Hudibras | Page 2

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 person and politics, yet, by the rule of contraries, one may observe?throughout his whole Poem, that he was most orthodox, both in his religion and loyalty. And I am the more