writer was again praised and elated. But praise was his whole reward. Clarendon, fays Wood, gave him reafon to hope for " places " and employments of value and credit," but no fuch advantages did he ever obtain. It is reported that the king once gave him three hundred guineas; but of this temporary bounty I find no proof.

Wood relates that he was fecretary to Villiers duke of Buckingham, when he was Chancellor of Cambridge: this is doubted by the other writer, who yet allows the duke to have been his frequent benefactor. That both thefe accounts are falfe there is reason to fufpect, from a story told by Packe, in his account of the life of Wycherley, and from fome verfes which Mr. Thyer has published in the author's remains.

"Mr. Wycherley," fays Packe, " had always laid hold of any opportunity which "offered of reprefenting to the duke of Buck

ingham how well Mr. Butler had deserved "of the royal family, by writing his inimita"ble Hudibras; and that it was a reproach "to the court that a perfon of his loyalty and "wit fhould fuffer in obfcurity, and under "the wants he did. The duke always feem"ed to hearken to him with attention enough;

and, after fome time, undertook to recom"mend his pretenfions to his majesty. Mr. Wycherley, in hopes to keep him steady to "his word, obtained of his grace to name a

day, when he might introduce that modeft "and unfortunate poet to his new patron. "At laft an appointment was made, and the

place of meeting was agreed to be the Roe

"buck.

"buck. Mr. Butler and his friend attended accordingly the duke joined them; but, as the d- would have it, the door of the room where they fat was open, and his grace, who had feated himfelf near it, obferving a pimp of his acquaintance (the "creature too was a knight) trip by with a "brace of ladies, immediately quitted his en

gagement, 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 difappointment 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 still profecuted his defign; and in 1678 publifhed the third part, which still leaves the poem imperfect and abrubt. 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 stop here, however unexpectedly. To write without reward is fufficiently unpleafing; and, if his birth be placed right by Mr. Longueville, he had now arrived at an age when he might well think it proper to be in jeft no longer.

He

He died in 1680; and Mr. Longueville, having unsuccessfully folicited a fubfcription for his interment in Weftminster Abbey, buried him at his own coft in the church-yard of Covent Garden. Dr. Simon Patrick read the fervice.

About fixty years afterwards, Mr. Barber, a printer, mayor of London, and a friend to Mr. Butler's principles, bestowed on him a monument in Westminster Abbey, thus infcribed:

M. S.

SAMUELIS BUTLER I, Qui Strenfamiæ in agro Vigorn. nat. 1612, obiit Lond. 1680.

Vir doctus imprimis, acer, integer; Operibus Ingenii, non item præmiis, fœlix: Satyrici apud nos Carminis Artifex egregius; Quo fimulatæ Religionis Larvam detraxit, Et Perduellium fcelera liberrime exagitavit : Scriptorum in fuo genere, Primus et Poftremus. Ne, cui vivo deerànt ferè omnia, Deeffet etiam mortuo Tumulus,

Hoc tandem pofito marmore, curavit JOHANNES BARBER, Civis Londinenfis, 1721. After his death were publifhed three small volumes of his pofthumous works: I know not by whom collected, or by what authoririty afcertained; and, lately, two volumes more have been printed by Mr. Thyer of Manchefter, indubitably genuine. From none of thefe pieces can his life be traced, or his character discovered. Some verses, in the last 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 moft zealous enemy of innovation must admit the gradual progrefs of experience, however he may oppofe hypothetical temerity.

In this mift of obfcurity paffed the life of Butler, a man whofe name can only perish with his language. The date of his birth is doubtful; the mode and place of his education are unknown; the events of his life are varioufly related; and all that can be told with certainty is, that he was poor.

THE poem of Hudibras is one of those compofitions of which a nation may justly boaft; as the images which it exhibits are domestick, the sentiments unborrowed and unexpected, and the strain of diction original and peculiar. We must not, however, fuffer the pride which we affume as the countrymen of Butler to make any encroachment upon justice, nor appropriate thofe honours which others have a right to fhare. The poem of Hudibras is not wholly English; the original idea is to be found in the history 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 understanding to his imagination, and familiarifed his mind by pertinacious meditation to think on incredible events and

fcenes

fcenes of impoffible existence, goes out in the pride of knighthood, to redreis wrongs, and defend virgins, to refcue captive princeffes, and tumble ufurpers from their thrones; attended by a squire, whofe cunning, too low for the fufpicion of a generous mind, enables him often to cheat his master.

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 reprefs fuperftition and correct abuses, accompanied by an Independant 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. fense 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 respect 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-knight-errant; he knew the notions and manners of a prefbyterian magistrate, and tried to unite the abfurdities of both, however diftant, in one perfonage. Thus he gives him that pedantick oftentation of know

ledge