No More Learning

There does not seem to have been any indisposition
on the part of the new court to show goodwill to him as a play-
wright; but, in commanding The Spanish Fryar to be performed
on one of her first appearances in public, queen Mary chose more
fortunately for him than for herself. Meanwhile, the connection
between the publisher Jacob Tonson and Dryden was productive of
much literary work, though, when there was a pecuniary pressure
upon Dryden, the relations between them frequently tried his
patience and, at times, roused him to wrath? Besides the trans-
lations from classical poets already mentioned as included in the
earliest volumes of the Miscellany, Dryden, with the assistance of
his two elder sons, brought out, in 1693, a complete translation
of Juvenal and Persius, prefaced by one of the most delightful of
his essays. In its earlier portions, A Discourse concerning the
Original and Progress of Satire may, after the manner of such
prolegomena, have been put together so as to suit the amount of
information to the appetite of the reader; but the comparison
between the three Roman satirists contains some admirable
criticism, and the easy and graceful style is enjoyable from be-
ginning to end. The essay prefixed to Dryden's translation (1695)
of Du Fresnoy's Parallel of Poetry and Painting (the French
prose version printed by the author with his original Latin poem
De Arte Graphica) is, perhaps, more obviously written to order.
It contains an elaboration of the theory that the true imitation of
nature consists of the pursuit of the ideal in art-a view on which
Dryden had insisted in his early disquisitions on dramatic poetry? ,
but which, though it might have commended itself to Goethe, has
until recently been regarded as out of date.
1 Witness the triplet ander Jacob's portrait, perhaps the ugliest of all Dryden's
. word-pictures. '
? This is clearly put by Ker, introduction to Essays, vol. 1, pp. lxviii-ix.
E. L. VIII. CH. I.
4
2


## p. 50 (#72) ##############################################

50
Dryden
In the third and fourth Miscellanies (1693 and 1694) appeared
Dryden's version of book I, and of certain other portions, of the
Metamorphoses, with the parting of Hector and Andromache out of
the Iliad as well as a translation of the third Georgic? . In 1694,
the idea of a translation of the whole of Vergil seems to have
suggested itself to Dryden ; and the completed work was brought
out by subscription in 16972. The enterprise and its success made
much talk in the world of letters, and, from still remote Hanover,
Leibniz commented on the prize of £1000-Pope was told that it
was £1200-which had fallen to the fortunate 'Mr Dryden's' lot.
But, though Dryden, without pushing his interests unduly, was not
forgetful of them, he did himself honour by steadily refusing to
dedicate his magnum opus to the king, to whom he had declined
to swear allegiances. The actual dedication of the Aeneis to
Normanby (Mulgrave) is one of Dryden's longest, but not one of
his most interesting, efforts of the sort'.
The longlived favour shown by the English reading public to
translations from the classics was largely due to the fact that the
intellectual education of boys belonging to the higher classes was
still largely carried on by exercising them in translation from the
classics into English prose or verse; Dryden himself, it will be
remembered, had been trained in this way at Westminster. This
practice must have encouraged freedom of rendering as well as
elegance of composition in translation; and Dryden, possessed of
a genius singularly open to suggestion and facile in execution, was
of all translators most certain to excel in the art thus conceived.
From the point of view of exact scholarship, nothing can be said in
favour of a method which does not show any reverence for the
text, and very little for the style, of the original author. But
Dryden's contemporaries were perfectly willing that the glorious
rush of his poetic style should dominate the Vergil of the Georgics
and the Vergil of the Aeneid alike, as it had the Roman satirists
before them; and the breadth and boldness of some of the finest
Vergilian passages lent themselves readily to reproduction by the
* In the Miscellany of 1694 also appeared the epistle To Sir Godfrey Kneller,
a painter to whom Dryden must have been attracted by his success in seizing the
distinctive features of a quite extraordinary number of sitters. The reference to the
*Chandos' portrait of Shakespeare, of which Kneller had sent Dryden & copy, is
commonplace in thought.
See Appendix to second impression.
8 He had been pressed to dedicate the work to the king by his publisher, who
caused the engraved representation of pius Aeneas to be provided for the purpose with
a hooked nose, still visible in certain of the extant copies.
* It contains, however, some valuable observations on metrical form; and it is in
this essay that Dryden speaks of having ‘long had by me the materials of an English
Prosodia' (Essays, ed. Ker, vol. II, p. 217).


## p. 51 (#73) ##############################################

Fables Ancient and Modern
51
English poet, although others remained, whose majesty and depth
of sentiment he could not infuse into his couplets -.
The freedom which Dryden had assumed as a translator of the
Roman poets he carried a step further in the reproductions of
Chaucer and of Chaucer's frequent source, Boccaccio, which were
not published till two months (or rather less) before his death.
They were accompanied by versions of the first book of the Iliad
and of certain parts of the Metamorphoses, and some original
poems; and the whole volume, with a preface dated 1699, has the
curious title Fables, Ancient and Modern. Dryden earned the
gratitude of all lovers of English literature, when, near the close of
his brilliant career, and after recurring to the classical exemplars
of his youth, he turned to our old English poet,' Chaucer. He de-
scribes himself in the preface as having been moved by the thought
that there was much in Chaucer (it was certainly not the noblest or
the raciest elements in his genius) in which he resembled Ovida.
But he also observes that, of the great English poets who had found
no immediate successor in their insight into the poetic genius of our
language, the catena Milton-Spenser-Chaucer was closely linked,
and that, in going back to Chaucer, he went back to one whom he
accounted the first great writer in English poetical literature. For
the sake of the spirit of this tribute, worthy alike of him who paid
and of him who received it, Dryden may readily be forgiven some
of the blemishes (if they be justly deemed such) in the execution of
his task. In a few instances (far fewer than are to be found in
the earlier translations), effects are heightened which there was
no reason for heightening, and turns of phrase are introduced
incompatible not so much with the dignity as with the natural
simplicity of thought (naïvete) characteristic of all that Chaucer
wrote. (Curiously enough, this criticism, if just, is not appli-
cable to the tales from Boccaccio, who was anything but naïf. )
It has been cleverly said that Dryden 'scrubbed up' Chaucer-
a process which suits fine old plate, but not the total effect of a
beautiful old house. The amplifications which Dryden openly
1 The attack upon Dryden of Luke Milbourne (1698) was, probably, the result
of jealousy, as he had issued a version of book 1 of the Aeneid, said to be now lost.
His Notes, for which he paid dear, contain some other specimens of his translations
from Vergil.
Essays, ed. Ker, vol. 11, p. 247 ; see, however, pp. 254 ff.
• Of this, Dryden was perfectly aware ; nor could the case against his own method
be better stated than it is by him (preface to Fables in Essays, ed. Ker, vol. 11, p. 266)
on behalf of the earl of Leicester, 'who valued Chaucer as much as Mr Cowley despised
him. ' (So, in his turn, Mr Pope enquired “Who now reads Cowley,' though con-
descending to own a tendre for the language of his heart. ")
2
4-2


