fents them all, that is, the whole body of the prefbyterians, as Ralpho does that of the independents: it would be degrading the liberal spirit, and universal genius of Mr. Butler, to narrow his general fatire to a particular libel on any characters, however marked and prominent. To a fingle rogue, or blockhead, he disdained to stoop; the vices and follies of the age in which he lived, (& quando uberior vitiorum copia) ere the quarry at which he fled: these he concentrated, and embodied in the perfons of Hudibras, Ralpho, Sidrophel, &c. fo that each character in this admirable poem fhould be confidered, not as an individual, but as a fpecies. - were It is not generally known, that meanings ftill more remote and chimerical than mere personal allufions, have been discovered in Hudibras; and the poem would have wanted one of those marks which distinguish works of superior merit, if it had not been supposed to be a perpetual allegory: writers of eminence, Homer, Plato, and even the holy Scriptures themselves, have been moft wretchedly mifrepresented by commentators of this caft; and it is aftonishing to observe to what a degree Heraclides * and * The Allegoria Homericæ, Gr. Lat. published by Dean Gale, Amft. 1688, though ufually afcribed to Heraclides Ponticus, the Platonist, must be the work of a more recent author, as the Dean has proved: his real name feems to have been Heraclitus (not the philofopher), and nothing more is known of him, but that Euftathius often cites him in his comment Proclus*, Philot and Origen, have loft fight of their ufual good fense, when they have allowed themselves to depart from the obvious and literal meaning of the text, which they pretend to explain. Thus fome have thought that the hero of the piece was intended to represent the parliament, especially that part of it which favoured the presbyterian discipline; when in the stocks, he personates the prefbyterians after they had lost their power; his firft exploit is against the bear, whom he routs, which represents the parliament getting the better of the king; after this great victory, he courts a widow for her jointure, that is the riches and power of the kingdom; being fcorned by her, he retires, but the revival of hope to the royalists draws forth both him, and his squire, a little before Sir George Booth's infurrection. Magnano, Cerdon, Talgal, &c. though described as butchers, coblers, tinkers, on Homer: the tract, however, is elegant and agreeable, and may be read with improvement and pleasure. * Proclus, the moft learned philofopher of the fifth century, left among other writings numerous comments on Plato's works ftill fubfifting, so stuffed with allegorical abfurdities, that few who have perused two periods, will have patience to venture on a third. In this, he only follows the example of Atticus, and many others, whose interpretations, as wild as his own, he carefully examines. He sneers at the famous Longinus with much contempt, for adhering too fervilely to the literal meaning of Plato. + Philo, the Jew, discovered many mystical senses in the Pentateuch, and from him, perhaps, Origen learned his unhappy knack of allegorizing both Old and New Testament.— This, in justice, however, is due to Origen, that while he is hunting after abftrufe fenfes, he doth not neglect the literal, but is fometimes happy in his criticisms. were defigned as officers in the parliament army, whose original profeffions, perhaps, were not much more noble: fome have imagined Magnano to be the duke of Albemarle, and his getting thistles from a barren land, to allude to his power in Scotland, especially after the defeat of Booth. Trulla his wife, Crowdero Sir George Booth, whose bringing in of Bruin alludes to his endeavours to restore the king: his oaken leg, called the better one, is the king's cause, his other leg the presbyterian discipline; his fiddle-case, which in sport they hung as a trophy on the whipping-poft, the directory. Ralpho, they fay, represents the parliament of independents, called Barebones Parliament; Bruin is fometimes the royal perfon, fometimes the king's adherents: Orfin represents the royal party-Talgol the city of London-Colon the bulk of the people: all these joining together against the knight, represent Sir George Booth's confpiracy, with presbyterians and royalists, against the parliament: their overthrow, through the assistance of Ralph, means the defeat of Booth by the assistance of the independents and other fanatics. Thefe ideas are, perhaps, only the frenzy of a wild imagination, though there may be fome lines that seem to favour the conceit. Dryden and Addison have cenfured Butler for his double rhymes; the latter no where argues worfe than upon this fubject: "If," fays he, "the thought in the couplet be good, "the rhymes add little to it; and if bad, it will not be in "the power of rhyme to recommend it; I am afraid that great numbers of those who admire the incomparable Hudibras, do it more on account of these doggrel rhymes, "than the parts that really deferve admiration."* This reflection affects equally all forts of rhyme, which certainly can add nothing to the fenfe; but double rhymes are like the whimsical drefs of harlequin, which does not add to his wit, but fometimes encreases the humour and drollery of it: they are not fought for, but, when they come easily, are always diverting: they are fo feldom found in Hudibras, as hardly to be an object of cenfure, especially as the diction and the rhyme both fuit well with the character of the hero. It must be allowed that our poet doth not exhibit his hero with the dignity of Cervantes; but the principal fault of the poem is, that the parts are unconnected, and the story not interesting: the reader may leave off without being anxious for the fate of his hero; he fees only disjecti membra poetæ ; but we should remember, that the parts were published at long intervals,+ and that several of the different cantos were defigned as fatires on different subjects or extravagancies. What the judicious Abbé du Bos has faid Spect. No. 60. The Epiftle to Sidrophel, not till many years after the canto to which it is annexed. respecting Ariofto, may be true of Butler, that, in comparifon with him, Homer is a geometrician: the poem is feldom read a second time, often not a first in regular order; that is, by paffing from the first canto to the fecond, and fo on in fucceffion. Spencer, Ariofto, and Butler, did not live in an age of planning; the last imitated the former poets—“ his poetry is the careless exuberance of a witty imagination and great learning." Fault has likewife been found, and perhaps juftly, with the too frequent elifions, the harshness of the numbers, and the leaving out the signs of our substantives; his inattention to grammar and fyntax, which, in fome paffages, may have contributed to obfcure his meaning, as the perplexity of others arifes from the amazing fruitfulness of his imagination, and extent of his reading. Moft writers have more words than ideas, and the reader waftes much pains with them, and gets little information or amusement. Butler, on the contrary, has more ideas than words, his wit and learning crowd so fast upon him, that he cannot find room or time to arrange them; hence his periods become fometimes embarraffed and obfcure, and his dialogues are too long. Our poet has been charged with obscenity, evil-fpeaking, and profaneness; but fatirifts will take liberties. Juvenal, and that elegant poet Horace, muft plead his cause, so far as the accufation is well founded. |