> J>X> >' X '>■■ iS>_>:>:»f> >K >SS»>J) .<>>:> -711; 1> 5^- ^- -^ ^> ■ v>Xx2»'>^_ - - ^ -:>» ^»»> ^»^ : 3i!> >>» > J>> ><>^ >^»>j >5> P^ >-2>-^ 1» '^>U>3^ ►-^^ -^^JcOl; •JJ :2>::*:i "53 J-» 2» J >>J> -.2>>: :>?-' j>i>z: V :>o^ _> cs> j*>> >2:*^^ 3> ^s> je> r>3:> ^>3:^^r^>: >:Jfpt3fcei|^ ■ .y .a '^'/ ^ a r) \^ Bi lijr T L E H U D I B R A S, BY SAMUEL BUTLEE; WITH VARIORUM NOTES, SELECTED PRINCIPALLY FROM GREY AND NASH. EDITEU BY HENRY G. BOHN. VOL. I. WITH SIXTY TWO ADDITIONAL PORTRAITS. LONDON : HENRY G. BOIIX, YORK STRKET, COVENT GARDEN. 1859. JOHN I nil US ANIi SON, riilNTERf!. URL - Fk 5333 PREFACE. ^'' The edition of Hudibras now submitted to the pub- jlic is intended to be more complete, though in a smaller 1 compass, than any of its numerous predecessors. The text is that of Nash, usually accepted as the best ; but in many instances — as in the very first line — the au- thor's original readings have been preferred. In all cases the variations are shown in the foot notes, so that the reader may take his choice. The main feature, however, of the present edition is its notes ; these have been selected with considerable diligence and attention from every known source, and it is believed that no part of the text is left vinexplained which was ever explained before. Gn't/ has been the great storehouse of information, and next in degree iV?/.s7/, but both have required careful sifting. Other editions, numerous as they are, — including Aikin^s, the Aldine, and Gilfillan's, — have yielded nothing. Mr Bell's, which is by far the best, is edited on the same principle as the present, and had that gentleman re- tained the numbering of the lines, and given an Index, there would have been little left for any successor to improve. A few of the notes in the present selection are, to a certain extent, original, arising from some historical and bibliographical knowledge of the times, or derived VI PREFACE. from a manuscript key, annexed to a copy of the first edition, and attributed to Butler himself. The Biographical Sketch of our poet is a mere rifaci- mento of old materials, for nothing new is now to be dis- covered about him. Diligent researches have been made in the parish where he lived and died — Covent Garden — without eliciting any new fact, excepting that the monument erected to his memory has been de- stroyed. This volume has been more than two years at pr- j having dribbled through the editor's hands, not dui his leisure hours or intervals of business, for he ne j had any, but by forced snatches from his legitiraa pursuits. An old affection for Hudibras, acquired nearl_ half a century ago, at a time when its piquant couple^ were still familiarly quoted, had long impressed hii with the desire to publish a realh^ popular edition ; Et Ton revient toujours A ses premieres amours ; the public therefore now have the result. It has happened, from the want of consecutive at tention, that two or three notes are all but duplicate such as that on Wicked Bihlesi at pages 326 and -371 Mum and Mummery, 385 and 406 ; and, He that Jighft and runs away, at pages 403 and 106. But the pub- lisher hopes that his readers will not quarrel with him for giving too much rather than too little. Henry G. Bohn. York Sfrerf, Coi^rnf Garden, April 2Sf/i, 1859. LIST OF THE WOOD CUTS IN BUTLER'S HUDIBRAS. DESIGNED BY THURSTON. VIGNETTE ON FEINTED TITLE, CDgraved by Sughes. Then did Sir Knight abandon dwelling, And out he rode a colonelling. — A Squire he had, whose name was Ralph, That in th' adventure went his half. 1. 13, 14, 4o7-f^. ENaR.A^VED TITLE. HEAD OF nUDiBEAS. Thompson. Thus was he gifted and accouter'd, — ■ His tawny beard was th' equal grace Both of his wisdom and his face ; In cut and dye so like a tile, A sudden view it would beguile. 1. 237 — 244. HEAD PIECE, PAET I. CANTO I. White. When Gospel-Trumpeter, surrounded With long-ear' d rout, to battle sounded, And pulpit, drum ccclesiastick, Was beat with fist, instead of a stick. 1. 9 — 12. T.VIL PIECE, PAET I. CANTO I. he always chose To carry vittle in his hose. That often tempted rats and mice The ammunition to surprise. 1. 318 — 321. HEAD PIECE, PAET I. CANTO II. Thompson. And wing'd with speed and fury, flew To rescue Knight from black and blue. Which ere he could achieve, his sconce The leg encounter' d twice and once ; And now 'twas rais'd, to smite agen, When Ralpho thrust himself between. 1. 941—946 Vlll EMBELLISHMENTS, engraved by Sranston. TAIL PIECE, PART I. CANTO II. Crowdero making doleful face, Like hermit poor in pensive place, To dungeon they the wretch commit, And the survivor of his feet. HEAD PIECE, PAET I. CANTO III. When setting ope the postern gate, To take the field and sally at, The foe appear' d, drawn up and drill'd, Eeady to charge them in the field. TAIL PIECE, PART I. CANTO III. -in a cool shade. Which eglantine and roses made ; Close by a softly murm'ring stream. Where lovers us'd to loll and dream : There leaving him to his repose. HEAD PIECE, PART II. CANTO I. she went To find the Knight in limbo pent. And 'twas not long before she found Him, and his stout Squire, in the pjund. TAIL PIECE, PART II. CANTO I. a tall long-sided dame, — But wond'rous light — yclcped Fume, — Upon her shoulders wings she wears Like hanging sleeves, lin'd thro' w^th cars. HEAD PIECE, PART II. CANTO IT. With that he seiz'd upon his i lads ; And Ralpho too, as quick and bold, Upon his basket-hilt laid hold. 1. 1167—1170. Sranston. 1. 443—446. 1. 159—163. Tiiompsoti . 1. 99—102. Branston. 1. 4.5—50. Branston. 1. 563 -562. Thompson. TAIL PIECE, PART IT. CANTO IT. quitting both their swords and reins. They grasp'd with all tlieir strength the manes ; And, to avoid the foe's pursuit, With spurring put their cattle to't. 1. 839 -842. EMBELLISHMENTS. UEAD PIECE, PAET II. CANTO III., engraved by Brans/on. Hudibras, to all appearing, Believ'd him to be dead as herring. He held it now no longer safe To tarry the return of llalph, But rather leave him in the lurch. TAIL PIECE, PART II. CANTO III. This Sidrophel by chance espy'd, And with amazement staring wide : Bless us, quoth he, what dreadful wonder Is that appears in heaven yonder .' HEAD PIECE TO THE EPISTLE TO SIDROPHEL. Sidrophel perusing Iludibras' Epistle. TAIL PIECE TO THE EPISTLE TO SIDEOPHEL. Gimcracks, whims, and jiggumbobs. HEAD PIECE, PART III. CANTO I. He wonder'd how she came to know What he had done, and meant to do ; Held up his affidavit hand, As if he 'ad been to be arraign'd. 1. 1147—1151. White. 1. 423—426. Byfield. ByJiM. Tliompson. 1. 483—486. TAIL PIECE, PART III. CANTO I. Branston. H' attack' d the window, storm'd the glass, And in a moment gain'd the pass; Thro' which he dragg'd the worsted soldier's Four -quarters out by th' head and shoulders. 1. 1577 — 1580. HEAD PIECE, PAET III. CANTO II. TJwmpson. Knights, citizens, and burgesses — Held forth by rumps — of pigs and geese. — • Each bonfire is a funeral pile, In which they roast, and scorch, and broil. 1. 1515 — 1520. TAIL PIECE, PART III. CANTO II. Thompsun. crowded on with so much haste. Until they 'd block'd the passage fast, And barricado'd it with haunches Of outward men, and bulks and paunches. 1. 1669 — 1672 EMBELLISUMEXTS. HEAD PIECE, PART III. CANTO III., engravfd by Hughes. To this brave man the Knight repairs For counsel in his law-affairs, — To whom the Knight, with comely grace. Put off his hat to put his case. 1. 621—628. TAIL PIECE, PART III. CANTO III, Bxjfield. With books and money plac'd for show, Like nest-eggs to make clients lay. 1. 624, 625. HEAD PIECE TO THE EPISTLE TO THE LADY. Byfield. having pump'd up all his wit, And humm'd upon it, thus he writ. 1. 787. 788. TAIL PIECE TO THE EPISTLE TO THE LADY. Byfield. What tender sigh, and trickling tear. Longs for a thousand pounds a year ; And languishing transports are fond Of statute, mortgage, bill, and bond. 1. 85—88. HEAD PIECE TO THE LADii's ANSWER. Thompson. She cpen'd it, and read it out, With many a smile and leering flout. 1. 