## p. 52 (#74) ##############################################

52
Dryden
permitted himself it would be begging the question to condemn as
such; on the other hand, they are not necessarily to be regarded
as additional beauties. The most extraordinary, as it is the most
extensive, addition is the tag to the version of the exquisite
'Character of a Good Parson,' which seems to have been made
with the twofold purpose of proving him a nonjuror, and of pointing
out that he was the reverse of a type of parsons and priests in
general'. The prose Preface to the Fables is one of the most
delightful and one of the most unconstrained of all Dryden's prose
pieces; nor can it be doubted to whose example the fascination
which this essay has exercised upon many generations of readers
must, in part, be ascribed. "The nature of a preface'-he might
have said, the nature of half the prose writing that commends
itself to that large proportion of the public that are not students,
and, at times, to some who are—is rambling; never wholly out of
the way, nor in it. This I have learnt from the practice of honest
Montaigne,' whose influence, indeed, is progressively perceptible
in Dryden's later prose writings, though it was nowhere emphasised
by too close an imitation? For, in truth, there are features in
Montaigne-his quaintness, for example, and his playfulness-
which are foreign alike to Dryden's directness of manner and to
his reserved disposition. In referring, as he does in different parts
of this Preface, to the accusation of 'loose writing' brought against
him by Blackmores and Collier, he cannot be said to plead with
much success, unless it be in mitigation of the offence charged
against him; but he makes amends, not only by the modesty of
his defence, but, also, by the practice into which he puts his regrets.
The selection of 'Fables' from Chaucer, and, still more so, from
Boccaccio, would have been of a different kind had Dryden desired
'more to please than to instruct'-in other words, had the last
fruit from an old tree been designed, like some of its earlier
produce, to tickle palates pleased only by over-seasoned cates.
The last period of Dryden's literary labours had also witnessed
his final endeavours in lyrical verse-a species of poetry in which
1
In deference to his virtues I forbear
To shew you what the rest in orders were.
* See, on this subject, post, chap. XVII.
3 Dryden's quarrel with Sir Richard Blackmore seems to have arisen, not (as
Johnson thought) out of the City Knight or Knight Physician's' virtuous preface
to his King Arthur (1695), but, rather, from the reflection, in his Satyr on Wit (1699),
on Dryden for the "lewd alloy' in his writings. The retorts on Blackmore and
Collier in the prologue and epilogue to The Pilgrim have been already noticed.
(ante, p. 82).


## p. 53 (#75) ##############################################

Odes, Songs and Hymns 53
he achieved a more varied excellence than is always placed to his
credit. The Song for St Cecilia's Day, designed for performance
on that festival in 1687 by a recently founded musical society in
London, must have been written within a year after the beautiful ode
To the Pious Memory of Mrs Anne Killigrew already mentioned.
Though, of course, devoid of any personal note, and so short as to
be of the nature of a chorale rather than a cantata, it solves its
technical problem with notable skill, and the commanding power
of the opening, upon which the close solemnly returns, is irre-
sistible'. Yet neither in this ode nor in its more famous successor,
Alexander's Feast; or, The Power of Musique, written for the
same festival in 1697, has Dryden escaped the danger inseparable
from arbitrary variety of length of line and choice of rhythm.
In a lyric on a solemn, and, to all intents, religious, theme for
music was drawn down from heaven by the inspired saint-any
approach to an ignoble or lilting movement jars upon ear and
sentiment; and this is not wholly avoided in Alexander's Feast,
while, in the earlier ode, it occurs, so to speak, at the height of the
argument. The example which both these odes attempted to set,
of making sound an echo to the sense,' was not one to be easily
followed; nor can they be themselves regarded as more than
brilliant efforts to satisfy the illdefined conditions of an artificial
form of lyrical verse.
Dryden's lyrical endowment shows itself without ostentation in
the songs scattered through his plays. These products of an age
distinguished by a very strong and carefully cultivated sense of
music often possess considerable charm, even when divorced from
their natural complement, and seem, as it were, to demand to be
sung? But, for the most part, they are wanton in thought, and,
at times, gross in expression, and there were probably few of his
productions for which their author would have been more ready
to cry peccavi.
His contributions to a directly opposite class of lyrics—
hymnody—were long supposed to have been extremely few; and
the question whether their number admits of being very much
enlarged may be said to be still awaiting final judgment. The
only hymn known to have been published by Dryden himself or in
his lifetime is the well known 'paraphrase,' as it calls itself, of the
6
· Granville (Lord Lansdowne) directly imitated it in The British Enchanters,
act 1, so. 1 (1706).
2 Of this sort are the songs in An Evening's Love, The Indian Emperor, The
Conquest of Granada (Part I), Cleomenes, etc.


