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Thomas Coryat (also Coryate) (c. 15771617) was an English traveller and writer of the late
Elizabethan The Elizabethan era is the epoch in the Tudor period of the history of England during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I (1558–1603). Historians often depict it as the golden age in English history. The symbol of Britannia (a female personifi ...
and early Jacobean age. He is principally remembered for two volumes of writings he left regarding his travels, often on foot, through Europe and parts of Asia. He is often credited with introducing the table
fork In cutlery or kitchenware, a fork (from la, furca 'pitchfork') is a utensil, now usually made of metal, whose long handle terminates in a head that branches into several narrow and often slightly curved tines with which one can spear foods ei ...
to England, with "Furcifer" (Latin: fork-bearer, rascal) becoming one of his nicknames.Michael Strachan, "Coryate, Thomas (c. 1577–1617)", in ''Literature of Travel and Exploration: an Encyclopedia'', 2003, Volume 1, pp.285–87 His description of how the Italians shielded themselves from the sun resulted in the word "
umbrella An umbrella or parasol is a folding canopy supported by wooden or metal ribs that is usually mounted on a wooden, metal, or plastic pole. It is designed to protect a person against rain or sunlight. The term ''umbrella'' is traditionally used ...
" being introduced into English.


Life and writings

Coryat was born in
Crewkerne Crewkerne ( ) is a town and electoral ward in Somerset, England, southwest of Yeovil and east of Chard all in the South Somerset district. The civil parish of West Crewkerne includes the hamlets of Coombe, Woolminstone and Henley – and b ...
, Somerset, and lived most of his life in the Somerset village of
Odcombe Odcombe is a village and civil parish in south Somerset, England, west of the town of Yeovil, with a population of 759 in 2011. The upper part of the village, Higher Odcombe, sits on the crest of the hill, while the lower part, Lower Odcombe, i ...
. He was a son of George Coryate (died 1607). He was educated at
Winchester College Winchester College is a public school (fee-charging independent day and boarding school) in Winchester, Hampshire, England. It was founded by William of Wykeham in 1382 and has existed in its present location ever since. It is the oldest of the ...
from 1591, and at
Gloucester Hall, Oxford Gloucester ( ) is a cathedral city and the county town of Gloucestershire in the South West of England. Gloucester lies on the River Severn, between the Cotswolds to the east and the Forest of Dean to the west, east of Monmouth and east of the ...
from 1596 to 1599. He was employed by
Prince Henry Prince Henry (or Prince Harry) may refer to: People *Henry the Young King (1155–1183), son of Henry II of England, who was crowned king but predeceased his father *Prince Henry the Navigator of Portugal (1394–1460) *Henry, Duke of Cornwall (Ja ...
, eldest son of
James I James I may refer to: People *James I of Aragon (1208–1276) *James I of Sicily or James II of Aragon (1267–1327) *James I, Count of La Marche (1319–1362), Count of Ponthieu *James I, Count of Urgell (1321–1347) *James I of Cyprus (1334–13 ...
as a sort of "court jester" from 1603 to 1607, alongside
Ben Jonson Benjamin "Ben" Jonson (c. 11 June 1572 – c. 16 August 1637) was an English playwright and poet. Jonson's artistry exerted a lasting influence upon English poetry and stage comedy. He popularised the comedy of humours; he is best known for t ...
,
John Donne John Donne ( ; 22 January 1572 – 31 March 1631) was an English poet, scholar, soldier and secretary born into a recusant family, who later became a clergy, cleric in the Church of England. Under royal patronage, he was made Dean of St Paul's ...
and
Inigo Jones Inigo Jones (; 15 July 1573 – 21 June 1652) was the first significant architect in England and Wales in the early modern period, and the first to employ Vitruvian rules of proportion and symmetry in his buildings. As the most notable archit ...
. From May to October 1608 he undertook a tour of Europe, somewhat less than half of which he walked. He travelled through France and Italy to Venice, and returned via Switzerland, Germany and the Netherlands. He published his memoirs of the events in a volume entitled '' Coryat's Crudities hastily gobbled up in Five Months Travels in France, Italy, &c'' (1611). This volume gives a vivid picture of life in Europe during the time. The work is particularly important to music historians for giving extraordinary details of the activities of the Venetian School, one of the most famous and progressive contemporary musical movements in Europe, including an elaborate description of the festivities at the church of
San Rocco Roch (lived c. 1348 – 15/16 August 1376/79 (traditionally c. 1295 – 16 August 1327, also called Rock in English, is a Catholic saint, a confessor whose death is commemorated on 16 August and 9 September in Italy; he is especially invoked a ...
in
Venice Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400  ...
, with
polychoral An antiphon (Greek ἀντίφωνον, ἀντί "opposite" and φωνή "voice") is a short chant in Christian ritual, sung as a refrain. The texts of antiphons are the Psalms. Their form was favored by St Ambrose and they feature prominently ...
and instrumental music by
Giovanni Gabrieli Giovanni Gabrieli (c. 1554/1557 – 12 August 1612) was an Italian composer and organist. He was one of the most influential musicians of his time, and represents the culmination of the style of the Venetian School, at the time of the shift f ...
,
Bartolomeo Barbarino Bartolomeo Barbarino (known as "il Pesarino") (c. 1568c. 1617 or later) was an Italian composer and singer of the early Baroque era. He was a virtuoso falsettist, and one of the most enthusiastic composers of the new style of monody. Life Nothing ...