357, 358. TAIL PIECE TO THE LADl's ANSWER. Bran^ton. We make the man of war strike sail. And to our braver conduct veil, And, when he 's chas'd his enemies, Submit to us upon his knees. 1. 311 — 314. ViaNETTE AT PAGE XXIV. Thompson. The dogs beat you at Brentford Fair ; Where sturdy butchers broke your noddle, Part IL c. iii. And handled you like a fop-doodle. 1. 996—998. VIGNETTB AT PAGE 473. -the foe beat up his quarters, And storm'd the outworks of his fortress ; — Soon as they had him at their mercy. Part III. c. i. They put him to the cudgel fiercely. 1. 1135-36. 1147-48. ADDITIONAL ILLUSTRATIONS TO BUTLER'S HUDIBKAS. PORTRAITS OF CELEBRATED CHARACTERS, IMPOSTORS, AND ENTHUSIASTS. 1 Samuel Butler To face Tille 2 Butler's Tenement Toy ace Life, p. i 3 Portrait of Charles the Second p. vi 4 Butler's Monument in Westminster Abbey P . xiv PART CANTO LINE PAGR 5 Montaigne .... I. I. 38 5 G Tycho Brake I. I. 120 s 7 Oliver Cromwell III. II. 216 19 8 Cornelius Agrippa II. III. 635 25 9 Robert Fludd . I. I. 541 26 10 George Withers I. I. 646 30 11 Richard Cromwell III. II. 231 40 12 Alexander Ross I. II. 2 42 13 Vincent le Blanc I. II. 282 53 14 Mall Cutpurse . I. II. 368 56 15 Sir William Davena ST I. II. 395 58 16 Sir William Waller 1. 11. 499 62 17 Thomas Case I. II. 581 65 18 Adoniram Byfield III. II. 640 66 19 William Prynne I. I. 646 91 20 Henry Burton . . I. III. 1122 122 21 Pope Joan . I. III. 1250 128 22 Bishop Warburton I. III. 1358 132 23 Albertus Magnus II. I. 438 152 24 Roger Bacon II. III. 224 155 25 Charles the First II. II. 160 160 26 Sir Kenelm Digby I. II. 227 162 27 Thomas White . II. II. 14 172 28 Baptist Van Helmont II. II. 14 172 29 Robert, Earl of Essex II. II. 166 179 30 Bishop Bonner . II. II. 510 193 ADDITIONAL ILLUSTRATIONS. 31 Dr Thomas Goodwin 32 The Witch-Finder Hopkin 33 IVL-VRTIN LtJTHER 34 Dr John Dee . 35 Edward Kelly . 36 Paracelsus. 37 St Dunstan 38 Jacob Behmen . 39 Nicholas Copernicus 40 Jerome Cardan . 41 scaliger 42 John Booker 43 Napier of Merchistox 44 William Lilly . 45 NiccoLO Machiayelli 46 John of Leyden 47 General Fleetwood . 48 General Desborough 49 General Lambert 50 Earl op Shaftesbury 51 John Lilburn . 52 Ignatius Loyola 53 Edmund Calamy 54 Dr John Owen . 55 William Lenthall 56 Sir Thomas Lunsford 57 Sir Thomas Fairfax . 58 Alexander Henderson' 59 Colonel Hewson 60 Christopher Love 61 John Cooke 62 Athanasius Kircher 63 Joan of Arc PART CANTO LINE PAGK 11. IL 669 199 II. III. 140 215 IL III. 155 216 II. III. 235 220 II. IIL 237 227 II. III. 299 224 II. III. 618 236 I. I. 542 238 II. III. 882 249 II. III. 895 250 II. III. 881 250 IL III. 173 257 III. II. 409 258 IL III. 1093 282 III. I. 1313 314 III. II. 246 336 III. II. 270 337 III. IL 270 338 III. IL 270 338 III. IL 351 342 III. II. 421 344 III. II. 1564 351 III. II. 636 353 III. II. 638 354 III. II. 909 364 III. II. 1112 372 III. II. 1200 375 IIL IL 1239 377 III. II. 1250 377 III. II. 1263 378 . IIL II. 1550 387 III. IL 1585 388 Lady's Answer. 285 448 LRoss deJinT-G.P.'Waiirwrxgln sciilpr THE LIFE SAMUEL BUTLER The life of a retired scholar can furnish but little matter to the biographer : such was the character of Mr Samuel But- ler, author of Hudibi'as. His father, whose name was like- wise Samuel, had an estate of his own of about ten pounds yearly, which still goes by the name of Butler's tenement ; he likewise rented lands at three hundred pounds a year under Sir AVilliam Eussel, lord of the manor of Strensham, in Worcestershire. He was a respectable farmer, wrote a clerk-like hand, kept the register, and managed all the busi- ness of the parish. From his landlord, near whose house he lived, the poet imbibed principles of loyalty, as Sir William was a most zealous royalist, and spent great part of his for- tune in the cause, being the only person exempted from the benefit of the treaty, when Worcester surrendered to the parliament in the year 1G4G. Our poet's father was elected churchwarden of the parish the year before his son Samuel was born, and has entered his baptism, dated February 8th, 1612, with his own hand, in the parish register. He had four sons and three daughters, born at Strensham ; the three daughters and one son older than our poet, and two sons younger : none of his descendants, however, remain in the pa- rish, though some are said to be in the neighboui'ing villages. Oiu- author received his first rudiments of learning at home ; but was afterwards sent to the college school at A\''orcester, then taught by Mr Henry Bright,* prebendary * Jlr Bri^rht is buried in the cathedral church of Worcester, near tlio north pillar, at the foot of the steps which lead to the choir. lie was born b U LIFE OF SAMUEL BTJTLER, of that cathedral, a celebrated scholar, and many years mas- ter of the King's school there ; one who made his profession liis delight, and, though in very easy circumstances, con- tinued to teach for the sake of doing good. How long Mr Butler continued under his care is not known, but, probably, till he was fourteen years old. There can be little doubt that his progress was rapid, for Aubrey tells us that " when but a boy he would make observations and reflections on everything one said or did, and censure it to be either well or ill ; " and we are also informed in the Biography of 1710 (the basis of all information about him), that he " became an excellent scholar." Amongst his school- fellows was Thomas Hall, well known as a controversial writer on the Pm-itan side, and master of the free-school at King's Norton, where he died ; John Toy, afterwards an author, and master of the school at Worcester ; AVilliam Rowland, who turned Romanist, and, having some talent for rhyming satire, wrote lamj)oons at Paris, under the title of Eolandus Falingenius ; and Warmestry, afterwards Dean of Worcester. 1562, appointed schoolmaster 1586, made prebendary 1619, died 1626. The inscription in capitals, on a mural stone, now placed in what is called the Bishop's Chapel, is as follows : Mane hospes et lege, Magister HENEICUS BRIGHT, Celeberrimus gymnasiarcha, Qui scholse regioe istic fundatix; per totos 40 annos summa cum laude prstfuit. Quo non alter niagis sedulus fuit, scitusve, ac dexter, in Latin is Gra;cis Ilebraicis litteris, fcliciter cdoccudis : Teste utraque academia quam instruxit afFatim numcrosa plcbe litcraria : Scd et totidem annis eoquc amplius theologiam professus, Et liiijus ecclesia; per se])tennium canonicus major, Su;pissime hie et alibi sacrum Dei pra;conem magno cum zclo et t'ructu egit. Yir pius, doctus, integer, frugi, de republica deque ccclesia optime mcritus. A laboribus per diu noctuque ad 1626 strenuc usque cxantlatis 4° Martii suaviter requievit in Domino. See this epitaph, written hv Dr Joseph Hall, dean of Worcester, in Fuller's Worthies, p. 177. AUTHOU OF IIUDIBRAS. Ill Whether he was ever entered at any university is uncer- tain. His early bioi^rapher says he went to Cambridije, but was never matricuhitod : Wood, on the authority of Butler's brother, says, the poet spent six or seven years there ; but there is gi'eat reason to doubt the truth of this. Some ex- pressions in his works look as if he were acquainted with the customs of Oxford, and among them coursing, which was a term ])eculiar to that university (see Part iii. c. ii. v. 124 i) ; but this kind of knowledge might have been easily acquired without going to Oxford ; and as the speculation is entirely unsupported by circumstantial proofs, it may be safely rejected. Upon the whole, the probability is tliat Butler never went to either of the Universities. His father was not rich enough to defray the expenses of a collegiate course, and could not have effected it by any other means, there being at that time no exhibitions at the Worcester School. Some time after Butler had completed his education, he obtained, through the interest of the Kussels, the situation of clerk to Thomas Jefferies, of Earl's Croombe, Esq., an active justice of the peace, and a leading man in the