794 
POE 
fkice in thefe he has failed. Kis angels are like good 
boys at fchool; very quiet, fheepiffi, uninformed, perfon- 
ages. 
Brome had in the reign of Charles I. compofed a variety 
of burlefque and fatirical fongs againft the roundheads, 
which were very popular. Similar fubjecls were the 
groundwork of Butler’s famous poem of “ Hudibras.” 
There is perhaps no work of more truly original chara&er 
in our language than this. Except the idea of the knight 
fallying out with a fquire, borrowed, as Johnfon affirms, 
from Cervantes, there is nothing like it. It embraces 
every ridiculous fubjeft that was known, and the verfe 
it is couched in is the language of abfurdity itfelf. No 
work more ftrongiy corroborates our remark, that the 
fenfe of the ludicrous arifes from the perception of error, 
whether of reafon or feeling, than the book in queltion. 
The errors of religion, viz. bigotry, hypocrify, and fana¬ 
ticism ; the errors of Science, pedantry, the errors of lite¬ 
rature, the errors of politics, form the grounds of his 
poem. Let us take fome examples. Errors in Science. 
Logic: 
He was in logic a great critic. 
Profoundly Skilled in analytic. 
He could diftinguifh and divide 
A hair ’twixt South and fouth-weft fide. 
On either fide could he difpute; 
Confute, change hands, and dill confute. 
He’d undertake to prove, by force 
Of argument, a man’s no horfe, &c. 
He’d run in debt by deputation, 
And pay by ratiocination. 
For rhetoric, he could not ope 
His mouth, but out there flew a trope; 
And, when he happen’d to break off 
I’ th’middle of his fpeech, or cough, 
H’ had hard words ready to (hew why, 
And tell what rules he did it by ; 
Elfe, when with greateft art he fpoke, 
You’d think he talk’d like other folk : 
For all a rhetorician’s rules 
Teach nothing but to name his tools. 
On the bad application of theoretical knowledge : 
In mathematics he was greater 
Than Tycho Brahe, or Erra Peter; 
For he by geometric Scale 
Would take the fize of pots of ale; 
Refolve by figns and tangents ftraight 
If bread and butter wanted weight; 
And wifely tell what hour of the day 
The clock does ftrike, by algebra. 
Among many capital witticifms on the abfurd pole¬ 
mical dilputes of the time, we have ; 
He could raife fcruples dark and nice, 
And after Solve them in a trice; 
As if divinity had catch’d 
The itch, on purpole to be Scratch'd ; 
Or, like a mountebank, did wound 
And ffab herfelf with doubts profound ; 
Only to fliew with how Small pain 
The fores of faith are cur’d again ; 
Although by woful proof we find, v 
They always leave a fear behind. 
How forcibly are fanatics ridiculed, as 
Such as do build their faith upon 
The holy text of pike and gun 
Decide all controversies by 
Infallible artillery; 
And prove their doftrine orthodox 
By apoftolic blows and knocks ; 
Call fire and Sword and defolation 
A godly thorough reformation, 
T R Y. 
Which always muff be carried on, 
And ftill be doing, never done; 
As if religion were intended 
For nothing elfe but to be mended. 
But it was not only to fuch fubjeCIs as the time forced 
on his notice that Butler could difplay the errors. He 
was acquainted with almoft every branch of philofophy, 
and hence he fliows the abfurdity of medical theories, 
when he tells us of the “ Sympathetic powder, that wounds 
nine miles point-blank would folder,” and when he tells 
the anecdote of Taliacotius; of alchemy, divination. 
See. In polite literature how well he ridicules the Serious 
poets and romance writers, who 
Never care how many others 
They kill, without regard of mothers, 
Or wives, or children, fo they can 
Make up fome fierce deed-doing man, 
Compos’d of many ingredient valours. 
Juft like the manhood of nine tailors. 
Or again, more fully: 
But now t’ obferve romantic method, 
Let bloody fteel a while be Sheathed ; 
And all thofe harffi and rugged founds 
Of baftinadoes, cuts, and wounds. 
Exchang’d to love’s more gentle ftyle, 
To let our reader breathe awhile ; 
For which, that w r e may be as brief as 
Is poffible, by way of preface; 
Is’t not enough to make one ftrange. 
That fome men’s fancies fhould ne’er change. 
But make all people do and fay 
The fame thing ftill the felf-fame way ? 
Some writers make all ladies purloin’d. 
And knights purfuing like a whirlwind : 
Others make all their knights in fits 
Of jealouly to lofe their wits ; 
Till, drawing blood o’ th’ dames like witches, 
Th’ are forthwith cur’d of their capriches. 
Some always thrive in their amours 
By pulling plafters off their fores; 
As cripples do to get an alms. 
Juft fo do they, and win their dames. 
Some force whole regions, in defpite 
Of geography, to change their fite ; 
Make former times ffiakeffiands with latter. 
And that which was before come after. 
But thofe who write in rhyme ftill make 
The one verfe for the other’s fake; 
For one for fenfe and one for rhyme, 
I think’s fufficient at one time. 
The fmooth Waller, the elegant llofcommon, Pomfrel, 
and the critic Waljh, adorned the polifhed period of 
Englifn verle; and, though confined within narrower 
limits of thought and expreffion than their predeceffors, 
defervedly rank as their fuperiors in verification. The 
paucity of their works, and their not having carried the 
heroic meafure to perfection, left Dryden the palm of 
undivided celebrity, as the father of a new ftyle of poetry, 
equally famous for its mufic, concifenefs, expreffion, and 
variety. His faults were a too liberal ufe of triplets, 
irregularity and inattention, and, as fome critics think, 
the ufe of the Alexandrine in an irregular manner. His 
plagiarifms of thoughts are frequent, but he generally 
improves them. Moft of his attempts at fublimity are 
either bombaftical or unintelligible. He is perhaps the 
fineft example of the art of reafoning, without feeling, in 
verfe, that can be found. His tranfiations, efpecially of 
Virgil, fo highly praifed by his contemporaries, are gra¬ 
dually falling into contempt amongft the correCter efforts 
of the prefent age. Dryden, as well as all the above-men¬ 
tioned authors, prefents us with little originality. How¬ 
ever highly his ftyle may be praifed, however conftantly 
