Hudibras | Page 2

obnoxious to that satyrical
inspiration our Author wittily invokes:
Which made them, though it were in spight
Of nature and their stars,
to write.
On the one side some who have had very little human learning, but
were endued with a large share of natural wit and parts, have become
the most celebrated (Shakespear, D'Avenant, &c.) poets of the age they
lived in. But, as these last are, "Rarae aves in terris," so, when the
muses have not disdained the assistances of other arts and sciences, we
are then blessed with those lasting monuments of wit and learning,
which may justly claim a kind of eternity upon earth. And our author,
had his modesty
permitted him, might, with Horace, have said,
Exegi monumentum aere perennius:
[I have raised a memorial more
lasting than bronze]
Or, with Ovid,
Jamque opus exegi, quod nec Jovis ira, nec ignis,
Nec poterit ferrum,
nec edax abolere vetustas.
[For I have raised a work which neither the
rage of Jupiter, Nor fire, nor iron, nor consuming age can destroy.]
The Author of this celebrated Poem was of this his last
composition:
for although he had not the happiness of an
academical education, as
some affirm, if may be perceived,
throughout his whole Poem, that he
had read much, and was
very well accomplished in the most useful

parts of human
learning.
Rapin (in his reflections) speaking of the necessary qualities belonging
to a poet, tells us, he must have a genius
extraordinary; great natural
gifts; a wit just, fruitful, piercing, solid, and universal; an understanding
clear and distinct; an imagination neat and pleasant; an elevation of
soul, that
depends not only on art or study, but is purely the gift of
heaven, which must be sustained by a lively sense and vivacity;
judgment to consider wisely of things, and vivacity for the beautiful
expression of them, &c.
Now, how justly this character is due to our Author, we leave to the
impartial reader, and those of nicer judgment, who had the happiness to
be more intimately acquainted with him.
The reputation of this incomparable Poem is so thoroughly

established in the world, that it would be superfluous, if not impertinent,
to endeavour any panegyric upon it. King Charles II. whom the
judicious part of mankind will readily
acknowledge to be a sovereign
judge of wit, was so great an admirer of it, that he would often
pleasantly quote it in his conversation. However, since most men have
a curiosity to have some account of such anonymous authors, whose
compositions
have been eminent for wit or learning, we have, for
their
information, subjoined a short Life of the Author.
THE AUTHOR'S LIFE.
Samuel Butler, the Author of this excellent Poem, was born in the
Parish of Strensham, in the county of Worcester, and
baptized there
the 13th of Feb. 1612. His father, who was of the same name, was an
honest country farmer, who had some small estate of his own, but
rented a much greater of the Lord of the Manor where he lived.
However, perceiving in this son an early inclination to learning, he
made a shift to have him educated in the free-school at Worcester,
under Mr. Henry Bright; where having passed the usual time, and being
become an excellent school-scholar, he went for some little time to
Cambridge, but was never matriculated into that University, his father's

abilities not being sufficient to be at the charge of an academical

education; so that our Author returned soon into his native county, and
became clerk to one Mr. Jefferys, of Earl's-Croom, an eminent Justice
of the Peace for that County, with whom he lived some years, in an
easy and no contemptible service. Here by the indulgence of a kind
master, he had sufficient leisure to apply himself to whatever learning
his inclinations led him, which were chiefly history and poetry; to
which, for his
diversion, he joined music and painting; and I have
seen some pictures, said to be of his drawing, which remained in that
family; which I mention not for the excellency of them, but to satisfy
the reader of his early inclinations to that noble art; for which also he
was afterwards entirely beloved by Mr. Samuel Cooper, one of the
most eminent painters of his time.
He was after this recommended to that great encourager of
learning,
Elizabeth Countess of Kent, where he had not only the opportunity to
consult all manner of learned books, but to
converse also with that
living library of learning, the great Mr Selden.
Our Author lived some time also with Sir Samuel Luke, who
was of
an ancient family in Bedfordshire but, to his dishonour, an eminent
commander under the usurper Oliver Cromwell: and then it was, as I
am informed, he composed this loyal Poem. For, though fate, more
than choice, seems to have placed him in the service of a Knight so
notorious, both in his