had, says his biographer, but it was lost by bad securities. In 1663 was published the first part, containing three cantos, of the poem of Hudibras, which, as Prior relates, was made known at court by the taste and influence of the Earl of Dorset. When it was known, it was necessarily admired: the king quoted, the courtiers studied, and the whole party of the royalists applauded it. Every eye watched for the golden shower which was to fall upon the author, who certainly was not without his part in the general expectation. In 1664 the second part appeared; the curiosity of the nation was rekindled, and the writer was again praised and elated. But praise was his whole reward. Clarendon, says Wood, gave him reason to hope for "places and employments of value and "credit;" but no such advantages did he ever obtain. It is reported that the king once gave him three hundred guineas; but of this but of this temporary boun ty I find no proof. Wood relates that he was secretary to Villiers Duke of Buckingham, when he was chancellor of Cambridge: this is doubted by the other writer, who yet allows the Duke to have been his frequent benefactor. That both these accounts are false, there is reason to suspect, from a story told by Packe, in his account of the life of Wycherly; and from some verses which Mr Thyer has published in the author's remains. "Mr Wycherly," says Packe, "had always laid "hold of an opportunity which offered of represent"ing to the Duke of Bukingham how well Mr "Butler had deserved of the royal family, by writ"ing his inimitable Hudibras; and that it was a re"proach to the court, that a person of his loyalty 66 and wit should suffer in obscurity, and under the "wants he did. The Duke always seemed to hear"ken to him with attention enough; and after some "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 his new patron. At last "an appointment was made, and the place of meet. "ing was agreed to be the Roebuck. Mr Butler "and his friend attended accordingly; the Duke 66 joined them; but, as the D-1 would have it, the "door of the room where they sat was open, and "his grace, who had seated himself near it, observing a pimp of his acquaintance (the creature too "was a knight) trip by with a brace of ladies, im"mediately quitted his engagement to follow an"other kind of business, at which he was more ready than in doing good offices to men of desert, though 66 no one was better qualified than he, both in re"gard to his fortune and understanding, to protect "them; and, from that time to the day of his death, "poor Butler never found the least effect of his pro"mise!" Such is the story. The verses are written with a degree of acrimony, such as neglect and disappointment might naturally excite; and such as it would be hard to imagine Butler capable of expressing against a man who had any claim to his gratitude. Notwithstanding this discouragement and neglect, he still prosecuted his design; and in 1678 published the third part, which still leaves the poem imperfect and abrupt. How much more he originally intended, or with what events the action was to be concluded, it is vain to conjecture. Nor can it be thought strange that he should stop here, however unexpectedly. To write without reward is sufficiently unpleasing. He had now arrived at an age when he might think it proper to be in jest no longer, and perhaps his health might now begin to fail. He died in 1680; and Mr Longueville, having unsuccessfully solicited a subscription for his interment in Westminster abbey, buried him at his own cost in the church-yard of Covent Garden. Dr Simon Patrick read the service. Granger was informed by Dr Pearce, who named for his authority Mr Lowndes of the treasury, that Butler had a yearly pension of an hundred pounds. This is contradicted by all tradition, by the complaints of Oldham, and by the reproaches of Dryden; and I am afraid will never be confirmed. About sixty years afterwards, Mr Barber, a printer, mayor of London, and a friend to Butler's prin eiples, bestowed on him a monument in Westmin ster abbey, thus inscribed: M. S. SAMUELIS BUTLERI, Qui Strenshamiæ in agro Vigorn. nat. 1612, Vir doctus imprimis, acer, integer; Satyrici apud nos carminis artifex egregius; Hoc tandem posito marmore, curavit After his death were published three small volumes of his posthumous work; I know not by whom collected, or by what authority ascertained; and, lately, two volumes more have been printed by Mr Thyer of Manchester, indubitably genuine. From none of these pieces can his life be traced, or his character discovered. Some verses in the last collection, shew him to have been among those who ridiculed the institution of the Royal Society, of which the enemies were for some time very numerous and very acrimonious, for what reason it is hard to conceive, since the philosophers professed not to advance doctrines, but to produce facts; and the most zealous enemy of innovation must admit the gradual progress of experience, however he may oppose hypothetical temerity. In this mist of obscurity passed the life of Butler, a man whose name can only perish with his language. The mode and place of his education are unknown; the events of his life are variously related; and all that can be told with certainty is, that he was poor. The poem of Hudibras is one of those compositions of which a nation may justly boast; as the images which it exhibits are domestic, the sentiments unborrowed and unexpected, and the strain of diction original and peculiar. We must not, however, suffer the pride, which we assume as the countrymen of Butler, to make any encroachment upon justice, nor appropriate those honours which others have a right to share. The poem of Hudibras is not wholly English; the original idea is to be found in the history of Don Quixote; a book to which a mind of the greatest powers may be indebted without disgrace. Cervantes shews a man, who having, by the incessant perusal of incredible tales, subjected his understanding to his imagination, and familiarised his mind by pertinacious meditation to trains of incredible events, and scenes of impossible existence; goes out in the pride of knighthood to redress wrongs, and defend virgins, to rescue captive princesses, and tumble usurpers from their thrones; attended by a squire, whose cunning, too low for the suspicion of a generous mind, enables him often to cheat his master. The hero of Butler is a presbyterian justice, who, in the confidence of legal authority and the rage of zealous ignorance, ranges the country to repress superstition and correct abuses, accompanied by an independent clerk, disputatious and obstinate, with whom he often debates, but never conquers him. Cervantes had so much kindness for Don Quixote, that, however he embarrasses him with absurd distresses, he gives him so much sense and virtue as may preserve our esteem; wherever he is, or whatever he does, he is made by matchless dexterity commonly ridiculous, but nevercontempt·ible. |