The Cambridge Edition of the Works of Ben Jonson

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  • From Coryate’s Crudities (1611), ‘To the Right Noble Tom Tell-Truth of His Travails’

From Coryate’s Crudities (1611), ‘To the Right Noble Tom Tell-Truth of His Travails’

   To the Right Noble Tom Tell-Truth
of His  Travails, the Coryate of Odcombe,
and His Book, Now Going to Travel

Try and trust  Roger was the word, but now

H onest Tom Tell-Truth puts down Roger: how?

O f travel he discourseth so at large,

M arry he  sets it out at his own charge;

A nd therein, which is worth his valour too, 5

S hows he dares more than  Paul’s Churchyard durst do.

C ome forth, thou bonny bouncing book then, daughter

O f Tom of Odcombe, that odd jovial author,

R ather his son I should have called thee: why?

Y es, thou wert born out of his  travelling thigh 10

A s well as from his brains, and claimest thereby

T o be his Bacchus as his Pallas: be

E ver his thighs male then, and his brains she.

To the Right Noble Tom Tell-Truth Right] Odcombian; Righ Crudities (corrected by Coryate in MS)
To the Right Noble Tom Tell-TruthFor Jonson’s contempt for acrostic verses, see Und. 43.49.[Editor: Colin Burrow]
Travails . . . Travel The pun (on ‘labours, sufferings’ and ‘journey’) is common.
1 Try and trust Roger A translation of a Latin proverb Experto crede Roberto ‘Trust Robert, once he has been tried’, found in Nashe, Works, 1.200. Cf. the proverb ‘Try your friend before you trust’ (Tilley, T595). ‘Roger’ can be a generic name for a man, as in Tilley, R159.
4 sets . . . charge Coryate bore the costs of publication.
6 Paul’s Churchyard The location of the majority of booksellers; hence Coryate takes on more of the financial risks of his venture than most publishers.
10 travelling thigh Puns on ‘travailing’ (‘labouring to give birth’); Bacchus was born from the thigh of Jove; Pallas Athena from his head.