busi- ness of the province. This was no mean office, but one that required a knowledge of law and the British constitution, and a proper deportment to men of every rank and occupa- tion ; besides, in those times, when lar2:e mansions were ge- nerally in retired situations, eveiy large family was a com- munity within itself: the upper servants, or retainers, being often the younger sons of gentlemen, were treated as friends, and the whole household dined in one common hall, and had a lecturer or clerk, Avho, during meal-times, read to them some useful or entertaining book. Mr Jefferies' family was of this sort, situated in a retired part of the counti'y, surrounded by bad roads, tlie master of it residing constantly in AV^orcestershire. Here Mr Butler, having leisure to indulge his inclination for learning, pro bably improved himself very much, not only in the ab- struser branches of it, but in the polite arts : and here he studied painting. " Our Hogarth of Poetry," says Walpole, " was a painter too ; " and, according to Aubrey, his love ol the pencil introduced him to the friendship of that prince of painters, Samuel Cooper. But his proficiency seems to have b2 iv XirE OF SAMUEL CUTLEH, been but moderate, for Mr J^asli tells us that he recollects " seeing at Earl's Croombe, some portraits said to be painted by him, which did him no great honour as an artist, and were consequently used to stop up windows." * He heard also of a portrait of Oliver Cromwell, said to be painted by him. After continuing some time at Earl's Croombe, how long is not exactly known, he quitted it for a more agreeable situation in the household of Elizabeth Countess of Kent, who lived at Wrest, in Bedfordshii-e. He seems to have been attached to her service,t as one of her gentlemen, to whom she is said to have paid £20 a year each. The time when he entered upon this situation, which Aubrey says he held for several years, may be determined with some degree of accuracy by the fact that he found Selden there, and was frequently engaged by him in writing letters and making- translations. It was in June, 1628, after the prorogation of the third parliament of Charles I., that Selden, who sat in the House of Commons for Lancaster, retired to AVrest for the purpose of completing, Avith the advantages of quiet and an extensive library, his labours on the Marmora ArundeU liana ; and we may presume that it was during the interval of the parliamentary recess, while Selden was thus occupied, that Butler, then in his seventeenth year, entered her service. Here he enjoyed a literary retreat during great part of the civil wars, and here probably laid the groundwork of his Hu- dibras, as, besides the society of that living library, Selden, he had the benefit of a siood collection of books. He lived * In \\\s IIS. common-place book is the following observation : " It is more difficult, and re(iuircs a greater mastery of art in painting, to foreshorten a figure exactly, than to draw three at their just length ; so it is, in writing, to express anything naturally and briefly, than to enlarge and dilate : And therefore a judicious author's blots Are more ingenious than his first free thoughts." t The Countess is described by the early biographer of Butler as "a great encourager of learning." After the death of the Earl of Kent in 1639 Selden is said to have been domesticated with her at Wrest, and in her town house in White Friars. Aubrey affirms that he was married to her, but that he never acknowledged the marriage till after her dcatli, on account of some law ulfairs. The Countess died in 1051, and appointed Seldtu her cxeculur, leaving him her house in Wliite Friar.^. AUTHOR OF UUDIBHAS. y subsequently in the service of Sir Samuel Luke, of Cople Hoo farm, or Wood End, in that county, and liis biographers are generally of opinion that from him he drew the charac- ter of Hudibras : * but there is no actual evidence of this, and such a prototype was not rare in those times. Sir Samuel Luke lived at Wood End, or Cople Hoo farm. Cople is three miles south of Bedford, and in its church are still to be seen many monuments of the Luke family, who flourished in that part of the country as early as the reign of Henry VIII. He was knighted in 1624, was a rigid Presbyterian, high in the favour of Cromwell : a colonel in the army of the parliament, a justice of the peace for Bedford and Sur- rey, scoutmaster-general for Bedfordshire, which he repre- sented in the Long Parliament, and governor of Newport Pagnell. He possessed ample estates in Bedfordsliire and Northamptonshire, and devoted his fortune to the promotion of the popular cause. His house was the open resort of the Puritans, whose frequent meetings for the purposes of coun- sel, prayer, and preparation for the field, afiorded Butler an op- portunity of observing, under all their phases of inspiration and action, the characters of the men whose influence Avas working a revolution in the country. But Sir Samuel did not approve of the king's trial and execution, and therefore, with other Presbyterians, both he and his father, Sir Oliver, were nmong the secluded members. It has been generally supposed tliat the scenes Butler witnessed on these occasions sug- gested to him the subject of his great poem. That it was at this period he threw into shape some of the striking points of Hudihi'as, is extremel}^ probable. He kept a common- place book, in which he was in the habit of noting down particular thoughts and fugitive criticisms ; and Mr Thyer, the editor of his Remains, who had this boolc in his posses- sion, says that it was full of shrewd remarks, paradoxes, and witty sarcasms. The first part of Hudibras came out at the end of the year 1662, and its popularity was so great, that it was pirated almost as soon as it appeared. t In the Mercurius AuUcus, * Sec notes at page 4. t Tlie first part was ready November 11th, 1662, -when tlie author ob- tained an imprimatur, signed J. Bcrkenhead ; but the date of the title ls 1G63, and Sir Roger L' Estrange granted an imprimatur for the second part, dated November 6th, 1663. Vi LIFE or SAMUEL ELTLEE, a ministerial newspaper, from January 1st to January 8th, 1662 (1663 jV.S.), quarto, is an advertisement saying, that " there is stolen abroad a most false and imperfect copy of a poem called Hudibras, without name either of printer or bookseller ; the true and perfect edition, printed by the author's original, is sold by Richard Marriot, near St Dun- stau's Church, in Fleet-street ; that other nameless impres- sion is a cheat, and will but abuse the buyer, as well as the author, whose poem deserves to have fallen into better hands." After several other editions had followed, the first and second parts, u-ith notes to hoth parts, were printed for J. Martin and H. Herringham, octavo, 1674. The last edi- tion of the third part, before the author's death, was published by the same persons in 1678 : this must be the last cor- rected by himself, and is that from which subsequent edi- tions are generally printed ; the third part had no notes put to it during the author's life, and who furnished them (in 1710) after his death is not known. In the British jMuseum is the original injunction by au- thority, signed John Berkenhead, forbidding any printer or other person whatsoever, to print Hudibras, or any part thereof, without the consent or approbation of Samuel Butler (or Boteler), Esq. or his assignees, given at AVhitehall, 10th September, 1677 : copy of this injunction is given in tlie note.