author's death, was printed by the fame persons in 1678: this I take to be the last copy corrected by himself, and is that from which this edition is in general printed: the third part had no notes put to it during the author's life, and who furnished them after his death is not known. In the British Museum is the original injunction by authority, figned John Berkenhead, forbidding any printer, or other person whatsoever to print Hudibras, or any part thereof, without the confent or approbation of Samuel Butler (or Boteler) Efq* or his affignees, given at Whitehall, 10 September 1677; copy of this injunction may be seen in the note †. * Induced by this injunction, and by the office he held as fecretary to Richard Earl of Carbury, Lord Prefident of Wales, I have ventured to call our poet Samuel Butler, Efq. + CHARLES R. Our will and pleasure is, and we do hereby ftrictly charge and command, that no printer, bookseller, stationer, or other person whatsoever within our kingdom of England or Ireland, do print, reprint, utter or fell, or cause to be printed, re-printed, uttered or fold, a book or poem called HUDIBRAS, or any part thereof, without the consent and approbation of Samuel Boteler, Efq. or his affignees, as they and every of them will answer the contrary at their perils. Given at our Court at Whitehall, the tenth day of September, in the year of our Lord God 1677, and in the 29th year of our reign, By His Majesty's command, J. BERKENHEAD. Mifcel. Papers, Muf. Brit. Bibl. Birch, No. 4293. Plut. 11. J. original, It was natural to fuppofe, 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 his poem did to the royal cause; but his innate modefty, and studious turn of mind, prevented folicitations : never having tasted the idle luxuries of life, he did not make to himself needlefs wants, or pine after imaginary pleasures: his fortune, indeed, was small, and fo was his ambition; his integrity of life, and modeft temper, rendered him contented. However, there is good authority for believing that at one time he was gratified with an order on the treasury for 300% which is faid to have paffed all the offices without payment. of fees, and this gave him an opportunity of displaying his difinterested integrity, by conveying the entire fum immediately to a friend, in trust for the ufe of his creditors. Dr. Zachary Pearce,* on the authority of Mr. Lowndes of the Treasury, afferts, that Mr. Butler received from Charles the second an annual penfion of 100l.: add to this, he was appointed fecretary to the lord prefident of the principality of Wales, and, about the year 1667, steward of Ludlow castle. With all this, the court was thought to have been guilty of a glaring neglect in his case, and the public were fcandalized *See Granger's Biographical Hiftory of England, octavo, vol iv. p. 40. b at the ingratitude. The indigent poets, who have always To think how Spencer died, how Cowley mourn'd, In the fame MS. he fays, "wit is very chargeable, and not to be maintained in its neceffary expences 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." Homer Iliad, 19. 302. + I am aware of a difficulty that may be started, that the Tragedy of Conftantine the Great, to which Otway wrote the prologue, according to Giles Jacob in his poetical Register, was not acted at the Theatre Royal till 1684, four years after our poet's death, but probably he had feen the MS. or heard the thought, as both his MSS. differ fomewhat from the printed copy. Ingenuity and wit Do only make the owners fit Much easier than if th' had none. Mr. Butler spent fome time in France, probably when Lewis XIV. was in the height of his glory and vanity : however, neither the language nor manners of Paris were pleafing to our modest poet; fome of his obfervations may be amusing, I fhall therefore insert them in a note. He married Mrs. Herbert, whether fhe was a widow, or not, is uncertain; with her he expected a confiderable fortune, but, through various losses, and knavery, he found himself disap *"The French use so many words, upon all occafions, that if they did not cut them short in pronunciation, they would grow tedious, and insufferable. "They infinitely affect rhyme, though it becomes their language the worst in the world, and spoils the little sense they have to make room for it, and make the fame fyllable rhyme to itself, which is worse than metal upon metal in heraldry: they find it much easier to write plays in verfe than in profe, for it is much harder to imitate nature, than any deviation from her; and profe requires a more proper and natural fenfe and expreffion than verse, that has something in the stamp and coin to answer for the alloy and want of intrinfic value. I never came among them, but the following line was in my mind: Raucaq; garrulitas, ftudiumq; inane loquendi ; For they talk fo much, they have not time to think; and if they had all the wit in the world, their tongues would run before it. "The prefent king of France is building a most stately triumphal arch in memory of his victories, and the great actions which he has performed: but, if I am not mistaken, those edifices which bear that name at Rome, were not raised by the emperors whofe names they bear (fuch as Trajan, Titus, &c.) but were decreed by the Senate, and built at the expence of the public; for that glory is loft, which any man designs to confecrate to himself. pointed: to this fome have attributed his fevere strictures upon the profeffors of the law; but if his censures be properly confidered, they will be found to bear hard only upon the difgraceful part of each profeffion, and upon false learning in general: this was a favourite subject with him, but no man had a greater regard for, or was a better judge of the worthy part of the three learned profeffions, or learning in general, than Mr. Butler. How long he continued in office, as fteward of Ludlow Castle, is not known; but he lived the latter part of his life "The king takes a very good course to weaken the city of Paris by adorning of it, and to render it lefs, by making it appear greater and more glorious; for he pulls down whole ftreets to make room for his palaces and public structures. "There is nothing great or magnificent in all the country, that I have seen, but the buildings and furniture of the king's houses and the churches; all the reft is mean and paltry. “The king is neceffitated to lay heavy taxes upon his subjects in his own defence, and to keep them poor, in order to keep them quiet; for if they are fuffered to enjoy any plenty, they are naturally so infolent, that they would become ungovernable, and use him as they have done his predeceffors: but he has rendered himself so strong, that they have no thoughts of attempting any thing in his time. “The churchmen overlook all other people as haughtily as the churches and steeples do private houses. "The French do nothing without oftentation, and the king himself is not behind with his triumphal arches confecrated to himself, and his impress of the fun, nec pluribus impar. "The French king having copies of the best pictures from Rome, is as a great prince wearing clothes at second hand : the king in his prodigious charge of buildings and furniture does the fame thing to himself that he means to do by Paris, renders himself weaker, by endea vouring to appear the more magnificent: lets go the fubftance for fhadow." |