Butler, Samuel

   1. (1612-1680)

   Butler, the son of a farmer, was born at Strensham in Worcestershire and educated at the King's School, Worcester. He was secretary to the Countess of Kent and steward to Richard Vaughan, Earl of Carberry at Ludlow Castle. His poem Hudibras (1662-63)satirizing Cromwellians and the Presbyterian church-was reckoned to be the most memorable and popular burlesque poem in the English language, and secured Butler's place in poetic history. It may well have been this that led to his being employed as secretary to the Duke of Buckingham. He was awarded a pension by Charles II, although it said that he died in poverty. A monument is erected to Butler in Poets' Corner of Westminster Abbey. Some of his other poems: "Arms and the Man," "Godly Casuistry," "Independent Squire," "On William Prynne," "Presbyterian Church Government," "Satire upon the Licentious Age of Charles II," "The Argument," "The Metaphysical Sectarian."

   Sources: Dictionary of National Biography. Electronic Edition 1.1. Oxford University Press, 1997. Oldpoetry (www.oldpoetry.com). The Columbia Anthology of British Poetry. Carl Woodring, and James Shapiro, ed. Columbia University Press, 1995. The Columbia Granger's Index to Poetry. 11th ed. The Columbia Granger's World of Poetry, Columbia University Press, 2005 (http://www.columbiagrangers.org). The National Portrait Gallery (www.npg.org.uk). The New Oxford Book of Seventeenth Century Verse. Alastair Fowler, ed. Oxford University Press (2004). The Oxford Companion to English Literature. 6th edition. Margaret Drabble, ed. Oxford University Press, 2000. The Penguin Book of Light Verse. Gavin Ewart, ed. Penguin Books, 1980. To read the whole of Hudibras online (http://www.exclassics.com/hudibras/hbintro.htm). Westminster Abbey Official Guide (no date).

   2. (1835-1902)

   Coming from a family of eminent clergyman and educated at Shrewsbury and St. John's College, Cambridge, Butler rebelled and made a small fortune as a sheep farmer in New Zealand. On his return to England he engaged himself in art (some of his paintings were exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1868-1876), music (he composed several works in collaboration with Henry Festings Jones and produced some musical compositions), and literature. His 1872 satire Erewhon (an anagram of "nowhere") describes a country in which manners and laws were the reverse of those in England and brought Butler immediate literary fame; Erewhon Revisited was published in 1901. The Fair Haven (1872) is an ironic attack on the Resurrection. His only novel - semibiographical The Way of All Flesh (1903)-is ranked among the great English novels. A trip to Canada in 1874-1875 inspired the poem "A Psalm of Montreal," a lament that the statue of beautiful Discobolus had been stowed away in some lumber room. Some of his other poems: "A Ballad in Two Parts," "A Prayer," "From Thomson's Autumn," "Hudibras's Elegy," "Prologue to the Queen of Aragon," "Satire (Upon Marriage)."

   Sources: Dictionary of National Biography. Electronic Edition 1.1. Oxford University Press, 1997. Great Books Online, www.bartleby.com. The Columbia Granger's Index to Poetry. 11th ed. The Columbia Granger's World of Poetry, Columbia University Press, 2005 (http://www.columbiagrangers.org). The Faber Book of Comic Verse. Michael Roberts and Janet Adam Smith, eds. Faber & Faber, 1978. The National Portrait Gallery (www.npg.org.uk). The Oxford Book of Satirical Verse. Geoffrey Grigson, ed. Oxford University Press, 1980. The Oxford Companion to English Literature. 6th edition. Margaret Drabble, ed. Oxford University Press, 2000. Works of the British Poets, Vol. 6: The Poetical Works of Samuel Butler, Vol. 3, including the Poems of John Phillips. Thomas Park, ed. J. Sharpe, 1808.