, and others. In 1611 he published a second volume of travel writings, this one entitled ''Coryats Crambe, or his Coleworte twice Sodden.'' Coryat's letters from this time refer to the famous
Mermaid Tavern The Mermaid Tavern was a tavern on Cheapside in London during the Elizabethan era, located east of St. Paul's Cathedral on the corner of Friday Street and Bread Street. It was the site of the so-called "Fraternity of Sireniacal Gentlemen", a dr ...
in London, and mention
Ben Jonson Benjamin "Ben" Jonson (c. 11 June 1572 – c. 16 August 1637) was an English playwright and poet. Jonson's artistry exerted a lasting influence upon English poetry and stage comedy. He popularised the comedy of humours; he is best known for t ...
,
John Donne John Donne ( ; 22 January 1572 – 31 March 1631) was an English poet, scholar, soldier and secretary born into a recusant family, who later became a clergy, cleric in the Church of England. Under royal patronage, he was made Dean of St Paul's ...
and other members of a drinking club named the "Fraternity of Sireniacal Gentlemen" that met there. Ever restless, he set out once again in 1612, this time on a journey that would ultimately lead to Asia, visiting
Greece Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders with ...
, the eastern
Mediterranean The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa, and on the e ...
including
Constantinople la, Constantinopolis ota, قسطنطينيه , alternate_name = Byzantion (earlier Greek name), Nova Roma ("New Rome"), Miklagard/Miklagarth (Old Norse), Tsargrad ( Slavic), Qustantiniya (Arabic), Basileuousa ("Queen of Cities"), Megalopolis (" ...
by 1614, and walking through Turkey,
Persia Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...
and eventually Moghul India by 1615, visiting the Emperor
Jahangir Nur-ud-Din Muhammad Salim (30 August 1569 – 28 October 1627), known by his imperial name Jahangir (; ), was the fourth Mughal Emperor, who ruled from 1605 until he died in 1627. He was named after the Indian Sufi saint, Salim Chishti. Ear ...
's court in
Ajmer Ajmer is one of the major and oldest cities in the Indian state of Rajasthan and the centre of the eponymous Ajmer District. It is located at the centre of Rajasthan. It is also known as heart of Rajasthan. The city was established as "''Aj ...
,
Rajasthan Rajasthan (; lit. 'Land of Kings') is a state in northern India. It covers or 10.4 per cent of India's total geographical area. It is the largest Indian state by area and the seventh largest by population. It is on India's northwestern si ...
. From
Agra Agra (, ) is a city on the banks of the Yamuna river in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, about south-east of the national capital New Delhi and 330 km west of the state capital Lucknow. With a population of roughly 1.6 million, Agra is ...
and elsewhere he sent letters describing his experiences; his ''Greetings from the Court of the Great Mogul'' was published in London in 1616, and a similar volume of his letters home appeared posthumously in 1618. In September 1617, at the invitation of Sir
Thomas Roe Sir Thomas Roe ( 1581 – 6 November 1644) was an English diplomat of the Elizabethan and Jacobean periods. Roe's voyages ranged from Central America to India; as ambassador, he represented England in the Mughal Empire, the Ottoman Empire ...
, he visited the imperial court at Mandu,
Madhya Pradesh Madhya Pradesh (, ; meaning 'central province') is a state in central India. Its capital is Bhopal, and the largest city is Indore, with Jabalpur, Ujjain, Gwalior, Sagar, and Rewa being the other major cities. Madhya Pradesh is the seco ...
. In November 1617 he left for
Surat Surat is a city in the western Indian state of Gujarat. The word Surat literally means ''face'' in Gujarati and Hindi. Located on the banks of the river Tapti near its confluence with the Arabian Sea, it used to be a large seaport. It is now ...
; he died of
dysentery Dysentery (UK pronunciation: , US: ), historically known as the bloody flux, is a type of gastroenteritis that results in bloody diarrhea. Other symptoms may include fever, abdominal pain, and a feeling of incomplete defecation. Complications ...
there in December of that year, his demise hastened by the consumption of sack. Though his planned account of the journey was never to be, some of his unorganized travel notes have survived and found their way back to England. These were published in the 1625 edition of
Samuel Purchas Samuel Purchas ( – 1626) was an England, English Anglican cleric who published several volumes of reports by travellers to foreign countries. Career Purchas was born at Thaxted, Essex, England, Essex son of an English yeoman. He graduated fr ...
's Coryat's writings were hugely popular at the time. His accounts of inscriptions, many of which are now lost, were valuable; and his accounts of Italian customs and manners—including the use of the table fork—were influential in England at a time when other aspects of Italian culture, such as the
madrigal A madrigal is a form of secular vocal music most typical of the Renaissance (15th–16th c.) and early Baroque (1600–1750) periods, although revisited by some later European composers. The polyphonic madrigal is unaccompanied, and the number o ...
, had already been in vogue for more than twenty years. He is considered by many to have been the first Briton to do a
Grand Tour The Grand Tour was the principally 17th- to early 19th-century custom of a traditional trip through Europe, with Italy as a key destination, undertaken by upper-class young European men of sufficient means and rank (typically accompanied by a tuto ...
of Europe; a practice which became a mainstay of the education of upper class Englishmen in the 18th century.


