Hudibras

Front matter

BY

SAMUEL BUTLER;

WITH VARIORUM NOTES, SELECTED PRINCIPALLY FROM GREY AND NASH.

Preface

PREFACE.

The edition of Hudibras now submitted to the public is intended to be more complete, though in a smaller compass, than any of its numerous predecessors. The text is that of Nash, usually accepted as the best; but in many instances—as in the very first line—the author's original readings have been preferred. In all cases the variations are shown in the foot notes, so that the reader may take his choice.

The main feature, however, of the present edition is its notes; these have been selected with considerable diligence and attention from every known source, and it is believed that no part of the text is left unexplained which was ever explained before. Grey has been the great storehouse of information, and next in degree Nash, but both have required careful sifting. Other editions, numerous as they are,—including Aikin's, the Aldine, and Gilfillan's,—have yielded nothing. Mr Bell's, which is by far the best, is edited on the same principle as the present, and had that gentleman retained the numbering of the lines, and given an Index, there would have been little left for any successor to improve.

A few of the notes in the present selection are, to a certain extent, original, arising from some historical and bibliographical knowledge of the times, or derived from a manuscript key, annexed to a copy of the first edition, and attributed to Butler himself.

The Biographical Sketch of our poet is a mere rifacimento of old materials, for nothing new is now to be discovered about him. Diligent researches have been made in the parish where he lived and died—Covent Garden—without eliciting any new fact, excepting that the monument erected to his memory has been destroyed.

This volume has been more than two years at press having dribbled through the editor's hands, not during his leisure hours or intervals of business, for he never had any, but by forced snatches from his legitimate pursuits. An old affection for Hudibras, acquired nearly half a century ago, at a time when its piquant couplets were still familiarly quoted, had long impressed him with the desire to publish a really popular edition;

Et l'on revient toujours A ses premières amours;

the public therefore now have the result.

It has happened, from the want of consecutive attention, that two or three notes are all but duplicate such as that on Wicked Bibles at pages 326 and 371 Mum and Mummery, 385 and 406; and, He that fights and runs away, at pages 403 and 106. But the publisher hopes that his readers will not quarrel with him for giving too much rather than too little.

Henry G. Bohn.

York Street, Covent Garden,

April 28th, 1859.

List of the Wood Cuts

LIST OF THE WOOD CUTS

IN BUTLER'S HUDIBRAS.

DESIGNED BY THURSTON.

VIGNETTE ON PRINTED TITLE,

engraved by Hughes.

Then did Sir Knight abandon dwelling, And out he rode a colonelling.— A Squire he had, whose name was Ralph, That in th' adventure went his half.

1. 13, 14, 457–8.

ENGRAVED TITLE. HEAD OF HUDIBRAS.

Thompson.

Thus was he gifted and accouter'd,— His tawny beard was th' equal grace Both of his wisdom and his face; In cut and dye so like a tile, A sudden view it would beguile.

1. 237—244.

HEAD PIECE, PART I. CANTO I.

White.

When Gospel-Trumpeter, surrounded With long-ear' d rout, to battle sounded, And pulpit, drum ecclesiastick, Was beat with fist, instead of a stick.

1. 9 — 12.

TAIL PIECE, PART I. CANTO I.

5he always chose To carry vittle in his hose. That often tempted rats and mice The ammunition to surprise.

1. 318 — 321.

HEAD PIECE, PART I. CANTO II.

Thompson.

And wing'd with speed and fury, flew To rescue Knight from black and blue. Which ere he could achieve, his sconce The leg encounter' d twice and once ; And now 'twas rais'd, to smite agen, When Ralpho thrust himself between.

1. 941—946

TAIL PIECE, PART I. CANTO II.

engraved by Branston.

Crowdero making doleful face, Like hermit poor in pensive place, To dungeon they the wretch commit, And the survivor of his feet.

1. 1167—1170.

HEAD PIECE, PART I. CANTO III.

Branston.

When setting ope the postern gate, To take the field and sally at, The foe appear'd, drawn up and drill'd, Ready to charge them in the field.

1. 443—446.

TAIL PIECE, PART I. CANTO III.

3in a cool shade. Which eglantine and roses made; Close by a softly murm'ring stream. Where lovers us'd to loll and dream: There leaving him to his repose.

1. 159—163.

HEAD PIECE, PART II. CANTO I.

Thompson.

3she went To find the Knight in limbo pent. And 'twas not long before she found Him, and his stout Squire, in the pound.

