CORBET, (RICHARD.)

Poems. Written by the Right Rev. Dr. Richard Corbet, late Lord Bishop of Norwich. The Third Edition, corrected and enlarged.

London: Printed by J. C. for William Crook, at the Green Dragon without Temple Bar. 1672. 12mo, pp. 148.

On the title-page of this, the third edition, is Crook's device of a dragon with the initials "W C" on the sides. It is dedicated by the publisher "To the Honorable and truly noble Sir Edmund Bacon of Redgrave-Hall in the County of Suffolk, Baronet," in which, in allusion to his name, he observes:

The very name of Bacon is so famous in our British Isle, that it stands not in need of the weak support of applause; for it proclaims at once your Merit and Ingenuity, being descended from so many noble Ancestors; among whom, give me leave to take notice of the worthy Sir Nicholas Bacon, Lord Keeper of the Great Seal of England in the time of Queen Elizabeth, who continued in that Honorable Employment the space of twenty years compleat; whose eldest Son, Sir Nicholas Bacon of Redgrave in Suffolk (your late Noble and deserving Predecessor) was the first that had the Honor of Baronet conferred upon him by King James: Sir Francis Bacon, the famous Philosopher, our English Plato, and your own near Relation, was Lord Chancellour of England, and afterwards, by his Majesty pre-mention'd, created Viscount St. Albans. Thus, Sir, being so Nobly descended from Persons of that Eminency for exquisite Parts, and Honorary Employments, I did presume to make this Address to you, and to present you with this Poem, the work of an eminent Divine; and the most Pious of the Clergie have made use of that innocent Art of Poesie, not only for their pleasant Diversion, but their most fervent Devotion.

"An Advertisement" follows, explaining that "upon the reprinting of these Poems diligent search was made to perfect them, (which were very imperfectly printed before.) And although in this Edition there be but few new Poems, yet you may finde many of them more perfect than before; for in some there is six, in others four, and in many two Lines added (out of perfecter Copies) which were left out in the former Impressions: Also all other Faults are diligently examined and corrected; so that now you have them as perfect as I can get them." "A Table" of the contents closes the introductory matter. There are a few fresh poems inserted, but none of them of any moment, and this edition, notwithstanding the boast in the title, is but little superior to the first. The following Epitaph on Dr. Donne, Dean of St. Paul's, may be quoted as a further specimen of his muse:

He that would write an Epitaph for thee,
And do it well, must first begin to be
Such as thou wert; for none can truly know
Thy worth, thy life, but he that hath liv'd so.
He must have Wit to spare, and to hurl down
Enough to keep the Gallants of the Town;
He must have Learning plenty, both the Laws
Civil and Common, to judge any Cause;
Divinity great store, above the rest,
Not of the last Edition, but the best.
He must have Language, Travel, all the Arts,
Judgment to use, or else he wants thy Parts.
He must have Friends the highest, able to do
Such as Mecanas and Augustus too.
He must have such a Sickness, such a Death,
Or else his vain Descriptions come beneath.
Who then shall write an Epitaph for thee,

He must be dead first; let't alone for me.

R. Corbet.

The ensuing manuscript verses in honour of Bishop Corbet were found inscribed on a blank leaf of a copy of his Poems:

If flowing wit, if verses writ with ease,
If learning, void of pedantry, can please :
If much good humour, join'd to solid sense,
And mirth accompanied with innocence,
Can give a poet a just right to fame,
Then Corbet may immortal honour claim:
For he these virtues had, and in his lines
Poetic and heroic spirit shines;

Tho' bright yet solid, pleasant but not rude,

With wit and wisdom equally indu'd.

Be silent Muse, thy praises are too faint:

Thou want'st a pow'r this prodigy to paint,
At once a poet, prelate, and a Saint.

J. C.

The reader may see also a copy of "Verses to Bishop Corbet" in Gomersall's Poems, 1633, sm. 8vo, p. 4, et seq. The poem "Upon Faireford

Windowes" is contained in some Miscell. MS. Poems in the Brit. Museum, Bib. Sloane, 1446, signed "R. C."

This edition sold in the White Knight's sale, No. 998, for 8s.; Jolley's ditto, pt. ii. No. 815, 5s.; and in the Bibl. Ang. Poet., No. 139, 1l. 58. Collation Title A 2; Sig. A six leaves; B to G 9, in twelves.

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In Brown Calf, sprinkled edges.

CORBET, (RICHARD.) - Poems. Written by the Right Rev. Dr. Richard Corbet, late Lord Bishop of Norwich. The Third Edition, corrected and enlarged.

London: Printed by J. C. for William Crook, at the Green Dragon without Temple Bar. 1672. 12mo, pp. 148.

Another copy of the same edition. It formerly belonged to the late eminent poetical antiquary Mr. Park, and is enriched with numerous notes and much interesting matter in manuscript, written in his peculiarly neat hand. It has a memoir of the author from the Biogr. Brit., vol. iv. p. 271, ed. 89, and contains at the end a long poem in manuscript by Bishop Corbet, not given in the printed copies, but too long for insertion here, called "The Country Life," taken from Harding's Miscell. Antiq., where it was printed from a MS., and has not appeared in any edition of Corbet's Poems. The MS. from which it was taken is dated 1625, and was then in the possession of Mr. F. G. Waldron.

This was the copy from the Bibl. Ang. Poet., No. 139, priced at 17. 58. In Boards.

