BUTLER, Sanity EL, author of the most celebrated burlesque poem in our language, was the son of a farmer at Strensham in Worcestershire, where he was born, according to 1)1. Nash, in 1612. He received a grammar school education at Worcester. Wood and other bio graphers have placed him for seven years at Cambridge ; but it is remarkable, as 1)r Johnson observes, that \WO, although he pretends to have had the account from hie brother, could not tell his hall or college ; and it is not likely that Butler should have so long inhabited a place of learning, with so little distinction as to leave his place of residence uncertain. The learning of Hudibras may be objected to Dr Johnson's doubts of his academical education, yet it must be said, that the learning which shews itself hi allusion may be collected from various reaeling ; while that which illuminates dissertation, can perhaps be imbibed only in seminaries of erudition. On his return to his own county, he was for some time clerk to I\ Ir Jeffreys of Earls Croomb, an eminent justice of the peace. In his service he had leisure not only for study, but recreation. Ile addicted himself to music and painting. In the latter he was instructed by Cooper, whose friendship for him is recorded, to the mutual ho nour of the poet and painter. Ile lived afterwards in the family of the Countess of Kent, probably as assistant to the celebrated Seidel), who was the steward of the Coun tess. Ilere he enjoyed the use of a good library, and the still greater advantage of Selden's acquaintance. This circumstance may explain his learning, without having recourse to a college. Ilis next residence was with Sir Samuel Luke, at Cople in Bedfordshire, an officer of Cromwell, and a leader of the Puritans, whose character furnished him with the original of Hudibras. At the Restoration, Butler is described as an expectant for the reward of loyal principles ; he was, however, only made secretary to the Earl of Carbury, president of the prin cipality of Wales, who conferred on him the stewardship of Ludlow Castle, when the court of the marches was revived. In this part of his life he married Mrs Herbert, a gentlewoman of fortune ; but her fortune was lost by bad securities. In 1663 was published the first part of his Hudibras, which, being recommended by the taste of the Earl of Dorset, was quoted by the king, and studied by the courtiers. In 1664, the second part appeared. Yet with all his literary merits and party claims, praise was his only reward. He was introduced, we are told by Packe, to the Duke of Buckingham ; but his Grace had no sooner set himself down beside the poet and his friend Wycherley, whe introduced him, than observing a cou ple of ladies pass by an open door, he quitted his engage ment to follow another kind of business. This anecdote seems to be corroborated by some verses against Buck ingham, written with extreme acrimony, and which have been published by Mr Thver in the genuine remains of Butler. Notwithstanding this discouragement and ne glect, lie still prosecuted his design ; and in 1678 pub lished a third part of Hudibras, which still leaves the poem imperfect and abrupt. He died in 1680, and Alr Longueville, who had supported the poet in his indigence, and who received from him his manuscripts before his death, having.in vain solicited a subscription for his inter ment in Westminster Abbey, buried him at his own cost in the church-yard of Covent-garden. Sixty years after his death, Barber, a printer, erected a monument to him in Westminster Abbey, which, by a strong allusion to his poverty,* has probably created a common tradition that he died of absolute want.
It will not be necessary to inform many readers, that the object of the poem of Hudibras was to expose the fanaticism of the Puritans, in the same manner as Cer vantes exposed the passion for knight-errantry. Hudibras is the Don Quixote, and Ralph° is the Sancho of Butler. Both satirists exposed the folly of their respective objects of ridicule when they had fallen into decline ; but it must be owned, that the Spanish satirist is as superior in gene rosity to his fallen foe, as lie is in originality : Cervantes makes us love Quixote while we laugh at him ; Butler clothes him in deformity and contempt. The Spanish mock hero is much more natural and probable ; he springs out of circumstances easily and instantly conceiv able ;—the Puritan mock hero arises from an odd com plexion of the times ; he is the creature of politics, of peculiar and local manners, and superstition ; a com pound of pedantry, fanaticism, and knight-errantry. We can imagine at once a Don Quixote, because he is a sim ple though mock knight-errant, translated as he is from a foreign language ; but we cannot imagine a real I ludi bras, though we read of him in English. The reason seems principally to be, that we have united in Hudibras the incongruous characters of Puritan and knight-errant. What was chiellv ridiculous in the former of these cha racters was false humility, in the latter false elevation. It is impossible to satirize both under the same hero. Butler makes his hero low at the outset, and it is impossible to debase him by incident ; lie fails, therefore, in effecting any contrast of character between his knight and the squire, his obstinate independent clerk ;—unlike the happy model of Cervantes, where our chief entertainment arises from the contrast of the nob), master and the cun ning servant. Independent of this infelicity, the story of Hudibras is meagre and uninteresting ; it wants unity ; and though we cannot pronounce what the story would have been had it been prolonged, it is easy to perceive, that out of such a design no captivating fable could ever have been formed. The dialogue of Cervantes is for ever amusing: that of Butler is fatiguing, not from in sipidity, but from straining the mind to attend to subtle, remote, learned, or metaphysical combinations.
Yet while we may safely pronounce the poem of Hu dibras to be inferior to no human production in point of wit, we must. forget our own sensations in reading it, or we must pervert the meaning of the word humour, if we deny it that quality. Whatever may be said of the other characters, that of the lawyer, at least, is supported with exhilarating humour. The principal merit of the poem is its close sententious wit ;—its profoundly wise, and true, and surprising, though laughable adages ;—its successful travestie of every metaphor and simile in the store-house of poetry ;—its converting rhyme itself from an ornament to an instrument of burlesque in versifica tion; and the talent which it displays of sending at once the powers of fancy and erudition in quest of ludicrous associations. Hudibras is a mine of mottoes. He had watched (as Dr Johnson observed) with great diligence the operations of human nature, and traced the effects of opinion, humour, interest, and passion. From such re marks proceeded that great number of sententious dis tichs which have passed into conversation, and arc added as proverbial axioms to the general stock of practical knowledge. ();)