The following panegyric on the hero of Odcombe, Thomas Coryate, a
pedantic coxcomb, with just brains enough to be ridiculous, to whom the
world is much more indebted for becoming “the whetstone of the wits”
than for any doings of his own, and the particulars of whose life and
peregrinations may be found in every collection of biography, is printed
in the Odcombian Banquet, 1611, 4to. sign. I. 3.
The Latin lines have been omitted in the former impressions of Bishop
Corbet’s poems.
SPECTATISSIMO, PUNCTISQUE OMNIBUS DIGNISSIMO, THOMÆ CORIATO DE ODCOMBE,
PEREGRINANTI, PEDESTRIS ORDINIS, EQUESTRISQUE FAMÆ.
Quod mare transieris, quod rura urbesque pedester,
Jamque colat reduces patria læta pedes:
Quodque idem numero tibi calceus hæret, et illo
Cum _corio_ redeas, quo _Coriatus_ abis:
Fatum omenque tui miramur nominis, ex quo
Calcibus et soleis fluxit aluta tuis.
Nam quicunque cadem vestigia tentat, opinor
Excoriatus erit, ni _Coriatus_ eat.