated into English, that any judicious
Reader may by the reading thereof much instruct himselfe
with the forme of the Venetian governement. But that
booke reporteth not halfe so many remarkable matters as
mine doth (absit dicto invidia) of the antiquities and
monuments of that famous Citie, together with the
description of Palaces, Churches, the Piazza of S. Marke,
which is one of the most beautifull places (I beleeve) that
ever was built in any Citie whatsoever of the whole
world, and other memorable things of no meane import
ance. Howbeit were this true that the historie of Venice
hath been more then once divulged in our mother tongue,
yet I hope your Highnesse will not miscensure me for
communicating to my country new notes of this noble
City, with a corollarie of Observations that (I am sure)
were never before printed in England, seeing (according
to the old speech) ^/? KCU Tpis TO. KaXa.
Howsoever, if the curious Reader that is wholy
addicted unto novelties, will not so well accept my notes
of Venice, for that the historie of the Venetian common
wealth hath beene already printed in our language : never-
thelesse I conceive some hope that the descriptions of other
Cities which I survayed in divers countries in my travels,
as in France, Italic, Switzerland, and some parts of high
Germanic, will yeeld more matter of newes unto him,
because none of these Cities have beene described in our
language that I could ever heare of. And whereas I
have written more copiously of the Italian, Helveticall,
and German Cities, then of the French, that is to be
attributed partly to my Industrie (whatsoever the same
was) which I used more in Italic, Switzerland, and
Germany by many degrees then in France ; being often
disswaded by some of my fellow travellers from gathering
any Observations at all till I came into Italic : and partly
to the helpes of bookes which I found in Italic and
CORYAT S CRUDITIES
The Epistle Germanic, wherewith I have something inlarged the
Dedicating, descriptions of those Cities. For seeing I made very
short aboade in divers faire Italian Cities, as Cremona,
Mantua, &c. (where I desired to have observed al the
principal! matters thereof) and thereby was barred of
opportunity to note such things at large as were most
memorable ; I held it expedient to borrow some few
notes from a certaine Latin booke printed in Italie, rather
then to write so briefly of the same, as the shortnesse of
time would not otherwise permit me. The like I did
in Germanic, being sometimes beholding to Munster
for some speciall matter which neither by my owne
Observations, nor by the discourse of learned men I
could attaine unto, especially about the institution of the
Bishopricks of certaine Cities through the which I
passed.
I meant to have digressed into the praise of the
excellency of travell into forraine countries, the more to
stirre up yong Gentlemen and every good spirit that
favours learning, to so worthy an exercise ; had I not
prevented my selfe by translating those two elegant
Orations out of Latin into English, that were made by
that learned German Hermannus Kirchnerus of Marpurg ;
which I have inserted into my Booke ; the one in com
mendation of travell in generall, the other of Germanie
in particular ; which are seasoned with such savourie
Attick conceits, and adorned with those flosculi & pig-
menta eloquentiae, that I may fitly apply unto them that
prety Distiche of the Poet Lucilius :
Quam lepide lexeis compostae, ut tesserulae, omnes
Arte pavimento, atque emblemate vermiculato.
And surely for my owne part I will say I never read any
orations in all my life composed with a more terse and
polished stile (Tullies only excepted) though I have in
my daies perused some part of the Orations of learned
Melancthon, the Phoenix of Germanie, Antonie Muretus,
my owne Rhetoricall countryman Robert Turner, &c.
4
THE EPISTLE DEDICATORIE
Therefore since these two Orations do yeeld stronger The Epistle
motives, and more forceable arguments to animate the
learned to travel! into outlandish regions, then my poore
invention can affoord : I have thought fit to turne them
into our mother tongue, according to my simple skill,
and to present them also to your Highnesse, together with
the Observations of my travels ; both because I hope
they will be very delectable to every Reader that loveth
to heare of forraine affaires, and also for that they agree
with the argument of my booke.
As for these my Observations in forraine countries, I
was so farre from presuming to dedicate them to your
Highnesse before the consummation of my future travels,
that I resolved rather to conceale them from the world,
and to bury them for a time in oblivion, if the importunity
of some of my deare friends had not prevailed with me
for divulging the same : whereof one amongst the rest,
namely that right worshipfull Gentleman my most sincere
and entire friend, M. Lionel Cranfield was the originall
and principall animator of me ; and another of my
friends, even learned M. Laurence Whitaker, that elegant
Linguist and worthy traveller, now Secretarie to my
illustrious Mecoenas Sir Edward Philips, Master of
the Rolles, hath often urged unto me that proverbiall
verse :
IloXXa /AeTa^u Tre Xet KvXi/co? /cat ^etXeo9 axpov*
By which he signified that many sinister accidents might
happen unto me betwixt the time of my next going out
of England, and my arrivall againe in my country ; and
so consequently my friends and country might be deprived
of the fruits of my past travels, and of those to come : by
these and such like perswasions of my friends I was
animated to publish the Observations of my travels much
sooner then I thought to have done, and to addresse them
to your excellent Highnesse ; not that I hold them
worthy to undergoe your Highnesse censure, seeing many
* Many things doe often slip twixt cup and lip.
5
CORYAT S CRUDITIES
The Epistle o f them deserve rather ad salsamantarios amandari, as
Dedtcatorte. i earnec j Adrian Turnebus* writeth of his Adversaria, and
(as Horace saith :)
Deferri in vicum vendentem thus & odores,
Et piper, & quicquid chartis amicitur ineptis.H
But because they shall be an introduction (if your High-
nesse will vouchsafe to Patronize them with your Princely
protection) to farre more memorable matters that I
determine by God s gracious indulgence to observe
hereafter in most of the famous Cities and Princes Courts
of Germanic and Italic : as also in Constantinople, with
divers ancient Cities of Greece, and the holy Land, as
Jerusalem, Jericho, Samaria, and other sacred places
mentioned in the Scriptures, and celebrated for the miracles
done therein by our blessed Saviour. Of which Cities
(if God shall grant me a prosperous issue to my designe-
ments) I hope to write after a more particular manner
then any of our English travellers have done before me.
Wherefore most humbly beseeching your Highnesse to
pardon my presumption, I recommend your Highnesse
to the mercifull clientele of him whose throne is the
heaven, whose foote-stoole is the earth.
By him
That travelleth no lesse in all humble and
dutifull observance to your Highnesse
then he did to Venice and the
parts above mentioned,
Your Highnesse poore Observer,
THOMAS CORYATE,
Peregrine of Odcombe.
* In Epistola ad Hen. Memium. \\Horat. z lib. Epist.
The Epistle to the Reader.
Aving lately considered in my serious The Epistle to
meditations (candid Reader) the un- thc
measurable abundance of bookes of all
artes, sciences, and arguments whatsoever
that are printed in this learned age where
in we now breathe, in so much that me
thinks we want rather readers for bookes
than bookes for readers ; my thoughts beganne to be
much distracted like those of ^neas, of whom Virgil
speaketh thus :
Atque anirnum, nunc hue celerem, nunc dividit illuc,
In partesque rapit varias, perque omnia versat.*
Yea I was plunged in an Ocean of doubts, whether it were
best that my Observations gathered in forraine countries
should be continually confined within the bounds of my
poore studie, and so at length squalere situ, & cum tineis
ac blattis rixari ; or be presented to the view of my
country, being (I confesse) by so much the more doubtfull
to evulge the same, by how much the more I am no
schollar, but only a superficiall smatterer in learning, and
therefore most unwilling to incurre the censure of such
severe Aristarches as are wont o/3eA)e<i/ and with their
censorious rods doe use to chastise the lucubrations of
most kinde of writers. But at length post varias cogita-
tionum fluctuationes, by the counsell of certaine of my
deare friendes I put on a constant resolution, and
determined to expose the abortive fruits of my travels
CORYAT S CRUDITIES
The Epistle to to the sight of the world (after they had for the space of
the Reader.
two w h o i e y eares l ur ked in a kinde of Cimmerian
darkenesse) which if they cannot endure, but will be
dazeled with the least glimpse thereof, I wish the same
of them that elegant Angelus Politianus * did of his
Latin translation of Homer, even that I might aut
Thetidi aut Veneris largiri marito.
Since then I have thus farre ventured with them, I
will take occasion to speake a little of the thing which
begat and produced these my observations, even of travell
into forraine countries, whereby I may the better encourage
Gentlemen and lovers of travell to undertake journeys
beyond the seas. Of all the pleasures in the world travell
is (in my opinion) the sweetest and most delightfull. For
what can be more pleasant then to see passing variety of
beautifull Cities, Kings and Princes Courts, gorgeous
Palaces, impregnable Castles and Fortresses, Towers
piercing in a manner up to the cloudes, fertill territories
replenished with a very Cornucopia of all manner of
commodities as it were with the home of Amalthea,
tending both to pleasure and profit, that the heart of man
can wish for : flourishing Universities (whereof only
Germany yeeldeth no lesse than three and twenty)
furnished with store of learned men of all faculties, by
whose conversation a learned traveller may much infbrme
and augment his knowledge. What a singular and
incomparable comfort is it to conferre with those learned
men in forraine Universities and noble Cities, whose
excellent workes we reade in our private studies at home,
as with Isaac Casaubonus the pearle of Paris : Paulus
^Emylius in Padua : Rodolphus Hospinianus, Gasper
Waserus, Henricus Bullingerus in Zurich : Amandus
Polanus, Joannes Jacobus Gryneus in Basil : Janus
Gruterus, David Pareus, Dionysius Gothofredus at
Heidelberg : Joannes Piscator at Herborne : Bonaventura
Vulcanius at Leyden ? Most of whom it was my good
hap not only to see in my travels, but also to my
* In Epistola ad Jacobum Cardinalem Papiensem.
8
THE EPISTLE TO THE READER
unspeakable solace to enjoy very copious and fruitfull The Epistle to
discourse with them. Againe, what a contentment is it er
to a holy and religious Christian to visit the monuments
and tombes of some of the ancient Saints and Fathers of
the primitive Church ; as of S. Augustine in Pavie, S.
Ambrose in Milan ? &c. Also the epenria and ruines of
the houses wherein those famous men lived, as Cicero,
Varro, Virgil, Livie, &c. that are to this day shewed in
sundry places of Italic, strike no small impression in the
heart of an observative traveller. Likewise the places
wherein divers famous battels have beene fought, so much
celebrated partly by the ancient Roman historiographers,
and partly by other neotericke authors (many of which I
exactly observed in my short voyage) when they are
survayed by a curious traveller, doe seeme to present to the
eyes of his mind a certaine Idea of the bloudy skirmishes
themselves. Yea such is the exuberancie and superfluity
of these exoticke pleasures, that for my owne part I will
most truly affirme, I reaped more entire and sweet comfort
in five moneths travels of those seven countries mentioned
in the front of my booke, then I did all the dayes of my
life before in England, which contayned two and thirty
yeares. Moreover the knowledge of forraine languages
(which the shortnesse of time did not affoord me) acquired
by industrious travell, yeeldeth an ornament beyond all
comparison the most precious and excellent that can be
incident to a Gentleman. For if the learning of two
languages be commended by Ovid, who said :
Nee levis ingenuas pectus coluisse per artes
Cura sit, & linguas edidicisse duas.
Much more praise doth he deserve that by travelling in
France, Italic, Spaine, Alemannie, and the Netherlands,
doth learne the five languages of those noble countries,
which being added to his owne mother tongue and the
Latin, do answere the number of the seven liberall sciences.
These certainly, and more, have been learned by famous
travellers, as by Gulielmus Postellus a Frenchman of
9
CORYAT S CRUDITIES
The Epistle to excellent learning, who spake twelve languages. Julius
the Reader. XS3Lf Scaliger that incomparable schollar, nine. Joseph
Scaliger that died not long since in Leyden a University
of Holland, spake ten. Caspar Waserus that ornament
of Zurich, my kind friend, speaketh eight. These are
meanes that adde much more grace and honour to an
ingenuous Gentleman, then he can purchase unto himselfe
by all the exterior gifts of fortune. For though gentility
be of it selfe gracious, yet it is much more excellent when
it is adorned with the experience of forraine countries.
Even as a gold ringe of it selfe is faire and beautifull, but
much more resplendent when it is decked with a rich
Diamond or some other precious stone. I will also
illustrate this matter by some famous examples that I
have noted in my poore readings. The Patriarch Jacob
travelled in his old age with his children out of the land
of Canaan into ^Egypt. Very memorable is the travell
of the Queene of the South mentioned in the holy
Scripture, who travelled out of her country of Saba (which
is a part of Arabia) to Hierusalem, to the end to heare
Salomons wisedome. Pherecydes the Master of Pytha
goras was a traveller. Also Pythagoras himselfe travelled
out of his country of Samos into Italic. Polybius that
excellent historiographer travelled into many countries
with Scipio Africanus whom he instructed in learning.
Apollonius Tyaneus that famous Pythagorean Philo
sopher, whose life Philostratus hath described in eight
bookes, travelled for learning sake into .ZEgypt, Persia,
India, Greece. Dionysius Areopagita an Athenian borne
into ^Egypt also, and divers other countries. Likewise
Plinie the Naturalist, and Cornelius Tacitus the historio
grapher spent some time in travell. The like did S.
Hierome one of the foure Doctors of the west Church.
The Emperour Adrian travelled over most of the
Provinces of the Roman Empire, and for a time made
his residence in Athens for learning of knowledge. Him
did the Emperour Antoninus Bassianus Caracalla imitate
in the like action, though not with so good successe.
10
THE EPISTLE TO THE READER
Also that eloquent orator Hermannus Kirchnerus in his The Epistle to
two orations of travell which I have rudely translated the
out of Latin into English, and inserted into my observa
tions, mentioneth these notable examples of travelling,
namely Euclide, Plato, Aristotle, Anacharsis, Zamolxis,
Lycurgus, Hippocrates, Cicero, Galen, and Dioscorides.
Moreover Vincentius Gonzaga Duke of Mantua then
travelled in divers parts of Germanic when I was abroade.
All which from the first to the last (Jacob only excepted,
who travelled for other causes) aymed at this maine scope
in their travels, as it were their Helice and Cynosura, to
purchase experience and wisdome ; that they might be
the better able to benefit their country and commonweale.
In which they differed much from many of our English
travellers, to whom I may very truly apply that memorable
speech of ^Eschines, in his Oration against Timarchus,
ou rov rpOTTOv a\\d rov TOTTOV novov /j.eTri\\aav* But I Will
proceede no further in this point, seeing the foresaid
elegant Orations of Kirchnerus doe more artificially paint
out the fruits of travell in their naturall colours then I am
able to doe.
But now I will descend to speake something of my
own travels. It hath bene oftentimes objected unto me
since my comming home, by certaine Gentlemen of
eminent note, and as it were laid in my dish as a choaking
peare, that for the short time that I was abroade I
observed more solid matters then any English man did
in the like space this long time. For I copied out more
inscriptions and epitaphes (said a certaine Knight that
shall passe namelesse) that are written upon solid peeces
of stone, then any judicious traveller would have done
in many yeares. For which cause he branded me with
the note of a tombe-stone traveller. Whereas it had
beene much more laudable (said he) to have observed the
governement of common-weales, and affaires of state. I
answere him, that because I am a private man and no
*This is answerable unto that in Horace. Ccelum non animum mutant
qui trans mare currunt.
ii
CORYAT S CRUDITIES
The Epistle to statist, matters of policie are impertinent unto me. For
the Reader. j observe that memO rable distich :
Vive tibi, quantumque potes praelustria vita,
Saevum praelustri fulmen ab arce venit.
Besides I have observed that in some places it is dangerous
to prie very curiously into State matters, as divers travellers
have observed by their deare experience ; a most tragical
example whereof I heard to have beene shewed in the
City of Strasbourg not long before my arrivall there.
Moreover I hope that every gentle Reader that shall with
a milde censure peruse my observations, will say it was
impossible for me in the space of five months to observe
all these matters in descriptions of Cities that I have
handled ; and politique affaires also. But because this
objection shall not justly take hold upon me, that I am
a tombestone traveller, if God shall grant me happy suc-
cesse in my next journey, I will so farre wade into a few
matters of policie for the better satisfaction of the Reader,
as I may with security of my life attaine unto. Surely
I doe not a little wonder that the observing of inscriptions
and epitaphes should be objected unto me by way of
disgrace. For who that * TQV e -y/ce^aXoi/ ei> rot? /cpora ^ot? (to
use that sentence of Demosthenes) KOI /J.YI ev rats Trrepvais
KaraTreTraTwevov (popel, will deeme it a vanity to write out
those sweet elegancies that many epitaphes doe present to
the reader, whereof some few for example sake I will briefly
recite. The epitaph of Pope Lucius the third, which I
have mentioned in my notes of Verona, is so pretty, that I
thinke it cannot but affect every learned Reader.
Luca dedit lucem tibi Luci, Pontificatum
Ostia, Papatum Roma, Verona mori.
lino Verona dedit tibi vere vivere, Roma
Exilium, curas Ostia, Luca mori.
Also this witty epitaph that was given me by a learned
* In Oratione de Haloneso, that is, who that hath his wit in his
head, and not in his heeles, &c.
12
THE EPISTLE TO THE READER
man in my travels, was written upon the tombe of a The Epistle to
Grammarian in the City of Gaunt. the Reader
Grammaticam scivi, multos docuique per annos,
Declinare tamen non potui tumulum.
Who will not applaud that upon learned Joannes Picus
Earle of Mirandula in the City of Florence?
Joannes jacet hie Mirandula, caetera norunt
Et Tagus, & Ganges, forsan & Antipodes.
And that upon Rodolphus Agricola in Heidelberg,
composed by famous Hermolaus Barbarus, as I have
mentioned in my notes of that City.
Invida clauserunt hoc marmore fata Rodolphum
Agricolam, Frisii spemque decusque soli.
Scilicet hoc uno meruit Germania laudis
Quicquid habet Latium, Graecia quicquid habet.
Let them therefore reprehend me as long as they list for
the collection of those epitaphes and inscriptions in my
booke. For mine owne part I am so farre from thinking
my selfe worthy of taxation for the same, that I rather
feare I have ministred just cause of reprehension to the
learned for omitting so many notable epitaphes as I might
have found in divers famous Cities of my travels,
especially Paris, Milan, and Padua.
I suppose that divers which will reade my observations,
will blame me for that I have not translated the Latin
verses of Julius Caesar Scaliger, which I have prefixed
before the description of certaine of the nobler Cities,
and the epitaphes and inscriptions, into English. Because
many men that cannot understand them in Latin, would
take some pleasure to reade them in English. To this I
answere, that if I should have turned them into English,
many of them would have lost part of their grace by my
improper translation. Because the Latin tongue hath
certaine proper and peculiar elegancies, which when they
are translated into another language, seeme to leese
13
CORYAT S CRUDITIES
The Epistle to something of that genuina venustas that it hath in her
the Reader. O wne originall no otherwise then certaine plants that being
removed from their naturall soile to a strange place, will
not prosper as well as they did before. Therefore I
thought good to labour but little in this businesse of trans
lation, saving only in those two memorable things which I
have translated for the benefit of the unlearned Reader,
the one, S. Bernards Epistle to the Bishop of Spira. The
other the historic of the three Kings of Colen. Also
whereas I understand that some have objected against me,
that I deserve to be taxed for reporting certaine things
which I received only by tradition and report of other
men, not by my owne certaine experience ; I would have
them know, that I am not the first that hath grounded
much of his matter upon the speeches of other men ;
For I have observed that Herodotus, Diodorus Siculus,
Justin, Quintus Curtius, and divers other ancient his
torians, as well amongst the Greeks as Latines, have
done the like, as they may easily observe that peruse
their workes. But I am sure I doe very seldome depend
upon the report of others, and when I trust to the
tradition of them, they are men of such learning from
whom I derive those matters, that I thinke a man neede
not doubt to alleage them for authentike authours. As
in Zurich learned Hospinian told me that their City was
founded in the time of Abraham. And the like notes
I received from other learned men, whose testimonies I
approve as much as the written authority of grave
authours.
It remaineth now that I am to make one instant request
unto thee (curteous Reader) and with the same will shut
up my Epistle : Even to desire thee whatsoever thou art
(if thou shouldest intend to translate my booke into Latin
in my absence, when I shall be abroade in my next
travels) manum de tabula tollere. Intermeddle not I
intreate thee (gentle Reader) with my booke, neither
thrust thy sickle into my harvest, except thou shalt
certainly understand by credible report that I have
14
THE EPISTLE TO THE READER
miscarried in my voyage. For if God shall grant me The Epistle to
happy successe in my next travels, and a safe arrivall in the Rea "
my country, I determine (Oeov StSovroi) to translate both
these and my future observations into Latin for the benefit
not only of my owne country, but also of those countries
where I have already travelled, and hereafter resolve to
travell. Though truly I doe ingenuously confesse my
Latin stile is so barren and penurious, that it were much
fitter for another man to pertorme it then my selfe. As
for these Observations which I now exhibite unto thy
gentle censure, take them I pray thee in good part till
I present better unto thee after my next travels, consider
ing that it is not in my power to yeeld unto thee such
exquisite notes of travell as great schollars gather in the
course of their travels, since I neither professe my selfe
a schollar, nor acknowledge myselfe worthy to be ranked
amongst schollars of meane learning, but only wish to be
accounted a poore well-wilier of the Muses. Notwith
standing though my beggarly learning can not ayme at
such weighty matters as are fit to be searched for by a
learned traveller, yet I will promise thee (if thou wilt
only winke at some light matters inserted into these my
Observations) to impart many such memorable things
unto thee after the end of my next journey, as are often
times omitted by travellers of that learning, that I am
not worthy to loose their shoe-lachet, yea such as doe as
farre excel! me,
Ante alios quantum Pegasus ibat equos.
Therefore in the meane time joyne with me in thy best
wishes for happy successe in my future travels ; and so I
commend thee to him whom I beseech to blesse thee at
home, and me abroade.
Thy benevolent itinerating friend,
T. C.
The Odcombian Legge-stretcher.
15
THE CHARACTER
OF THE
Famous Odcombian, or rather Polyptopian
THOMAS the CORYATE
Traveller, and Gentleman Author of these
Quinque-mestriall Crudities
Done by a charitable Friend, that thinks it
necessary, by this time, you should
understand the Maker, as well
as the worke
Ben Jonson s T TE is an Engine, wholly consisting of extremes,
Character of J_ J_ a Head, Fingers, and Toes. For what his
industrious Toes have trod, his ready Fingers have
written, his subtle head dictating. He was set a going
for Venice the fourteenth of May, anno 1608. and
returned home (of himselfe) the third of October
following, being wound up for five moneths, or
thereabouts : his paises two for one. Since, by vertue
of those weights he hath bene conveniently able to visite
Town and Countrie, Fayres and Mercats, to all places,
and all societies a Spectacle gratefull, above that of
Niniveh, or the Citie of Norwich ; and he is now become
the better Motion, by having this his Booke his Inter
preter : which yet hath exprest his purse more then him,
16
A CHARACTER OF THE AUTHOUR
as we the rest of his Commenders have don, so unmerci- Ben Jonsotfs
fully charging the Presse with his prayse. But to that c ^ ctei J
r- i u * 11 i TT -n i / u- u the Author.
Gale, he sets up all sayles. He will beare paper (which
is cloth) enough. He hath ever since the first designe
of printing hereof, bene a Deliciis to the Court ; but
served there in his owne cloathes, and at his owne costs :
where he hath not bene costive of acquaintance to any,
from the Palatine to the Plebeian ; which popularity of
his (it is thought by some of his Odcombians) may hurt
him. But he free from all other Symptomes of aspiring,
will easily outcary that ; it being a motlie and no perfect
ambition : the rather, because when he should have been
taken up for the place (though he hastily prevented it
with a tender of himselfe) hee conditioned to have no
office of charge or neerenesse cast upon him, as a
Remora of his future travaile ; for to that he is
irrecoverably addicted. The word Travaile affectes him
in a Waine-oxe, or a Packe-horse. A Carrier will carry
him from any company that hath not been abroad,
because he is a Species of a Traveller. But a Dutch-
Post doth ravish him. The mere superscription of a
letter from Zurich sets him up like a top : Basil or
Heidelberg makes him spinne. And at seeing the word
Frankford, or Venice, though but on the title of a Booke,
he is readie to breake doublet, cracke elbowes, and
overflowe the roome with his murmure. Hee is a mad
Greeke, no lesse than a merry : and will buy his * Egges,
his Puddings, his Ginger-bread, yea cobble his shoes in
the Atticke dialect : and would make it a matter of
Conscience to speake other, were he trusted alone in a
roome with an Andiron of state. The greatest Politick
that advances into Paules he will quit, to go talke with
the Grecian that begs there ; such is his humility ; and
doth grieve inwardly he was not borne that countryman
for that purpose. You shall perceive a veine or
* I meane when he travelled. A thing, that I know he scorned
to do since he came home.
Not to beg, but to talke Greeke the better with the natural Grecians.
C. C. 17 B
CORYAT S CRUDITIES
Ben Jonson s thread of Greeke runne through his whole discourse,
and another of Latine, but that is the courser. He is
a great and bold Carpenter of words, or (to expresse him
in one like his owne) a Logodsedale : which voyce, when
he heares, tis doubtfull whether he will more love at the
first, or envy after, that it was not his owne. All his
Phrase is the same with his manners and haviour, such
as if they were studied to make Mourners merry : but
the body of his discourse able to breake Impostumes,
remove the stone, open the passage from the Bladder,
and undoe the very knots of the Gout ; to cure even
where Physick hath turned her back, and Nature hung
downe her head for shame ; being not only the Antidote
to resist sadnes, but the Preservative to keepe you in
mirth, a life and a day. A man might undo the Colledge
that would practise with onely him. And there is no
man but to enjoy his company, would neglect any thing
but businesse. It is thought he lives more by letting*
out of ayre, then drawing in ; and feared, his belly wil
exhibite a Bill in Chauncery against his Mouth for talking
away his meales. He is alwaies Tongue-Major of the
company, and if ever the perpetuall motion be to be
hoped for, it is from thence. He will aske, How you
doe? Where you have bene? How is it? If yow have
travelled? How yow like his booke? with, what newes?
and be guilty of a thousand such curteous impertinences
in an howre, rather then want the humanity of vexing
you. To conclude this ample Traveller in some bounds
you shall best know him by this : he is frequent at all sorts
of free tables, where though he might sit as a Guest, hee
will rather be served in as a Dish, and is loth to have
any thing of himselfe kept cold against the next day.
To give the Non-ultra of him in a word, he is so
substantive an Author as will stand by himselfe without
the neede of his Booke to bee joyned with him.
Here endeth the Character, attended with a
Characterisme Acrostich.
* I meane in the fore parts, not the hinder.
18
A CHARACTER OF THE AUTHOUR
To the Right Noble Tom, Tell-Troth, of his Ben
Travailes, The Coryate of Odcombe, and his A <* c
_. > the Author.
Booke now going to travell.
T rie and trust Roger, was the word, but now
H onest Tom Tell-Troth puts down Roger, How?
O f travell he discourseth so at large,
M arry he sets it out at his owne charge ;
A nd therein (which is worth his valour too)
S hews he dares more then Paules Church-yard durst do.
C ome forth thou bonnie bouncing booke then, daughter
O f Tom of Odcombe that odde Joviall Author,
R ather his sonne I should have cal d thee, why?
Y es thou wert borne out of his travelling thigh
A s well as from his braines, and claimest thereby
T o be his Bacchus as his Palks : bee
E ver his thighes Male then, and his braines Shee.
Ben. Jonson.
An Introduction to the ensuing Verses.
An Introduc
tion to the
Panegyric
Verses.
Here present unto thee (gentle Reader)
the encomiastick and panegyrick Verses
of some of the worthyest spirits of this
Kingdome, composed by persons of
eminent quality and marke, as well for
dignity as excellence of wit ; such as
have vouchsafed to descend so low as to
dignifie and illustrate my lucubrations without any
demerit of theirs* (I do ingenuously confesse) with the
singular fruits of their elegant inventions, which they
have expressed in the best and most learned languages of
the world, two only excepted, which are the f Welch
and Irish. But in that I exhibite unto thy view such a
great multitude of Verses as no booke whatsoever printed
in England these hundred yeares, had the like written
in praise thereof ; ascribe it not I intreate thee to any
ambitious humour of me, as that I should crave to obtrude
so many to the world in praise of my booke. For I
can assure thee I sollicited not halfe those worthy Wights
for these verses that I now divulge ; a great part of them
being sent unto me voluntarily from divers of my friends,
from whom I expected no such courtesie. At last when
I saw the multitude of them to increase to so great a
number, I resolved to put above a thousand of them into
an Index expurgatorius, and to detain them from the
presse. Whereupon the Princes Highnesse (who hath
* Mistake me not Reader. I referre this word to the word
Lucubrations. j Ironia.
20
AN INTRODUCTION
most graciously deigned to be the * Hyperaspist and ^ n
Moecenas of my booke) understanding that I meant to p anes r - lc
suppresse so many, gave me a strict and expresse com- v eri es.
mandement to print all those verses which I had read to
his Highnesse. Since then that inevitable necessity hath
been imposed upon me, I have here communicated that
copious rhapsodie of poems to the world that my learned
friends have bountifully bestowed upon me ; wherein
many of them are disposed to glance at me with their
free and mery jests, for which I desire thee (courteous
Reader) to suspend thy censure of me till thou hast read
over my whole booke.
* You shall understand the meaning of this word in a marginal
note upon the verses imediately ensuing.
[Panegyricke Verses
21
PANEGTRICKE FERSES UPON THE
AUTHOR AND HIS BOOKS.
Incipit
|Ordings, full well I hope you know
I never shot in Phoebus bow,
Or clim d Parnassus hill :
Yet must I needes in dogrell rime
/- & r
Crave your sweet patience for a time,
Full sore against my will.
I am not now to tell a tale
Of George a Greene, or Jacke a Vale,
Or yet of Chittiface :
But I must be the Chanti-cleere
Of one that is withouten peere,
A home replete with grace.
For he at Odcombe was y-bore,
Whereas the fates were heard to score
The fortunes of his birth :
Goe pretty dandy-prat to schoole
(Said they) thou shalt no little foole
Be counted for thy mirth.
The child in time was waxen great,
And all the Sophists he did threat
Their problemes to confound ;
Grammarians sore did stand in feare
The coynage of his words to heare,
So uncouth was their sound.
For by a naturall instinct
The Graces to his lips were linkt,
(Forsooth his lips were faire.)
His mouth did open ere he spake,
22
PANEGYRICK VERSES
And swifter farre then Ducke and Drake
His words flew through the ayre.
The stony hearts that could not bide
A Church-Ale at a Whitsontide,
He suppled with his speech :
And like a Captaine bold and stout
He did advance his Eagles snowt,
Faire thrive it I beseech.
Not Mahound, no nor Termagaunt
Could ever make halfe their avant
Of deedes so sterne and fell,
As can this child Sir Thopas Squire,
Inspired with a sparke of fire
Stolne out of wisdomes cell.
He hammers words upon his teeth
(Rime thereunto I can unneeth)
Yet still I will proceede ;
Like as a Beare doth licke her whelpe,
Their roughnesse so his tongue doth helpe,
When polishing is neede.
Now Lordings mercy doe I aske,
That since I under-went this taske
His name I have conceald ;
He keepes the Magazine of wit,
And beares the privy key of it,
Which may not be reveal d.
Yet in despite of bread and ale,
Unbuckled now shall be the male,
Betide what may betide :
His name is Coryate I wis,
But whether he be flesh or fish,
I cannot yet decide.
For like the errant Knight Ulysses,
Through the Seas amongst the fishes
He lanched forth his hulke :
The sides whereof were heard to groane
No lesse than twenty miles and one
Under his grievous bulke.
23
CORYAT S CRUDITIES
Then either without scrippe or bagge
. -
He usde his ten-toes tor a nagge
From Venice for to hie.
Thorough thicke, and thorough thinne
Untill he came unto his Inne,
His winged heeles did flie.
He travaild North, he travaild South
With * Hyperaspist in his mouth
A word of his devising.
For nature letters pattents gave
To him the priviledge to have
Of words naturalizing.
To trees and steeples as he went
He did his homage verament,
And salu-ed them each one.
He registred their names alwaies ;
Contrary if that any saies,
The booke is to be showne.
A Cortizan then lycoras
More sweet in Venice towne there was,
That wisht him for her owne :
But shee could never him hand fast ;
For as a Gelding he was chast,
Though Gelding he were none.
The Barcarvola appetite
His Gondola directed right
Unto a female Elfe ;
Yet would he not play Cupids Ape,
In Chaucers jest lest he should shape
* A word that the author once used in an Oration to the Prince,
metaphorically signifying (as being derived from these two Greeke
wordes virep, that signifieth above, and WCTTTIS, a shield, that is, one
that opposeth his shield in the defence of his friend against the blow
of an enemie) a Patron or Protector. Which word by a kind of
conversion may be not improperly applied (as a certaine conceited
Gentleman lately said) to the authour himselfe. Hyperaspist quasi
hy per hor spist, that is, one upon whom never Asses pist, but Horses once
pist on him, as when he lay upon straw at their heeles in Bergomo a
Citie of Lombardie.
24
PANEGYRICK VERSES
A Pigsnye like himselfe.
This wandring Squire full oft I heard
The circle of his beard had squard,
And skowred every haire ;
That sweeter then the Eglentine,
And then the purple Columbine
He did appeare more faire.
He had a kind of simple blush
That kept him still from being flush,
When Ladies did him wooe :
Though they did smile, he seem d to scowle,
As doth the faire broade-faced fowle,
That sings To whit to whooe.
It was no crochet of his braine
That put his legs to so great paine
In passing to and fro :
But sure it was the quintessence
Of study, that beyond all sence
Had made his wits to crow.
With Latin he doth rule the roast,
And spowteth Greeke in every coast,
Ne r may his well-spring fade :
He over-speakes the English tongue,
And picketh gold out of the dongue
That ancient Poets made.
If any Zoilus will carpe,
Or take upon him for to harpe
Upon his learned strings :
On foote to Venice let him goe,
And then at his returning show
What fruite from thence he brings.
For had our Coryate beene a Jade,
In halfe the journey that he made
He had beene foundered cleane :
But now by foote, by cart, and saile,
Tom Coryate is come from Itaile,
From Italie I meane.
The squeazie humour of his braine
25
CORYAT S CRUDITIES
Before he parted from this maine,
Neare perished his skull :
Now since the Sunne beganne to sup,
And drinke those grosser vapours up,
He is no more a Gull.
Oh let the fardels of his leaves
Be held more pretious then the sheaves
Pitched up in harvest time ;
Ne ever any man alive
May see them sayling from Queene-hive
Now Muse stay heere thy rime.
Explicit AT
Incipit Henricus Nevill de Abergevenny.
Henry Nevill. /^lOldilockt God that doest on Parnasse dwell,
Vj" O thou that sweetly playest on a fiddle
To sisters Nine, that Aganippes Well
Do much frequent, there bathing to the middle ;
Lend me thy notes, that I may sweeter sing
Of Tom of Odcombe then doth Odcombe ring.
Oh that some errant Knight could now be scene,
That he might dubbe thee ; crying, Up Sir Thomas :
Their dangers and adventures lesse have beene
That erst did wander to the land of promise.
Thou mak st Sir Bevis and sir Guy a fable,
With all the daring knights of the round table.
Unto thy shoes, thy shirt, thy fustian case,
That hang at Odcombe, trophees of thy travailes,
Joyne this fayre book of thine, which makes thee passe
Great Merlin Cockay in recounting marveiles.
Whilst pendant scutchins others tombes adorne,
O re thine these faire atchivements shall be borne.
Explicit Henricus Nevill de Abergevenny.
26
PANEGYRICK VERSES
Incipit Joannes Harrington de Bathe.
THou glorious Goose that kept st the Capitoll,
Afford one quill, that I may write one storie yet
Of this my new-come Odcombe-friend Tom Coryet,
Whose praise so worthy wits and pens inroll
As (with good cause) his custome is to glory it :
So farre am I from judging his a sory wit,
Above earth, seas, ayre, fire, He it extoll
To Cinthias spheare, the next beneath the starres.
Where his vast wit, and courage so audacious
Of equall worth in times of peace, and warres,
(As Rolands erst) encombring roomes capacious
Lie stored some in hogsheads, some in jarres.
This makes the learn d of late in forren parts
Finde Phcebes face so full of wennes and warts.
Explicit Joannes Harrington de Bathe.
Incipit Ludovicus Lewknor.
OLd wormy age that in thy mustie writs
Of former rooles records the present wits,
Tell us no more the tale of Apuleius Asse,
Nor Mydas eares, nor lo eating grasse.
This worke of Toms so farre them all exceeds,
As Phoebus fiddle did Pans squeaking reeds.
He writes not of a gnat, nor frogge, nor woodcocks
bill,
Of steeples, townes, and towers, entreats his gooses
quill
Among the rest hee of a wondrous tub doth tell,
The wine whereof more Poets made then Tempes Well.
In Odcomb d Toms regard the * Cyclops heards were thin,
Our Tom quicke cattell fed whole legions on his skinne.
So did poore bare Philosophers in former times,
And so do Poets now that make the lowzy rimes.
* Homer. F irgiL
27
John Harring
ton.
LudovicLewk-
nor.
CORYAT S CRUDITIES
LudovicLewk- Five months with this in child-birth lay Toms labring
Muse,
In all which time he seldome chang d his shirt or shoes.
The care and toyle was his, thine are the gaines,
Cracke then the nut, and take the kernell for thy paines.
Explicit Ludovicus Lewknor.
Henry
Goodier.
Incipit Henricus Goodier.
IF in an evennesse all wisedome lie,
Tom thou art wise, thou dost all evenly.
Once thou didst wench, and thou wert carted once,
Once thou didst * steale, & once they beate thy bones.
Once didst thou beg, and if thou then didst get
Nothing by begging, thou art even yet.
What onely he saw he onely writes, if than
He only reade it, hee s an even man.
Our spies write home no ill of him ; he went,
He staid, he came an even Innocent.
The Jesuites could not shake him : for he would not
Take orders, but remaine an II Idiote.
If any thinke him dull or heavy, know
The Court and cities mirth cannot be so.
Who thinks him light, aske them who had the taske
To beare him in a trunke unto the maske,
He is so equall, that if he were laid
Into those scales whereby the proofe is made,
Whether the woman or the plume prevaile,
He and his booke would hardly turne the scale.
Explicit Henricus Goodier.
* Viz. grapes.
A harmelesse man.
|| A lay man, or private man, as being derived from the Greeke
word tSwTT/s, which signifieth a private man.
28
PANEGYRICK VERSES
Incipit Joannes Payton junior.
MAgnifique Caesar that in worth surpasses John Payton\
The greatest of our greatest Turkish Basses, junior.
All the long night oft times did waking tarry,
And made the night the day his Secretary :
Yet if in little volumes you revoke it,
His worke of many yeares lies in your pockit.
But thou 6 Coryate mak st Caesar but a *Javell,
And writest huge volumes of twise ten weekes travell :
Twise twenty weekes a dwarfish birth will aske,
Thou in twise ten brought st forth this mighty taske ;
Then if abortive birth had not prevented,
What Atlas would thy Gyant-braine invented ?
Sith seven such countries none so soone could passe
As thou the learned Coryate Thomas.
Yet thy large writings wonder more I at,
Thou Odcombs only Grace Tom Coryat,
For of the twaine much rather would I misse his
That wrote the ten yeares travels of Ulysses :
For who considers well, he quickly finde should
That thou wrotest perfect, seeing Homer blind-fold.
Explicit Joannes Payton Junior.
Incipit Henricus Poole.
DOn Coryate once I saw, but his booke never, Henry Poole.
Yet meane I to commend them both together :
Him for his booke, his booke for him I praise :
The workman s fame the workmanship doth raise
To great esteeme, no foule tongue can defile it,
The work s of worth, for Coryate did compile it.
The goods wherewith this westerne barge is fraught,
Thou gentle Reader shalt enjoy for nought ;
They cost thee nothing but a thankfull minde,
Which this our author hopes in thee to finde :
* In Prisciano vapulaiite.
29
CORYAT S CRUDITIES
Henry Poole. Who in his travell hath observed more,
Then ever any wyzard did before ;
And what he hath observed, with his pen
He here presenteth to his country-men :
That he whom five moneths travell made so witty,
Should live obscure at home, were it not pitty?
Then Coryate feede thy Muse in forraine parts,
Swallow their secrets, and devoure their arts ;
Whereof when thou saturitie shalt gaine,
Come home, and then disgorge thy selfe againe.
Explicit Henricus Poole.
Incipit Robertus Phillips.
Robert OInce every pen is press d to praise
Phillips. ^ Thee travelling Wonder of our daies,
My Muse would chide, should she not sing
The praise of thee most wandring thing,
Who with thy restlesse feete and painefull wit
A booke of wonders now hast writ ;
In which thy worke we plaine do see
How well thy feete and wit agree.
What others thought too heavy and too high,
As Tombes, Steeples, with the Butter-flie,
Thou hast brought home, though not in solid stuffe :
For which let not our carping Criticks huffe :
For thou the substance wouldest not bring
Of ought which might be termed a * solid thing.
Alas poore Tom, they do mistake thy age
Who thinke thou art not past the making sage ;
Or that thy journey had some other ends
Then to delight and recreate thy friends.
And if perhaps some man may call thee foole
For this thy end, good Tom pull out thy toole,
* If you meane solid stones, you are in the right Sir. If solid
Observations, I referre my selfe to the Readers censure after he hath
thoroughly perused my booke, whether I have brought home any
solid thing or no.
30
PANEGYRICK VERSES
Thy booke I mean, demaund if that an Asse Robert
Could have observed so much as he did passe : ?*
Or could have got such praise in rime
As thou shalt shew to future time ;
By which thou shalt so lively pourtrayed bee,
As that the *Asse himselfe himselfe may see.
Thy danger with the Boore, thy hazard with the Jewes,
Thy scabs at Turin, and solace in the stewes,
Let others chaunt, I list not tell them over,
Nor of thy liquid case twixt France and Dover ;
Though there thou madest so great a savour,
& ..... ~ &
That few received it for a favour.
I onely will commend thy constant nature,
Who didst returne the f simple creature
That thou wentst forth, and having trudg d
Much ground, at length art judged
By the full praise of every Muse,
Which ushereth in thy booke of newes :
Therefore brave Champion of the Whitson-ale,
Let thy fayre journall to the presse hoise saile,
That after ages too may know thee,
As well as we that now enjoy thee.
Who to the end that gratefull we may seeme,
Thee of the JMarrot worthy doe we deeme.
Explicit Robertus Phillips.
Incipit Dudleus Digges upon the Author
and his paynes.
OUr Author will not let me rest, he sayes, Dudley
Till I write somewhat in his labours praise ;
I thinking straight upon Deliverie,
Protest his labour such a Prodigie,
* I meane any critical! carper that shall taxe thee for thy Booke.
t Not composed of the vices of those countries through which thou
traveld st, which doth often happen to many of our English men that
returne home corrupted in manners and much worse then they went
forth.
| That is, the Lawrell, so called from one Marrot a French Poet.
CORYAT S CRUDITIES
Dudley As may a Mountebanke Man-midwife gravell
To see a man that was five mon ths in travell,
So fairly brought abed, and of a birth
*So but of that judge by these gossips mirth.
Joy to the glad Dad, who such fondnes shewes,
That by a hundred markes the wise child knowes
Who twas, and can in print already call,
Coryate the kind Father, and the Naturall.
In genium liber iste tuum Coriate sepultum
Continet, inde petat qui caret ingenio.
Explicit Dudleus Digges.
Incipit Rowlandus Cotton.
Rowland /^iQlumbus, Magelan, and Drakes brave story
Cotton. vet remem bred unto their glory.
But thy high deeds with theirs when I compare,
I say thy travels have with theirs no share.
I wonder then this writing age hath fail d
To tell ere this how farre Tom Coryate sail d
In five mon ths time, and most or all on foote.
What man alive that ever else did do t?
It cannot be but that the world did looke
That thou thy selfe hereof shouldst write a booke,
What good acceptance such a booke shall finde,
Thou need st not doubt, there s no man so unkind
That will make scruple for to be thy halfe
Since thou the heifer art that beares the calfe.
Tis thy first borne Tom, I pray thee love it ;
And whosoever shall thy issue covet,
I wish there may befall him this one curse,
To treade thy steps againe, and with thy purse.
Yet one thing Tom I do dislike in sooth,
Thou dost not spare thy selfe to tell a truth.
As that in the first ^Enei. of Virgil. Quos ego.
This is that which the Latines call Indulgentia, the Grecians
32
PANEGYRJCK VERSES
What need st thou in thy storie be so nice, Rowland
To tell thy child of all thy nits and lice?
Yet it becomes thee well, and much the rather,
The sonne, I thinke, will prove so like the father.
But pardon Tom, if I no Further tell
Those gifts which in thee do by nature dwell.
Who tels the Asse that he hath two long eares,
Or Chanti-cleare that he a coxcombe weares?
Why, all the world doth know as well as I
That never any did as much descrie,
So many nations, manners, and so soone,
Except alone the man that s in the moone.
Let other wits that with a nimbler wing
Do cut the emptie ayre, thy prayses sing ;
My Muse intreats thee to resume thy penne,
And to relate unto thy countrey-men
Whether thy father Joviall were or sad,
And what complexion thy faire mother had
When they were linked in wedlocks lovely band,
And whether of them had the upper hand :
How many mon ths thy mother did intombe
Thy tender body in her fruitfull wombe :
What milder planet governed in the skie
In the horoscope of thy nativity,
Thy mothers midwife, and thy nurses name,
The shire and houshold whence thy linage came.
Who trained up thy youth, and in what place,
Whether where Isis hides her dewie face,
Or where the silver streames of Chame do glide,
Shaddowed with willowes upon either side ;
That other men may learne to get a sonne
To see those countries which thy selfe hast done.
This calculation yet would breed a danger,
And twere not fit to teach it every stranger ;
Lest when the world thy learned booke should view,
A foole might get as wise a child as you.
Explicit Rowlandus Cotton.
[Incipit Robertus
c. c. 33 c
CORYAT S CRUDITIES
Incipit Robertas Yaxley.
Robert TF the Author had a curious coate
Taxley. With cap of costly die,
And crowne of cocke for crest thereon,
With whetstone hanging by,
Then might he tell of travellers,
And all the thriftlesse traine,
Which proudly forth on Asses pricke,
Twixt Italy and Spaine.
For Thomas is by travell tri d,
And truth of him to tell,
Ther s few of them that now go forth
Returne home halfe so well.
Then buy this booke ye Brittons bold,
But read it at your leisure :
For it and he, and he and it,
Were made to shew you pleasure.
Explicit Robertus Yaxley.
Incipit Joannes Strangwayes.
John Strong- r I ^Hou crav st my verse, yet do not thank me for it,
wayes. J_ j? or w hat rimes can praise enough Tom Coryate?
Kemp yet doth live, and only lives for this
Much famous, that he did dance the Morris
From London unto Norwich. But thou much more
Doest merit praise. For though his feete were sore,
Whilst sweaty he with antick skips did hop it,
His treadings were but friscals of a poppet.
Or that at once I may expresse it all,
Like to the Jacks of jumbled virginall.
But thou through heats and colds, through punks and
trunks,
Through hils and dales hast stretcht thy weary stumps,
Feeding on hedge-row fruits, and not on plum-trees,
Onely through zeale to visite many countries.
But stay a while, and make a stand my Muse,
34
PANEGYRICK VERSES
To think upon his everlasting shoe s. 3ohn Strang-
Come to my helpe some old-shod pilgrime wight,
That I of you may tread the way aright
Which leads unto his fame, whilst I do stile
How he did go at least nine hundred mile
With one poore paire of shooes, saving alone-a
He onely once did sole them at * Verona.
So that it grew a question whether
Thy shoes or feete were of more lasting leather.
Which at that time did stand thee in most use,
When as the Jewes would cut off thy prepuce ;
But thou that time like many an errant Knight,
Didst save thy selfe by vertue of thy flight.
Whence now in great request this Adage stands ;
One paire of legges is worth two paire of hands.
Explicit Joannes Strangwayes.
c
Incipit Gulielmus Clavel.
Clavel.
Oryats travels doe bewitch my pen,
Worke miracles, making the dumbe to speake :
My dumbe-borne Muse yet never knowne to men
Doth by his charmes her silent custome breake.
For if his worthy actes had not beene such,
The world could not have drawen from me thus much.
They only force from me both praise and wonder,
Who past beliefe have conquerd many dangers :
It can not be describ d what he brought J under,
Leaving the skars of his renowne with strangers.
Then frolicke man and in thy country rowse thee,
Although abroade thou scornd st not to be lowsie.
Send out thy copious booke to common view,
Make many laugh, some scorne, move most to pitty.
Those that travell, (as no man hath his due)
* You should have said Zurich.
| You meane some merry matter Sir.
35
CORYAT S CRUDITIES
William s na n still confesse with shame thy booke is witty ;
x~ //
And after ages will admire no doubt
O
This Gog-Magog thy Gyant-wit brings out.
Explicit Gulielmus Clavel.
Incipit Joannes Scory,
John Scory. npHat thou a traveller mayst called bee,
A Thanks to thy braines that travell, not to thee ;
That thou a rare read-schollar clepyd art,
Give more thanks to thy tongue, then to thy arte.
Yet have thy feete in five moneths pass d more Cities,
Then ere thy Poetrie will make good ditties.
Ballets unfit to stand before thy booke,
Wherein who so with judgments eies will looke,
May see a monster of five moneths begetting.
More rare than that of thy own Sires begetting.
Some say, when thou wert borne (O wondrous hap)
First time thou pist thy clouts, thou drew st a map.
But that thou spakest as soone as thou wert borne,
There is no doubt. For else how couldst thou learne
In so short time to talke so long and much,
And to such purpose. Yet I heare no Dutch,
Nor French, nor Spanish, nor the Italian tongue ;
So mightst thou do thy Greeke and Latin wrong ;
Of which thou utterst such abundant store,
That thy full braines can now containe no more.
Well Tom, since Europe thou hast scene in part,
Now into Asia and Africke make a start.
Boldly encounter all the monsters there :
For seeing thee they needs must flie for feare.
But still be sure thy buckler be thy booke,
Medusaes shield had ne re so grim a looke.
Explicit Joannes Scory.
PANEGYRICK VERSES
Incipit Joannes Donne.
OH to what heigth will love of greatnesse drive John Donne.
Thy leavened spirit, Sesqui-superlative ?
Venice vast lake thou hadst scene, wouldst seeke than
Some vaster thing, and foundst a Cortizan.
That inland Sea having discovered well,
A Cellar-gulfe, where one might saile to hell
From Heydelberg, thou longdst to see ; And thou
This Booke, greater than all, producest now,
Infinite worke, which doth so farre extend,
That none can study it to any end.
Tis no one thing ; it is not fruite, nor roote ;
Nor poorely limited with head or foote.
If man be therefore man, because he can
Reason, and laugh, thy booke doth halfe make man.
One halfe being made, thy modesty was such,
That thou on th other halfe wouldst never touch.
When wilt thou be at full, great Lunatique?
Not till thou exceed the world ? Canst thou be like
A prosperous nose-borne wenne, which sometime growes
To be farre greater than the Mother-nose?
Goe then ; and as to thee, when thou didst goe,
Munster did Townes, and Gesner Authors show,
Mount now to Gallo-belgicus ; Appeare
As deepe a States-man, as a Gazettier.
Homely and familiarly, when thou commest backe,
Talke of Will Conqueror, and Prester Jacke.
Goe bashfull man, lest here thou blush to looke
Upon the progresse of thy glorious booke.
To which both Indies sacrifices send ;
The west sent gold, which thou didst freely spend,
(Meaning to see t no more) upon the presse.
The east sends hither her deliciousnesse ;
And thy leav s must embrace what comes from thence,
The Myrrhe, the Pepper, and the Frankinsence.
This magnifies thy leav s ; but if they stoope
To neighbour wares, when Merchants doe unhoope
37
CORYAT S CRUDITIES
John Donne. Voluminous barrels, if thy leav s doe then
Convay these wares in parcels unto men,
If for vaste Tomes of Currans, and of Figs,
Of Medcinall, and Aromatique twigs,
Thy leav s a better methode doe provide,
Divide to Pounds, and Ounces subdivide ;
If they stoope lower yet, and vent our wares,
Home-manufactures, to thicke popular faires,
If omniprEegnant there, upon warm stals
They hatch all wares for which the buyer cals,
Then thus thy leav s we justly may commend,
That they all kinde of matter comprehend.
Thus thou, by meanes which th Ancients never tooke,
A Pandect makest, and Universall Booke.
The bravest Heroes, for publique good
Scattred in divers lands, their limmes and blood.
Worst malefactors, to whom men are prize,
Doe publique good, cut in Anatomies ;
So will thy Booke in peeces : For a Lord
Which casts at Portescues, and all the board,
Provide whole Books ; Each leafe enough will be
For friends to passe time, and keepe companie.
Can all carouse up thee ? No : thou must fit
Measures ; and fill out for the half-pinte wit.
Some shal wrap pils, and save a friends life so,
Some shall stop muskets, and so kill a foe.
Thou shalt not ease the Critiques of next age
So much, at once their hunger to asswage.
Nor shall wit-pyrats hope to finde thee lie
All in one bottome, in one Librarie.
Some leav s may paste strings there in other books,
And so one may, which on another looks,
Pilfer, alas, a little wit from you,
But hardly * much ; and yet, I thinke this true ;
As Sybils was, your booke is misticall,
For every peece is as much worth as all.
* I meane from one page which shall paste strings in a booke.
38
PANEGYRICK VERSES
Therefore mine impotency I confesse ; John Donne.
The healths which my braine beares, must be farre lesse ;
Thy Gyant wit o erthrowes me, I am gone ;
And rather then reade all, I would reade none.
In eundem Macaronicon.
QUot, dos haec, LINGUISTS perfetti, Disticha fairont,
Tot cuerdos STATES-MEN, hie liure fara tuus.
Es sat A MY 1 honneur estre hie inteso : Car i LEAVE
L honra, de personne nestre creduto, tibi.
Explicit Joannes Donne.
Incipit Richardus Martin.
To my friend that by lying at the signe of the Richard
Fox doth prove himselfe no Goose, Thomas
Coryate, the Traveller, a Sonet.
OFor a bonny blith and bounsing ballet
To praise this Odcomb d Chanti-cleere that hatched
These Crudities which (with his shoes) he patched,
All hitting right as it were with a mallet,
Before us here he sets both bag and wallet,
Where met are many scraps (you see) unmatched :
His feete, hands, head (daies and nights) walkt, wrote,
watched :
And hardly did he lie on any pallet.
Much oyle he sav d both from his shoes and sallats,
Which thriftily he ate while they were cobled ;
Then (for his fruite) these Crudities he gobled,
Which since he season d hath for sundry palats.
To him therefore vaile travellers your bonnets,
Of him write Poets all your Songs and Sonnets.
Explicit Richardus Martin.
[Incipit Laurentius
39
CORYAT S CRUDITIES
Incipit Laurentius Whitakerus.
Laurence Ad Lectorem bipedem de Authore *Polypode,
deque proverbio ipsi usitato, eque Demos-
thene citato, scil. rot/ eyKecpaXov ev rot/? Trrepvai?,
KOI M ev TCI? KporafyoiS (popelv,
Qv /H.OVQV ev Kporddtois, aXX ei TTTepvat?