Legacy

The place of his tomb is uncertain. As there was no regular English cemetery at Surat then, his body was buried north of the town on the western side of road leading to
Bharuch Bharuch (), formerly known as Broach, is a city at the mouth of the river Narmada in Gujarat in western India. Bharuch is the administrative headquarters of Bharuch District. The city of Bharuch and surroundings have been settled since tim ...
. Another traveller,
Terry Terry is a unisex given name, derived from French Thierry and Theodoric. It can also be used as a diminutive nickname for the names Teresa or Theresa (feminine) or Terence (given name), Terence or Terrier (masculine). People Male * Terry Albrit ...
, noted that his body was buried at Swally (
Suvali Suvali Beach was previously known as Suwally, Swally (anglicised version of Suvali), Swalley-Road, or Swally Beach. Suvali Beach is an urban beach along the Arabian Sea situated near the village of Suvali in the Hazira suburb of Surat in Gujara ...
), where other English people are also buried, but this account is not reliable, for it was written 40 years after the death of Coryat. The ''List of Tombs and Monuments in the Bombay Presidency'' had described it as 'consisting of a dome resting on circular pillars' in Muslim architectural style, which is similar to a monument present at Rajgari near Suvali. This monument is now State Protected Monument identifying it as the tomb of Tom Coryat (S-GJ-231). There is no inscription or other clue supporting it as the tomb; however, it is known that the tomb had just two marked stones originally and there is no known reason why a monument was erected later. Thomas Herbert, who visited India ten years after the death of Coryat, noted that a Persian ambassador, who died on board the fleet at Swally, was buried near him in
Surat Surat is a city in the western Indian state of Gujarat. The word Surat literally means ''face'' in Gujarati and Hindi. Located on the banks of the river Tapti near its confluence with the Arabian Sea, it used to be a large seaport. It is now ...
. Dr. John Fryer who was at Surat in 1675 was shown the tombs of the Persian ambassador and Coryat, along with several Armenian Christian tombs outside the Bharuch gate. The original location of the gate is not known, as the old mud wall fort was replaced by a brick wall fort after the
Battle of Surat Battle of Surat, also known as the Sack of Surat, was a land battle that took place on January 5, 1664, near the city of Surat, in present-day Gujarat, India; between Maratha ruler Shivaji and Inayat Khan, a Mughal captain. The Marathas defea ...
. During the British period, William Morrison, the collector of Surat, tried to find the tomb and later concluded that it is lost in the periodical floods of the Tapi river. British travel writer and historian
William Dalrymple William Dalrymple may refer to: * William Dalrymple (1678–1744), Scottish Member of Parliament * William Dalrymple (moderator) (1723–1814), Scottish minister and religious writer * William Dalrymple (British Army officer) (1736–1807), Scott ...
cites Coryat as 'one of my travel-writing heroes' in his first book ''
In Xanadu ''In Xanadu: A Quest'' is a 1989 travel book by William Dalrymple (historian), William Dalrymple. Overview ''In Xanadu'' traces the path taken by Marco Polo from the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem to the site of Shangdu, famed as ...
'' (1989). British travel writer and humorist Tim Moore retraced the steps of Coryat's tour of Europe, as recounted in his book ''Continental Drifter'' (2000). In 2008 Daniel Allen published an account of his nine-month cycle trip following Coryat's journey to the East, entitled ''The Sky Above, The Kingdom Below''. Lonely Planet founder
Tony Wheeler Tony Wheeler (born 20 December 1946) is an English-born Australian publishing entrepreneur, businessman and travel writer, co-founder of the Lonely Planet guidebook company with his wife Maureen Wheeler. Born in England, his father worked for ...
spoke at the Australian Festival of Travel Writing about Thomas Coryat. Wheeler traced Coryate's (his spelling) journey as he observed the invention of leisure travel. He visited his supposed tomb at Rajgari near Surat in 2010.


