Granger was informed by Dr. Pearce, who named for his authority Mr. Lowndes of the Treasury, that Butler had an yearly penfion of an hundred pounds. This is contradicted by all tradition, by the com-. plaints of Oldham, and by the reproaches of Dryden; and I am afraid will never be confirmed. About fixty years afterwards, Mr. Barber, a printer, Mayor of London, and a friend to Butler's principles, beftowed on him a monument in Weftminfter Abbey, thus infcribed: M. S. SAMUELIS BUTLERI, Qui Strenfhamia in agro Vigorn. nat. 1612, Vir doctus imprimis, acer, integer; Deeffet etiam mortuo Tumulus, After his death were published three fmall volumes of his pofthumous works: I know not by whom collected, or by what authority afcertained *; and, lately, two volumes more have been printed by Mr. fome years in Rofe-ftreet, Covent-Garden, and alfo that he died there; the latter of thefe particulars is rendered highly probable, by his being interred in the cemetery of that parish. H. * They were collected into one, and publifhed in 12mo. 1732. H. Thyer Thyer of Manchester, indubitably genuine. From none of these pieces can his life be traced, or his character difcovered. Some verses, in the laft 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 mist of obfcurity paffed the life of Butler, a man whofe name can only perifh with his language. The mode and place of his education are unknown; the events of his life are variously related; and all that can be told with certainty is, that he was poor. THE poem of Hudibras is one of thofe compofitions of which a nation may juftly boaft; as the images which it exhibits are domeftick, the fentiments unborrowed and unexpected, and the ftrain of diction original and peculiar. We muft not, however, fuffer the pride, which we affume as the countrymen of Butler, to make any encroachment upon juftice, nor appropriate those 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 hiftory of Don Quixote; a book to which a mind of the greatest powers may be indebted without disgrace. Cervantes fhews a man, who having, by the inceffant perufal of incredible tales, fubjected his underftanding ftanding to his imagination, and familiarifed his mind by pertinacious meditation to trains of incredible events, and fcenes of impoffible existence; goes out in the pride of knighthood to redrefs wrongs, and defend virgins, to refcue captive princeffes, and tumble ufurpers from their thrones; attended by a fquire, whofe cunning, too low for the fufpicion of a generous mind, enables him often to cheat his mafter. 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 Independent 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 fenfe 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 should 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 knights-errant ; he knew the notions and manners of a Prefbyterian magiftrate, and tried to unite the abfurdities of both, however however distant, in one perfonage. Thus he gives him that pedantic oftentation of knowledge which has no relation to chivalry, and loads him with martial encumbrances that can add nothing to his civil dignity. He fends him out a colonelling, and yet never brings him within fight of war. If Hudibras be confidered as the reprefentative of the Prefbyterians, it is not easy to say why his weapons should be represented as ridiculous or useless; for, whatever judgement might be passed upon their knowledge or their arguments, experience had fufficiently fhewn that their fwords were not to be defpifed. The hero, thus compounded of swaggerer and pedant, of knight and juftice, is led forth to action, with his fquire Ralpho, an Independent Enthusiast. Of the contexture of events planned by the author, which is called the action of the poem, fince it is left imperfect, no judgement can be made. It is probable, that the hero was to be led through many luckless adventures, which would give occafion, like his attack, upon the bear and fiddle, to expofe the ridiculous rigour of the fectaries; like his encounter with Sidrophel and Whacum, to make fuperftition and credulity contemptible; or, like his recourfe to the low retailer of the law, difcover the fraudulent practices of different profeffions. What feries of events he would have formed, or in what manner he would have rewarded or punished his hero, it is now vain to conjecture. His work muft have had, as it feems, the defect which Dryden imputes to Spenfer; the action could not have been one; there could only have been a fuccef fion of incidents, each of which might have happened without the reft, and which could not all co-operate to any fingle conclufion. The difcontinuity of the action might however have been eafily forgiven, if there had been action enough but I believe every reader regrets the paucity of events, and complains that in the poem of Hudibras, as in the hiftory of Thucydides, there is more faid than done. The fcenes are too feldom changed, and the attention is tired with long converfation. It is indeed much more eafy to form dialogues than to contrive adventures. Every pofition makes way for an argument, and every objection dictates an anfwer. When two difputants are engaged upon a complicated and extenfive question, the difficulty is not to continue, but to end the controverfy. But whether it be that we comprehend but few of the poffibilities of life, or that life itfelf affords little variety, every man who has tried knows how much labour it will coft to form fuch a combination of circumftances as fhall have at once the grace of novelty and credibility, and delight fancy without violence to reafon. Perhaps the Dialogue of this poem is not perfect. Some power of engaging the attention might have been added to it by quicker reciprocation, by feasonable interruptions, by fudden queftions, and by a nearer approach to dramatic fpritelinefs; without which, fictitious fpeeches will always tire, however fparkling with fentences, and however variegated with allufions. |