AeiKWcriv e epywv vovv enroot] /u.ov e ^eiv
A.y%ivo)<s ra^ecos re TOCT ovpea <TK\^pa TT
Ta? r ayopas, 7rpo(3o\a9, KOi\aas, ySe
Ev /JiV 6^0) OaTTWf OVK ?}V TToSctS O)KU? A)(t
Me/oj^a /xj/^ ayro? ypd/u.fJ.aT e-jraivov e^et.
Ttoi/ TTTeovcov i/ooi e^fbaivova i Tropecai,
Kat rou r)v KpoTa<p(Joi> SeiKeXov ecrrJ f3l(3\os,
Ad Odcombiam (nimium, bona si sua norit,
fcelicem) de indigena ipsius celeberrimo,
Pedite celerrimo, -fPugile acerrimo, JVigile
macerrimo, Tomo compacto Coriaceo, Thoma
Coriato.
ERige turrigerum praerupta Odcombia collem,
E gremio Monstrum prosilit ecce tuo.
Prosilit historicus, vates, rhetor, peregrinans,
Cui non dant foetum Punica regna parem.
Bisque biceps author prolem dat Tea-<rapajui.op(pov,
Historiis, miris, rhetoris arte, metris.
Neu Monstri nomen laevum quis dixerit, audi ;
Rectius hos dici nil potuisse scias.
Monstrum a monstrando Criticus denominat, ecquis
Tot vel tanta alius quae tibi monstret, habet?
Te mundo monstrat, notam facit, & tibi mundum ;
Subjiciens oculis extera mira tuis.
* Vel quia Polypodis instar crebra loci mutatione multos passus pro-
fectus, vel quia multipedum animalculorum multos morsus perpessus est.
f Ob validam ipsius cum Judaeo Veneto, & Vangione rustico luctam.
| Ob maciem ex nocturna lucubratione, hodaeporetica monitione, &
Cruditatum molitione contractam.
40
PANEGYRICK VERSES
Visere sed vatis terras magis usque remotas Laurence
Pluraque fert animus mira referre tui. Whitaker,
Hunc post emensos tantos, Odcombia, cursus
Exceptum gremio, chara, foveto tuo.
Semper ut hoc cunctis Portentum nobile monstres,
Visere qui cupient Theseos ora tui.
To the most peerelesse Poetical Prose-writer, the
most Transcendent, Tramontane Traveller,
and the most single-soled, single-souled, and
single-shirted Observer, the Odcombian Gallo-
belgicus.
WOnder of worlds, that with one fustian case,
One payre of shoes, hast done Odcombe the grace
To make her name knowen past the Alpine hils,
And home return d hast worne out many quils
In writing faire thy large red-lin d Rehearsall
Of what thou saw st with sharpe eyes which did pearce all
Stone Tombes, great gates, and manners of the people,
Besides the height of many a * Tower and Steeple,
^nailes, 2 Butterflies, black 3 sheep, 4 black hogs, & 5 Storks
And the neate use of eating meate with 6 forkes :
And, that of stuffe thou might st leave out no odd piece
To raise thy worke, th hast writ o th Switzers 7 Cod
piece :
Thou saw st the Venice 8 Donna s, & didst quarrell
With the Dutch JBoore, thou saw st the monstrous
t barrel :
But O thy temper! seldome wast thou drunke,
Nor hadst but one night s solace with thy punke :
Nor in thy pilgrimage wert much a sinner,
But when thou didst listeale bread to save a dinner.
*P P . 113, 183, 451.
!P. 68. 2 P. 76. 3 P. 68. 4 Ibid. 5 P. 41. 6 P. 90.
7 P. 386. 8 P 261. | P. 524. fP. 486.
[The references are to the pages of the original text.]
41
CORYAT S CRUDITIES
Laurence Thou in all sorts of travell hadst thy part,
Whitaker. g ut most on f ootej an d sometimes in a cart.f
Nor didst thou scorne for all spruce Criticks mockings,
T accept of gift a Prussians aged stockings.
Thow sawst the field of many a famous battell,
And home thou cam st well furnisht with quicke cattell ;
Yet must I say thy fortune therein was ill,
For thou wentst nak t to wash thy shirt at Basil ;
And having seene Cloysters, and many a Monke,
Becam st thy selfe a Recluse in a trunke.
But Il e not write thy labours Inventory,
Pie say but this of thee, and of thy story,
Thou well describ st the marvels thou didst see,
And this thy booke as well describeth thee.
SONNET compose en rime a la *Marotte, accommode
au style de 1 Autheur du liure ; faict en loiiange de cet
Heroique Geant Odcombien, nomme non Pantagruel,
mais Pantagrue, c est a dire, ny Oye, ny Oison, ains
tout Grue, accoustre icy en Hochepot, Hachis, ou
Cabirotade, pour tenir son rang en la Librairie de
1 Abbaye St. Victor a Paris, entre le liure de Mar-
moretus de baboinis & cingis, & celuy de Tirepetanus
de optimitate triparum ; & pour porter le nom de la
Cabirotade de Coryat, ou, de 1 Apodemistichopezologie
de 1 Odcombeuili Somerseti (Soti) en, &c.
SI de ce pais le pourpris spatieux,
(D ou est sorti ce Badin precieux)
Ou bien la Suisse, ou mesme PAlemagne
Pouroit fournir quelque douce compagne
D esprit pareil, & de condition
Semblable a luy, le vieil Deucalion
|| Beleeve him not reader, he brings this in onely to make up the
rime.
tP. 9-
* A scavoir seloa le style de Clement Marot vieil Poete Francois.
Cest a dire, Voyageur du mot Grec,
42
PANEGYRICK VERSES
Et Pyrrhe en eux seroient resuscitez :
Car ne nasquit de leurs cailloux iettez,
Que tas de gens, & un monde nouueau :
Ainsi des pierres, ou nostre II Blaireau
Alette 1 oeil (fut-ce aux Fonts, ou Potences,
Clochers, Statues, qui tiennent balances)
Est ne soudain un grand hideux volume
De beau discours, qui s est rendu 1 enclume
De nos esprits, un monde de fadeze,
Dont le goutteux se resiouir soit aise.
Tay toy Rablais, rabbaisse soit 1 orgueil
De tes Endouilles, qui d un bel accueil
Receurent ton * Geant en la f Farouche,
A ce Geant d Odcombe pierre & souche
Park, fournit des comptes, Pentretint
Le muguetta, voire & son sens maintint
En ce travail : Mais scais-tu bien pour quoy ?
Son Chef Creste luy donna ceste loy,
Que des hommes du lieu ne scachant le language,
Parmy troncs & cailloux il passeroit sa rage.
Explicit Laurentius Whitakerus.
Incipit Hugo Holland.
In persona & laudem authoris.
Ov Tro\v/j.r)Tis e yco, TroSa? aXXa /mev COKV? O owcreu?, Hugo
/3Ae\j/-a9 TrXavovirXeov e lKotri Keivov,
a -rra ypa<^>u> ^eVo? o<p6a\ju.6iiTiv e/ma
, yaiaoe evi iraTpiSi "Xepari.
|| Un certain animal, qui a la veue fort percante.
* Pantagruel.
t Une Isle ainsi appellee par Rablais.
[Sonetto
43
CORYAT S CRUDITIES
Sonetto.
H U S (~\ Ui P uo niirar ognun, chi non e cieco,
Holland. V^J 1 Un gallant huomo ch in Italia e stato :
Ma del parlare ha mai motto imparato,
Troppo pecan te era por tarsi seco.
Egli pur bravamente parlal Graeco,
Havendo mai la Graecia caminato :
Ma quel viaggio, di ch ei n ha parlato,
Gli a piu gran stento, e piu gran lode ceco.
E per vedere i lidi del Leuante ;
El signor Turco, e l messer prete Gianni :
Donde tornando un Paladin errante,
Con qualche spesa di quatrini e d anni :
Ne contera, fra cose tali e tante,
II Turco un pantalon, e l prete un Zanni.
To Topographicall Typographicall Thomas.
I Sing the man, I sing the wofull case,
The shirt, the shoes, the shanks that serv d to trace
Seven Countries wide, the greater was his paine,
That two to one he ever 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 drove 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 leave 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 never once (poore f Asse) did cast his load,
Yet further went then Scaracalasino,
* Iniignem pietate virum. eya/cos oSovrwv. Horn.
f Note reader that a traveller must have the backe of an Asse, the
mouth of a sow, the eye of a hawke, a merchants eare, &c.
44
PANEGYRICK VERSES
And after litter d lay at Bergomo. Hugo
This usage did he beare abroad uncivil!, Holland.
At home too was he borne not farre from Evill.
In Odcombe parish yet famous with his cradle,
A chicke he hatcht was of an egge unaddle.
Whence a yong Cockrel he was sent for knowledge
To Winchester, and planted in the Colledge :
Not there to prove 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 deserves more praise then Priscians,
For Coryate lives, and Priscian he is dead,
No marvaile ; Coryate brake so oft his head.
Now when in Greeke and Latin he could gravell
His schoole fellowes, forsooth he needs will travell ;
Not for bare language, but (his charges earning
On the by) on the maine, for reall learning.
Be Basil proofe and Zurich too, and Frankfort,
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 jawbone.
He slew whole hoasts : so is he rough and rawbone.
T were but a frump to name the Asses backe,
Each common traveller beares thereon his packe :
I therefore leave 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 Ulysses ;
Who townes of many men hath seene & manners :
The more was he beholding to the tanners.
If he had but one onely paire of shoes.
45
CORYAT S CRUDITIES
Hugo Then how much leather thinke ye could he loose?
Holland. He hath scene 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 prevaild against the xcoriate Jewes,
Then Broughton could, or twenty more such Hughs,
And yet but for one petty poore misprision,
He was nigh made one of the Circumcision.
But holla, that s a part that must be privy ;
Now go we to the towne of learned Livy.
Where 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 trophae
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 travels 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 have seene the Turke,
Yet would be whipt ere they wrote such a worke.
But what a volume here will rise anone,
When he hath seene both Turke and Prester John?
Enough : yet in his Crudities behoofe,
46
PANEGYRICK VERSES
This will I say : It is a booke of proofe. Hugo
Wherein himselfe appeares (I will be plaine) Hoi/and.
No foole in print, nor yet a knave in graine.
A Parallell betweene Don Ulysses of Ithaca and
Don Coryate of Odcombe.
The Preamble to the Parallell.
IF morall Plutarch had done nothing else,
Yet would we praise him for his parallels ;
Where he with every 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,
Unlesse that Brute the brave Odcombian.
What do you tell me of your Drakes or Candishes ;
We never 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 ravisheth with his harmonious quill
More eares than any Swan on Parnasse hill.
The Parallell it selfe.
ULysses was a merry Greeke they say,
So Tom is, and the Greeker of the tway.
Ulysses left at home an aged Syre,
And Tom an aged mother by the fyre.
Ulysses was an Islander I trow,
How then? I pray you is not Coryate so?
Perhaps Ulysses did in wit excell,
Our Coryate though doth of more learning smell.
Ulysses had a ship of no great bulke,
And Coryate went to Calais in a hulke.
Ulysses in the Trojan horse was hid,
The Heidelbergian barrell Tom bestrid.
47
CORYAT S CRUDITIES
Hugo Good harnesse did Ulysses guarde and grace,
Holland. Where Coryate nought had but a fustian case.
Ulysses hardly from his Circe sluncke,
As hardly Tom from his Venetian Puncke.
By land Ulysses in a Chariot rode,
And Coryate in a Cart, the greater lode.
Ulysses with sterne Ajax had to doe,
With the Dutch Boore so had poore Coryate too.
At home left Ulix store of beasts and chattell,
And Coryate home came guarded with more cattell.
Ulysses us d to drinke the ^Ethiop wine,
With whitson-ale his cap doth Coryate line.
Just twenty yeares Ulysses with his Greeks
Did wander : Coryate just as many weeks.
Ulysses all that while had but one carvell,
Tom but one paire of shoes, the greater marvell.
Minerva holpe Ulysses at a lift,
And Pacience Coryate, for there was no * shift.
Ulysses heard no Syren sing : nor Coryate
The Jew, least his praepuce might prove excoriate.
Ulysses had a wife to lust unprone,
But Coryate had a chaster, having none.
Ulysses seem d a beggar all to torne,
So Coryate did ; and was I dare be sworne.
Ulysses in his travell builded Flushing,
Where Coryate ending, or e the Sea came brushing.
One Homer only sung Ulysses praise,
But Coryats all the Poets of our daies.
The Epilogue of the Parallel.
TAke Reader with a laughing looke
This Odcome new-come well-come booke.
Looke with the like thou take these parallels,
In sober sadnesse we shall marre all else.
For Coryate with us both will quarrell,
And teare himselfe out of his parell.
* Because he came from Venice with one shirt.
48
PANEGYRICK VERSES
In each point though they doe not jumpe, Hugo
I trust they doe yet in the lumpe.
Nor would I joyne them head and feete ;
Lines parallel! doe never meete.
Yet one day meete may thou and I,
And laugh with Coryate ere we die.
Englyn un-odl inion.
YNod y mourglod ae am arglwydh mawr,
* Hwuad-mor cyfarwydh :
Dymma nawr DWM un arwydh,
Ond thydan gwaithlhwdwn gwydh?
Ad Janum Harringtonum Badensem, Equitem ;
non Equitem Badensem, sed auratum.
These Latin verses following were written to be sent to
the worthy and learned Knight above-named, by the
Author of the former, for the obtayning of his
encomiasticks upon my booke : but though they never
came to that worthy Knights hands, I have thought
good to insert them here, because it was the authors
pleasure to have them printed with the rest of his
Panegyricks.
OBone, cui translatus olet miserabilis Ajax,
Qui sat es ingenio & carmine notus eques.
Inficiat furui vis ne fumosa Tobacci,
Neu piper attactu mordeat acre suo :
Ne scombros metuant (metuunt quoque carmina scombros)
Thusue gravi piceum condat odore rogum.
His concede precor folliis, ferventer f solentis
Sub Clypeo Ajacis posse latere tui.
Explicit Hugo Holland,
Cambro-Britannus.
* Sir Francis Drake.
f Itane amicum tuum perstringes (mi Hollande) cum tuis Mephiticis
& graveolentibus facetiis ? num tu Stercutio dedicabis, quas alii mei
amici Musis & Palladi consecrant ? absit, absit.
c. c. 49 D
CORYAT S CRUDITIES
Incipit Robertas Riccomontanus.
Robert Rich- s~*\ Oryate, thou Coryphoeus of Odcombe Whitson-Ale,
v_>< Who since art our Choregus o er many a hill and
dale :
Thy skill in Artes and Armes doe to us evenly show,
As thou art borne to Mars, so to Mercurio.
Others write bookes prophane, and others that are holy,
But thine a Dosis is against all Melancholy :
A worke of worth, that doth all other workes out-pace
A furlong at the least, thou needst not bate an ace.
A booke of price twill be, if ever there were any,
A hundred Sowses is thy due, thou shalt not bate a peny.
The mayor of Hartlepoole upon a day,
Hearing King Harry was to come that way,
Put on s considering cap, and Kendall gowne,
Consulting with his brethren of the Towne,
What gift they should present as he came by :
A Skatefish (quoth his Councell) sweet and dry :
Nay (quoth the Mayor) weele give him halfe one more :
Soft (quoth another) now your mouth runnes or e :
" As there Masse Mayor, who could not doe but ore-doe,
" So Coryate here, who tels us all, and more * too :
Of mounts, of founts, of rockes, of stockes, of stones,
Of Boores, of whoores, of tombes, of dead mens bones,
Of bowers, of towers, and many a stately steeple,
Helvetians, Rhetians, and many an uncouth people :
Nothing escapes his note, that s worth due observation,
The Gallowes scapes him not without due salutation.
Speake O thou clocke at Strasbourg, and stones at Foun-
tainebeleau,
If Coryate you forget, and not your wonders shew :
Weepe Rhenish drops O Palsgraves Tun, if thou be here
forgotten,
No, no, he hath thee hoopt so well, thy ribbes will n ere
be rotten.
* Not more than truth, but more then other travellers.
For the Author hath written of some of speciall note in his booke.
5
PANEGYRICK VERSES
The Ladyes of Lubricity that live in the Bordello Robert
Are painted in their proper hew by him that is sans mond -
fellow :
He lively them decyphereth, he doth them nought for-
beare,
He strips them to their petticotes, he hits them to a haire.
Who to refresh his graver Muse did often walke per
spasso,
Sometimes to heare the Ciarlatans, and sometimes to the
Ciasso.
And yet herein my ventrous Sir, ywis yee were too curious,
Such places oftentimes doe make most temperate men
most furious.
And who dare sweare for you, I pray, that went for satis
faction,
(You say your selfe) and so may be evicted of the action ?
So that by your confession, sans verdict of a Jurie,
In each place else you shew your wit, but there you shew d
your fury.
Say what you list, sweare and protest, for all this great
Bravado,
It will be said, at least be guest, you were the Puncks
Privado,
And so you l lose great store of those, whose verse may
give you glory,
Especially the female frye, the learned Signiorie.
You le have none such to praise you much : they will
suspect the wench
Hath turn d your Greeke and Latin both into a perfect
French.
Change then thy word (to satisfie) being all one with
Sfogare,
And then thy worke Pie dignifie, to be ad omnia quare.
For who could say so much as thou (whereof thine be the
thankes)
Or of the refractary Jew, or of the Mounte-bankes ?
The stubborne Jew (if it be true) was by thee catechized
At Venice : which at Rome is since by Bellarmine baptized.
CORYAT S CRUDITIES
Rolen Rich- For sure that Tew from Venice came, we finde it so
recorded,
In late Gazettas : which or lies, or trifles ne er afforded.
In which great act to doome aright, and not as partials,
The greater share is Coryats, the lesse the Cardinals.
Now, who shal reade thy worthy work, and heare thy large
discourses
Will sweare thou knowst the Mountebanks, and tracest al
their courses.
Thou hitst the naile in all things else aright : But O the
Boore,
That caytif kerne, so stout, so sterne, ill thrive he ever
more,
That capt thee for a bunch of grapes : ten tousand Tivels
supplant him.
I see well science hath no foeman nisi ignorantem.
Hadst thou had courage to thy skill, and with this Gyant
coped,
(But 6 such skill and courage both in one can not be
hoped.)
Thou mightst with Guy and Bevis bold, in martial praise
have shared,
And Odcombe might with Hampton, & with Warwick
have compared.
Oh then my Muse a higher pitch had flowen, and had
thee set
All pari to Sir Lancelot tho, before Sir Dagonnet.
Yet brave I grant is thy revenge for that his grosse abuse,
Thy poynant pen hath stab d him in, O piercing launce of
Goose :
Record we in the rolle of fame the Goose and Oxe
together,
Whose shoes did beare him hence, and home, O ever
lasting leather.
Some newes yee shoes, for you did use with Coryate still
to be,
And might us give (if you could speake) some notes as
well as he.
52
PANEGYRICK VERSES
Twere meete that now from shoes I go, to socks & slippers Robert Rich-
next,
And yet its fit I them omit, I finde them not ith Text :
And one bare word of one bare shirt I hope shall be
enoughe,
He loves the naked truth too well, such shifting to
approve :
For nought feares he back-biters nips, in doublet or in
canyons,
He holds them ever as they are, the travellers com
panions,
Couragious Coryate, for one Dutchman that thee sore
assayled,
Thou hast a hundred Picquardes slaine, and to the table
nayled.
Some men may think that this is strange : well he that list
may cavell,
Wise Coryate thinks no luggage light for him that meanes
to travel!.
Leave we the baggage then behinde, and to our matter
turne us,
As Coryate did, who left at home his socks and his
cothurnoes.
For now of wonders must I treate, wast not thinke you a
wonder,
To goe two thousand miles at least, in five months space,
not under?
And of strange notes, foure hundred leaves, twenty
thousand lines to write,
This farre surpasseth Hercules his fifty in a night.
Besides, rare man he tell you can the manners of each
stranger,
Yet, t understand one word they speake, he never was in
danger.
Then lanch thee forth (thou man of worth) when this thy
worke is done
According to thy great designe, as far as shines the
Sunne.
S3
CORYAT S CRUDITIES
Robert Rich- And bring us notes of all the world, when thou hast past
it thorow,
Weele have a caske to put them in, shall put downe
Heydelborow.
Explicit Robertus Riccomontanus.
Incipit Gualterus Quin.
In lode del 1 Autore.
La Cornamusa di Gualtero Quin.
Walter Quin. OE 1 gran guerrier, chi tanto fece & scrisse,
O Se stesso, e 1 mondo insieme ingarbugliando,
Per commandar a tutti, mentre ei visse,
De suoi gran vanti andava trionfando ;
Ben e ragion Tom-asino galante,
Ch altiero e bravo tu ti pavoneggi,
Poiche nel far, e scriver stravagante.
Vinci il gran Giulio, non che lo pareggi,
Di quel ch egli hebbe in parecchi anni oprato
Con schiere armate, scrisse un libriccivolo :
Ma dal cervello tuo un libraccio e nato
Di quel, c hai fatto in pochi mesi solo :
Latino & Greco sapeva esso assai ;
Ma del 1 Inglese era affatto ignorante :
To 1 vinci in questo, e pur jd avanzo sai
Greco e Latino, per far un Pedante.
Un gran rumor e terribil fracasso
Fece ei, per metter sotto sopra il mondo :
Di dar da rider con solazzo & spasso
A tutti, fu de tuoi dissegni il fondo.
Molte migliaia di schiere nemiche
Morir ei fe con lancie, dardi, e stocchi :
Mai non ti piacquer Archibugi, 6 Piche,
Ne Morte alcuna, fuor che de pidocchi :
Quei chi scamparon 1 unghie tue prigioni
Portasti addosso : come quel guerriero
Di squadre morte i Prencipi & padroni
54
PANEGYRICK VERSES
Menossi avanti trionsante e altiero. Walter Quin.
Ei vincitor ascese in Campidoglio,
Con pompa e boria, in carro trionfale :
Contadinesco carro senza orgoglio
Per trionfar ti piacque ; manco male.
Colui mostrando, come andava ratto
Nel vincer, scrisse, lo venni, viddi, vinsi :
L hai detto meglio tu vincendo il patto,
Che ti fe scorrer e quinci, e costinci.
Francia, Lamagna, Italia, Helvetia, Rhetia
Non scorse gia senza armi quel bravaccio ;
Come scorresti tu ratto a Venetia,
E indietro a casa tua con poco impaccio.
Solo un Vilan Tedesco, imbriaco, e tristo,
Con bastonate ben ti pesto gli ossi :
Forse ch ei sceso dal vecchio Ariovisto
Di casa Giulia penso che tu fossi.
Ma per disgratia se n valor attivo
A Giulio alcun soprate desse il vanto ;
Egli e pur forza ch in valor passive
Voto e sentenza egli dia dal tuo canto.
Ne suoi viaggi gran fatica ei prese,
Non pero senza Cavai, Muli, & Cocchi :
Tu sempre andavi a pie, mal in arnese.
Vincendo i cingani, staffieri, & scrocchi.
Elquel ch a schivo hauria per morbidezza,
Bastotti un par di scarpe in quel viaggio,
Che rattoppasti spesso con destrezza ;
Di Lesinesca industria vero saggio.
Questa lode anc hai di buon Lesinante
(Di che quel prodigo non fu mai degno)
Ch una camiscia & veste, da buon fante :
Sola portasti allhor senza aschio, 6 sdegno,
Parsa a lui peste faria la tua rogna,
Che nel grattarla dandoti solazzo,
Ballar ti fe come al suon di sampogna,
O Violin di quel francese pazzo.
L haurian ucciso i tuoi stenti, & disagi
55
Walter Quit!.
Christopher
Brooke.
CORYAT S CRUDITIES
Nel mangiar, bever, dormir, appiccarti
Pulci, pidocchi, & cimici malvagi,
Guastar le gambe, e 1 culo scorticarti :
Nel travagliar col corpo il capo ancora,
Quindi il cervello ogn hora lambicando ;
Per ciascun passo, che pria facesti, ora
Righe altretante dal cervel stillando.
S ei quest! affanni mai sofferti haurebbe,
Manco gl affronti, ente, & scorni, ch omai
Non senti sordo & cieco, soffrirebbe ;
Trastullo a te si fan pur questi guai.
Poiche in oprar, dungue, en patir 1 agguagli,
Anzi lo vinci, Tom-asino invitto,
Qual Cornamusa si gonfi, & travagli,
Chi uvol cantarti con decoro & dritto.
Explicit Gualterus Quin.
Incipit Christophorus Brooke Eboracensis.
As for these titles that follow, bestowed upon me by
this worthy Gentleman, I would have thee know (reader)
that as I acknowledge my selfe utterly unworthy of them,
so I meant to have suppressed and concealed them, but
that it is the Authors pleasure to prefixe them before his
verses. Therefore for obeying of his will I have thought
good, much against mine owne will, to expresse them in
this place, even these.
To the no lesse learned, then wise and discreete
Gentleman, Mr. THOMAS CORYATE,
In some few moneths travell borne & brought up to
what you see viz. :
To be the delight of a world of noble wits,
To be a shame to all Authors, as the Gout and Quartan
Feaver have bene to all Physitians.
This plaine song sendeth CHRISTOPHER BROOKE,
his poore friend, to attend the
56
PANEGYRICK VERSES
descant of his famous booke, through all Hands, Christopher
Tongues, Arts, Trades, Mysteries, and
Occupations whatsoever.
THe subtle Greeke Ulysses needs must travell,
Ten years, forsooth, over much sand and gravell,
And many Cities see, and manners know,
Before there could be writ a booke or two
Of his adventures : and he travel d still
(Else there are lyars) sore against his will :
But this rare English-Latine-Grecian,
Of Orators and Authors the blacke Swan,
A voluntarie journey undertooke
Of scarce sixe moneths, and yet hath writ a booke
Bigger than Homers, and (though writ in prose)
As full of poetry, spite of Homers nose.
If he liv d now that in Darius Casket
Plac d the poore Iliad s, he had bought a Basket
Of richer stuffe to intombe thy volume large,
Which thou (O noble Tom) at thine own charge
Art pleas d to print. But thou needst not repent
Of this thy bitter cost ; for thy brave Precedent
Great Caesar is, who penned his owne gestes,
And (as some write) recited them at feastes.
And at s owne charge had printed them they say,
If printing had bene used at that day.
The Presse hath spent the three for one you got
At your returne : whats that ? poore thing God wot.
Manure this land still with such bookes my friend,
And you shall be paid for it in the end.
For I (me thinkes) see how men strive to carry
This Joviall Journal! into each Library.
And we ere long shall well perceive your wit,
(Grave learned Bodley) by your placing it.
Therefore lanch forth great booke like Ship of fame.
Th Hopewell of Odcombe thou shalt have to name.
Explicit Christophorus Brooke Eboracensis.
57
John Hoikins.
CORYAT S CRUDITIES
Incipit Joannes Hoskins.
Cabalistical Verses, which by Transposition of Words,
Syllables, and Letters, make excellent Sense, otherwise
none.
In laudem Authoris.
EVen as the waves of brainlesse butter d fish,
With bugle home writ in the Hebrew tongue,
Fuming up flounders like a chafing-dish,
That looks asquint upon a Three-mans song :
Or as your equinoctiall pasticrust
Projecting out a purple chariot wheele,
Doth squeeze the spheares, and intimate the dust,
The dust which force of argument doth feele :
Even so this Author, this *Gymnosophist,
Whom no delight of travels toyle dismaies,
Shall sympathize (thinke reader what thou list)
Crownd with a quinsill tipt with marble praise.
-VV--VV-VV
-VV--VV-VV
-VV--V-V-V
-vv-v-v-v
Encomiological Antispasticks,
Consisting of Epitrits, the fourth in the first
syzugie, which the vulgar call Phaleuciac
hendecasyllables ; trimeters Catalectics with
Antispastic Asclepiads, trimeters Acatalectics
consisting of two dactylicall commaes of some
learned named Choriambicks, both together
dicoli distrophi, rythmicall and hyperrythmi-
call, amphibologicall, dedicated to the un
declinable memory of the autarkesticall
Coryate, the only true travelling Porcupen
of England.
* This word Gymnosophist is derived from two
yv/zvos and cro^tcmjs, which signifie a naked sophister.
Greeke words
, . And he there
fore cals the Author so, because one day he went without a shirt at
Basil, while it was washing.
58
PANEGYRICK VERSES
Also there is this tune added to the verses, and pricked John Hosklns.
according to the forme of Musicke to be sung by those
that are so disposed.
n
-N i
N h
1
Jf \j ,
I
z
1J
m
m
f> .
J z
rJ
Admired Coryate, who like a Porcupen, Dost
shew prodigious things to thy countrimen.
ADmired Coryate, who like a Porcupen
Dost shew prodigious things to thy countrimen.
As that beast when he kils doth use his owne darts,
So doe thy prettie quils make holes in our hearts.
That beast lives of other company destitute,
So wentest thou alone every way absolute.
That beast creepeth afoote, nee absque pennis,
So didst thou trot a journey hence to Venice.
Live long foe to thy foe fierce as a Porcupen,
Live long friend to thy friend kinde as a Porcupen.
Henceforth adde to thy crest an armed Histrix,
Since thy carriage hath resembled his tricks.
The same in Latin.
SE jaculo, sese pharetra, sese utitur arcu,*
In reliquas Histrix dum parat arma feras.
Se comite ad Venetam tendens Coriatius urbem,
Se duce, se curru, se fuit, usus equo.
Et decantat iter se nunc authore stupendum,
Nee minus a reditu se quoque teste sapit.
Ergo non immerito peregrinans dicitur Histrix,
Et laudes a se, non aliunde capit.
* Claudian ad Stymphalum.
59
CORYAT S CRUDITIES
John Hoskins. IVT^ more but so, I heard the crie,
-L l And like an old hound in came I
To make it fuller, though I finde
My mouth decayes much in this kind.
The cry was this, they cri de by millions,
Messengers, Curriers, and Postillians,
Now out alas we are undone
To heare of Coryats payre of sho ne ;
There is no newes we are more sorry at
Then this strange newes of *Rawbone Coryate.
Who like a Unicorne went to Venice,
And drinking neither Sack nor Rhenish,
Home in one payre of shoes did trample,
A fearefull and a strange example.
But whats the newes of learned people
In Pauls Churchyard & neere Pauls steeple?
Hang up his shoes on top of Powles,
Tyed to his name in parchment rowles,
That may be read most legibly
In Tuttlefields and Finsbury.
Fame is but winde, thence winde may blow it
So farre that all the world may know it :
From Mexico and from Peru
To China and to Cambalu :
If the wind serve, it may have lucke
To passe by South to the bird Rucke.
Greater then the Stymphalides
That hid the Sunne from Hercules.
And if fames wings chance not to freeze,
It may passe North ninetie degrees,
Beyond Meta incognita,
Where though there be no hpllyday,
Nor Christen people for to tell it,
Horrible Beares and Whales may smell it.
Thence may it on the Northern seas,
On foote walke to the Antipodes,
* A great Gyant swift on foote, of whom mention is in Poly-
chronicon.
60
PANEGYRICK VERSES
Whose feete against our feete do pace J hn Hoskms.
To keepe the centre in his place.
But when those fellowes that do wonder
As we at them, how we go under
From clime to clime, and tongue to tongue,
Throughout their hemispheare along,
Have tost these words as bals at tennis,
Tom Coryate went on foote from Venice.
This travelling fame, this walking sound
Must needs come home in coming round,
So that we shall cry out upon him,
His fame in travell hath outgone him.
When all have talked, and time hath tried him,
Yet Coryate will be semper idem.
SCilicet haud animum coeli mutatio mutat,
Et patriam fugiens se quoque nemo fugit.
Thersites Phrygiis Thersites perstat in oris,
Nee Plato in j^Egypto desinit esse Plato.
Nee Thomas * Tomyris visis remigrabit ab Indis,
Nee f Cordatus erit qui Coriatus erat.
When all have talked, and time hath tri de him,
Yet Coryate will be semper idem.
Explicit Joannes Hoskins.
* Nee vir peregrinans faemina, nee Anglus Romanus fiet.
1 1 meane egregi cordatus homo Catus ./Elius Sextus.
[Incipit Joannes
61
CORYAT S CRUDITIES
Incipit Joannes Pawlet de George Henton.
John Pawlet. These ensuing verses lately sent unto me by my right
worshipful and generose countryman and neighbour
in Somersetshire, Mr. John Pawlet of George Henton,
had such a glorious title prefixed before them, that I
ment to have excluded it out of my booke, because I
am altogether unworthy of those Panegyricke termes.
But because this worthy Gentleman doth crave to have
it placed before his lines, I doe with his elegant verses
present the same also unto thee, viz.
To the Darling of the MUSES and Minion
of the GRACES,
My deare Country-man and friend,
M. THOMAS CORYATE, of Odcombe,
Ome call thee Homer by comparison ;
Comparisons are odious, I will none :
But call thee (as thou art) Tom Coryate,
That is ; the Man the World doth wonder at.
Whose Braine-pan hath more Pan then Braine by ods,
To make thee all Pan with the semi-gods.
Which pan, when thy fleete wits a wandring goe,
Is *rung to keepe the swarme together so.
So (recollected) thou with them did st flie
To the worlds Gardens, France and Italic,
Where (like a Bee, from every honeyed floure)
The f oddest sweets did st sucke ; which makes thee scowre
At home for life : where, in a II Combe as odde
Thou squirtst it, to feede those that flie abrode.
Explicit Joannes Pawlet.
* Discretion beates upon his braine-pan to keepe wits together.
t That is, choisest.
|| Odcombe, the place of his birth ; the hungry aire whereof first
digested his Crudities, as he himselfe affirmes in his Title-page of this
present worke.
62
S
PANEGYRICK VERSES
Incipit Lionel Cranfield.
GReat laude deserves the Author of this worke, Lionel Cran-
Who saw the French, Dutch, Lombard, Jew, &
Turke ;
But speakes not any of their tongues as yet,
For who in five months can attaine to it ?
Short was his time, although his booke be long,
Which shewes much wit, and memory more strong :
An yron memory ; for who but he
Could glew together such a rhapsodic
Of pretious things? as towers, steeples, rocks,
Tombes, theaters, the gallowes, bels, and clocks,
Mules, Asses, Arsenals, Churches, gates, Townes,
Th alpine mountaines, Cortezans and Dutch clownes.
What man before hath writ so punctually
To his eternall fame his journeys story ?
And as he is the first that I can finde,
So will he be the last of this rare kinde,
Me thinks when on his booke I cast my eies,
I see a shop repleate with merchandize,
And how the owner jelous of his fame,
With pretious matter garnisheth the same.
Many good parts he hath, no man too much
Can them commend, some few Pie only touch.
He Greeke and Latin speakes with greater ease
Then hogs eat akornes, or tame pigeons pease :
His ferret eies doe plod so on his booke,
As makes his lookes worse than a testie cooke.
His tongue and feete are swifter then a flight,
Yet both are glad when day resignes to night.
He is not proud, his nature soft and milde,
His complements are long, his lookes are wilde :
Patient enough, but oh his action
Of great effect to move and stirre up passion.
Odcombe be proude of thy odde Coryate,
Borne to be great, and gracious with the State ;
63
CORYAT S CRUDITIES
Lionel Cran- How much I him well wish let this suffice,
field. j_j- s b 00 k. e kegj. s hewes that he is deeply wise.
Explicit Lionel Cranfield.
Incipit Joannes Sutclin.
John Sutclin. T T T^Hether I thee shall either praise or pitty,
VV My senses at a great Dilemma are :
For when I thinke how thou hast travaild farre.
Canst Greeke and Latin speake, art curteous, witty,
I these in thee and thee for them commend ;
But when I thinke how thou false friends to keepe
Dost weare thy body, and dost leese thy sleepe,
I thee then pity and doe discommend.
Thy feete have gone a painfull pilgrimage,
Thou many nights dost wrong thy hands and eyes
In writing of thy long Apologies ;
Thy tongue is all the day thy restlesse page.
For shame intreate them better, I this crave,
So they more ease, and thou more wit shalt have.
Explicit Joannes Sutclin.
Incipit Inigo Jones. All Mol. Mag.
Tho. Cor.
Inigo Jones. /^\Dde is the * Combe from whence this Cocke did come,
\J That Crowed in Venice gainst the skinlesse Jewes,
Who gave him th entertainment of Tom Drum ;
Yet he undaunted slipt into the stewes
For learnings cause ; and in his Atticke rage
JTrod a tough hen of thirty yeares of age.
Enough of this ; all pens in this doe travell
To tracke thy steps, who Proteus like dost varie
* This is a figure called by the Grecians r/^cris, that is, a division,
when the word is so divided asunder as here : Odde is the Combe for
Odcombe is the place from whence &c. as in Ennius, saxo cere com-
minuit brum, for cerebrum.
I Beleeve him not Reader. Reade my Apologie in my discourse
of the Venetian Cortezans, p. 270.
64
PANEGYRICK VERSES
Thy shape to place, the home-borne Muse to gravell. Iai ff> Jones -
For though in Venice thou not long didst tarrie,
Yet thou the Italian soule so soone couldst steale,
As in that time thou eat st but one good meale.
For France alas how soone (but that thou scornedst)
Couldst thou have starch d thy beard, ruffl d thy hose?
Worne a foule shirt twelve weekes, and as thou journedst,
Sung Falaliro s through thy Persian nose ?
For faces, cringes, and a saltlesse jest,
And beene as scab d a Monsieur as the best.
Next to the sober Dutch I turn my tale,
Who doe in earnest write thee Latin letters,
And thou in good pot paper ne re didst faile
To answere them ; so are you neither debters.
But sympathize in all, save when thou drink st
Thou mak st a * crab-tree face, shak st head, and wink st.
Last, to thy booke the Cordiail of sad mindes,
Or rather Cullis of our Od-combe Cocke
Sodden in travell, which the Critique findes
The best restorer next your Venice smocke.
This booke who scornes to buy, or on it looke,
May he at Sessions crave, and want his booke.
Explicit Inigo Jones.
Incipit Georgius Sydenham
Brimptoniensis.
Upon the cloying Crudities, chewed in the braines of the George Syden-
Author, and cast up in the presse of the Printer, by the
sole travell and proper charge of CORDATE CORYATE,
my conceited Country-man and Neighbour.
COuld any one have done this but thy selfe,
O thou most peerlesse most renowned elfe ?
Regardlesse of thy stockings and of thy shoes,
Afoote to wander through a vale of woes ;
* The modesty of the Author being such, and his temperance in
drinking, that he sometimes frowneth when a healthe is drunke unto him.
C. C. 65 E
CORYAT S CRUDITIES
George Sy den- Where though thou venturd st for to walke alone
Like Hercules ; so tis of Coryate knowne,
That he did n ere in all his journey flie once
From Dogs, from Beares, from Buls, nor yet from
Lyons.
In France I heard thou meeting with a Boare,
(I doe but tell it as twas told before)
His fearfull head thy sword at one blow cuts
So cruelly, that out came all his guts.
At Heydelberg thou didst bestride the Tunne,
And boldly badst the bravest Dutchmans Sonne
Come sit with thee, and drinke untill there were
Not left a drop for any other there.
An act worthy thee, save who saw thee ride
Twixt Odcombe crosse and Yevill, and bestride
Like Alexander Phillips horse, would sweare
Thy former deeds with this might not compare.
Comming to Venice, thy unmatched feature
Made straight a wench thinke thee a lovelier creature
Then thou thoughtst Mary, when thou knowest, poore
Tom,
How glad thou wert to come and kisse her *bomme,
These things of travellers all make me to say,
That wandering Coryate beares the bell away.
Now being returnd unto thy native land,
Here thou hast drawne with thine owne curious hand
A worke more strangly praised, and by more,
Then ever worke has yet by many a score :
A worke that all the world hath longd to see,
And now send post to fetch this raritie.
A worke that hath long time expected beene,
And now beyond all expectation scene ;
A worke that serves men for all kind of uses,
Mistake me not, I meane not for abuses ;
A worke that none but thine one selfe could handle,
Nor thou have done it without many a candle :
* Her cheeke or hand ; a Chaucerisme.
66
PANEGYRICK VERSES
A worke that will eternize thee till God t come, George Syden-
And for thy sake thy famous Parish Odcombe. ham
Explicit Georgius Sydenham Brimptoniensis.
Incipit Robertus Halswell.
HAdst thou bin still in travell, ne re brought forth, Robert Hah-
How great had bin thy praise, how great thy worth ? we
Dame Admiration hath but our true mother,
Peruse this worke, and thou shalt finde her brother.
Explicit Robertus Halswell.
Incipit Joannes Gyfford.
In praise of the Praise-transcending (mine old
friend) THOMAS CORYATE.
IF any aske, in verse what soare I at ? John Gyfford.
My Muse replies : The praise of Coryate.
He, who the immense straight passing over
Twixt sandie Calais, and twixt chalkie Dover,
With observations strange doth edge you on,
To steale the fruits of many a region.
And teacheth, without travaile, how to travell,
O re spuing billowes, and o re gavlling gravell.
Mount then Pierian Birds, or proudly strut,
In praise of s braine, more fresh then freshest nut.
Again, for old acquaintance.
Wit now or never helpe me to renowne
The oddest Combe that Od-combe ere did crowne :
The wonder of this age, which doth admire
How Travell, Wit, and Art do all conspire
To make him Table-talke, and pointed at,
Filling mens mouthes, and eyes with Coryate.
And yet he is to none he lives among,
Moate in their eyes, nor blister on their tongue,
f Till Doomes day.
67
CORYAT S CRUDITIES
John Gyfford. Nay, he s a spectacle unto all eyes
That makes great things of small (in wordy wise!)
And unto tongues, most idle in their talking,
Hee s like Greeke wine, that sets them still a walking.
Never did Time, since first he held the Sithe,
Produce Art such a Cutter of Queene-hithe.
Wee stile him so ; because that Hithe, or Banke,
Whereon the Queeenes of Art their Pupils ranke
Doth yeeld such Cutters, that is, such as are
The most acute, as thou art (Tom) and spare.
For proofe whereof, loe here a booke as full
Of Cut-worke, as of hot braines is his Scull.
Heere he cuts out with sharpest edge of wit,
(That * blunts when ought that s hard doth meete with it)
Many a faire Collop from the CONTINENT,
To broyle on wits fire, Trav lers to content.
Of France he makes a rasher on the coales :
And casts such salt of wit into her holes,
That he doth make it sav rie to the pallet
Of Pilgrims, travelling with bag and wallet.
But this, (O this) I muse at most (perchance)
That thou should st note such pretty things in France ;
Sith (when I crost it in my wandrings)
I could not see the same for greater things.
But twas my fault such small things to decline,
That might have made my fame as huge as thine.
Of Italy, and all things (every way)
That lie in compasse of five months survay,
He so hath chopt it out to us in parts
(With liberall pen, the toole of liberall Arts)
That, in each part, we see, as in a streame
(O eloquence) the lively face of them.
Munster put up thy pen, thou art put downe
By Odcombs issue ; then come Combe his crowne :
Or stroke him on the head for shewing thee
Each Gallowesf hid in thy Cosmographie.
* Through the subtil finesse of the edge.
f Munster shewes not where one Gallowes stands in all his Booke.
68
PANEGYRICK VERSES
Pomponius Mela, and Ortelius,
Nay, Plinie, with thy bookes voluminous,
Goe, get ye gone, or lowly to him fall ;
For his now Goose-quill farre out-flies yee all.
Well maist thou Germany upon him spue,
That to thy stomacke bitter is as Rue.
Sith he obscures the glory of thy men
That glorifi d thee with their grosser pen :
For he is more particular by ods
In his descriptions, nay, he turnes the clods
Of every soyle to see what underlies,
And that expresseth, be it wormes, or flies :
And, not a Jebit, wheele, nor ought beside
Whereon (for some offence) a man hath di de,
If neere his walke, (nay though farre off it lay)
But too t he went, and doth the same display.
England rejoyce, who now a man hast bred
That is all wit, and learning, save the head,
And that s all Sconce the powers of sense to keepe,
Where they, from wits incursions, safely sleepe.
Then O yee Gallants of the English Court,
Let Coryats travels travaile you with sport.
And as great Alexander, Homer making
His pillowes bolster (for his pleasure waking)
Made sport with him : so, let our Coryats worke
Under your bolster or your buttons lurke
To sport, and pleasure you by night and day ;
For, tis a Sermon better then a play.
Sermon we call it, sith it is a speech
Of all that lay within his travels reach.
Then to this Sermon of those holy things
(For he (among) doth talke of God and Kings)
If any be dispos d t apply their care,
Or that about them rather it would beare,
They shall be sav d from woe, in words of mirth,
By Coryats booke, his wits sole Heaven on Earth.
Explicit Joannes Gyfford.
69
Q 1
CORYAT S CRUDITIES
Incipit Richardus Corbet.
Richard Spectatissimo, punctisque omnibus dignissimo, Thomae
Corbet. Coryato de Odcombe, Peregrinanti, Pedestris ordinis,
Equestris famae.
|U6d mare transieris, quod rura urbesque Pedester,
Jamque colat reduces patria laeta pedes :
Quodque idem numero tibi calceus haeret, & illo
Cum corio redeas quo coriatus abis :
Fatum omenque tui miramur nominis, ex quo
Calcibus & soleis fluxit aluta tuis.
Nam quicunque eadem vestigia tentat, opinor
Excoriatus erit, ni Coriatus eat.
In librum suum.
De te pollicitus librum es, sed in te
Est magnus tuus hie liber libellus.
Do not wonder Coryate that thou hast
Over the Alpes, through France and Savoy past,
Parch t on thy skin, and foundred in thy feete,
Faint, thirstie, lowzie, and didst live to see t.
Though these are Romane suffrings, and do show
What creatures backe thou hadst, couldst carry so.
All I admire is thy returne, and how
Thy slender pasterns could thee beare, when now
Thy observations with thy braine engendred
Have stuft thy massie and voluminous head
With Mountaines, Abbies, Churches, Synagogues,
Preputiall offals, and Dutch Dialogues :
A burthen far more grievous than the weight
Of wine, or sleepe ; more vexing than the freight
Of fruit and Oysters, which lade many a pate,
And send folkes crying home from Billingsgate.
No more shall man with mortar on his head
Set forwards towards Rome : no. Thou art bred
A terror to all footmen, and all Porters,
And all lay-men that will turne Jewes exhorters,
70
I
PANEGYRICK VERSES
To flie their conquered trade. Proud England then Richard
Embrace this * luggage, which the Man of Men Corbet.
Hath landed here, and change thy Welladay
Into some home-spun welcome Roundelay.
Send of this stuffe thy territories thorough
To Ireland, Wales, and Scottish Edenborough.
There let this booke be read and understood,
Where is no theame nor writer halfe so good.
Explicit Richardus Corbet.
Incipit Joannes Dones.
LOe her s a Man, worthy indeede to travell ; John Danes.
Fat Libian plaines, strangest Chinas gravell.
For Europe well hath scene him stirre his stumpes :
Turning his double shoes to simple pumpes.
And for relation, looke he doth afford
Almost for every step he tooke a word ;
What had he done had he ere hug d th Ocean
With swimming Drake or famous Magelan?
And kiss d that unturn d fcheeke of our old mother.
Since so our Europes world he can discover?
It s not that French which made his || Gyant see
Those uncouth Hands where words frozen bee,
Till by the thaw next yeare they r voic t againe ;
Whose Papagauts, Andouilets, and that traine
Should be such matter for a Pope to curse
As he would make ; make ! makes ten times worse,
And yet so pleasing as shall laughter move :
And be his vaine, his gaine, his praise, his love.
Sit not still then, keeping fames trump unblowne :
But get thee Coryate to some land unknowne.
From whence proclaim thy wisdom with those wonders,
Rarer then sommers snowes, or winters thunders.
And take this praise of that th ast done alreadie :
Tis pitty ere thy flow should have an eddie.
Explicit Joannes Dones.
*I meane his booke. f Terra incognita. | Rablais. || Pantagruel.
man.
CORYAT S CRUDITIES
Incipit Joannes Chapman.
To the Philologe Reader in commendation of our
Philograecicall writer, Topographicall Tom Coryate
of Odcombe.
John Chap- /^\Ur Odde Author hath Comb d his fertile pate
\J Of his knowledge, that thou mightst learne to prate
Of travell, his heeles bearing thy head over
To and againe, from Venice unto Dover
Though thou sit still, and at his simple charge
Paies for thy mirth, more then in Graves-end barge,
Tilt-boate, or the Tavernes thou canst finde :
For here is musicke without noise or winde.
A volume which though twill not in thy pocket,
Yet in thy chest thou maist for ever locke it
For thy childrens children to reade hereafter,
Being disposed to travell, or to laughter.
Nor must thou wonder so much stuffe should come
From nimble Tom Coryats quill of Odcombe.
His little eyes set in his living head
See farther then great eyes in one that s dead ;
So he a Schollar but at Winchester,
Doth take mens eares more then did Stone or Chester.
They could doe nought but rayle, or flatter all ;
His jests and acts are purely naturall,
Stuffed full of Greeke and Latin whipt into him,
Having learning just enough to undoe him,
Unlesse thou pitty on his charge doe take,
And helpe buy of his bookes for thine owne sake.
Here is not stifled much stuffe in few wordes ;
His * little matter many lines affordes.
* Mistake me not Reader ; I therefore call it little, as having relation
to the shortnes of the time that he spent in his travels, viz. five moneths,
in which short time though an ordinary traveller would have written but
little ; yet if you reade his book, you may perceive that in that short
space he found matter enough to affoord many lines of Observations to
his country-men.
72
PANEGYRICK VERSES
Buy then, and passe not by the writers glorie, ]ofin Chap-
That for thy sake hath penn d this learned storie ;
Wherein he hath three travels undergone,
To pace, to pen, to print it too alone.
Few Orators so copiouslie endite,
So thou but reade, he cares not || what he write.
He tels all truth, yet is no foole, nor child,
No lyar ; yet he is the traveller styl d :
But brought no more tongues home then set him forth.
Now let his booke for me commend his worth ;
Of whose full merits I could write much better,
But that I feare to make his worke my detter.
Explicit Joannes Chapman.
Incipit Thomas Campianus.
Medicinae Doctor.
In Peragrantissimi, Itinerosissimi, Montiscandentissimique Thomas Cam-
Peditis, Thomae Coryati, viginti-hebdomadarium Diari- P ian -
urn, sex pedibus gradiens, partim vero claudicans,
Encomiasticon.
AD Venetos venit corio Coryatus ab uno
Vectus, &, ut vectus, pene revectus erat.
Nave una Dracus sic totum circuit orbem,
At rediens retulit te Coryate minus.
Illius undigenas tenet unica charta labores,
Tota tuos sed vix bibliotheca capit.
Explicit Thomas Campianus.
Incipit Gulielmus Fenton.
SHeeloosht arfraindren convay alefill, William
Emnanght elslopen seraght emneghtill ; Fenton.
Ofaghth contraltight erpon emselah,
Prutalt artennah semank semnelah.
|| I meane how much he writes of his Observations in forraine
countries.
73
CORYAT S CRUDITIES
William
Fenton.
John Owen.
In English thus.
FAire starre of learning which on us dost shine,
With beauteous lustre and aspectfull cheare,
Goe lend thy light awhile beyond the line,
And blaze on the Antipodian hemispheare.
Explicit Gulielmus Fenton de Knockfergus.
Incipit Joannes Owen.
To his ingenious and judicious friend, Mr. Thomas
Coryate, in commendation of this learned worke.
An Epigramme.
CHrysippus colwort, Lucian the Flie
Commend in learned writ above the skie ;
Fannius the Nettle, Favorin the Fever ;
Whose praise with Sunne and Moone endure for ever.
In spite of some that seeme, but are not holy,
Erasmus spent much wit in praise of folly.
Some later wits have writ the Asses praise,
O that those lads were living in thy daies!
For if they prais d base things in learned writ,
How much more would they praise thy learned wit?
T
In laudem ejusdem.
Distichon.
Ot liber hie laudes, quot habet vulpecula fraudes
Vix humeris tantum sustinet Atlas onus.
To the Reader, in Praise of this worthy Worke,
and the Author thereof.
THe Fox is not so full of wiles
As this booke full of learned smiles :
Come seeke, and thou shalt finde in it
Th Abridgment of Great-Britains wit.
Explicit Joannes Owen.
74
PANEGYRICK VERSES
Incipit Petrus Alley.
CAnnons, Culverings, Sakers, and Sling s, Peter Alky.
Curriers, Calivers, and warlike Ginnes,
Breathe forth your bowels, make the aire thunder
Of Coryate of Odcombe, Somersets wonder.
Sound Trumpets, beate Drums, sing merrily Fife,
Bellonas musicke encouragers of strife.
Awake men of warre, Ulysses appeares
Whose travels report more dangerous feares.
Send in your Sentinels, your Corporals call,
Examine your Serjeants and Officers all.
Nor Captains, nor Colonels, nor Generals great
Have made the like journey, or like retreate.
Twixt Venice and Flushing on foote he went
With one paire of shoes ere they were halfe spent ;
Over hils, dales, valleys, and plaines,
Until his journeys end he attaines.
But what mishap to him there befell,
His booke who shall reade, is able to tell.
His dangerous encounter with cruell Jewes,
His courting a Cortezan in the Stewes,
His perils in Cities, Townes, and Dalpes,
His fearfull climbing of the steepy Alpes ;
Above the clowdes through the middle region,
With adventures more then beyond a legion.
His bickering with the barbarous Boore,
Was one of the least by many a score ;
But his politique handling of the clowne
Is very well worth the setting downe :
And cunning recoverie of his hat
With humble haviour and gentle chat.
Many more hazards he leaves to expresse,
Only to make the volume the lesse.
For if he should all to the presse send,
His booke I doubt will never have an end.
Then Souldiers sit downe, let your ensignes be torne,
Coryate hath conquered you with his shoes but halfe worne,
75
CORYAT S CRUDITIES
Peter Alky. Let no man murmur (Pythagoras dixit)
Gainst Coryats attempts, quae supra vixit
Et vivat et regnet with a famous stile,
He and his shoes that trod many a mile.
Explicit Petrus Alley.
Incipit Samuel Page.
To the most worthy Patriot, his most desired friend,
Mr. Thomas Coryate of Odcombe, Gentleman and
Traveller.
Samuel Page. T Sing the man, helpe me ye sacred Nine,
A A fitter taske for you to undertake
In your owne numbers and immortall line,
His numberlesse deservings to partake
To his own natives, whose expecting eye
Now stands wide open for his historic.
Drinke your springs drie you Heliconian Dames,
Here s worke for nine such nines to write his praise,
Whose variable eye his Odcombe fames
For strange ingrossements made in so few daies.
Put all your wits distillement in your pen
To doe him right that shames all other men.
No curious ambition moved our friend
T exhale the secrets of a forraine state,
He scorn d to make a tongue or two his end
To come a dipthong home ; it better sate
With his projection and intendements wise,
To turne his Microcosme all into eyes.
His eyes on all have set all eyes on him,
Whose observations past, whose present pen
Whose future circlings of this globe, will dimme
The wondred glory of all other men,
And give the world in one synoptick quill,
Full proofe that he is Brittaines Perspicill.
76
PANEGYRICK VERSES
Goe on brave goer, and grave writer write ; Samuel Page.
Thy farre-sight eye, and thy long-hearing eares
Shall prompt thy tongue to speake, thy Pen t indite
Thy Ulyssaean travels of tenne yeares.
Thine is thy gentrie, and thy vertue thine,
But thy experience (Brittaine saith) is mine.