## p. 54 (#76) ##############################################

54
Dryden
Veni Creator Spiritus, and is a composition of simple, and even
severe, dignity. Together with this hymn, Scott, on evidence
which, so far as it is known, cannot be held conclusive, admitted
into his edition of Dryden two others—one, a translation of
Te Deum, the other (erroneously called by Scott St John's Eve)
a translation, in an unusual metre, of the hymn at evensong on
St John's day, which forms part of a sequence. It has now been
discovered that these three pieces are included in a collection of
120 hymns printed in a book of Catholic devotions dated 1706;
and internal evidence of metre and diction, coupled with the (late)
tradition that Dryden wrote a number of hymns by way of
absolving a penance imposed on him, has been held to warrant
the conclusion that he was the author of all. Saintsbury can
hardly be mistaken in the view that, if St John's Eve be Dryden's,
other hymns with which this is connected are, likewise, by his
hand; and a number of these hymns reprinted by Orby Shipley
certainly exhibit, together with many Drydenisms of manner and
diction, the freedom which Dryden always exercised as a trans-
lator, together with an abundance of movement, though relatively
little soaring. If they be Dryden's, they offer a further proof of
the versatility of his lyric gifts; but they do not suffice to give him
a place among great English writers of hymns? .
Thus, in labours manifold and not without a disquietude of
spirit from which the decline of life is rarely exempt, Dryden's
days and his literary career drew nearer and nearer to their close.
Advancing years, and, perhaps, other influences which it is difficult
or impossible to estimate, had rendered him less consistently ob-
servant of the general habit of his youth and manhood to allow his
censors and adversaries to abuse and revile him as they chose,
without returning libel for libel, or lampoon for lampoon. If he
could afford to contemn Milbourne, he turned upon Blackmore with
almost savage energy, and attempted a tu quoque of very doubtful
force against Jeremy Collier, in words which were not to be spoken
in public till after he had himself passed away? It is more pleasing
to remember that, in his declining years, he had not abandoned
1 The discovery that the three hymns accepted by Scott are included in The Primer
or Office of the Blessed Virgin Mary was made independently by Orby Shipley and
W. T. Burke. Twenty-three of the hymns in this Primer were reprinted by the former
in Annus Sanctus (London and New York, 1884). See, for a review of the whole case,
Dryden as a Hymnodist by the same writer (reprinted from the Dublin Review, 1884),
and, for several of the hymns, and critical summary, appendix B. 1 in Saintsbury's
edition of Scott's Dryden, vol. IVII; and cf. Julian, J. , A Dictionary of Hymnology
(1892), art. Dryden.
· Prologue and epilogue to Fletcher's Pilgrim


## p. 55 (#77) ##############################################

His Death. His Great Literary Qualities 55
his generous usage of encouraging the efforts of other writers-
especially of younger men such as Southern? and Congreve and
GranvilleIndeed, to each of the latter pair, at different dates,
obeying a generous impulse that could not help repeating itself, he
bequeathed the laurels of which the world of letters knew him to
be the rightful wearer. He died, after a short illness, on 1 May
1700, and, with due solemnity (though contemporary scandal
sought to distort the facts) was, less than a fortnight afterwards,
buried in Westminster abbey, in the grave of Chaucer. Twenty
years later, by the tardy munificence of the duke of Buckingham-
shire (who did not live to see it erected) a plain monument with
an equally simple inscription was raised over his remains.
Dryden's great literary achievements and his great literary
qualities were not, and could not be, ignored by his own age,
nor have the generations which succeeded been willing or able
to belittle them. More than any of his contemporaries, he is
entitled to be called the father of modern English prose; while,
as to English verse, the next generation might refine and, in some
respects, improve upon its model, but this model could be no other
than "Timotheus' himself. Congreve, to whom, in his latter years,
Dryden confidently looked to continue his literary influence, said
of him that he was equally excellent in verse and in prose, and it
would be difficult to dispute the truth of the saying. His verse
exhibits his chosen metrical instrument, the heroic couplet, in the
fulness of its strength; but, when he returned to blank verse, as a
dramatist, he used it with notable effect; and it has been seen how
varied was his command over lyric measures, from that of the
'Pindaric' ode to those suited to the subtle madrigal or simple
hymn. The metrical qualities of his verse will be discussed
elsewhere* ; but its one pre-eminent quality, the infinitely varied
and always rightly judged distribution of movement in the line or
couplet or stanza, can hardly be termed a metrical quality only. It
depends largely on sureness of tact, rapidity of insight and absolute
self-confidence in the rejection of all means not leading directly
to their end. Whether extreme passion or profound emotion-
whether love, hatred, anger, contempt, exultant joy or poignant
grief-calls for expression within the limits of the line or couplet,
immediate room, precise place, exact emphasis is found for each
1 To Mr Southern, on his Comedy called 'The Wives' Excuse' (1692).
? To my dear Friend Mr Congreve, on his Comedy called “The Double Dealer'
(1693).
3 To Mr Granville, on his excellent Tragedy, called 'Heroick Love' (1698).
* See post, chap. IX.
6


## p. 56 (#78) ##############################################

56
Dryden
6
word or clause. And the economy is not less striking than the
abundance in this feast of words. There was, in the days of
Cowley, 'plenty enough, but the dishes were ill-sorted"? ; Dryden
knew how to forego, instead of sweeping in. The poetic instrument
remains wholly in the service of the player's hand; and, on each
occasion, it seems to give forth in perfection the music which that
occasion demands.
Dryden's prose combines with an unprecedented ease of flow,
and a forcible directness common to all he wrote, a lucidity of
arrangement and a delicacy of nuance alike largely due to French
example—nor can we err in regarding Corneille as having largely
influenced the style of his earlier, and Montaigne that of his later,
prose writings. The debt of later English prose to Dryden is
inestimable; we have it on Malone's personal testimony that the
style of Burke was 'originally in some measure founded on that
of Dryden,' on which he had 'often heard Burke expatiate with
great admiration' and whom, as Malone thought, Burke resembled
more nearly than he did any other great English writer?
Of Dryden's contributions to a large variety of literary species,
all of which he, in one way or another advanced in their development,
it is unnecessary here to say more. His plays, taken as a whole,
form the most notable chapter in English dramatic literature after
the doors of the theatres had been once more flung open at the
restoration. In his non-dramatic verse, he left scarcely any kind
of poetry unattempted except the epic proper-in which, had his
heart's wish been fulfilled, he would have challenged comparison
with the great poet who had survived into a 'later age,' and to
whom no political or religious differences ever prevented Dryden
from paying an unstinted tribute of admiration. But he essayed,
with marked success, a less adventurous flight in narrative poetry,
and, in didactic, he created what may be termed a new form of its
satirical division-political satire (with a literary subsection) in
verse, in which, by means of his incomparable gallery of characters,
he excelled all that sought to rival him on his own ground. His
didactic poems proper are among the most successful attempts
ever made to carry on the arguments of the schools in polished
metrical form; but it is to their satirical element as much as to
their lucidity that they owe their general freedom from tedious-
His shorter didactic and satirical pieces-largely taking the
shape of prologues and epilogues—often partake, after their kind,
1 Preface to the Fables (Essays, ed. Ker, vol. II, p. 258).
? Malone, u. 8. vol. I, part 1, advt. p. vii.
ness.


