THOMAS COUYATE. 
327 
■ ;■•■■ ■ Thomas GonYAn^E.’ . 
iTniS was ai3 extraoiTlinary person, who made hiniseif famous by hb 
whims and extravagancies. He was the son of a clergyman, and 
bofii at Gdcombe in 1577. He was first educated at Westminster 
school, and became a commoner of Gloucester-hall, Oxford, in 1596 ; 
where continuing about three years, he attained, by mere dint of me- 
mory, some skill in logic, and more in the Greek and Latin languages. 
After he had been taken home for a time, he went to London, and 
was received into the family of Henry prince of Wales, either as a 
domestic, or, according to some, as a fool, an office which in former 
days was filled by a person hired for the purpose. In this situation 
he was exposed to the wit of the court, who finding in him a strange 
mixture of sense and folly, made i'im their whetstone; and so, says 
Wood, he became too much knowm all over the world. In 1608 he 
took a journey to France, Ital}^, Germany, &c. which lasted 'five 
months, during which time he had travelled 1975 miles, — more than 
half upon one pair of shoes, which were only once mended, and oil 
his return were hung up in the church of Odcombe. He published 
his travels under this title, “ Crudities hastily gobbled up in five months’ 
travels in France, Savoy, Italy, Rhetia, Helvetia, some parts of High 
Germany, and the Netherlands.” This work was ushered into the 
world by an Odcombian banquet, consisting of near sixty copies of 
verses, made by the best poets of that time, which, if they did not 
make Coryate pass with the w-orld for a man of great parts and 
learning, contributed not a little to the sale of his book. Tliese 
verses were reprinted in the same year, 1611, detached from the 
Crudities, with this title, “ The Odcombian Banquet dished fortb 
by Thomas the Coriat, and served in a number of Noble Wits, in 
praise of his Crudities, andCrambe too — Asinus portans mysteria ;”aml 
with a prose advertisement at the conclusion, of w hich is the following 
transcript, w'hich may serve as a specimen of Coryate’s strange and 
whimsical style. 
‘‘ Noverint nniversi, &c. “ Know, gentle reader, that the book in 
praise whereof all these preceding verses were written, is purposely 
committed for their and thy purses’ good ; partly for the greatness 
of the volume, containing 654 pages, each page thirty-six lines, each 
line forty-eight letters ; besides panegyrics, poems, epistles, |>refaces, 
letters, orations, fragments, posthumes, with the commas, colons, full- 
points, and other things hereunto appertaining; which being printed 
of a character legible without spectacles, would have caused the 
book much to exceed that price w'hereat men in those witty days 
value such stuffe as that; and partly for that one, 
Whose learning, judgment, wit, and braine. 
Are w'eight with Tom’s just to a graine ;” 
Having read the book with an intent to epitomize it, could he but 
have melted out of the whole lumpe so much matter worthy of reading 
as would have filled four pages ; but, finding his labour lost, and his 
hope therein fallen short, is resolved to defer it till the author of the 
“ Crudities” has finished his second travels ; which being intended 
for a place far more remote, is likely to produce a bookoffarre 