Thy first walke was the surface and outside
Of some choyce rarities in stranger earth :
Thy second travels promise farre and wide
Of greater wonders yet a nobler birth :
Thou didst but shave the lands thou saw st of late,
Thy future walkes will them CX-CORIATE.
Explicit Samuel Page.
Incipit Thomas Momford.
WE11 may his name be called Coryate, Thomas Mm -
Not of the outward plet or hairie skinne,
But of the heart or very Cor of wit.
For his conceits shew that his head s within
His wit, and in his travels and his works
Most strange adventures & experience lurks.
When he fear d theeves in policy he begs,
To save his purse & himselfe from further danger ;
He did escape the force of rotten egs,
Thrown out by whores upon an innocent stranger.
Upon the monstrous Tun he sate astride,
In all these things his wit was soundly tri de.
His worthie deeds can never be exampled,
That in a stable lodg d himselfe all night,
Ventred his bones with wild jades to be trampled,
And there endured many a bloodie bite,
Our English travellers with all their brags,
Cannot compare with Mr. Coryats rags.
How much are we bound to him for his paines,
That for our sakes as plainely as he can,
77
Thomas Mom-
ford.
Thomas
Bastard.
CORYAT S CRUDITIES
Writes all these things, not for the hope of games,
But to the capacitie of an English man.
He might as well have set us all to seeke,
If (as he speakes) he had writ his mind in Greeke.
Explicit Thomas Momford.
Incipit Thomas Bastard.
PUt downe, put downe Tom Coryate
Our latest rares, which glory not ;
Since we thy spials did peruse
Fraught with the quintessence of newes.
On several subjects thou has grated,
Of men, of bookes yet unrelated.
There s nothing left for traveller,
Nor for the timmest Cavalier
For table talke, in my poore sense
Thou put s downe all intelligence.
The like of things as thou hast noted,
Nor is, nor was, nor shall be quoted.
Nor in the chanting Poets theames,
Nor in the wisest sickmens dreames :
Nor in the bookes of Bacon Friar :
Nor in Herodotus the lyar :
Nor in the mud of Nilus thicke,
With wormy monsters crawling quicke.
To thee give thanks for thoughtlesse skill,
Reportes which never dropt from quill.
Which could st if thou would st underborne it,
Have spoke of state, but thou didst scorne it.
Thou hast seene Kings, there is no doubt,
But wisely didst thou leave them out.
Choosing by judgements ayme to hit,
What all have mist for want of wit.
Whilst snow on loftie Alpes shall freeze,
And paint the dales rich butterflies,
Thy name shall live, nor be forgotten,
When Sivil Oranges be rotten.
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PANEGYRICK VERSES
And thou shalt weare our English Bayes, Thomas
And surfeit yet not die of praise.
Explicit Thomas Bastard.
Incipit Gulielmus Baker.
The Anatomic, dissection, or cutting up of that great
Quack-salver of words, Mr. Thomas Coryate our British
Mercuric.
TO praise thee or thy worke (which is the moddell William
Of most the wit enskonsed in thy noddell) Baker.
Were madnesse ; since the Poets of our daies
Run giddie in the circle of thy praise.
When thou wast borne, some say, & all do thinke,
The urine that thou mad st, was perfect inke.
Cosmographers bespoken have thy head,
(The eares first pared off, and polished)
For a terrestriall Globe : and Coryate
Thy shall serve to be a Promontorie at
Nicest exactnesse : precious is thy life,
When arts and nature for thee are at strife :
So full of joviall glee, that men hereafter
Shal terme thee eldest Son to wrinkled laughter,
Better than Rhubarbe purging melancholy,
One that hath got of words the monopoly :
That evesdrops a phrase, and like a spie
Watcheth each bumbast word, as it doth flie.
His presence is more grateful unto all
Then a new play, or on some festivall
Strange squibs and .fire-works, which do clime the skies,
And with their glaring sparkes mate vulgar eyes.
Tis thought if longer he in England tarries,
He will undoe cooks shops and Ordinaries.
For who, to save a dinner, on him steales,
Forgetteth hunger, and out-laughes his meales.
He knew and felt the Boores, yet was not boorish,
He new and felt the whores, yet was not whorish,
79
CORYAT S CRUDITIES
William As Phoebus in his full of noone-tide pride,
Baker. p ass i n g through muddie clouds, doth pure abide,
He is a gemme most worthy to be hung
And worne in choicest eares : but his blown tongue
With talke sets ships agoing on their waies,
When they lie bed-rid, and becalmd on seas.
Upon this unmatched worke, the true hieroglyphicke of
that observative, and long-winded Gentleman Thomas
Coryate.
OUr travelling frie, liquorous of Novelties,
Enquire each minute for thy Crudities ;
And hope, that as those haddocks tooke refection,
Cast from thy sea-sicke stomacks forc t ejection,
And straight grew travailers, and forsooke our Maine,
To frolicke on the grav ly shelves of Spaine :
So they by thy disgorgement, at their will
Shall put downe Web, or Sir John Mandevil.
For such an itch of travell is begotten,
(To the states good, and thy praise be it spoken)
Thy booke shall vent the kindome better far
Then erst the Irish or Low countrie war.
Here native Graces carelesly do lurke
Skorning Arts borrowed dressings : and thy worke
Simple as truth, not artificial!,
But like thy selfe naked, and naturall.
Yet here a riddle is, will pose the wise,
Tom speaketh truth, and yet was full of lice.
And for his volume, this I dare to say,
When he did make this worke he did not play ;
For such huge meritorious paines he tooke,
That if he be sav d, twill be by his booke.
Explicit Gulielmus Baker.
80
PANEGYRICK VERSES
Incipit To
A Wake thou Cocke of great renowne,
And crow the praise of Odcombes towne,
For breeding such a worlds wonder,
Whose writings move the ayre to thunder.
Thou art the Theefe of travellers treasury,
By bartering thy wit for extreme usury.
Which is as fine as cobweb lawne,
And runneth like the streame of Dawne.
Thy Goate-like sense the ravisher of fame
Hath parcell-gilt thy memory and name.
Thy inventorie of thy braines endevours
Hath plumed thee with the Peacocks feathers.
Which made thee flie to learne our newes,
And brought thee home from Venice stewes.
Where Emilia faire thou didst fro st-bit,
And shee inflamed thy melting wit :
Thy braine like Baldus doth ebbe and flow,
But fixed is thy wit by standing in the snow
To keepe out the Connies from leaping the wall,
Which proves thee a Priest of the Order of Ball.
Thou art the Syren that those inchaunt
That with their eares thy Muse doe haunt.
Thou art the Phcenix that in the wagtailes nest was borne,
Whereby thy birth high mounted hath thy home.
If thou (sweet Tom) such praise must have,
What then must he that got the knave ?
But let him be as may bee,
Thou art his hony and hony-combe, men see.
Explicit To
[Incipit Josias
c. c. 8t F
CORYAT S CRUDITIES
Incipit Josias Clarke.
Anagramma in nomen Authoris Thomas Coriatus.
Hoc totus amaris.
Josias Clarke. T TRbes egregias vidisti Cosmopolita,
\^J Corporis aut animi quis mage quaeso labor ?
Vidisti, & calamo tradis memoranda fideli,
Hoccine vicit amor, vicerit anne labor?
Vicit amor patriae, permiscens utile dulci,
Seria, describis tincta lepore, tua.
Nomen & omen habes idcirco, Hoc TOTUS AMARIS,
Digna notanda facis, digna legenda notas.
Explicit Josias Clarke.
Incipit Thomas Farnaby alias Bainrafe.
Thomas 01 aSta-TTTafj.ei tj OaXepovs veov eiapivoia-iv
Farnaby. AfvOecri \ei/u.u)va.$ /3a/a /neXiarcra Tpe^ei,
E /c re poScov QV/J.OV re Spocrov fj.vira.a-a (3e(3pi6e
PavTiG-Oevra a-KeXtj vtKTapeov /u.e\iTO9.
Toios VOVVT ISwv KojO/aro? T acrrea
TOUT apa SaiSaXeov icqpiov evOereet.
The same in English.
IN verdant meadowes crown d with springs fresh pride
The painefull Bee tastes every fragrant flower ;
His thighes full fraught, on nimble wing doth glide
Home, to store up his wealth in hony bower.
From travailes strange, so Coryate late come home,
With flowing Nectar filles this hony Combe.
LYcurgus, Solon, and Pythagoras
Have by their travails taught learned Thomas,
That an Ulysses is not borne at home,
But made abroade. Wherefore he leaves Odcombe,
And the Transalpine countries visits. Where he
By horse, by cart, on foote full many a wearie
82
PANEGYRICK VERSES
Journey endur d, with curious observation Thomas
Noting the lives and manners of each nation.
Whence with wing-footed speede making returne, all
His right and left adventures in this journall
Hath Gobled up in hast. And simply true
Shames not to write how he at Sea did spue.
There shall you reade of woods surpassing Arden,
Clowd-touching hilles, Alcinous Paris Garden.
Strange Butter-flies. His Circe neate and mundula
Pelting the Greeke in his Venetian Gondola.
But past the besieging of his she Pergamo
An Irish lodging takes with jades at Bergamo.
Of Epitaphes and Letters he cites volumes,
Measures Pyramide steeples and high columnes.
Scapes the Dutch Boore, th Irus or Cyclop
At Heydelberg bestrides the monstrous *ts Cadh.
Which with dimension trine justly TYE Madadh.
In briefe from Venice he to Flussing hobled
With no more shirts then backs, shoes seldom cobled.
Which shirt, which shoes, with hat of mickle price,
His fustian case, shelter for heards of lice
(Like some world-circling ship, or silver shield
Of Macedons, or trophey of fought field)
Hang Monuments of eviternall glory, at
Odcombe, to th honour of Thomas Coryate.
So that when death his soule and body sever,
Bell-weather fame shall ring his praise for ever.
Explicit Thomas Farnaby alias Bainrafe.
Incipit Gulielmus Austin.
HOw shall my pen describe thy praise, William
Thou only wonder of our daies ? Austin.
Since tis a taske that best befits
Our Poets chiefe, I meane the Wits.
I wish, since I to write am bent,
My style as high as those in Kent.
83
CORYAT S CRUDITIES
William B ut s h a i} j p ra i se thy booke or person ?
The gravest lines of learned Gerson,
Or smoothest verse e re came from Ovid,
Unable is to tell us of it.
For none can do t mong st living men,
Just as it is but Coryats pen.
To him alone belongs the glory
Of all yee see written before yee.
To him that farre and neere hath travaild,
Gone, and retourn d, his wit ungraveld ;
Slep t in his clothes, like westerne Pugge,
Sans Monmouth cap or gowne of Rugge ;
And now for Trophey of rich price
Hangs up his garments full of lice,
Which heretofore like weedes of proofe
Served him to keepe the cold aloofe.
When as he past the Jesuit parts,
Who were not able with their arts,
And all their arguments to finde
One hole to pierce his constant minde.
But conquering still along did passe,
Nor could they all make him an As-
Sassinate of his Prince or Peere,
For still his conscience kept him cleere.
But if his purpose do not varie,
He meanes to fetch one more vagarie.
To see before his comming backe,
The furdest bounds of Prester Jacke.
When going on I hope hee l worke
All Christendome against the Turke.
And then unyoake his weary teame
In China or Jerusalem.
Oh may he goe, that they may there
Admire his wit as we do heare.
Whose Chastity and Temperance
Italic knowes as well as France.
A Cortezan or Curteous one
He hates like Puncke of Babylon
84
PANEGYRICK VERSES
He never learn d of bright Apollo, William
The Dutch Garraus or German Swallow. Austin -
Nor never have I heard him noted
For drinking drunke with herring bloted.
Learning s his love, and he a Scholler,
In Greeke and Latin doth extoll her ;
By whose pure helpe and sacred art,
(Which he long since hath learn d by heart)
Hee l guard him selfe if foes inviron,
As well with verses as old yron ;
And sting a man with Inke and Paper,
More Satyre like then with a Rapier.
And now of late a booke hath writ
In praise of learning and his wit.
From Odcombe doe his Muses flow,
Then must there Come Odde trickes I trow.
The famous booke of Mandevill
Tell not of things so strange and evill,
Of jests, mistakings, and misprisions,
Of Pagans, Jewes, and circumcisions,
Of Tombs, Sepulchers, dead mens bones,
Of Epitaphes, of stockes and stones,
And how in Venice at a supper :
But why should I thy praises slubber?
Since thou thy selfe in lines of worth
Hast writ it downe and set it forth
At thine owne proper cost and charge,
As the Church-wardens doe their large
And spacious windowes in the Church,
Where schoolboies boms are breetcht with burch.
Besides thy front showes not a little
Thy rare conceit. For in thy title
Whole sholes of Gudgins gaping skip
To catch thy larges from the ship ;
And dance for joy in hope to winne thee,
Because they feele ther s somewhat in thee.
Nay more than this thy very picture
Seemes of itselfe to reade a Lecture
85
CORYAT S CRUDITIES
William Betweene three comly Virgins plac d,
Austin. Figuring the Countries where thou wast.
Italie diet, wine from France,
Germanic gives thee utterance.
The world ere long on fame shall raise thee,
Then what neede my poore pen to praise thee ?
Yet ere I end, Pie prophesie,
If any shall like thee flie hie,
And touch Pernassus in discourse
With flying pen like winged horse :
Thy name above shall him renowne.
For all the wits about the towne
Shall honoured Laurell on him set,
And call him second Coryet.
And thus adiew, since time doth barre us
I take my leave, Thine usque ad Aras.
Explicit Gulielmus Austin.
Incipit Glareanus Vadianus.
De THOMA CORYATO Odcombiensi apud Britanno-Belgas
cive, homine Heteroclito & Anomalo, atque Planeta
extra suum Zodiacum erratico, Legenda plumbea.
Glareanus A "p^a virumque cano, nostris qui raptus ab oris
Vadianus. ^-^ Armoricosque ; sinus rostratis navibus intrans,
Multa tulit fecitque miser ; longoque peracto
Terrarum tractuque maris, per inhospita mundi
Littoraque, & rigidis loca multa impervia saxis,
In proprium tandem rediit : fessusque viarum
Consedit, repetens luctus tristesque labores.
Hemistichion hoc sic Anglice reddendum censent Critici, viz. (I sing
the harmelesse man) ut ille olim, [Oratio pro Archia poeta] A praier for
the Arch-Poet. Si quasratur, quomodo in dictione (dp/xa) includatur
[harmelesse] notandum est postremum a esse o-reprjTiKov popiov, atque ita
implicare (harmlesse vel without harme :) Si ulterius quaeratur quare
privativa haec particula quae prasfigi debet, postponitur, sciendum est in
voce perinde ac in re notare velle Authorem Coriaticam Hysterologiam.
86
PANEGYRICK VERSES
Quos dum commemorat, pleno & * mendacia folle Glareanus
Spirat, Magnatum mensas condire secundas Vadlaniu.
Suevit, & immodico pulmonem extendere risu ;
Unus moeroris Medicus, laterum unus Aliptes,
Unica Theriace quae noxia toxica pellens,
TLdvB b<ra /mev a"jr\dy^voi(TLv ev/crraTat aXyea Travel.
Postquam conscendit navem, portuque solutus
In mare monstriferum ventorum irremigat alls,
Protinus hie Pelagi & Telluris inutile tpondus,
Sarcinaque ipse sibi, ructat, singultit, & udis
Prospiciens oculis late evpea vwra OaAdera-q?,
" De corio Coryate tuo nunc, inquit, aguntur
" Judicia, 6 Odcomba vale, mulctralia, mactra,
" Armamenta mei ruris ; mutasse dolemus
" Cymbia pro cymba, en in remos ramus abivit :
" Arbor in antennas & malos, hortus in aequor,
" Mobile pro fixo ; pro terra, tergora Ponti,
" Pro clivo clavum teneo, pro mergite merges .
Dumque haec conqueritur, stomacho quatiente cerebrum,
Nauseat, & nutat, tussit, screat, oscitat, aeger
Arquatusque vomit quantum stabula alta ducentis
Apta bobus mittunt steriles laetamen in agros.
Compellat socios subito Navarcha stupentes,
Tollite sublimem, totumque immergite ponto.
otrcra yap dv6pu>7T(av K\vjei KUKO. Trai/ra OaXdcrcra,
Atque ita perlotum vicino in littore sistunt.
Convalet Antaeus, duplicataque robora sumit.
Egreditur, tactaque semel tellure, repente
Inde velut Xerxes inflixit verbera ponto,
Et jussit cohibere minas, compescere fluctus.
Turn porro perrexit iter, cinctuque Gabino
Induit interulam croceo medicamine tinctam
Sexipedes contra vermes, cimicesque rotundos ;
* Nimis me perstringis mi Glareane. Arbitraris enim (sed perperam)
illud usitatum adagium in vernacula nostra lingua, esse verum. Travel
lers may lie by authoritie.
f Scio te alludere ad illud Homericum, ITWO-IOV a^^os apovpys. Sed
non mihi arridet tua allusio.
8?
CORYAT S CRUDITIES
Glareanus Quam per tot menses pedicoso in corpore gessit,
Vadianw. j n ma t r i s puer efformarier alvo.
Balteus injectus pugili latus alligat ense,
Ense Medusaeum quali caput abstulit olim
Perseus, huic Harpe nomen : vel quale sacravit
Pausanias ferrum quod Myrtalis usque vocatum est.
Hoc unum intererat, Coryatidi quod sua *Morglai
Non acies, non cuspis erat, sed plumbea lamna
Nescia bellorum, vaginae & pacis amatrix,
Hanc non Herculeum pectus, non dextera vibrat,
Brachia fulta toris, validis neque mota lacertis,
Sed vir Cervinus, volucrique fugacior ullo,
Perpetua glacie cujus prsecordia frigent,
Tergaque qui gladiis potius quam pectora vertit.
j^mulus Alcidae meruit
Clamari titulo, sed non e
Ut cui nee vestis nee velamenta superbis
Apta sedent humeris, pedibus neque mollis aluta,
Ocreave aut suras solitus vincire cothurnus,
Empta sed a verpis Judaeis byssina diplois,
Calceus aut soccus quern supra fibula mordet ;
Et bene suppactas soleas cui subula junxit,
Hirtaque seta suis docti cerdonis ab arte.
Non alio hie Goozman jumento fortiter usus
Viribus infractis Gallos penetravit & Umbros,
Victor Hyperboreos populos superasset & ultra,
Si non audisset gentem feritate tremenda
Torpentes mactasse asinos ad Apollinis aras.
Flexit iter, tumidum guttur miratus ad Alpes.
Longa per Insubres tenuit via mollis euntem.
Morantemque diu, multumque & multa morantem,
Dives ager fructu, generosa vite, ficuque
Explevit pingui mensa, fluidisque racemis.
Ante etenim generis gentisque oblitus, & exors
Ipse sui decoris, mendicos inter, agyrtas,
Erronumque greges, perhibetur ad oppida circum
* Gladius Guidonis Warwicensis.
88
PANEGYRICK VERSES
Ostiaque a populo *stipem petiisse viritim, Glareanus
Furfure contentus, siliquis, & pane-secundo,
Quacunque incedit, pedibus retinacula solvit,
Fertque sub axilla soleas, ut rusticus agnum,
Visurus claram (sic spes est) Sandaliwtin,
Dum Cimicus, Cynicus, pede nudus asymbolus, excors,
Calcat Apenninum per devia lustra ferarum,
Qua rudunt Onagri grunnit arnica luto sus,
Agnoscit generis positas in pulvere plantas
Bestia quaeque sui, simul & vestigia lambunt.
Nam Coryate tuo Cervus, Lepus, Ursus, & Urus,
olidusque caper, corio clauduntur in uno.
Hinc loca contuitus qua brachia porrigit aequor
In terrae gremium, cingitque amplexibus arctis ;
Spectat ubi Venetos urbs inclyta ditat & ornat,
Quae procul in saxis extructa a margine terrae,
Inconcussa natat turrita in gurgite salso.
Pro portis illi est Nereus ; pro moenibus aequor ;
Prata, maris campus ; plateae, pons ; cymba, caballus.
Hue convertit iter, portasque ingressus, hianti
Ore stupens, oculis circumspicit omnia limis,
Miratusque, gradum sistit ; secumque locutus
Nil ultra est, inquit ; Gades hie sunto laboris :
Erroris monumenta mei hoc in littore ponam.
Venit ad illuviem populi, putidumque lupanar,
Scortorumque greges, nimiumque ibi fortiter haerens,
Cereus in vitium, capitur fmeretricis amore.
" Quam sic aggreditur ; Medea, Empusaque mundi,
" O sexus cremor une tui, tremor une virilis,
*Valde erras mi Glareane; semel enim dun taxat in peregrinatione
mea stipem emendicavi, idque occasione quadam inusitata impulsus.
Quod turn hieroglyphice in Itinerarii mei frontispicio, turn etiam in
libri mei contextu disertis verbis expressi, viz. 465.
Insulam Sardinian!, ita dictam ob speciem quam habet pedis &
calcei humani.
fHic etiam poetico tuo more figmenta cudis, & rem vehementer exag-
geras, Vadiane ; nee istam meam ad meretricem a Vadiano meo excogi-
tatam oratiunculam jam subsequentem aliter quaeso (Lector) existimes
quam rem omnino fictitiam.
89
CORYAT S CRUDITIES
Glareanus Liliaque & lolium, tu spica & spina, silexque,
us " " Motacilla salax, & plena cruoris hirudo :
" Quae quia te matulam purgandis renibus offers,
u
(i
" Italus, & Calaber, Siculus tibi seruit, & Afer :
" O lux cruxque hominum, naturae Ens mobile, Res, In-
" Dividuumque vagum, Transcendens, classe reponi
Quod nequit, & noles, nisi compede vincta, teneri.
Mot KuTTjCK? apyvpoire^a, cru /txol poSoSaKTvXos >jw \
" Sume parallelum me nunc tibi, sume Colurum,
" Ipse tibi Centrum, Circumque ferentia dicar,
" Si mensa dignere tua, dignere cubili ;
"* Julius & Paulus pacto annumerabitur isti.
" Ilia refert contrra, Balatro, barathrumque macelli,
" Cumanumque pecus, furfurque & furcifer idem,
" Vapulo, Vappa, floces, & olivae lenis amurca,
" Quis furor est ambire meos vage castor amores ?
" Non mea sic lodix, nitidi neque culcitra lecti
" Tarn vili prostant ; Tibi sin marsupia turgent,
" Ingredere, & strumam facile vomicamque levabo.
Succedit tecto ; cui sic lepa nequiter infit :
" Turde malum tibi nempe cacas, viscoque teneris
" Ipse tuo : Bulgam ponas, tumidamque crumenam,
" Exibis levior, nee sarcina tanta gravabit.
" Quorsum haec drachmarum grando, nullius in usum ?
Ponere cunctantem, baculo bene fustigat, aede
Exturbatque sua pluvia lotioque madentem.
" Inclamans, cite pes, fuge Dactyle, nee tibi tardi
" Injiciant remoras Spondaei, aut claudus Iambus.
Quodque unum potuit, meretrix, Valedicit amante,
Et blandita breves versus cantillat eunti.
Animule, vagule, blandule,
Quos nunc abibis in locos?
Pallidule, rigide, nudule,
Nee, ut soles, dabis jocos.
Mene deseris petulce?
Mene praeteris subulce?
Pergin ire per Britannos?
* Paparum numismata.
90
PANEGYRICK VERSES
Ebrios per Alemannos? Ghreamu
c .1 Vadianui.
bcythicis premi prumis,
Corporisque tot ruinis?
Cursitare per culinas,
Latitare per popinas ?
Pulices pati nigellos,
Homines ubi misellos
Lictor suevit alligare,
Loris terga perfricare.
Ergo mihi ne sit male,
Coryate vale, vale.
Sic post Iliaden, aestumque, ^Etnamque malorum,
Et per Odyssaeam gravium leviumque laborum,
Unctus, & emunctus, variis functusque periclis,
In patriam remeat peregrinis moribus auctus,
Hyberno bombyce scatens & lende Brigantum.
Atque ita sandaliis sacro laqueare repostis
O *Crispine tuo, crepidarum qui regis artem,
Et qui mustricolae monstras sutoribus usum,
Clarus in Odcombse pago, mage clarus in ipsa
Metropoli Regni, decantatusque per urbis
Compitaque, & vicos, camposque, viasque, domosque,
Fit Procerum risus, jocus Aulae, fabula vulgi.
Ad Curiatiorum familiar abortivum
Embryonem,
Thomam Coryatum.
TErgeminos inter fratres e Curibus ortos,
Romanes totidem qui pepulere Duces ;
Quisque suum, in pugna praeceps, & anhelus in armis,
Hostis mortiferum vulnus ab ense tulit.
Tu genus 6 Coryate tuum deducis ab istis,
Inflexoque parum nomine, nomen habes.
Degener hoc tantum, quod honor tibi vilior alga est,
Nee quassita manu, sed pede parta salus.
* Crispinus sutorum & Cerdonum divus Tutelaris.
9
CORYAT S CRUDITIES
Glareanus De cute, de corio pernox & perdia cura est,
Vadianm. yj x tamen i n toto est pectore mica sails.*
Cum sic particulam divinse negligis aurae,
Corporis obveniat jam coriago tibi.
A Declaration of Nereus prophesies touching the
Fall of Glassenburie Abbey, and the rising of
Odcombe, by two fishes, the Whiting and
the Pilchard to the Tune of Pastor cum
traheret per freta navibus.
SOme Barde a bird of Merlins ayrie
Of Classen Abbie had forespeld
That it should stand, and not be feld,
Till Whiting over it did ferrie.
Whiting a Monke, vassall to Rome
For treason meant against his King
Upon the f Torre in a roape did swing,
And so fulfild the Wizards doome.
Of Odcombe it was said of yore,
That it in darkenesse long should sit,
Unknowne to men till unto it
Should come of skalie Pilchards store.
Tom Coryate made all this good,
Borne on a shole of herring frie,
As once, poor groome, half wet, half drie,
On Dolphins backe Arion stoode.
The II Country Boores dasht with the matter
Began on him to skance awry,
* Verum est salis Armoniaci, aut si quod est ejusmodi.
This is one of the Oracles that Sybilla Cumasa stitched up in her
leaves. And therefore, Credite me vobis folium recitare Sybillas.
f A Terrasse or Mount of earth neare Glassenburie.
\ This prophesie is yet to be scene in one of the Tavernes, as you
travell upon via lactea, where Erigones Dogge chased Arctophylax his
Beare so far North, that they were both frozen into fiery starres.
|| This is no jest, but res feliciter gesta ; for upon a noverint universi,
he recovered a hundred Marks. And is now matriculated among those
to whom God sendeth good fortune.
92
PANEGYRICK VERSES
But he with bill in Chancery Glareanus
Shot them cleane through twixt wind and water.
Paules chaine for joy did stretch and yawne,
Saint Marie Overies shot the bridge,
And gald-breech fame rode post bare-ridge
To spreade the newes on Antwerpe Pawne.
The *Pleiade of Poets fell a quaffing
At Hippocrenes fountaine head,
London her selfe fell sicke abed
Surfeited on a jole of laughing.
And as the purple-wing d King-fisher
Sitting upon a willow stumpe,
For a poor minnow in doth plumpe,
And eates her raw, yer one can dish her.
So nimble Tom, the traveller Trip-goe,
Who feasting fasts, and sitting walks,
And waking dreames, and silent talks,
Whose spirits alwaies stand on tip-toe ;
Whose minde on travels still indockt,
Eates Observations by the eyes,
Hath spu d a booke of Crudities,
Which Vulcans forge will not concoct.
And as about the time of f Easter,
T enrich the towne and trade of shipping,
The winde which evermore is skipping,
Is said to come and dwell at Chester :
So Tom the jaile from Ilchester
(To grace his towne out of pure love)
Will by replivie soone remove
To Odcombe, now cald Pilchester.
*The seven stars of Greece are by Isacius reckoned to have beene,
Theocritus, Aratus, Nicander, Apollonius, Homerus Tragicus, Andro-
maches Byzantius, and Lycophron. Which are easily put downe by our
Pleiade of English Poets, Chaucer, Sir Philip Sidney, Spencer, Daniel,
and those others who have made their Diatribes upon Tom Coryats
Parva naturalia.
t Prov. At Easter the winde is at Chester. Because it is good for
Ireland.
93
CORYAT S CRUDITIES
Glareantu
L Envoy.
Let the Hurlie-Burlie Fate
Requite thy love with lasting hate ;
Long live, late come to thy enterring,
Nor flesh, nor fish, nor good red herring.
And thou O Odcombe laugh and tickle
To see thy Pilchard in his pickle,
Who late in Court, both wet and shrunck,
Lay close embrined in a trunck.
Francis.
Asne-Bucephalaeosis ; ou Recapitulation & Sommaire du
gros fatras du Sieur Tho. Coriat.
Les poetes a leur Muses.
C Est assez, belles Muses ;
Bouchez les escluses,
Al Aganippee :
Ou pour leur lippde.
Les Poetes grenouillent,
Et puis y gazouillent
D une extreme rage
Leur dous chant ramage.
Eux faisans leur Feste
Au coq porte-creste :
Et lavants la teste
A la lourde beste :
Ont perdu toutes-fois
Et leur charbons & bois,
Leur Peine excessive,
Savon & lessive.
Leur rimes roulantes
Et carmes coulantes,
De belle cadence
Comme sault en potence.
Sus doncq, belles Muses
Bouchez vos escluses,
Car Tom, le bon drole,
Ha jove son role.
La farce est finie,
Tai toy, Poesie.
Ital.
Risposta delle Muse.
TAcete matti ; che messer Thomasso,
D un Mevio e fatto un Torquato Tasso ;
II cui spirto gentil en un batter d occhio,
Trascorre dal capo, fin al ginocchio ;
94
PANEGYRICK VERSES
I piedi dan salto, la testa capricci, Glareanus
Quelli fan il camino, questa i bisticci
Povero viandante chi preso ne lacci
D amor, se ne tor no coper to di stracci.
Chi per no tener piu sale in Zucca
Che Cavallo di Bergamo, 6 hue di Lucca ;
Partissi sciocco, volgendosi pazzo,
Del mondo il scherzo, trastullo, e solazzo.
Espannol.
Concierto de los entrambos.
EA pues, acabense los chistes y pullas,
Cantada la missa queden las casullas.
El Chronista Thomas pone fin al travajo ;
Despues de averse mostrado badajo :
Y dicho donayres y mil disparates,
Que hazen ventaje de muchos quilates
Aquantos han escrito. Quien vende tal mosto,
De poca cosecha haga su Agosto.
Y digan los ninos ; Tata, madre, coco,
He aqui passa Tom tonto y loco.
Explicit Glareanus Vadianus.
[Incipit Joannes
95
CORYAT S CRUDITIES
Incipit Joannes Jackson.
John Jackson. Can it
Be possible for
A naturall man
To travell nimbler then
Tom Coryate can ? No : though
You should tie to his horne-peec d
Shoes, wings fether d more then Mer-
Cury did use. Perchaunce hee borrowed
Fortunatus Hatte, for wings since Bladuds time
Were out of date. His purse he hath to print
What hee did write, else, who had read of thee, O
Wandering Wight? Who else had knowne what thou
Hast felt and seene, where and with whom ; and how farre
Thou hast beene ? Ere thou to Odcombe couldst thy Tro-
phyes bring ? Thy hungry prayses in his Egge I sing,
At thy request, else in another fashion I would
Have pointed at thy commendation : Thy other
Heliconian friends bring store of Salt, of
Pepper, and Vineger sowre, to furnish thy
Italian Banquet forth, whereby is
Plainly shown thy wondrous worth.
Feast Coryate, feast the world
Still with thy travel, discharge
The Presse, and care
Not then who
Cavell.
Explicit Joannes Jackson.
96
PANEGYRICK VERSES
Incipit Michael Drayton.
A brief Prologue to the verses following. Michael
Drayton.
Deare Tom, thy Booke was like to come to light,
Ere I could gaine but one halfe howre to write ;
They go before whose wits are at their noones,
And I come after bringing Salt and Spoones.
MAny there be that write before thy Booke,
For whom (except here) who would ever looke?
Thrice happy are all we that had the Grace
To have our names set in this living place.
Most worthy man, with thee it is even thus,
As men take Dottrels, so hast thou ta n us.
Which as a man his arme or legge doth set,
So this fond Bird will likewise counterfeit :
Thou art the Fowler, and doest shew us shapes,
And we are all thy Zanies, thy true Apes.
I saw this age (from what it was at first)
Swolne, and so bigge that it was like to burst,
Growne so prodigious, so quite out of fashion,
That who will thrive, must hazard his damnation :
Sweating in panges, sent such a horrid mist.
As to dim Heaven : I looked for Antichrist
Or some new set of Divels to sway hell,
Worser than those that in the Chaos fell :
Wondring what fruit it to the world would bring,
At length it brought forth this : O most strange thing ;
And with sore throwes, for that the greatest head
Ever is hard st to be delivered.
By thee wise Coryate we are taught to know,
Great, with great men which is the way to grow.
For in a new straine thou com st finely in,
Making thy selfe like those thou meant st to winne :
Greatnesse to me seem d ever full of feare,
Which thou found st false at thy arriving there,
Of the Bermudos, the example such,
Where not a ship until this time durst touch ;
c. c. 97 G
CORYAT S CRUDITIES
Michael Kep t as suppos d by hels infernall dogs,
Dray ton. Our Fleet found there most honest courteous hogs.
Live vertuous Coryate, and for ever be
Lik d of such wise men, as are most like thee.
Explicit Michael Drayton.
Incipit Nicholas Smith.
Nicholas r I A Was much all Country wits to overshine;
Smith. A At Court, where there are hundreds just like thine,
How found they thee? how keepe they thee? except
As Rome being told that onely whilst she kept
The target fall n from heaven, her state should grow,
Made many like, that none the right might know :
So, to possesse and keepe thee, precious man,
They make themselves as like thee as they can.
Hence flow those verses. In this (Tom) appears
Thy greatnesse, Thou art judged by thy Peers.
Explicit Nicholas Smith.
FINIS.
98
PANEGYRICK VERSES
I Am persuaded [Reader] thou wilt censure me for a
most absurd writer, to adde unto these precedent
verses that have the word Finis subscribed unto them,
more Panegyricks upon my booke. Neither indeed can
I altogether free my selfe from an imputation of some
absurditie committed herein. But let this I intreate thee
a little excuse the matter, that after all these former verses
were printed, I was most importunately perswaded by
them that have no small interest in me, to adjoyne these
ensuing unto the rest, by way of a supplement or overplus.
Therefore seeing I could not conveniently give the repulse
unto the Authors of the verses following to insert their
lines into my booke : take them I intreat thee in as good
part as the former, especially seeing many of them doe
expresse [besides much merry matter] very elegant and
wittie conceits.
Incipit Laurentius Emley.
These verses immediately following were lately sent me Laurence
by a learned Gentleman of Magdalen Colledge in Emley.
Oxford : who though he never saw me, hath vouch
safed to grace my booke with his Encomiasticks.
To the never-enough wondred at
Mr. THOMAS CORYATE.
ITching desire hath caus d us long to know
Thy face (deare Coryate) admired so :
Which that we might the better view at ease,
The Pencill speakes Vera effigies.
But, let th ingraver know, it is not true,
Since of thy minde it gives us not the view.
It well may shew the draught of flesh and bone,
But that may be applied to many one.
The Minde of Man is it most glory beares :
Since by the minde himselfe himselfe appeares,
99
CORYAT S CRUDITIES
Laurence To shew thy minde, thy selfe hast thought it meet
Emley. ^ Q ma j < . e us mos ^ beholden to thy feete :
Thy feete, whose soles employment who so mocks,
Doth ill, for it appeares that they wore sockes.
For tis discoverd by the sweete effect
That thou to keepe them sweete didst ne re neglect.
Thy feete sought forth what thy faire fist describes,
God shield those hands from chilblains, feete from kibes.
Let those be vext with such that private lurke,
And suffer shoes, sailes, Printers to want worke :
But thou the friend of Artes, manure thy wit :
Thine Odcombe live in thee, not thou in it.
Harsh was the handling of the halberd-swaine,
Who grutched grapes to thy divinest vaine ;
And little knew the threatening turbant-slave
The grace that thy returne to us should have.
Though we may doubt much of the Pencils grace
That drops but lowsy matter from thy Case.
Faire-flowry France, and full-gorg d Germany,
With their third sister sweet-lipt Italy.
Loath for to leave him whom they held so deare,
Sweete company with thee to us would beare.
But being fixed that they cannot move,
They send with their faire face, imprest their love :
And Germany, since thee she needs must misse,
In kind remembrance blowes thee a full kisse.
Then if thou please more Countries yet to see,
Thou shalt finde thousands more in love with thee :
In love with thee, whom thy digested bookes
Will make as well knowne as thy carved lookes.
There shalt thou finde many an Horse or Asse
To helpe thee, that thy Chariot may passe.
There shalt thou find many a double droane
Which under thy wits burden oft shall groane.
But, though thou travell through the spacious round,
Let not thy Impe, thy Babe, thy booke change ground.
Though thou discover strange lands by thy wit,
Let them send hither and discover it.
IOO
PANEGYRICK VERSES
For pitty tis but that the world should know Laurence
That tis thine owne deare Babe that thou lov st so,
And the true braine-bred child of Coryate,
As Pallas was begot of Joves owne pate.
Thus Coryate, write thy friends as thou maist see,
For none, but their owne foes, will envie thee.
Explicit Laurentius Emley.
Incipit Georgius Griffin.
Thomas Coriatus
Anagramma : -
Tu cos amatoris
vel
Tuta cos amoris.
COs es amatoris ; quis non probat ? esset amator
Si quisquam, exemplar Te petat ille suum.
Cos es amatoris, nee tantum hoc, cos es amoris ;
Nam tibi fautrices tot, quot habes, dominas.
Et bene succedant cum tot (Coryate) puellae,
Cos & amatoris cos & amoris eris.
Explicit Georgius Griffin.
Incipit Joannes Davis Herefordiensis.
In the lowd, alowd, or well deserved renowne of our John Dams.
Britaine-Ulysses : his present worke, together with a
description of the particulars of the Vinet, Title-page,
or Frontispice.
IF Art, that oft the learn d hath stammered,
In one *Yron head-peece (yet no hammer-head)
May (joyn d with Nature) hit Fame on the f Cocks-
combe ;
Then, tis that Head-peece that is crown d, with IPOd-
combe :
* Because like Yron it is strong to containe the remembrance of
so many deere Observations.
t A metaphore for the head.
|| Crownd together with Odcombe for producing him.
101
CORYAT S CRUDITIES
John Davis. For, he hard Head (and hard, sith like a Whetstone
It gives wits edge, and drawes them too like Jetstone)
Is Caput mundi for a world of schoole-tricks,
And is not ignorant in the learned st tricks.
H hath scene much more then much, I assure yee,
And will see New Troy, Bethlem, and Old-Jurie :
Meane while (to give a Taste of his first travell,
With streames of Rhetoricke that get Golden-gravell)
He tels how he to Venice once did wander ;
From whence he came l more witty then a Gander :
Whereby he makes relations of such wonders,
That Truth therein doth lighten, while Art thunders.
All Tongues fled to him that at Babell swerved,
Lest they for want of warme Mouthes might have sterved ;
Where they doe revell in such Passing-measure,
(Especially the Greeke wherein s his pleasure)
That (Jovially) so Greeke, he takes the 2 guard of
That hee s the merriest Greeke that ere was heard of :
For, he as t were his Mothers Twittle-twattle
(That s Mother-tongue) the Greeke can prittle-prattle.
Nay, of that Tongue he so hath got the Body,
That he sports with it at Russe, Gleeke, or 3 Noddy.
For his Invention, in his Bookes rare 4 Brass-face
Is scene the glory of it, that doth passe 5 Grace.
The 6 first doth shew how in a shippe he sailed,
When out of England he (go ing) tra vailed :
For, as he notes him selfe (and right well noteth)
No man goes out of England but he boateth :
Where he (halfe ore board) spralleth like a Paddocke ;
And spues into a 7 Whales mouth called a Haddocke.
1 The word (more) for the reason of the excellency : and Gander
for the Rimes necessity.
2 He pleasantly preserves it in pristine purity.
3 Games at Cards, whereby is meant all manner of sports.
4 The Frontispiece graven in brasse.
5 Excels the grace of all other fore fronts or Title pages.
6 The first shewes how he sailed out of England in a ship.
7 Whale by the figure Hyperbole, or rather Meiosis.
102
PANEGYRICK VERSES
Right o re against it, there is scene 8 th Apparell John Davis.
Which he did weare when he found out the Barrell
Of Heydelberg : shoes, stockings, hose, and dublet,
With so much of his blood as fils a goblet.
Dropping in Creepers from his Travels Trophic ;
Lice He not stile them, lest thou should cry, O fie.
But, that which is most wondrous to consider
Is, one so leane so long should be their feeder :
And that the Clothes which he went out with all too
Should serve him and the Lice (which were not small)
too
Till his returne, with but a little patching,
When s Rags (like catch-polles) greedy were in catching :
So, like an Israelite in Desert wast-land,
His 9 Weedes held out till he had fully trac t-land :
And for a Monument to After-Commers
Their Picture shall continue (though Time 10 scummers
Upon th Effigie) to make Eyes delighted
With that which by no Art can be more sprighted ;
And shew the marvell of this n Metaphysicke,
That would have fil d some Trav ller with the 12 Tyssicke.
And so t would him have done, but that his Senses
Were 13 senslesse in pursuit of Excellences.
Then (from that Trophey to descend a little)
Yee see when he his Gorge with 14 Grapes did vittle,
Was out-rag d by a Boore, who did abhorre it,
Till Tullies golden sentences paid for it
Disburs d by Coryats Tongue, which did so trolle it
That Cicero him selfe could not controlle it :
8 The second shewes his over-worne apparell in his travell.
9 His clothes which like weeds were now good for nothing but to be
throwne away.
10 Canker or rust the Brasse whereon it is graven.
11 Because they hold out (as it were) supernaturally.
12 Going so bare.
13 Desire of glory made his mind not feele what his body felt.
14 The third shewes how he fed upon the Boores grapes without leave.
103
CORYAT S CRUDITIES
John Davis. Which fill d the Boore with wonder to the Wozen,
That made him vomit sweet wordes by the dozen
In Toms deare praise, while he most like a Wag-with
Tooke of his Grapes as much as he could wag-with.
Then yee descend, where he sits in a 15 Gondolow
With Egs throwne at him by a wanton Room-be-low ;
Who lookes so masculine as shee were some Boy,
Playing the pleasant Tomboy with her Tom-boy.
Within which Egs was sweetest water powred,
That he to her might thereby be allured :
Which shewes the manner how he went in Venice,
When as he tooke surveigh of that strange Sea-peece.
Then doe yee fall upon a goodly 16 Woman,
Which, for her stature, you would take for some man
Drest in th Italian fashion, and doth stand for
Faire Italic it selfe, and so is scand for :
Who on the one side serves for a supporter
Of that 17 long Round, wherein he is made shorter
By halfe (at least) then his length naturall,
And lookes as if he danc d a Caterbrall,
With Ruffe about his necke set on so finely,
That you would sweare he nothing doth supinely.
On th other side the Round stands one as tall too,
Drest like a French-fern, in a farthingall too,
Upholding (as the other did) the Rundle,
Whose clothes, about the Bumme, tuckt like a bundle,
Doe make her stand for France ; and so she may well,
For shee hath Stuffe to make her Doo and say well,
Then, O ascend, before your last ascending,
And looke on that that s farre above commending.
A dainty 18 Dame (not dainty of her vomit)
Powres downe upon him (like a blazing-commet)
15 The fourth, shewes his survaying of Venice in a Gondola.
16 The fifth, a goodly woman representing Italic.
17 An Ovall-round wherein hee is pictured to the wast.
18 The sixth a woman ore his head with the tunne of Heydelberg
on hirs, casting upon him, representing Germanie.
104
PANEGYRICK VERSES
The streame of her aboundance from her Gullet, J^n Davis.
And hits him on the 19 Noddle, like a Bullet,
From whence it glanceth all those Fruits to water,
That in his way he gather d, like a Cater ;
Which Damsell, with her free ebriety,
Doth lie, or sit, or stand for Germany.
Upon her head shee weares (beneath it smirking)
Of Heydelbergs the fore-remembred 20 Firkin.
This, this it is that s Creame of all Invention.
And farre surmounts the milke of wit s intention.
Then vaile your Eye againe that is aspiring.
And see the 21 Horse and Cart he had for tyring.
On one side stands (below) an Horse, or Hobby,
Or Hobby-horse (I mean no Hawlke cal d Hobby)
Sadled and bridled ready for his travell,
When he his owne feete spurgald had with gravell.
On th other side the 22 Picardinian Chariot
Which some call Cart (that 23 carted wandring Coryat)
Whence, if we looke up, first our eye is meeting
How Coryate from the 24 Jew is Gentilly fleeting,
Lest if he staid he should be made a Praepuce ;
And so of men, the only womans Refuse.
From whence looke up, and next shall your beholders
See Coryate carryed on the Atlas sholders
Of such strong 25 Porters as do helpe men over
The Alpes within a Chaire without a cover :
All which (exprest so farre past wits regality)
Doe shew the pow r of Coryats singularity.
19 A familiar name for the head.
20 By the figure Tapinosis.
21 The seventh the horse he sometimes used in his travell.
22 The eight, the Picardicall Cart he travelled in.
23 That is, conveyed him from place to place.
24 The ninth shewes how he fled from the Jew lest he should have
circumcised him.
25 The tenth shewes how he was carryed in a chaire over or on
the Alpes.
CORYAT S CRUDITIES
John Davis. Then, on the top, but yet without the Vinet,
He lyeth at the heeles of many a 26 Ginnet,
As then in stable stoode on points of litter,
To shew his lodging was as hard as bitter :
For, both together he (most senslesse) feeles there,
And so on litter lyes he by the 2r heeles there,
Right o re against these proude brave Spanish stal
lions
Is seene how he hoth begge of Theeves 28 Italians,
With cap in hand, and lowly genuflexion,
Lest they should sincke him till the Resurrection :
So, shun d the fatall handes of the Banditie
With wit that lackt not all of most almightie.
Hold Muse, no more, unlesse thou wilt be martyr d
Within his world of fame that ne re was quarterd :
For, if thou seek st in numbers to containe it,
Twill make thy browes sweate, and thy nose to raine
it.
But though we cannot in this Frontispice
Number thy Stations, yet we may count thy lice,
Which (Tom) from one that (roaving) had no refuge,
Drop downe, to make the Glories flood a Deluge.
Within which Flood my Muse (like a Diudapper,
In Fames wide mouth wagging my Pen, her clapper)
Is so ore-whelm d, that as shee strives for more breath,
The Flood engulphes her, and her wordes devoureth.
So fare well Tom (shee saies) great Natures wonder,
I lye thy fame a thouzand fathoms under :
For, it prevailes above the Alpes (high Mountaines!)
But when it ebbes, He spring in Castall Fountaines.
All to bewet the earth with streames of praises
Running to none but thee in fluent Phrases ;
26 The eleventh shewes how he lay on litter at the horse heels in
the stable of some Inne.
27 Horse heeles.
28 The twelfth and last shewes how he begg d of Italian theeves,
lest they should have robbed him.
106
PANEGYRICK VERSES
Untill I make a second Inundation, ]ohn Dav 15 -
To wash thy purest fames 29 Coinquination ;
And make it fit for finall 30 Conflagration,
So to prevent fell Envies indignation.
Explicit Joannes Davis Herefordiensis.
Incipit Richardus Badley.
In Praise of the most observant Traveller, Mr. Thomas Richard
Coryate of *Odcombe, and of his most Axiopisticall
Hodsepory.
DEare friend, (this attribute he le not deny,
That thy greate Booke shall in the Churchyard buy ;)
If to admire, and to commend were one,
Thou should not neede this poore Encomion.
For thy stupendious paines so mee amaze,
That (as thy selfe) I can do nought but gaze :
Not wondring, thou observd st so much by day,
As that thou writ, and couldst beare all away :
This is thy praise, some travellers lament
Their better notes to have bene from them rent.
Yet in thy booke the module is descried
Of many a Citie, and Castle fortified,
Of Townes, of Turrets, and their Trenches deepe,
Of Rocks, of Rivers, and the Mountaines steepe,
The Camps, where Romane fields were fought,
And where their lives so dearely many bought.
If Schedules of this nature had bene found
About Sir Politick, twold have made him swound.
The fruits of France thou no where dost conceale,
Nor those of Germany thou mean st to steale ;
29 Alluding to that love which men bore to women in the old world,
sith like love our Author beares to men ; for whose love and commodity
he hath put himselfe to this cost and pains.
30 Burning in flames of glory and wonder, as in the judgement-day.
*Vide Cambd. Brit. An ancient village within the County of
Somerset, about six miles from another village called Coscombe.
107
CORYAT S CRUDITIES
<"H?- - .
Richard Th Italian rarities are here depainted,
Badley. g o are fa & [ r Alpes, on which thou never fainted.
In briefe, thy book s an universal! Chart,
Wherein the works of Nature, and of Art,
So prodigally there thou dost containe,
That thou shalt heare, [No Nigard of thy paine.]
Upon that subject those immortall Rimes
(Which shall outface the endlesse bounds of times)
Thy honour d friends compos d, I cannot prize,
Whether thy name, or their s t immortalize :
In which their candour and syncerity
Towards thee, will shine to all posterity.
Howse ver yet they at thy labours jeast,
I justly thinke th art greatest in the least :
For many things (I heare those friends report)
Do more augment my wonder, then their sport.
And pray, what Traveller s so observative,
That doth us not of worthy things deprive ?
As the French fashion of their gallowes rare ;
The Switzers Codpeece, with their Nuns so faire ;
That curious cage of birds in Amiens towne :
Their Foole at Whitsontide, who put thee downe.
But oh brave pictures! France, or Italy
Whether, think st thou, deserves the Mastery ?
There was that master-piece of such perfection,
Apelles need not scorne t have laid th complexion :
Wherein proud Art (Dame nature to excell)
Within an Ale-house painted had full well,
The pilfring pastime of a crue of Apes,
Sporting themselves with their conceited Japes
About a Pedler that lay snorting by,
Not dreaming of their theevish knavery ;
Whose packe unclosed, his trinkets on the twigs
Some fasten, whilst the others dance their jigs,
This piece did please, and so content thy eye,
Thou judg st it worthy immortality.
Another picture was that Non-parell.
Which a Venetian shop had then to sell,
108
PANEGYRICK VERSES
In which luxurious Art did so surmount, Richard
That now the French piece thou didst Apish count,
And this the Paragon, which did reveale
The lively picture of a Should r of Veale.
This did so farre excell you of the Apes,
That well it might compare with Zeuxis grapes ;
And thou those Birds deceived might st parallell,
If thy then-wambling stomacke truth would tell.
The Ducall Gallowes there (I heard) you saw,
Which twich him up, when he offends their law :
These are beyond those screwed ones of France,
Where men do passe away, as in a trance.
Thy bitter journey o re the clowdy rockes,
Deserv d the sweetest wines Piemont up-locks :
For he no sweet hath merited (they say)
That hath not tasted of the sower by th way ;
Yet had that wine an undeserv d effect,
Which did so on thy hands and face reflect.
That stone at Padua, whereon Bankrupts sit,
Oh into England th adst transported it.
As he his brazen torment first did prove,
So mightst thou this have hanseld, for thy love.
Briefly, for triall of a religious lurch,
Thou nimbd st an image out of Brixias Church.
Yet cannot I suppresse, without disgrace,
The love thou bare thy Natalitiall place.
For in the midst of thy most Alpish waies,
When ruinous rocks did threat to end thy daies,
No doubt, thou could st have wisht thyselfe at home,
To live, and lay thy bones in sweete Odcombe.
But after thou hadst past those furious pikes,
Which feare and terrour to the Pilgrime strikes ;
And did the Garden of our world descrie,
Within the wombe of fertill Lombardie :
Immortall Mantua could not steale thy love,
Nor once from Odcombe thine affections move.
Wherein, Ulysses-like, thou didst display
Such love, as he bore to his Ithaca.
109
CORYAT S CRUDITIES
Richard What should I speake of that rare Patience,
actley. When thou wast forced (with no small expence)
To exercise it on those Hackneys vile,
Which rather would lie down, then ride a mile.
Thy continence no Lais could diffame,
For thou earnest forth, unburned of the flame.
But oh ! how providently didst thou cant,
When thou didst play the crafty Mendicant?
This tricke (they say) did stand thee in stead,
Or else thou might st have hopt without thy head.
Now if these notes may immateriall seeme,
To them that know rightly how to deeme,
I pardon crave in thy behalfe and mine,
If in our judgements we have miss t the line :
For with thee in this point I sympathize,
Oft vainer objects do my sence surprize.
But whither Muse? two long Mid-sommer daies
Are not enough for to depaint his praise :
Thinke thou not neare his industry to come,
Who in five moneths saw most of Christendome :
Reserve thou rather thy Poeticke vaine
Him to salute, when he returnes again
From that victorious voiage he intendeth
To th utmost confines, where the round world endeth,
Or if Dame Nature hath some world in store,
Which never was discovr d heretofore,
Yea thither our Columbus with his lance,
Thy conqu ring colours (O Odcombe) shall advance.
BUT ;
I feare that whilst I sing his praises hie,
Many will taxe me for prolixitie :
If for this fault my Coryate pardon give,
I will not them desire mee to relieve.
For of thee onely (O Polypragmon great)
I pardon for my exorbitance intreat :
The sesquipedall belly of thy Tome
Pleading for mee, to stoppe the mouth of Mome.
Explicit Richardus Badley.
no
PANEGYRICK VERSES
Incipit Joannes Loiseau de Tourval
Parisiensis A.
Elegie encomiastique, a Maitre Monsieur Thomas Jean
Coryate, dont 1 heureuz Anagramme est, Ca, ho,
Maitre.*
TOus ces Gallans esprits de qui P Artiste Muze
Change un Sot, en Socrate, en Febus, une buze,
Qui d un fat, d un batard, d un animal sans yeuz,
Font un superlatif des homines & des Dieuz ;
Sur les maigres seillons d une folatre arene,
Perdent bien a credit & leur tenis & leur peyne.
Mais puisqu a dire vray, je ne suis pas meilleur
Que tant de gens de bien, ce m est beaucoup d honneur
De danser avec euz, comme le bal me meine,
Et, quoy qu humble & de loin, suyure leur belle veine,
Silz sont folz, 1 estre aussi ; les consciencieuz
Avoir noz beauz ecrits n en jugeront pas mieux :
Mais le grand f Sibolot que nous voulons decrire
Est bien tel voirement qu on n en peut assez dire ;
Et certes ne croy pas qu onques du monde 1 oeil
Ait veu, on puisse voir un qui luy soit pareil.
Vray bon homme, si douz & si plein d innocence,
Que son plus haut savoir luy est comme ignorance :
Nouveau Ulysse a pie, dont les voyages Ions,
Ont bien montre qu il a 1 esprit jusqu auz talons,
Voire jusqu auz Souliers, tant cette ame beniste,
Se delecte d emplir un double cuyr de beste :
Souliers judicieux, Souliers qui clair-voyans
A force de servir au JMonstre de noz ans,
* Reste le mot de trois lettres.
f C est pource qu il est parent des Sybiles, en Grec, ou bien a lenuy
de ce grand Filosofe qui florissoit en France, souz Henry III, a la grand
joye de toute la Cour, & etoit ordinairement vetu de couleur de
Laurier.