1. 99—102.

TAIL PIECE, PART II. CANTO I.

Branston.

a tall long-sided dame,— But wond'rous light—yeleped Fame,— Upon her shoulders wings she wears Like hanging sleeves, lin'd thro' with ears.

1. 45—50.

HEAD PIECE, PART II. CANTO II.

Branston.

With that he seiz'd upon his blade; And Ralpho too, as quick and bold, Upon his basket-hilt laid hold.

1. 560—562.

TAIL PIECE, PART IT. CANTO II.

Thompson.

2quitting both their swords and reins. They grasp'd with all their strength the manes; And, to avoid the foe's pursuit, With spurring put their cattle to't.

1. 839—842.

HEAD PIECE, PART II. CANTO III.,

engraved by Branston.

4Hudibras, to all appearing, Believ'd him to be dead as herring. He held it now no longer safe To tarry the return of Ralph, But rather leave him in the lurch.

1. 1147—1151

TAIL PIECE, PART II. CANTO III.

White.

This Sidrophel by chance espy'd, And with amazement staring wide: Bless us, quoth he, what dreadful wonder Is that appears in heaven yonder?

1. 423—426.

HEAD PIECE TO THE EPISTLE TO SIDROPHEL.

Byfield

Sidrophel perusing Hudibras' Epistle.

TAIL PIECE TO THE EPISTLE TO SIDROPHEL.

Byfield.

Gimcracks, whims, and jiggumbobs.

HEAD PIECE, PART III. CANTO I.

Thompson

He wonder'd how she came to know What he had done, and meant to do; Held up his affidavit hand, As if he 'ad been to be arraign'd.

1. 483—486.

TAIL PIECE, PART III. CANTO I.

Branston.

H' attack' d the window, storm'd the glass, And in a moment gain'd the pass; Thro' which he dragg'd the worsted soldier's Four-quarters out by th' head and shoulders.

1. 1577—1580.

HEAD PIECE, PAET III. CANTO II.

Thompson.

Knights, citizens, and burgesses— Held forth by rumps—of pigs and geese.— Each bonfire is a funeral pile, In which they roast, and scorch, and broil.

1. 1515—1520.

TAIL PIECE, PART III. CANTO II.

Thompson.

3crowded on with so much haste. Until they'd block'd the passage fast, And barricade'd it with haunches Of outward men, and bulks and paunches.

1. 1669—1672.

HEAD PIECE, PART III. CANTO III.,

engraved by Hughes.

To this brave man the Knight repairs For counsel in his law-affairs,— To whom the Knight, with comely grace. Put off his hat to put his case.

1. 621—628.

TAIL PIECE, PART III. CANTO III,

Byfield.

With books and money plac'd for show, Like nest-eggs to make clients lay.

1. 624, 625.

HEAD PIECE TO THE EPISTLE TO THE LADY.

Byfield.

3having pump'd up all his wit, And humm'd upon it, thus he writ.

1. 787, 788.

TAIL PIECE TO THE EPISTLE TO THE LADY.

Byfield.

What tender sigh, and trickling tear. Longs for a thousand pounds a year; And languishing transports are fond Of statute, mortgage, bill, and bond.

1. 85—88.

HEAD PIECE TO THE LADY'S ANSWER.

Thompson.

She open'd it, and read it out, With many a smile and leering flout.

1. 357, 358.

TAIL PIECE TO THE LADY'S ANSWER.

Branston.

We make the man of war strike sail. And to our braver conduct veil, And, when he's chas'd his enemies, Submit to us upon his knees.

1. 311—314.

VIGNETTE AT PAGE XXIV.

Thompson.

The dogs beat you at Brentford Fair; Where sturdy butchers broke your noddle,

Part II c. iii.

And handled you like a fop-doodle.

1. 996—998.

VIGNETTE AT PAGE 473.

4the foe beat up his quarters, And storm'd the outworks of his fortress;— Soon as they had him at their mercy.

Part III. c. i.

They put him to the cudgel fiercely.

1. 1135-36. 1147-48.

Additional Illustrations

ADDITIONAL ILLUSTRATIONS

TO BUTLER'S HUDIBRAS.

PORTRAITS OF CELEBRATED CHARACTERS, IMPOSTORS, AND ENTHUSIASTS.