* The reception of Hudilras at Court is probably without a^ parallel in the history of books. The king was so enchant- ed with it that he carried it about in his pocket, and per- petually garnished his conversation with specimens of its witty passages, which, thus stamped by royal approbation, passed rapidly into general currency. Nor was his Majesty * CHARLES R. Our will and pleasure is, and we do hereby strictly charge and command, that no printer, bookseller, stationer, or other person whatsoever within our kingdom of England or Ireland, do print, reprint, utter or sell, or cause to be printed, reprinted, uttered or sold, a book or poem called IltiDinRAS, or any part thereof, without the consent and ap- probation of Samuel Boteler, Esq. or his assignees, as they and every of them will answer the contrary at their perils. Given at our Court at Wliit( hall, tlie tenth day of September, in the year of our Lord God 1G77, and in thu 2yth year of our reign. By his Majestv's command, Jo. BERKENHEAD. Miscel. Papers, Mus. Brit. Bibl. Birch, No. 4293. *■ ^ E.. Cooper sc-clp": •SMAmSjISS tlie ^:SS®S^2E). AUTHOR OF HUDIBEAS. Vll content with merely quoting Butler ; in an access of enthu- siasm he sent for him, that he might gratify his curiosity by the sight of a poet who had contributed so largely to his amusement. The Lord Chancellor Hyde showered promises of pati'onage upon him, and hung up his portrait in his library.* Every person about the Court considered it his duty to make himself familiar with Hudihras. It ^\•as nnnt- ed into proverbs and bon mots. No book was so much read. Xo book was so much cited. From the palace it found its way at once into the chocolate-houses and taverns ; and at- tained a rapid popularity all over the kingdom. Lord Dorset was so much struck by its extraordinary merit that he desired to be introduced to the author. '• His lord- ship," according to this curious anecdote, " having a great de- sire to spend an evening as a private gentleman with the author of Hudibras, prevailed with Mr Fleetwood Shepherd to introduce him into his company at a tavern which they used, in the character only of a common friend ; this being done. Mr Butler, while the first bottle was drinking, appeared very fiat and heavy ; at the second bottle brisk and lively, fidl of wit and learning, and a most agreeable companion ; but before the third bottle was finished, he sunk again into such deep stupidity and dulness, that hardly anybody would have be- lieved him to be the author of a book which abounded with so much wit, learning, and pleasantry. Xext morning, ^Ir Shepherd asked his lordship's opinion of Butler, who answer- ed, ■ He is like a nine-pin, little at both ends, but great in the middle.' " Pepys gives us a cvirious illustration of the sudden and ex- traordinary success of Hudibras, and the excitement it occa- sioned in the reading world. See Memoirs, ( Bohn's edit.) vol. i. p. 364, 3S0 ; vol. ii. p. 68, 72. * Aubrey says, " Butlor printed a witty poom called Hudibras. which took extremely, so that the Kin? and Lord Chani^oUor Hyde would have him sent for. They both promised him great matters, but to this day he has got no employment." Evelyn, writing to Pepys in August, 1G89, speaks of Butler's portrait as being hung in the Chancellor's diuing-room ; " and, what was most agreeable to his lordship's general humour, old Chaucer, Shakspeare, Beaumont and Fletcher, who were both in one piece, Spenser, Mr "Waller, Cowley, Hudibras, which Last was placed in the room where he used to cat and dine in public, most of which, if not all, are at Cornbury, in O.Kfordshire." viii LIFE OF SAMUEL BUTEEE, It was natural to suppose, that after the Restoration, and the publication of his Hudibras, our poet should have ap- peared in public life, and have been rewarded for the emi- nent service which his poem, by giving new popularity to the Cavalier party, and covering their enemies with derision and contempt, did to the royal cause. " Every eye," says Dr Johnson, " watched for the golden shower which was to fall upon its author, who certainly was not without his part in the general expectation." But his innate modest}^, and stu- dious turn of mind, prevented solicitations : never having tasted the idle luxuries of life, he did not make for himself needless wants, or pine after imaginary pleasures : his for- tune, indeed, was small, and so was his ambition ; his inte- grity of life, and modest temper, rendered him contented. There is good authority for believing, however, that at one time he was gratified with an order on the treasury for 300Z. which is said to have passed all the oiSces without payment of fees, and this gave him an opportunity of displaying his disinterested integrity, by conveying the entire sum imme- diately to a friend, in trust for the use of his creditors. Dr Zachary Pearce, on the authority of Mr Lowndes of the treasury, asserts, that Mr Butler received from Charles the Second an annual pension of lOOZ. ; add to this, he was ap- pointed secretary to the Earl of Carberry, then lord presi- dent of the principality of Wales, and soon after steward of Ludlow castle,* an office Avhich he seems to have held in 1661 and 1662, but possibly earlier and later. AVith all this, the Court was thought to have been guilty of a glaring neglect in his case, and the public were scandalized at its ingratitude. The indigent poets, avIio have always claimed a prescriptive right to live on the munificence of their con- temporaries, were the loudest in their remonstrances. Dry- den, Oldham, and Otway, while in appearance they com- plained of the unrewarded merits of our author, obliquely lamented their private and particular grievances. Nash says that Mr Butler's own sense of the disappointment, and the impression it made on his spirits, are sufficiently marked by tlic circumstance of his having twice transcribed the fol- Uiwing distich with some variation in his MS. common-place book : * It was at laidlow Castle that Milton's Comus was first acted. AUTHOR or IIUDIBKAS. IX To think bow Spenser died, how Cowley mourn'd, How Sutler's faith and service were return'd. In the same MS. he says, " AVit is very chargeable, and not to be maintained in its necessary expenses at an ordinary rate : it is the worst trade in the world to live upon, and a commodity that no man thinks he has need of, for those wli^ have least believe they have most." Ingenuity and wit Do only make the owners fit For nothing, but to !).■ undone Much easier than if th' had none. But a recent biographer controverts this, and takes a more probable view of it : he says, " The assimiption of Butler's poverty appears utterly unfounded. Though not wealthy, he seems, as far as we can judge, to have always lived in com- fort, and we know from the statement of Mr Longueville that he died out of debt. Butler was not one of those Who hoped to make their fortune by the great ; and tliough no doubt he might have felt he had not been rewarded according to his deserts by his party, he was not entirely neglected. He had received a large share of popular applause, and was probably prouder of that, and of the power of castigating the follies and vices of mankind, even when displayed by those of his own party, than of being a more highly pensioned dependant of a Court that his writings show he despised. He was no ' needy wretch ' in Avant of bread or a dinner ; his earliest bio- grapher gives no hint of his distress ; he enjoyed friends of his own selection, and the injunction designates him as ' esquire,' a title not altogether so indiscriminately applied as at the present time. The only foundation for the asser- tion of his poverty consists in his having copied twice, in his common-place book, a distich from the prologue to the tra- gedy of Constantine the Great, said to have been written by Otway, though it was not acted till 16S-i, four years after Butler's death. It is supposed he might have seen the MS., or perhaps only lieard the thought, as his copies vary from each other and from the lines as they ultimately ap- peared. It was, however, long the fashion to complain of X LIFE OF SAMUEL BUTLEK, the scanty reward bestowed ou literary pursuits ; yet we are inclined to think, though authors had then a less certain support in the patronage of a few than now when they ap- peal to a numerous public, that the improvidence of the in- dividual was more to blame than the niggardliness of the patrons, and of this improvidence there does not appear to be the slightest ground for accusing Butler." Mr Butler spent some time in France, it is supposed when Lewis XIV. was in the height of his glory and vanity, but neither the language nor manners of Paris were pleasing to our modest poet. As some of his observa- tions are amusing, they are inserted in a note.