LESSONS IN ENGLISH LITERATURE. 



rule of God aa a moral governor which give* thin obligation it* 

 greatest for it cornea that religion ia tho aureat pro- 



s' >okor said, "that all true virtuea 



are to honour truo religion HH th.-ir pur-nt. ami all well-ordered 

 common wealths to have her an their ohiofeat atay." 



-ONS IN ENGLISH LITERATURE. XIX. 



>AMUEL BUTLLR. 



THEKK ia one great poet still to be spoken of, with regard to 

 whom it may woll bo doubted whether he should be classed 

 with those of th i--ri <1 now under review, that of the Civil 

 War and Commonwealth, or with those of the new era which 

 began with tho Ro.storation. Butler's great work was published 

 wholly after the Restoration ; indeed, it could hardly have been 

 safely published before. But it is probable that it hod been in 

 tfrent part written many years before ; and, at any rate, the 

 longer and more active portion of his life was passed during the 

 inflict and under the Commonwealth : the principles, the 

 sympathies, \ ...1 habits of thought which we find reflected in his 

 works were formed under the severe discipline of those stern 

 a very different school from that of the Restoration. And 

 in subject his great work distinctly belongs to the age of Puritan 

 supremacy. It seoms to us, therefore, better to treat Butler as 

 a poet belonging to the earlier era, pointing out at the same 

 time that no part of his great poem actually saw the light till 

 after the Restoration. 



Of the personal history of Samuel Butler we know very little. 

 He was born in 1612, in the village of Strensham in Worcester- 

 shire, his parents being probably of humble rank and in needy 

 circumstances. He received his early education at the Grammar 

 behool at Worcester. Whether he afterwards went to either 

 University, or received any further direct teaching beyond what 

 he enjoyed at school, has not been determined. In early life he 

 appears to have acted aa clerk to a Mr. Jeffreys, a magistrate of 

 the county of Worcester. Subsequently he formed one of the 

 household of the Countess of Kent, in what capacity is not quite 

 clear ; and here he engaged the friendship and society of the 

 great Selden, a man not less eminent for the nobility of his 

 character than for his learning and ability. At a later period 

 Butler resided it would seem as tutor in the house of Sir 

 Samuel Luke, a Cromwellian officer, an ardent republican, and a 

 strong Presbyterian. Sir Samuel Luke undoubtedly furnished 

 some features for our author's portrait of Hudibras ; and his 

 life in Luke's service was not, we may presume, a happy one. In 

 truth Butler's life was throughout a hard one. He was a royalist 

 and a devoted churchman. He hated the Puritans : their 

 austerity repelled him ; their frequent coarseness of thought 

 and manners offended his taste ; their theological controversies 

 excited his contempt ; their religion seemed to him hypocrisy ; 

 their arrogance, narrowmindedness, and pedantry were disgust- 

 ing to him. Yet it seems to have been his fate to spend most 

 of hia life among Puritans, poor, dependent, the servant of tho 

 very men whom he hated. It was not till towards the close of 

 hia life that he found his revenge. In " Hudibras," at last, he 

 poured out all the pent-up bitterness of years. The Restoration 

 gave victory to the cause which Butler had always espoused, 

 and, three years afterwards, in 1663, he published the first part 

 of " Hudibras." The second part was published in 1064 ; and the 

 third in 1678. Immediately upon the publication of the first 

 part of the great satire, its success was established ; it became 

 the fashion of the day. But Butler himself remained without 

 any solid reward, and he died in London in 1680, it is said in 

 extreme poverty. 



With what degree of outward assistance we cannot certainly 

 say, but certainly at some time and by some means Butler suc- 

 ceeded in acquiring an extraordinary mass of learning, espe- 

 cially in the more obscure and less-frequented branches of 

 science and literature. His opportunities, too, of observing the 

 faults and eccentricities of the class of men whom he was after- 

 wards to satirise were, as we have pointed out, very abundant. 

 The circumstances of his career gave energy and concentration 

 to his satiric powers. And these, added to powers of humour 

 rare not only in their unfailing strength but in the extraordinary 

 variety of their character, qualified him to take his place as the 

 great satirist of the seventeenth century, and one of the greatest 

 satirists of modern Europe. 