\ Pource qu il est rare en tout savoir ; ou bien, rare de savoir ; ou
bien de savoir rare ; ou bien, qu il a le savoir, ou le cerveau rare ; Ou
bien, pource qu il nous montre, ou plutot desmontre a vivre.
in
CORYAT S CRUDITIES
Jean Loiseau Quoy qu aver maints ennnuyz, maints trouz, maints
* TmL peussages,
Ne 1 ont jamais voulu quitter en ses voyages ;
Sages comme loyauz, afin d entrer en part
De 1 honneur qu aujour d huy a leur maitre on
depart,
D estre un jour etalez en son brave Epitafe,
Et au lieu d eperons mis sur son Cenotafe,
Remportans cet honneur vers la Posterite,
Qui lz etoyent Souliers preuz, & de grand loyaute.
Souliers, heureuz Souliers, a qui bien j accompare
De tous ces beauz esprits la brigade tres-rare ;
Car comme ces Souliers en voyages, sejours,
Tavernes, Cabarets, le porterent tousiours ;
Ainsi tousiours quelcun de la bande subtile
Le porte a son cote tout du long de la Vile,
Et, pensans telle fois se sauver a repos
Dedans leur Cabinet, le portent sur le dos :
Et n y a bon repas, bien qu abonde la soupe
Si le Joyeuz n y est pour defray er la troupe.
Voire de telz encor ay-je ouy raconter,
Qui ont tant affecte ces Souliers imiter,
Que ne pouvant si bien de leur peau luy faire offre
Pour en faire chaussure, ilz Pont mis dans un coffre,
Porte, comme un cors Saint, jusque devant le Roy,
Dont le bon homme fut un peu en desarroy ;
Et moy mesme aujourdhuy, tout glorieuz, j attache
Mes vers a ces Souliers & de veau & de vache,
Pour ma tasche d honneur ; car de monter plus bas,
Petit comme je suis, il ne m apartient pas,
Aussi je ne pourrois. Or quant a sa doctrine,
Son savoir mirlifie, digne qu on *lembeguine,
Son livre exuperant, fruyt d un pareil esprit,
la n avienne pour moy qu il en soit trop peu dit :
* Non comme un Enfant, non ; ny comme a 1 hotel de Bourgongne ;
mais les plus anciens & savans avocats d Angleterre portent pour orne-
ment & prerogative une coiffe de linge delie, comme une espece de
beguin pardessouz leur Chapeau.
112
PANEGYRICK VERSES
Jay voulu seulement faire comme les autres, J an Loiseau
7 f-TJ f 1
Pardonnez moy, Messieurs ; Et comme 1 un des votres
A sagement loiie Silvestre on son Bartas,
Je confesse, simplet, que je ne Penten pas ;
Et bien qu onques ailleurs mon nom nay voulu mettre,
Je suis content quil soit y mis en grosse lettre.
Explicit Joannes L oiseau de Tourval
Parisiensis A.
Incipit Henricus Peacham.
Memoriae Sacrum. Henry
Seu calcei Laureati Thomae Coryati Odcombiensis,
Peregrinantium nostri Seculi facile Principis.
Ad Thomam nostrum.
CUr Coryate tibi calcem Phcebeia Daphne
Cinxerit, & nudse Laurea nulla comae?
Insanos mundi forsan contemnis honores,
Ignibus & Lauro es tutus ab * ^Emilia.
Verms at capitis pleni (Coryate) miserta
In calces imos Musa rejecit onus.
[To the
* Authoris amicae Venetas.
C. C. 113 H
W 1
CORYAT S CRUDITIES
Henry To the famous Traveller ever to be esteemed the joy of his
Peacham. Somersetshire, Thomas Coryate of Odcombe, professed
enemy to the Gentle-Craft or Mysterie of Shoo-makers.
"Hy doe the rude vulgar so hastily post in a mad-
nesse
To gaze at trifles, and toyes not worthy the viewing ?
And thinke them happy, when may be shew d for a penny
The Fleet-streete Mandrakes, that heavenly Motion of
Eltham,
Westminster monuments, and Guild hall huge Corinaeus,
That home of Windsor (of an Unicorne very likely)
The cave of Merlin, the skirts of old Tom a Lincolne.
King Johns sword at Linne, with the cup the Fraternity
drinke in,
The Tombe of Beauchampe, and sword of Sir Guy a
Warwicke :
The great long Dutchman, and roaring Marget a Barwicke,
The Mummied Princes, and Caesars wine yet i Dover,
Saint James his Ginney Hens, the *Cassawarway moreover,
The Beaver i the Parke (strange beast as er e any man
saw)
Downe-shearing willowes with teeth as sharpe as a hand
saw.
The Lance of John a Gaunt, and Brandons still i the
Tower ;
The fall of Ninive, with Norwich built in an hower.
King Henries slip-shoes, the sword of valiant Edward.
The Coventry Boares-shield, and fire-workes seen but to
bedward.
Drakes ship at Detford, King Richards bed-sted i Leyster,
The White Hall whale bones, the silver Bason i Chester ;
The live-caught Dog-fish, the Wolfe and Harry the Lyon,
Hunks of the Beare-garden to be feared, if he be nigh on.
All these are nothing, were a thousand more to be scanned,
(Coryate) unto thy shooes so artificially tanned :
*An East Indian bird at Saint James in the keeping of Mr Walker,
that will carry no coales, but eate them as whot as you will.
114
PANEGYRICK VERSES
That through thicke and thinne, made thee so famous a Henry
Trotter, Peacham.
And bore thee o re the Alpes, where sidewaies, long, like
an Otter
Thou climb dst and clambred st, there single solie
recounting,
(Another Alcides) thy labours lustily mounting.
And as Alcides did scorne to weare any linnen,
So Coryate shirtlesse did as well as if he had beene in
The bravest Lyons hide, with the taile downe fairly
depending :
But matchless Coryate, since now thy labour hath ending,
And since th art well againe unto thy Country returned :
Thy very heeles by me shall be with Laurell adorned.
In the Utopian Tongue.
NY thalonin ythsi Coryate lachmah babowans
O Asiam Europam Americ-werowans
Poph-himgi Savoya, Hessen, Rhetia, Ragonzie
France, Germanien dove Anda-louzie
Not A-rag-on 6 Coryate, 6 hone vilascar
Einen tronk Od-combe ny Venice Berga-mascar.
Explicit Henricus Peacham.
Incipit Jacobus Field.
OF all the Toms that ever yet were nam d James Field.
Was never Tom like as Tom Coryate fam d.
Tom Thumbe is dumbe, untill the pudding creepe,
In which he was intom d, then out doth peepe.
Tom Piper is gone out, and mirth bewailes
He never will come in to tell us tales.
Tom foole may go to schoole, but nere be taught
Speake Greeke with which our Tom his tongue is fraught.
Tom-Asse may passe, but for all his long eares
No such rich jewels as our Tom he weares.
CORYAT S CRUDITIES
James Field. Tom Tell-Troth is but froth, but truth to tell
Of all Toms this Tom bears away the bell.
Explicit Jacobus Field.
Glareanus
Vadianm.
Incipit Glareanus Vadianus.
A Sceleton or bare Anatomic of the Punctures and
Junctures of Mr. Thomas Coryate of Odcombe, in loose
verse called by the Italians, versi sciolti, because they
go like Tom-boyes, scalciati without hose or shoe,
bootlesse and footlesse : Perused this last Quarter of the
Moone, and illustrated with the Commentaries of Mr.
Primrose Silkeworme, student in Gastrologia and
Tuff-moccado.
BEauclerke 1 of 2 Odcombe, Bellamy of Fame,
Learnings quicke Atome, wits glosse on Natures
text,
3 Sembriefe of time the five finger of game,
Ambs-ace of blots, sweep-stake of what comes next.
March-pane of Mirth, the 4 Genoua past of love,
The Graces 5 gallipot, 6 Musicks fiddle-sticke,
1 A shrunke word of two into one, such as are, Hardyknowt, or Hogs-
snout, the name of Pope Sergius. So Atome for Ah Tom.
2 The Arpinum of this second Cicero. A village before Ignoble ; now
by him raised to tenne rials of plate, and of which himselfe is the
Chorographicall Mappe.
3 A musicall note containing foure odde humored crotchets, and
sixteene semiquavers as madde as March hares.
4 He meaneth a pantrie coffin made of paste, in which the white
Blackmoore (as Gusman de Alpharach calleth the Genouesi Moros
blancos) stew certaine powerfull words called parole intoineate to
charme Bridegroomes points nover L esquillette.
5 It is a vessel into which womens teares blended with loves sighes are
distilled through a Serpentine or Crusible into a pure elixir, to cure
Junoes kibe-heele.
6 The Augures lituus or bended staffe, wherewith in the scale of
Musicke men take the Altitude and elevation of a flat from the sharpe in
Chromatique Symphonic.
116
PANEGYRICK VERSES
The spout 7 of sport, and follies turtle Dove, Glareanus
8 Noddie turn d up, all made, yet lose the tricke. Vadianus.
Thou Chesse-board pawne, who on one paire of shoes
Hast trode the foote-ball of this worlds Center,
Discovering places 9 couch d betweene the poles.
Where honest vertue never yet durst enter.
How should I sing thy worth in fitting layes,
With starveling verses of an hide bound Muse,
And crowne thy head with misletoe for bayes,
Unlesse thy 10 knapsacke did new thoughts infuse ?
Such Gallo-Belgicke Mercuries are not chipt
From every billet, nor each axle-tree :
Nature her selfe in thee herselfe out-stript
When she produc d this vagrant Humble-Bee,
Whose buzze hath fild this worlds circled round,
Hing d on the Articke and Antarticke starre,
And whose great fame finds now no other bound
Then from the Magellan strait to Gibraltar.
Whose glorious deeds out-face and fiercely daunt
11 Guzman of Spaine, and Amadis of France,
Uterpendragon, Urson, and Termagant,
Great Don Quixote, and Joane of Orleance.
7 The spout of sport, as a chimney is of smoake.
8 Noddy ego, being Anagrammatized is Don Diego, who was a
famous reader in the Bay of Mexico, where in steed of the seven liberall
sciences, the seven deadly sinnes are publikely read and professed.
9 He meaneth the Gallery of Donna Amorosa the old Countess of
Orgueil in Arabia deserta, which is a meere magazin of verdugals,
whither those courteous Dames called Cortesans (as M. Thomas him-
selfe hath elegantly unshaled the word unto us) that doe enter to barter
or chaffer, elles perdent la vertu, mais la galle leur demeur.
10 He meaneth a soldiers or a travellers trusse, or fardle, or budget,
which the old Romans called mulos Marianos.
11 These stories are found written in the Annales of the ebs and flouds
of the Caspian sea, and in the third tome of the wars between the Milt
and the Splene. Tit. Diaphragma, cap de Rumbis ; whither for brevi
ties sake I remit the Reader. For to set tales upon Fables is as directly
against the Pragmaticks of Spaine, as to weare seda sobre seda, satten
upon silke, or creame upon milke.
117
CORYAT S CRUDITIES
Glareanus Ludgate the floud-gate of great Londons people,
Vadtanus. With double doores receives a wight so dapper :
Bell-man and knell-man, gentrie of the steeple,
Do peale thy praise with Rousse & Bow-bell clapper.
Whiles I thy goodly frame do seeke to scanne,
How part to part doth mortise, knit, and linke,
I boulted have my spirits to the branne,
And left my wits fast fettred in the Clinke.
For Tom s a 12 cap-stone, and a turne-spit jacke,
A skrewed engine Mathematicall,
To draw up words that make the welkin cracke
Out of a wit strangly dogmaticall.
Tom 13 is an Irish Harpe, whose heart-strings tune,
As fancies wrest doth straine or slacke his cord,
Sometimes he warbleth sweet as a stewd prune,
And sometimes jarres out of a crackt sound-board.
Tom 14 is the padlocke of all secrecie,
Whose tongue the tell-tale of whats done and more,
Vents out the barmy froth of surquedrie,
By thirteene to the dozen, thirtie to the skore.
Tom s a 15 Bologna sawcidge lovely fat,
Stuft with the flesh of a Westphalian sow,
The shoing-horne of wine, that serveth pat
To make the feeble strong, the strong to bow.
Tom is a 16 twinne, and yet an Odde, and both,
12 This is a terme in the Art Trochelicke or Hydraulick waterworks,
according to which Quintilian saith of an old man that he doth pituitam
trochlea educere : He pulleth up his tough fleame with a Crane and a
Pulley.
13 D. Stapleton hath written a booke de Tribus Thomis. This is a
Tom fit to be comprised in tribus Tomis.
14 I reade in Thomas de Combis of one Thomas, surnamed the sage,
sapient the eight of that name, who for special merite was chosen
Tribune of the wether-cocks of Ipswich, a man nobly and lineally
descended from great Solon, because on one paire of soles he footed
it to Venice.
15 A French Quelque chose farced with oilet holes, and tergiversations,
and the first blossoms of Candid Phlebotomie.
16 Tom in Hebrew signifieth a twinne.
118
PANEGYRICK VERSES
Twinne shoes, odde shirt, and both by combination : Glareanus
Which Odde-twinne-triple-one, to speaken troth,
Hath runne a wild-goose race, a pilgrims station :
This, and all this, is Tom, and yet 17 much more,
A Mandrake growne under some 18 Heavie-tree,
There where S. Nicolas knights not long before
Had dropt their fat axungia to the lee.
The 19 neck-weed-gallow-grasses sapling plant,
A Mushrum startled with a thunder-clap,
Which without noble stocke or such like vaunt
In one nights space grew out of Floraes lap.
Yet for all this, Tom, thou hadst proved soone
Abortive, and a fondling worth but little,
Had not thy sire, the man that s in the Moone,
Oft fed thee in thy youth with 20 Cuckow spittle.
Then treade the steps of th Author of thy birth,
Who once doth every Moneth surround the earth.
Explicit Glareanus Vadianus.
I
Incipit Richardus Hughes Cambro-Britannus
Regi a Pedibus.
Englyn unodl inion.
Candish a Drak i gwendid Ihywiaist Richard
Mewn lhawer aflendid : Hughes.
Dyscaist fwy mewn dwy eskid,
Yr hen gorph, na rhain i gid.
Explicit Richardus Hughes Cambro-
Britannus Regi a Pedibus.
17 He is the Retracian side of Fortunes title Page, who is said
utramque paginam implere.
18 A land-mark neere Excester, disterminating life and death to those
Pilgrims that upon the high waies bid men stand, in steed of bidding
them good-morrow.
19 The herbe knot-grasse, called inGreekeThrotbolarios,or Stopp-wind-
pippion, wherewith they were wont to give the Commonwealth a vomit,
vide Aristoxenum de foraminibus tibiarum. Pag. 44000 paulo post finem.
20 May it please thee Reader to be advertised out of Germany, that
this is nothing else but honie dew, called syderum saliva.
119
CORYAT S CRUDITIES
Incipit Thomas Coryatus.
Thomas Thomas Coryati hujus operis Authoris ad Benevolum
Coryat. Lectorem de suo Viaggio, Leonini & Macaronici
Scazontes.
TOV
I Lie ego qui didici longos andare caminos
Vilibus in scrutis, celeri pede, senza cavallo ;
Cyclico-gyrovagus coopertos neigibus Alpes
Passavi, transvectus equo cui nomina, Ten-toes.
Nulla viandanti mihi fit mutatio vestis ;
Non cum pennachis nigri berretta veluti
Bambalea in testa ; nulla est guippona satini
Toscano de more nitens ; sed plena pidocchis,
Et de fustagna squalens pourpointa Milana
Courans espaldas, nee habens paupercula faldas.
Una capatorum mihi paia est, una camisa.
His ego comptus, iter capio, rodeando per acres
Grisonas & Rhsetos, me tessaro-trochlea raptat
Esseda, per foltas sylvas, altasque sierras.
Menses bis binos, valles clivosque supinos
Transegi superans. Video te grassa Verona,
Bergamaque Italise nova Pergama, qua stabulatus
f Succidus urina madui bene lotus equina.
Venegiam ingressus, spaciosam Dive Piazzam
Marce tuam lustro, Mercatorumque Rialtum.
Dumque suis scalmis Golfum mea Gondola verrit,
j^Estu barca Maris nuotat ; novus aestus amoris
jEmyliana tuas subito me truccat ad aedes.
Ulcera bubarum, ferret me paura verollae
Bordellas intrare vetans, & rumor honesti.
Me torret tua bionda Chioma, & tua guancia bella
Purpureas imitata rosas ; duo giglia pura
Morbidae utraeque manus ; Lactis vas, poppa bianca
* Vox admirantis. f Succido. Italice wet, moist.
I Morbido. Ital. Smooths.
120
PANEGYRICK VERSES
Lactis candorem sobrat, lactisque cremorem : Thomas
Crapula me cepit, quare conversus, avorton
Parturii, crudos boccones ore momordi :
Pectoreque evomui, quos nunc submittere stampse
Allubuit : tu lector ave, nostrasque Cucinge
Cruda, tui stomachi foculo, bene digere frusta.
Explicit Thomas Coryatus.
FINIS.
[An Oration
121
Hermann
Kirchnerus
Oration on
Travel.
AN ORATION,
Made by Hermannus Kirchnerus,
A Civil Lawyer, Orator, Cassarean Poet, and Pro
fessor of Eloquence and Antiquities in the famous
Universitie of Marpurg, in the Landgraviate of
Hassia, and pronounced in the same Universitie,
by a Noble Scholler of his, George Haunschildt,
of Furstenfeldt, a Moravian, concerning this
subject : That young men ought to Travell
into forraine Countryes, and all those
that desire the praise of Learning,
and atchieving worthy actions,
both at home and abroad.
F any of you (most noble Auditors) hath
heretofore marvelled what is the reason,
that both in ancient times, and especially
in this our age, there have bin found so
many young men of a most noble and
excellent towardnesse and witte, who
though they could live at home a most
peaceable, pleasant and quiet life in the very bosomes of
their dearest parents, in abundance of riches, in all plenty
of dainties, in infinite delights, in the imbracings of their
friends and kinsfolkes, in the love of their most sweete
countrey, and the happy solace of their owne houses;
yet neglecting all these things, and the most pleasant
fruition of their fathers habitation, desire to goe into a
122
IN PRAISE OF TRAVEL
certain voluntary banishment out of their native coun- Hermann
tries, and with a valiant and couragious minde, to expose Kirchner s
themselves to the tempests of forraine climates, and to rj a
11- r r i * ravei.
the bitter stormes or fortune ; and to undergoe so many
and so great difficulties, labours and toyles, so many
calamities, misfortunes and miseries, even to the uttermost
hazard of their life and welfare : I will bring the matter
to passe by meanes of this my Oration, which is written
of the incredible utility of travel, and the admirable
sweetnesse thereof, that from henceforth he shall cease
to marvell, or rather, which is the chiefest thing of all, I
doubt not (my fellow Academicks) but that, if according
to your singular benevolence, favour, and humanity, you
will lend me your gentle eares and willing mindes (which
I expect from you) and will somewhat diligently and
attentively weigh the arguments and reasons of my
speech, there is not one of you all which wil not presently
desire, having trussed up his necessaries, and packed up
his fardels, to draw on his bootes, put his riding hat upon
his head, raise himselfe upon his wings, hoise sailes, and
mount on horsbacke (according to the proverbe) and
post the neerest way to forraine and remote Nations ;
imitating Ulysses that most worthy example of travelling,
to compasse the whole circumference of the earth, by farre
Voyages, and with ./Eneas in Virgil, to be tossed up and
downe both by land and Sea. For I will shew, that there
can be no nearer way to the attayning of true wisedome,
and all experience of a civill life, no speedier meane to
aspire to the governement of a Common-weale, no plainer
path to purchase immortality of praise, dignity, honour
and glory ; and in summe I will prove, that in the whole
life of man there is nothing sweeter, nothing pleasanter,
nothing more delightfull then travell.
Wherefore (my gentle Auditors) I most earnestly crave
this of you, that you would affoord this my Oration,
which is as it were a travell of the minde, the favourable
gale of your benevolence, and the faire Sun-shine of your
gracious attention, and yeeld the sayles of your favour, to
123
CORYAT S CRUDITIES
Hermann^ the end I may the better accomplish my purpose, and bring
Kirchner i m y course to a w i s hed end. And that which I have first
Travel ^ a ^ proposed unto my selfe (my Auditors) is such a
thing, as may easily be knowne and perceived without
my Oration, or any other mans. For whereas all of us
are to endeavour, as much as in us lieth, that we may
seeme rather to adorne and amplifie, then cast away or
diminish that dignity and excellency, which by a speciall
priviledge is given by God unto man above all other
creatures ; and since such is the infirmity of our nature,
such a darkenesse in abstruse matters, such stupidity of
wit, such dulnesse of minde, such blindnes and slendernes
of judgement, that unlesse there be added unto us a
certaine diligent institution and right information, we
cannot perceive, know, or understand any thing at all in
humane studies, or ingenuous arts, and divine sciences :
Surely I thinke there is none of you so voyde of discre
tion, or ignorant of all these things, when he perceiveth
farre greater and thicker darkenes and mistes in us, then
that the subtility of our wits, and the clearenes of our
mindes can of its owne strength discover and shew it
selfe, which doth not understand, that we ought to procure
our selves abroad and from forraine countries those helpes
and instruments, wherewith the sharpnesse of the minde,
and that force and naturall brightnesse may be stirred up,
polished and instructed : and that therefore from our
tender years, sith that age is most capable of disciplines,
we are to seeke for Masters, use faithfull instructers and
informers of our life and manners, which may correct our
rudenesse, instruct our ignorance, garnish our wits, and
from their most glittering and resplendent light kindle
light & understanding in us, & instill and infuse into us
arts, sciences, & necessary, most profitable, and excellent
learning ; which if we cannot have in our owne pro
vinces and countries, we ought to trace them out by sea
and land, and with all diligence and industry, to seeke
for them like pretious pearles. For that high ruler of
mankind, that supreme and potent Author, & preserver
124
IN PRAISE OF TRAVEL
of al things, hath by his divine will and heavenly pro- Herman^
vidence so disposed this Universe, and so prudently ^ rcfiner s
.. .,,.*., . 1.111- i i Oration on
distinguished it with that admirable diversity and order, Travel.
that one country is more fruitfull then others ; so that in
one and the selfe same region all & the same things do not
grow : as Arabia is more plentiful of Frankinsence and
spices then other countries ; one Territory yeeldeth plenty
of wine, another of corne, another greater store of other
things ; according to that of the Poet :
Here corne, there grapes more plenteously do grow.
So also those copious and admirable wits, so arts, sciences,
and disciplines, which make us more human, or rather
more divine, are not included in one place, in one province,
or one house ; neither are all found in one man, but are
divided and dispersed throughout the whole compas of
the earth, and a very singular felicity of those things doth
appeare more in some places then in other, even by the
very genius of the place, and by I know not what destiny,
and a certain kind of divinity : & as certain peculiar stars
are fixed in their severall places, so those lights are even
from above given unto certaine countries, and to certaine
Nations, whom they do illustrate and beautifie, that we
see here great praise of eloquence to flourish, there of
more solid Philosophy : here the excellency of the
Mathematicke sciences, there, of Astrology is esteemed :
here the dignity of physicke, there the majesty of the
civill law : and again in another place, the truth of holy
religion, and the purity of heavenly doctrine doth raigne.
If we will be partakers of these such excellent gifts, covet
to enjoy these so great riches and delights, and desire to
be beautified with these so singular ornaments of learning,
we must needs undertake journeyes and long voyages to
those renowned places, wherin this fragrancy and most
heavenly plenty doth harbor. For art useth neither wings
nor feet that it should eyther go or fly unto us, neither
can all these things be knowen by the mute sounds of
books, but we must rather go unto those learned men,
125
CORYAT S CRUDITIES
Herman^ know & search for many things, and gather many things
iichnen ^ Qur ^ an j s ig. nt p or good God, what Historio-
Urationon J . > .,, r ...
Travel. grapher can you exemplme unto me, or what credite,
knowledge or experience soever he was, that hath not
for the most part beene personally present at those matters,
which hee hath thought good to commit to the monu
ments of letters that hath not with his owne eyes scene
those places whereof he maketh a description to others ;
that hath not observed the manners and behaviour of
those men, whom he eyther praiseth or dispraiseth ? What
Orator that hath not from all places sought out the very
flowers of languages, and gathered together the art of all
those things wherewith the mind of an Orator ought to be
furnished, and which hath not noted the pronunciation,
gestures, and elegant actions of most eloquent men ?
What Astrologer that hath not observed that high
fabricke of heavenly things in the divers climes of
Heaven, and noted that most swift motion of the Spheares,
and the immutable order of the Starres ? What Naturalist
that hath not sought out the mysteries of nature, and
searched out the admirable variety of all naturall things?
What Physitian that hath not sifted the divers kindes of
humors and diseases, and dived into the force and vertue
of all severall hearbes, the incredible multitude whereof
is distinguished with insatiable variety? What Civilian
that hath not knowen the divers manners of sundry
Nations and people, their customes, Statutes and Lawes?
What Divine that hath not travelled unto those places,
wherein the purity of Religion doth flourish, which hath
not learned besides other necessary artes, the Greeke and
Hebrew tongues, whereby he may the better fight for the
Charter of the everlasting King of heaven, against the
trumpery reliques of Gods desperate enemies, and be the
better able to confute the sophisticall fallacies, and foolish
quirkes of heretiques, that are devised for the deeceite
and overthrow of the godly ? Therefore if thou wouldest
aske counsell of nature her selfe, which is that most
provident and faithfull mother of us all, and wouldest
126
IN PRAISE OF TRAVEL
demand of her the meanes and shortest way to attaine to Hermann^
divers kindes of learning ; certes she would shew thee no ^ rchner
other then that of travell. Travell, she would say, travell
to Athens, Marseilles, Bononia, Padua, Paris, and betake
thy selfe to other Mart townes of learning, which do every
where flourish. Desirest thou to be instructed in
heavenly doctrine, and aspirest thou to the knowledge of
divine things? follow thou the Church of Christ, still
travelling in pilgrimage ; which because it is not affixed
to any certaine countrey, nor tyed to any one particular
place, but being tossed to and fro after the manner of a
little Barke, with waves and the injuries of tempests,
and driven about in the Sea of the whole world, lives here
and there in banishment ; so that I would have thee learne
subtilty from some Austine, perspicuity from Athanasius,
sweetnes from Gregory, and eloquent learning from
Nazianzen, and some Nyssen. Desirest thou the glory
of wisedome in the knowledge of the civill law, and the
science of the sacred lawes? Goe then into Greece with
those most noble Decemviri of Rome : enquire for Solons
tables : gather the Ordinances of Lycurgus : with Sulpitius
go to the Mutii, and aske counsell of the Papiniani,
Nasicas, Scipiones, and Ulpiani. Dost thou propose unto
thy selfe the praise of learning in the faculty of physick ?
then do thou with Hippocrates, with Galen, with Dios-
corides, with Paracelsus, that were most excellent
Physitians travell into Lemnos, into Arabia, into
Greece ; and as often as thou hast travelled about any
Region, so often I would have thee perswade thy selfe
thou hast read a new leafe in the booke of nature. Dost
thou covet to excell in the Mathematickes, in Astronomy,
in the Optickes, and in the whole course of Philosophy?
Imitate Euclide, of whom we reade that hee followed the
Atticke Muses, being disguised in womens attire, when
it was not lawfull for any of the Megarean men to enter
into the City of Athens. Travell thou to some Pytha
goras, some Archimedes, some Ptolemeus, some Aristotle,
if thou nearest that any of them are revived. Doost
127
CORYAT S CRUDITIES
Hermann thou labour to attaine to dignity and honour by eloquence ?
seeke for some Demosthenes, some Isocrates, some
Travel Hortensius, some Cicero. Doost thou apply thy minde
to the study of History? goe then to Livie, if there be
any in the world, with those that are said to have come
to Rome from the farthest Caliz, to heare that milkie
fountain of eloquence. Associate thyselfe with Caesar,
Polybius, and Pausanias, and accompany the Scipioes and
Metelli, even to their Tents and skirmishes, and to the
middest of their warlike conflicts. That this was the
onely way to true wisedome, those auncient lovers of
wisedome knew, whom no length of journeys, no
difficulties of sea voyages, no injuries of tempests could
discourage. This doth witnes that divine Plato, who
having travelled as far as Nilus, purchased the greatest
part of his divine wisdome from the very innermost closets
of Egypt, who searched for all the abstruser mysteries
thereof, with the admirable subtility of his wit, sifted all
the monuments of antiquity with most singular industry,
and entred into the very marrow and pith itselfe of Moses
truth. This doth witnesse that most noble Philosopher
Anacharsis, so famous amongst the Auncients, who having
escaped from the barbarous rudenesse of the Scythians,
and travelled very long journeys, with singular endevour
& alacrity of minde, came to Athens, & there shaked off
the deformed uglinesse of his grosse ignorance and
barbarisme ; whereof he had never quitted himselfe, if he
had preferred his domesticall lurking corners before the
desire of travell. This doth witnesse that great Aristotle,
who by his daily travels purchased himselfe such wisedome,
such learning, such knowledge of true Philosophy, and
such understanding, that you may justly call him the
father of all the Philosophers that ever have beene ; yea
the very sonne and miracle of nature. This doth witnesse
Zamolxis and infinite more, who having travelled from
their owne houses, naked in a manner, destitute of all
better discipline and nurture, and voyde of humanity, have
returned home singularly furnished and adorned with all
128
IN PRAISE OF TRAVEL
kinde of qualities of the minde, and all such worthy gifts Herman^
as can be incident to a man. Kinhners
TTTMI 1 ^.-111 Oration on
Will you have me produce to you Cicero, that notable Travel.
ornament of eloquence ? who that hee might attaine to that
glory of speaking that he hoped for, travelled into Greece,
and at Athens besides Antiochus, a most sharpe and wise
Philosopher, conversed with Demetrius a Syrian, a most
noble and eloquent master of eloquence, and very industri
ously exercised himselfe with him. After that he travelled
over all Asia, and bestowed the like diligence with the
excellent Orators thereof. Againe after that he sailed to
Rhodes, and now the third time applied himselfe to Molo
that most singular Pleader, whom hee had before twise
heard in Rome ; to the end that now at length he might
with his great industry and diligence supply the defect
of nature, which denied him the instruments of pleading.
Will you have me shew you great troupes of worthy
fellowes, that went out of the City of Rome? For
albeit the Romanes were seated in the principall habitation
of the whole earth, and contained within the wals of their
Citie, as it were an abridgement and Epitome of all
Regions and all Countries ; yet they went to Marseilles
in France and travelled into Greece, and from Athens
returned home adorned with the Atticke learning. For
indeed they considered that all wits, whatsoever naturall
instinct of towardnes they have, do waxe dull and even
die, being included within the narrow bounds of their
domesticall seats, & that there is no dulnes of mind, no
darkenes so great which is not in a manner kindled with
the course of travels, and in all respects made more cleere
and vigorous. But to what end doe I recall your eares
to the statues of ancient men, even to the almost abolished
Images of antiquity, and to dead examples? Why doe
I not rather place your eyes upon these living faces and
countenances, whose sight and cleernes we enjoy? Why
doe I not even with this finger shew you the most noble
fruites of travell in that worthy man Mr. John Ferivarius,
the Rector of our Universitie, who carrieth before us as
c. c.
129
CORYAT S CRUDITIES
Hermann^ the Scepter, so also the very Torch or Lampe of all
^fatiotfdn vertues? wno b y his travelles f France, Italy, the
Travel. Netherlands, and survay of other Provinces, hath attained
to very great learning, & such experience of matters, that
hath made him very much commended and esteemed even
amongst strangers. Behold that admirable toppe of
Civilians ; I name thee (most famous Vulteius) upon thee
I convert the minds and eyes of all my Auditors, which
mayest be a living Oration unto us of travell, worthy to
be praysed ; who hast visited France, discoursed with the
Doctors of France, hast travelled over Italy, and disputed
there with Menochius : hast also travelled into Denmarke,
having worthily performed a noble Embassage to the
King. Cast your eyes upon the other most reverend and
famous men that are here present, which have undertaken
very difficult and long journeys for learning sake, and by
the same have attained to that singular knowledge, and
admirable experience of all things, wherewith they do not
onely beautifie this University, and with great praise
instruct us, but also do make famous and renowned
amongst other Nations, our whole Province of Hassia,
and also all Germany, which is our common country. But
if (my noble Auditors) our eyes cannot endure the bright-
nesse of these most glittering lights, that are even dazeled
as it were in the Sun-shining at mid-day : let us propose
before our eyes that most beautifull Theatre of the
Universe, let us behold whatsoever is abroad in the world ;
let us looke into Provinces, see Cities, runne over King-
domes and Empires : surely we shall finde those people
to be rude, slouthfull, incivill, rough, outragious, foolish,
barbarous, voyde of all humanity, civility, and courteous
entertainment, proude, arrogant, puffed up with a selfe-
love and admiration of themselves ; also effeminate,
wanton, given to sleepe, banquetings, dice and idlenes,
corrupted with the allurements of all pleasures, and the
inticements of all concupiscences ; those I say, which have
used no journeys, no Sea- voyages, no travels, which have
not exercised any commerce or intercourse with other
130
IN PRAISE OF TRAVEL
Nations. Againe we shall perceive those to be of a facill Herman^
nature, modest, courteous, loving, gentle, kind in enter- ^ rc/iners
, , & &. ,. , Oration on
tamment, and by the very bent of vertue inclined to good Travel.
discipline, whose wits the heat of divers travels hath
ripened, the performance of many journeys hath mollified,
and the knowen manners and discipline of other men have
instructed. For who is so wicked, whom so many and
excellent examples of vertue and piety, so many heroicall
exploits of worthy and valiant men, whose lively images
he beholdeth, and the true shining vertue and admirable
beauty thereof will not invite and allure to imitation ?
Who is so unseemly attired, whom the most exquisite neat-
nes in the habits and apparell of other nations, the laudable
elegancy and courtesy in actions and gestures, and the
most sweet conceits in speech will not make more polished,
and refined ? Who is so crabbed, austere, and angry,
whom the humanity, affability, gentlenes, and placability
of our consorts and companions, that communicate with
us in our journeys and Innes, wil not change? Who is
so tender, effeminate, & cowardly, whom the heat of the
sun, cold, snow, raine, hard seats, stony pillows, and such
infinite inconveniences of travels, so many wailayings, and
dangers of theevs, wil not make more couragious &
valiant ? Who is so simple, improvident and incontinent,
whom the subtilty of spies, the wonderful cunning of
Inkeepers and baudes, and the great danger of his life,
will not stirre up to vigilancy, prudence and temperance ?
Who is so hard hearted and inhospitable, whom the
benevolence, benignity, and helpe of strangers wil not
mutually induce to the like offices of humanity? Who
that is tossed with many wandrings and errors, as Dido
was in Virgil, and not ignorant of other folkes miseries,
will not learne to succor those that are in distresse ? Who
is so impious, whom the sundry calamities that offer
themselves to travellers, the labors, perillous saylings,
waves, tempests, momentary casualties of adverse fortune
and dangers ; and againe Gods freeing of them from the
same will not incite to the serious & ardent invocation of
CORYAT S CRUDITIES
Herman^ Q oc } s eternal majesty, and to the often celebration and
inhner s p ra se Q f ]^ s k o i name ? Whom will not the most sweet
Oration on * .../,.,
Travel sonets or chirping birds provoke to sing hymnes and
verses to his creator? Finally, whom will not travell it
selfe put in minde of the slippernes, uncertainty, & short-
nesse of this life ? But why should I declare or amplifie the
matter with many wordes? Let us propose the ancient
Grecians as a notable example ; who certainly could never
have attained to so great wisedome and learning, wherwith
they afterward illuminated the whole earth, nor aspired
to that praise of vertue, and glory of dignity, unlesse
having survayed almost all the parts of the world, they
had purchased themselves incredible experience of all
things? These were the first that durst saile in a ship,
the first that in that Argonauticall voyage, adventured to
assay all the narrow arms of the Sea ; the first that tried
al the dangerous Syrtes & rocks, and that skirmished with
the North-east, South-west, and South windes (to use the
Poet Horaces phrase) that they might search out those
golden fleeces, which they knew by fame, that is, the
mysteries of all naturall things, and hidden sciences, and
the very innermost secrets of wisedome. Hither went
those sayles of Jason : hither did those oares and ships
so famoused through the whole world, and praised by the
verses of all ages, bend their course. But why do I not
rather declare the singular commodities of travel in our
owne Germanes? who though they did heretofore but
little differ from the savage fiercenesse of wilde beastes,
wandred in Fennes and Woods after the manner of beasts,
and by a kinde of inveterate hatred, were enemies to
learning : yet notwithstanding they have so much profited
by their travels, that (as Bodin is constrained to confesse,
who otherwise is a man very sparing of the Germane
praise) they seeme to excell the Asiatickes in humanity,
the Romanes in military discipline, the Hebrewes in
Religion, the Grecians in Philosophy, the Egyptians in
Geometry, the Phenicians in Arithmeticke, the Chaldeans
in Astrologie, and finally in variety of trades, all people
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IN PRAISE OF TRAVEL
whatsoever. From these did the Italians themselves, Hermann
If* L
which are otherwise most witty and inventive, send for ^ m
._ / j r L Oration on
most cunning artificers, to measure the bounds or their Travel.
groundes. From these did Pope Leo, when he was
disposed to mend the computation of the course of the
Sunne and Moone, call Astrologers, and most excellent
Mathematicians, by sending Ambassadors into Germany,
no otherwise then Caesar did heretofore into Egypt. O
thou excellent travell, and above all things most
laudable ; unto whom not onely nature her selfe,
the mother of us all, but also all the elements, all the
starres, all the windes, and the glorious brightnesse of
heaven doe seeme to affoord their grace and favour, and
to impart their vertue : thee O travell, justly doe we call
that most renowned Schoole, wherein we are instructed in
good artes, sciences, and disciplines, to true wisedome
and learning ; thee doe we truely call the Seminary of
the worthiest vertues, wherewith we attaine to the greatest
happinesse and blisse. You see (my Auditors) how great
and singular benefites and commodities travell doth com
municate to every man ; but if you will deigne to heare
me with the same benevolent attention that you have
begun, I will shew that it doth impart farre greater
benefites to Common-weales. For no man can be fitter
and with greater praise advanced to the sterne of a
Common-weale, no man more worthily and with greater
profite of the Citizens, promoted to those glorious honours
of publique affairs, then he that having before travelled
much and long with Ulysses, hath scene the divers manners
and rites, and the beautifull Cities of many people :
knowen the ordinances and decrees of many Common-
weales : noted their customes : searched their lawes :
sought for the originals and increase of King
doms : scanned the causes of the translations and
overthrow therof : hath observed what is in every Citie
worthy of praise, what fit to be amended : hath learned
what deserveth imitation, in the constitution of their
judgements : considered what is memorable in the
CORYAT S CRUDITIES
Hermann^ ordination of their magistrates, in the managing of their
Kinhners counse l s w h a t also in their pleading place, in their field,
Oration on . , . ^ , , , . iL
Travel m tneir ^ enate house, in the regal court ; also what in the
institution of their youth in their Schooles, in their
Temples ; what againe in all their distinct Offices, in their
Tribes, in their Arts, in their services, and manuarie
trades : hath also noted what is worthy of observation in
the pitching of their Campes, the making of their
Trenches, the fortifying their Cities and Bulwarkes ; what
in their Watches, in the mustering of their armies, in the
forme of their battel array, in the ordering of their forces ;
what in their skirmishes, their stratagems, their surprizals
of wals and Cities, and what in the sacking of the enemies
tents. Surely this is the man whom Plato doth call a
Philosopher, who before he came to the administration of
the Common-weale, disputed not at home in his half-
mooned *chaire, of certaine thorny positions of Logicke,
and other captious cavillations ; or made subtle formes of
Syllogismes and Dilemmaes ; or wrote Geometricall circles
in the dust of Archimedes ; or meated the pace of fleas,
as it is in one of Aristophanes Comedies ; or composed
the world of moats, or cast all his care and thoughts upon
the waves of a narrow arme of the Sea ; or in his ^barrell
conteyned a Kings wealth : but, which by traversing the
Common-weales of many Nations, hath searched out all
the wayes and meanes that pertain to a civill life, and the
governing of a humane society. O happy is that Common-
weale, which hath from above gotten some such ruler. O
blessed is that Empire, to whom so happy a Governour
sent downe from the very heavens hath happened. For
this man understandeth what things are to be shunned,
what to be embraced, what doth weaken, dissipate and
overthrow a Kingdome, and what againe doth strengthen,
establish & preserve it. To this end we reade that the
Romans sent their children to Marseilles (which I have
already named unto you) that from a well governed Citie
they might learne those artes that are fit to rule the
* Hemicyclo. \ Or tub.
IN PRAISE OF TRAVEL
Common-weale. For this cause we reade that Cyrus Hermann^
travelled though yet but a childe, and was sent to King K*rchner>s
A J , , ^. , . T Oration on
Astyages court ; and that Theseus being but a stripling Trave i
did therefore chuse rather to undertake the most dangerous
land journey, then to use the shortnesse of a Sea voyage ;
and we know that Hercules did for that cause travel! over
the whole world a foote, and purchased himselfe eternity
of name. By this meanes have all Cities, all Common-
weales, all Kingdomes and Empires beene established.
For some Nations have borrowed from others good
manners, rites, lawes, statutes, arts and good disciplines.
Lycurgus, when he travelled into Crete and Egypt,
informed his owne Common-weale afterward with the
lawes of those people. The Romanes having translated
the lawes and customes of Greece into their Citie (which
they did by the advice of one Hermodorus an Ephesian
and a stranger) established their Empire. Our Germanes
have borrowed from other nations, and others again from
them good arts, disciplines, lawes, constitutions, and
elegant manners ; as Contarenus, a man of singular
learning and wisdome, when he perceived in our Germany,
that it was not lawfull for every man promiscuously to teach
private schooles as in Italy, but that with great care and
great diligence, and not without publike authority &
publike salaries good men were chosen to those offices,
whose life and maners were well approved, lest perhaps
tender youth might be corrupted by them ; being returned
home into his country, thought it not amisse to perswade
even his Venetians with great praise to entertaine this
laudable custome, as being very profitable to them, and to
receive it into their Commonweale, which is otherwise very
wisely governed. What man, I pray you, could better or
more worthily, or with greater gravity, greater praise,
greater dignity, performe an Ambassage committed unto
him eyther by a Prince or a Common-weale? What he,
who (as the Comicke Poet saith) doth alwaies shroude
himselfe in his house as a lame Cobler? He that did
never put his foote out of his owne countrey soyle ? He
35
CORYAT S CRUDITIES
Herman^ that never saw any people besides his home-bred countrey-
Orationon men ^ ^ e ^ at never beheld any other Rivers, other
Travel. Havens, other Bridges, then those amongst whom he hath
alwaies lived ? He that never viewed other Castles, other
Cities, other Provinces, other Regions then that wherin
he was born and brought up ? He that never learned any
other tongue besides his owne? Or rather he, which
leaving his most sweete country dwellings hath travelled
over many strange countries and many nations? hath
observed the maners, lawes, and customes of all men?
hath gotten the knowledge of divers languages? hath
frequented many Princes Courts, many Palaces, many
Assemblies for elections of Magistrates, and the famous
meetings of great and eminent personages? Hath
mollified his rough and rude matters amongst strangers?
hath acquired unto himselfe learning, knowledge, the use
of humane actions, and true wisedome? Who being
familiarly acquainted with all places and customes, knoweth
whither to goe, where to turne out of the way, that he
may not omit the best occasions of atchieving matters for
the good of his countrey, and cast himselfe into danger?
Who finally hath learned how to apply himselfe to the
time, be silent in time, speake in time, observe grave,
illustrious, and mighty men to whom he is sent, converse
gently and courteously with them, modestly and readily
pronounce that which he hath to deliver, and opportunely
to urge and prosecute the matter, that he may receive
answer again ? Or what other Counsellor can a Prince
chuse himselfe, whereby he may be able to helpe himselfe
by the faith, vertue, care, study, & vigilancy of good
counselles, then him who having by his travels gotten the
experience of divers men and many things, and other
knowledge, hath with Ulysses visited Alcinous his Court,
and with Themistocles seene the wealth of the Persians?
Who knoweth with what power, what vertue, what
strength and ornaments every Kingdome doth flourish,
and also knoweth the variety of civ ill employments, offices
and ordinations? Who hath searched out the meanes of
136
IN PRAISE OF TRAVEL
warre and peace, the helpes and succour thereof? For Hermann
this Counsellor is like that opticke Glasse, wherein not K lrcfin(;r s
onely the space of three or tenne miles, but also of a whole Travel
Province, yea and of the whole world itselfe may be
represented : this is that true watch-tower which Hierome
is said to have wished for, from the which al the Kingdoms
and all the Empires of the world may be scene and viewed.
And to conclude, what Captain of warre is to be appointed
over an army, if not he that hath searched the maners of
other people, their nature and the affections of their
mindes, & hath scene their skirmishes and exercises in
military affaires? Who hath himselfe borne armes in the
field, put an helmet upon his head, worn a brestplate,
drawen his sword & thrust his dart and speare into the
body of his enemy ? Who hath bin in many conflicts,
many expeditions, sieges and battels, & hath tried which
nation is nimblest to make a sudden sally, and to pursue
the flying enemy ; which is readiest to possesse and scale
the wals, which is fiercest to battell, which is stoutest to
entertaine the shocke in the open field, which again is
strongest in the troupes of horses, which is hardiest in the
foot battell, which is puissantest in the Sea fight, and which
is subtlest for contriving of an ambush, and inventing of
stratagems and warlike engines? Who having followed
the wars, hath observed true military discipline, where
when, how, with what forces, with what forme of battel
array it is fit to fight, what order is to be observed in
strengthning the Flankes and rereward of the Armie, what
souldiers are to be placed in the front if any daunger
should occure? Who by his travells hath found out the
conditions of many places, the qualities of Regions and
Provinces, the site of Rivers, Valleys, and Woodes, the
neerest wayes and by-wayes, the meanes to charge the
enemie, plot an ambush, devise a stratageme, and surprize
a Campe ? Who being skilfull in many tongues doth use
from his own mouth to hearten the Souldier he hath in
his armie to fight, and kindle their courage to battell?
For never could the territories of Empires be amplified,
CORYAT S CRUDITIES
Hermann never their bounds inlarged, never new Kingdomes
Kinhncrs p urc h asec [ without travels. For never could the King-
Oration on \ r . ,
Travel. dome or bpame have attained to so great power and
strength, had not Columbus and Americus sayled to the
South pole, and by their travels discovred new Islands.
Never had the Romanes attained to such an extent of their
Empire, unlesse Julius Caesar had travelled over the whole
West part of the world, found out Britaine, before time
unknowen to the Romanes, and gone to Cleopatra into
Egypt. If Pompey had never travelled into Africa and
Asia, Scipio had never fled so farre as Numantia.
But what meane I to light a Torch unto you in a matter
that is the cleerest of all things ? Will you have me relate
unto you other commodities that redound unto men by
travels ? I will shew unto you that Kings and other men
have beene famous by travels. For this is not a rare thing
to be scene, that they whom their domesticall fortune hath
forsaken, and even exposed to the scoffe of the world,
should be entertained by the benevolence of out-landish
fortunes, and the gentle gale of forraine favours, and be
promoted to high dignities and honors. For how fared
it with Tarquinius Priscus? who having travelled into
Latium out of Hetruria, wherin he was born, and in
which he suffered a base repulse, did he not get a Scepter
& Diadem amongst strangers ? What also did Fulco Earl
of Anjow? Was he not in his travels made King of
Hierusalem? By travell Themistocles purchased those
dignities of the King of Persia, which at home in his
owne countrey, he could never have attained to, being
created Lord of three most beautifull Cities, Minusium,
Magnesium, and Lampsacum. By travell Cadmus built
Thebes, by travell Antenor built Padua, Babylon was built
by travellers, Alba by Trojan travellers : Noble Lisbone
had her originall from travell ; and surely my Oration
would grow to be infinite, if I would goe about to reckon
up those Empires, Kingdomes, Cities, and Townes, which
would have beene none at all, if there had beene no course
of travell. I would have the auncient wildernesses
38
IN PRAISE OF TRAVEL
themselves speake, the hils, and unmanured places, which Hermann
JS" I *
you see now most of all inhabited ; I would have them, I Q ^" S O
say, magnifie Travell with these wordes : O singular and Travel.
most glorious fruites of travell, O the excellent commodi
ties thereof, O most noble and even golden fleeces, and
helpes much greater then al praise, which doe not onely
delight and raise the private life of men, but also advance,
amplifie, and preserve the publique felicity it selfe. O
most worthy, most excellent, and with all praises to be
extolled are all those men, which contemning all difficulties
and dangers, desire to blesse their friends with such and
so great benefits, joy their Common-weale, and decke their
most deare country with everlasting memory, laud, glory
and immortality of their name. For if they heretofore
amongst the Romanes obtained immortall glory, which
eyther graced, defended, or preserved their Common-weale
by their counsels or endevours, by how much the more
everlasting praise and immortall renowne doe they deserve,
which for the common profite, for the benefite and prosper
ous estate of the Common-weale refused not to expose
themselves to so great and so many tempests and perils,
and voluntarily to cast their life and welfare into dangers
for the safety of their countrey? And though (my
courteous Auditors) all those things which you have
hitherto heard from me, could not be procured by the
helpe of travell, so that neither wealth, nor honours, nor
dignity, nor wisedome, nor authority, nor experience of
all things can be thereby gotten : howbeit such is the
sweetnesse of travelling and seeing the world, such the
pleasure, such the delight, that I thinke that man voyde
of all sense, and of a stony hardnes, which cannot be said
to be moved with so great pleasure, that he had rather
remaine in his owne house, as it were in a prison or gaole,
then to converse in the most beautifull Theatre of nature,
and the full court of all delights. O sluggish, abject,
servile, and most dejected minde of all, which includeth
it selfe within the narrow bounds of his owne house, and
doth in a manner banish it selfe into an Island. Truely
CORYAT S CRUDITIES
Hermann^ \ know not what greater punishment of deportation there
Oration * C?in ^ e ^ n ^ ^ condemnation to eternal fetters, or to the
Travel. mett all mines, then to be deprived and spoyled of all those
things, which are to be seene by the admirable workman
ship of nature in the heaven, earth and sea, and for whose
sakes these spheares of our eyes, these lights, this sharpnes
of sight, these senses were given unto us, that we might
survay and contemplate all these things : these feete, these
ankles, these motions, and faculties of running were
graunted unto us, that we might goe unto and seeke for
the most remote places : these handes, these fingers, these
sinews were given unto us that we might touch and feele
the miracles of the Omnipotent ; and being knowen unto
us by his workmanshippe, might magnifie that high
Architect, and Artificer of all things. How many things
also are there, with the onely fame and hearing whereof
we finde our mindes to be stirred up, delighted, and
tickled with a wonderfull recreation? I will omit so
many beautifull townes, so many populous Cities, and
most glorious buildings, so many marble Palaces, so many
Capitols, so many Babylonian Towers, so many auncient
Pyramides of Egypt, so many Colossi, so many Solomoni-
call Temples, so many statues : I will omit so many well
fortified Castels and Mountaines, as it were heaped up by
the fabulous Giants ; so many strong Fortresses, so many
Armories, that are to be admired even by Mars himselfe ;
so many artificiall workes, that do take away all fame and
admiration from those seven auncient miracles of the
world : I will omit so many rich treasuries, and the
Colchicall fleeces of the Ancients, so many treasures which
would even amaze the ancient Croesi, golden Midas, and
the Roman Crassi : so many most plentifull Store-houses,
and publique Magazines, for the sight whereof, even
Triptolemus himself, the first inventer of husbandry and
corne, would undertake very long journeys. But I will
draw your eyes especially unto those things, which being
wrought by the admirable cunning of nature bring
incredible pleasure, not onely to the outward senses, but
140
PRAISE OF TRAVEL
farre greater sweetnes to the mind also. For whom wil Hermann^
not so many pleasant Tempes and Paradises, so many " c " e
T. i c 11 c 11 i 1 f i n Oration on
Farkes mil or all kind or beasts, so many greene walkes, Travel.
full of all sorts of hearbs, so many gardens of the
Hesperides, Alcinoi, Tantali, Adonides and Semiramides,
so many shady groves of all the Veneres and Graces, and
the unspeakeable fragrancy of celestiall flowers, whom I say
will not these things so recreate, refocillate and move that
he should endevour to creep with the very Torteise even
with hands and feet, to enjoy so great pleasure? O
wearisome life, O bitter and most miserable life, which
art deprived of such a most wished for benefit of nature,
and of so great pleasure & joy of al things. For what is
this else then to consume his age in grief and darknes, and
a brutish kind of solitarines in that auncient denne of
Trophonius, which tooke away from man all better affec
tions, jovialnes, serenity, & the very fountain of mirth?
what I say is this els, & how much doth it differ from that
domestical darknes, which is destitute of the most pleasant
light of travell? For how much do they that lurke in
these most thicke & palpable mists differ from stocks and
stones which want all kind of motion ? Surely all living
creatures that are to be found in this most wide and vast
world are delighted with running abroad & free motion.
We see that the birds do flie abroad in the ayre, & do
swiftly flitter their wings now to one place, now to another :
we note the storks and swallows to flie away every
yeare in the winter moneths, and to returne again in the
spring : we behold the wilde beasts to wander here and
there in woodes and forrests, fishes in Lakes and Rivers,
and Sea-monsters in the Ocean : and if any of these
creatures are imprisoned and taken by the wily craft of
men, we find by daily experience that they doe with great
longing and desire crave their former liberty, and by all
meanes whatsoever to recover it. The very starres also
themselves are moved with a most swift course, and all
the nobler planets, and that high machine of all celestiall
things is turned about with incredible swiftnesse. O most
141
CORYAT S CRUDITIES
Hermann sordid and abject men, and unworthy of the very name
irchners Q f m W J IQ ^ Qe su ^ er tne se brute creatures, which are
Uration on i i i r 1 1 c 1
Travel. voyd both or reason and speech, to take away from them
the nobility and excellency of nature, and doe not leave
themselves any place, as much as amongst them. Goe
forth therefore thou, whatsoever thou art that desirest to
maintaine, and retaine the dignity of thy nature, go forth, I
say, from these most miserable lurking holes, put off thy
fetters, cast away that night from thy eyes, remove that
mouldy rust and languishing faintnesse from thee, shake
off thy drowsie disease, goe forth of thy grave and
sepulchre, wherin as if thou wert a man halfe dead, thou
dost not enjoy the most pleasant sight and taste of naturall
things. Art thou in the world? & yet hast thou not
scene the world ? Art thou in the earth ? and yet hast
thou not seene the face of the earth ? Art thou in nature ?
and yet hast thou not knowen nature ? Truely I will now
say that thou art not onely more madde, but also more
cruell towards thine own eyes, then that mad Democritus,
which is said to have deprived himselfe of his eyes, and
to have burnt up the sight thereof. For he, to the end
he might kindle the sight of his minde, and as it were
draw away that little skin from his inward thoughts, which
he thought came unto him by the meanes of his outward
eyesight, had rather suffer the dulnesse of his eyes then
of his minde. But thou dost procure thy selfe not only
that outward blindnes, but also an inward darkenesse, an
incredible stupidity, and a life truly dead. What I pray
you is more pleasant, more delectable, and more acceptable
unto a man then to behold the heighth of hilles, as it were
the very Atlantes themselves of heaven ? to admire
Hercules his pillers? to see the mountaines Taurus and
Caucasus ? to view the hill Olympus, the seat of Jupiter ?
to passe over the Alpes that were broken by Annibals
Vineger ? to climbe up the Apennine promontory of Italy ?
from the hill Ida to behold the rising of the Sunne before
the Sunne appeares ? to visite Pernassus and Helicon, the
most celebrated seates of the Muses? Neither indeed is
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IN PRAISE OF TRAVEL
there any hill or hillocke, which doth not containe in it the Hermann
I/" 1 *
most sweete memory of worthy matters : there shalt thou ;r r
1 i i -VT i * i 1 r i j i \jratton on
see the place where Noahs Arke stood arter the deluge : Travel.
there where God himselfe dwelt, and promulged his
eternall law amongst the thunders and lightnings : there
Elias to have hid himselfe under a Juniper tree, and to
have received his food from Ravens : there the servant of
the Lord to have fedde his father-in-laws sheepe, and to
have seene the great Jehova in a burning bush : there
Peter to have wished he had built himselfe three
Tabernacles? there our Saviour to have ascended from
the earth after his resurrection, to the right hand of his
everlasting Father. Or is thy minde delighted with
prophane monuments? In one place thou shalt under
stand how the little cloude of the lingering Fabius stood
against Hannibal, and how he by his lingering restored the
State of Rome. In another place the town of Cannae,
which was the eternall wound of the Romane Empire ;
in another place the discomfiture at Trebia, and Thrasi-
menus, and else where other ruines of memorable matters.