## p. 57 (#79) ##############################################

Character of his Greatness 57
of the vis vivida of his longer satires. His lyrics, in their varied
excellence, complete the roll of his poetic achievements.
And yet, although the epithet 'glorious,' which for a long time
has been attached to Dryden's name, seems appropriate to the
powers and the products of his genius, and though time cannot
change the estimate which that epithet implies, there can be little
doubt what restriction should be placed upon the tribute due to him
as a great writer and a great poet. His originality was essentially
originality of treatment. Partly, perhaps, because his temperament
was slow and reserved, and because his mind seems never to have
been thoroughly at work till he had his pen in his hand, his genius
was that which he describes. as 'the genius of our countrymen. . .
rather to improve an invention than to invent themselves. ' And his
poetry-unless in isolated places where the feelings of the individual
man burst the bonds: the feeling of shame in the ode To Anne
Killigrew; the feeling of melancholy, mingled with a generous
altruism, in the lines to Congreve; the feeling of noble scorn for
what is base and mean in some of his satire; the feeling of the
sweetness of life and youth in a few of his lyrics—touches few
sympathetic chords in the heart. Nor does it carry the reader
out of himself and beyond himself into the regions where soul
speaks to soul. How could it have done so ? This was not his
conception of his art, or of the practice of it.
The same parts and application which have made me a poet might have
raised me to any honours of the gown, which are often given to men of as
little learning and less honesty than myself? .
Yet, even so, it were unjust as well as ungrateful to think of
Dryden as a craftsman who, by dint of taking infinite pains, learnt
the secret of simulating that which in the chosen few is inborn
What he was not, he at no time made any pretence of being.
What he did, he did with the whole strength of one of the most
vigorous intellects given to any poet ancient or modern, with
constant generosity of effort, and, at the same time, with masculine
directness and clear simplicity of purpose. And, though the work
of his life is not marble without a flaw, yet the whole structure
overtops the expanse of contemporary English literature like the
temple shining from the Sunian height over the sea.
1 Preface to the Fables (Essays, ed. Ker, vol. II, p. 255).
* Examen Poeticum (1698) (Essays, ed. Ker, vol 11, p. 2).


## p. 58 (#80) ##############################################

CHAPTER II
SAMUEL BUTLER
SATIRE, the humorous or caustic criticism of men's faults and
foibles in all their manifestations, the hotch-pot or farrago, as
Juvenal calls it, of the vagaries of human conduct, is justly claimed
by Quintilian as an entirely Latin or Italian product. So early as
Ennius (b. 239 B. C. ), the lanx satura or olla podrida of scraps of
heterogeneous and discursive observations had been compounded;
but it was not till Lucilius had seasoned it with ‘Italian vinegar'
that the production could be looked upon as 'satire' in the modern
sense of the word. This ingredient, however, Horace declares, was,
to a great extent, derived by Lucilius from the poets of the old
Greek comedy. The parabases of Aristophanes certainly contain
this element, though the concentration of their aim and object
preclude the title of the discursive satura. Lucilius, the inventor of
this kind of composition—the founder of the mocking style_was
also its chief exponent, and it is interesting to note that, to
Lucilius, each of his three successors-Horace, Juvenal and Persius
-attributes in turn his own style: Horace, his inconsequent chatter
full of moral maxims and worldly wisdom; Juvenal, his fiery
declamations against vice; and Persius, his homilies in praise of
virtue and against hypocrisy. When Horace asserts that Lucilius
had recourse to his 'faithful books' to record every mood of his
impressions on all subjects, he reminds more modern readers of
the practice of Montaigne, who charms us by his talk about himself
and by his carefully recorded experiences on that subject.
All these tirades were conveyed in Latin hexameters, which,
in Lucilius, were often of a hybrid, 'linsey-woolsey' composition, i. e.
interlarded with Greek words. This slipshod verse became the
conventional metre for satire in Latin down the ages, whether in
1 Plin. Nat. Hist. praef. § 8: Lucilius primus condidit stili nasumo


## p. 59 (#81) ##############################################

Butler's Satirical Material
59
the Anti-Claudianus of Alain de l'Isle or in the macaronic Baldus
of Merlin Cocai (Teofilo Folengo). In the same way,"splayfoot'
octosyllabic rimes became the medium of English satire, derived,
probably, through the French, from Le Roman de la Rose.
Satirical writing found a congenial soil in France, where the
interminable chansons de geste required a relief. Thus were
produced Le Roman de Renart and the fables bestiaires, often
attributed to Ysopet, the French counterpart of Aesop. But Le
Roman de la Rose stands out as the most important production of
the kind and as exercising a widereaching influence on the
literature of Europe.
From this source flowed numberless compositions, on two sub-
jects especially, one being the querelle des femmes, which was taken
up vigorously on both sides. Christine de Pisan leads the attack
against Le Roman de la Rose, followed by Jean Gerson, chancellor
of the university of Paris, Alain Chartier and Martin de France,
author of Le Champion des Dames (1440—2). On the other side
may be mentioned Les XV joyes de mariage, Les arrêts d'amour,
the Silva nuptialis of Johannes Nevizanus and Rabelais in the
third book of his Pantagruel : but the catalogue is a very long
one. The other subject is an attack on the religious orders,
especially the mendicants, the Dominicans and the Franciscans,
who had been recognised by the popes in the beginning of the
thirteenth century, and, from the very first, bad shown extra-
ordinary activity and influence, proving very obnoxious to the
regular clergy. These two subjects can be traced in Hudibras,
but in another and curious form : the nonconforming sects taking
the place of the mendicants as butts for satire, and Hudibras and
the widow respectively leading the attack and defence in the
querelle des femmes.
Butler had also probably read Barclay's Ship of Fools, trans-
lated from Sebastian Brant's Narrenschif. Moriae Encomium
might well supply him with a model for his satire, while the Adagia
of Erasmus undoubtedly furnished him with a stock of learning and
literary illustration. Rabelais was thoroughly versed in all these
writings, and employed them in his Gargantua and Pantagruel.
Butler was a good French scholar and did not need Urquhart's
translation, but read the French at firsthand Zachary Grey
points out in his notes several passages in Hudibras derived from
the French satirist; but many more correspondences can be
detected by a closer comparison.
1 As to this, see vol. yo, chap. z
>