See also

*
John Sandford (poet) John Sandford or Sanford (c. 1565 – 1629) was an English clergyman and academic, known as a grammarian of the Romance languages. He was also a New Latin language, neo-Latin poet, and a founder of the tradition of literary nonsense under the pseud ...
*
William Stansby William Stansby (1572–1638) was a London printer and publisher of the Jacobean and Caroline eras, working under his own name from 1610. One of the most prolific printers of his time, Stansby is best remembered for publishing the landmark first ...


Notes


References and further reading

*Adams, Percy G. ''Travel Literature and the Evolution of the Novel.'' Lexington: UP of Kentucky, 1983. 215–22. .. *Allen, Daniel ''The Sky Above, The Kingdom Below''. London, Haus, 2008. *Chaney, Edward, 'Thomas Coryate', The Grove-Macmillan Dictionary of Art. *Chaney, Edward, The Evolution of the Grand Tour, 2nd ed, Routledge, London, 2000. * *Moraes, Dom and Sarayu Srivatsa. ''The Long Strider : How Thomas Coryate Walked From England to India in the Year 1613.'' New Delhi: Penguin, 2003. . *Moore, Tim ''The Grand Tour'', St. Martin's Press, New York, 2001. *Penrose, Boies. ''Urbane Travelers: 1591–1635.'' Philadelphia: U of Pennsylvania P, 1942. LCCN 42-019537. * *Pritchard, R.E. ''Odd Tom Coryate: The English Marco Polo.'' Thrupp, Stroud, Gloucestershire: Sutton, 2004. . *Strachan, Michael. ''The Life and Adventures of Thomas Coryate.'' London: Oxford UP, 1962. LCCN 62-052512. * Whittaker, David (ed.) 'Most Glorious & Peerless Venice: Observations of Thomas Coryate (1608)'. Wavestone Press, Charlbury, 2013. 978-09545194-7-6 (Contains the Venice section of the 'Crudities', with photographs by the editor.)


External links


Coryat's Crudities

Greetings from the Court of the Great Mogul
{{DEFAULTSORT:Coryat, Thomas 1570s births 1617 deaths Year of birth uncertain People from Crewkerne English travel writers People educated at Winchester College Deaths from dysentery Infectious disease deaths in India Alumni of Gloucester Hall, Oxford 16th-century English writers 16th-century male writers 17th-century English writers 17th-century English male writers