6 mending Butler to the Duke of Buckingham;* and even went so far as to pronounce it a reproach to the court, that a person of his wit and loyalty should suffer in obscurity: upon which, Buckingham undertook to name him to his Majesty; and Wycherly, to forward the business, requested the Duke to fix a time and place when he might introduce the modest and unfortunate poet to his new patron. In conformity to his orders, the two poets attended his Grace at the Roebuck, a noted tavern: but unfortunately, soon after they met, a knight of Buckingham's acquaintance passed by with two abandoned women, whom he instantly pursued; nor from that hour did he recollect his promises in favour of the author of Hudibras. Granger, says Dr. Johnson, was informed by Dr. Pearce, who named for his authority Mr. Lowndes of the Treasury, that Butler had a yearly pension of a hundred pounds. This is contradicted by all tradition, by the complaints of Oldham,† and by the * Aubrey, or Wood, incorrectly records, that he was Secretary to his Grace, when he was Chancellor of the University of Cambridge.' This writer, in his Satire against Poetry,' introduces the ghost of Spenser dissuading him from it, upon experience and example that poverty and contempt were it's inseparable attend ants. After having adduced his own case, and those of Homer and Cowley, he adds: 'On Butler who can think without just rage, Fair stood his hopes, when first he came to town; reproaches of Dryden;* and, I am afraid, will never be confirmed. But what reward for all had he at last? The wretch, at summing up his mis-spent days, Otway also, in his Prologue to Constantine the Great,' with a feeling almost prophetic of his own destiny, exclaims: -'All ye who have male issue born And warn them early from the sin of rhyme: Tell them how Spenser starved, how Cowley mourn'd, * In his Dedication of his Juvenal,' where also he observes: "The worth of his poem is too well known to need any commendation, and he is above my censure. The choice of his numbers is suitable enough to his design, as he has managed it; but in any other hand the shortness of his verse, and the quick returns of rhyme, had debased the dignity of stile. His good sense is perpetually shining through all he writes: it affords us not the time of finding faults; we pass through the levity of his rhyme, and one is immediately carried into some admirable useful thought. After all, he has chosen this kind of verse, and has written the best in it.” Both Dryden and Addison however, in reference to Butler's genius, have expressed their regret that instead of embalming his wit in heroic verse, he condescended to burlesque and doggrel.' But Addison has not been consistent in his judgement; and the opinions of Dryden were frequently immature. One remark may, at least, be made in it's favour, that the versification has perhaps been a principal VOL. IV. K It is certain, that he reaped no other benefit from his poem than an order upon the Treasury for three hundred pounds;* which, as he owed more than the cause of it's fame; as the turns of humour and satire, being short and pithy, are therefore more tenable in the memory, whence Hudibras is more frequently quoted in conversation than the finest pieces of serious poetry... As a masterly piece of criticism, Dr. Johnson's Dissertation upon Hudibras, appended to his Life of Butler, will be read with great pleasure. The work (it may be briefly remarked) considered as a whole, is certainly deficient in incident and interest: for though it contains more wit and learning than perhaps any other that ever was written, and though there is hardly a subject for which an appropriate motto might not be found in it's pages, it cannot often be perused except as a task. The characters, indeed, are now obsolete; for the manners, that gave them birth, no longer exist: yet will this work remain an unrivalled monument of genius and erudition, as long as the English language endures. * Some assert, that the King drew the order for three thousand pounds; and that a cypher was cut off in some of the offices, through which it passed.' But this does not seem probable: for Butler, in that case, would hardly have been so personally severe upon his Majesty's neglect of him, as we find him in his HUDIBRAS at Court.' • Now you must know Sir HUDIBRAS That all that saw him did him honour. Among the rest, this prince was one, entire sum, he requested his friend Longueville to appropriate to the discharge of his debts. Few more particulars of his life are to be found; for from his extreme modesty, and his dislike of what Cowley so well denominates "the great vulgar and the small," he studiously avoided a multiplicity of acquaintance. Even the Earl of Dorset, one of his best friends, was obliged to resort to a stratagem in order to get introduced to him. He prevailed on Mr. Fleetwood Shephard to introduce him into his company at a tavern, in the character of a common friend. At this interview Butler, who never shone in conversation till he had drank pretty freely, appeared flat and heavy while the first bottle went round in the course of drinking the second, however, he became brisk and sprightly, displayed to it's best advantage his wit and learning, and proved a most agreeable companion; but, before the third was finished, he relapsed into his original stupidity. Next morning, his Lordship pronounced him "Like a nine-pin, little at both ends, but great in the middle." During the latter part of his life he resided in Rose Street, Covent Garden; and there, it is supposed, he ended his days. Upon his death in 1680, Mr. Longueville applied to many of his great and wealthy admirers, to contribute to the expense of burying him in Westminster Abbey: but they, who had courted his company without promoting his interest in life, were not very likely to exert themselves in paying honour to his remains. He was, therefore, privately interred in the church-yard of St. Paul's, Covent Garden, at the sole charge of his friend, the burial-service being read by Dr. Patrick (subsequently Bishop of Ely) the minister of the parish. From this and other circumstances it was reported, that he died deeply in debt.'* But Mr. Charles Longueville, * A monument, however, was in 1721 erected to his memory by Mr. John Barber, citizen of London, which gave occasion to the following lines by Mr. S. Wesley: Whilst Butler, needy wretch! was yet alive, No generous patron would a dinner give. See him, when starved to death and turn'd to dust, The poet's fate is here in emblem shown: He ask'd for bread, and he received a stone.❜ The inscription upon it is as follows: M. S. SAMUELIS BUTLERI, Qui Strenshamiæ in agro Vigorn. nat. 1612, Vir doctus imprimis, acer, integer; Hoc tandem posito marmore curavit |