Hudibras On Samuel Butler Author of Hudibras
Hudibras On Samuel Butler Author of Hudibras is in Hudibras.
The life of a retired scholar can furnish but little matter to the biographer: such was the character of Mr. Samuel Butler, author of Hudibras. His father, whose name likewise was Samuel, had an estate of his own of about ten pounds yearly, which still goes by the name of Butler's tenement, a Vignette of which may be seen in the title-page of the first volume: he held, likewise, an estate of three hundred pounds a year under sir William Russell, lord of the manor of Strensham, Worcestershire, in Worcestershire1. He was not an ignorant farmer, but wrote a very clerk-like hand, kept the register, and managed all the business of the parish under the direction of his landlord, near whose house he lived, and from whom, very probably, he and his family received instruction and assistance. From his landlord they imbibed their principles of loyalty, as sir William was a most zealous royalist, and spent great part of his fortune in the cause, being the only person exempted from the benefit of the treaty, when Worcester surrendered to the parliament in the year 1646. Our poet's father was churchwarden of the parish the year before his son Samuel was born, and has entered his baptism, dated February 8, 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 remain in the parish though some of them are said to be in the neighbouring villages.
Note 1. This information came from Mr. Gresley, rector of Strensham, from the year 1706 to the year 1773> when he died, aged 100: to that he was born seven years before the poet died.
Our author received his first rudiments of learning at home; he was afterwards sent to the college school at Worcester, then taught by Mr. Henry Bright,* prebendary of that cathedral, a celebrated scholar and many years the famous master of the King's school there; one who made his business his delight; and though in very easy circumstances continued to teach for the sake of doing good, by benefiting the families of the neighbouring gentlemen, who thought themselves happy in having their sons instructed by him.
Note 2. Mr. Bright is buried in the cathedral church of Worcester [Map] near the north pillar at the foot of the steps which lead to the choir. He was born 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 HENRICUS BRIGHT,
Celeberrimus gymnasiarcha.
Qui Bcholse regi» istic fimdatae per totos 40 annos
summa cum laude praefuit.
Continues.
How long Mr. Butler continued under his care is not known but, probably, till he was fourteen years old. Whether he was ever entered at any university is uncertain. His biographer says he went to Cambridge, but was never matriculated: Wood, on the authority of Butler's brother, says, the poet spent six or seven years there;» but as other things are quoted from the same authority, which I believe to be false, I should very much suspect the truth of this article. Some expressions, in his works, look as if he were acquainted with the customs of Oxford. Coursing was a term peculiar to that university; see Part iii. c. ii. V. 1244.
Returning to his native country, he entered into the service of Thomas Jefferies, Esq. of Earls Croombe, who, being a very active justice of the peace, and a leading man in the business of the province; his clerk was in no mean office, but one that required a knowledge of the law and constitution of his country, and a proper behaviour to men of every rank and occupation: besides, in those times, before the roads were made good, and short visits so much in fashion, every large family was a community within itself: the upper servants or retainers being often the younger sons of gentlemen were treated as friends and the whole family dined in one common hall, and had a lecturer or clerk, who, during meal times, read to them some useful or entertaining book.
Mr. Jefferies's family was of this sort, situated in a retired part of the country, surrounded by bad roads, the master of it residing constantly in Worcestershire. Here Mr. Butler had the advantage of living some time in the neighbourhood of his own family and friends: and having leisure for indulging his inclinations for learning, he probably improved himself very much, not only in the abstruser branches of it, but in the polite arts: here he studied painting, in the practice of which indeed his proficiency was but moderate; for I recollect seeing at Earls Croombe in my youth, some portraits said to be painted by him, which did him no great honour as an artist. I have heard lately of a portrait of Oliver Cromwell, said to be painted by our author.