1 | |Samuel Butler | To face Title

2 | |Butler's Tenement | To face Life, p. i

3 | |Portrait of Charles the Second | p. vi

4 | |Butler's Monument in Westminster Abbey | p. xiv

|PART | |CANTO | |LINE | |PAGE

5 | |Montaigne | I. | I. | 38 | 5

6 | |Tycho Brahe | I. | I. | 126 | 8

7 | |Oliver Cromwell | III. | II. | 216 | 19

8 | |Cornelius Agrippa | II. | III. | 635 | 25

9 | |Robert Fludd | I. | I. | 541 | 26

10 | |George Withers | I. | I. | 646 | 30

11 | |Richard Cromwell | III. | II. | 231 | 40

12 | |Alexander Ross | I. | II. | 2 | 42

13 | |Vincent le Blanc | I. | II. | 286 | 53

14 | |Mall Cutpurse | I. | II. | 368 | 56

15 | |Sir William Davenant | I. | II. | 395 | 58

16 | |Sir William Waller | I. | II. | 499 | 62

17 | |Thomas Case | I. | II. | 581 | 65

18 | |Adoniram Byfield | III. | II. | 640 | 66

19 | |William Prynne | I. | II. | 646 | 91

20 | |Henry Burton | I. | III. | 1122 | 122

21 | |Pope Joan | I. | III. | 1250 | 128

22 | |Bishop Warburton | I. | III. | 1358 | 132

23 | |Albertus Magnus | II. | I. | 438 | 152

24 | |Roger Bacon | II. | III. | 224 | 155

25 | |Charles the First | II. | II. | 160 | 160

26 | |Sir Kenelm Digby | I. | II. | 227 | 162

27 | |Thomas White | II. | II. | 14 | 172

28 | |Baptist Van Helmont | II. | II. | 14 | 172

29 | |Robert, Earl of Essex | II. | II. | 166 | 179

30 | |Bishop Bonner | II. | II. | 510 | 193

31 | |Dr Thomas Goodwin | II. | II. | 669 | 199

32 | |The Witch-Finder Hopkins | II. | III. | 140 | 215

33 | |Martin Luther | II. | III. | 155 | 216

34 | |Dr John Dee | II. | III. | 235 | 220

35 | |Edward Kelly | II. | III. | 237 | 227

36 | |Paracelsus | II. | III. | 299 | 224

37 | |St Dunstan | II. | III. | 618 | 236

38 | |Jacob Behmen | I. | I. | 542 | 238

39 | |Nicholas Copernicus | II. | III. | 882 | 249

40 | |Jerome Cardan | II. | III. | 895 | 250

41 | |Scaliger | II. | III. | 881 | 250

42 | |John Booker | II. | III. | 173 | 257

43 | |Napier of Merchiston | III. | II. | 409 | 258

44 | |William Lilly | II. | III. | 1093 | 282

45 | |Niccolo Machiavelli | III. | I. | 1313 | 314

46 | |John of Leyden | III. | II. | 246 | 336

47 | |General Fleetwood | III. | II. | 270 | 337

48 | |General Desborough | III. | II. | 270 | 338

49 | |General Lambert | III. | II. | 270 | 338

50 | |Earl of Shaftesbury | III. | II. | 351 | 342

51 | |John Lilburn | III. | II. | 421 | 344

52 | |Ignatius Loyola | III. | II. | 1564 | 351

53 | |Edmund Calamy | III. | II. | 636 | 353

54 | |Dr John Owen | III. | II. | 638 | 354

55 | |William Lenthall | III. | II. | 909 | 364

56 | |Sir Thomas Lunsford | III. | II. | 1112 | 372

57 | |Sir Thomas Fairfax | III. | II. | 1200 | 375

58 | |Alexander Henderson | III. | II. | 1239 | 377

59 | |Colonel Hewson | III. | II. | 1250 | 377

60 | |Christopher Love | III. | II. | 1263 | 378

61 | |John Cooke | III. | II. | 1550 | 387

62 | |Athanasius Kircher | III. | II. | 1585 | 388

63 | |Joan of Arc | Lady's Answer. | 285 | 448

The Life of Samuel Butler

I. Ross delint.—G.P. Wainwright sculptt.

BUTLER'S TENEMENT

Near Strensham, Worcestershire

THE LIFE

OF

SAMUEL BUTLER

The life of a retired scholar can furnish but little matter to the biographer: such was the character of Mr Samuel Butler, author of Hudibras. His father, whose name was likewise Samuel, had an estate of his own of about ten pounds yearly, which still goes by the name of Butler's tenement; he likewise rented lands at three hundred pounds a year under Sir William Eussel, lord of the manor of Strensham, in Worcestershire. He was a respectable farmer, wrote a clerk-like hand, kept the register, and managed all the business of the parish. From his landlord, near whose house he lived, the poet imbibed principles of loyalty, as Sir William was a most zealous royalist, and spent great part of his fortune in the cause, being the only person exempted from the benefit of the treaty, when Worcester surrendered to the parliament in the year 1646. Our poet's father was elected churchwarden of the parish the year before his son Samuel was born, and has entered his baptism, dated February 8th, 1612, with his own hand, in the parish register. He had four sons and three daughters, born at Strensham; the three daughters and one son older than our poet, and two sons younger: none of his descendants, however, remain in the parish, though some are said to be in the neighbouring villages.