## p. 60 (#82) ##############################################

60
Samuel Butler
f
Only scanty materials for an account of Samuel Butler's life
\survive. The son of a farmer, he was born at Strensham in Wor-
cestershire, 8 February 1612, and died in London in the year 1680.
He was educated at the cathedral school at Worcester, and, judging
by his proficiency in classical literature, must have been exceedingly
well grounded. Afterwards, he lived in or near Cambridge, but
does not seem to have entered at any one of the colleges or to have
been a member of the university. Later, he was engaged as an
attendant or secretary to Elizabeth, countess of Kent, at Wrest in
Bedfordshire. This was an important period of his life, for John
Selden, the accomplished lawyer, passed at least three long vacations
(1626—8) under the same roof, and interested himself in Butler.
It may, perhaps, be fanciful to find in the lawyer's fondness for
illustration and analogy in his Table Talk the suggestion of the
similar treatment of his subjects in the droll similes and com-
parisons that meet us often in Butler's writings.
Some years of his early life were spent in the capacity of clerk
to a succession of county magistrates; but the most important
of these employments was that under Sir Samuel Luke, of Cople
Hoo near Bedford, who was a fanatical puritan, one of Cromwell's
colonels in the civil war, and scoutmaster for Bedfordshire and
several midland counties. In this gentleman's house were frequent
meetings of members of various religious and political sects, and
Butler had an opportunity of noting the peculiarities and pretentions
of a motley crew, which he afterwards mercilessly ridiculed in his
comic epic. Here, no doubt, he composed many of his Characters
and notes, which sometimes appear in his Hudibras, though some
of the Characters were obviously written, partly, at least, after the
restoration. One hundred and twenty of these Characters had
appeared (but not till 1759) in The Genuine Remains in Verse and
Prose of Mr Samuel Butler, edited by Robert Thyer, and, recently,
sixty-eight more, together with a number of miscellaneous Obser-
vations and Reflexions, have been published? In 1660, Butler
.
became secretary to Richard, earl of Carbery, lord president of
Wales, who appointed him steward of Ludlow castle, where
many Characters and other compositions were written out fair
for the press, as they came afterwards into the hands of his
friend William Longueville.
After the restoration, Butler published the first part of his
Hudibras in 1663, the second part in 1664, but the third part did
not see the light till 1678. It was at once received with great
Ed. Waller, A. R. (Cambridge English Classics), 1908.
2


## p. 61 (#83) ##############################################

His Later Days. His Learning
61
enthusiasm, especially by Charles II, to whom it became a kind
of vade-mecum, and who rewarded the poet with a gratuity
of £3001.
It is recorded that Butler contracted a marriage with a wealthy
widow, but that they lost their property by unfortunate speculations.
Another story attributes this loss to the rascality of lawyers and
accounts thus for the exceeding bitterness with which the poet
assails them. But this is an obscure point; even the lady's name
is not known for certain. If the question could be satisfactorily
determined, light would possibly be thrown on the relations of
Hudibras and the widow in the third part of the poem. It seems, ,
however, tolerably certain that Butler passed the rest of his days
in needy circumstances and died in abject penury. This is attested
by an epigram full of bitterness on the subject of a monument
erected to his memory in Westminster abbey in 1720 :
While Butler, needy Wretch, was yet alive
No Generous Patron would a Dinner give.
See him when starv'd to death and turn'd to Dust
Presented with a monumental Bust.
The Poet's Fate is here in Emblem show'n;
He asked for Bread and he receiv'd a Stone.
We have seen that he was well taught in Latin and Greek; but
we learn from one of his contradictions that he gave up his Greek
studies after he had left school as 'unnecessary except to Dunces
and Schoolmasters,' and, in his Thoughts on Learning and Know-
ledge, he repeats that Greek is of little use in our times unless to
serve Pedants and mountebanks to smatter withal'; there is, how-
ever, considerable evidence that he kept up his Latin, especially in the
satirists Horace, Juvenal and Persius, from whom he derives many
thoughts and similes ; Lucan, also, he parodies in a notable passage.
In his prose writings (Reflections, etc. ) he shows that he had read
Lucretius carefully; he employs that poet's language in illustrating
remarks aimed at the newly formed Royal Society or, as they were
styled, the 'Virtuosi of Gresham College. ' He freely showers
ridicule on Sir Paul Neale, probably the original of the astrologer
Sidrophel (perhaps a parody of 'Astrophil') and on Lord Brounker,
president of the Society, who, in the poem entitled The Elephant
in the Moon, is dubbed 'Virtuoso in chief. '
1 Thus, especially if the difference in the value of money be remembered, the
observation of Dennis (Reflections on Pope's Essay on Criticism, p. 539), 'that Butler
was starved at the same time that the king had his book in his pocket' is bardly fair
to Charles II.
: p. 280 (ed. 1908).
Ö 1, 2, 493—502.


## p. 62 (#84) ##############################################

62
Samuel Butler
A knowledge of English law and legal phraseology is conspicuous
in his writings, but, as might be expected, it is the technical law
appertaining to the office of a justice of the peace rather than that
of a constitutional lawyer, though his intercourse with Selden may
have procured for him some acquaintance with that department
of legal study.
The popularity of Hudibras caused the growth of a fungus
crop of spurious imitations of Butler's prose and poetry, which
were published under the title The Posthumous Works of Mr
Samuel Butler, Author of Hudibras, being a collection of Satires,
Speeches and Reflections of those times. Four or five of these
productions were published afterwards in The Genuine Remains ;
but, for the most part, the collection consists of ballads, long poems
and essays on various subjects relating to the times of the rebellion.
A cursory examination will show them to be of distinctly inferior
merit; and they are of little service in illustrating the great satire.
This worthless publication reached a sixth edition in 1754; and it
may have been this circumstance that induced John Clark, to whom
The Genuine Remains came from Charles Longueville, the son of
Butler's friend William Longueville, to entrust them for publication
- to Robert Thyer, keeper of the public library at Manchester, in
November 1759. The pieces making up the collection had been
written out fair in Butler's own handwriting when left to William
Longueville, but had probably been composed in the rough some
years earlier, many of them before Hudibras, seeing that they
have some of the same matter in common. They consist of a
volume of prose containing Characters and a few speeches,
put in the mouths of certain politicians on stated occasions,
with letters pro and con. , similarly conceived ; to these are added
some Occasional thoughts. The second volume is mainly in verse,
beginning with The Elephant in the Moon, directed against Sir
Paul Neale, a member of the Royal Society. The elephant in
the moon turns out to be a fly in the telescope which had been
directed to the moon for observations. Curiously enough, this
subject is treated metrically twice over—in octosyllabic verse,
Butler's special metre, and then in the rimed decasyllables aptly
employed by Dryden and Pope. It seems as though Butler had
experimented to find the most suitable vehicle for his satire.
This poem is followed by nine satires, one or two of which are
written in the longer metre.
The subjects of these are the absurdity of human actions and
speculations; the licentious times of Charles II(long verse); gaming ;