After continuing, some time in this service, he was recommended to Elizabeth Countess of Kent who lived at Wrest, in Bedfordshire. Here he enjoyed a literary retreat during great part of the civil wars, and here probably laid the groundwork of his Hudibras, as he had the benefit of a good collection of books, and the society of that living library, the learned Selden. His biographers say, he lived also in the service of Sir Samuel Luke1, of Cople Hoo Farm, or Wood End, in that county, and that from him he drew the character of Hudibras: but such a prototype was not rare in those times. We bear little more of Mr. Butler till after the Restoration: perhaps as Mr. Selden was left executor to the Countess his employment in her affairs might not cease at her death, though one might suspect by Butler's MSS. and Remains, that his friendship with that great man was not without interruption, for his satirical wit could not be restrained from displaying itself on some particularities in the character of that eminent scholar.
Note 1. The Lukes were an ancient family at Cople, three miles south of Bedford: in the church are many monuments to the family: an old one to the memory of sir Walter Luke, knight, one of the justices of the pleas, holden before the most excellent prince King Henry the Eighth, and dame Anne his wife: another in remembrance of Nicholas Luke, and his wife, with five sons and four daughters.
On a flat stone in the chancel is written.
Here lieth the body of George Luke, Esq. he departed this life Feb. 10, 1732, aged 74 years, the last Luke of Wood End.
Sir Samuel Luke was a rigid presbyterian, and not an eminent commander under Oliver Cromwell; probably did not approve of the king's trial and execution, and therefore, with other presbyterians, both he and his father sir Oliver were among the secluded members. See Rushworth's collections.
Lord Dorset (age 40) is said to have first introduced Hudibras to court. November 11, 1662, the author obtained an imprimatur, signed J. Berkenhead, for printing his poem; accordingly in the following year he published the first part, containing 125 pages. Sir Roger L'Estrange granted an imprimatur for the second part of Hudibras, by the author of the first, November 5, 1663, and it was printed by T. R. for John Martin, 1664.
In the Mercurius aulicus, a ministerial newspaper, from January 1, to January 8, 1662, 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 Marriott, near St. Dunstan's church, in Fleet-street, that other nameless impression is a cheat, and will but abuse the buyer, as well as the author, whose poem deserves to have fallen into better hands." Probably many other editions were soon after printed: but the first and second parts, with notes to both parts, were printed for J. Martin and H. Herringham, octavo, 1674. The last edition of the third part, before the author's death, was printed by the same persons in 1678: this I take to be the last copy corrected by himself, and is that from which this edition is in general printed: the third part had no notes put to it during the author's life, and who furnished them after his death is not known.
In the British Museum is the original injunction by authority, 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 White-hall, 10th September, 1677; copy of this injunction may be seen in the note1.
Note 1. 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, re-printed, uttered or sold, a book or poem called Hudibras, or any part thereof, without the consent and approbation 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 Whitehall, the tenth day of September, in the year of our Lord God 1677 and in the 29th year of our reign.
Note B. His Majesty's command,
J. BERKENHEAD.
Miscel. Papers, Mus. Brit. Bibl. Birch, No. 4293.
It was natural to suppose, that after the restoration, and the publication of his Hudibras, our poet should have appeared in public life, and have been rewarded for the eminent service his poem did to the royal cause; but his innate modesty, and studious turn of mind, prevented solicitations: never having tasted the idle luxuries of life, he did not make to himself needless wants, or pine after imaginary pleasures: his fortune, indeed, was small, and so was his ambition; his integrity of life, and modest temper, rendered him contented. However, there is good authority for believing that at one time he was gratified with an order on the treasury for 300l. which is said to have passed all the offices without payment of fees, and this gave him an opportunity of displaying his disinterested integrity, by conveying the entire sum immediately 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 100l.: add to this, he was appointed secretary to the lord president of the principality of Wales, and, about the year 1667, steward of Ludlow castle. With all this, the court was thought to have been guilty of a glaring neglect in his case, and the public were scandalized at the ingratitude. The indigent poets, who have always claimed a prescriptive right to live on the munificence of their contemporaries, were the loudest in their remonstrances. Dryden, Oldham, and Otway, while in appearance they complained of the unrewarded merits of our author, obliquely lamented their private and particular grievances; [Greek Text] or, as Sallust says, nulli mortalium injuriee suae parvae videntur. Mr. Butler's own sense of the disappointment and the impression it made on his spirits are sufficiently marked by the circumstance of his having twice transcribed the following distich with some variation in his MS. common-place book: To think how Spenser died, how Cowley moum'd. How Butler's faith and service were returned1.