* About * " The French use so many words, upon all occasions, that if they did not cut them short in pronunciation, they would grow tedious, and in- suiferable. " They infinitely affect rhyme, though it becomes their language the worst in the world, and spoils the little sense they have to make room for it, and make the same syllable rhyme to itself, which is worse than metal upon metal in heraldry : they find it much easier to write plays in verse than in prose, for it is much harder to imitate nature, than any deviation from her ; and prose requires a more proper and natural sense and expres- sion than verse, that has something in the stamp and coin to answer for the alloy and want of intrinsic value. I never came among them, but the fol- lowing line was in my mind : Raucaque garrulitas, studiumque inane loquendi ; for they talk so much, they have not time to think ; and if they had all the wit in the world, their tongues would run before it. " The present king of France is building a most stately triumphal arch in memory of his victories, and the great actions which he has performed : but, if I am not mistaken, those edifices which bear that name at Home were not raised by the emperors whose names they bear (such as Trajan, Titus, &c.), but were decreed by the Senate, and built at the expense of the public ; for that glory is lost which any man designs to consecrate to himself. " The king takes a very good course to weaken the city of Paris by adorning of it, and to render it less by making it appear greater and more glorious ; for he pulls down whole streets to make room for his palaces and public structures. " There is nothing great or magnificent in all the country, that I have seen, but the buildings and furniture of the king's houses and the churches ; all the rest is mean and paltry. " The king is necessitated to lay heavy taxes upon liis subjects in his own defence, and to keep them poor in order to keep them quiet ; for if tlicy arc sutfered to cnj^y any plenty, they are naturally so insolent, that they would becDiiie ungovernable, and use him as they have done his pre- decessors : but he has rendered himself so strong, that they have no thoughts of attempting anything in his time. AUTHOR OF IIUDIBRAS. XI this time, he married Mrs Herbert, a lady reputed to be of trood family, but whether she was a widow, or not, is uncer- tain, as the evidence is conflicting. With her he expected a considerable fortune, but, through the greater part of it having been put out on bad security, and other losses, occa- sioned, it is said, by knavery, it was of but little advantage to him. To tliis some have attributed his severe strictures upon tiie professors of tlie law ; but, if his censures be pro- perly considered, they will be found to bear liard only upon the disgraceful part of the profession, and upon false learn- ing in general. How long he continued in office, as steward of Ludlow Cas- tle, is not known, but there is no evidence of his liaving ex- ercised it after 16G2. Anthony a Wood, on the authority of Aubrey, says that he became secretary to Viiliers, Duke of Buckingham, when he was Chancellor of Cambridge, but this is doubted by Grey, who nevertheless allows the Duke to liave been his frequent benefactor. That both these asser- tions are false there is reason to suspect from a story told by Packe in his Life of AVycherley, as well as from Butler's character of the Duke, which will be found on next page. The story is this : " Mr AVycherley had always laid hold of any opportunity which offered of representing to tlie Duke of Buckingham how well Mr Butk-r had deserved of the royal family by writing his inimitable Iludibras ; and that it was a reproach to tlie Court, that a person of his loyalty and wit should suffer in obscurity and want. The Duke seemed always to listen to him with attention enough ; and after &x»me time undertook to recommend his pretensions to his Majesty. Mr Wycherley, in hopes to keep him steady to his word, obtained of his Grace to name a day when he might introduce that modest and unfortunate poet to '' The churchmen overlook all other people as haughtily as the churches and steeples do private houses. "The French do nothing without ostentation, and the king himself is not heliind with his triumphal arches consecrated to himself, and his im- press of the sun, nee pluribus impar. " The French king, having copies of the best pictures from Rome, is as a great prince wearing clothes at second-hand ; the king in his prodigious charge of buildings and furniture docs the same thing to himself that he moans to do by Paris, renders himself weaker by endeavouring to appear the more magnificent; lets go the substance for tlie shadow." Xii LIFE or SAMUEL BUTLEE, his new patron. At last, an appointment was made, and the place of meeting was agreed to be the Roebuck. Mr Butler and his friend attended accordingly: the Duke join- ed, them ; but as the devil would have it, the door of the room where they sat was open, and his Grace, who had seat- ed himself near it, observing a pimp of his acquaintance (the creature too was a knight) trip along with a brace of ladies, immediately quitted his engagement, to follow another kind of business, at which he was more ready than in doing good offices to those of desert, though no one was better qualified than he was, both in regard to his fortune and understand- ing. From that time to the day of his death, poor Butler never found the least effect of his promise." The character drawn by the poet of the Duke of Buckingham, which Ave annex in a note,* will be conclusive that he was not likely to have received any favour at his hands. * " A Duke of Bucks is one that has studied the whole body of vice. His parts are disproportionate, and, like a monster, he has more of some and less of others than he should have. He has pulled down all that fabric which nature raised to him, and built himself up again after a model of his own. He has dammed up all those lights that nature made into the noblest prospects of the world, and opened other little blind loop- holes backwards, by turning day into night, and night into day. His ap- petite to his plcasm-es is diseased and crazy, like the pica in a woman, that longs to eat what was never made for food, or a girl in the green sick- ness, that cats chalk and mortar. Perpetual surfeits of pleasure have filled his mind with bad and vicious humours (as well as his body with a nursery of diseases), which makes him affect new and extravagant ways, as being tired and sick of the old. Continual wine, women, and music put false values upon things, which by custom become habitual, and debauch his un- derstanding, so that he retains no right notion nor sense of things. And as the same dose of the same physic has no operation on those that are much used to it, so his pleasures require a larger proportion of excess and variety to render him sensible of them. He rises, cats, and goes to bed by the Ju- lian account, long after all others that go by the new style ; and keeps the same hours with owls and the antipodes. He is a great observer of the Tartars' customs, and never eats till the great Cham, having dined, makes proclamation that all the world may go to dinner. He does not dwell in his house, but haunt it, like an evil spirit that walks all night to disturb the family, and never appears by day. He lives perpetually benighted, runs out of his life, and loses his time, as men do their ways, in the dark ; and as blind men arc led by their dogs, so he is governed by some mean servant or other that relates to him his pleasures. He