CORYAT, (THOMAS.) Coryats Crudities. Hastily gobled up in five Moneths travells in France, Savoy, Italy, Rhetia, comonly called the Grisons country, Helvetia alias Switzerland, some parts of high Germany, and the Netherlands; 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.

Quadrigis, pedibus bene vivere, navibus atqè

Gallia, Germania, Italia.

London, Printed by W. S. 1611. 4to, pp. 902.

Few books in this catalogue are more singular and remarkable than the Crudities of the vain and facetious Tom Coryat, the Odcombian, as he styled himself, a person of no mean learning and acquirements, but unfortunately an arrant coxcomb, and altogether devoid of judgment. These deficiencies. rendered him open to the attacks of the wits and poets of his time, who, while they inflamed his vanity, made him their butt, and an object for their

satire and ridicule. But Coryat possessed many of the essential requisites of a traveller, which, added to his wonderful facility of acquiring the languages of the countries which he visited, and a simple and truthful way of stating what he saw, rendered his travels interesting at the time, and gave a value to his account which was not altogether undeserved. It is to be regretted that he did not live to return home, and to publish the narrative of his later travels in the East, which would have been of great value and interest, as being so early a visitor of those countries, and we are well disposed to agree with a writer in the Quart. Rev., vol. ii. p. 92, that “had Coryat reached his home he would no longer have been an object of ridicule, his inordinate and simple vanity would have been forgotten in justice to his acquirements, and his work would probably have been the best that had yet appeared concerning India."

Coryat was a native of Odcombe in Somersetshire, of which place his father was Rector, and was entered a commoner of Gloucester Hall in Oxford in 1596, being then nineteen, where he remained for three years, and afterwards removed to London, and was domesticated in the household of Prince Henry. In 1608, being filled with a passionate desire to travel and render his name famous, he went abroad into France, Italy, Germany and Switzerland, and on his return published the volume now under our notice, in 1611, which was preceded by what was called an Odcombian Banquet, consisting of an extraordinary collection of commendatory verses by the writers of that day. In the following year, 1612, he embarked on a longer journey into the East on foot, intending not to return home till he had spent ten years in his travels. Having visited Egypt and the Holy Land he weat on to Syria and Armenia, and into Persia, and the country of the Great Mogul, till he arrived at Agra, where he rested for some time, until he had acquired a knowledge of the Turkish, Arabic, Persian, aud Hindostani languages. After having visited several places in those parts, he went at length to Surat in the East Indies, where he was taken ill and died in December 1617, aged forty, and was buried there. His notes and observations made on his long travels appear to have been lost. There is a curious original letter of Coryat's on the subject of the present work, addressed to Sir Michael Hixes, Knight, printed in Cens. Liter., vol. x. p. 331.

The volume commences with "Certaine Opening and Drawing Distiches" in rhyme, as "An Explication of the Emblemes of the frontispiece." These are by Laurence Whitaker and Ben Jonson. Then "The Character of the famous Odcombian or rather Polytopian, Thomas the Coryate; Traveller

and Gentleman Author of these Quinque-mestriall Crudities. Done by a charitable friend," &c., in prose. After these come "An Acrostic on the Author" by Ben Jonson, and an "Epistle Dedicatoric to Prince Henry," by the author, who subscribes himself "Your Highnesse poore Obseruer, Thomas Coryate, Peregrine of Odcombe." This is preceded by a woodcut of the Prince's plume and motto surrounded by rays, occupying the full page. An "Epistle to the Reader" and "An Introduction to the ensuing Verses" precede a most extraordinary number of mock commendatory, or "Panegyricke Verses upon the Author and his booke." These verses amount to eighty-nine, and are written by some of the most eminent authors and wits of the age, amongst whom are Sir John Harrington, Sir Dudley Digges, Sir Rowland Cotton, William Clavel, Dr. Donne, Laurence Whitaker, Hugh Holland, Walter Quin, Inigo Jones, Dr. Richard Corbet, Thomas Campion, John Owen, Thomas Bastard, Dr. Thomas Farnaby, William Austin, Michael Drayton, John Davies of Hereford, Henry Peacham, and many others less known to fame. After these verses come "An Oration in praise of Travell in general," made by "Hermannus Kirchnerus, a Civil Lawyer, Orator, and Cæsarean Poet, and Professor of Eloquence in the University of Marperg in the Landgraviet of Hesse," occupying thirty-three pages, and Mr. Laurence Whitaker's "Elogie of the Booke," which conclude the introductory portion of the volume. There is another "Oration" by the aforesaid Herman Kerchner after page 364, "in praise of the travell of Germany in particular," that it "is to be preferred before all other travells." This is not paged, and being unnoticed, has rendered the account of the paging in Bibl. Ang. Poet. incorrect.

At the end of the Crudities a new title occurs thus:

"Posthuma Fragmenta Poematvm Georgii Coryati Sarisburiensis, Sacræ Theologiæ Baccalaurei, quondum e sociis Novi Collegii in inclyta Academia Oxoniensi, ac postea Ecclesiæ Odcombiensis in Agro Somersetensi Ministri, ubi tandem anno 1606 extremum vitæ diem clausit. Londini. Anno Dom: 1611."

From an account of George Coryat, the father of our traveller, in Wood's Ath. Oxon., vol. i. p. 744, we learn that he was a native of Salisbury, educated at Winchester School, and admitted a fellow of New College, Oxford, from there in 1562, took the degree of B.A. in 1563 and M.A. in 1570, and in June of that year became Rector of Odcombe in Somersetshire, where he died, March 4th, 1606-7, and was buried in the chancel of the church at that place. According to Wood he "was much commended in his time for