For you shall not put as much as one steppe eyther in
Greece or Italy, wherein there do not occure considerations
of most remarkable matters. Or haddest thou rather
convert thine eyes to the wondrous workes of nature ?
Behold a lake of Ireland, which turneth wood into Iron
by an admirable prodigy of nature : or see the Islands of
Scotland, swimming after the manner of the auncient
Cyclades, and flitting up and downe in the water as the
sport of the tempests ; there thou wilt wonder to see
certaine trees, from whose fruite falling into a water that
runneth underneath, duckes and geese do grow. In
Moravia my most sweete countrey I will shew thee
Frankinsence and Myrrhe not to grow upon shrubbes, but
most miraculously to issue out of the very bowels of the
earth. Thou wilt wonder to see pots digged out of a
certaine mountaine in Silesia, which are framed and
fashioned by the very workmanship of nature her selfe.
In Prussia, the pleasantest of all Regions, wherein the
CORYAT S CRUDITIES
Hermann^ ve ry Gods themselves (if they were delighted with a
Kirchner s terrestr i a u habitation) might dwell, thou shalt see amber
(Jration on i i i i i r i i i r i o
Travel cast an( ^ belched forth by the vomiting or the bea, as it
were from Neptune himselfe. Wilt thou now have me
bring thee to v^Etna, Vesuvius, *Hecla the mouths of Hel,
and the burning gulfs of flames? for the searching out
of the cause whereof, we reade that Plinius Secundus
perished. But whither are we carried away? I perceive
the like happeneth unto me that doth unto them which
for recreation sake doe enter into a Barke, and passe by
the coast of the shore, when at length being deceived by
the sense of delight, they are carryed away from the Sea
shore to the middle of the surging waves, and so launch
forth a great way from the haven by the prosperous windes,
even contrary to their first intent : In like manner I am
affected with this travell of my minde, so that I have
farther passed with this course of my speech then I first
determined.
But that I may not abuse the favourable ale of your
benignity, which you have very bountifully afroorded unto
me, I will strike sayle and betake my selfe to the haven.
For I see that I have easily obtained the thing that I aymed
at. I see that your mindes have beene so moved, that
they now beginne to travell within themselves : I see that
you waxe weary of your rest, and of longer continuing
in your owne houses : I see that your countenances and
lookes do bend towards the gate ; I see your feete to itch,
and that the very motion of your bodies do argue an
inclination to travell. But to the end that none of those
who like the Snaile doe alwayes carry their houses on
their backes, may recall you in the middle of your way,
and by contrary speeches divert you from the desire of
travell ; I think that I shal undertake a worke worthy my
labor, if I shal fortifie your mindes and eares against the
cries of other men. For some say that travels are both
pernicious to a Common-weale, and hurtfull to a
private life : that by travell new manners, new vices,
* A burning mountaine of Island north from Scotland.
144
IN PRAISE OF TRAVEL
new staines, new diseases are drawen into a Common- Hermann
weale.
r , i. \ i Oration on
Let none or you (my worthy Auditors) be so ignorant Travel.
of matters, that he may not perswade himselfe that these
things are rather to be imputed to every mans perverse
nature and education, then to travel. Surely every where
men live with bad manners, and vices are every where
learned : at home examples of lust and other enormities
doe abound no lesse then abroad ; and at home there are
Davi, Phormiones, and Gnathones which doe greatly
corrupt youth. To what end dost thou object unto me
Paris and Lais ? At home also there are Thaides, at home
Sirenes, at home Medeas. Iniquity in all places is fertill
and fruitfull. Nay rather if any domesticall vices are so
rooted in any by reason of their perverse manners and
disciplines, that they are altogether turned into nutriment
and blood, I thinke that none other remedy can be
used then travell, which is wont to wash away our
blemishes, and by little and little to weare out what
soever is disjoynted, and rough in our naturall
manners.
Howbeit I confesse there are corruptions also amongst
strangers ; there are pleasing angling hookes of pleasure,
and inticing allurements : for some are branded with the
marke of levity, some of luxury, some of disloyalty. But
what good corne I pray you is there ever found, wherewith
some cockle is not mingled ? Therefore it is so far that for
that cause you should thinke men ought not to travell,
that it shold rather further our course. For there is no
surer mean in us to confirm & strengthen our vertue, then
if we shall make triall of our nature by conversing in the
midst of the conflicts of vices, and as it were in the hote
skirmishes and brunt of the battell. Then I will say
thou art valiant, temperate, and continent, not if thou dost
never converse amongst intemperate and voluptuous men,
and dost sparingly live at thine owne house with thy
slender pittance, lurking like a noone-daies Grashopper ;
but if amongst the woers of Penelope themselves, amongst
c. c. 145 K
CORYATS CRUDITIES
Hermann^ the huge holies of the Lapithae, and the swine of Circe,
KircAner s among . st t h e middle of the Sirenes thou preserve thy
(Jration on 1 1 TTI i i > j
Travel contmencie, and with Ulysses returne home mviolated
from Calypso and Circe. For by so much the more
renowned and glorious was Ulysses travell, by how much
the more it was accompanied with danger. Let us there
fore thinke that we are to travell in that maner, that as
we see the river Rosne run through the lake Losanna, or
the fountaine Arethusa through the Sea, and yet is not
sprinckled with any outward saltnes, nor the purity of
the water thereof changed : so let us passe through
nations of divers manners, that we may returne home
untouched with any contagion of perverse maners. But
what answer shall we make to those that complaine that
money is spent by travell? Pray what are they that
object this? Surely such as thinke nothing blessed,
nothing glorious, nothing fortunate, nothing to be desired
but onely riches. Verily they are most unworthy to whom
nature should give any other sense, who had rather want
those true and eternal riches, vertue, wisdome, and the
knowledge of most worthy and profitable matters which
are purchased by travel, then money. They are worthy
to remaine for ever lame and blinde with their Mammon,
and most unworthy to enjoy the benefites of nature, or
and other pleasures which are procured by travell. As
though the dice and dicing boxe, domesticall idlenesse,
domesticall luxury, and the gulfe of domesticall gorman
dising, doth not farre exceed the necessary charges of
travell. Surely the same gulfe of prodigality is at home
that is abroad, the same occasion of wasting our fortunes
and patrimony, the same good fellowship, the same diet,
the same dishes. But let us heare some timorous fellowes :
they feare lest their friends should fall into agues, they
feare their sickenesse, they feare their death ; Why,
do men perish rather abroad then at home? What,
is there no contagion at home? No consumption?
Are there not for the most part greater pestilences
and contagious diseases at home? Why doe we so often
146
IN PRAISE OF TRAVEL
flie from home, and seeke for a secure life abroad as it Hermann
If * L *
were in a Sanctuary ? How many diseases doth domesticall
, j J > . J , Oration on
rest breed a manr At home the gout, at home the Travel.
infirmity of the handes, at home diseases of the feet, at
home consumptions do reigne, and do accompany our
domesticall chaire, our domesticall pillowes, and our softer
beddes, which are oftentimes cured with meere motion and
travell.
But doe you thinke that there is a greater safegard of
our life at home then abroad? since the very Angels
themselves even with great Armies doe travell with us, and
that supreme ruler of our destinies doth govern our paths ;
so that the childe Jesus flieth with us into Egypt : out of
Egypt the fiery pillar returneth with us : in the ship
Christ sitteth with us ; freeth his Jonas and his Paul
miraculously from the tempests, reconcileth our enemies
and Esaus unto us : preserveth our life from theeves,
bringeth us into our Inne when we are wounded, taketh
care of us and payeth a penny for us to our Host. But I
feare (sayest thou) amorous potions and poysons abroad :
Why dost thou lesse feare them at home? At home
there is a step-mother, at home witches and sorcerers, at
home hatred and enmity. How many by their travels
have procured themselves a free evasion from domesticall
calamities and miseries, and from deadly dangers, and
have sought comfort abroad? The Patriarch Jacob
committed himselfe to travell that he might avoyd
domesticall treachery. But what meane I to detain you
longer then you would ? I see nothing doth any longer
hinder you, the gates are open, and all the way is open
for you. Let us follow the most wise counsell of
Apollonius, who affirmeth that it beseemeth yong men to
travell no otherwise then if they were banished out of
their country. Let us therefore abroad seeke for the
knowledge of learning and all arts, abroad science, abroad
wisedome, abroad the garnishing of our manners and
languages, abroad counsell and action, and experience of
all things : from abroad let us bring joy and comfort to
147
CORYAT S CRUDITIES
Hermann our parents, worship and ornament to our family, delight
Klnhners to our friends and kinsfolkes, commodity and profite to
Oration on our Common-weale, glory and immortall honour to
ourselves : and consequently let us prepare our life, which
is nothing else then a dayly travell, to that last and
heavenly pilgrimage, by the custome of these travels here
on earth.
FINIS.
148
LAURENCE WHITAKER S ELOGY
MR. LAURENCE WHITAKERS
ELOGIE OF THE BOOKE.
This Epistle ensuing was written by my deare friend M.
Laurence Whitaker, to a learned neighbour of mine in
the towne of Evill, one M. John Seward, a reverend
Preacher, as his censure or Elogie of my Booke, to the
end the said M. Seward might include it in a Letter
that he wrote to one Doctor Mocket, Chaplaine to the
Bishop of London that then was, for obtaining his
approbation that my Booke might be printed. There
fore seeing it is a wittie and elegant Epistle, I have
thought good to insert it in this place, and to prefixe it
immediately before my booke, though the Author
thereof be disposed in some places to be merry with me.
SIR,
Have, with some difficulty at length Laurence
traced over the high Alpes of this loftye Whitaker to
worke of that worthie Orator, Traveller,
and Historiographer, Mr. Thomas
Coryate : In which long journey though
I have met with many a rough and rocky
passage, yet I have beene so eased with
the delight of many smooth and levell allies of his owne
pleasant invention, that they have bene to me insteade of
an Alpine chaire to carry me at ease over the difficult and
invious precipices. Shall I commend the worke unto you ?
Shall I use any reasons to presse, and to prove the fitnes
of it for the Presse? No, in stead of good juyce to give
it a sweete relish, I should presse out tarte ver- juyce to
give it a distast, and a suspicion of defect, as if it had
149
John Seward
CORYAT S CRUDITIES
Laurence crackes and flawes in it, that needed to be playstered up
Whitaker to W j t j 1 ^ mortar o f commendation. All I will say of it,
John Reward. .,,,.. T . ., J . ,
shall DC this : It is a garment or many colours so curiously
and gracefully intermixed ; it is a garden of fayre flowers,
so pleasantly planted and ordered ; it is a ship of rare
out-landish commodities, that hath lading, yea and ballasse
of such worth and price, that no disgrace can it be to it,
though in this garment were found some rent, in this
garden some weeds, in this ship some trash. I will say
of the Author no worse then Horace saith of Homer,
Sic veris falsa remiscet,
Primo ne medium, medio ne discrepet imum.
What said I ? Veris falsa ? Nay more, sacra profanis,
lasciva modestis, ludicra seriis : Nay, I will say with Ovid,
that there be in it
Mollia cum duris, sine pondere habentia pondus.
No Apothecary could have observed a more judicious
symmetry in the mixture of his potions and electuaries ;
no cooke in the decent composition of his sallets or stewed
brothes. Nay both symmetrie and mixture is here such,
that though I said I would not commend the worke ; yet
I cannot hold, but for the one and the other, I must say
as Horace saith, he is
Primus ad extremum similis sibi
And againe,
Omne tulit punctum, &c.
Lectorem delectando, pariterque monendo.
How strongly hath he fortified his booke with many a
fortresse and Citadel? How loftily hath he adorned it
with many a high tower and steeple? Nay, how richly
and pompously hath hee set out all the Countries he hath
passed through (being, as his title speaketh, in number
seven, equall with the wonders of the world, the wise men
of Greece, and the mouthes of the monster breeding Nile)
having allowed to everyone of them a hundred & odde
John Reward.
LAURENCE WHITAKER S ELOGY
Pages to attend them ; nay for every mile almost seven Laurence
lines to describe it, as by his exact Arithmeticke he can Whitaker to
make it appeare to you? To conclude, if the Pearle of
the Netherlands, Lipsius, were living, I know he would
not thinke me too bold, if I gave of these Monita &
exempla Hodoeporetica, the same censure, that the Regius
& Apostolicus Censor doth of his Monita & exempla
Politica ; Quis ea praslo digna non censeat, cum erudita
sint, cum pulchra varietate lectorem mirifice oblectent,
cum ad illustrationem antiquitatum multum conferant, &
nihil contineant, quod Catholicae fidei adversetur ?
And so commending the Author to your
accustomed favour, and his worke
to your best furtherance,
I rest
Your verie loving friend
LAURENCE WHITAKER.
[Coryats Crudities
CORYATS CRUDITIES.
A Seasick
Traveller.
My Observations of France.
Was imbarked at Dover, about tenne
of the clocke in the morning, the
fourteenth of may, being Saturday and
Whitsun-eve, Anno 1608, and arrived
in Calais (which Caesar calleth Ictius
portus, a maritime towne of that part of
Picardy, which is commonly called le pais
[p. 2.]
Monsieur
de la Genet
a Worthy
Deputy.
* - * i.
reconquis ; that is, the recovered Province, inhabited in
former times by the ancient *Morini.) about five of the
clocke in the afternoone, after I had varnished the exterior
parts of the ship with the excrementall ebullitions of my
tumultuous stomach, as desiring to satiate the gorman
dizing paunches of the hungry Haddocks (according as I
have hieroglyphically expressed it in the front of my
booke) with that wherewith I had superfluously stuffed
my selfe at land, having made my rumbling belly their
rapacious aumbrie.
Presently after my arrival, I was brought with the
rest of my company to the Deputy Governor of the
towne, whose name was Monsieur de la Genet : the
principall Governors name (whom we saw not) was
Monsieur de Vic, who hath one wooden leg. The
Deputy was a very worthy and gallant Gentleman, and
shewed himselfe very affable unto us. For he asked us
many questions, as about our King, and the newes of
Ireland, &c. and very courteously intreated us ; and after
this familiar parle dismissed us to our lodging. For it is
* Of whom Virgil speaketh thus, Extremique hominum Morini.
JEnei. 8.
152
OBSERVATIONS OF CALAIS
the custome of the towne, that whensoever any strangers
arrive there, they are brought before the Deputy Governor,
to the end to be examined about the occasion of their
comming thither, whither they travel!, and to have their
names inrolled before they goe to their lodging. I lay
in Calais Whitsun-eve and all Whitsun-day ; where I
observed these particulars : A little on this side the towne,
when I was on the Sea, I saw a thing which I much
admired ; the sands of Calais, which appeared so plain a The Sands of
great way off, that I thought they had not beene covered Calais.
with any water at all, but drie firme ground for men to
walk on for recreation. The other sands on that part of
the water that our ship sayled on, being not to be seene.
These are such as we cal in Latine Syrtes, that is, quicke
sands. Sometimes at a low ebbe they are all uncovered
with water, insomuch that the people of the towne doe
then walke upon them as upon firme land. But a certain
English man within these few years, was deceived by those
sands : for when he walked alone there, he was suddenly
overtaken and overwhelmed with the waters : for a monu
ment whereof, there are erected two wooden pillars in the
water a little from the haven.
There are two Churches in this towne, to the greatest
whereof I went on Whitsun-day, where I saw their Masse
(but not with that superstitious geniculation, and elevation
of hands at the lifting up of their consecrated Wafer-cake, [p. 3.]
that the rest used) and many ceremonies that I never saw
before. This amongst the rest : about the middle of Strange
their Masse there was an extreme crackling noise from ^ etem
a certain hollow place in the vault of the middle of the
Church. This is the same place, as I take it, where they
let up and downe their Bels. After the noyse there was
powred downe a great deale of water, immediately after
the water ensued a great multitude of Wafer-cakes, both
white, redde and yellow : which ceremony was done to
put them in minde of the cloven tongues, that appeared
that day of Pentecost to the * Apostles in Hierusalem.
*Acts 2.
153
CORYAT S CRUDITIES
Here I observed a great prophanation of the Lords
supper, committed by their irreligious apioXarpeia which
in steed of Christ doth worship the God Maozim.f
Also I saw their mutilated Sacrament, whereof I much
Sacrament in heard before. For I saw the Priest minister the Sacrament
to the lay people under one kind only, namely that of
bread, defrauding them of the Wine, contrary to the holy
institution of Christ and his Apostles, and the auncient
practise of the Primitive Church, which was ever continued
from age to age till the time of * Alexander the third of
that name Pope, who about the time of the Emperour
Fridericus Barbarossa, Anno 1 1 70, began to deprive the
Laity of the other part of the Sacrament.
The high Priest being in very rich copes, went abroad
in Procession round about the Church-yard, after one of
their Masses was done (for that day many Masses were
said in the Church) having a rich silver Crosse carried
before him, and accompanied with many that carried silke
banners and flags after a very Ethnicall and prophane
pompe.
A Fair At the north side of the Quire I saw a faire monument of
Monument. an English Lady, and this Epitaph cut in the stone upon it.
COrpus quiescit marmore, & excitandum tempore,
Vultum dei mens aspicit, formamque splendidissimam
Mater sepulta pulvere, lotus puer baptismate,
Utrumque gleba contegit, uterque surget protinus.
Partus dolore concidit, matris sinu somnum capit,
Utrumque coelum possidet, cum Rex poli devenerit.
Mariae Wentworth mortuae Eques Wentworth parens est
Dominus Praeses Calesiae. Anno Christi millesimo,
Adjunge quingentesimum quartumque ac quinquagesi-
mum,
Habesque vitas terminum. Dies quo tanta foemina
discessit
Is est ordine alter Septembris flebilis
Deflendus orbe lugubri.
f Dan. 1 1, 38. * Chroni. Charionis, lib. 4. in vita Henrici Aucipis.
154
OBSERVATIONS OF CALAIS
These were the words that were ingraven upon her
Tombe, but so intricate and harsh, that every Latinist
cannot understand them. At the west end of the Church
there is a beautiful and faire table exceeding large, wherin
is painted Christ sitting on the Rain-bow, with the soules
of the Saints, and the godly on the right hand of him,
and the devil on the left hand, with a gaping mouth,
devouring the soules of the wicked.
They have a very strict order in this towne, that if Strict order
any stranger of what Nation soever he be, shal be taken kept in Calais.
walking by himself, either towards their Fortresse, which
they call the Rice-banke, or about the greene of the
towne, he shall be apprehended by some Souldiers, and
carried to the Deputy Governor, and committed to safe
custody til he hath paid some fee for his ransome.
They have two very strong Forts belonging to this ^ Stron S
towne, whereof one is the Fortresse before named, called
the Rice banke, which is situate in the middest of the
quicke sands hard by the Sea ; insomuch that the Sea at
every flowing in of the tide, beateth violently on the wals
with the waves thereof. It is a pretty way distant from
the town, and had the denomination of Rice banke upon
this occasion : About the year 1 540, Calais being in the
hands of the English, it happened that an English Sea-
captaine being at Sea, tooke a Barke of Dunkerke laden
with Rice : which when he had brought into Calais haven, [p. 5.]
he acquainted the Governor of the towne with it ; who to
reward him for his prize, took but halfe this Barkes lading
to himselfe, and bestowed the other halfe upon the Sea-
captaine, and granted him this favour besides, that for the
better utterance of it, he should receive the ordinary pay
of the ordinary Souldiers, which garded a little Fort Soldiers Fed
standing in the Sea before Calais haven, and in stead of Wlth
that money which was allowed them for their victuals, he
should feed them with Rice, so long as his Barkes lading
lasted : whereupon the said little Fort hath ever since
been called the Rice-banke, of the abundance of Rice,
buttered and boiled in Pottage, which at that time was
155
CORYAT S CRUDITIES
The Citadel eaten in it. The other Fort is a Citadell, built on a firme
land on the west side of the towne, which seemeth to be
a very great building : but because it is inaccessible to
strangers, I adventured not to approach near unto it to
survay the particulars, for feare of danger. This Citadell
is always fortified with a strong garison of Souldiers. The
Market-place is very spacious and faire, being so large
both for bredth and length, that I never saw the like in
all England : on one side whereof there is a goodly fair
Towne house built of stone worke of a great heigth.
Their land-gate which is built in the south part of the
towne, leading to Boulogne is faire and new, being built
all with bricke.
Before I make an end of my observations of Calais, I
The Surpris- will relate one memorable history concerning the surprising
ing of Calais of the towne by the Spaniards, and the recovery of it
by the again by the Frenchmen, which is this. Anno 1596. the
Archduke Albert having cast off his Cardinals hat, and
being invested Governor of the low Countries for the
King of Spaine, came from Brussels with an army of
fifteen thousand footemen, and foure thousand horsemen,
and caused a report to be scattered abroade that he would
[p. 6.] succour la Fere a town of Picardie belonging to the King
of France, then held by the Spaniard, and besieged by
the French ; and having in the moneth of Aprill found
meanes to put in some little succour into la Fere, secretly
and cunningly turned head towardes Calais : Monsieur de
Rosne Governour of Graveling, a towne of the Archdukes
hard by Calais, understanding that Monsieur de Visdossein
then Governor of Calais, carried himselfe but carelesly and
remissely in his government, and having gotten some
secret intelligence with some of the inhabitants, promised
the Archduke to make him Master of Calais before the
French King should be able to succour it So Rosne
before any body knew his intent got into the country of
Calesis, took the Pont de Nieullet a fort first built by
the English men, and the Rice-banke, and so stopped the
entrance of all succour that could come by Sea. The
156
OBSERVATIONS OF CALAIS
Archduke having notice of this, came with his armie, and Calais
beleaguerd Calais of all sides, tooke the suburbes, and
upon the seaventeenth day of Aprill planted his Cannon
against the towne, and played upon it. The inhabitants
being thus violently assaulted desire a parley, and some
eight or nine days truce, till they might receive the succour
they expected from the King. The Archduke accorded
them sixe dayes truce, upon condition that they would
yeeld him presently the town, and the artillery in it, and
either themselves stay in the towne with their goods, or
retire unto the citadell : so they yielded him the towne
and their houses well furnished, and retired themselves
pellmell unto the citadell. The French King came to
Boulogne with some forces, and sent some two hundred
men to succour the citadell, but to little purpose. For
the Governour and all the souldiers were so terrified with
the Archdukes Cannon, that they were forced to yeeld the
citadell to him. The four and twentith of Aprill, the
Governour Visdossein and eight hundred Gentlemen, Soul- p renc hmen
diers, and townesmen were slaine in the assault, and so the Slain.
French had a great losse, and the Spaniards a large spoile. [p- 7-1
And thus the Archduke tooke it and held it til the peace
at Vervins concluded the twelfth of June Anno 1598. at
which treaty Calais and other places then in the hands of
the Spaniards, were yeelded up to the French, and hath
so ever since continued, 1607. Thus much of Calais.
I Departed from Calais about eleaven of the clocke in
the morning on Whitson-munday, and came to
Boulogne in Picardie, which was sixteene miles distant
from it, about seaven of the clocke in the afternoone.
Betwixt Calais and Boulogne I saw two Churches
grievously demolished, which was done in the time of
the civill warres, and two Monasteries extremely ruinated,
whereof one was situate in a solitary place on the left
hand by the side of a wood.
Boulogne is divided into two parts, the higher and the Boulogne.
lower : in the higher Boulogne there is a very strong and
CORYAT S CRUDITIES
The Great great Castle invironed with exceeding deepe trenches and
J"/ * a strong wall, within the which there are many townesmens
Boulogne. to - . . . . . -.. .
nouses, ror this higher part is so full or private houses,
that though you would take this for a meere Castle being
farre from it, yet when you come into it you will finde it
a populous towne, and well inhabited. Amongst the
rest of their buildings, I observed a Monastery of Canon
Monkes, which is right opposite to the gate as you enter
the towne ; whereof I saw two walking together in long
blacke vailes over their gownes that reached to their shoes.
These were the first Monkes that ever I saw : in the
lower towne which is about a hundred paces distant from
the higher, are three faire streets : in one whereof there
is a Colledge of Franciscan Friers, called the Cordeliers.
This lower Boulogne also is fortified with a strong wall,
[p. 8.] which was made by our English men, after they had
conquered the same, but whether in the time of Edward
the third or Henry the eight I know not.
The old man About a mile from the towne there is a very high and
of Boulogne, strong watch tower built upon the toppe of an eminent
hill, which our English men do commonly call the old
man of Boulogne. This tower in a clear day is easily
to be scene from Dover Castle : it is said that Julius
Caesar was the first founder of this tower, which he erected
to the end to fortifie that place for his souldiers against
the Gaules, and the bordering Britaines whom at that time
he oppugned.
I went from Boulogne about sixe of the clocke the
next morning, being Tuesday the seaventeenth day of
May, and came to Montrel a town of Picardie, which was
sixteene miles beyond it, about foure of the clocke in
the afternoone. Betwixt Boulogne and Montrel I
observed these things ; a little beyond Boulogne there
Gallows of is a Gallowes, consisting of two goodly faire pillers of
Freestone. free-stone, where there is no cross beame as upon our
English gallowes, but that crosse beame is erected when
any are hanged, and taken down againe immediately after
the execution. No offendours are hanged there, but only
158
OBSERVATIONS OF MONTREUIL
fellons. A little beyond that there is a place of execution The
Tor,
Wheel.
made of timber, at the toppe whereof there is a wheele, Tormentoi
whereon the bodies of murderers only are tormented and
broken in peeces with certaine yron instruments, wherewith
they breake their armes first, then their legs and thighes,
and after their breast : If they are favoured their breast is
first broken. That blow on their breast is called the blow
of mercy, because it doth quickly bereave them of their
life. This torment of the wheele I find in Aristotle to
have been used amongst the ancient Grecians also. Who
in the seventh booke of his Ethicks and third Chapter,
useth the word rpo^i^eus which signifieth to be tor
tured with the wheele. Againe, a little beyond that [P- 9-]
place there is a little chappell made conduitwise, wherein
is erected the picture of Christ and the Virgin Mary ;
there I saw three women and a man praying to that
picture. This was the first of those kinde of chappels
that ever I saw, but afterward in Savoy, Piemont, and
some places of Lombardy, I saw very great store of
them.
About eight miles beyond Boulogne I saw a very
ruinous Monastery, which belike was battered down in
the civil warres. About two miles on this side Montrel A
there was a Whitsuntide foole disguised like a foole, Whitsuntide
wearing a long coate, wherein there were many severall
peeces of cloth of divers colours, at the corners whereof
there hanged the tailes of Squirrels : he bestowed a little
peece of plate, wherein was expressed the effigies of the
Virgin Mary, upon every one that gave him money ; for
he begged money of all travellers for the benefite of the
Parish Church.
Montrell is a strong walled towne, situate on a hill, Montreuil.
having a very strong fortification on the toppe thereof,
invironed with a strong wall. There are two gates at the
entrance of the towne, at each whereof there is a guarde
of souldiers that examined us before we came into the
towne. The principall Church of the towne is our Ladies
Church. Our Hostesse of Montrel prayed the Virgin
CORYAT S CRUDITIES
A Country
Cart.
[p. 10.]
The Forest
ofVeronne.
A stately
gallows.
Abbevile.
Picqulgny.
Mary to blesse me, because shee thought I was a Papist,
but when shee understood I was a Protestant, shee seemed
to pitty me.
I departed from Montrel in a cart, according to the
fashion of the country, which had three hoopes over it,
that were covered with a sheet of course canvasse, about
sixe of the clocke the next day in the morning, being
Wednesday, and the eighteenth day of May ; and came to
Abbevile about eleaven of the clocke that morning, betwixt
Montrel and Abbevile twenty miles. About ten miles
on this side Abbevile we entered into a goodly Forrest
called Veronne, which is reported to be forty miles in
compasse : at the entrance whereof a French man that
was in our company, spake to us to take our swords in
our hands, because sometimes there are false knaves in
many places of the Forrest that lurke under trees and
shrubbes, and suddenly set upon travellers, and cut their
throtes, except the true men are too strong for them.
Also there are wild Bores and wild Harts in that Forrest ;
but we saw none of them. About five miles on this side
Abbevile there is a goodly Parke, invironed with a faire
brick wall, wherein there is Deere : a little on this side
Abbevile there is a stately gallowes of foure very high
pillars of free stone, which is joyned together with two
crosse beames of stone, whereon the offenders are hanged.
Abbevile is a goodly faire Citie of Picardy, wherein
are many beautifull buildings both publique and private.
And many Monasteries of men and women : it is very
well peopled : the wals are moated about in some places,
especially about the new wall at the East end of the
towne : that wall is very stately, being of an exceeding
heigth, and goodly armes of the King, &c. made therein.
I went from Abbevile about one of the clocke the same
day, and came about eight of the clocke in the evening
to a countrey village in Picardy called Picquigny, fourteene
miles there hence distant. Most of the country betwixt
these places is exceeding fertill, having as faire meadows,
and fruitfull corne fields as I saw in all France. After
160
OBSERVATIONS OF AMIENS
I had travelled about sixe of those fourteen miles, I over- CaroUu
TTf* *
r^-
TT
tooke a certaine Frier, attired in white habites, whose
name was Carolus Wimier : I walked with him as farre
as Picquigny : he was Ordinis Praemonstratensis, a young
man of the age of two and twenty years, and a prety
Latinist : he went to Amiens to be fully confirmed in his
Orders by the Bishop of Amiens. I found him a very [p. 11.]
good fellow and sociable in his discourses ; for he and I
were so familiar, that we entered into many speeches of
divers matters, especially of Religion, wherein the chiefest
matter that we handled was about the adoration of Images.
I came to the goodly Citie of Amiens, which is the
Metropolitan and capitall Citie of Picardy, about sixe of
the clocke a Thursday morning, being sixe miles distant
from Picquigny. I remained there all that day, and the
next day about two of the clocke in the afternoone I tooke
my journey there hence by Coach towards Paris.
About some two furlongs before I came to Amiens,
I saw two very ancient and stately Abbayes demolished,
one on the right hand, and the other on the left.
T
My Observations of Amiens.
Julius Caesar Scaliger hath written these verses upon
Amiens. Ve 5 u P on
> T -, . r ..,.,. . Amiens.
Erron ruerat peregrmis Gallia turmis,
Terrori Gallis Belgia sola fuit.
Germanus Belgas cum vincit, Belgica Belga
Cum tueor, Belgii Belgia sola fui.
This Citie is called in Latin Ambianum, which name
some say, was imposed upon it by the Emperour Gratian,
because it is compassed about with the river Somna ; before
it was called Samorobrina, and it is said to have been
built by the Emperour Antoninus Pius, and his, adopted
sonne Marcus Aurelius. It is (as I said before) the
Metropolitan of Picardy ; well walled and situate in a
very fertill plaine : it is much greater then Abbevile, and
very populous : I lay at the signe of the Ave Maria,
c. c. 1 6 1 L
CORYAT S CRUDITIES
The Cathedral
Church.
Beautiful
Pictures.
[p. 12.] where I read these two verses written in golden letters
upon the Linterne of the doore, at the entering into the
Inne. This in Greeke, T% c^Ao^ewa? M eTriXavQavecrOe,
that is, Forget not your good entertainment : and this in
Latine, Hospitibus hie tuta fides.
The Cathedral Church of this Citie is dedicated to our
Lady, being the very Queene of al the Churches in France,
and the fairest that ever I saw till then. This Church
was built by a certaine Bishop of this Citie, about foure
hundred years since, whose monument is made in brasse
at the west end of the Church, with certaine Latin
inscriptions about it ; but such is the strangnesse of the
character, that I could not understand it.
There are in the body of this Church two very
sumptuous rows of faire pillars of free-stone, eight in
a row, on each whereof there are hanged divers most
beautiful tables of pictures very exquisitely drawen and
richly gilt, which is indeede the principal thing that doth
so beautifie and adorne this Church, and make it famous
above all the French Churches. Some of these pictures
are of the king of France and his Queene Mary de
Medices, and Monsieur Biron, and many of the other
French Nobility ; many of Christ and the Virgin Mary,
others of religious men and Saints, and some of certaine
benefactors of that Church. Truely such is the beauty
and resplendent grace of these pictures, that it will even
amaze a stranger that never saw the like ; on some pillars
two pictures being hanged, whereof many are of that
largenesse, that they answer the full proportionable length
of a tall mans body.
Towards the upper end of the body of the Church on
the left hand as you enter from the west gate, there is a
marveilous rich Pulpit, the richest that ever I saw till
then, being curiously adorned with many stately pictures
and gilt Images. I take it to be double gilt, and that
over head is answerable to the rest in sumptuousnes.
There is a convenient and pretty roome on the right hand
of the walke, which doth inviron the Quire, wherein is
162
A marvellous
rich Pulpit.
[P-
OBSERVATIONS OF AMIENS
very neatly kept a certaine Tabernacle, made in the forme
of a Turret, which is garnished with many pictures, and
sumptuously gilt : this dooth the fraternity of the shoe
makers carry in solemne procession every St. Stephens day.
In the next roome unto that in the same side of the A Globe of the
walke is very cunningly made in brasse, a Globe or Spheare World.
of the world, both heaven and earth, very costly gilt,
wherein are represented the fixed starres and planets, and
the twelve celestiall signes.
The outside of the west end of the Church, over the
dore is most beautifully decked with exceeding abundance
of Images, wherein many of the principall Histories of
the Scripture, both of the olde and new Testament, are
very lively set forth. Also at the west end of the Church
without the dore the statue of St. Christopher is most
excellently pourtrayed in stone.
The principallest relique that is kept in this Church is St. John
the forepart of St. John Baptists head, which is inclosed ^ a P tliti
in a peece of gold that is beset with many precious stones.
Againe, the same peece of gold is put into another rich
Cabinet, made of crystall ; out of the which it is taken,
whensoever it is shewed to any strangers or any other : it
is never shewed but at sixe of the clocke in the morning,
in a certaine little high Chappell, consecrated to that
purpose. There are about three or foure paire of stairs,
that leade to the same. From the time that the dore of
this Chappell is opened, which is about sixe of the clocke
in the morning there beginneth a Masse there, and
continueth till seven, and then it is shut : so that they
which come after it is shut, cannot see it till the next day.
It is the custome both of strangers and all others that
see it (if they are of any ability) to lay downe some money,
as an offering in a little dish hard by the head, which is
afterward distributed to the poore. Innumerable was the
company of Cockle and Muskle shels and beads, and other [p- 14-]
religious reliques, which I saw hanged up over the dore
of this little Chappell. I was at the Nunnery of the Carmelite
Carmelite Nunnes, right opposite to the entry whereof um
163
CORYAT S CRUDITIES
Franciscan
Nuns.
A new
Nunnery.
there was a very goodly Altar ; at whose sides there were
very curious and rich hangings of white lawne, as I
conceived it, or some other very fine linnen most
exquisitely wrought with needle-worke, and that by the
Nunnes themselves, as it was reported. I saw only two
Nunnes that kept the dore, but I could not be suffered
to see the rest within the Nunnery, because forsooth they
never see any man, for fear of inticements to vanity.
Also I saw another Nunnery of Franciscan Nunnes, where
there was another fair Altar ; I came into their Church at
the time of prayers in the afternoone, the Nunnes being
then at their Vespers, in a higher loft or chappell, unto
the which I could not have accesse. But I saw them at
service sitting in two rowes opposite to each other. They
wore white vailes about their heades, and black over the
same which covered their whole body to their feete : one
of these was a very beautifull woman.
There is now building in Amiens a very faire Nunnery
for the same Carmelite Nunnes, which doe now live in
another Nunnery that is more obscure, and lesse delightfull
for their contemplation. They remove shortly from that
wherein they now live to that which is now building,
because it is a more private and solitary place for their
meditation, and the service of God. Unto this new
Nunnery there belongeth a faire garden full of fine
spacious walkes, beset with sundry pleasant trees. I was
at the Monastery of the Capucins, in whose Church there
were two faire altars, with many pictures of Christ and
Saint Francis. They have a faire garden belonging to
their Monastery, neare to which they have a Cloister,
wherein are hanged many religious pictures, emblemes,
and posies tending to mortification.
A rich altar. At Saint Germans Church there is a wondrous rich
altar, very abundantly decked with precious ornaments,
especially a gilt Tabernacle. This is the fairest Altar
by many degrees that I saw in all the City.
The towne house which is very neare to the gate as
you come into the city from Pickeney is very faire, being
164
[P-
OBSERVATIONS OF AMIENS
three stories high, and built with bricke, having goodly
armes in it.
The fairest cage of birds that I saw in al France, was Cage of
at the signe of the Ave Maria in Amiens, the workmanship Blrdi -
whereof was very curious with gilt wyers. In the same
were four Turtle Doves, and many gold Finches, with
other birds which are such as our hempseede birds in
England.
The first Pilgrime that ever I saw was in Amiens, a
very simple fellow, who spake so bad Latin that a country
Scholler in England should be whipped for speaking the A Pilgrim.
like. He told me that he had lived two yeares at
Compostella, a city and University of Galicia in Spaine,
where Saint James is much worshipped, wherehence he
then came, and was upon going to Rome. He had a long
staffe in his hand with a nobbe in the middle, according
to the fashion of those Pilgrims staffes, a chaine about
his necke full of extraordinary great beades, and a box
by his side, wherein was the picture of our Lady and
Christ in her armes.
Now I will relate as memorable a history of the
Spaniards surprising of this city, and the recovery of it
again by the Frenchmen, as I have done before in my
observations of Calais.
Anno 1597, Henry the fourth King of France having
newly ended his Parliament assembled that yeare at
Rouen, and consulting of putting in execution the lawes The surprize
there made, and of raising a mighty army to chace the f Amiens by
Spaniards out of Picardie ; heard newes of the surprize
of Amiens, which happened thus. Hernand Teillo
Governour of Dourlans a towne in the Frontiers of [p- 16.]
Picardie, now belonging to the French King, but then
held by the Spaniard, having intelligence by some
French men that were then fugitives in Flanders, that
the French King had brought into Amiens forty peeces
of artillery, and a great quantity of pouder, intending
there to make a magazine of munition for the next
Sommers wars, understanding also that the citizens of
165
CORYAT S CRUDITIES
Amiens were stout and mutinous, and had refused a
garrison of Switzers, which the French King would have
sent them ; informed the Archduke of this, and used
meanes to hold further intelligence with some of the most
mutinous within the towne : in confidence whereof he
framed this plot. Upon the tenth of March he caused
Soldiers forty or fifty souldiers to be attired like peasants with
attired like fardels upon their heads and shoulders, and pistols and
Peasants, daggers under their coates : and marches himselfe up to
the towne with some five thousand footemen, and seaven
hundred horsemen, and lodges them overnight in ambus-
cado neare to the town. The next morning early he sends
these disguised souldiers to the gate of the towne, called
la porte de Montrescut, who following a cart that was
going in at the gate, one after an other, as soon as ever
the cart was gotten under the portcullice, one of the
peasants untied closely a sacke of walnuttes, which he
A merry carried, and let them all fall out ; and while the corps de
device. garde, which kept the gate were scrambling to gather them
up, another of these disguised souldiers, cuts the hairness
of the horse, and so with cart and horse barricadoed, and
stopped the passage of the gate : and then the rest drew
forth their weapons, seised upon the rest that guarded the
gate, and made themselves masters of it. Then presently
they gave the Signall to Hernand Teillo, that lay under
the towne with his ambuscado : so he with al his men
[p. 17.] came by troupes unto the towne, got up to the market
place, seised themselves of all the fortresses and Churches,
of the Arsenal, and all the munition at noone day, whiles
the people were at the sermon, and so made themselves
masters of the towne, without any manner of resistance.
The French King presently resolved to beleaguer it againe,
caused great forces to be levied out of France, yea and out
of the most parts of Europe, and particularly foure
thousand out of England, who did speciall service in the
siege. He made the Marshall of Biron, Lieutenant
generall of his army : and though the Archduke came
with a great power to succour the besieged, yet the
166
OBSERVATIONS OF AMIENS
French Kings men continued the siege so resolutely, the
Kings owne presence and the arrival of all the best
commanders of France so encouraged and strengthned
them that they defeated divers of the Archdukes forces ;
Hernand Teillo was slaine in defence of a fort the third Hernnnd
of September, which much comforted them also. At Teillo slain.
last the King and his army charged the Archduke and
his forces so close, that he forced them to retire : and so
being retired seaven leagues from the towne, upon the
nineteenth of September, the towne yeelded upon com
position after the siege of sixe moneths and somewhat
more ; and the five and twentieth of September, all the The Spanian
Spanish forces marched out of the towne, with bagge march out.
and baggage, colours displaied and drum beaten, which
were in all about two thousand footemen, and five hundred
horsemen, a hundred and threescore carts laden with
baggage, and some thousand women of the towne. After
they were gone forth, the King entred the towne with a
thousand Gentlemen on horseback, and sung a Te Deum
in the Cathedrall Church, and so hath ever since held the
towne. Thus much of Amiens.
ITooke my journey from Amiens towards Paris in [p. 18.]
Coach, the twentieth day of May being friday, about
two of the clocke in the afternoone, and came that night
by seaven of the clocke in the evening, to a village in
the country fourteen miles therehence called Bretueil. Breteuil.
In that space I observed only these two things, a village
exceedingly ransacked and ruinated, by meanes of the civil
warres. And about some few miles on this side Bretueil,
certaine vineyards which were the first that ever I saw.
I went from Bretueil on Saturday, being the one and
twentieth of May, about five of the clocke in the morning,
and came about noone to a towne in the Province of
Beauvoisis called Clermont, situate upon the toppe of a Ckrmont.
hill, being fourteen miles from Bretueil. This Clermont
is a meane and ignoble place, having no memorable thing
therein worthy the observation. Only I talked with a
167
CORYAT S CRUDITIES
A Friar born certaine Franciscan Frier there, borne in Ireland, who
seemed to be a pretty Schollar and a man of good parts.
He was then travelling to Abbevile to preach there. I
observed this in him, that he was as well able to discourse
of al particular politique and state matters of England, as
any man in our company : and hee spake passing good
English. This also I observed in Clermont, in the
middest of a streete there was erected a gibbet with the
A picture picture of a certaine fellow called Antony Peel, who was
hanged instead painted hanging on a gallowes in the same picture. Under
the which his offence was mentioned by way of a pro
clamation for apprehending of him. The reason why his
picture was set forth in that manner, was this : That as
his picture was there hanged, so should he also if he might
be apprehended. This custome is observed in many
places of France.
The Castle of In this towne is an old decayed Castle, belonging in
Clermont. auncient time to the Counts of Clermont, the first of
whom Robert was youngest sonne to Saint Lewes King
[p- *9-] of France, and from whom Henry the 4, King of France
and Navarre, lately slaine by that butcherly Ravilliacke,
was lineally descended.
I departed from Clermont about three of the clocke in
the afternoone, and about sixe of the clocke came to a
little towne hard by the ferry where we were transported
Saint Liew. i n t o the He of France, called Saint Liew. This was
twelve miles from Clermont : in this space I observed no
memorable thing.
The next morning being Trinity Sunday about foure
of the clocke, I was transported over a river called the
Oyse, which doth part Picardie from the He of France.
Saint Brixe. That day I dined at a Parish called Saint Brixe, which was
twelve miles beyond Saint Liew. Betwixt Saint Liew and
Saint Brixe I observed these things. An exceeding rich
and fertile country, full of corne, especially rie, meadowes,
pastures, wooddes, many sweete rivers, a great multitude
of goodly and sumptuous houses on both sides as we rod,
most whereof were said to be the Advocates of Paris.
168
OBSERVATIONS OF SAINT DENIS
Also many goodly rowes of wall-nutte trees, about three
or foure miles after we were entred into the Isle, the
fairest that ever I saw till then, about two hundred at the
least in a row. About two miles on this side Saint Brixe,
there is a most magnificent Palace built of faire white The Palace of
free stone with many lofty turrets on the toppe of a hill, E scovan -
in a beautifull parke. The place is called Escovan. This
place belongeth to Monsieur Montmorencie the high
Constable of France, who hath seaventeene Townes and
Parishes in the country belonging to it, which are very
neare bordering about it.
I went from St. Brixe about one of the clocke in the
afternoone, and came to Paris, which was eight miles
therehence, about sixe of the clocke that day : the things
that I observed betwixt St. Brixe and Paris were these :
seven faire Pillars of free stone erected by an equall
distance from each other, betwixt St. Denis and Paris, [p- 20
In each of these is erected the Image of St. Denis the ts
Areopagite in stone, with his two companions Rusticus
and Eucherius. This S. Denis was S. Pauls Disciple,
and the first that preached the Gospell to the Gaules.
There is a certaine speech of his written in some of the
Ecclesiasticall authors, which is this : Aut Deus naturae
patitur, aut mundi machina dissoluetur. He spake that
in Egypt whither he betooke himselfe for learning sake,
when he saw that admirable eclipse of the Sunne, which
was at the time of Christs passion, being mentioned in
the sacred Evangelists. The reason why these pillars A miracle too
or crosses are erected to the honour of S. Denis, is, S reat to be
because they report (and indeed the legend of Saints, true
which was composed by Jacob de Voragine Bishop of
Genua affirmeth it) that when he walked betwixt Paris
(where he was beheaded for the Gospell sake) and a pretty
towne four miles from it, which is now called by his
name, he rested seven times by the way with his head
in his hand, before he came to the towne. A miracle too
great to be true, though indeed I heard of the like
example in Zurich the Metropolitan City of Swicerland,
169
CORYAT S CRUDITIES
Julius
F
as I will hereafter mention in my observations of that
Citie.
Gallows on A little on this side Paris, even at the towns end, there
MountFalcon. j s t he fayrest Gallowes that ever I saw, built upon a little
hillocke called Mount Falcon, which consisteth of four-
teene fair pillars of free-stone : this gallowes was made
in the time of the Guisian massacre, to hang the Admiral
of France Chatillion, who was a Protestant, Anno Dom.
1572.
My Observations of Paris.
Caesar Scaliger hath written this hexastichon
in praise of Paris.
(Rancigense Princeps populosa Lutetia gentis
Exerit immensum clara sub astra caput.
[p. 21.] Hie civis numerum, ars precium, sapientia finem
Exuperant, superant thura precesque Deos.
Audiit obstupuitque hospes, factusque viator
Videt, & haud oculis credidit ipse suis.
The Great- This Citie is exceeding great, being no lesse then ten
ness of Paris, miles in circuit, very populous, and full of very goodly
buildings, both publique and private, whereof the greatest
part are of faire white free-stone : wherewith it is naturally
more plentifully furnished then any Citie of Christendome
that ever I read or heard of. For the whole citie, together
with the suburbes, is situate upon a quarre of free stone,
which doth extend it selfe to a great part of the territorie
round about the citie, and ministreth that inexhausted
plenty of stone for their houses. It is round and invironed
with very auncient stone wals that were built by Julius
Caesar when he made his residence here in the midst of his
French conquests, from whom some have not doubted in
former times to call it the citie of Julius. In those wals
it hath at this time fourteene faire gates. As for her
name of Paris, she hath it (as some write) from Paris the
eighteenth King of Gallia Celtica, whom some write to
have been lineally descended from Japhet, one of the three
sonnes of Noah, and to have founded this citie : but the
170
OBSERVATIONS OF PARIS
name of Lutetia it doth well brooke, Conveniunt rebus Dirty Stre,
nomina saepe suis, being so called from the latin word
Lutum, which signifieth durt, because many of the streetes
are the durtiest, and so consequently the most stinking of
all that ever I saw in any citie in my life. It is divided
into three parts, the University, the Citie, and the Town
by the noble river Sequana, commonly called la riviere de
Seine, which springeth from a certaine hill of Burgundy
called Voga, neare to the people of Langres, in Latin
Lingones. The University whereof I can speake very The
little, (for to my great griefe I omitted to observe those University.
particulars in the same that it behoved an observative [p. 22.]
traveller, having seene but one of their principall Col-
ledges, which was their famous Sorbona, that fruitfull
nursery of Schoole-divines) was instituted in the yeare
796, by the good Emperor Charles the great, who used
the helpe of our learned Countreyman Alcuinus his
Master, and the Schollar of Venerable Beda in the erecting
thereof. But to returne againe to the noble River Seine :
There was building over it when I was in the Citie, a
goodly Bridge of white free-stone, which was almost Bridges
ended. Also there is another famous bridge in this Citie, the
which farre excelleth this before mentioned, having one
of the fairest streetes of all the Citie, called our Ladies
street, in French la rue de nostre Dame built upon it.
I have heard that Jucundus a certain Bishop of this citie,
built this bridge ; of whom I have likewise heard this
elegant distichon :
Jucundus duplicem struxit tibi Sequana pontem,
Hunc tu jure potes dicere Pontificem.
He calls it Duplicem, because there was another bridge
neare unto that called the little bridge, built by the same
man at the same time.
Besides there are three faire bridges more built upon
this river, whereof the one is called the bridge of exchange,
where the Gold-smiths dwell, S. Michaels bridge, and
the bridge of birdes, formerly called the millers bridge.
171
CORYAT S CRUDITIES
The reason why it is called the bridge of birdes, is, because
all the signes belonging unto shops on each side of the
streete are signes of birds.
TheCatkedrd The Cathedrall Church is dedicated to our Lady, which
Church of is nothing so faire as our Lady Church of Amiens : for
Our Lady. j could see no notable matter in it, saving the statue of
St. Christopher on the right hand at the coming in of the
great gate, which indeed is very exquisitely done, all the
rest being but ordinary, as I have seene in other Churches,
The street which is called la rue de nostre Dame (as I
[p. 23.] have before written) that is, our Lady streete is very
faire, being of a great length, though not so broad as our
Cheapside in London : but in one thing it exceedeth any
street in London ; for such is the uniformity of almost al
the houses of the same streete which stand upon the bridge,
that they are made alike both in proportion of workman
ship and matter : so that they make the neatest shew of all
the houses in Paris.
The Via Jacobaea is very full of booke-sellers that have
faire shoppes most plentifully furnished with bookes.
The Exchange I was at the *Pallace where there is the exchange, that
f the is a place where the Marchants doe meete at those times
Merchants. Q f ^ ^^ ag our ]y[ arc h ants joe m London. But it is
nothing comparable to the place of our Marchants meeting
in London, being a plaine pitched walke subdio, that is
under the open ayre. As for their exchange where they
sell many fine and curious things, there are two or three
pretty walks in it, but neither for length, nor for the roofe,
nor the exquisite workmanship is it any way to be com
pared with ours in London. In this Palace there are
sundry faire buildings, whereof one is very spacious and
broad, and of a great heigth, adorned with many goodly
pillars of free-stone, wherein the Advocats and civil
Lawyers with many others do walke ; and it serveth the
French men in that manner as our Westminster hall doth
us English men. A little within this hall there is another
goodly and beautiful roome, wherein the Judges sit in
* Built by Philip the faire, Anno 1313.
172
OBSERVATIONS OF PARIS
judgment : there do the Advocats and Civilians pleade, The hall of
and discusse matters of controversie. There I saw two Judgment.
grave auncient Judges sit in judgment in their scarlet
gownes, accompanied at the bench with many other
Civilians that were attired in blacke gownes, with certaine
tippets and formalities that they weare upon pleading days,
as the badges of their profession. The roofe of this roome
is very rich, being sumptuously gilt and embossed with
an exceeding multitude of great and long bosses hanging
downward, which were likewise gilt.
I went the three and twentieth of May being [p. 24.]
Trinity Munday in the afternoone to the Kings Palace, The Kings
which is called the Loure : this was first built by Philip
Augustus King of Fraunce, about the yeare 1214, and
being afterward ruined by time, was most beautifully
repaired by Henry the second. Therein I observed these
particulars : A faire quadrangular Court, with goodly
lodgings about it foure stories high, whose outside is
exquisitely wrought with white free-stone, and decked
with many stately pillars and beautiful Images made of
the same stone. As we go up towards the hall there are
three or foure paire of staires, whereof one paire is passing
c s c --ru c
faire, consisting or very many greeses. 1 he roore over
these staires is exceeding beautifull, being made ex forni-
cato seu concamerato opere, vaulted with very sumptuous
frettings or chamferings, wherein the formes of clusters of
grapes and many other things are most excellently
contrived. The great chamber is very long, broad and
high, having a gilt roofe and richly embossed : the next
chamber within it, which is the Presence, is very faire,
being adorned with a wondrous sumptuous roofe, which
though it be made but of timber worke, yet it is exceeding
richly gilt, and with that exquisite art, that a stranger upon
the first view thereof, would imagine it were either latten
or beaten gold.
I was also in a chamber wherein Queene Mary doth The Queen s
often lie, where I saw a certaine kinde of raile which Chamber.
encompasseth the place where her bedde is wont to be,
73
CORYAT S CRUDITIES
having little pretty pillars richly gilt. After this I went
into a place which for such a kinde of roome excelleth in
my opinion, not only al those that are now in the world,
but also all whatsoever that ever were since the creation
The Gallery, thereof, even a gallery, a perfect description whereof wil
require a large volume. It is divided into three parts, two
sides at both the ends, and one very large and spacious
[p. 25.] walke. One of the sides when I was there, was almost
ended, having in it many goodly pictures of some of the
Kings and Queenes of France, made most exactly in
wainscot, and drawen out very lively in oyle workes upon
the same. The roofe of most glittering and admirable
beauty, wherein is much antique worke, with the picture
of God and the Angels, the Sunne, the Moone, the
Starres, the Planets, and other Celestiall signes. Yea so
unspeakeably faire it is, that a man can hardly comprehend
it in his minde, that hath not first scene it with his bodily
The long eyes. The long gallery hath at the entrance therof a
Gallery. goodly dore, garnished with foure very sumptuous marble
pillers of a flesh colour, interlaced with some veines of
white. It is in breadth about ten of my paces, and above
five hundred in length, which maketh at the least half a
mile. Also there are eight and forty stately partitions of
white free stone on each side of this long gallery, each
being about some twelve foote long, betwixt the which
there are faire windowes : the walles of the gallery are
Walls two about two yardes thicke at the least. The gallery is
yards thick, covered with blew slatte like our Cornish tile. In the
outside of one of the walles neare to the River Seine,
there are four very stately pillers of white free stone,
most curiously cut with sundry faire workes, that give
great ornament to the outward frontispice of the worke.