is as inconstant as the moon, which he lives under; and, although he does nothing but advise with his pillow all day, he is as great a stranger to himself as he is to the rest of the world. Jlis mind entertains all things very freely, that corae AUTHOR OF nUDIBEAS. XIU Notwithstanding discouragement and neglect, Butler still prosecuted his design, and in 1678, after an interval of near- ly 15 years, published the third part of his Hudibras, which closes the poem somewhat abruptly. With this came out the Epistle to the Lady, and the Lady's Answer. How much more he originally intended, and with what events the action was to be concluded, it is vain to conjecture. After this period, we hear nothing of him till his death at the age of G8, which took place on the 25th of November, 1680, in Eose Street,* Coveut Garden, where he had for some years resided. He was buried at the expense of Mr William Longueville, though he did not die in debt. This gentleman, with other of his friends, wished to have him interred in Westminster Abbey with proper solemnity ; but endeavoured in vain to obtain a suiScient subscription for that purpose. His corpse was de- posited privately six feet deep, according to his OAvn request, in the yard belonging to the church of ^aint Paul's, Covent Garden, at the west end of it, on the north side, under the wall of the church, and under that wall which parts the yard from the common highway. The burial service was performed by the learned Dr Patrick, then minister of the parish, and afterwards Bishop of Ely. In the year 1786, when the church was repaired, a marble monument was placed on the south side of the church on the inside,t by some of the parish- ioners, wliose zeal for the memory of the learned poet does them honour : but the writer of the verses seems to have and go ; but, like guests and strangers, tliey are not welcome if tliey stay long. This lays him open to all clieats, quacks, and impostors, who apply to every particular humour while it lasts, and afterwards vanish. Thus with St Paul, though in a difl'erent sense, he dies daily, and only lives in the night. lie deforms nature, while he intends to adorn her, like Indians that hang jewels in their lips and noses. His ears are perpetually drilled with a fiddlestick. He endures pleasures with less patience than other men do pains." * A narrow and now rather obscure street, which runs circuitously from King Street, Covent Garden, to Long Acre. The site of the house is not now known Curll the bookseller carried on his business here at the same time, and Dryden lived within a stone's throw in Long Acre, " over against Ro.se Street." t This monument was a tablet, which of late years was affixed under the vestry-room window in that part of the cliurth-yard where his body is sup- posed to lie. In 1854, when the church-yard was closed against further buriids, the tablet, then in a dilapidated condition, was carted away with other debris. XIV LIPE OF SAMUEL BUTLER, mistaken the character of Mr Butler. The inscription runs thus : " This little monumeut was erected in the year 178G, by some of the parishioners of Covent Garden, in memory of the celebrated Samuel Butler, who was buried in this church, A. D. 1680. A few plain men, to pomp and state unknown, O'er a poor bard have rais'd this humble stone, "SVTiose wants alone his genius could surpass, Victim of zeal! the matchless Hudibras! "What though fair freedom sutfer'd in his page. Reader, forgive the author for the age ! How few, alas ! disdain to cringe and cant, "When 'tis the mode to play the sycophant. But, oh ! let all be taught, from Butler's fate, Who hope to make their fortunes by the great, That wit and pride are always dangerous things, And little faith is due to courts and kings." Porty years after his burial at Covent Grarden, that is. in 1721, John Barber, an eminent printer, and Lord Mayor of London, erected a monument to his memorj^ in West- minster Abbey, with the following inscription : M. S. Samuelis Butler Qui Strenshamiffi in agro Vigoru. natus 1612, Obiit Lend. 1680. Yir doctus imprimis, acer, integer, Operibus ingenii uon item prajmiis felis. Satyrici apud nos carmiuis artifex cgregius, Qui simulatse religionis larvam detraxit Et perduellium scelera liberrime exagitavit, Scriptorum in suo genere primus et postremus. Ne cui vivo deerant fere omnia Deesset etiam mortuo tumulus Hoc tandem posito marmore curavit Johannes Barber civis Londinensis 1721.* * Translation. — Sacred to the memory of Samuel Butler, who was born at Strensham, in Worcestershire, in 1612, and died in Loudon, in 1680, — a man of great learning, acutencss, and integrity ; happy in the productions of his intellect, not so in the remuneration of them ; a super-eminent master of satirical poetry, by which he lifted the mask of hypocrisy, and boldly exposed the crimes of faction. As a writer, he was the first and last in his peculiar style. John Barber, a citizen of London, in 1721, l)y at length erecting this marble, took care that he, who wanted almost everything wlun alive, might not also want a tomb when dead. For an Engraving of the Monument, see Dart's Westminster Abbey, vol. i. plate 3. C P.^rainvxi^lu Sculp J iBW'2^:iia's m®mwsil: AUTHOR OF IIUDIBRAS. XV On the latter part of this epitaph the iogenious Mr Samuel Wesley wrote the following lines : While Butler, needy wretch, was yet alive, No generous patron would a dinner give ; See him, when starv'd to death, and turn'd to dust, Presented with a monumental bust. The poet's fate is here in emblem shown, He ask'd for bread, and he received a stone. Soon after this monument was erected in Westminster Abbey, some persons proposed to erect one in Covent Gar- den church, for which Mr Dennis wrote the following in- scription : Near this place lies interrd The body of Mr Samuel Lutler, Author of Hudibras. He was a whole species of poets in one : Admirable in a manner In which no one else has been tolerable : A manner which begun and ended in him, In which he knew no guide. And has found no followers. Nat. 1612. Ob. 1680. While in London, where Butler died, these tributes to his genius were set up at intervals by men of opposite principles, the place of his birth remained without any memorial until within the last few years, when a white marble tablet, with florid canopy, crockets, and finial, was placed in the parish church of s'trensham, by John Taylor, of Strensham Court, Esq., upon whose estate the poet was born. In the design is a small figure of Hudibras, and the face of the tablet bears the following simple inscription : " This tablet was erected to the memory of Samuel Butler, to transmit to future ages that near this spot was born a mind so celebrated. In Westminster Abbey, among the poets of England, his fame is recorded. Here, in his native village, in veneration of his talents and genius, this tribute to his memory has been erected by the possessor of the place of his birth — John Taylor, Strensham." What became of the lady he married is unknown, as there is no subsequent trace of her ; but it is presumed she died before him. Mr Giltillan assumes that " subscriptions were raised for his widow," but gives no authority, and we believe none exists. XVlll LIFE OF SAMUEL BUTLER, Locke,* Addison,t Pope4 and Congreve, all failed in their attempts ; perhaps they are moi'e to be felt than explained, and to be understood rather from example than precept. " If any one," says J^ash, "wishes to know what wit and hu- mour are, let him read Hudibras with attention, he will there see them displayed in the brightest colours : there is brdliancy resvdting from the power of rapid illustration by remote con- tingent resemblances ; propriety of words, and thoughts ele- gantly adapted to the occasion : objects which possess an affinity and congruity, or sometimes a contrast to each other, assembled with quickness and variety ; in short, every in- gredient of wit, or of humour, which critics have discovered, maybe found in