## p. 63 (#85) ##############################################

Characters
63
the troubles of verse and rimel; the foolish changes of fashion;
the abuse of wine ; promiscuous marriages (long verse); plagiaries ;
the abuse of human learning The style and method of these satires
are naturally suggestive of the influence of the Roman satirists,
which may often be traced in Hudibras. Inserted among these
are other satirical poems, mainly on political subjects, the most
notable being on Philip Nye's Thanksgiving Beard. ' (Nye was an
independent and a member of the assembly of divines, who had made
himself notorious by a peculiar beard. ) The collection concludes
with a large number of Miscellaneous Thoughts in epigrammatic
form, many of them containing bitter reflections on the poet's
illfortune in life and the undeserved success achieved by impudent
self-assertion; some are on the faults of government and the rulers
of the statea medley of melancholy pessimistic thoughts.
The Characters must have been suggested by the fashion
brought into vogue by Casaubon's translation of Theophrastus's
Characters in 1592, feebly imitated by bishop Hall, and super-
ficially by Sir Thomas Overbury, and exemplified more effectively
in Earle's Microcosmographie (1628—-33)* Earle was a fellow
of Merton and a great friend of Lord Falkland; Clarendon, who
met Earle at Falkland's country house, Great Tew, near Oxford,
and was much taken with the refined scholar, refers to Micro-
cosmographie as some very 'witty and sharp discourses' which
brought the author into repute. It might, therefore, be an in-
teresting matter for speculation as to how far Clarendon himself
was indebted (for suggestions at least) to the numerous essays of
this kind during the first half of the seventeenth century, in com-
posing the wonderful delineations of character which are the chief
ornaments of his History of the Rebellion.
Butler's Characters remained in manuscript for about a century
and, though brought to light in 1759 in The Genuine Remains, they
have by no means received the attention they deserve. While,
perhaps, not closely adhering to the model of Theophrastus, they
are full of witty sallies and quips which bring into relief the
absurdities and hypocrisy displayed by the presbyterian members
of Sir Samuel Luke's coterie. Butler had a special genius for noting
points of comparison and making similes from small matters in
· This is translated from Boileau's second Satire, as was pointed out to the writer
of this chapter by Mr A, A. Tilley.
? He is referred to in Hudibras, 1, 2, 529–531; and in Hudibras's Epistle 1, 188.
3 Cf. , as to the genesis and growth of the character sketch, ante, vol. iv, chap. XVI,
pp. 385 ff. and bibl. pp. 521–3.


## p. 64 (#86) ##############################################

64
Samuel Butler
6
9
6
common life, or from extraordinary relations of travellers or ob-
servers in fantastic science, such as Sir Kenelm Digby and Cornelius
Agrippa ; his bent being essentially satirical, he had, while with
Sir Samuel Luke, a rare opportunity of observing and recording
the revelations made by the caterwauling brethren,' the self-
styled saints, whose pretensions he unmasks in his Hudibras.
Most of his characters are merely general, but others, especially
the longer, such as 'A Modern Politician,' 'An hypocritical
Non-conformist,' 'A Republican,' 'A State-Convert,' 'A modern
Statesman,' 'A Fifth Monarchy man,' 'A small Poet,''A Lawyer,'
'A Virtuoso,' 'A Justice of Peace,' 'A Fanatic,' 'An Hermetic
Philosopher,' are evidently to be referred to actors on the political
stage of that time, and must have supplied matter for Hudibras ;
there are passages that have so close a resemblance to their counter-
parts in the poem that one must have been derived from the other ;
though there are some points in the Characters which show that
they must have been written (at least in part) after 1664.
Of Earle's characters, about ten coincide in their subject with
those of Butler, and it is interesting to compare the different style
of treatment to be found in these writers. But, in every case, the
method is the same. The character is drawn not in outline, but by
a number of minor traits that all tell in the same direction till the
portrait is fully completed. The besetting sin of the artist in this
kind of description is that he often does not know when to take his
hand from the picture, and goes on elaborating details till the
reader is wearied.
Hudibras may be described as a mock-heroic poem dealing
with the pretensions and hypocrisies of the presbyterians, inde-
pendents and other sects which were subversive of the monarchy
at the time of the great rebellion. Though it was not published
till after the restoration of Charles II, Butler's sympathies were
ardently royalist; but his pen, so far as we know, was engaged
only fitfully in support of his convictions. His object in putting
together in a considerable poem an account of the events and
opinions which he had quietly recorded during the convulsive
struggles of the nation must have been to ingratiate himself with
the king after his return. The impelling motive may well have
been poverty, together with the desire of fame.
The first known attempt at mock-heroic poetry was Batra-
chomyomachia, or the battle between frogs and mice, a bur-
lesque on the Iliad, at one time absurdly attributed to Homer.
Butler, of course, was acquainted with this poem, and wittily