On the west side of the gallery there is a most beautifull
garden divided into eight severall knots. The long
gallery, when I was there was imperfect, for there was
but halfe of the walke boorded, and the roofe very rude,
the windowes also and the partitions not a quarter finished.
For it is reported that the whole long gallery shall be
OBSERVATIONS OF PARIS
made correspondent to the first side that is almost ended.
At the end of the long gallery there were two hundred Two Hundred
masons working on free stone every day when I was there, Masons.
to make an end of that side which must answere the first
side that is almost ended. Neare to which side there is
a goodly Pallace called the Tuilleries, where the Queene [p- 2 ^-]
mother was wont to lie, and which was built by her selfe.
This Pallace is called the Tuilleries, because heretofore The Palace of
they used to burne tile there, before the Pallace was built. the Tuileries.
For this French word Tuillerie doth signifie in the French
a place for burning of tile.
The sixe and twentieth day of May being Thursday,
and Corpus Christi day, I went to the foresaid Pallace
which shall be joyned to the Loure by that famous gallery,
when it is once ended.
This Palace of the Tuilleries is a most magnificent
building, having in it many sumptuous roomes. The The Chamber
chamber of Presence is exceeding beautifull, whose roofe of Presence.
is painted with many antique workes, the sides and endes
of this chamber are curiously adorned with pictures made
in oyleworke upon wainscot, wherein amongst many other
things the nine Muses are excellently painted. One of
the inner chambers hath an exceeding costly roofe gilt, in
which chamber there is a table made of so many severall
colours of marble, and so finely inlayed with yvorie, (which Ivory Work.
kinde of worke is called in Latin cerostratum) that it is
thought to be worth above five hundred pound. The
staires very faire, at the edge whereof there is a goodly
raile of white stone, supported with little turned pillers
of brasse. The staires are winding having a stately roofe
with open spaces like windowes to let in the aire. On
the southside of the Pallace there is a faire walke leaded,
but without any roofe, where I saw a goodly peece of
Jeate in the wall of a great length and breadth. But it
was so hackled that it seemed to be much blemished.
There is a most pleasant prospect from that walke over
the railes into the Tuillerie garden, which is the fairest
garden for length of delectable walkes that ever I saw,
CORYAT S CRUDITIES
The Tuileries
Garden.
[P- 27-]
A Fish Pond.
Pompous
Ceremonies on
CorpusChristi
Day.
but for variety of delicate fonts and springes, much
inferior to the Kings garden at Fountaine Beleau. There
are two walkes in this garden of an equall length, each
being 700 paces long, whereof one is so artificially roofed
over with timber worke, that the boughes of the maple
trees, wherewith the walke is on both sides beset, doe
reach up to the toppe of the roofe, and cover it cleane over.
This roofed walke hath sixe faire arbours advanced to a
great heigth like turrets. Also there is a long and spacious
plot full of hearbes and knots trimly kept by many persons.
In this garden there are two fonts wherein are two auncient
Images of great Antiquity made of stone. Also there
is a faire pond made foure square, and built all of stone
together with the bottome, wherein there is not yet either
fish or water, but shortly it shall be replenished with both.
There I saw great preparations of conduits of lead, wherein
the water shal be conveighed to that pond. At the end
of this garden there is an exceeding fine Eccho. For I
heard a certaine French man who sung very melodiously
with curious quavers, sing with such admirable art, that
upon the resounding of the Eccho there seemed three to
sound together.
Seeing I have now mentioned Corpus Christi day, I will
also make relation of those pompous ceremonies that were
publiquely solemnized that day in the streetes of the city,
according to their yearlie custome : this day the French
men call Feste de Dieu, that is, the feast of God. And
it was first instituted by Pope Urban the fourth, by the
counsell of Thomas Aquinas, a little before the raigne of
the Emperour Rodolphus Habspurgensis.
About nine of the clock the same day in the morning,
I went to the Cathedrall Church which is dedicated to
our Lady (as I have before written) to the end to observe
the strange ceremonies of that day, which for novelty sake,
but not for any harty devotion (as the KapSiayvuxrTw
God doth know) I was contented to behold, as being the
first that ever I saw of that kinde, and I hartily wish they
may be the last. No sooner did I enter into the Church
176
OBSERVATIONS OF PARIS
but a great company of Clergy men came forth singing,
and so continued all the time of the procession, till they [p- 28.]
returned unto the Church againe, some by couples, and
some single. They walked partly in coapes, whereof
some were exceeding rich, being (in my estimation) worth
at the least a hundred markes a peece ; and partly in
surplices. Also in the same traine there were many
couples of little singing choristers, many of them not Little Singing
above eight or nine yeares old, and few above a dozen : Choristers.
which prety innocent punies were so egregiously deformed
by those that had authority over them, that they could
not choose but move great commiseration in any relenting
spectator. For they had not a quarter so much haire left
upon their heads as they brought with them into the
world, out of their mothers wombs, being so clean shaved
away round about their whole heads that a man could
perceive no more then the very rootes. A spectacle very
pittifull (me thinks) to behold, though the Papists esteeme
it holy. The last man of the whole traine was the Bishop The Bishop of
of Paris, a proper and comly man as any I saw in all the Par "-
city, of some five and thirty yeares old. He walked not
sub dio, that is, under the open aire, as the rest did. But
he had a rich cannopy carried over him, supported with
many little pillers on both sides. This did the Priests
carry : he himselfe was that day in his sumptuous Ponti-
ficalities, wearing religious ornaments of great price, like
a second Aaron, with his Episcopall staffe in his hand,
bending round at the toppe, called by us English men a
Croisier, and his Miter on his head of cloth of silver,
with two long labels hanging downe behind his neck. As The streets
for the streets of Paris they were more sumptuously sum j> tuoui fy
adorned that day then any other day of the whole yeare,
every street of speciall note being on both sides thereof,
from the pentices of their houses to the lower end of the
wall hanged with rich cloth of arras, and the costliest
tapistry that they could provide. The shewes of our
Lady street being so hyperbolical in pomp that day, that
it exceeded the rest by many degrees. And for the greater [p. 29.]
c.c. 177 M
Artificial
Rocks.
TheSacrament
of (he Altar.
CORYAT S CRUDITIES
addition of ornament to this feast of God, they garnished
Rick Plate many of their streets with as rich cupboords of plate as
exposed. ever I saw J n a }l m y Hf e . For they exposed upon their
publique tables exceeding costly goblets, and what not
tending to pompe, that is called by the name of plate.
Upon the middest of their tables stood their golden
Crucifixes, with divers other gorgeous Images. Likewise
in many places of the city I observed hard by those cup
boords of plate, certayne artificiall rocks, most curiously
contrived by the very quintessence of arte, with fine water
spowting out of the cocks, mosse growing thereon, and
little sandy stones proper unto rockes, such as we call in
Latin tophi : Wherefore the foresaid sacred company,
perambulating about some of the principall streets of
Paris, especially our Lady street, were entertained with
most divine honours. For wheras the Bishop carried the
Sacrament, even his consecrated wafer cake, betwixt the
Images of two golden Angels, whensoever he passed by
any company, all the spectators prostrated themselves most
humbly upon their knees, and elevated their handes with
all possible reverence and religious behaviour, attributing
as much divine adoration to the little wafer cake, which
they call the Sacrament of the Altar, as they could doe to
Jesus Christ himselfe, if he were bodily present with them.
If any Godly Protestant that hateth this superstition,
should happen to be amongst them when they kneele, and
forbeare to worship the Sacrament as they doe, perhaps he
may be presently stabbed or otherwise most shamefully
abused, if there should be notice taken of him. After
they had spent almost two houres in these pompous (I will
not say theatricall) shewes, they returned again to our Lady
Church, where was performed very long and tedious
Solemn devotion, for the space of two houres, with much excellent
Masses. singing, and two or three solemne Masses, acted by the
[p. 30.] Bishops owne person. With his crimson velvet gloves
and costly rings upon his fingers, decked with most
glittering gemmes. Moreover, the same day after dinner
I saw the like shew performed by the Clergy in the holy
178
OBSERVATIONS OF PARIS
procession in the morning. Queene Margarite the Kings
divorced wife being carried by men in the open streets
under a stately cannopy : and about foure of the clocke,
they made a period of that solemnity, all the Priests
returning with their Sacrament to our Lady Church, where
they concluded that dayes ceremonies with their Vespers.
There are not Termes in Paris as in London, but one
Terme only, that continueth the whole yeare, so that every
weeke in the yeare, saving in the vintage time, which is in
September, the Civilians meete together at the Palace for
the debating of matters of controversie. But they do not
repaire to Paris for matters of justice from all the parts of
France, as in England we doe to London from al the
remotest shires of our land, because it would be both an
exceeding charge and trouble to the inhabitants of the
country to be drawen to Paris, the head city of the land,
seing some of the people dwell at the least four or five
hundred miles from Paris. Therefore for the avoiding of
this inconvenience, they keepe their Courts of Parliament
in certaine principall cities, unto the which all they that
dwell in that Dominion, whereof the city is head, make
their repaire for determining their suites of law : these
cities are in number eight. Paris in the Isle of France :
Tholosa in Languedoc : Rouen in Normandy : Burdeaux
in Aquitaine : Aix in Province : Gratianopolis, alias
Grenoble, in Dolphinie : Dijon in Burgundie : Rhenes in
little Britaine.
I observed in Paris great aboundance of mules, which
are so highly esteemed amongst them, that the Judges and
Counsellers doe usually ride on them with their foot clothes.
Also I noted that Gentlemen and great Personages in
Paris doe more ride with foote-clothes, even foure to one
then our English gentlemen doe.
They report in Paris that the thorny crowne wherewith
Christ was crowned on the Crosse is kept in the Palace,
which upon Corpus Christi day in the afternoone was
publiquely shewed, as some told me, but it was not my
chance to see it. Truely I wonder to see the contrarieties
179
Queen
Margaret.
Courts of
Parliament
kept in eight
principal
Cities.
[P- 3I-]
The Crown of
Thorns.
CORYAT S CRUDITIES
The Vanities amongst the Papists, and most ridiculous vanities concern-
Re/icf" ln their reliques, but especially about this of Christs
thorny crowne. For whereas I was after that at the city
of Vicenza in Italy, it was told me, that in the Monastery
of the Dominican Fryers of that citie, this crown was kept,
which St. Lewes King of France bestowed upon his
brother Bartholomew Bishop of Vicenza, and before one
of the Dominican Family : wherefore I went to the
Dominican Monastery, and made suit to see it, but I had
the repulse ; for they told me that it was kept under three
or four lockes, and never shewed to any, by any favour
whatsoever, but only upon Corpus Christi day. If then
this crowne of Paris, whereof they so much bragge, be
true, that of Vincenza is false : * Lo the truth and
certainty of Papistical reliques. I lay at the house of a
certain French Protestant in the suburbes of St. Germans,
who in the civill warres fought against the Papists, and
was most grievously wounded, who shewed me his
wounds. His name was Monsieur de la Roy.
I enjoyed one thing in Paris, which I most desired above
all other things, and oftentimes wished for before I saw
the citie, even the sight and company of that rare ornament
Isaac of learning Isaac Casaubonus, with whom I had much
Casaubon. familiar conversation at his house, near unto St. Germans
gate within the citie. I found him very affable and
courteous, and learned in his discourses, and by so much
the more willing to give me entertainment, by how much
the more I made relation to him of his learned workes,
[p- 3 2 -] whereof some I have read. For many excellent bookes
hath this man (who is the very glory of the French
Protestants) set forth, to the great benefite and utility of
the Common-weale of learning : as all the workes of
Aristotle Greek and Latin, though indeed the Latin trans
lation of other men : annotations upon Strabo, Diogenes
Laertius, Suetonius, Plinies Epistles, Theocritus and
Persius : Athenaeus illustrated with a learned Commen
tary : Theophrasti characters : Polybius translated : a
* If that of Vincenza be true, this of Paris is false.
180
OBSERVATIONS OF PARIS
learned Discourse de Satira Romana & Grseca : Apuleii
Apologia : Gregorii Nysseni Epistola de euntibus Hiero-
solyman : Inscriptio antiqua : Historia Augusta : with
which excellent fruits of his rare learning he hath purchased
himselfe great fame in most places of the Christian world.
Surely I beleeve he is a man as famous in France for his
admirable knowledge in the polite learning and liberall
sciences, as ever was Gulielmus Budeus in his time.
Lately hath this peerlesse man made a happy transmigra- Isaac
tion out of France into our renowned Island of great Casaubonnow
Britaine, to the great joy of the learned men of our Nation, ln Bnfatn -
whom he doth exceedingly illuminate with the radiant
beames of his most elegant learning ; my selfe having had
the happinesse to enjoy his desirable commerce once since
his arrivall here. Two most memorable notes I derived
from him, which I shall not this long time commit to
oblivion : whereof the one was, that it was great pitty
there is not found some learned man in England that
would write the life and death of Queene Elizabeth in
some excellent stile, that might propagate the memory of A worthy
so famous, religious, and learned a Queene to posterity, enterprise.
as a lively patterne for other Christian Princes, if not to
imitate, at the least to admire. Certainly it is greatly to
be wished that some notable man of profound learning
(with whom our Kingdom is as plentifully furnished, in
my opinion, as any nation of al Christendome) would
undertake this so laudable a taske, wherewith he might [p. 33.]
immortalize and consecrate to eternity the rare gifts of
that incomparable Queene, most deservedly called the
Phoenix of her sex : a worke that would be very acceptable
(being exquisitely handled) not onely to the learned men
of our owne Nation, but also to al forraine Countries that
embrace the reformed religion. I would to God that these
few lines wherein I have made relation of that learned
mans speeches, may minister occasion to some singular
scholler to take in hand this worthy enterprise. The other
was, that I might see the next morning (if I would be
abroad in the streetes) a certaine prophane and superstitious
181
CORYAT S CRUDITIES
The ceremony ceremony of the Papists, which might be very fitly com-
ofcarrymgthe p are d to a ceremony of the Pagans in Greece, called
TraiTTocfropia, which signified the carrying of a bedde.
For even as they carried a bedde abroad in solemne
procession upon certaine dayes, with the Images of some
of their gods upon it : so may you to morrow morning
being Corpus Christi day (sayd he) see in the streets of
this City a bedde carried after a very Ethnicall manner, or
rather a Cannopy in the forme of a bedde, under the
which the Bishop of the city with certaine Priests that
carry the Sacrament do walke ; which indeed I saw per
formed with a great company of strange ceremonies, as I
have before written.
In the Church of St. Germans Abbey, which is in the
Suburbes of the City, I saw a gray Frier shrift a faire
Gentlewoman, which I therefore mention because it was
the first shrifting that ever I saw. Thus much of Paris.
I
Went to S. Denis, which is foure miles from Paris,
the foure and twentieth of May, being Tuesday, after
dinner, where I saw many remarkable and memorable
[p- 34-] things. I passed through a Cloyster before I came into
the Church. These are the particulars that I saw : in a
certaine loft or higher roome of the Church I saw the
Images of the images of many of the French Kings, set in certain woden
French Kings cupbords, whereof some were made onely to the middle
at 5. Dems. w ^ tne r Crownes on their heads. But the Image of
the present King is made at length with his Parliament
roabes, his gowne lined with ermins, and his crowne on
his head. There also I saw the crowne wherewith the
Kings of France are crowned, and another wherewith the
Queenes are crowned, being very rich and beset with
many pretious stones of exceeding worth : the gowne faced
with ermins, which they weare upon the day of their
inauguration : their bootes, which they weare then also,
being of watchet Velvet, wherein many Flower de-luces
are curiously wrought : their spurres of beaten gold ; a
sword of King Salomons, whose handle was massie golde :
182
OBSERVATIONS OF SAINT DENIS
his drinking cuppe made of a rich kinde of stone : a rich
drinking cup of John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster : two Treasures
Crucifixes of inestimable worth, beset with wonderfull
variety of precious stones, as Carbuncles, Rubies,
Diamonds, &c. two Scepters of massie gold that the King
and Queene do carrie in their handes at their coronation : a
representation of our Lady Church in Paris, made of
silver, being a monument of exceeding value ; for it
containeth the riches of our Lady Church, as gold and
jewels, &c. All these things I saw in that roome. When
I went out of that loft, I descended a paire of staires, and
came into the Quire, where very neare to the high Altar,
I saw the Sepulchres and monuments of the auncient Kings Monuments of
and Queenes of France, made in Alabaster. Amongst the the ancient
rest, the monument of Carolus Calvus King of France, Kings of
and afterward Emperour, who bestowed on that Church
one of the nayles wherewith Christ was crucified, as they
affirme : that nayle I saw set in a faire peece of silver plate
double gilt, at the top whereof there was a silver Theca [p. 35.]
or Sheath, which contained the nayle. This Carolus lived
about the yeare 841, and died in Mantua, as I will here
after declare in my observations of that Citie. A most
inestimable rich crosse, very gorgeously adorned with
wondrous abundance of pretious stones of divers sorts,
which King Dagobert, who was the founder of that
Church, bestowed upon it : a Font of baptisme, made of
porphyrie stone which was also bestowed on that Church
by the said King, who after he had conquered Poitiers
brought it there hence to this Church. The same Dago-
berts monument I saw there, and under his Effigies this
Epitaph is written :
FIngitur hac specie bonitatis odore refertus
Istius Ecclesiae fundator Rex Dagobertus
Justitiae cultor, cunctis largus dator aeris :
Affuit & sceleris ferus ac promptissimus ultor.
Armipotens bellator erat, velutique procella
Hostes confregit, populosque per arma subegit.
183
CORYAT S CRUDITIES
Carolus Also the monument of Carolus Martellus the grandfather
Martellus, Q f c aro j us Magnus. He was a very renowned and famous
man in his time, Duke of Brabant, and stiled in Latin by
the title of Major domus, that is, the prefect of the Kings
house : a very eminent title of dignitie used in those days
in the French Court ; which whosoever enjoyed (as did
this Martellus for the space of six and twenty yeares) was
esteemed the principal man of all France next to the
King. This man is much ennobled by many classical
Historiographers for his worthy exploits, especially for
that most glorious victory that he got of Abidirimus king
of the Saracins, whom he slew neare the citie of Tours in
France, together with his whole armie that contained three
hundred and seventie five thousand men ; but of his owne
side he lost but one thousand and five hundred persons.
The Epitaph written upon his Tombe is this :
[p- 36.] TLle Brabantinus Dux primus in orbe triumphans,
JL Malleus in mundo specialis Christicolarum,
Dux Dominusque Ducum, Regum quoque Rex fore
spernit,
Non vult regnare, sed Regibus imperat ipse.
Besides the Tombe of Carolus, which was the eldest of
Carolus Magnus three sonns, by his second wife Hilde-
gardis, daughter of the famous Godfrey Duke of
Almannie. This Carolus was by his father made king
An Unicorn s of Germany : an Unicornes home valued at one hundred
thousand crownes, being about three yardes high, even
so high that I could hardly reach to the top of it : the
monument of the late Queene mother Katharine de
Medicis, exceeding richly made of Alabaster with her
statue, and her husbands upon it Henry the second. This
Tombe is valued at twenty thousand crownes, at two
corners whereof there are two very sumptuous Images
that represent Virgins made of a rich kind of mettall : each
of those Images cost two thousand crownes. About the
Tombe are many rich marble pillars, whose base is made
of marble also : an exceeding rich shrine, wherein the
184
horn.
The Queen
Mother s
Monument,
OBSERVATIONS OF FONTAINEBLEAU
body of St. Denis the Deus Tutelaris, or Patron of St. Denis the
Fraunce was intombed, with his two companions Rusticus Pafrc
and Eucherius. Upon that shrine I saw St. Denis his
head inclosed in a wonderful rich helmet, beset with
exceeding abundance of pretious stones : but the skull it
selfe I saw not plainly, only the forepart of it I beheld
through a pretty crystall glasse by the light of a waxen
candle. Moreover amongst many other monuments I saw
the monument of the Cardinal! of Bourbon, and his
statue very curiously made over it in Cardinals habites
with his armes and scutchin. Thus much of St. Denis
Abbay.
PEter Molinus a most famous and learned Protestant Peter
preacheth usually every second Sunday at a place Molinus.
called Charenton, about four miles from Paris, where [p. 37.]
he hath a very great Audience, sometimes at the least
five thousand people. There preach also two other very
learned men, Monsieur Durand, and Monsieur de
Montigny.
The eight and twentieth day of May, being Saturday,
I rode in post from Paris about one of the clocke in the
afternoone to the kings stately Palace of Fountaine Beleau,
which is eight and twenty miles from Paris, and came
thither about eight of the clocke in the morning : the
king kept his Court here at that time.
A little after I was past the last stage saving one,
where I tooke post-horse towards Fountaine Beleau,
there happened this chance : My horse began to be so A grievous
tiry, that he would not stirre one foote out of the way,
though I did even excarnificate his sides with my often
spurring of him, except he were grievously whipped :
whereupon a Gentleman of my company, one Master I. H.
tooke great paines with him to lash him : at last when he
saw he was so dul that he could hardly make him go with
whipping, he drew out his Rapier and ranne him into
his buttocke neare to his fundament, about a foote deep
very neare. The Guide perceived not this before he
185
CORYAT S CRUDITIES
came to the next stage, neither there before we were going
away. My friend lingred with me somewhat behinde our
company, and in a certain poole very diligently washed
the horses wound with his bare handes ; thinking thereby
to have stopped his bleeding ; but he lost his labour, as
much as he did that washed the ^Ethiopian : for the bloud
ranne out a fresh notwithstanding all his laborious washing.
Now when the guide perceived it, he grew so extreame
cholericke, that he threatned Mr. I. H. he would goe
to Fountaine Beleau, and complaine to the Postmaster
against him, except he would give him satisfaction ; so
that he posted very fast for a mile or two towards the
court. In the end Mr. I. H. being much perplexed, and
finding that there was no remedy but that he must needes
grow to some composition with him, unlesse he would
[p- 3 8 -] sustaine some great disgrace, gave him sixe French
crownes to stop his mouth.
This Palace hath his name from the faire springs and
fountaines, wherewith it is most abundantly watered, that
I never saw so sweete a place before ; neither doe I thinke
that all Christendome can yeeld the like for abundance
of pleasant springs.
The forest of About some three or four miles before I came to
Fontdnebleau. Fountaine Beleau, I passed through part of that forrest,
which is called Fountaine Beleau forrest, which is very
great and memorable for exceeding abundance of great
massy stones in it, whereof many millions are so great
that twenty carts, each being drawen with ten Oxen,
are not able to move one of them out of their place.
The plenty of them is so great both in the forrest and
neare unto it, that many hils and dales are exceeding
full of them, in so much that a man being a farre off
from the hils and other places whereon they grow, would
thinke they were some great city or towne. Also in the
same forrest are many wild Bores and wild Stagges.
1 86
OBSERVATIONS OF FONTAINEBLEAU
My Observations of Fountaine Beleau.
THis Pallace is more pleasantly situate then any that The Palace of
ever I saw, even in a valley neare to the Forrest on Fontainrf/eau.
both sides. A little way off there are those rocky hils
whereof I have already spoken. There are three or foure
goodly courts fairely paved with stone belonging to it.
In the first there is an exquisite pourtraiture of a great
horse made of white stone, with a pretty covering over
it contrived with blew slatte. The second is farre fairer,
wherein there is a gallery sub dio, railed with yron railes,
that are supported with many little yron pillers. In the
third which leadeth to the fonts and walkes are two
Sphinges very curiously carved in brasse, and two Images [p. 39.]
likewise of Savage men carved in brasse that are set in a
hollow place of the wall neare to those Sphinges. The
Poets write that there was a monster neare the city of
Thebes in Boeotia, in the time of King Oedipus, which
had the face of a maide, the body of a dogge, the wings
of a bird, the nailes of a Lyon, and the taile of a Dragon,
which was called Sphinx, according to which forme these
Sphinges were made. In this Court there is a most A Sweet
sweet spring or fountaine, in the middest whereof there Spring.
is an artificiall rocke very excellently contrived, out of
the which, at foure sides, there doth spout water inces
santly through four little scollop shels, and from a little
spout at the toppe of the rocke. There are also some
pretty distance from the corners of the rocke, foure
Dolphins heads made of brasse, that doe alwaies spout
out water as the other. Hard by this font there is a
pond of very goodly great Carpes, whereof there is Great Carps.
wonderfull plenty. The whole pond is very great, but
that part of it which is derived towards this font is but
little, being invironed with a faire raile and little pillers
of free stone. In one of the gardens there is another
stately font, in whose middle there is another excellent
artificial rocke with a representation of mosse, and many
such other things as pertaine to a naturall rocke. At
187
CORYAT S CRUDITIES
A Stately the toppe of it there is represented in brasse the Image
of Romulus very largely made, lying sidelong & leaning
upon one of his elbowes. Under one of his legs is
carved the shee Wolfe, with Romulus and Remus
very little, like sucklings, sucking at her teats. Also
at the four sides of this rocke there are foure Swannes
made in brasse, which doe continually spout out water,
and at the foure corners of the font there are foure
curious scollop shels, made very largely, whereon the
water doth continually flow. This font also is invironed
with a faire inclosure of white stone. Also the statue
of Hersilia, Romulus his wife, is made in brasse, and
[p. 40.] lyeth a pretty way from that fountaine, under a part of
the wall of one of the galleries. The knots of the
garden are very well kept, but neither for the curiosity
of the workemanship, nor for the matter whereof it is
made, may it compare with many of our English gardens.
The gardens of For mos( . of the b or( j ers o f each knot is made of Box,
rontatnebleau. , , , . , , ,-,-,, ,,
cut very low, and kept in very good order. Ihe walkes
about the gardens are many, whereof some are very long,
and of a convenient breadth, being fairely sanded, and
kept very cleane. One amongst the rest is inclosed with
two very lofty hedges, most exquisitely made of filbird
trees and fine fruits, and many curious arbours are made
therein. By most of these walkes there runne very
pleasant rivers full of sundry delicate fishes. The prin-
cipall spring of all which is called Fountaine Beleau,
which feedeth all the other springs and rivers, and where-
hence the Kings Pallace hath his denomination, is but
O
little, yet very faire. For Henry the fourth, who was
King when I was there, hath lately inclosed it round
about with a faire pavier of white stone, and paved the
bottome thereof whereon the water runneth, and hath
made fine seats of freestone about it, and at the west
end thereof hath advanced a goodly worke of the foresaid
white free stone, made in the torme of a wall, wherein
are displayed his armes.
Two things very worthy the observation I saw in two
188
OBSERVATIONS OF FONTAINEBLEAU
of the walkes, even two beech trees, who were very Great Beech
admirable to behold, not so much for the height ; for I eSl
have seen higher in England : but for their greatnesse.
For three men are hardly able to compasse one of them
with their armes stretched forth at length. Neare unto
a little stable of the Kings horses, which was about the
end of the walkes, I was let in at a dore to a faire greene
garden, where I saw pheasants of divers sorts, unto which
there doth repaire at some seasons such a multitude of Pheasants.
wild pheasants from the forrest, and woodes, and groves
thereabout, that it is thought there are not so few as a
thousand of them. There I saw two or three birds that [p- 4 -]
I never saw before, yet I have much read of admirable
things of them in ^lianus the polyhistor, and other
historians, even Storkes, which do much haunt many Storks kept in
cities and townes of the Netherlands, especially in the Flushing.
sommer. For in Flushing a towne of Zeland, I saw some
of them : Those men esteeming themselves happy in
whose houses they harbour, and those most unhappy
whom they forsake. These birds are white, and have
long legs, and exceeding long beakes : being destitute
of tongues as some write. We shall reade that they were
so much honoured in former times amongst the auncient
Thessalians, by reason that they destroyed the Serpents
of the country, that it was esteemed a very capital offence
for any man to kill one of them : The like punishment
being inflicted upon him that killeth a Storke, that was
upon a murderer. It is written of them that when the
old one is become so old that it is not able to helpe it A notable
selfe, the young one purveyth foode for it, and sometimes example.
carryeth it about on his backe ; and if it seeth it so
destitute of meate, that it knoweth not where to get
any sustenance, it casteth out that which it hath eaten
the day before, to the end to feede his damme. This
bird is called in Greeke TreXctjO yo?, wherehence commeth
the Greeke word avrnreXapyeev, which signifieth to
imitate the Storke in cherishing our parents. Surely it
is a notable example for children to follow in helping
189
CORYAT S CRUDITIES
Three
Ostriches.
[p. 42.]
and comforting their decrepit parents, when they are not
able to helpe themselves. Besides I saw there three
Ostriches, called in Latin Struthiocameli, which are such
birds that (as Historians doe write of them) will eate
yron, as a key, or a horse shoe ; one male and two
female. Their neckes are much longer than Cranes, and
pilled, having none or little feathers about them. They
advance themselves much higher then the tallest man
that ever I saw. Also their feete and legs, which are
wonderfull long, are pilled and bare : and their thighes
together with their hinder parts are not only bare, but
also seeme very raw and redde, as if they had taken
some hurt, but indeed they are naturally so. Their
heads are covered all with small stubbed feathers : their
eies great and black : their beakes short and sharp : their
feete cloven, not unlike to a hoofe, and their nailes formed
in that manner, that I have read they will take up stones
with them, and throw at their enimies that pursue them,
and sometimes hurt them. The feathers of their wings
and tailes, but especially of their tailes are very soft and
fine. In respect whereof they are much used in the
fannes of Gentlewomen. The Authors do write that it
Foolish Birds, is a very foolish bird : for whereas hee doth sometimes
hide his necke behind a bush, he thinks that no body
sees him, though indeede he be scene of every one.
Also he is said to be so forgetfull, that as soone as he
hath laid his egges, he hath cleane forgotten them till
his young ones are hatched.
I saw two stables of the Kings horses, where in there
are only hunting horses, in both as I take it about forty ;
they were fine and faire geldings and nagges, but neither
for finesse of shape comparable to our Kings hunting
horses, nor as I take it for swiftnesse. A little without
one of the gates of the Pallace, there stood some of the
Kings guarde orderly disposed and setled in their rankes
with their muskets ready charged and set on their restes,
who doe the like alwaies day and night. Many of their
muskets were very faire, being inlayed with abundance
190
The King s
Horses.
OBSERVATIONS OF FONTAINEBLEAU
of yvorie and bone. Seing I have now mentioned the
guarde, I will make some large relation thereof according
as I informed my selfe partly at the French Court, and
partly by some conference that I have had since my
arrivall in England, with my worthy and learned friend
M. Laurence Whitaker.
The French guard consisteth partly of French, partly [p- 43-]
of Scots, and partly of Switzers. Of the French Guarde The French
there are three rankes : The first is the Regiment of the guard.
Card, which consisteth of sixteene hundred foote,
Musketeers, Harquebushers and Pikemen, which waite
always by turns, two hundred at a time before the Loure
Gate in Paris, or before the Kings house wheresoever he
lyeth. The second bee the Archers, which are under Archers.
the Captaine of the Gate, and waite in the very Gate,
whereof there be about fiftie. The third sort bee the
Gard of the body, whereof there are foure hundred, but
one hundred of them be Scots. These are Archers and 600 Switzers.
Harquebushers on horsebacke : Of the Switzers, there
is a Regiment of five hundred, which waite before the
Gate by turnes with the French Regiment, and one
hundred more who carie onely Halberts and weare
swords, who waite in the Hall of the Kings house, where
soever he lyeth. The Archers of the Garde of the body The attire of
weare long-skirted halfe-sleeved Coates made of white tfie guard.
Cloth, but their skirts mingled with Red and Greene,
and the bodies of the Cotes trimmed before and behind
with Mayles of plaine Silver, but not so thicke as the
rich Coates of the English Garde. The Switzers weare
no Coates, but doublets and hose of panes, intermingled
with Red and Yellow, and some with Blew, trimmed
with long Puffes of Yellow and Blewe Sarcenet rising up
betwixt the Panes, besides Codpieces of the like colours,
which Codpiece because it is by that merrie French writer
Rablais stiled the first and principall piece of Armour,
the Switzers do weare it as a significant Symbole of the
assured service they are to doe to the French King in
his Warres, and of the maine burden of the most laborious
191
CORYAT S CRUDITIES
imployments which lye upon them in time of Peace, as
old suresbyes to serve for all turnes. But the originall
of their wearing of Codpieces and partie-coloured clothes
grew from this ; it is not found that they wore any till
Anno 1476 at what time the Switzers tooke their revenge
IP- 44-J upon Charles Duke of Burgundie, for taking from them
a Towne called Granson within the Canton of Berne,
whom after they had defeated, and shamefully put to
flight, together with all his forces, they found there great
Great spoils, spoyles that the Duke left behind, to the valew of three
Millions, as it was said. But the Switzers being ignorant
of the valew of the richest things, tore in pieces the
most sumptuous Pavilions in the world, to make them
selves coates and breeches ; some of them sold Silver
dishes as cheape as Pewter, for two pence half-pennie a
piece, and a great Pearle hanging in a Jewell of the
Dukes for twelve pence, in memorie of which insipid
simplicite, Lewes the eleventh King of France, who
the next yeare after entertained them into his Pension,
caused them to bee uncased of their rich Clothes made
of the Duke of Burgundies Pavilions, and ordained
that they should ever after weare Suites and Codpieces
of those varyegated colours of Red and Yellow. I ob
served that all these Switzers do weare Velvet Cappes
with Feathers in them, and I noted many of them
to be very clusterfisted lubbers. As for their attire,
it is made so phantastically, that a novice newly come to
the Court, who never saw any of them before, would
halfe imagine, if he should see one of them alone with
out his weapon, hee were the Kings foole. I could
see but few roomes of the Palace, because most of the
The Scottish Scots that waited the Sunday morning when I was there,
guard. hapned to dine at a marriage of their country woman in
the towne, so that I could see them no more all that day,
otherwise they promised to have procured me the sight
of most of the principall roomes. Only I saw some
few roomes wherein the Scottish guarde doth use to waite,
and the chamber of Presence being a very beautifull
192
OBSERVATIONS OF FONTAINEBLEAU
roome, at one end whereof there was an Altar and the The chamber
picture of Christ, &c. with many other ornaments for f presence -
the celebration of the Masse : and at the other end the
fairest chimney that ever I saw, being made of perfect [p. 4.5.]
alabaster, the glory whereof appeareth especially in the A fair
workemanship betwixt the clavie of the chimney, and Chimney.
the roofe of the chamber, wherein the last King, Henry
the fourth, is excellently pourtrayed on a goodly horse,
with an honourable Elogium of his vertues, and his happy
consummation of the civil warres, written in golden letters
in Latin, above his pourtraiture. At the corners of the
toppe are most lively expressed two goodly Lyons, with
many other curious devices that doe marvailously beautifie
the worke. This chimney cost the King fourescore
thousand French crownes, which amount to foure and
twenty thousand pound starling, as a certaine Irish
Gentleman, which was then in the Presence, told me.
Before I went out of the chamber of Presence the Priest
beganne Masse, being attired in a very rich Cope. Many
of the great Noblemen and Gentlemen of the Court
repaired to the Masse. Amongst the rest there was one
great personage Monsieur le Grand, chiefe Gentleman Monsieur le
of the Kings chamber next to the Duke of Bouillon, Grand.
Master of the horse, and one of the Knights of St. Esprit,
that is, of the holy Ghost. The Ensigne of which
knighthood he wore in his cloake, which was a Crosse
of silver richly wrought therein. In the middest whereof
was expressed the effigies of a Dove, whereby is repre
sented the holy Ghost. The Irish Gentleman told me
his yearly revenues were two hundred thousand French
crownes, which do make threescore thousand pound
starling. As for this order of knighthood, it was The Order of
instituted Anno 1578, by Henry the third of that name, the Holy
King of France and Poland ; and the reason why he
intitled it the order of St. Esprit, was, for that upon the
feast of Pentecost, which we commonly call Whitsunday,
the Noblemen of Poland created him King of their
country. These Knights of the holy Ghost, together
c. c. 193 N
CORYAT S CRUDITIES
with the Knights of St. Michael, are proper only to
[p. 46.] France, as the Knights of the Toizon D or, that is, the
golden Fleece, together with the knights of St. lago,
otherwise called St. James, are to Spaine ; those of the
Annunciation to Savoy ; St. Stephano to Florence ; and
The Dauphin St. Georges knights to England. The Dolphin was
of France. expected at the Masse, but I went downe before he came
up, and met him accompanied with divers Noblemen of
the Court, comming forth of one of the gardens, who
ascended directly to the chamber of Presence to heare
Masse. He was about seven yeares old, when I was at
the Court. His face full and fat-cheeked, his haire black,
his looke vigorous and couragious, which argues a bold
and lively spirit. His speech quick, so that his wordes
seeme to flow from him with a voluble grace. His
doublet and hose were red Sattin, laced with gold lace.
The Title of The Title of Dolphin was purchased to the eldest Sonne
Dauphin. o f j^e king of France by Philip of Valoys, who beganne
his raigne in France Anno 1328. Imbert, or Hubert,
the last Count of the Province of Dolphinie and Viennois,
who was called the Dolphin of Viennois, being vexed
with the unfortunate and untimely death of his only
sonne, resolved to cloister up himselfe in a Convent of
Jacobin Friers, and to sell his Signiory to the Pope, who
was then John the two and twentieth, for a very smal
price, which Signiory was then newly created a County,
being formerly a part of the kingdome of Burgundy.
But the Nobility of his country perswaded him rather to
sell his estate to the French king, so he sold it to Philip
of Valoys, upon condition that the eldest sonne of the
king of France should ever after during his fathers life,
be called the Dolphin, and the first that bore that name
was Charles the fifth, during the life of king John his
father, which Charles beganne his raigne Anno 1364.
The Duke of Also I saw the Duke of Orleans the kings second
Orleans. sonne carried betwixt a Gentlewomans armes into the
garden. He was but a yeare and ten monthes old when
I saw him, as a Scot of the guarde told me. He is a
194
OBSERVATIONS OF FONTAINEBLEAU
marvailous full faced child. A little before him there [p- 47-]
went an other Gentlewoman, carrying a redde taffata
fanne, made in the forme of a little cannopy laced, and
fringed with silver lace, with a long handle in her hand,
which shee carryed over the childes head, to keepe away
the sunne from his face. Besides, I saw the young
Prince of Conde, being a Gentleman of the age of The Prince of
twenty yeares or thereabout : he is the next man of Con ^-
France to the King. Also I saw a worthy and gallant
gentleman of Germany, a Protestant, who hath done the
Emperor great service in his warres against the Turke :
he hath beene at our English Court, where he hath beene
very royally entertained by our king, and knighted, and
at his departure our king bestowed a very royall reward
upon him, as an Irish Gentleman told me at the French
Court. While he was in England, he was a great Tilter :
he went very richly at Fountaine Beleau. His cloake Costly attire.
gorgeously beautified partly with silver lace, and partly
with pearle. In his hat he wore a rich Ruby, as bigge as
my thumbe at the least. Thus much of Fountaine Beleau.
I Rode in post from Fountaine Beleau the nine and
twentieth of May being Sunday, about seven of the
clocke in the evening, and by eight of the clocke came
to a Countrey village called Chappel de la Royne, about Chappel de la
sixe miles from it : in which space I observed nothing tyy*e-
memorable, but onely two wilde Stags in the Forrest of
Fountaine Beleau.
Most of the crosses that I saw in Fraunce had little
boughes of boxe, set about the tops of them, and some
about the middle ; which what it meant I know not, only
I imagine it was put up upon good friday, to put men in
minde, that as Christ was that day scourged amongst
the Tews for our sins, so we should punish & whip our AL ,
i c T-I. L j f T- Abundance of
selves for our own smnes. I he abundance of Rie in R ye .
France is so great, even in every part thereof, through [p. 48.]
the which I travelled, that I thinke the hundredth part
thereof is hardly to be found in all England and Wales.
Montargis.
Walnut trees
starved by
frost.
A doleful
spectacle.
[P- 49-]
Briare.
CORYAT S CRUDITIES
Also I observed great store of hempe in France, such
as is more forward in growth about Whitsontide, then
most of our English hempe about Mid-summer.
I departed from Chappel de la Royne the thirtieth
day of May being Munday, about five of the clocke in
the morning, and came to a towne called Montargis,
being eighteene miles from it, about eleven of the clocke :
betwixt which places, and a few miles beyond Montargis,
I observed a thing that I much admired, that whereas
I saw an infinite abundance of Walnut-trees some few
miles on this side and beyond Montargis, almost all that
I saw on this side the Towne were so starved and
withered by the last great frost and snow (as I take it)
that happened the winter immediately before, that I could
not see as much as one leafe upon many thousand trees,
that grew partly in closes and partly in the common fields.
But all those that I saw a few miles beyond Montargis,
whereof in two severall places especially there was an
innumerable company, did flourish passing green and
beare abundance of leaves and fruit : which contrary
accident I attribute to the sterility of the ground in one
place, and to the fertility thereof in another.
At the towne Montargis there is a very goodly Castle
of the Duke of Guise strongly fortified, both by the
nature of the place, and by art : it hath many faire turrets,
and is situate in so eminent and conspicuous a part of
the towne, that it might be seene a great way off in the
Countrey.
A little on this side Montargis I saw a very dolefull
and lamentable spectacle : the bones and ragged frag
ments of clothes of a certaine murderer remayning on a
wheele, whereon most murderers are executed : the bones
were miserably broken asunder, and dispersed abroad
upon the wheele in divers places. Of this torment I
have made mention before.
I went from Montargis about one of the clocke in the
afternoone, and came to a Towne about sixe of the clocke,
eighteene miles therehence, called Briare, where I lay
196
OBSERVATIONS OF BRIARE
the thirtieth day of May being Munday. About a mile
or two before I came to Briare I first saw that noble
River Ligeris, in French the Loire, which is a very The Loire a
goodly Navigable River, and hath his beginning from navigable
a place about the confines of the territorie of the people Rlzrer -
Arverni : this River runneth by Orleance, Nevers, Bloys,
Ambois, Tours, Samur, Nantes, and many other noble
cities and townes : in some places it is above a mile broad,
and hath certaine pretty little Islands full of trees and
other commodities in divers places thereof : as in one
place I saw three little Islands, very neare together,
whereof one had a fine grove of trees in it. Upon this
river came a great multitude of Normanes into France,
out of some part of the Cimbrical Chersonesus, which
is otherwise called Denmarke, or (as others thinke) out
of Norway their originall countrey, in the time of the
Emperour Lotharius, and did much hurt in divers places
of the countrey, till Carolus Calvus, then king of France,
gave them a great summe of money to depart out of his
territories. On both sides of this river I saw in divers
places very fat and fruitfull veines of ground, as goodly
meadowes, very spatious champaigne fieldes, and great
store of woods and groves, exceedingly replenished with
wood.
The windowes in most places of France doe very windows in
much differ from our English windowes ; for in the France.
inside of the roome it hath timber leaves, joyned together
with certaine little iron bolts, which being loosed, and
the leaves opened, there commeth in at the lower part
of the window where there is no glasse at al, the open
aire very pleasantly. The upper part of the window,
which is most commonly shut, is made of glasse or [p. 50.]
lattise.
The French guides otherwise called the Postilians, A diabolical
have one most diabolicall custome in their travelling upon cusforf >-
the wayes. Diabolical it may be well called : for when
soever their horses doe a little anger them, they wil say
in their fury Allons diable, that is, Go thou divell. Also
197
CORYAT S CRUDITIES
if they happen to be angry with a stranger upon the way
upon any occasion, they will say to him le diable t emporte,
that is, The divell take thee. This I know by mine
owne experience.
I rode in Post from Briare about five of the clocke in
the morning the one and thirtieth day of May, being
La Charitie. Tuesday, and came that day to a towne called la Charitie,
thirty miles therehence, about twelve of the clock, where
I dined. Betwixt Briare and la Charitie I saw a pretty
little towne on the left side of the Loire situate on a hil,
where there was a very stately and strong Castle that
belongeth to the King.
I rode from la Charitie about two of the clocke in the
Ntvers. afternoone, and came to the citie of Nevers about sixe
of the clocke that day, being eight miles therehence.
Betwixt la Charitie and Nevers I observed nothing but
this : a little on this side Nevers I saw the greatest
Fair abundance of faire and beautifull Vineyards that I
Vineyards, observed so neare together in all France : yea so exceeding
was the plenty thereof, that I do not remember I saw
halfe so many about any citie or towne whatsoever betwixt
Calais and that.
My observations of the Citie of Nevers called
in Latin Niverna.
T
city of Nevers is seated something higher then
many other cities that I saw betwixt Calais and that :
[p. 51.] It hath the goodly river Loire running by it, over which
there is a faire wooden bridge : it is a Ducall and
Episcopall citie. The Duke was then at the Court when
Nevers a I was at Nevers. I saw his Palace being a little from the
Ducal City. Cathedrall Church, having pretty turrets, and a convenient
court, inclosed with a faire wall : but the Palace it selfe
was but meane, being farre inferiour not onely to most
of our English Noblemens and knights houses, but also
to many of our private Gentlemens buildings in the
countrey. The Cathedral Church which is called Saint
198
OBSERVATIONS OF NEVERS
Sers is pretty, neyther very faire nor very base, having The
faire imagery at the east and west gates thereof. Amongst Cathedral
some other remarkable things that I observed in this Church.
Church, this was one : in one of the Wainscot leaves that
cover the picture of Christ and our Lady (for in most of
their Churches where they have pictures well made, they
keep them so curiously, that they have leaves of fine thin
wainscot to cover them) in one I say of these wainscot
leaves, this excellent Latin poesie is written out of S. An Excellent
Augustin : O anima Christiana, respice vulnera patientis, Latin Poes y-
sanguinem morientis, precium redimentis. Haec quanta
sint cogitate, & in statera cordis vestri appendite, ut totus
vobis figatur in corde, qui pro vobis totus fixus est in
cruce. Nam si passio Christi ad memoriam revocetur,
nihil est tarn durum, quod non aequo animo toleretur.
In this Church there is a most sumptuous Tombe of A Tomb of
the last Duke and Duchesse : the pillars thereof are J<"per.
many, which are made of very rich flesh coloured marble,
interlaced with veynes of white. The Sextin that shewed
me the Church, told me very simply that it was jasper
stone. Also there are many faire and great square peeces
of touch-stone about this monument : and their Epitaph
written in Latin in capitall letters of gold in a piece of
touch-stone in that side of the Tombe, which is in the
Quire neare the high Altar. Besides there is much
Alabaster about this Tombe, and their statues are very [p. 52.]
fairely erected in Alabaster upon the toppe of the
monument. Right opposite unto this there is erected
a faire monument also of the Dukes father and mother
done in Alabaster with their statues very artificially made
at the toppe, and their Epitaphs in Latin : but this
monument is farre inferiour to the other.
This following was written upon the tombe of a
certaine Bishop of Nevers, that was buried in the Quire
of the same Church. First above the rest this is written
in golden letters upon a peece of touch-stone.
Sapientia amara inexpertis.
199
The high
Altar.
CORYAT S CRUDITIES
Under that this,
Arnaldi Sarbini Nivernensis Episcopi
Stemmata. 1592.
Last this,
Magnus sedis bonos, sedi at prsestat esse honori.
The high altar of the Church is very sumptuous, being
beautified with stately pillars of marble, and great square
peeces of touch stone, very like to those of the last Dukes
Tombe.
The Quire is hanged with a great deale of very faire
tapistry or cloth of arras.
There is a Jesuitical Colledge in Nevers, whose printed
bils in Latin of certain matters touching the victories of
Carolus Quintus and other things I saw hanged up by
the South gate of the Cathedrall Church, and in another
place of the citie.
Roguish I never saw so many roguish Egyptians together in
Egyptians. anv one p} ace { n a ll m y \{f e as m Nevers, where there
was a great multitude of men, women and children of
them, that disguise their faces, as our counterfet western
Egyptians in England. For both their haire and their
faces looked so blacke, as if they were raked out of hel,
and sent into the world by great Beelzebub, to terrific and
astonish mortall men : their men are very Ruffians &
Swashbucklers, having exceeding long blacke haire curled,
[p- 53-] and swords or other weapons by their sides. Their
women also suffer their haire to hang loosely about their
shoulders, whereof some I saw dancing in the streets,
and singing lascivious vaine songs ; whereby they draw
many flocks of the foolish citizens about them.
Wooden shoes. In Nevers I saw many woodden shoes to be solde,
which are worn onely of the peasants of the countrey. I
saw them worn in many other places also : they are usually
sold for two Sowses, which is two pence farthing. Thus
much of Nevers.
200
OBSERVATIONS OF MOULINS
IRode in Post from Nevers the first day of June being
Wednesday, about seven of the clocke in the morning,
and came to a towne called Moulins, being twenty sixe
miles distant from it, about noone. The only thing that
I observed betwixt Nevers and Moulins, was a goodly
faire pitched casse-way a little beyond Nevers, the fairest
indeed that ever I saw, which lasteth about some mile
and halfe, being but newly made as I take it, and of a
very convenient breadth.
At Moulins which is a very faire towne, I observed Moulins.
two things : the Castle which is a very strong and stately
Fort, belonging to the King. And whereas there was a
Fayre there that day that I came into the towne, I saw
more Oxen and Kine there then ever I did before at any
Fayre, each couple both of Oxen and Kine being coupled Store of Oxen.
together with yoakes, and not loose, as our Oxen and Kine
are sold at Fairs and Markets in England. These were so
exceeding thicke from the one end of the Market place,
which is very broad and long, to the other, that I did with
no small difficulty passe through them to mine Inne.
I went from Moulins about three of the clocke in the
afternoone, and came to a place called St. Geran, being St - Geran.
sixteen miles from it, about half an houre after eight of
the clock in the evening : in this space I saw nothing but
one very ruefull and tragicall object : ten men hanging [p. 54.]
in their clothes upon a goodly gallows made of freestone
about a mile beyond Moulins, whose bodies where con
sumed to nothing, onely their bones and the ragged
fitters of their clothes remained.
I saw the Alpes within a few miles after I was passed The
beyond St. Geran : they appeared about forty miles before
I came to them. Those that divide Germany and Italy
are by themselves, and they that divide France and Italy
are by themselves : which Alpes are sundred by the space
of many miles the one from the other.
I rode in post from St. Geran about foure of the clock
in the morning the second day of June being Thursday,
and came that day to dinner to a place called St. Saphorine
2OI
CORYAT S CRUDITIES
St. Saphorine de Lay, being twenty miles beyond it, by two of the
de Lay. clocke : in this space I observed nothing memorable.
I departed from St. Saphorine de Lay about three of
the clocke in the afternoone, and came to an obscure
towne called Tarare being seven miles from it, about
<3
eight of the clock in the evening. I observed these
three things betwixt St. Saphorine de Lay & Tarare :
almost all the flocks of sheepe that I saw there (for there
I saw very many) were coale blacke : great abundance of
pine trees about al the mountains, over the which I passed.
For the whole countrey betwixt St. Saphorine de Lay &
Tarare is so ful of steepe mountaines, that a man can
have no even way, but continually high up-hils and steepe
down-hils til he commeth to Tarare. The third was
many faire woodes upon the tops and sides of those
mountaines.
Tarare. In Tarare I observed one thing that I much admired,
a woman that had no hands but stumpes instead thereof
(whether she had this deformity naturally or accidentally
I know not) did spinne flaxe with a distaffe as nimbly
[p- 55-] and readily, and drew out her thread as artificially with
her stumps, as any woman that ever I saw spinning with
her hands.
I went a friday morning being the third day of June
about sixe of the clocke from Tarare in my bootes, by
reason of a certaine accident, to a place about sixe miles
therehence, where I tooke post horse, and came to Lyons
about one of the clocke in the afternoone. Betwixt the
Lyons. place where I tooke post and Lyons, it rained most
extremely without any ceasing, that I was drooping wet
to my very skinne when I came to my Inne. I passed
three gates before I entred into the city. The second was
a very faire gate, at one side whereof there is a very stately
picture of a Lyon. When I came to the third gate I
could not be suffered to passe into the city, before the
porter having first examined me wherehence I came, and
the occasion of my businesse, there gave me a little
ticket under his hand as a kind of warrant for mine
202
OBSERVATIONS OF LYONS
entertainement in mine Inne. For without that ticket
I should not have beene admitted to lodge within the
walles of the City.
My observations of Lyons.
Julius Caesar Scaliger hath written this hexastichon upon Scaliger s
this City. rerseson
Lyons.
FUlmineis Rhodanus qua se fugat incitus undis,
Quaque pigro dubitat flumine mitis Arar
Lugdunum jacet, antique novus orbis in orbe,
Lugdunumve vetus orbis in orbe novo.
Quod nolis, alibi quaeras : hie quaere quod optas,
Aut hie, aut nusquam vincere vota potes.
Lyons is a faire city being seated in that part of
France which is called Lyonnois, and very auncient.
For it was founded by a worthy Roman Gentleman* [p. 56.]
Munatius Plancus, a Scholler of Ciceroes, and an excellent
Orator. He beganne to lay the foundation thereof about Foundation
the nineteenth yeare of Augustus his raigne, and three Lyons.
and twenty yeares before Christs incarnation, at what
time he governed Gallia Comata. Also at the same time
he built the goodly city of Rauraca alias Augusta in
Switcerland, which was but a little way distant from the
famous city of Basil, but at this day so ruinated, and
defaced that there remaine only the ruines thereof. In
the city of Basil I saw in the Court of the Praetorium
or Senate house a goodly statue newly erected to the
honour of this Munatius Plancus as a memoriall, for the
founding of that city of Rauraca, with an honourable
Elogium subscribed underneath the same. But the
fairest of the two was this city of Lyons, which is situate
under very high rocks and hils on one side, and hath a
very ample and spacious plaine on the other side. It is
fortified with a strong wall, and hath seven gates, many
faire streets, and goodly buildings, both publique and
* Unto this man Horace wrote an Ode, as it appeareth
Carmi. lib. i. Ode, 7.
203
CORYAT S CRUDITIES
Archbishop
Bellicure.
madeof white
[p. 57.]
A lamentable
Fire.
private. Very populous, and is esteemed the principal!
emporium or mart towne of all France next to Paris.
It is the seat of an Archbishop, who is the Primate and
Metropolitan of France. The present Archbishop whose
name is Bellicure sonne to the Chancellor of France, is
but young being not above thirty yeares old. Most of
the buildings are of an exceeding height, sixe or seven
stories high together with the vault under the ground.
For they have vaults or cellars under most of their houses.
\ observed that most of their windowes are made of
white paper j n man y pkces of the dty the whole
window is made of white paper only, in some partly of
white paper as the lower part, and partly of glasse as the
higher part : almost all their houses are built with white
free stone.
The Romanes were wont heretofore to stampe their
coynes of gold and silver in this city, and their tributes
and rents were brought thither from all the places of
France, which yeelded so great a revenue to the Romans,
that only France was accounted the principal proppe of
the Roman Empire. After Lyons was begunne to be
inhabited and planted by the Romans, many of the great
Gentlemen of Rome and generall Captaines of the Roman
armies, being delighted with the opportunity of the place,
came to make their habitation there, and built many
sumptuous and magnificent Pallaces in the city. There
was about the time of Jesus Christ being on the earth,
such a lamentable fire in the city that it utterly consumed
the same, and turned it into ashes ; Which Seneca in an
Epistle to his friend Liberalis, a man of Lyons mentioneth
with these words, Unius noctis incendium totam stravit
urbem, ut una scilicet nox interfuerit inter urbem
maximam & nullam : tanta fuit incendii vis & celeritas.