this poem. The reader may congratulate himself, that he is not destitute of taste to relish both, if he can read it with delight." Hudibras is to an epic poem what a good farce is to a tragedy ; persons advanced in years generally prefer the former, having met with tragedies enough in real life ; where- as the comedy, or interlude, is a relief from anxious and dis- gusting reflections, and suggests such playful ideas, as wan- ton round the heart and enliven the very features. The hero marches out in search of adventures, to suppress those sports, and punish those trivial oftences, which the vul- gar among the Royalists were fond of, but "which the Presby- terians and Independents abhorred ; and which our hero, as a magistrate of the former persuasion, thought it his duty officially to suppress. The diction is that of burlesque po- etry, painting low and mean persons and things in pompous language and a magnificent manner, or sometimes level- ling sublime and pompous passages to the standard of low imagery. The principal actions of the poem are four : Hu- dibx'as's victory over Crowdero — Trulla's victory over Hudi- bras — Hudibras's victory over Sidrophel — and the Widow's antimasquerade : the rest is made up of the adventui'es of the Bear, of the Skimmington, Hudibras's conversations with the Lawyer and Sidrophel, and his long disj)utations with Ralpho and the AVidow. The verse consists of eight syllables, or four feet ; a measure which, in unskilful hands, soon becomes * Essay on Hunian Undorstaiuling, b. ii. c. 2. — t Sppctator, No. 35 and 32. — X Essay conceniinj,^ Humour m Comedy, and Corbyii Morris's JBseay on Wit, llumour, and Kuillery. AUTHOR OF llUDUmAS. XIX tiresome, and will ever be a dangerous snare to meaner and less masterly imitators. The Scotch, the Irish, the American Hudioras, and a host of other imitations, are hardly worth mentioning ; they only prove the excitement which this new species of poetry had occasioned ; the ti'anslation into French, by Mr Towneley, an Englishman, is curious, it preserves the sense, but cannot keep up the humour. Prior seems to have come nearest the original, though he is sensible of his own inferiority, and says, But, like poor Andrew, I advance. False mimic of my master's dance ; Around the cord awhile I sprawl, And thence, the' low, in earnest fall. His Alma is neat and elegant, and his versification supe- rior to Butler's ; but his learning, knowledge, and wit by no means equal. The spangles of wit which he could afford, he knew how to polish, but he wanted the bullion of his mas- ter. Iludibras, then, may truly be said to be the first and last satire of the kind ; for if we examine Lucian's Trago-po- dagra, and other dialogues, the Casars of Julian, Seneca's Apocoloci/ntofiis, or the mock deification of Claudius, and some fragments of Varro, they will be found very different : the Batrachomi/omachia, or battle of the frogs and mice, com- monly ascribed to Homer, and the Margites^ generally al- lowed to be his, prove this species of poetry to be of great anticiuity. The inventor of the modern mock heroic was Alessandro Tassoni, born at Modena 1565. His Secchia rapita, or Rape of the Bucket, is founded on the popular, account of the cause of the civil Avar between the inhabitants of Modena and Bologna, in the time of Frederick II. This bucket was long preserved, as a trophy, in the cathedral of INIodena, sus- pended by the chain which fastened the gate of Bologna, through which the JNIodenese forced their passage, and seized the prize. It is written in the ottava rima, the solemn mea- sure of the Italian heroic poets, and has considerable merit. The next successful imitators of the mock-heroic have been Boileau, Garth, and Pope, whose respective works are too generally known, and too justly admired, to require, at this time, description or encomium. c 2 XX LIFE OF SAMUEL BUTLEE, Hudibras has been compared to the Satyre Menippee, first published in France in the year 1593. The subject indeed is somewhat similar, a violent civil war excited by religious zeal, and many good men made the dupes of state politicians. After the death of Henry III. of France, the Duke de May- ence called together the states of the kingdom, to elect a successor, there being many pretenders to the crown ; the consequent intrigues were the foundation of the Satyre Menippee, so called from Menippus, an ancient cynic philo- sopher and rough satirist, introducer of the burlesque spe- cies of dialogue. In this work are unveiled the different views and interests of the several actors in those busy scenes, who, under the pretence of public good, consulted only their private advantage, passions, and prejudices. This book, which aims particularly at the Spanish party, went through various editions, from its first publication to 1726, when it was printed at Eatisbon in three volumes, with copious notes and index. In its day it was as much admired as Hudibras, and is still studied by antiquaries with delight. But this satire differs widely from our author's : like those of Yarro, Seneca, and Julian, it is a mixture of verse and prose, and though it contains much wit, and Mr Butler had certainly read it with attention, yet he cannot be said to imitate it. The reader will perceive that our poet had more immedi- ately in view, Don Quixote, Spenser, the Italian poets, toge- ther with the Greek and Eoman classics ; * but very rarely, if ever, alludes to Milton, though Paradise Lost was publish- ed ten years before the third part of Hudibras. Other sorts of burlesque have been published, such as the Carmina Macaronica, the Epistolce ohscurorum l^ironim, Cot- ton's Viryil Tral-esty, &c., but these are efforts of genius of no great importance, and many burlesque and satirical pieces, prose and verse, were published in France between the year 1533 and 1600, by Kabelais, Scarrou, and others. * The editor has in his possession a copy of the first edition of the two parts of Hudibras, appended to which arc about 100 pages of contemporary manuscript, indicating the particuhtr passages of preceding writers which Butler is supposed to liave liad in view. Among the authors most frequent- ly quoted are : Cervantes (Don Quixote), Virgil, Horace, Ovid, Juvenal and I'orsius, Catullus, Tibullus and Propertius, Lucan, Martial, Statius, Suetonius, Justin, Tacitus, ('icero, Aulus Gellius, Macrobius, I'linii His- toria Naturalis, and Erasuii adagia. AUTHOB OF HUDIBRAS. XXI Hudibras operated wonderfully in beating down the hypo- crisy and false patriotism of the time. Mr 11 ay ley gives a character of the author in. four linea with great propriety : "Unrivall'd Butler! blest with liappy skill To heal by comic verse each serious ill, By wit's strongs flashes reason's light dispense, And laugh a frantic nation into sense." For one great object of our poet's satire is to unmask the hypocrite, aild to exhibit, in a light at once odious and ridi- culous, the Presbyterians and Independents, and all other sects, which in our poet's days amounted to near two hundred, and were enemies to the king ; but his further view was to banter all the false, and even all the suspicious, pretences to learning that prevailed in his time, such as astrology, sympa- thetic medicine, alchymy, ti'ausfusion of blood, trifling con- ceits in experimental philosophy, fortune-telling, incredible relations of travellers, false wit, and injudicious affectations of poets and romance writers. Thus he frequently alludes to Purchas's Pilgrimes, Sir Kenelni Digby's books, Bulwer's Artificial Changeling, Sir Thomas Brown's Vulgar Errors, Burton's Anatomy of Melancholy, Lilly's Astrology, and the early transactions of the Royal Society. These books were much read and admired in our author's days. The adventure with the widow is introduced in conformity with other poets, both heroic and dramatic, who hold that no poem can be perfect which hath not at least one Episode of Love. It is not worth while to niquire, if the characters