Our author received his first rudiments of learning at home; but was afterwards sent to the college school at Worcester, then taught by Mr Henry Bright, prebendary of that cathedral, a celebrated scholar, and many years master of the King's school there; one who made his profession his delight, and, though in very easy circumstances, continued to teach for the sake of doing good.

How long Mr Butler continued under his care is not known, but, probably, till he was fourteen years old. There can be little doubt that his progress was rapid, for Aubrey tells us that "when but a boy he would make observations and reflections on everything one said or did, and censure it to be either well or ill;" and we are also informed in the Biography of 1710 (the basis of all information about him), that he "became an excellent scholar." Amongst his schoolfellows was Thomas Hall, well known as a controversial writer on the Puritan side, and master of the free-school at King's Norton, where he died; John Toy, afterwards an author, and master of the school at Worcester; William Rowland, who turned Romanist, and, having some talent for rhyming satire, wrote lampoons at Paris, under the title of Rolandus Palingenius; and Warmestry, afterwards Dean of Worcester.

Whether he was ever entered at any university is uncertain. His early biographer says he went to Cambridge, but was never matriculated: Wood, on the authority of Butler's brother, says, the poet spent six or seven years there; but there is great reason to doubt the truth of this. Some expressions in his works look as if he were acquainted with the customs of Oxford, and among them coursing, which was a term peculiar to that university (see Part iii. c. ii. v. 1244); but this kind of knowledge might have been easily acquired without going to Oxford; and as the speculation is entirely unsupported by circumstantial proofs, it may be safely rejected. Upon the whole, the probability is that Butler never went to either of the Universities. His father was not rich enough to defray the expenses of a collegiate course, and could not have effected it by any other means, there being at that time no exhibitions at the Worcester School.

Some time after Butler had completed his education, he obtained, through the interest of the Russels, the situation of clerk to Thomas Jefferies, of Earl's Croombe, Esq., an active justice of the peace, and a leading man in the business of the province. This was no mean office, but one that required a knowledge of law and the British constitution, and a proper deportment to men of every rank and occupation; besides, in those times, when large mansions were generally in retired situations, every large family was a community within itself: the upper servants, or retainers, being often the younger sons of gentlemen, were treated as friends, and the whole household dined in one common hall, and had a lecturer or clerk, who, during meal-times, read to them some useful or entertaining book.

Mr Jefferies' family was of this sort, situated in a retired part of the country, surrounded by bad roads, the master of it residing constantly in Worcestershire. Here Mr Butler, having leisure to indulge his inclination for learning, probably improved himself very much, not only in the abstruser branches of it, but in the polite arts: and here he studied painting. "Our Hogarth of Poetry," says Walpole, "was a painter too;" and, according to Aubrey, his love of the pencil introduced him to the friendship of that prince of painters, Samuel Cooper. But his proficiency seems to have been but moderate, for Mr Nash tells us that he recollects "seeing at Earl's Croombe, some portraits said to be painted by him, which did him no great honour as an artist, and were consequently used to stop up windows." He heard also of a portrait of Oliver Cromwell, said to be painted by him.

