Butler, SAMUEL, author of Hudibras, the son of a small farmer, was baptised at Strensham, Worcestershire, in February 1612. He was educated at Worcester grammar-school, and 'thence went,' says Antony-a-Wood, 'as his brother, now living, affirms, to the university of Cambridge; yet others of the neighbourhood say to Oxon, but whether true I cannot tell.' In early life he served as secretary to a Mr Jeffreys, a justice of the peace, of Earls-Croome in Worcestershire, where he is said to have occupied his leisure in the study of music and painting. He was afterwards for several years in the service of the Countess of Kent, and became intimate with Selden, her steward. There is no ground for saying he was in the service of a Puritan gentleman, Sir Samuel Luke, of Cople Hoo, near Bedford, who is supposed to have sat for the portrait of Hudibras. After the Restoration he became secretary to the Earl of Carbery, Lord President of the Principality of Wales, by whom he was appointed steward of Ludlow Castle. About this time he took a wife, who brought him a competent fortune, which 'by being put out in ill securities . . . was little advantage to him.' The first part of Hudibras appeared in 1663; the second part in 1664 (a pirated second part having been published in the previous year); and the third part in 1678. In this witty and pungent satire on the Puritans Butler showed himself to be an inimitable master of burlesque. His command of rhyme was inexhaustible; his learning curious and copious; and his epigrammatic sayings are so happily phrased that some of them have been quoted from age to age, until they have passed into the language of daily life. The poem secured immediate popularity, and is said to have been a special favourite of Charles II. But Butler's loyalty and wit procured him no substantial preferment. All that he received from the king was a solitary grant of three hundred pounds, which he distributed among his creditors. Probably the accounts of his poverty have been exaggerated; and Aubrey hints that he had only himself to blame, for 'he might have had preferments, but he would not accept any but very good.' He is said to have been patronised in later life by the Duke of Buckingham; but there appears to be no foundation for the statement. Among Butler's posthumous Characters (of which the authenticity has not been assailed) is a very severe article on 'A Duke of Bucks.' From the Earl of Dorset, who introduced Hudibras to the king, he received some kindness; but his best friend was William Longueville of the Temple. He died in Rose Street, Covent Garden, of a consumption, on 25th September 1680, and was buried, at Longueville's expense, in the churchyard of St Paul's, Covent Garden. Oldham in his satire against poetry has some vigorous lines on Butler:
Of all his gains by verse, he could not save
Enough to purchase flannel and a grave;
Reduced to want he in due time fell sick,
Was fain to die and be interred on tick.
In 1721 a monument was erected to Butler in Westminster Abbey at the expense of John Barber, a citizen of London. Aubrey, who knew him well, describes Butler as a man of middle stature, 'strong-set, high-coloured, a head of sorrel hair, a severe and sound judgment: a good fellow.' The collection of Posthumous Works, published in 1716, consists (with three exceptions) of anonymous wafis and strays, unwarrantably fathered on Butler. But The Genuine Remains in Verse and Prose of Mr Samuel Butler (2 vols. 1759), edited by R. Thyer, stand on a different footing. The manuscripts (now preserved in the British Museum) from which they were drawn belonged originally to Butler's friend, William Longueville, whose son, Charles Longueville, bequeathed them to John Clarke, who entrusted them to Thyer. A valuable and elaborate edition of Hudibras, edited by Dr Zachary Grey, appeared in 1744, and was twice re-issued in 1819.