Afer which time it was very sumptuously repayred
againe. And about some foure hundred and fifty yeares
after it was thus wasted with fire, Attyla King of the
Hunnes, exceedingly ruinated the same, who when he
came out of Pannonia, defaced many goodly cities in
204
OBSERVATIONS OF LYONS
France, Italy, and Germany, as I wil hereafter more
particularly declare in the description of some of the
Italian and German cities.
There are two faire Rivers that runne by this Citie, Two Fair
whereof one is called in French Sone ; in Latine it hath Rivers.
two names, Arar, mentioned by the ancient Ethnicke
Poets, and Sangona, so called from Sanguis, because the
blood of the holy Martyrs of Christ (which were most
cruelly tormented and put to death by some of the
persecuting and Tyrannicall Emperours of Rome in the
Amphitheatre, whose ruines I saw at the top of an high
Hill on one side of the Citie) distilled in so great
abundance from the Hill into a certaine streete, that hath
ever since that time been called Gongilion quasi Goggylion
(as I take it) which commeth from the Greeke word
yoyyvCeiv that signifieth to murmure, that it brake [p. 58.]
foorth afterward with a marveilous violence into the River
Arar, which it embrewed and died with a crimson colour The River
for the space of twentie miles : at the last that bloud was Arar fy ed
congealed together in a little Mountaine or great wtt
Congeries at the Citie Matiscona, till in the ende it
was dissolved to nothing. Upon this occasion I say,
had this river Arar his other name Sangona. The first
originall of this River springeth in the Territorie of
those people of France, that are called Sequani which
are those of Burgundy. There is a faire stonie Bridge
built over this Arar, supported with ten Arches, which
is said to have beene made at the charge of one of the
Bishops of the Citie, called Humbertus. The other
River is called Rhodanus, much famoused by the ancient Rhodanm a
Latine Poets for the swiftnesse thereof : for I observed swift River.
it to be the swiftest River of all those that I saw in
my Travels, onely the Lezere in Savoy excepted, and
it runneth much swifter than the Arar neere unto it,
whereat I did not a little wonder. This River springeth
from the Rheticall Alpes, out of a certain high Mountaine
called Furca, where it taketh a very small beginning,
but being afterward amplified with a great multitude of
205
CORYAT S CRUDITIES
little Rivers that descend from the Alpes, it runneth
through the Country of Valesia, & so passing through
the great Lake Lemanus, it issueth againe out of the
same at Geneva, and thence passeth down to the Citie
Rhodanus o f Lyons. Some derive the word Rhodanus from the
signtfieth to L a ti ne word rodere, which signified! to gnaw, because
gnaw. . . , .11 -11 j 1
m certame places it doth continually gnaw and eate ms
bankes. Suetonius writeth in the life of Julius Caesar,
that Caesar after his returne to Rome, from the warres
of Africa, having foure Triumphs granted him, procured
the portraiture of this River Rhodanus to be curiously
wrought in Gold, and was publikly presented in his first
triumph, which was that of France, in regard it was the
[p- 59-] principall River of that Country, for the conquering
whereof he spent almost ten yeares. Over this River
Ten Water also there is a very faire Bridge, and ten pretie water
Mills. Milles I sawe on the water neere to the Bridge, seven
on one side, and three on the other. A little beyond
the townes end, the River Arar and the Rhodanus doe
make a confluent, where the Arar after it hath mingled
it selfe with the Rhodanus leeseth his name. I saw a
A banicade Barracado of boats chained together over the Arar, to
of boats. t h e enc [ t^t no Boates that are within the Citie may goe
foorth, nor any without come in, without the licence of
the Magistrates.
There is in the South side of the Towne, neere the
High stairs. Rockie-hils, an exceeding high paire of Staires, which
containeth one hundred and foureteene stonie greeses ;
above these staires there is a long stony walke at the
least halfe a mile high, and very steepe, which leadeth
to the top of the Hill where there are many old Monu
ments, whereof one is the Temple of Venus built on
the very top of the hill, but now it is converted to a
Colledge of Canon Monkes. Also there are to be seene
the ruines of that huge amphitheatre, wherein those
constant servants of Jesus Christ willingly suffered
many intolerable and bitter tortures for his sake : I call
it a huge amphitheatre, because it is reported it contained
206
OBSERVATIONS OF LYONS
at least fiftie thousand persons. As for those Martyrs Martyrs
which suffered there, frequent mention of them doeth ntferings.
occurre in most of the ancient Ecclesiastical Historians,
especially Eusebius Bishop of Caesarea, who writeth a
no lesse Tragicall then copious Historic of the cruell
sufferings of Attalus, Sanctus, Maturus, and the
vertuous woman Blandina, all which were in this
place most cruelly broyled in iron Chaires for the faith
of their Redeemer in the fourth persecution of the
Primitive Church, under the Emperour Antoninus
Verus. He that will reade the Tragical and most
pitifull Historie of their Martyrdome, which I have
often perused not without effusion of teares, let him
reade the Epistle of the brethren of Lyons and Vienna, [p. 60.]
to the brethren of Asia and Phrygia, in the fifth Booke
and second Epistle of Eusebius his Ecclesiastical
Historie. Amongst many other things, that have
famoused this Citie, the death of Pontius Pilate the Pontius Pilate
chiefe Prefect or President of the Romanes in Judea, slew himself at
(under whom our blessed Saviour suffered death) was ^ ons
not the least ; not that I affirm the Citie was any thing
the better for that he died in the same, but I saw it was
more famoused, that is, the more spoken of over all
places of Europe : For whereas Pilate shortly after
Christ s ascension, was by the commandment of Tiberius
Caesar the Emperour, summoned to come to Rome, so
great matters were there objected against him, that he
was deprived of his Authority, and afterward banished
to this Citie of Lyons, in which at last he slew himselfe,
as good Historiographers doe Record. Here also
Magnentius, who had beene proclaimed Emperour
against Constantius the Emperor, and the yongest
of the three Sonnes of Constantine the Great, here I
say he slew himselfe as desperately as Pilate before
named, shortly after he had beene conquered in a great
Battell near the Citie of Mursia in Spaine, by the Armies
of the said Constantius.
Here was that good Emperour Gratian slaine by the
207
CORYAT S CRUDITIES
Tyrant Maximus, about the twentie nineth yeare of his
age, as he was flying into Italy to his brother Valentinian,
for aide against the rebellious legions of Britannie.
Neere unto this Citie was Clodius Albinus overthrowne
A famous in a very memorable and famous Battell by the Emperour
battle. Septimius Severus, with whom he contended about the
Empire of Rome ; where Severus after hee had taken
him in fight, strooke off his head as some write, others
affirme that he rode over his dead carkasse with a swift
horse, and afterward threwe his body into the River
Rhodanus.
There are many Churches in this city, whereof these
[p. 6 1.] are the names. Saint Johns is the Cathedrall, in which
Nine and I was : S. Paules wherein I was also : The Capucins :
thirty T ne Minims : The Observantines : The Carthusians : S.
Churches. Georges: S. Justus: S. Irenaeus : S. Justine Martyr:
The Augustinians : The Celestines : Sancti Spiritus :
Mary Magdalens : St. Katharines : The Carmelites : The
Jesuites : The Franciscans : S. Clares : S. Peters : S.
Sorlins : S. Claudius : The desert Temple where Nunnes
dwell : S. Vincentius : S. Antonies : The Church of the
Penitentiary Friers, of the order of S. Lewes the holy
King of Fraunce : S. Marcellus : The Benedictines : S.
^Eneas where there was heretofore a Colledge of
Athenians : S. James the great, a Church that is called
forum Veneris : S. Nicesins : S. Cosmas and Damianus :
S. Stephens : S. Claraes : S. Roche : S. Laurence : A
Church called Hospitium Dei, which is an Hospitall of
poore folkes : A Church of the Comfortines. The totall
number is nine and thirty.
The two Churches of Irenasus and Justinus Martyr,
were (as some say) built by themselves. But I doe
not beleeve that to be true, because the persecution of
the Church was so violent in their time under the Pagan
Emperours of Rome, that I thinke there were no
Churches then built for the exercise of Christian religion.
These were great companions and consorts together about
little more then a hundred yeares after Christ : Whereof
208
OBSERVATIONS OF LYONS
one, namely Irenseus, was the first Bishop of Lyons, he Irenaeus First
was the Scholler of Poly carpus, Bishop of Smyrna in L "*f
Asia, who was one of the three Schollers of S. John
the Evangelist. The same Irenseus hath written many
books of the heresies before, and in his time, which
bookes are yet extant. The other was converted to
Christianity from Ethnicisme, and hath written many
excellent Treatises in Greeke, much esteemed in this
age ; as an Apology for the Christians to the Emperour
Adrian, and Antoninus Pius : against Triphone the Jew,
&c. at last they both were martyred. The ruines of the [p- 62.]
auncient Church of S. Irenaeus I saw my selfe on one
side of the river Arar. I was at the Colledge of the
Jesuites, wherein are to be observed many goodly things :
The severall Schooles wherein the seven liberall sciences
are professed, and lectures thereof publiquely read. In
their Grammar schoole I saw a great multitude of yong A fair
Gentlemen and other Schollers of meaner fortunes at Grammar
their exercises. It is a very faire Schoole adorned with s ^ 00 ^
many things that doe much beautifie it, especially the
curious pictures, as one holding a sword in his hand,
whereunto there is added this Greeke Motto eV ^ovaSi
Tpias. Another that hath his heroycall embleme,
which is an Homericall Hemistichium et? Kolpavois eVrto.
The other part of the verse is owe ayadov iroXvicopavit].
Their Cloyster is very faire and newly garnished with
the pictures of sixe of the Apostles. Neare to the which,
they have a faire little garden. One of the Jesuits that
used me very kindly, shewed me their library, which is an The library of
exceeding sumptuous thing, and passing wel furnished the
with books. He shewed me the King of Spaines Bible,
which was bestowed on them by the French King Henry
the fourth. Of all faculties they have great store of
bookes in that library, but especially of Divinity. Also
there they have the pictures of their Benefactors, whereof
most were Cardinals, as Cardinall Borromeus Archbishop
of Milan ; Cardinall Turnonensis, &c. Besides, they
have the workes of all the learned men of their order
c. c. 209 o
CORYAT S CRUDITIES
Edmund
Campion.
[P- 63-]
Monks.
that have written, and the Pictures of all those of that
order that have suffered death for preaching their doctrine.
Amongst the rest the picture of Edmund Campion, with
an Elogium subscribed in golden letters, signifying why,
how, and where he dyed. Lastly, he brought me into
their Church, where he shewed me a very faire Altar
beautified with most glorious pillers that were richly gilt,
those pillers he told me were to remaine there but a
little while, and to be taken away againe. Of the Society
of them there are threescore and no more. But of those
punies, those tyrones that are brought up under those
threescore, there are no lesse then a thousand and five
hundred, who have certaine other Schooles in the towne
farre remote from this Colledge, which serveth for
another Seminary to instruct their Novices.
On Sunday being the fift day of June, I was at even-
Benedutlne song at the Monastery of the Benedictine Monks, where
I saw tenne of them at prayer in the Quire of their
Church : they were attyred in blacke gownes with fine
thin vayles of blacke Say over them : one of them was
as proper a man as any I saw in all France. In a Chappel
which is but a little from their Quire there is a very
ancient and rich table, wherein the picture of Christ and
the Virgin Mary is most exquisitely drawne, and gilt
over : but it hath lost much of his pristin beauty : it is
reported that it hath beene the fairest picture of all
France. Neare to this Monastery there is a very pleasant
A pleasant and delectable garden of the Arch-bishop of Lyons, the
fairest that I saw in all France, saving that of the
Tuilleries and Fountaine Beleau : in it are sundry fine
walkes, and great abundance of pleasant fruits of divers
sorts, and a great many pretty plots, both for pleasure
and profite. Also there is a fine nursery of young trees,
and the sweetest grove for contemplation that ever I
saw, being round about beset with divers delicate trees,
that at the Spring time made a very faire shew.
Many of the Kings Mules which are laden with
merchandise come to Lyons, where they lay down their
Garden.
2IO
OBSERVATIONS OF LYONS
burdens, who have little things made of Osier like The King s
Baskets hanging under their mouths, wherein there is Mules.
put hay for them to eate as they travell : over their
forehead and eyes they have three peeces of plate, made
eyther of brasse or latten, wherein the Kings armes are
made : also they have pretty peeces of pretty coloured
cloth, commonly redde hanging from the middle of their [p- 6 4~]
forehead downe to their noses, fringed with long faire
fringe, and many tassels bobbing about it.
I spake with a certaine Pilgrime upon the bridge over A Simple
the Arar, who told me that he had been at Compostella PUffim-
in Spaine, and was now going to Rome, but he must
needs take Avignion in his way, a French towne which
hath these many years belonged to the Pope. I had a
long discourse with him in latin, who told me he was a
Roman borne. I found him but a simple fellow, yet
he had a little beggarly and course latin, so much as a
Priscianist may have.
I lay at the signe of the three Kings, which is the The Inn of the
fayrest Inne in the whole citie, and most frequented of Three Ktn &-
al the Innes in the towne, and that by great persons.
For the Earle of Essex lay there with all his traine
before I came thither : he came thither the Saturday
and went away the Thursday following, being the day
immediately before I came in. At that time that I was
there, a great Nobleman of France one Monsieur de
Breues (who had laien Lidger Ambassadour many years
in Constantinople) lay there with a great troupe of gallant
Gentlemen, who was then taking his journey to Rome
to lie there Lidger. Amongst the rest of his company
there were two Turkes that he brought with him out of
Turkey, whereof one was a blacke Moore, who was his A black moor
jester ; a mad conceited fellow, and very merry. He J estcr -
wore no hat at all eyther in his journey (for he overtooke
us upon the way riding without a hat) or when he rested
in any towne, because his naturall haire which was
exceeding thicke and curled, was so prettily elevated in
heigth that it served him alwaies instead of a hat : the
211
CORYAT S CRUDITIES
A scholarly other Turk was a notable companion and a great scholler
Turk. j n his kinde ; for he spake sixe or seven languages besides
the Latin, which he spake very well : he was borne in
Constantinople. I had a long discourse with him in
[P- 5-] Latin of many things, and amongst other questions I
asked him whether he were ever baptized, he tolde me,
no, and said he never would be. After that wee fell
into speeches of Christ, whom he acknowledged for a
great Prophet, but not for the Sonne of God, affirming
that neither he nor any of his countrey men would
worship him, but the onely true God, creator of heaven
and earth : and called us Christians Idolaters, because we
worshipped images ; a most memorable speech if it be
properly applied to those kind of Christians, which
deserve that imputation of Idolatry. At last I fell into
some vehement argumentations with him in defence of
Christ, whereupon being unwilling to answer me, he
suddenly flung out of my company. He told me that
The Great the great Turke, whose name is Sultan Achomet, is not
Turk. above two and twenty years old, and that continually
both in peace and warre he doth keepe two hundred
thousand souldiers in pay, for the defence of those
countries in which they are resident : a matter certainly
of incredible charge to the great Turke : in which I per
ceive that he farre exceedeth the auncient Romane
Emperours, that had both a larger Empire and better
meanes to defray the charge then himselfe. For they
kept in al their Provinces of Asia, Europe and Africa
The Army of b u j- fi ve an( j twenty legions, each whereof contained sixe
AnaentRome. thousand anc j a hundred foot-men (according to the
authority of Vegetius) and seven hundred twenty sixe
horse-men, besides twelve Praetorian and LTrban cohorts
in the citie of Rome, for the guard of the Emperours
Palace : whereof the first which was the principall of all,
contained one thousand, one hundred and five foot-men,
and one hundred thirty and two horse-men : the others
equally five hundred and fiftie foot-men and sixtie six
hors-men : which number I finde to fall short by more
212
OBSERVATIONS OF LYONS
then thirty thousand of those that the Turke keepeth
this day in his garisons. Many other memorable things
besides these this learned Turke told me, which I will [p- 66.]
not now commit to writing.
At mine Inne there lay the Saturday night, being the
fourth of June, a worthy young nobleman of France of
two and twenty years olde, who was brother to the Duke The brother to
of Guise and Knight of Malta. He had passing fine the Duke of
i j rv u j u- Gunc -
musicke at supper, and alter supper he and his companions
being gallant lustie Gentlemen, danced chorantoes and
lavoltoes in the court. He went therehence the Sunday
after dinner, being the fifth day of June.
At the South side of the higher court of mine Inne,
which is hard by the hall (for there are two or three
courts in that Inne) there is written this pretty French
poesie : On ne loge ceans a credit : car il est mort, les
mauvais paieurs I ont tue. The English is this : Here
is no lodging upon credit : for he is dead, ill payers have
killed him. Also on the South side of the wal of
another court, there was a very petty and merry story A Merry
painted, which was this : A certain Pedler having a Story.
budget full of small wares, fell asleep as he was travelling
on the way, to whom there came a great multitude of
Apes, and robbed him of all his wares while he was
asleepe : some of those Apes were painted with pouches
or budgets at their backs, which they stole out of the
pedlers fardle, climing up to trees, some with spectacles
on their noses, some with beades about their neckes, some
with touch-boxes and ink-hornes in their hands, some
with crosses and censour boxes, some with cardes in their
hands ; al which things they stole out of the budget :
and amongst the rest one putting down the Pedlers
breeches, and kissing his naked, &c. This pretty conceit
seemeth to import some merry matter, but truely I know
not the morall of it.
I saw a fellow whipped openly in the streets of Lyons Qp en
that day that I departed therehence, being munday the Whippings.
sixth day of June, who was so stout a fellow, that though
213
CORYAT S CRUDITIES
he received many a bitter lash, he did not a jot relent at
it.
[p. 67.] At Lyons our billes of health began : without the
which we could not be received into any of those cities
that lay in our way towards Italy. For the Italians are
so curious and scrupulous in many of their cities, especially
those that I passed through in Lombardy, that they will
admit no stranger within the wals of their citie, except
Bills of he bringeth a bill of health from the last citie he came
Health. from, to testifie that he was free from all manner of
contagious sickenesse when he came from the last citie.
But the Venetians are extraordinarily precise herein,
insomuch that a man cannot be received into Venice
without a bill of health, if he would give a thousand
duckets. But the like strictnesse I did not observe in
those cities of Lombardy, through the which I passed in
my returne from Venice homeward. For they received
me into Vicenza, Verona, Brixia, Bergomo, &c. without
any such bill.
He that will be throughly acquainted with the principall
antiquities and memorables of this famous citie, let him
Symphorianus reade a Latin Tract of one Symphorianus Campegius a
Campeglushis French man and a learned Knight borne in this citie,
Latin Tract. w j lo j^^ ^Q^ copiously and eloquently discoursed
thereof. For it was my hap to see his booke in a learned
Gentlemans hands in this citie, who very kindly com
municated the same unto me for a little space : wherof
I made so little use, or rather none at all, that I have
often since much repented for it. Thus much of Lyons.
I
Remayned in Lyons two whole dayes, and rode ther-
hence about two of the clocke in the afternoone on
Munday being the sixth day of June, and came about
halfe an houre after eight of the clocke in the evening
Vorplllere. to a Parish called Vorpillere, which is tenne miles beyond
[p. 68.] Lyons. In this space I observed nothing but abundance
of walnut-trees and chesnut-trees, and sundry heards of
blacke swine, and flocks of blacke sheepe.
214
OBSERVATIONS OF SAVOY
I rode from Vorpillere the seventh day of June, being
Tuesday, about halfe an houre after sixe of the clocke
in the morning, and came to a parish about tenne miles
therehence, called la Tour du Pin, about eleven of the La Tour du
clocke : in this space I saw nothing memorable. Pin -
I went from la Tour du Pin about two of the clocke
in the afternoon, and came to a place called Pont de
Beauvoisin about sixe of the clocke. Betwixt these
places there is sixe miles distance : at this Pont de Pont de
Beauvoisin France and Savoy doe meet, the bridge Beauvoisin.
parting them both. When I was on this side the bridge
I was in France, when beyond, in Savoy.
The end of my observations on France.
My observations of Savoy.
Went from Pont de Beauvoisin about
halfe an houre after sixe of the clocke
in the morning, the eight day of June
being Wednesday, and came to the foote
of the Mountaine Aiguebelette which is Alguebelette
the first Alpe, about ten of the clocke the first Alp.
the morning. A little on this side
in
morning.
the Mountaine there is a poore village called Aiguebelle,
where we stayed a little to refresh our selves before we
ascended the Mountaine. I observed an exceeding great
standing poole a little on this side the Mountaine on the
left hand thereof.
The things that I observed betwixt Pont de Beauvoisin,
and the foote of the Mountaine, were these. I saw divers
red snailes of an extraordinary length and greatnesse, such Red Snails.
as I never saw before. Barly almost ripe to be cut, whereas
in England they seldome cut the rathest before the begin
ning of August, which is almost two moneths after. Like- [p. 69.]
wise I saw such wonderful abundance of chestnutte trees,
that I marvailed what they did with the fruit thereof : it
was told me that they fedde their swine therewith.
I ascended the Mountaine Aiguebelette about ten of
the clocke in the morning a foote, and came to the foote
2I 5
CORYAT S CRUDITIES
Travellers
Carried in
Chairs.
of the other side of it towards Chambery, about one of
the clocke. Betwixt which places I take it to be about
some two miles, that is a mile and halfe to the toppe of
the Mountaine, and from the toppe to the foote of the
descent halfe a mile. I went up a foote, and delivered
my horse to another to ride for me, because I thought it
was more dangerous to ride then to goe a foote, though
indeede all my other companions did ride : but then this
accident hapned to me. Certaine poore fellowes which
get their living especially by carrying men in chairs from
the toppe of the hill to the foot thereof towards Cham
bery, made a bargaine with some of my company, to
carry them down in chaires, when they came to the toppe
of the Mountaine, so that I kept them company towards
the toppe. But they being desirous to get some money
of me, lead me such an extreme pace towards the toppe,
that how much soever I laboured to keepe them company,
I could not possibly performe it : The reason why they
lead such a pace, was, because they hoped that I would
give them some consideration to be carryed in a chaire
to the toppe, rather then I would leese their company,
and so consequently my way also, which is almost impos
sible for a stranger to finde alone by himselfe, by reason
of the innumerable turnings and windings thereof, being
on every side beset with infinite abundance of trees. So
that at last finding that faintnesse in my selfe that I was
not able to follow them any longer, though I would even
breake my hart with striving, I compounded with them
[p. 70.] for a cardakew, which is eighteene pence English, to be
Slender hire, carryed to the toppe of the Mountaine, which was at the
least half a mile from the place where I mounted on the
chaire. This was the manner of their carrying of me :
They did put two slender poles through certaine woodden
rings, which were at the foure corners of the chaire, and
so carried me on their shoulders sitting in the chaire,
one before, and another behinde : but such was the
miserable paines that the poore slaves willingly under-
tooke : for the gaine of that cardakew, that I would not
216
OBSERVATIONS OF SAVOY
have done the like for five hundred. The wayes were
exceeding difficult in regard of the steepnesse and hard- Difficult
nesse thereof, for they were al rocky, petricosas & -^
salebrosae, and so uneven that a man could hardly find
any sure footing on them. When I had tandem
aliquando gotten up to the toppe, I said to my selfe
with ^Eneas in Virgil :
Forsan & haec olim meminisse juvabit.
then might I justly and truly say, that which I could
never before, that I was above some of the clowdes.
For though that mountain be not by the sixth part so high
as some others of them : yet certainely it was a great
way above some of the clowdes. For I saw many of them
very plainly on the sides of the Mountaine beneath me.
I mounted on my horse againe about one of the clock
at the foote of the Mountaine, on the other side towards
*
Chambery, so that I was about three houre.s going
betwixt the two feete on both sides, being but two miles
distant. From the place where I mounted my horse I
had two miles to Chambery, and came thither about two
of the clocke in the afternoone.
Chambery which is called in Latin Camberinum, is Chambery.
the capitall City of Savoy, wherein they keep their
Parliament. It is seated in a plaine, and is but little,
yet walled, and having certain convenient gates. Many
of their houses are built with faire free stone. Therein
is a strong Castle which seemeth to be of great antiquity.
Here was wont to be kept a very auncient and religious
relique, the shroud wherein our Saviours blessed body [p. 71.]
was wrapped (as they report) when it was put into the
Sepulchre ; but within these few years it was removed
to Turin in Piemont, where upon speciall days it is
shewed with great ceremonies. One thing I observed
in this towne that I never saw before, much of their tile Tiles of Wood.
wherewith they cover their Churches and houses is made
of woodde. Here is a Jesuitical Colledge as in Lyons :
Their windows are made of paper in many places of the
217
CORYAT S CRUDITIES
City as in Lyons. Here came Nunnes to our chamber
to begge money of us as in Lyons.
People called The people of this Country which are now called
Sabaudi. Sabaudi, were heretofore called Allobroges, from a certain
King whose name was Allobrox. The Metropolitan
City that they inhabited was Vienna, which is situate by
the River Rhodanus. The word Sabaudia is derived
either from Savona alias Sabatia (as that singular learned
man Caspar Peucerus 1 writeth) a town of Liguria in
Italic, the country of Pope Julius the second, which
lyeth betwixt Genua and Nicena ; or from the Sabatii,
certain auncient people that inhabited the Alpes. These
Sabaudi do now inhabite that country, which in times
past belonged to sundry people, as the Voconii, Veragri,
Caturiges, Centrones, and Lepontii. Savoy was here
tofore but an Earledome (as 2 Munster affirmeth) the
Earle thereof being one of the foure of the Roman
Empire. But at the time of the Councell of Constance,
which was celebrated Anno 1415, the Emperour Sigis-
Savoy a mundus converted it to a Dukedome, and made Amadeus
Dukedom. (who was afterwards at the Councell of Basil elected
Pope by the name of Fcelix the fifth) the first Duke
thereof, who was the sonne of Aymon the last Earle.
There was another Duke also of that name of the
Amadei, which was the Nephew of this first Amadeus,
of whom 3 Munster writeth a most memorable history,
that being once demanded of certaine Orators that came
[p. 72.] unto him, whether he had any hounds to hunt withal,
he desired them to come to him the next day, and when
they came he shewed them out of his gallery a great
Multitude of multitude of beggars in one side of his house sitting
Beggars. together at meat, & said loe, these are my hounds that
I feede every day, with whom I hope to hunt for the
glory and joys of heaven.
I rod from Chambery about sixe of the clocke in the
morning, the ninth day of June being Thursday, and
1 Chronicorum Carionis, libro 5. fol. 843.
2 Lib. 2. Cosmographias. 3 Lib. 2. Cosmographiae.
218
OBSERVATIONS OF SAVOY
dined at a place called Aiguebelle whither I came by
noone being ten miles from Chambery. Betwixt these
two places I observed many notable things : About six
miles beyond Chambery I passed by a marvailous strong A marvellous
and impregnable Castle at a towne called Montmelian. stron s
It is built wholly upon a rocke, and is of a very great
circuit about, having store of Ordinance planted about
every wall thereof. Surely the situation of it is so
strong by reason of the rocke, that I doe not remember
I ever saw the like. There we could not passe without
paying some little summe of money, which all strangers
doe in that place.
In all the way betwixt Chambery and Aiguebelle, I
saw infinite abundance of vineyardes planted at the foot Infinite Store
of the Alpes, in both sides of the way, so great store
there was that I doe not remember I saw halfe the plenty
in any part of all France in so short a space, no where it
was most plentifull as about Nevers. For the abundance
here was so great that for the space of ten whole miles
together, a man could not perceive any vacant or wast
place under the Alpes, but all beset with vines : in so
much that I thinke the number of these vineyardes on
both sides of the Alpes, was not so little as foure
thousand. I admired one thing very much in those
vineyards, that they should be planted in such wonderfull
steepe places underneath the hils, where a man would
thinke it were almost impossible for a labourer to worke,
such is the praecipitium of the hill towards the descent.
Also I observed a great multitude of wine houses in [p. 73.]
these vineyardes, so that many of them had their severall
and proper wine houses belonging to it. Which wine
houses doe serve for pressing of their grapes, and the
making of their wine, having all things necessary therein
for that purpose, as their wine presses which are called in
Latin torcularia, &c.
In many places also I saw goodly corne fields, especially Goodly com
of Rie, whereof many thousand plottes I observed before fields.
I went forth of the Alpes, growing upon as steepe places
219
CORYATS CRUDITIES
as the Vineyards did : whereat I much wondred at the
first, because I could not a long time conceive how it was
possible that they should bring their Ploughs so high to
turne the ground. At last after some serious considera
tion of the matter, I imagined that they did set their
Corn set with corne with their hands, according as we have done in
the hand. some few places of England within these ten yeares, as
in sundry places of Middlesex, of the benefite and com
modity wherof there was a booke divulged in Print not
many years since. The reason which induced me this
consideration, was, because I saw an innumerable company
of little plots of corne, not much bigger then little beds
(as we call them in England) in our English Gardens, in
Latin Arcolae. Which little plots I thought they could
not otherwise sow, but by putting in the corne by peece-
meale into the earth with their fingers, especially being
of such heigth under the very tops of the mountaines,
that I should be unwilling to go thither for an hundred
crownes, much lesse to carry an Oxe or an Horse with
me to plough the ground.
fine In many places of Savoy I saw many fine and pleasant
Meadows. meadowes, especially in some places betwixt Chambery
and Aiguebelle on the left hand under the Alpes, which
is a thing very rare to be seene in divers places of this
Countrey.
The worst wayes that ever I travelled in all my life in
LP- 74] the Sommer were those betwixt Chamberie and Aigue-
Bad Ways. belle, which were as bad as the worst I ever rode in
England in the midst of Winter : insomuch that the
wayes of Savoy may be proverbially spoken of as the
Owles of Athens, the peares of Calabria, and the Quailes
of Delos.
I saw many chestnut-trees and walnut-trees in Savoy,
and pretty store of hempe.
I commended Savoy a pretty while for the best place
that ever I saw in my life, for abundance of pleasant
springs, descending from the mountaines, till at the last
I considered the cause of those springs. For they are
220
OBSERVATIONS OF SAVOY
not fresh springs, as I conjectured at the first, but onely
little torrents of snow water, which distilleth from the Snow Water.
toppe of those mountaines, when the snow by the heate
of the sunne is dissolved into water. Of those torrents
I thinke I saw at the least a thousand betwixt the foote
of the ascent of the mountaine Aiguebelette and Nova-
laise in Piemont, at the descent of the mountaine Senis ;
which places are sixty two miles asunder.
The swiftest and violentest lake that ever I saw, is A Violent
that which runneth through Savoy, called Lezere, which Lake.
is much swifter then the Rhodanus at Lyons, that by
the Poets is called Rapidissimus amnis. For this is so
extreme swift, that no fish can possibly live in it, by
reason that it will be carried away by the most violent
fource of the torrent, and dashed against huge stones
which are in most places of the lake. Yea there are
many thousand stones in that lake much bigger then
the stones of Stoneage by the towne of Amesbury in Huge Stones.
Wilt-shire, or the exceeding great stone upon Hamdon
hill in Somerset-shire, so famous for the quarre, which
is within a mile of the Parish of Odcombe my dear
natalitiall place. These stones fell into this River, being
broken from the high Rockes of the Alpes, which are on
both sides of it. The cause of the extraordinary swiftness [p. 75.]
of this lake, is, the continuall fluxe of the snow water
descending from those mountaines, which doth augment
and multiplie the lake in a thousand places. There is
another thing also to be observed in this lake, the horrible Horrible
and hideous noyse thereof. For I thinke it keepeth
almost as terrible a noyse as the river Cocytus in hell,
which the Poets doe extoll for the murmuring thereof,
as having his name Cocytus from the olde Greeke word
KftMnW, which signifieth to keepe a noyse.
I travelled many miles in Savoy before I could see any
snow upon the mountaines, but when I came something
near Aigubelle I saw great abundance almost upon every
mountaine.
The Alpes after I had once descended from the
221
CORYAT S CRUDITIES
mountaine Aiguebelette, towards Chambery inclosed me
on every side like two walles till I was past mount Senis,
even for the space of sixty miles.
I saw many flockes of Goats in Savoy, which they
penne at night in certaine low roomes under their
dwelling houses.
Abundance of On every Alpe I saw wonderfull abundance of pine
Trees. trees, especially about the toppe, and many of them of
a very great heigth ; and betwixt the toppe and the
foote there are in many of those mountains wilde Olive
trees, Chesnut-trees, Walnut-trees, Beeches, Hasel trees,
&c. The whole side of many a hill being replenished
with all these sorts of trees.
Dangerous It seemeth very dangerous in divers places to travel
Travelling. unc j er the rocky mountains, because many of them are
cloven and do seeme at the very instant that a man is
under them minari ruinam ; and by so much the more
fearefull a man may be, by how much the more he may
see great multitudes of those stones fallen downe in
[p. 76.] divers places by the river, and the side of the way from
the mountains themselves, & many of them foure or
five times greater then the great stone of Hamdon hill
before mentioned.
The feete of the Alpes that are opposite to each other
are distant one from another (the violent lake Lezere,
whereof I have already spoken, running in the midst
betweene them) in some places halfe a mile, or something
more, but scarce a whole mile : and in some places they
are so neare together, that they are but little more then
a Butte-length asunder.
Such is the heigth of many of these mountaines, that
I thinke I saw at the least two hundred of them that
were farre above some of the cloudes.
Savoy very The countrey of Savoy is very cold, and much subject
Cold - to raine, by reason of those cloudes, that are continually
hovering about the Alpes, which being the receptacles of
raine do there more distill their moisture, then in other
countries.
222
OBSERVATIONS OF SAVOY
I observed an admirable abundance of Butter-flies in Great Swarms
many places of Savoy, by the hundreth part more then rf Butterflies.
ever I saw in any countrey before, whereof many great
swarmes, which were (according to my estimation and
conjecture) at the least two thousand, lay dead upon the
high waies as we travelled.
When I came to Aigubelle I saw the effect of the
common drinking of snow water in Savoy. For there
I saw many men and women have exceeding great
bunches or swellings in their throates, such as we call Strange
in latin strumas, as bigge as the fistes of a man, through Swe " ln S s -
the drinking of snow water, yea some of their bunches
are almost as great as an ordinary foote-ball with us in
England. These swellings are much to be scene amongst
these Savoyards, neyther are all the Pedemontanes free
from them.
I rode from Aigubelle about two of the clocke in the
afternoone, and came to a place called la Chambre, which La Chambre.
is eight miles beyond it, about nine of the clocke in the
evening : this was the ninth day of June being Thursday.
Betwixt Aigubelle and la Chambre, I observed no extra
ordinary matter, but such as before in Savoy. [p. 77.]
I departed from la Chambre about sixe of the clocke
in the morning, the tenth of June being Friday, and
came to a parish called S Andre, which was fourteene S. Andre.
miles from it, about noone. I remember a wondrous
high mountaine, about a mile beyond la Chambre, at
the top whereof there is an exceeding high rocke : this
was on the left hand of my way.
Also another about two miles beyond that which is
covered with snow. This is of a most excessive and
stupendious heigth.
At a towne called St. Jean de Morienne, which is St. Jean de
about six miles beyond la Chambre, I saw a goodly
schoole and a great multitude of schollers in it. The
Parish Church is a pretty thing, having a faire steeple.
I saw a very auncient and strong Castle, but it was
very little about a few miles beyond la Chambre, built
223
CORYAT S CRUDITIES
on the toppe of a rocke, on the left hand of the way :
which perhaps was built in the time of the Roman
Monarchy, as the like were in Rhetia, of which I shal
hereafter make relation.
I rode from S. Andre about halfe an houre after three
of the clocke in the afternoone, and came to a place
Lanskbourg. fourteene miles therehence, called Lasnebourg, about nine
of the clocke in the evening.
Exceeding is the abundance of woodden crosses in
Savoy, and a marvailous multitude of little Chappels,
with the picture of Christ and the Virgin Mary, and
many other religious persons, wherein I did oftentimes
see some at their devotion.
Bridges made I observed a great multitude of poore woodden-bridges
of beech trees, over al Savoy, which were made only of beech trees, that
were cut down from the sides of the Alpes. Some few
stony bridges I saw also pretily vaulted with an arch or
two. These bridges are the necessariest things of all
Savoy. For without them they that are on one side of
the river, cannot possibly get over to the other side, by
reason that the violence of the lake is so great, that it
will carry away both man and beast that commeth within
it.
I noted one thing about sixe or seven miles before I
came to Lasnebourg that is not to be omitted. The
waies on the sides of the mountaines whereon I rode
High Ways, were so exceeding high, that if my horse had happened
to stumble, he had fallen downe with me foure or five
times as deepe in some places as Paules tower in London
is high. Therefore I very providently preventing the
worst dismounted from my horse, and lead him in my
hand for the space of a mile and halfe at the least, though
my company too adventurously rod on, fearing nothing.
In Lasnebourg which was the last towne of Savoy that
I lodged in, situate under the foote of that exceeding
high mountaine Senis, I observed these three things.
First the shortnesse of the womens wastes not naturally
but artificially. For all women both of that towne and
224
. 78.]
OBSERVATIONS OF SAVOY
all other places besides betwixt that and Novalaise a Quaint attire.
towne of Piemont, at the descent of the mountaine Senys
on the other side, some twelve miles off, did gird them
selves so high that the distance betwixt their shoulders
and their girdle seemed to be but a little handfull.
Secondly, the heigth of their beds : for they were so high High beds.
that a man could hardly get into his bedde without some
kinde of climing, so that a man needed a ladder to get
up as we say here in England. Thirdly, the strangenesse
and quaintnesse of the womens head attire. For they
wrappe and fold together after a very unseemly fashion,
almost as much linnen upon their heads as the Turkes
doe in those linnen caps they weare, which are called
Turbents.
I went from Lasnebourg upon the eleventh day of
June being Saturday, about seven of the clocke in the
morning, and ascended the mountain Senys, and came Mount Cenis.
about one of the clocke in the afternoone to a towne in
Piemont called Novalaise at the foote of the descent of
the mount Senys, which is twelve miles from Lasnebourg : [p. 79.]
there Savoy and Piemont meete. In all that distance
betwixt Calais and this town of Novalaise we accounted
all our way by leagues, whereof some are two miles, and
some two miles and halfe. But from Novalaise to Venice
beganne our computation of miles, which is generally
used throughout all Italy.
All this tract of the Alpes about Mount Senys was
heretofore called Alpes Coctiae, from a certaine King
Coctius, that vanquished the auncient Gaules, and was
afterwards received into friendship of Augustus Caesar.
I observed an exceeding high mountaine betwixt
Lasnebourg and Novalaise, much higher then any that
I saw before called Roch Melow : it is said to be the Rock Melon
highest mountaine of all the Alpes, saving one of those fourteen miles
that part Italy and Germany. Some told me it was
fourteene miles high : it is covered with a very Micro-
cosme of clowdes. Of this mountaine there is no more
then a little peece of the toppe to be scene, which seemeth
c. c. 225 p
CORYAT S CRUDITIES
a farre off to be three or foure little turrets or steeples in
A pretty the aire. I have heard a prety history concerning this
history. moun t ame w hich was this. A certain fellow that had
beene a notorious robber and a very enormous liver,
being touched with some remorse of conscience for his
licentious and ungodly life, got him two religious pictures,
one of Christ, and another of the Virgin Mary, which
he carryed a long time about with him, vowing to spend
the remainder of his life in fasting and prayer, for expia
tion of his offences to God, upon the highest mountaine
of all the Alpes. Whereupon he went up to a certaine
mountaine that in his opinion was the highest of all the
Alpine hils, carrying those two pictures with him, and
resolving there to end his life. After he had spent some
little time there, two pictures more of Christ and our
Lady appeared to him, whereby he gathered (but by what
[p. 80.] reason induced I know not) that he had not chosen that
mountaine which was the highest of all ; so that he
wandred a great while about til he found a higher which
was this, unto the toppe whereof he went with his pictures,
where he spent the residue of his life in contemplation,
and never came downe more. My authour of this tale
or figment (for indeede so I account it and no otherwise)
is our *Maron of Turin who horsed our company from
Lyons to Turin, and told us this upon the way.
Tedious The descent of the mountaine I found more wearysome
Descent. an d tedious then the ascent. For I rode all the way up
being assisted with my guide of Lasnebourg, but downe
I was constrained to walke a foote for the space of seven
miles. For so much it is betwixt the top and the foote
of the mountaine : in all which space I continually
descended headlong. The waies were exceeding uneasie.
For they were wonderfull hard, all stony and full of
windings and intricate turnings, whereof I thinke there
were at the least two hundred before I came to the foot.
Stil I met many people ascending, and mules laden with
carriage, and a great company of dunne kine driven up
* That is a guide or conductor.
226
OBSERVATIONS OF ITALY
the hill with collars about their neckes : in those waies I
found many stones wherein I plainly perceived the mettall Tin Metal.
of tinne, whereof I saw a great multitude. One of them
I tooke up in my hand, intending to carry it home into
England, but one of my company to whom I delivered
it to keepe for me, lost it.
The end of my observations of Savoy.
My observations of Italy.
I Rode from Novalaise about three of the clocke in the
afternoone the foresaid day, and came to St. Georges St. Georges.
a towne of Piemont, five miles therehence about sixe of
the clocke in the evening. Betwixt these places I [p. 81.]
observed nothing but only one towne called Susa, here
tofore Segusium, which is a very fine little towne well
seated, walled, having faire Churches in it, and a very
goodly strong Castle well planted with Ordinance. I
only passed by the towne, but went not into it. At the
townes end certain searchers examined us for money, A custom of
according to a custome that is used in many other townes Italy.
and Cities of Italy. For if a man doth carry more money
about him then is warranted or allowed in the country,
it is ipso facto confiscated to the Prince or Magistrate,
in whose territory a man is taken.
I rode from St. Georges about seven of the clocke in
the morning on Sunday, being the twelfth day of June,
and came about twelve of the clocke to a town in Piemont
called Rivole, which is nineteen miles therehence. My Rivoti.
observations betwixt St. Georges and Rivole are these.
At St. Georges I saw two severall Castles built on a rocke,
which are so near together, that they are even contigu
ous : I wondred to what purpose they built two Castles
so near. About sixe miles beyond Saint Georges, I saw
a very memorable and admirable thing, if that be true
which is reported of it. Rowland one of the twelve
Peeres of France, and the sisters sonne of Charlemaine
(of whose fortitude and prowesse there is mention in
227
CORYAT S CRUDITIES
Delicate Hats
of Straw.
[p. 82.]
A memorable many of the auncient French historians) did cleave an
thing. exceeding hard stone in the middest, of a foote and halfe
thicke, with his sword, which stone is there shewed as
a monument of his puissance, and his picture in the wall
hard by the stone on horse-backe brandishing his sword.
I saw the Monastery of S. Michael built upon the top
of an exceeding high rocky hill, on the right hand of the
way about some twelve miles beyond St. Georges : there
are Monkes now living, as I heard some say.
In many places of Piemont I observed most delicate
strawen hats, which both men and women use in most
places of that Province, but especially the women. For
those that the women weare are very prety, some of them
having at the least an hundred seames made with silke,
and some pretily woven in the seames with silver, and
many flowers, borders, and branches very curiously
wrought in them, in so much that some of them were
valued at two duckatons, that is, eleven shillings.
I rod from Rivole about three of the clocke in the
afternoone that Sunday, and came to Turin which was
foure miles beyond it, about five of the clocke. I
observed these things betwixt Rivole and Turin. That
day being the twelfth of June, I saw Rie reaped a little
on this side Turin, which is about sixe weeks sooner then
we use to reape it in England. I saw infinite abundance
of wallnut-trees in that part of Piemont, and wonderfull
plenty of corne, especially Rie, and a marvailous even-
nesse and plainenesse of the ground for a great space, and
store of vines that grow not so low as in France, but
upon high poles or railes, a great deale higher from the
ground.
There rod in our company a merry Italian one Antonio,
that vaunted he was lineally descended from the famous
Marcus Antonius of Rome the Triumvir, and would
oftentimes cheer us with his sociable conceit : Courage,
The Devil is courage, le Diable est mort. That is, be merry, for the
dead. Devill is dead.
Turin.
228
OBSERVATIONS OF TURIN
E
My observations of Turin.
Julius Caesar Scaliger hath written this Octostichon
upon Turin.
Xcipiens gelidas patriis ex Alpibus auras
Hesperii princeps jus capit una soli.
Terra ferax, gens laeta, hilaris addicta choreis ;
Nil curans quicquid crastina luna vehat.
Ingenium natura aptum, sed more solutum,
Plus animo capiens, quam dare possit ope.
Felix Marte novo, felix melioribus armis,
Namque recens acuet pectora lenta metus.
I am sory I can speake so little of so flourishing and
beautifull a Citie. For during that little time that I
was in the citie, I found so great a distemperature in my
body, by drinking the sweete wines of Piemont, that
caused a grievous inflammation in my face and hands ;
so that I had but a smal desire to walke much abroad in
the streets. Therefore I would advise all English-men
that intend to travell into Italy, to mingle their wine
with water as soone as they come into the country, for
feare of ensuing inconveniences, and let them follow the
good counsell that learned Alciat giveth in his Epigram
upon the statue of Bacchus,
Quadrantem addat aquae, calicem sumpsisse falerni
Qui cupit, hoc sumi pocula more juvat.
and that most excellent rule of Meleager in his Epigram
upon wine, out of the first booke of the Anthologion
of Epigrams, page 82.
TovveKa crvS NfjWc^at? /Spo/uto? (piXos, ei $e viv elpyqs
/j.i(T<yeai oefy TTVO eTi Kaio/u.evov.
Surely I observed it to be a faire city, having many stately
buildings, both publique and private : it is the capitall
citie of Piemont, situate in a plaine, being in the East
incompassed with hils, well walled, and hath foure faire
gates, and a very strong citadel at the west end, exceeding
229
Scaliger s
verses upon
Turin.
[P- 83-]
Sweet wine to
be mingled
with water.
Turin a fair
city.
CORYAT S CRUDITIES
Augusta
Taurinorum.
well furnished with munition, wherein there are five
hundred peeces of Ordinance. This citie is built all
with bricke, and is of a square forme. The river Duria
runneth by it, and about a mile from the citie the famous
river Padus, which the Grecians called Eridanus, but the
The rwer Po. Italians at this day the Po. It is called Padus from the
French word Pade (as Munster writeth) which signifieth
a pitch tree, because store of them doe grow about the
[p. 84.] spring of the River, which is in the mountain Vesulus in
Liguria : it disgorgeth it self at length into the gulfe of
Venice, with six great mouthes, being first augmented
with thirty rivers that spring partly out of the Apennine
mountaines, and partly out of the Alpes. Many do travel
downe this river from Turin to Venice all by water, and
so save the travelling of two hundred and twenty seven
miles by land. For the young Prince of Savoy with all
his traine travelled to Venice down the Po when I was
at Turin. Heretofore this citie was called Augusta
Taurinorum, as many other noble cities have been called
by the name of Augusta : as Ratisbona in Bavaria
Augusta Tiberii, Curia in Rhetia Augusta Rhetorum,
Augusta Emerita in Portugall : but now there is one
onely Augusta, famous in Christendome, which is that
most renowned citie of Augusta Vindelicorum in high
Germany. This citie was a Colony of the Romanes, by
whom it was a long time inhabited. It received great
Turin sacked hurt in times past by the barbarous Gothes, who grievously
by the Goths, sacked and wasted it with fire and sword : but being
afterwards reedified, it was inhabited for the space of
many years by the Longobardes, who bare the sway of it
till their dominion in Italy was abrogated by Carolus
Magnus. After that it came into the hands of the Kings
of Italy, the Marquesses of Monsferratus, & lastly the
Dukes of Savoy, who keepe their residence and Court
there, having gotten so great power in Piemont, that
they now stile themselves Princes thereof. Near to this
citie there was fought that great battell betwixt Charles
the fift and Francis the first of that name, King of France,
230
OBSERVATIONS OF TURIN
Anno 1544, wherein twelve thousand of the Imperialists A great battle
were slaine, and all the rest were eyther taken prisoners, %?&. near
,,.,., i i Turin.
or having redeemed their liberty sent home into their
countrey without armes. The present Duke of Savoy
that keepeth his Court here is called Charles Emanuel,
unto whom there were two Cardinals sent Ambassadors
when I was there, whereof one was Cardinal Aldobrandino [p. 85.]
a Florentine, and sent from the Pope ; the other a
Spaniard sent from the King of Spaine. For there is
great amity and affinity betwixt the King of Spaine and
the Duke of Savoy, by reason that the Duke married the
Kings sister Margarita, which is dead, but he had some
children by her, as a Prince which is living, and certaine
daughters, whereof one was married to the Duke of
Modena, heretofore called Mutina ; near to which citie
the armies of Augustus Caesar and Marcus Antonius
fought. And another about some two moneths before
I came to Turin was married to Francis Gonzaga Prince
of Mantua, and son to Vincentius Gonzaga the present
Duke. The Dukes Palace seemeth to be faire, but I The Dukis
was not in it, onely I saw it without. He hath lately Pa ^ ace -
built a very goodly gallery, a work of notable magnificence
near the Palace. For it is of a very stately height, and
built all with white stone : Truely it is incomparably the
fairest that ever I saw saving the King of Frances at the
Loure in Paris. One of those Cardinals was very
pompously and magnificently attended. For seven or
eight stately Carochs of great personages attended at his
Palace dore, to accompany him as he rode abroad in the
evening to take the ayre. Also he was very royally
attended with a brave guard of the Dukes Switzers, who
at that time flanted it in very rich apparell, costly decked
with gold and silver lace.
I was at the Cathedrall Church, which is called St. Cathedral
Johns, wherein are many antiquities : in the Quire there
is a very stately Tabernacle above the high Altar,
supported with foure sumptuous pillars very richly gilt.
Also a goodly Pulpit in the Quire, and a very faire seate
231
CORYAT S CRUDITIES
on high at the north side of the Church for the Duke
to sit in, when he heareth the Sermon. This Latin
poesie is written on the wall on the right hand of the
Church as you go in near to an Altar, Assentatio gratiam,
veritas odium, & foemineae illecebras iniquitatem. In this
[p. 86.] citie is kept the Chancery of all Piemont. Also it is the
seat of an Archbishop, having been first an Episcopall
citie before it was graced with the dignity of an Arch-
The Bishops bishopricke. Of their Bishops I have read of one that
of Turin. flourished here about the year of our Lord 420, that was
a man of great fame and learning, one Maximus, whose
manifold writings are recited by John Trithemius that
learned Germane Abbot in his Catalogue of Ecclesiasticall
writers. Besides, it is beautified with an University
which did heretofore flourish, especially for the study
of the civil law and physicke but now Divinity also is
greatly professed there since the Jesuites have erected a
Colledge in it, who I thinke will never so grace and
adorne this citie with their Jesuiticall Divinity as that
famous man Caelius Secundus Curio who was born herein :
an d though at the first he was brought up in the Papisticall
Religion, yet at last when God had once illuminated his
understanding with the spirite of truth, hee abandoned
his countrey for religion sake, and went into Germany,
where he embraced the reformed religion, and ever after
in the University of Basil (where he lived and died)
most constantly professed it to his death. I could not
but mention this ornament of learning in this Discourse
of Turin, which was his native countrey, because I doe
much reverence the memory of so famous a man, that
with the excellent monuments of his wit, I mean his
learned bookes (whereof some I have read, and wherewith
he hath purchased himselfe immortality of name) hath
much benefited the Common-weale of good letters.
Thus much of Turin.
232
OBSERVATIONS OF PIEDMONT
I Rode in Coach from Turin on Munday, being the
thirteenth day of June about two of the clocke in
the afternoone, and came to a Parish called Sian in
Piemont about half an houre after eight of the clocke [p- 8 7-]
in the evening. This Sian was twenty miles beyond
Turin. My observations betwixt Turin and Sian were
these : I saw many goodly spacious grounds beyond
Turin, wonderfully replenished with corne, Vineyards,
Orchards, and a singular exuberancy of all manner of fruits.
The Vineyards in Piemont and Lombardy doe much Growth of
differ in growth from the French Vineyards. For the v ines in
Vines in most of these places doe grow upon trees that
are very orderly set in fine rankes about halfe a mile or
a mile long in some places. Betwixt these rankes or
rowes, which in some places are distant about a But-
length or two asunder, there grow many necessary
commodities, as corne or some kinde of fruites. Most
of those trees whereon the grapes doe grow are Maples ;
in some places Wai-nut-trees, and in others Willow trees
and Elmes. Also on both sides of these trees there are
set certaine pretty stakes in the earth to support the
Vines, that they may the more extend their branches in
length : These stakes are set out of the maine ranke of
trees. Againe the stakes are fastened in the ground in
the very ranke itselfe betwixt tree and tree ; so that
the greatest part of the grapes doe grow about these
stakes, and few on the tree. Many thousands of these
vines I have scene grow so high, that they have sprowted
cleane above the toppe of the tree.
Betwixt Turin and Sian I was transported over a A Ferry
Ferrie. This Italian transporting was done after a driven by a
pretty manner. For whereas there is a great long rope
that reacheth over the river, tied by certaine instruments
on both sides thereof, assoone as the horses and
passengers are put into the boat, one of the boatmen
that tarryeth at land turned a certaine wheele about by
meanes of that rope, by the motion of which wheele
the boat is driven on to the other banke.
233
CORYAT S CRUDITIES
Betwixt Turin and Sian I saw a strange kinde of corne
[p. 88.] that I never saw before ; but I have read of it. It is
Panic, called Panicke. It groweth like an hearbe, and is as
greene as a leeke, having very long and broad leaves.
The graine of it is almost as great as a beane : poore
folkes do make most of their bread with it, and quailes
are much fedde with it. I saw great abundance of this
Panicke grow in many places of Italy both in Piemont
and Lombardie.
I observed that many of their women and children goe
onely in their smockes and shirts in divers places of the
countrey without any other apparrell at all by reason of
Extreme the extreme heat of the clymate ; and many of their
Heat. children which doe weare breeches, have them so made,
that all the hinder parts of their bodies are naked, for the
more coolenesse of the ayre.
I rod from Sian about foure of the clocke in the
morning, the fourteenth day of June being Tuesday, and
Vercelli. came to a faire City in Piemont called Vercellis, which
is eighteene miles from Sian, betwixt ten and eleven of
O *
the clocke. This fourteenth day of June was S. John
Baptists day in Italy, according to the new stile, which
is never with us in England before the foure and
twentieth of June. This day is very solemnely kept in
all the Cities, Townes, and Parishes of Italy, but in some
of the greater Cities as Rome, Venice, Naples, Millan,
Florence, &c. it is celebrated with very pompous and
sumptuous solemnity. These shewes I then observed in
Vercellis. At the comming in of the City without the
west gate there was erected a faire bower covered with
green boughs newly cut, under the which there stood a
cupboord furnished with the pictures of Christ and our
Lady, and with great abundance of exceeding costly plate.
Also I saw a Procession that the Priests solemnized in
the streets after that manner as in Paris upon Corpus
Christi day, accompanied with many singing boyes, and
men before them in surplices with burning tapers in
[p. 89.] their hands, and a great multitude of women and children
234
Sumptuous
Solemnity on
S. John
Baptisi sDay.
OBSERVATIONS OF VERCELLI
behinde, which carryed burning tapers also : they went
all in couples very orderly. But I never saw in all my
life such an ugly company of truls and sluts, as their
women were. Withall there was an exceeding shooting
of squibs in every street where the Procession passed.