After continuing some time at Earl's Croombe, how long is not exactly known, he quitted it for a more agreeable situation in the household of Elizabeth Countess of Kent, who lived at Wrest, in Bedfordshire. He seems to have been attached to her service, as one of her gentlemen, to whom she is said to have paid £20 a year each. The time when he entered upon this situation, which Aubrey says he held for several years, may be determined with some degree of accuracy by the fact that he found Selden there, and was frequently engaged by him in writing letters and making translations. It was in June, 1628, after the prorogation of the third parliament of Charles I., that Selden, who sat in the House of Commons for Lancaster, retired to Wrest for the purpose of completing, with the advantages of quiet and an extensive library, his labours on the Marmora Arundelliana; and we may presume that it was during the interval of the parliamentary recess, while Selden was thus occupied, that Butler, then in his seventeenth year, entered her service. Here he enjoyed a literary retreat during great part of the civil wars, and here probably laid the groundwork of his Hudibras, as, besides the society of that living library, Selden, he had the benefit of a good collection of books. He lived subsequently in the service of Sir Samuel Luke, of Cople Hoo farm, or Wood End, in that county, and his biographers are generally of opinion that from him he drew the character of Hudibras: but there is no actual evidence of this, and such a prototype was not rare in those times. Sir Samuel Luke lived at Wood End, or Cople Hoo farm. Cople is three miles south of Bedford, and in its church are still to be seen many monuments of the Luke family, who flourished in that part of the country as early as the reign of Henry VIII. He was knighted in 1624, was a rigid Presbyterian, high in the favour of Cromwell: a colonel in the army of the parliament, a justice of the peace for Bedford and Surrey, scoutmaster-general for Bedfordshire, which he represented in the Long Parliament, and governor of Newport Pagnell. He possessed ample estates in Bedfordshire and Northamptonshire, and devoted his fortune to the promotion of the popular cause. His house was the open resort of the Puritans, whose frequent meetings for the purposes of counsel, prayer, and preparation for the field, afforded Butler an opportunity of observing, under all their phases of inspiration and action, the characters of the men whose influence was working a revolution in the country. But Sir Samuel did not approve of the king's trial and execution, and therefore, with other Presbyterians, both he and his father, Sir Oliver, were among the secluded members. It has been generally supposed that the scenes Butler witnessed on these occasions suggested to him the subject of his great poem. That it was at this period he threw into shape some of the striking points of Hudibras, is extremely probable. He kept a commonplace book, in which he was in the habit of noting down particular thoughts and fugitive criticisms; and Mr Thyer, the editor of his Remains, who had this book in his possession, says that it was full of shrewd remarks, paradoxes, and witty sarcasms.

The first part of Hudibras came out at the end of the year 1662, and its popularity was so great, that it was pirated almost as soon as it appeared. In the Mercurius Aulicus,

a ministerial newspaper, from January 1st to January 8th, 1662 (1663 N.S.), quarto, is an advertisement saying, that "there is stolen abroad a most false and imperfect copy of a poem called Hudibras, without name either of printer or bookseller; the true and perfect edition, printed by the author's original, is sold by Richard Marriot, near St Dunstan's Church, in Fleet-street; that other nameless impression is a cheat, and will but abuse the buyer, as well as the author, whose poem deserves to have fallen into better hands." After several other editions had followed, the first and second parts, with notes to both parts, were printed for J. Martin and H. Herringham, octavo, 1674. The last edition of the third part, before the author's death, was published by the same persons in 1678: this must be the last corrected by himself, and is that from which subsequent editions are generally printed; the third part had no notes put to it during the author's life, and who furnished them (in 1710) after his death is not known.

In the British Museum is the original injunction by authority, signed John Berkenhead, forbidding any printer or other person whatsoever, to print Hudibras, or any part thereof, without the consent or approbation of Samuel Butler (or Boteler), Esq. or his assignees, given at Whitehall, 10th September, 1677: copy of this injunction is given in the note.

The reception of Hudibras at Court is probably without a parallel in the history of books. The king was so enchanted with it that he carried it about in his pocket, and perpetually garnished his conversation with specimens of its witty passages, which, thus stamped by royal approbation, passed rapidly into general currency. Nor was his Majesty

R. Cooper sculpt.

Charles the Second.

From an original picture in the collection of the Duchess of Dorset at Knowle

content with merely quoting Butler; in an access of enthusiasm he sent for him, that he might gratify his curiosity by the sight of a poet who had contributed so largely to his amusement. The Lord Chancellor Hyde showered promises of patronage upon him, and hung up his portrait in his library. Every person about the Court considered it his duty to make himself familiar with Hudibras. It was minted into proverbs and bon mots. No book was so much read. No book was so much cited. From the palace it found its way at once into the chocolate-houses and taverns; and attained a rapid popularity all over the kingdom.