painted under the fictitious names of Hudibras, Crowdero, Orsin, Talgol, TruUa, &c., were drawn from real life, or whether Sir Roger L'Estrange's key to Hudibras * be a true one. It mat- ters not whether the hero were designed as the picture of Sir Samuel Luke, Colonel Rolls, or Sir Henry Rosewell ; he is, in the language of Dryden, Knight of the Shire, and represents them all, that is, the whole body of the Presbyterians, as Ralpho does that of the Independents. It would be degrading the liberal spirit and universal genius of Mr Butler, to nar- row his general satire to a particular libel on any characters, however marked and prominent. To a single rogue, or * First published in 1714. XXU LIFE OF SAMUEL BUTLER, blockhead, he disdained to stoop ; the vices and follies of the age in which he lived were the quarry at which he flew ; these he concentrated, and embodied in the persons of Hudi- bras, Ralpho, Sidrophel, &c., so that each character in this admirable poem should be considered, not as an individual, but as a species. Meanings still more remote and chimerical than mere per sonal allusions, have by some been discovered in Hudibras and the poem would have wanted one of those marks which distinguish works of superior merit, if it had not been sup- posed to be a perpetual allegory. AVriters of eminence. Ho- mer, Plato, and even the Holy Scriptures themselves, have been most A^Tetchedly misrepresented by commentators of this cast. Thus some have thought that the hero of the piece was intended to represent the parliament, especially that part of it which favoured the Presbyterian discipline. When in the stocks, he is said to personate the Presbyterians after they had lost their power ; his first exploit against the bear, whom he routs, is assumed to represent the parliament get- ting the better of the king ; after this great victory he courts a widow for her jointure, which is supjDOsed to mean the riches and power of the kingdom ; being scorned by her, he retires, but the revival of hope to the Eoyalists, draws forth both him and his squire, a little before Sir George Booth's insurrection. 3Iagnano, Cerdon, Talgol, &c., though described as butchers, coblers, tinkers, are made to represent ofiicers in the parliament army, whose original professions, perhaps, were not much more noble : some have imagined Magnano to be the Duke of Albemarle, and his getting thistles from a barren land, to allude to his power in Scotland, especially after the defeat of Booth. Trulla means his wife ; Crowdero Sir George Booth, whose bringing in of Bruin alludes to his endeavours to restore the king; his oaken leg, called the. better one, is the king's cause, his other leg the Presbyterian discipline ; his fiddle-case, which iu sport they hung as a trophy on the whipping-post, is the directory. llal[)ho, they say, represents the Parliament of Independents, called Barebone's Parlia- ment ; Bruin is sometimes the royal person, sometimes the king's adherents : Orsin represents the royal party ; Talgol the city of London; Colon the bulk of the people. All these joining together against the Knight, represent Sir George •AUTHOR OF HUDIBKAS. ■ • XXlll Booth's conspiracy, with Presbyterians and Royalists, against the parliament -. their overthrow, through the assistance of Ralph, means the defeat of Booth by the assistance of the Independents and other fanatics. These ideas are, per- haps, only the frenzy of a wild imagination, though there may be some lines that seem to favour the conceit. l)ryden and Addison have censured Butler for his double rhymes ; the latter nowhere argues worse than upon this subject : " If," says he, " the thought in the couplet be good, the rhymes add little to it ; and if bad, it will not be in the ])0_wer of rhyme to recommend it ; I am afraid that great numbers of those who admire the incomparable Hudibras, do it more on account of these doggrel rhymes, than the parts that really deserve admiration."* This reflection affects equally all sorts of rhyme, which certainly can add nothing to the sense ; but double rhymes are like the whimsical dress of Harlequin, which does not add to his wit, but some-, times increases the humour and drollery of it : they are not sought for, but, when they come easily, are always diverting: they are so seldom found in Hudibras, as hardly to be an object of censure, especially as the diction and the rhyme both suit well with tlie character of the hero. It must be allowed that our poet does not exhibit his hero with the dignity of Cervantes : but the principal fault of the poem is, that the parts are unconnected, and the story deficient in sustained interest ; the reader may leave off without being ' anxious for the fate of his hero ; he sees only disjecti membra poetce ; but we should remember that the pai'ts were pub- lished at long intervals,t and that several of the different cantos were designed as satires on different subjects or ex- travagancies. Fault has likewise been found, and perhaps justly, with Butler's too frequent elisions, the harshness of his numbers, and the omission of the signs of substantives ; his inattention to grammar and syntax, which in some passages obscures his meaning ; and the perplexity which sometimes arises from the amazing fruitfulness of his imagination, and extent * Spectator, No. 60. t The Epistle to Sidrophel, not till many years after the canto to which it is annexed. XXIV LIFE OF SAMUEL BUTLER. of his reading. Most writers have more words than ideas, and the reader wastes much pains with them, and gets little information or amusement. Butler, on the contrary, has more ideas than words ; his wit and learning crowd so fast upon him, that he cannot find room or time to arrange them : hence his periods become sometimes embarrassed and ob- scure, and his dialogues too long. Our poet has been charged with obscenity, evil-speaking, and profaneness ; but satirists will take liberties. Juvenal, and that elegant poet Horace, must plead his cause, so far as the accusation is well founded. In the preceding memoir, Dr Nash, the latest and most authentic of Butler's biographers, has been our principal guide ; the reader who is desirous of a more critical and elaborate, though sometimes unjustly severe, view of the poem and the poet, will turn without disappointment to the eloquent pages of Dr Johnson. HUDIBRAS. PART I. CANTO I. ^rriin^f 'i™""»r '^^' ^l THE ARGUMENT. Sir HuDiERAS ' his passing worth, The niauner how he sallied forth, His arms and equipage, are sliowu ; His horse's virtues and his own. Th' adventure of the bear and fiddle Is sung, but breaks off in the middle.-' ' Butler probably took the name of Iludibras from Spcnccr\s Fairy Queen, B. ii. C. ii. St. 17. lie that made love unto the eldest dame Was hight Sir Hudibras, an hardy man ; Yet not so good of deeds, as great of name, Which he by many rash adventures wan, Since errant arms to sew he first bogan. Geoffrey of jMonmoutli mentions a British king- of this name, as living about the time of Solomon, and reigning 39 years. He is said to have com- posed all the dissensions among his people. Others have supposed it de- rived from the French, Hugo, or IIu de Bras, signifying Hugh with the strong arm : thus Fortinbras, Fircbras. In the Grub-street Journal, Col. Rolls, a Devonshire gentleman, is said to be satirized under the character of Hudibras ; and it is asserted, that Hugh de Bras was the name of the old tutelar saint of that county ; Dr Grey had been informed, on credible authority, tliat the person intended was Sir Henry Rosewell, of Ford A1)1)0y, Devonshire; but it is idle to look for personal reflections in a poem designed for a general satire on hy- pocrisy, enthusiasm, and false learning. There is no doubt, however, that Sir SaniuoJ Euki;, of Bedfordshire, is the likeliest hero. See linos 15 and 902. ^ A ridicule on Ronsard's Franciade, and Sir William Davenant's Gon- dibcrt, bot'.i unfinished. HUDIBKAS. CAiVrO I. ;;ipT-';i^ HEN civil dud