This City of Vercellis is well situate in a plaine, by
the which there runneth a faire commodious river, called The River
in Latin Ticinus, in the Italian Tesino, which runneth Ticino.
to the City of Pavie, wherehence that City both in
former times hath beene called, and now is Ticinum : it
issueth out of the high mountaine Goddard, which is
one of the Rhetical Alpes that divide Italy and Germany.
It is well walled and hath many faire streets through
which divers rivers doe runne, with many stupples to
passe over from one side of the street to the other as in
Sarisbury.
This City received much harme by Autharus the third Lombard
King of the Longobardes, in the time of the Emperour Tyrants.
Mauricius, about the year 586, who by reason that the
Prefect thereof Dotrula, which was one of the thirty
Longobardical tyrants, revolted to Smaragdus the second
Exarche of Ravenna ; committed such spoile in Vercellis,
that he defaced more then halfe the City, and demolished
the wals round about the same, which he made even with
the ground also.
Neare to this City was that memorable overthrow of A memorable
Desiderius the twentieth and last King of the Longo- overthrow.
bards, so famoused by many classical historiographers.
For Carolus Magnus being sollicited by Adrian the
Pope, who had received some wrongs of Desiderius, to
come into Italy, and defend him against the Longobardes,
passed over the Alpes and with a great army confronted
them at Vercellis, where he did put their King to flight,
& having afterward taken him Prisoner in Pavie which
was the principall City, wherein the Kings of the Longo
bardes kept their Court, he sent him captive to Liege
a goodly City in the Netherlands, where he dyed in Exile, [p. 90.]
So this was the end of the Longobardicall Kingdom in
235
CORYAT S CRUDITIES
Italy, which continued two hundred and four yeares from
Alboinus their first King.
I observed a custome in many Townes and Cities of
Italy, which did not a little displease me, that most of
their best meats which come to the table are sprinkled
Meat w ith cheese, which I love not so well as the Welchmen
sprinkled with j oe ^ wnere by i was oftentimes constrained to leese my
share of much good fare to my great discontentment.
In most of their Innes they have white cannopies
and curtains, made of needle work, which are edged with
very faire bone-lace.
Here I wil mention a thing that might have been
spoken of before in discourse of the first Italian towne.
I observed a custome in all those Italian Cities and Townes
through the which I passed, that is not used in any other
country that I saw in my travels, neither doe I thinke
that any other nation of Christendome doth use it, but
only Italy. The Italian and also most strangers that are
commorant in Italy, doe alwaies at their meales use a little
Forks used in forke when they cut their meat. For while with their
feeding. knife which they hold in one hand they cut the meate
out of the dish, they fasten their forke which they hold
in their other hand upon the same dish, so that whatsoever
he be that sitting in the company of any others at meale,
should unadvisedly touch the dish of meate with his
fingers from which all at the table doe cut, he will give
occasion of offence unto the company, as having trans
gressed the lawes of good manners, in so much that for
his error he shall be at the least brow-beaten, if not
reprehended in wordes. This forme of feeding I under
stand is generally used in all places of Italy, their forkes
being for the most part made of yron or steele, and
some of silver, but those are used only by Gentlemen.
The reason of this their curiosity is, because the Italian
[p. 91.] cannot by any means indure to have his dish touched
with fingers, seing all mens fingers are not alike cleane.
Hereupon I my selfe thought good to imitate the Italian
fashion by this forked cutting of meate, not only while
236
OBSERVATIONS OF LOMBARDY
I was in Italy, but also in Germany, and oftentimes in
England since I came home : being once quipped for
that frequent using of my forke, by a certain learned
Gentleman, a familiar friend of mine, one M. Laurence
Whitaker, who in his merry humour doubted not to call
me at table furcifer, only for using a forke at feeding,
but for no other cause.
I rod from Vercellis about two of the clocke in the
afternoone on S. John Baptists day, and came to a towne
called Buffolero in Lombardy, twenty miles therehence, Bufolero.
about halfe an houre after eight of the clocke in the
evening.
Here I hold it fit to speake a little of the name of
Lombardy, and the fertility thereof. We reade in
histories that the Longobardes, whose first habitation Lombards
was in a part of Saxony about the confluent of the rivers first habitation
Sala and Albis, being exceedingly multiplied in their owne in Saxon y-
country, transmigrated into a bordering Island called
Rugia, which now belongeth to the Marquesse of
Brandenburg. But because the same was not able to
maintaine them all by reason of the great increase of
their families, they resolved to goe into some more fertile
country, and so after long travel! they came into Pannonia,
where having lived about two and forty years, they were
invited into Italy by Narses the Eunuch upon this
occasion. The Emperesse Sophia wife to the Emperour The Empress
Justinus the second, being offended with Narses for that Sophia.
he was accused to the Emperour for his tyrannicall and
unjust dealing with the Italians, over whom he had then
great authority, sent him word that he must come home
to attend spinning women, and to deliver wooll and flaxe
to them, seing he was fitter for such a purpose, because [p- 92-]
he was an Eunuch, then to beare such sway in Italy as
he did. Narses being grievously exasperated with this
bitter scoffe sent back the Emperesse this message, that
seing shee would needs employ him about spinning, he
would spinne such a threade as she should never be able
to untwist while shee lived ; whereupon incontinently
23?
CORYAT S CRUDITIES
he sent Ambassadors from Naples to the Longobardes
into Pannonia, to allure them into Italy, being a country
replenished with all manner of commodities, necessary
for mans life. The Longobardes rejoycing to hear this
newes, posted with bagge and baggage into Italy, under
Albolnus tne conduct of their captaine Alboinus, and having
Captain of conquered many faire cities that resisted them, as
the Lombards. Tarvisium, Vicenza, Verona, Milan, &c. at last they
planted themselves in this country, which they called
after their own name, choosing first Verona, and after
that Papia, for the place of their kings residence. That
their comming into Italy was like to be very terrible to
the inhabitants of the country, it was portended by divers
fearfull prodigies. For not long before they entered the
country there were seene fiery armies skirmishing in the
aire : also bloud gushed out of the earth and the wals of
houses. And many other strange accidents were observed
which betokened some great calamities. Some thinke
Lombards or these people were called Longobardi quasi Longobarbi,
Long-beards, because they wore long beards. This territory wherein
they lived had before sundry other names. As Gallia
Togata, Gallia Cisalpina, Insubria (which indeede
extended not it selfe so farre as the country called
by the former names. For Insubria contained no more
then that part of Lombardy which includeth the Dutchy
of Milan,) but at this day by corruption of the name,
it is called Lombardy. Surely such is the fertility of this
country, that I thinke no Region or Province under the
Sunne may compare with it. For it is passing plentifully
[p. 93.] furnished with all things, tending both to pleasure and pro
fit, being the very Paradise, and Canaan of Christendome.
The garden of For as Italy is the garden of the world, so is Lombardy
Italy. the garden of Italy, and Venice the garden of Lombardy.
It is wholly plaine, and beautified with such abundance
of goodly rivers, pleasant meadowes, fruitfull vineyardes,
fat pastures, delectable gardens, orchards, woodes, and
what not, that the first view thereof did even refocillate
my spirits, and tickle my senses with inward joy. To
238
OBSERVATIONS OF LOMBARDY
conclude this introduction to Lombardy, it is so fertile
a territory, that (as my learned and eloquent friend M.
Richard Martin of the middle Temple once wrote to me
a most elegant letter) the butter thereof is oyle, the dew
hony, and the milk nectar.
After I was passed a few miles from Vercellis, I came
into the Dukedome of Milan, which is now the King
of Spaines Dominion, the first City whereof was Novara Novara.
a very auncient and faire City well seated : therein we
were examined. In this City there dwelleth a great
company of Spaniards with their families. Betwixt Sian
and Buffolero I passed three ferries.
Neare unto this citie was fought a memorable battel
betwixt the French men and the Italians, wherein the
Switzers shewed a notable example of treachery, which
happened thus. Anno 1500. Lodowic Duke of Milan
holding Novara, the Switzers being practised under hand Switzers
by a great summe of money offered them by Tremoville Treachery.
commaunder of the French forces, which were then in
Italy, did mutinously demand their pay of Lodowic.
Whereupon Lodowic gave them all his plate, but that
would not satisfie them : they caused the French armie
to approach to Novara, to the intent to draw Lodowic
into the fielde. Lodowic comes forth with his army, and
with his light horse beginnes the charge ; Tremoville
with the other French leaders made it good upon him,
& put the Italians to flight. The Switzers being pressed
to fight by Lodowic refused it, and compassing in Lodowic
with the presse of their nation, for all the intreaties hee [p. 94-]
could use to them, would not be perswaded to desist from
their treacherous enterprise, onely he got a promise from
them to set him in a place of safety : and so they agreed
that disguised and armed like a Switzer a foot, he should
march amongst them : but he was discovered and taken
prisoner, and carried into France to the castle of Loches,
where at last hee died, after he had lived ten years in
prison.
After I was entered into Lombardy I observed many
2 39
CORYAT S CRUDITIES
pleasant plaines, and infinite abundance of fat meadows.
Also I saw marveilous store of goodly Oxen in every
place of the country, whereof almost all were dunne.
Carts drawn All those Oxen that drew Cartes had certain white linnen
coverings cast over their bodies, and fastened upon their
backes with little woodden peeces that came athwart.
This they did to the end to keep away the flies from
their bodies, which would otherwise much infest them.
I rode from Buffolero about foure of the clocke in the
morning the fifteenth day of June being Wednesday, and
came to Milan about eleven of the clocke. Betwixt
Buffolero and Milan it is twenty miles.
I observed no extraordinary thing in this space, but
onely goodly Meadowes, Vineyards, Orchards, and such
other things as I have heretofore mentioned.
My Observations of Milan.
Julius Caesar Scaliger hath written these verses upon
Milan.
Scaliger s /^Ompositos populos, validique exordia regni
" es on \^ excepit facili terra beata sinu.
r Creverat Ausonio commistus sanguine Gallus,
& dabat antique fortia jura Pado.
Tertia se adjunxit tantis Germania rebus,
& stetit audaci fama parata manu.
Quaevis simplicibus jactet se gloria signis :
cum triplex uni contigit aucta mihi.
Also the Poet Ausonius hath written these verses upon
Milan.
Ausonius^ w ^ T Mediolani mira omnia, copia rerum,
x>erses - I> Innumerae cultaeque domus, facunda virorum
Ingenia, antiqui mores, turn duplice muro
Amplificata loci species, populique voluptas
Circus, & inclusi moles cuneata theatri :
Templa, Palatinaeque arces, opulensque moneta,
Et regio Herculei Celebris sub honare lavacri,
240
OBSERVATIONS OF MILAN
Cunctaque marmoreis ornata peristyla signis,
Moeniaque in valli formam circundata limbo.
Omnia quae magnis operum velut aemula formis
Excellunt, nee juncta premit vicinia Romae.
Milan is situate in a plaine, compassed round about Milan.
with the famous river Tesino before mentioned. First
it was but an obscure and ignoble countrey village,
founded by the ancient Hetruscans, and after inhabited
by the Insubres, wherehence the territory round about
it was called Insubria. But in continuance of time
Bellovesus the sonne of Ambigatus King of the Celtae
after he had conquered the countrey about it, amplified
this village, and made it a faire Citie, even about the
time of Tarquinius Priscus the fifth King of Rome. At
the time of the amplification and inlarging by Bellovesus
there happened a very strange accident, which gave A very
occasion of the denomination. For when it was new str ^S e
building, a certaine wilde Sow that came forth of an olde accldent -
ruinous house very early in the morning, hapned to meet
some of those that were set aworke about the building
of the city. This Sow had halfe her body covered with
hard bristly haire as other Pigges are, and the other halfe
with very soft and white wooll : which portentum, [p- 9^-]
Bellovesus took for a very happy and ominous token, so
that he caused the city to be called Mediolanum from the
halfe-woolled Sow. What his reason was why he should
esteem this strange spectacle, for such a luckie token I
know not, but I conjecture it might be this : perhaps he
supposed that the bristly haire might presage strength
and puissance in his subjects, and the wooll plenty of
necessary meanes that might tend to the clothing of their
bodies. He environed it with a wall foure and twenty Milan a great
foote broad, and sixty foure foote high, and built sixe c ty-
gates therein : it is at the least seven miles about, and
hath tenne gates in all, whereof foure have beene added
by some benefactors, to the six that Bellovesus built.
Many auncient monuments and worthy antiquities are to
c. c. 241 Q
CORYAT S CRUDITIES
be scene in this glorious city. The Church wherein St.
Church of Ambrose Bishop of Milan in the time of Theodosius the
S. Ambrose. fi rs t was buried, which Church he built himselfe to the
honour of the holy Martyrs Gervasius and Protasius.
This Church is now called St. Ambroses : it was the first
Christian Temple in all the City, in the which the body
of St. Ambrose lieth interred under an Altar in a deepe
cave of the ground, being supported with foure iron
chaines, and by his body there lieth a certaine booke
that he wrote. This Altar I saw. Also I saw the place
where St. Ambrose stood when he prohibited the
Emperour Theodosius to enter the Church after hee had
committed that great slaughter of seven thousand men
at Thessalonica, which is much mentioned in the Ecclesi-
asticall Historiographers. Hee stood at the Church
porch at the comming in. A little before the entrance
of this Church there is a pretty Chappell, wherein are
painted the pictures of S. Ambrose, S. Augustin,
Deodatus, and Alipius. For in that Chappell S. Ambrose
baptised them three in a Font hard by the Altar, which
is yet to be scene. There also I saw the way wherein
S. Ambrose and S. Augustin walked together when they
[p. 97.] sung the hymne Te Deum laudamus. In this Church
there are shewed two very ancient monuments, especially
one which is the auncientest of al Christendome, if that
were true which they report of it. For then it would
be three thousand five hundred years old : namely the
Moses brasen serpent which Moses erected in the wildernesse
Brazen as a type and figure of Christ, to the end that they which
Serpent. were bitten with any fiery Serpents might be cured only
by looking upon it. They say this Serpent was bestowed
upon this Church by the Emperour Theodosius. It is
erected upon a goodly marble pillar of some twelve or
sixteene foote high in the body of the Church on the left
hand as you come in from the great gate. Verily I
wonder that the Papists can be so impudent to delude
the people with these most palpable mockeries. For it
is a meere improbability, yea and an impossibility that
242
OBSERVATIONS OF MILAN
this should be the true Serpent, because we read in the
holy * Scriptures that the godly King Ezekias caused it
to be broken in pieces, because the children of Israeli did
burne incense to it, and called it Nehushtan, that is, a
peece of brasse. Yet maugre the authority of Gods
word, these people doe not sticke to say that they have
the selfe same serpent. But their impudency were more
tollerable, if they would say it were only a representation
of the serpent. The other monument is an exceeding
rich needle worke, interlaced very curiously with abund- Rich needle-
ance of gold and silver, that presents a very goodly work about
picture of Moyses, and histories of matters that happened 2 00 ^
in Moyses time : this rich Tapistry is hanged about the
roofe of the Chappell wherein S. Ambroses body is
interred, and is reported to be above two thousand yeares
old.
Amongst other notable antiquities that are kept in this
Church, there is one thing which (in my opinion) is not
to be esteemed of the least account, namely an auncient
Greeke manuscript copie of these two excellent bookes
of Judaicall antiquities, which that learned Jew, Flavius [p. 98.]
Josephus wrote in Rome, after the destruction of
Jerusalem, under the Emperour Titus Vespasianus against
Appion a Grammarian of Alexandria. This originall is An ancient
written in ancient Longobard characters in parchment, Greek
being so old that they are even worm-eaten. But I must manuscn P t -
needs confesse the truth that I saw not this booke, but
onely heard it of a learned man in the citie, and doe the
more certainly believe it, because Gesnerus in his
Bibliotheca affirmeth as much, even in the Index of the
workes of that learned Doctor of the Church Ruffinus
Priest of Aquileia, who translated the said two bookes
into Latin. Neare to this Temple of S. Ambrose there
are to be seene the rudera of a Temple built by Nero,
which he dedicated to the honour of the Paynim Gods :
many pillars of it remaine, but the roofe is open and
uncovered.
* 2 King. 1 8. 4.
243
CORYAT S CRUDITIES
S. Barnabas.
The
Cathedral
Church of
Our Lady.
[P- 99-]
Cardinal
Borromeeo
buried in
Milan.
This Citie was first converted to the Christian faith
by S. Barnabas, at what time Peter was Bishop of
Antioch, before he came to Rome. S. Barnabas his
fountaine is to this day shewed in Milan, neare to the
which he lived, and baptised many with the water thereof,
which hath the vertue at this day to cure those that hath
the ague, and many other diseases.
The Cathedral Church is dedicated to our Lady, which
John Galeatius Duke of Milan caused to be built, anno
1386. This is an exceeding glorious and beautifull
Church, as faire if not fairer then the Cathedral Church
of Amiens, which I have before so much magnified. All
this Church seemeth to be built with marble : herein are
many notable things to be seene : in the Quire the bodies
of many of the Vicounts of Milan, which were partly of
the family of the Galeatii, and partly of the Sfortiae, are
interred. In the body of the Church there are four rowes
of white marble pillars, which doe exceedingly beautify
the Church : in each row are sixe pillars. Also I saw a
monument of a certaine Bishop of Milan called Marcus,
who bestowed thirty and five thousand duckets towards
the building of the Church. Moreover that famous
Cardinal Carolus Borromseus Archbishop of Milan, and
greatly reverenced in his time for the purity and sancti
mony of his life, was buried in this Church. The image of
Christ which is elevated to an exceeding height is erected
over the entrance of the Quire : it is very richly gilt,
with the images of the Virgin Mary and S. John at the
sides of it. Right above Christs image, these wordes
are written in capitall golden letters : Attendite ad Petram
unde excisi estis. There are seven or eight goodly
Altars in this Church (besides the high Altar) adorned
with sumptuous pillars of rich marble. I ascended
almost to the toppe of the Tower ; wherehence I
surveyed the whole citie round about, which yeelded a
most beautifull and delectable shew. There I observed
the huge suburbs, which are as bigge as many a faire
towne, and compassed about with ditches of water : there
244
OBSERVATIONS OF MILAN
also I beheld a great part of Italy, together with the
lofty Apennines ; and they shewed me which way Rome,
Venice, Naples, Florence, Genua, Ravenna, &c. lay. The
territory of Lombardy, which I contemplated round
about from this Tower, was so pleasant an object to mine A pleasant
eyes, being replenished with such unspeakable variety of surve y-
all things, both for profite and pleasure, that it seemeth
to me to be the very Elysian fields, so much decantated
and celebrated by the verses of Poets, or the Tempe or
Paradise of the world. For it is the fairest plaine,
extended about some two hundred miles in length that
ever I saw, or ever shall if I should travell over the
whole habitable world : insomuch that I said to myselfe
that this country was fitter to be an habitation for the
immortall Gods then for mortall men. There is one
most notable monument kept in this Church, which it
was not my happe to see, one of the nayles wherewith
Christ was crucified, as they afrlrme. For they say that
Theodosius the Emperor bestowed it upon S. Ambrose,
who placed it first in the Church of Saint Tecla, from [? I00 -]
whence it was afterward brought to this Church.
I saw the auncient Palace of the Vicounts of Milan, The ancient
which is a most magnificent building, at the front whereof Pa ^ f
are erected twelve statues in milke-white stone of the
Vicounts to the middle as they ruled by degrees, succes
sively one after another. One of these Vicounts whose
name was Otho, gave the arms to the Dukedome of
Milan, as Claudius Minos in his learned Commentaries
upon Alciats emblems, even upon the first embleme doth
mention, where he citeth a memorable history out of three
worthy Authours, Alciat himselfe, Francis Petrarch, and
Paulus Jovius. But that which he taketh out of Jovius,
which I must applaude above the rest, I will here alleage,
seeing in this discourse of the Palace of the Vicounts, it
is not impertinent to mention so notable a matter as this.
When as Otho Vicount of Milan, a man of great prowesse
and courage, in the time of the warre against the Turkes
and Saracens, under the conduct of Godfry Duke of
245
CORYAT S CRUDITIES
A memorable Boulogne, fought in a single combat with a certain
duel Saracen called Volucis, who in the middest of the field
challenged the stoutest Christian of all the army to a
duell ; he conquered him with no lesse fortitude then
happinesse, and having slaine him he got from him a
spoile ful of immortal glory, namely a golden Viper that
was erected upon the crest of his helmet, curiously repre
sented with his winding circles, and devouring of a young
child, which one argument of his happy puissance was
afterward used by his posterity for the armes of the
Dukedome, as being a thing that portended the flourishing
estate and glory of the City. Some doe thinke that the
said Saracen Volucis was descended of the stocke of
Alexander the Great, and that therefore he used the Viper
for his arms, in regard that a Viper according to a certaine
fable of Olympias, the Mother of the foresaid Alexander,
[p. i oi.] did once bring forth a child. For shee reported that
shee was begotten with child by a certaine Dragon that
presented himselfe unto her in the shape of Jupiter :
which was the reason that her sonne Alexander did
afterward give the Viper, bringing forth a child for his
arms. Thus farre Minos out of Jovius.
A Library, I went to the Library of Cardinall Borromaeus, which
but no books, is an exceeding faire peece of workmanship, but it is not
fully finished, so that there is not one booke in it, but
it is said it shall be shortly furnished.
There is a singular beautifull Monastery in this City
of Ambrosian Monks, where I saw a most sumptuous
The Hall hall, built by one Calixtus Laudensis, Anno Domini 1 547,
of the t h e roo f e whereof is very loftily concamerated, and
adorned with many exquisite pictures of religious
matters : in the middle there is a pulpit, wherein at
their meales they reade the Legend of the Saints : in
this hall there are twelve tables for the Monks to sit at
their meales, whereof five are in one side, five in the
other, and two at the higher end. The Monks sit only
at the inside of the table : at the lower end of the hall
there are many faire religious pictures. The Cloisters
246
OBSERVATIONS OF MILAN
are many, and very faire both for breadth and length,
and the multitude of goodly pillars. Likewise there is
a great company of faire galleries, and three or four
delectable gardens belonging to this Monastery, full of
variety of pleasant fruits.
The Church of the Augustinian Monkes is passing A glorious
glorious, being for the richnesse of the marble pillars, thurch.
the curiosity of the pictures, and the sumptuousnesse of
the roofe, which is wonderfull richly imbossed with gilt
bosses, the fairest that ever I saw till then, even fairer
then Amiens Church, though indeede nothing so great.
A certaine Merchant of Genua hath a very beautifull
house in this City neare the Jesuitical Church : it is
the fairest that I saw in all Milan, even fairer then the
Vicounts Palace, three stories high, very large, and full
of roomes. The whole outside is built with white stone,
and adorned with many curious workes. [p. 102.]
There is a very magnificent Hospitall in this City,
wherein are an hundred and twelve chambers, and foure 4000 poor
thousand poore people are relieved in the same. The P e P* e r " tevet *
i f i i 11 r < tn the
yearehe revenues or it are said to be at the least fifty ^ os pi ta i
thousand crownes.
No City of Italy is furnished with more manuary arts Excellent
then this, which it yeeldeth with as much excellency as manuar y arts -
any City of all Christendome, especially two, embrodering
and making of hilts for swords and daggers. Their
embroderers are very singular workemen, who worke
much in gold and silver. Their cutlers that make hilts
are more exquisite in that art then any that I ever saw.
Of these two trades there is a great multitude in the
city : Also silkemen do abound here, which are esteemed
so good that they are not inferiour to any of the Christian
world.
The Citadell is the fairest without any comparison
that ever I saw, farre surpassing any one Citadell what
soever in Europe, as I have heard worthy travellers report.
For it is so great that it seemeth rather a towne then a
Citadell, being distinguished by many spacious and goodly
247
CORYAT S CRUDITIES
Citadel of
incomparable
strength.
greene courts, which are invironed with faire rowes of
houses like streets, wherein the Spaniards dwell with their
families, and exercise divers manuary trades. Also in
these courts as it were certaine market places, there are
usually markets kept : of these courts I saw foure or five
severally.
This Citadell is of an incomparable strength both by
nature and art ; at the first gate this inscription is written
in great Roman letters in gold. Philippus secundus
Catholicus, Maximus Hispaniarum Rex, Potens, Justus,
& Clemens. The whole Citadell is built with brick, and
covered with faire tile, saving two bulwarks thereof which
are very strong and ancient, built with free stone, which
is so laid that the whole outside is very curiously contrived
with diamond workes. And the foundation thereof is so
deepe, that it is just as farre from a certaine stony circle
that appeareth a little above the ground to the bottom of
the foundation, as it is from that circle to the toppe of
the bulwarke. There was heretofore an other bulwarke
farre fairer then either of these two. For the front of
it was adorned with the marble images of the Patrones
and principall Benefactors of the City, together with the
Armes of the Sfortiae Dukes of Milan, which built the
same : but in the time that Francis the French King held
A very dismal it, by a very dismall chance it was all blowen up with
gunne-powder that was kept in the same, which hapned
to be set a fire Anno 1521 by lightning that fell from
heaven. The force whereof not only razed the bulwarke
from the very foundations, but also overthrew a great
part of the wals of the Citadell, together with the
chambers and adjoyning roomes ; and the stones that
flew about slew the two Captains of the Citadell, who
a little before came towards a little chappell neer to the
gate, to the end to make their oraizons to the Virgin
Mary, according to their daily custome. The same
stones killed others also of the souldiers which walked
abroade in the evening to take the aire (for this tragicall
chance hapned in the sommer) and of others brake the
248
chance.
OBSERVATIONS OF MILAN
heads, armes, and legges. So that of two hundred
souldiers there were but twelve escaped alive. The
Citadell is moted round about with a broade mote of
fine running water, and many other sweet rivers and
delectable currents of water doe flow within the Citadell. Abundance of
In one of these rivers there are two milles, whereof the water.
one is for grinding of corne, the other for making of gun
powder. Also whereas these rivers doe runne into the
towne to the great commodity of the townesmen, the
inhabitants can at all times when they list restraine the
passage of them, and so barre the townesmen of the use
of them, to their great prejudice and discommodity ; but
so cannot the townesmen on the contrary side restraine [p. 104.]
the inhabitants of the Citadell.* There is a store house
in this Citadell, wherein is kept provision of corne, oyle,
and other things necessary for the sustaining of a band
of souldiers for three yeares. In the middle bulwarke
of the Citadell I saw two breaches that were made in the
wall by the shot of Charles the fifth his souldiers, (as the
Spaniards told me) when Charles besieged Francis the
French King there. The munition of the Citadell is The munition
so much, especially for great peeces of Ordinance, that I of the Citadel.
think no Citadell of all Christendome may compare with
it. In each of these two great bulwarks that I first
mentioned, there are five very huge peeces of Ordinance
that exceed all the rest. About the toppe of the Citadel
there is a very long gallery which is square, and divided
into foure long walkes, that are replenished with wonder-
full store of Ordinance, whereof part are planted Eastward
against the towne, to batter it if it should make an
insurrection ; and part on the contrary side Westward
against the country if that should rebell. For a great
part of Lombardy Westward belongeth to the Citadel,
for the sustentation of the presidiary souldiers, who are
all Spaniards, being in number five hundred. In one of
these foure long walkes I reckoned about eight and
* Neare to one of these Rivers I saw a pretty amorous sight ; a woman
naked from the middle upward sitting at her worke.
249
CORYAT S CRUDITIES
twenty great peeces, besides those of the lesser sort, as
Sakers. Whereof one among the rest was exceeding
Great great, and about sixteene foote long, made of brasse, a
Ordnance, demy culverlin, which was once the Duke of Saxonies,
whose armes were made in it with the year of our Lord
1533. Another at the end of the same walke, longer
then this by foure foote, which was said to carry a bullet
at the least eight miles, which I doe hardly beleeve to
be true. This was an whole culverlin. They report
that there are peeces in this Citadel which will carry a
bullet of eight hundred pound weight. Also I saw an
exceeding huge Basiliske, which was so great that it would
[p. 105.] easily contayne the body of a very corpulent man. So
many there are of them in the Citadel, that I thinke the
totall number of them is at the least two hundred. Also
I saw an yron grate where all the peeces are drawen up
to the gallery from a very deepe place underneath. And
a very faire little Chappel wherein they say Masse, in
which there is a marvailous rich Altar and Tabernacle.
When I came forth of the Citadel, after I had survayed
An Angry all the principal places, a certain Spaniard imagining that
Spaniard. \ na d beene a Flemming expressed many tokens of anger
towards me, and lastly railed so extremely at me, that
if I had not made haste out with my company, I was
afeard he would have flung a stone at my head, or other
wise have offered some violence to me. There is such
an extreme hatred betwixt the Milanois and the Spaniards,
that neither the Milanois doe at any time come into the
Citadel, nor the Spaniards into the City, but only in the
evening.
We reade in Histories, that many of the Roman
Emperours, and other great personages of the Citie of
Rome, did sometimes make their residence in Milan,
partly for their recreation, as being a place that abounded
with all manner of delights that the heart of man can
wish for ; and partly to the end to defend and fortifie
that part of Italic against the incursions of the Trans
alpine people, who did often conveigh their forces over
250
OBSERVATIONS OF MILAN
the Alpes into Italy, and annoyed the Italians. For this The Roman
cause Julius Caesar made his abode here, who (as Plutarch Emperors
writeth in his life) kept very honourable hospitality in a J*? e m
this Citie ; here also resided Pompey the Great ; Trajan,
who built a sumptuous Pallace heere, whereof part is to
bee scene at this day ; Adrian ; Constantius the Emperour
the third Sonne of the Emperour Constantine the Great ;
Valentinian the first ; Theodosius the first, who after his
miraculous victorie of Eugenius and Arbogastes in
Lombardy, spent three yeares in this Citie in company
with that godly Bishop Saint Ambrose, and at last
died here : also his body being afterwards transported [p. 106.]
to Constantinople. Here lived Placidia Galla the
Emperesse, sister to the Emperour Honorius, and
wife to the Emperour Constantius, who was Honorius
his Colleague and fellow Augustus in the Empire. Here
I say she lived while her husband was abroad in the warres,
and built a most magnificent temple dedicated to Saint
Aquilinus, which is to this day standing, but I confesse
I saw it not. Here raigned Bertarius the second sonne
of Aribertus the ninth King of the Longobardes, while
his eldest brother Godebertus raigned in Pavie.
In this Citie Pipin King of Italy the second sonne of
Charlemaine by his second wife Hildegardis ended his
life, but he was buried in Verona, whose monument I
saw there, as I shall hereafter declare in my description of
that Citie. Here dyed that famous and victorious Prince, Theodoric
Theodoricus Veronensis King of the Gothes, who raigned King of the
thirty three yeares in Ravenna, after hee had conquered Goths.
and slaine Odoacer the Rugian that usurped the kingdome
of Italy fourteene yeeres, by expelling Augustulus the
last Emperour of Rome and the Sonne of Orestes ;
betwixt which Augustulus his time and Charlemaine
being above three hundred and thirty yeares, there was
no King in Italy, but a very confused and turbulent
government, partly by the Exarches of Ravenna, and
partly by the Longobardicall Kings of Pavie. Heere
also died Ludovicus the second Emperour of that name,
251
CORYAT S CRUDITIES
[P. 107.]
after he had warred in Italy partly with the Saracens in
the Territory of Beneventum, and partly with Adalgisius
Prince of Salerne, even in the year 874. and of his
raigne the nineteenth.
Here was borne and lived Dioclesians Colleague,
Maximinian. Maximinian, that bloudy persecutor of the Christians,
who surnamed himselfe Herculeus, here I say he lived
after Dioclesian and himselfe had abandoned the Empire,
and here he built a Temple dedicated to Hercules, which is
now consecrated to the honour of Saint Laurence. This
Maximinian would have had the Citie no more called
Mediolanum, but Herculeum. He ordained when he
lived here, that all the Emperours should be here crowned
with an yron crowne before they should bee called Kings
of Italy ; which solemnity hath continued ever since,
and to this day is performed by our Christian Emperours
in the Church of S. Ambrose, the Archbishop of Milan
crowning them, but the crowne is kept at Modoetia a
towne in Lombardie about some ten miles from Milan.
Here also was borne another Emperour, namely Didius
Julianus the successor of Pertinax. Here met Con-
stantine the Great with his Colleague in the Empire
Licinius, when he marched with his army towards Rome
against his tyrannicall brother in law Maxentius ; and
before he went out of this Citie, here was a most royall
and magnificent marriage celebrated betwixt the saide
Licinius and the Lady Constantia sister to the Emperour
Constantine aforesaid. Moreover many famous men
have studied here, and dedicated themselves to the Muses,
as the Poet Virgill, Valerius Maximus, who was borne
here also, the same that dedicated that excellent booke of
Examples to Tiberius Caesar, which is so common now a
dayes in the hands of the learned. Alipius that lived
in Saint Augustines time. Hermolaus Barbarus Patriarch
of Aquileia that flourished in the time of Angelus
Politian : George Merula a great aemulus of Politian :
Francis Philelphus that excellent orator and Poet that lived
anno 1480. Ludovicus Cselius Rodiginus so famous for
252
Constantine
TAe Great.
Famous men
studied in
Milan.
OBSERVATIONS OF MILAN
his thirty bookes antiquarum lectionum ; and the most
famous and elegant Civilian Andreds Alciatus, the Author
of many learned workes published to the world. Heere
was he borne and a long time studied. Here was borne
that constant Martyr of Jesus Christ Saint Sebastian, s. Sebastian.
who was shot to death with arrowes under the Emperour
Dioclesian, whose picture made according to his Martyr-
dome, I often observed erected over the Altars of many [p. 108.]
Papistical Churches, as in our Lady Church of Paris,
and divers other places.
The government of this Citie hath according to the Many
change of times come to many severall Lords, first cfian S es f
Bellovesus the Gaule that was the inlarger thereof,
swayed it many yeares ; next the people of Rome ; after
that the Latin Emperours for many yeares* Then the
Greeke Emperours of Constantinople succeeded after the
imperiall seat was translated from Rome to Byzantium.
Then againe the Gothes whose Court was at Ravenna :
then the Kings of Italy after the time of Carolus
Magnus : and againe the Emperours of Germany : after
them Martinus Turrianus, and other noble wights of
that familie : after them the two potent and illustrious
families of the *Galeatii and Sfortiae one hundred and
seventie yeares, till Francis Sfortia the last Vicount, who Francis
was taken prisoner by Francis the French King, and died s f orza the
Anno. 1435. the twenty fourth of October: but now by last 7iscount -
the fatal revolution of times it is devolved to the honour
able house of Austria. Likewise it hath suffered many
devastations and depopulations, being first wasted by
Brennus in the time of that valiant Roman Worthy
Camillus. Secondly that flagellum Dei that barbarous
King of the Hunnes Attila which was about foure hundred
yeares after Christ, and in the time of that godly Pope
Leo the first. Thirdly by Vitiges the fourth Gothical
King of Ravenna, who with most mercilesse and out-
* These were so called quasi Galliatii from the Latin word gallus,
which signifieth a cocke, because certaine cocks crowed al that night in
Milan, that Matthew the Vicount begot his first sonne.
253
CORYAT S CRUDITIES
ragious cruelty sacked the same, and slew thirty thousand
Frederick Citizens. Lastly Fredericus Barbarossa alias ^Enobarbus,
Barbarossa. after he had continually besieged it for the space of two
yeares, wasted it with that hostility, that he strewed the
City and many places of the territory with salt in steede
of corne, having first turned up the ground with a plough.
Hard by this City was the Emperour Gallienus together
with his brother Valerianus slaine, about the yeare of
[p. 109.] our Lord 271, at what time he besieged Milan against
one Aureolus, a notable rebell against the Roman Empire.
Here was that good and victorious Emperour Flavius
Claudius the successor of the foresaid Gallienus chosen
by the army, who had beene one of Gallienus his
principall Captaines at the siege of Milan. Here the
said Emperour Claudius conquered and slew Aureolus
before mentioned, who was proclaimed Emperour in
Dalmatia by the Roman legions that resided there, and
was one of the thirty Tyrants, so famoused by the
historians that rose in divers Provinces of the Empire
against Gallienus.
1 68 There are reported to be in Milan eleven Colledge
Churches. Churches, threescore and ten Parish Churches, thirty of
Regular Monkes, eight of Regular Clarkes, sixe and
thirty of Nunnes. In all one hundred threescore and
120 Schools, eight. There are a hundred and twenty Schooles in the
city, wherein children are taught the principles of
Christian religion : it is thought there are not so few as
three hundred thousand soules in this city.
Thus much of Milan.
I
Rode in Coach from Milan the sixteenth day of June
being Thursday, about two of the clocke in the
Lodi. afternoone, and came to the city of Lodi, being twenty
miles therehence, about nine of the clocke in the evening.
In this space I observed nothing memorable, but only
the drawing of lino in many places of their ground, of
which lino they make their flaxe, and with their flaxe
fine linnen for sheets, shirts, bands, curtaines for their
254
OBSERVATIONS OF LODI
beds, &c. and some linnen they make of a courser sort,
of which kinde the apparell of most of their country
people is made. At night one sinister accident hapned A sinister
to me, that whereas I came very late to the city, the gates accident.
were locked that I could by no meanes be admitted within
the city. Whereupon being destitute of a lodging, I [p. no.]
reposed my selfe all that night in a certaine Inne in the
suburbes of the city, where lodging was so scarce by
reason that the house was before overladen with guests,
that I was constrained to lye all that night in the coach
I rode in. This city is called in Latin Lauda, and Laus
Pompeia, because it is neare unto a city of that name
three miles distant from it that was once built by the
father of Pompey the Great, but now utterly ruinated.
This city was destroyed by the Milanois about the yeare 1,^1 destroyed
1161. in the time of the warre betwixt them and the by the
Emperour Frederick Barbarossa. But being after reedi- Milanese.
fied by the Emperour, I have read that he once made his
aboade therein.
This is one of the three cities of Italy, that yeeldeth
such excellent butter and cheese ; the other two are
Parma and Placentia.
I rode from Lodi about foure of the clocke in the
morning, the seventeenth day of June being Friday, and
came to a towne called Pizighiton seated by the river
Abdua about one of the clocke in the afternoone. Over
this river we were ferried. Betwixt Lodi and Pizighiton p- tz zi-
it is eighteene miles. In this towne there is a faire Castle, ghettone.
wherein Francis the first of that name king of France
lived in captivity for the space of two yeares, after he
was taken prisoner by Carolus Quintus at Pavy a city
of Lombardy. I saw the tower wherein he lay, which
is on the left hand of the gate as you enter into the Castle :
in his chamber he wrote with his owne hand these wordes
in French and Spanish, which are yet to be seene. Francis
king of France. It hapned when the king lay here that
he played at tennis with a certaine Spanish Gentleman
that was his familiar friend, whom the king in the middest
255
CORYAT S CRUDITIES
Foul Play, of his play strooke with a tennis ball. The Spaniard
told the king that he played foule play ; the king affirmed
the contrary, and said to the Spaniard, darest thou con-
[p. in.] tradict a king? and therewithal immediately drew his
dagger, and stabbed the Spaniard. This a certaine Italian
Gentleman called Joannes Antonius Sartorius of the
towne of Pizighiton told me, who used me exceeding
kindly, and invited me to his house, where he gave me
a cup of very neate wine. Many other memorable things
also he told me, and seemed to be an excellent Schollar.
I went from Pizighiton about foure of the clocke in
Cremona. the afternoone that day, and came to Cremona a very faire
city of Lombardy about seven of the clocke in the
evening. Betwixt Pizighiton and Cremona it is twelve
miles.
Here will I mention a thing, that although perhaps
it will seeme but frivolous to divers readers that have
already travelled in Italy ; yet because unto many that
neither have beene there, nor ever intend to go thither
while they live, it will be a meere novelty, I will not let
Fans carried it passe unmentioned. The first Italian fannes that I saw
in Italy. j n Jtaly did I observe in this space betwixt Pizighiton
and Cremona. But afterward I observed them common
in most places of Italy where I travelled. These fannes
both men and women of the country doe carry to coole
themselves withall in the time of heate, by the often
fanning of their faces. Most of them are very elegant
and pretty things. For whereas the fanne consisteth of
a painted peece of paper and a little wooden handle ; the
paper which is fastened into the top is on both sides most
curiously adorned with excellent pictures, either of
amorous things tending to dalliance, having some witty
Italian verses or fine emblemes written under them ; or
of some notable Italian city with a briefe description
thereof added thereunto. These fannes are of a meane
price. For a man may buy one of the fairest of them
for so much money as countervaileth our English groate.
Also many of them doe carry other fine things of a far
256
OBSERVATIONS OF CREMONA
greater price, that will cost at the least a duckat, which
they commonly call in the Italian tongue umbrellaes, that [p. 112-]
is, things that minister shadow unto them for shelter
against the scorching heate of the Sunne. These are
made of leather something answerable to the forme of a Umbrellas.
little cannopy, & hooped in the inside with divers little
wooden hoopes that extend the umbrella in a pretty
large compasse. They are used especially by horsemen,
who carry them in their hands when they ride, fastening
the end of the handle upon one of their thighes, and they
impart so long a shadow unto them, that it keepeth the
heate of the sunne from the upper parts of their bodies.
My Observations on Cremona.
Julius Caesar Scaliger hath written this decastichon upon Scaligers
Cremona. nt on
Cremona.
QUis modus esset agris, & quanta licentia frugum
Verba peregrina Gallica voce notant.
Inde solum nati laetum dixere Cremonam,
Quin Latio vox est deliciosa cremor.
Usque adeo longo reddit cum faenore tellus,
Praeteritique hornus commoda ridet ager.
Deficit & cultrum, & vomer : non deficit uber ;
Lassa manus, trita sarcula, fessa Ceres.
Reddant pensum alias : nostrse lex unica terras est
Et votum Domini, & spem superare sui.
Cremona is a very beautifull citie, seated under a very Cremona.
pleasant and holesome clymate, built with bricke, and
walled with bricke wals, wherein are five gates ; and it is
invironed with trenches and rampiers, and pleasantly
watered by the river Abdua. There is a pretty bricke
citadell at the entrance of the towne, a little without the
wall, even at the west end. It seemeth to be very
auncient, but it is exceeding low : it is guarded by a
Garison of Spaniards in the behalfe of the King of Spaine, [p. 113.]
to whom it belongeth as being a member of the Dukedom
of Milan. In the citie I saw many faire and sumptuous
c. c. 257 R
CORYAT S CRUDITIES
The highest buildings, and some stately places. The principal Church
T aTltaf hath the m g hest Tower of all Italy, the foundation of
which Church was built upon the bones of Hercules as
that learned Gentleman of Pizighiton Joannes Antonius
Sartorius tolde me. For confirmation whereof hee said
there are very good authorities of learned writers. They
attribute so much to the heigth of this Tower, that of
late they have invented this proverbe in Italy : Unus
Deus in Roma, unus portus in Ancona, & una turris in
Cremona. This Tower is easily to be seene to Milan in
a cleare day, being full fiftie miles off. Howsoever the
Italians extoll it for the heigth, it is not comparable to
the steeple of our Lady Church in Sarisbury, which I take
to be at least twenty foote higher then this. And as for
the Tower of Strazbourg in Germany, that exceedeth
this in heigth, and for the curiosity of the architecture
thereof doth by many degrees excell it. There is one
very memorable thing reported of this Tower of Cremona,
that when John the two and twentieth of that name
Pope, and the Emperour Sigismundus went almost to
the toppe of the steeple to survay the countrey round
about it as from a pleasant prospect, the Governor of the
city, whose name was Gabrinus Fundulius, being then
with them intended to have throwen them downe headlong
from the Tower ; but his heart so failed him, that he
did not put the matter in execution, though he had full
opportunity to doe it. I was at the Councell house,
where I saw the principall Magistrates of the citie sit
about the publike affaires, and many of the citizens
Good Swords, assembled together. In this citie are made passing good
swords as in most places of Italy. The Augustinian
Monkes have the stateliest Library for workemanship
(as the aforesaid Sartorius told me) that is in all Italy ;
[p. 114.] therefore I went thither to see it, but because I came so
late, even about nine of the clocke at night, I had not
Frogs used for fa & opportunity to view it. I did eate fried Frogges in
this citie, which is a dish much used in many cities of
Italy : they were so curiously dressed, that they did
258
OBSERVATIONS OF CREMONA
exceedingly delight my palat, the head and the forepart
being cut off. In the suburbes of the citie without the
gate Pulesella there is a certaine Well, which when it A Monkish
had once very foule water, and unwholesome to drinke, figment.
was so purged from the impurity thereof by certaine
signes of the crosse that S. Dominicke and S. Francis
which once lived in Cremona made over it, that from
that time it was as pleasant and sweete to drinke as any
other water. This is indeed a tradition of their Monks,
& no otherwise to be beleeved then a Monkish figment.
The inhabitants of this citie sustained much damage in
the time of Augustus Caesar, because they harboured the
forces of Cassius, Brutus and Antonius. Whereupon
Augustus after he had gotten the victory of Antonius,
being grievously incensed against them of Cremona,
deprived them of their grounds, and bestowed them upon
his trained souldiers : which Virgil doth intimate when
he saith,
Mantua vae miseras nimium vicina Cremonae.
Where he complaineth of the infelicity of Mantua,
because seeing it was so neare to Cremona that had so
much offended Augustus, the Mantuans lost many of
their grounds also.
I finde in that excellent historiographer Cornelius Two
Tacitus mention of two memorable battels foughte neare memorable
this citie : whereof the first was betwixt the souldiers of att ^ s -
the Emperour Otho successor to Galba, and his adversarie
Vitellius afterward Emperour, at a place called Bebriacum
neare unto Cremona. For there in a great skirmish Otho
his captaines, who marched from Rome with the Pretorian
cohorts, overcame the Vitellians that consisted of al those
legions that fortified the frontier townes of high Germany,
situate upon the banke of the river Rhene, and some of [p. 115.]
the Netherlands. The second battell was waged a little
after Vespasian was chosen Emperour by the Roman
armie in Judea, betwixt a worthy Captaine one Antony
chief commaunder of the Roman legions in Illyricum
259
CORYAT S CRUDITIES
& Dalmatia, and the Vitellians. This battell Antony
undertooke in the behalfe of the new chosen Emperour
Vespasian ; And it was so bloudy and fierce, that of
Antonies side who got the victory, there were slaine
34,500 men foure thousand five hundred men, and at the least thirty
o / * *
thousand of the Vitellians that were conquered.
I reade also in Historians that this citie hath beene
very much damnified at two severall times : first by Attila
King of the Hunnes, who destroyed it at the same time
that he did Milan : which happened after he was over-
throwne by the famous ^Etius the generall Captaine of
the Emperour Valentinian the third, in that most
memorable battell in France, which was fought betwixt
him and the Romanes in the Catalaunicall fieldes, neare
the citie of Tholosa : Secondly by Egilolphus the fourth
King of the Longobardes.
Cremona Cremona received great losse by the Admirall of
Assaulted Fraunce in the time of Francis the French King, who
by the French, assaulted it with a greate armie of thirty thousand foot
men, and two thousand horsemen, and for the space of
three dayes grievously battered the walles : but whereas
he meant afterward to have entered the citie, there
suddenly descended such abundance of raine from heaven,
which continued for the space of foure daies, that he
raised his siege, and transferred his forces to Milan.
After which time the citizens of Cremona reedified the
walles, and made them as faire as before.
I am sory that I am so briefe in the description of
this elegant citie of Cremona. For the short time that
I spent there deprived me of the opportunity to survay
those monuments and antiquities that I understood are
[p. 1 1 6.] to be seene there, which I would most willingly have
communicated to my countrey. But what is now
wanting I hope shall be hereafter supplied : And so I
conclude this short history of Cremona, with mention of
the Prince of the Latin Poets, famous Virgil, whom in
my youth I reverenced as my master : and therefore I
will ever till the fatall day of my life honour the memorie
260
OBSERVATIONS OF CREMONA
of that incomparable man. In this city did that famous
Poet consecrate himselfe to the Muses, and spent some
time in the study of good letters, according as hee did
in Milan, as I have before mentioned.
Thus much of Cremona.
I Rode from Cremona about five of the clock in the A pox-house.
morning the eighteenth day of June being Saturday,
and came to a solitary post-house twenty miles off, by a
little brooke side about noone. The first wheat that I
saw cut this yeare was at that postehouse, which was
about sixe weekes sooner then we use to cut our wheat
in England. For the space of seven or eight miles before
I came to Mantua I saw so much wheat cut in al the
countrey, that there was little or none standing upon the
ground, and in most places it was cleane carried away
out of the fields.
I rode from the poste-house about two of the clocke
in the afternoone, and came to Mantua, which was twenty
miles beyond it, about halfe an houre after seven of the
clocke in the evening.
About some twelve miles before I came to Mantua, Mlrandula.
I passed through Mirandula, which is the towne where
that famous and learned Earle Joannes Picus, the mirrour
of his time, and the Phoenix of Italy was borne, and
whereof he was Earle. It is a pretty little towne, adorned
with many faire buildings : both before we came into the
towne, and after we had passed it there were two or three [p. 117.]
very faire greene wayes of more then a mile long, being
set on both sides with abundance of Apple and Poplar
trees, which made a faire shew. I observed this towne
Mirandula to be very desolate and unpeopled : the reason
is, because the Bandits, which are the murdering robbers Murdering
upon the Alpes, and many places of Italy, make their Robbers.
aboad in it as it were their safe Sanctuary and refuge,
where they live in the castle of the towne : who because
they doe oftentimes violently breake out upon the towns
men and other passengers, depriving them both of life
261
CORYAT S CRUDITIES
and goods, they minister such occasion of feare to the
inhabitants, that there dwell but few people in the towne.
About half a mile on this side Mantua there is a
very faire Nunnery : and hard without the wals of the
Great Store of citie at the west end, there groweth the greatest store of
Flags. flagges, in a marish soile on both sides of the way that
ever I saw before.
Seafiger s
Venes on
Mantua.
My Observations of Mantua.
Julius Caesar Scaliger hath written these verses upon
Mantua.
MAxima cum veteri turgeret Hetruria regno,
Sceptraque terrarum jungeret aucta mari :
Mole nova tumuit, soliisque excrevit avitis,
Ut premeret forti jura aliena pede.
Inde est in superas deducta Colonia terras :
Non tamen his potuit Mantua tota dari.
Clara viris, felix Ducibus, divo inclyta cycno,
Quern vitreis aluit Mincius Andis aquis.
Mantua dives avis, magno non cesserit orbi,
Tota tamen parte hac vincitur ipsa sui.
The Citie of Mantua I take to be one of the auncientest
cities of Italy, auncienter then Rome by foure hundred
and thirty yeares. For that was built but seven hundred
fiftie three yeares before Christ, as Funccius, Carion,
Chytraeus and most of the best Chronologers doe record.
Mantua built But this was built one thousand, one hundred and eighty
nSo B.C. yeares before Christ, as the Historiographers do report,
which was some few yeares before the beginning of the
Trojan warres : it was founded by one Ocnus Bianor an
ancient King of the Hetruscans, who was the sonne of
a certaine Propheticall woman borne in the Bceoticall
Thebes called Manto, from whose name he called the
citie, not from his owne, as that famous Poet * Virgil in
the honour of his countrey writeth, whose verses are these :
[p. 1 1 8.]
262
OBSERVATIONS OF MANTUA
Ille etiam patriis agmen ciet Ocnus ab oris
Fatidicae Mautus & Tusci filius amnis, verses.
Qui muros matrisque dedit tibi Mantua nomen.
Mantua dives avis, sed non genus omnibus unum,
Gens illi triplex, populi sub gente quaterni,
Ipsa caput populis, Tusco de sanguine vires.
Whereas he saith Gens illi triplex, it seemeth something
hard to be understood without the true knowledge of
the History, which according to the interpretation of
a certaine elegant author that I found in Italy, I take to
be this. This citie was first composed of three severall Three peopl
people, namely the Tuscians from whom Ocnus Bianor tn Mantua.
was descended, being the sonne of Tiberinus that was
King of the Tuscians ; the Thebanes wherehence his
mother the Prophetesse Manto came ; and the Veneti
alias Eneti sprung from the Paphlagones, of whom Livie
writeth about the beginning of the first booke of his first
Decad. And whereas he saith Populi sub gente quaterni,
he meaneth that the whole people being divided into
certaine tribes, each tribe was againe subdivided into
foure parts.
Truely it is neither the long genealogie of the Tuscan [p. 119.]
Kings, nor the magnificence of the ancient buildings nor
the sweetnesse of the situation, nor any other ornament
whatsoever that hath halfe so much enobled this delicate
Citie, as the birth of that peerelesse and incomparable
Poet Virgil, in respect of whom the Mantuans have
reason to bee as proude as the Colophonians or Mantua.
Smyrnians in Greece were of their Homer. I saw
indeed the statue of Virgil made in stone as farre as the
girdle, which was erected in one of their market places,
but had I not beene brought into such a narrow compasse
of time (for I came into the Citie about half an houre
after seven of the clocke in the evening, and rode there-
hence about eight of the clocke the next morning) I would
have scene the house at a place called Andes, a little mile
from Mantua, wherein he .was borne and lived. For the
263
CORYAT S CRUDITIES
ruins thereof are yet shewed to the immortal glory of the
Mantuans.
This Citie is marvellous strong, and walled round about
with faire bricke wals, wherein there are eight gates, and
is thought to be foure miles in compasse : the buildings
Sumptuous both publique and private are very sumptuous and
Buildings, magnificent : their streets straite and very spacious. Also
I saw many stately Pallaces of a goodly height : it is most
sweetly seated in respect of the marvailous sweete ayre
thereof, the abundance of goodly meadows, pastures,
vineyards, orchards, and gardens about it. For they have
such store of gardens about the Citie, that I thinke London
which both for frequencie of people, and multitude of
howses doth thrise exceed it, is not better furnished with
gardens. Besides they have one more commoditie which
maketh the Citie exceeding pleasant even the fair river
Mincius that floweth out of the noble Lake Benacus,
of which Virgil speaketh.
Hie viridis tenera praetexit arundine ripas
Mincius, &c.*
[p. izo.] Withall they have abundance of delectable fruites
Delectable growing about the Citie, whereof I saw great variety in
Fruits. the market place the Sunday morning when I departed
therehence, and no small diversity of odoriferous flowers.
Truely the view of this most sweet Paradise, this
domicilium Venerum & Charitum did even so ravish my
senses, and tickle my spirits with such inward delight,
that I said unto my selfe, this is the Citie which of all
other places in the world, I would wish to make my
habitation in, and spend the remainder of my dayes in
some divine Meditations amongst the sacred Muses, were
it not for their grosse idolatry and superstitious ceremonies
which I detest, and the love of Odcombe in Somersetshire,
which is so deare unto me that I preferre the very smoke
thereof before the fire of all other places under the Sunne.
* Georgi. 4.
264
OBSERVATIONS OF MANTUA
The Palace of the present Duke of Mantua, whose The Palace.
name is Vincentius Gonzaga, is very neare to the
principall Church which is dedicated to Saint Barbara,
being right opposite unto it on the right hand as you
go to the Church from the towne : it is a very ancient
and faire building, having two gates to enter two severall
courts which are kept by a guard of Switzers. One of
these gates which was made against the marriage of the
yong Prince of Mantua, Francis Gonzaga (whereof I
have spoken before in my discourse of Turin) is very
new, and a most magnificent and stately worke, made all
of white stone, wherein the Dukes arms are most
exquisitely wrought in gold with a cor 