## p. 65 (#87) ##############################################

Hudibras and its Models
65
parodies title and subject in his Cynarctomachy, or Battle between
Bear and Dogs. He was probably influenced, also, by Skelton,
who, although a man of learning, attacked cardinal Wolsey and
the clergy in short rimes of 'convivial coarseness and boisterous
vigour'l. But Butler's model in style, to a very great extent, must
have been Scarron, almost an exact contemporary, whose Virgile
travesti was published in 1648—52; 8o Butler, who was versed
in French literature, could easily adopt the salient features of this
poem in Hudibras, which was not published till 1663. On the
other side, Scarron shows acquaintance with English affairs, e. g. in
the following couplet:
D'un côté vient le grand Ajax
Fier comme le milord Fairfax.
Virg. trav. , liv. ii.
His method is to modernise the language and actions of the ancient
Vergilian heroes, and to put in their mouths the phrases of the
(common) people of his own time. In the same mocking spirit, he
introduces glaring anachronisms, such as the appearance of
Mohammadans at the foundation of Carthage, Dido saying grace
before meat, etc.
The name 'Hudibras' is derived from The Faerie Greene
(II, 2, 17), and the setting of the poem is obviously imitated from
Don Quixote, save that the imitation is a complete reversal of the
attitude of the original. Cervantes treats the vanishing chivalry
of Spain in a gentle and affectionate spirit, while showing the
impossibility of its continuance in the changed conditions of life.
In Don Quixote, every element of grandeur and nobility is attri-
buted to the most ordinary and meanest person, building, incident
or surrounding; an inn is a castle, an inn-keeper a knight, flocks
of sheep are armies; a barber's basin is a golden helmet in the
vivid imagination of the knight; a mess of acorns set before him
prompts a discourse full of regret at the passing away of the
Golden Age, when Nature herself provided simple, wholesome fare
for all, without necessity for resorting to force or fraud; and
justice prevails throughout. Notwithstanding the absurdity and
impossibility of this revival, the reader's sympathy is ever on the
side of the chivalric madman, even in his wildest extravagance.
In Hudibras, on the contrary, the 'blasoning' or description of
the knight and squire, while following the most accredited
forms of chivalric romance, serves only to set forth the odious
squalor of the modern surroundings. The knight's mental
· See, as to Skelton, ante, vol. in, chap. iv, pp. 67 ff.
E. L. VIII.
CH, II,
5


## p. 66 (#88) ##############################################

66
Samuel Butler
qualifications are given in great detail and, after that, his bodily
accomplishments—all in a vein of satirical exaggeration. Butler's
purpose is to show everything in its vilest aspect. Instead of
making common affairs noble in appearance, the poem reveals the
boastful pretensions of the puritan knight by describing both his
equipment and that of his squire squalid and beggarly, while his
purpose is, not to excite pity for the poverty and wretchedness of
these pitiful champions, but to provoke contempt for the disgusting
condition of the wretched pair and to bring down further odium
upon it. It is genre painting with a vengeance, and fully realises
the account given by Pliny of the art of Piraeicus: 'He painted
barbers' shops and cobblers' stalls, asses and dishes of food, and
the like, thus getting the name of “painter of low life” (øvnapo-
ypápos) and giving the highest pleasure by such representations. '
Our own Morland and Hogarth well answer such a description,
and we are fortunate in possessing illustrations of Hudibras
designed by the latter. The sympathy between the painter and
the poet must have been complete.
That Hudibras going forth 'a colonelling' is intended to
represent Sir Samuel Luke is made pretty clear by the speech:
'Tis sung there is a valiant Mamaluke
In foreign Land yclept-
To whom we have been oft compar'd
For person, parts, address and beard 1.
He is described as a 'true blue' presbyterian, ignorant, conceited,
pedantic, crotchety, a pretender to linguistic, mathematical and
dialectical learning, bent on a 'thorough-going reformation' by
means of 'apostolic blows and knocks. ' In external appearance,
he was of a most droll rusticity. His beard was orange tawny
(perhaps copied from Philip Nye's thanksgiving beard, or from
Panurge's beard in Pantagruel), and it was unkempt because he
had vowed not to trim it till the monarchy was put down. He
was hunchbacked and adorned by a protuberant paunch, stuffed
with country fare of milk and butter. His doublet was buff, the
colour much affected by his party, and was proof against blows
from a cudgel, but not against swordcuts. His trunkhose were
full of provisions; even his sword had a basket-hilt to hold broth,
and was so little used that it had worn out the scabbard with rust,
having been exhibited only in serving warrants. His dagger was
serviceable for scraping pots and toasting cheese. His holster
contained rusty pistols which proved useful in catching rats in the
2
11, 1, 903–6.
III, 28.


## p. 67 (#89) ##############################################

Hudibras and Ralpho
67
locks, snapping on them when they foraged amongst his garments
for cheese. Don Quixote took no thought as to how he should
obtain sustenance, while Hudibras was an itinerant larder.
All this is adapted from Cervantes or Rabelais, who themselves
parodied the chivalric romances in the apparelling and blasoning
of their heroes: in the same vein, Butler goes on to describe the
steed and the squire. The horse was mealy-mouthed, blind of one
eye, like the mare of Rabelais's Catchpole? , and wall-eyed of the
other; there are also reminiscences of Rosinante and of Gargan-
tua's mare.
It was of a grave, majestic pace, and is compared
with Caesar's horse, which would stoop to take up its rider, while
this one stooped to throw Hudibras. The saddle was old and
worn through, and the horse's tail so long and bedraggled that it
was only serviceable for swishing mire on the rider.
Ralpho the squire is an independent, with a touch of the
anabaptist, despising booklore and professing to be learned for
salvation by means of 'gifts' or 'new-light,' in the phraseology of
those sects. Here comes in a loan from Rabelais in the account
of Ralpho's mystic learning. Her Trippa in Pantagruel is based
on Henricus Cornelius Agrippa of Nettesheim, author of De
Occulta Philosophia; these writers and Pythagorean numbers are
employed in the description of the squire's accomplishments in
quack astrology and almanac writing. Ralpho is a tailor and, like
Aeneas and Dante, has seen 'hell'—a sartorial term of the age,
meaning a receptacle for shreds and scraps.
As the pair ride forth, the true romantic method is followed,
beginning with a comic invocation of the muse, who
With ale and viler liquors
Didst inspire Withers, Pryn and Vickars,
certain presbyterian poetasters, the last of whom is said in Butler's
'Annotations' to have 'translated Virgils Æneids into as horrible
a Travesty in earnest as the French Scarron did in Burlesque. '
This introduces the action, which is brought about by the dis-
covery of a rabble intent on bear-baiting. The knight looks
upon this as 'lewd and anti-Christian,' and it may be intended to
represent the 'insolency of the late tumults' described in Eikon
Basilike, which was accepted by the royalists as the composition
of Charles I. The leaders of the rebellion are there styled boute-
feus, or known incendiaries, a term here used by Butler probably
in allusion to its occurrence in the tract, and explained in his
' Annotations' as a French word and, therefore, necessarily under-
1 Bk. iv, chap. 12.
9 Bk. II, chap. 25.
2
6
.
5-2