Lord Dorset was so much struck by its extraordinary merit that he desired to be introduced to the author. "His lordship," according to this curious anecdote, "having a great desire to spend an evening as a private gentleman with the author of Hudibras, prevailed with Mr Fleetwood Shepherd to introduce him into his company at a tavern which they used, in the character only of a common friend; this being done, Mr Butler, while the first bottle was drinking, appeared very flat and heavy; at the second bottle brisk and lively, full of wit and learning, and a most agreeable companion; but before the third bottle was finished, he sunk again into such deep stupidity and dulness, that hardly anybody would have believed him to be the author of a book which abounded with so much wit, learning, and pleasantry. Next morning, Mr Shepherd asked his lordship's opinion of Butler, who answered, 'He is like a nine-pin, little at both ends, but great in the middle.

Pepys gives us a curious illustration of the sudden and extraordinary success of Hudibras, and the excitement it occasioned in the reading world. See Memoirs, (Bohn's edit.) vol. i. p. 364, 380; vol. ii. p. 68, 72.

It was natural to suppose, that after the Restoration, and the publication of his Hudibras, our poet should have appeared in public life, and have been rewarded for the eminent service which his poem, by giving new popularity to the Cavalier party, and covering their enemies with derision and contempt, did to the royal cause. "Every eye," says Dr Johnson, "watched for the golden shower which was to fall upon its author, who certainly was not without his part in the general expectation." But his innate modesty, and studious turn of mind, prevented solicitations: never having tasted the idle luxuries of life, he did not make for himself needless wants, or pine after imaginary pleasures: his fortune, indeed, was small, and so was his ambition; his integrity of life, and modest temper, rendered him contented. There is good authority for believing, however, that at one time he was gratified with an order on the treasury for 300l. which is said to have passed all the offices without payment of fees, and this gave him an opportunity of displaying his disinterested integrity, by conveying the entire sum immediately to a friend, in trust for the use of his creditors. Dr Zachary Pearce, on the authority of Mr Lowndes of the treasury, asserts, that Mr Butler received from Charles the Second an annual pension of 100l.; add to this, he was appointed secretary to the Earl of Carberry, then lord president of the principality of Wales, and soon after steward of Ludlow castle, an office which he seems to have held in 1661 and 1662, but possibly earlier and later. With all this, the Court was thought to have been guilty of a glaring neglect in his case, and the public were scandalized at its ingratitude. The indigent poets, who have always claimed a prescriptive right to live on the munificence of their contemporaries, were the loudest in their remonstrances. Dryden, Oldham, and Otway, while in appearance they complained of the unrewarded merits of our author, obliquely lamented their private and particular grievances. Nash says that Mr Butler's own sense of the disappointment, and the impression it made on his spirits, are sufficiently marked by the circumstance of his having twice transcribed the following distich with some variation in his MS. common-place book:

To think how Spenser died, how Cowley mourn'd, How Butler's faith and service were return'd.

In the same MS. he says, "Wit is very chargeable, and not to be maintained in its necessary expenses at an ordinary rate: it is the worst trade in the world to live upon, and a commodity that no man thinks he has need of, for those who have least believe they have most."

—— Ingenuity and wit Do only make the owners fit For nothing, but to be undone Much easier than if th' had none.

But a recent biographer controverts this, and takes a more probable view of it: he says, "The assumption of Butler's poverty appears utterly unfounded. Though not wealthy, he seems, as far as we can judge, to have always lived in comfort, and we know from the statement of Mr Longueville that he died out of debt. Butler was not one of those

Who hoped to make their fortune by the great;

and though no doubt he might have felt he had not been rewarded according to his deserts by his party, he was not entirely neglected. He had received a large share of popular applause, and was probably prouder of that, and of the power of castigating the follies and vices of mankind, even when displayed by those of his own party, than of being a more highly pensioned dependant of a Court that his writings show he despised. He was no 'needy wretch' in want of bread or a dinner; his earliest biographer gives no hint of his distress; he enjoyed friends of his own selection, and the injunction designates him as 'esquire,' a title not altogether so indiscriminately applied as at the present time. The only foundation for the assertion of his poverty consists in his having copied twice, in his common-place book, a distich from the prologue to the tragedy of Constantine the Great, said to have been written by Otway, though it was not acted till 1684, four years after Butler's death. It is supposed he might have seen the MS., or perhaps only heard the thought, as his copies vary from each other and from the lines as they ultimately appeared. It was, however, long the fashion to complain of the scanty reward bestowed ou literary pursuits; yet we are inclined to think, though authors had then a less certain support in the patronage of a few than now when they appeal to a numerous public, that the improvidence of the individual was more to blame than the niggardliness of the patrons, and of this improvidence there does not appear to be the slightest ground for accusing Butler."