The satiro of " Hudibras " is unquestionably the most remark- 



able book written on the RoyaUftt and anti- Puritan aide of the 

 great conflict of it j author'* daya. IU object ia to present the 

 v in tho ii,o.- 1 lu<lirrou, the moct odiona, and oon- 

 b-mptible light. This in effected by de*' !>aracterand 



adventures of tho two heroea of tne poem, .Sir Hudibraa, the re- 

 preaentative of the Presbyterian itection of the Puritan*, and hia 

 squire, Ralph, who represent* the Independent*. It has aome- 

 timea been auggosted that Butlor wo* largely indebted to " Don 

 Quixote" for the conception of his satire ; and no doubt the idea 

 of choosing a knight and hia nquire a* the heroea of the poem 

 waa suggested by the great Spanish xatire. Bat beyond thu 

 there ia nothing in common between the two worka. In fact, 

 "Pickwick" has much more in common with "Don Quixote" than 

 " Hudibras " haa. Quixote is the picture of " a noble mind o'er- 

 thrown; " a character really brave and chivalrous, but rendered 

 ludicrous by its illusions ; a career essentially noble, but out of 

 place. Hudibras is the portrait of a creature utterly bane, mean, 

 false, and cowardly, a hypocrite and a pedant. Every line in 

 the description of him and his squire, every ludicrous adventure 

 through which they are led, is designed to render them not 

 merely ridiculous, but hateful and contemptible. Every com- 

 parison which Butler'a fertile imagination could devise, every 

 allusion which his vast learning could suggest (and in learning 

 Butler might almost rival Milton), is directed to heighten this 

 effect. " Hudibras " is the bitterest, and by far the most learned, 

 as well as one of the most humorous of satires. The peculiar 

 jingling metre m which it is written is admirably suited for the 

 subject. 



The poem opens with a description, occupying between four 

 and five hundred lines, of Hudibras himself, his gifts and endow- 

 ments, outward and inward, a description as remarkable as any- 

 thing in the whole poem. This, and a somewhat similar descrip- 

 tion of Ralpho, the squire, occupy the greater nart of the first 

 canto. 



The knight himself is introduced as 



" Chief of domestic knights and I Mighty he was in both of these, 



errant, I And styled of war as well aa 



Either for charlet or for warrant ; I peace ; 



That could as well bind o'er as 



swaddle.* 



Great on the bench, great in the 

 saddle, 



In the same strain the poet describes bis talents and hia 

 learning : 



So some rats, of amphibious 



nature, 

 Are either for the land or water." 



speak 



That Latin was no more difficile 

 Thau to a blackbird 'tia to 

 whistle." 



" 'Tis known he could 



Greek 

 As naturally as pigs squeak ; 



Next we hear of his logic and rhetoric, his pedantry and 

 barbarous language : 



" A Babylonish dialoct, Of patched and pye-balled Ian- 



pedants ' 



much 



guages ; [La tiu, 



'Twas English cut on Greek and 

 Like fu&tiau heretofoie oil satin." 



Which learned 



affect ; 

 It was a party-coloured dress 



His " school divinity," metaphysical speculations, and all the 

 vain ingenuity which marred the scholastic system, ore thus 

 detailed : 



" He a rope of sand could twist 



As if divinity had catched 



purpose to be 



As tough as learned Sorbonist ; 

 And weave fine cobwebs fit for 



skull 

 That's empty when the moon is 



full; 



Such as take lodgings iu a head 

 That's to be let unfurnished 

 He could raise scruples durk and 



nice, 

 And often solve 'em in a trice ; 



The sketch which follows of the knight's religion caustic 

 and, of course, in one sense, unfair aa it is is so fine a piece of 

 satire that we quote it entire : 



The itch 



scratched ; 

 Or, like a mountebank, did wound 

 And stab herself with doubts 



profound, 



Only to show with how small pain 

 The wounds of faith are cured 



again ; 



Altln uuh by woeful proof we find 

 They alwuys leave a scar behind." 



" For his religion, it was fit 

 To match his learning and bis wit : 

 'Twns Presbyterian true blua ; 

 For he was of the stubborn crew 



To be the true Church militant ; 

 Such as do build their faith upon 

 The holy text of pike and gun ; 

 Decide all controversies by 



Of errant saints, whom all men ' Infallible artillery ; 



grant And prove their doctrine orthodox 



* To sicaddlt is to fight. The meaning is, be wu equally dUtia 

 gutahed as a magistrate and aa a warrior. 