## p. 68 (#90) ##############################################

68
Samuel Butler
stood by persons of quality. Bear-baiting is quaintly derived
from the constellation Ursa Major, which circles round the pole.
The knight finds in this Cynarctomachy a plot to set brother
against brother, so as to prevent them from offering a united front
on behalf of a thorough reformation.
As, in Rabelais and Don Quixote, it is the conversations that
bring into relief the convictions and prejudices of the interlocutors,
80, in Hudibras, the altercations between the knight and squire,
which often degenerate into recriminations, are intended to un-
mask the hypocritical contentions of both parties. In the very
first canto, the suspicion that was rife between the presbyterian
knight and the independent squire is brought out, and the warmth of
religious partisanship is heightened on every subsequent occasion.
The description of the warriors on the other side, that is, the
bear-baiters, is humorous in the extreme. They consist of a one-
legged fiddler, Crowdero (from crowd, an old word for a fiddle),
a bear-ward, a butcher, a tinker, Magnano (the Italian equivalent
for locksmith), a virago named Trulla, a cobbler and an ostler.
These have been identified by Sir Roger l'Estrange, who was a
contemporary, with men who obtained posts in Cromwell's army
and gained subsequent distinction. The wit and humour lavished
on the description of these worthies is extraordinary, and may be
exemplified in one or two cases. Talgol, the butcher, had made
many orphans and widows, and, like Guy of Warwick, had slain
many a dun cow; he had fought more flocks of sheep than Ajax
or Don Quixote, and slain many serpents in the shape of wasps.
Cerdon, the cobbler, is compared to Hercules in the repair of
wrong in shoes):
He raised the low and fortifi'd
The weak against the strongest Side.
Colon, the ostler, is compared to a centaur for his riding, and
Sturdy he was and no less able
Than Hercules to cleanse a Stable;
As great a Drover and as great
A Critic too in Hog and Neat.
It was
A question as to whether He
Or's Horse were of a Family
More worshipful;
but antiquaries gave their decision,
And pror'd not onely Horse, but Cowg,
Nay Pigs were of the elder House:
For Beasts, when Man was but a piece
Of earth himsef, did th' Earth possess.


## p. 69 (#91) ##############################################

The Bear-baiting
69
1
Butler's peculiar trick of giving the characteristics of each
person by parallels of similar accomplishments in some noted hero,
but in ludicrous travesty, is, doubtless, imitated from Scarron.
Rabelais delights in finding in ancient history and literature
parallels to his modern instances, but does not go further, except
where the general tone of the speaker dramatically requires it;
but, with Butler's mocking humour, the method is reversed, and it
is only for the purpose of debasing it in the application that a
striking instance is found.
In order to bring Hudibras into contempt from the first, he is
represented as anxious to put down bear-baiting, one of the most
popular amusements of the time, and substituting for it the cult
of the solemn league and covenant, which was thrust upon the
English by the Scottish presbyterians. The knight feels bound, ‘in
conscience and commission too,' 'to keep the peace twixt dog and
bear,' and dubs the whole proceeding 'pagan and idolatrous. '
The squire consents to this, but, from his point of view as an
independent, insists that, if there is no scriptural warrant for bear-
baiting, neither is there warrant for
Provincial, classic, national,
Mere human creature cobwebs all.
These three words, specially applied by the presbyterians to their
various synods, make Hudibras suspicious of his squire; but he
puts off the argument, because it is now time for action.
The description of the battle is rendered more absurd by the
high-flown epic vein in which it is set forth. The metrical devices
of pauses in particular places are duly observed, as well as the
repetitions of emphatic words, such as
He Trulla loved, Trulla more bright, etc.
And gave the Champion's Steed a thump
That stagger'd him. The knight did stoop, etc. 1
The bear having been badly mauled in the battle, the retreat
is saved by the cobbler Cerdon and by Trulla, who leads
The Warrior to a grassy Bed,
As Authors write, in a cool Shade,
Which Eglantine and Roses made,
Close by a softly murm'ring Stream,
Where lovers us'd to loll and dream.
1 There is even an instance of aposiopesis :
Which now thou shalt-bat first our care
Must see how Hudibras doth fare,
imitating the Vergilian Quos ego-sed motos, etc.


## p. 70 (#92) ##############################################

70
Samuel Butler
This is a ludicrous imitation of the first book of the Aeneid, where
Venus puts Ascanius to rest in similar surroundings.
Hudibras had been victorious in the first battle and, with the
help of the squire, had put Crowdero in the stocks; but, in a second
encounter, after the combatants have rallied their forces, he is
worsted, and, with Ralpho, takes the place of Crowdero. Even
here, while Hudibras
Cheer'd up himself with ends of Verse
And Sayings of Philosophers,
Ralpho the independent resumes his attack on the presbyterians,
and we are treated to the catch-words 'gifts,' “illumination,' 'light,'
synodical,'' orders,''constitutions,' church-censures' and so forth.
Challenged by the knight, he repeats his argument that synods are
mystical bear-gardens, in which saints are represented by the bear
and presbyters and scribes by the dogs that are set upon them.
‘Synods are whelps of the inquisition, and they have their
‘triers' (or testers), whose business it is
To cast a figure for men's Light;
To find in lines of Beard and Face
The Physiognomy of Grace,
And by the sound and twang of Nose
If all be sound within disclose.
The second part, which was published a year after the first,
proceeds uninterruptedly with the story, taking up the case of the
widow whom, in the third canto of the first part, Hudibras had after
his victory wished to gain, meeting, however, with discomfiture. The
widow, informed of this by Fame (parodied from the fourth book of
the Aeneid), determines to visit him in the stocks, and there entices
him to declare himself. Thus, we have another argument between
them, in which the knight's shameless self-seeking is exposed and
the superiority of the female sex is maintained. In proof of his
good faith, Hudibras has to promise to submit to flagellation. The
notion of whipping and the mode of carrying it out is borrowed
from Don Quixote, where Sancho Panza is called upon to endure
three thousand lashes in order to obtain the disenchantment of
Dulcinea del Toboso. Hudibras solemnly swears that he will
carry out this behest.