Note 1. I am aware of a difficulty that may be started, that the Tragedy of Constantine the Great, to which Otway wrote the prologue, according to Giles Jacob in his poetical Register, was not acted at the Theatre Royal till 1684, four years after our poet's death, but probably he had seen the MS. or heard the thought, as both his MSS. differ somewhat from the printed copy.
In the same MS. he says, "wit is very chargeable, and not to be maintained in its necessary expences 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 who have least believe they have most."
Ingenuity and wit
Note D. only make the owners fit
For nothing, but to be undone
Much easier than if th' had none.
Mr. Butler spent some time in France, probably when Lewis XIV. was in the height of his glory and vanity: however, neither the language nor manners of Paris were pleasing to our modest poet; some of his observations may be amusing; I shall therefore insert them in a note1. He married Mrs. Herbert, whether she was a widow, or not is uncertain; with her he expected a considerable fortune but, through various losses and knavery he found himself disappointed: to this some have attributed his severe strictures upon the professors of the law; but if his censures be properly considered they will be found to bear hard only upon the disgraceful part of each profession and upon false learning in general: this was a favourite subject with him, but no man had a greater regard for, or was a better judge of the worthy part of the three learned professions, or learning in general, than Mr. Butler.
Note 1. "The French use so many words, upon all occasions, that if they did not cut them short in pronunciation, they would grow tedious, and insufferable.
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 expression than verse, that has something in the stamp and coin to answer for the alloy and want of intrinsic icon. I never came among them, but the following line was in my mind:
Raucaq; garnditas, studiumq; 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 Rome, 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 expence 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 torender 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 his subjects in his own defence, and to keep them poor, in order to keep them quiet; for if they arc suffered to enjoy any plenty, they are naturally 80 insolent, that they would become ungovernable, and use him as they have done his predecessors: but he has rendered himself so strong, that they have no thoughts of attempting any thing in his time.
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 belund with his triumphal arches consecrated to himself, and his impress 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 does the same thing to himself that he means to do by Paris, renders himself weaker, by endeavouring to appear the more magnificent: lets go the substance for shadow.'
How long he continued in office, as steward of Ludlow Castle, is not known; but he lived the latter part of his life in Rose-street, Covent Garden in a studious retired manner, and died there in the year 1680. - He is said to have been buried at the expence of Mr. William Longueville, though he did not die in debt.
Some of his friends wished to have interred him in Westminster Abbey with proper solemnity; but not finding others willing to contribute to the expence, his corpse was deposited privately in the yard belonging to the church of Saint Paul's Covent Garden, at the west end of the said yard, on the north side, under the wall of the said church, and under that wall which parts the yard from the common highway1." I have been thus particular, because, in the year 1786, when the church was repaired, a marble monument was placed on the south side of the church on the inside, by some of the parishioners, which might tend to mislead posterity as to the place of his interment: their zeal for the memory of the learned poet does them honour; but the writer of the verses seems to have mistaken the character of Mr. Butler. The inscription runs thus:
"This little monument was erected in the year 1786, 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 hard have rais'd this humble stone,
Whose wants alone his genius could surpass,
Victim of zeal! the matchless Hudibras!
What though fair freedom suffer'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.
Note 1. See Butler's Life, printed before the small edition of Hudibras, in 1710, and reprinted by Dr. Grey.
Continues.