"of his acquaintance (the creature too was a knight) "trip by 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 men of defert; though no one was better "qualified than he, both in regard to his fortune and "understanding, to protect them, and, from that "time to the day of his death, poor Butler never "found the leaft effect of his promife!" Such is the ftory. The verfes are written with a degree of acrimony, fuch as neglect and disappointment might naturally excite; and fuch as it would be hard to imagine Butler capable of expreffing against a man who had any claim to his gratitude. Notwithstanding this difcouragement and neglect, he ftill profecuted his defign; and in 1678 published the third part, which ftill 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 ftrange that he should ftop here, however unexpectedly. To write without reward is fufficiently unpleafing. He had now arrived at an age when he might think it proper to be in jeft no longer, and perhaps his health might now begin to fail. He died in 1685; and Mr. Longueville, having unsuccessfully folicited 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 fervice. Granger *In a note in the "Biographia Britannica, p. 1075, he is faid, on the authority of the younger Mr. Longueville, to have lived for fome Granger was informed by Dr. Pearce, who named for his authority Mr. Lowndes of the Treafury, that Butler had an yearly penfion 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 fixty years afterwards, Mr. Barber, a printer, Mayor of London, and a friend to Butler's principles, bestowed on him a monument in Weftminster Abbey, thus infcribed: M. S. SAMUELIS BUTLERI, Vir doctus imprimis, acer, integer; After his death were publifhed three fmall volumes of his pofthumous works: I know not by whom collected, or by what authority ascertained *; and, lately, two volumes more have been printed by Mr. fome years in Rofe-ftreet, Covent Garden, and alfo that he died there; the latter of thefe particulars is rendered highly probable, by his being interred in the cemetery of that parish. H. * They were collected into one, and published in 12m0. 1732. H. Thyer Thyer of Manchefter, indubitably genuine. From none of these pieces can his life be traced, or his character discovered. Some ver es, in the laft collection, fhew him to have been among those who ridiculed the inftitution of the Royal Society, of which the enemies were for fome time very numerous and very acrimonious, for what reafon it is hard to conceive, fince the philofophers profeffed 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 mift of obfcurity paffed the life of Butler, a man whose name can only perifh 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 thofe compofitions of which a nation may justly boaft, as the images which it exhibits are domeftick, the fentiments unborrowed and unexpected, and the ftrain of diction original and peculiar. We muft not, however, fuffer the pride, which we affume as the countrymen of Butler, to make any encroachment upon juftice, nor appropriate thofe 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 hiftory of Don Quixote; a book to which a mind of the greatest powers may be indebted without difgrace. Cervantes fhews a man, who having, by the inceffant perufal of incredible tales, fubjected his underftanding ftanding to his imagination, and familiarifed his mind by pertinacious meditations to trains of incredible events, and scenes of impoffible exiftence; goes out in the pride of knighthood to redress wrongs, and defend virgins, to refcue captive princeffes, and tumble ufurpers from their thrones; attended by a fquire, whofe cunning, too low for the fufpicion of a generous mind, enables him often to cheat his mafter. The hero of Butler is a Prefbyterian, Juftice, who, in the confidence of legal authority and the rage of. zealous ignorance, ranges the country to repress superstition and correct abufes, accompanied by an Independent Clerk, difputatious and obftinate, with whom he often debates, but never conquers him. Cervantes had fo much kindness for Don Quixote, that, however he embarraffes him with abfurd diftreffes, he gives him fo much fenfe and virtue as may preferve our esteem; wherever he is, or whatever he does, he is made by matchlefs dexterity commonly ridiculous, but never contemptible. But for poor Hudibras, his poet had no tenderness; he chufes not that any pity fhould be fhewn or refpect paid him he gives him up at once to laughter and contempt, without any quality that can dignify or protect him. In forming the character of Hudibras, and defcribing his perfon and habiliments, the author feems to labour with a tumultuous confufion of diffimilar ideas. He had read the hiftory of the mock knights-errant ; he knew the notions and manners of a Prefbyterian magiftrate, and tried to unite the abfurdities of both, however however diftant, in one perfonage. Thus he gives him that pedantic oftentation of knowledge which has no relation to chivalry, and loads him with mar. tial encumbrances that can add nothing to his civil dignity. He fends him out a colonelling, and yet never brings him within fight of war. If Hudibras be confidered as the representative of the Prefbyterians, it is not easy to say why his weapons fhould be reprefented as ridiculous or ufelefs; for, whatever judgement might be paffed upon their knowledge or their arguments, experience had fufficiently fhown that their fwords were not to be despised. The hero, thus compounded of fwaggerer and pedant, of knight and juftice, is led forth to action, with his fquire Ralpho, an Independent Enthusiast. Of the contexture of events planned by the author, which is called the action of the poem, fince it is left imperfect, no judgement can be made. It is probable, that the hero was to be led through many lucklefs adventures, which would give occafion, like his attack upon the bear and fiddle, to expofe the ridiculous rigour of the fectaries; like his encounter with Sidrophel and Whacum, to make fuperftition and credulity contemptible; or, like his recourfe to the low retailer of the law, difcover the fraudulent practices of different profeffions. What feries of events he would have formed, or in what manner he would have rewarded or punished his hero, it is now vain to conjecture. His work must have had, as it feems, the defect which Dryden imputes to Spenfer; the action could not have been one; thofe could only have been a fuccef |