View source for Samuel Butler (poet)

{{Short description|Poet and satirist}}
{{Other uses|Samuel Butler (disambiguation){{!}}Samuel Butler}}
{{About|the 17th-century poet, author of ''Hudibras''|the 19th-century novelist, author of ''Erewhon''|Samuel Butler (novelist)}}
{{more citations needed|date=March 2011}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=March 2019}}
{{infobox person
|name = Samuel Butler 
|image = Samuel Butler by Pieter Borsseler.jpg 
|caption=Portrait of Butler by [[Pieter Borsseler]]
|nationality = English
|notable_works = ''[[Hudibras]]'' (1663–1678)
|birth_date = baptized 14 February 1613
|birth_place = [[Strensham]], [[Worcestershire]], [[Kingdom of England|England]]
|death_date = 25 September 1680 (aged 67)
|death_place = [[London]], England
}}

'''Samuel Butler'''  (baptized 14 February 1613 – 25 September 1680) was an English poet and satirist. He is remembered now chiefly for a long [[satire|satirical]] poem titled ''[[Hudibras]]''.

==Biography==
Samuel Butler was born in [[Strensham]], Worcestershire, and was the son of a farmer and [[churchwarden]], also named Samuel. His date of birth is unknown, but there is documentary evidence for the date of his baptism of 14 February.<ref name="wilding">{{cite journal|first=R.M.|last=Wilding|title=The Date of Samuel Butler's Baptism|journal=Review of English Studies|volume= 17|issue=66|date=May 1966|page=175|jstor=512478}}</ref> The date of Butler's baptism is given as 8 February by [[Treadway Russell Nash]] in his 1793 edition of ''Hudibras''. Nash had already mentioned Butler in his ''Collections for a History of Worcestershire'' (1781), and perhaps because the latter date seemed to be a revised account, it has been repeated by many writers and editors. However, The parish register of Strensham records under the year 1612: "Item was christened Samuell Butler the sonne of Samuell Butler the xiiijth of February anno ut supra". [[Lady Day]], 25 March, was New Year's Day in England at the time, so the year of his baptism was 1613 according to the change of the start of the year with the [[Calendar (New Style) Act 1750|Calendar Act of 1750]] (see [[Old Style and New Style dates]]).<ref name="wilding"/> Nash also claims in his 1793 edition of ''Hudibras'' that Butler's father entered his son's baptism into the register, an error that was also repeated in later publications; however, the entry was clearly written by a different hand.<ref name="wilding"/>

Butler was brought up in the household of [[Sir William Russell, 1st Baronet, of Wytley|Sir William Russell]] of Strensham and became his clerk.{{sfn|Willis-Bund|1905|p=149}} "When just a Boy he would make observations and reflections on every Thing one sayd or did, and censure it to be either well or ill. He was never at the University for the reason alleged."<ref name="Aubrey's Brief Lives 1957. p 45">Aubrey's Brief Lives. Edited from the Original manuscripts. University of Michigan Press. Ann Arbor. 1957. p 45.</ref> He was educated at the [[King's School, Worcester]], under [[Henry Bright (schoolmaster, born 1562)|Henry Bright]] whose teaching is recorded favourably by [[Thomas Fuller]], a contemporary writer, in his ''[[Worthies of England]]''.  In early youth he was a servant to the [[Elizabeth Grey, Countess of Kent|Countess of Kent]].<ref name="SBDEL">{{cite SBDEL|wstitle=Butler, Samuel (satirist) |page=66|noicon=x}}</ref> Through Lady Kent he met her steward, the jurist [[John Selden]] who influenced his later writings.  He also tried his hand at painting but was reportedly not very good at it; one of his editors reporting that "his pictures served to stop windows and save the tax" ([[Window tax|on window glass]]). Conversely, John Aubrey who knew Butler quite well enough to be one of his pallbearers, wrote that "He was thinking once to have made painting his Profession. His love to and skill in painting made a great friendship between him and Mr. [[Samuel Cooper (painter)|Samuel Cowper]] (The Prince of Limners of this Age)." He studied law but did not practice.<ref name="Aubrey's Brief Lives 1957. p 45"/>

After the [[Restoration (England)|Restoration]] he became secretary, or steward, to [[Richard Vaughan, 2nd Earl of Carbery]], [[Lord President of Wales]], which entailed living at least a year in [[Ludlow]], Shropshire, until January 1662 while he was paying craftsmen working on repairing the castle there.<ref name="SBDEL"/><ref name="Dickins 1987">{{harvnb|Dickins|1987|pp=12, 101}}.</ref> In late 1662 the first part of ''Hudibras'', which he began writing when lodging at [[Holborn]], London, in 1658 and continued to work on while in Ludlow,<ref name="Dickins 1987"/> was published, and the other two in 1664 and 1678 respectively.<ref name="SBDEL"/> One early purchaser of the first two parts was [[Samuel Pepys]]. While the diarist acknowledged that the book was the "greatest fashion" he could not see why it was found to be so witty.{{sfn|Pepys|2017}}
[[File:Bust of Samuel Butler, Westminster Abbey.jpg|thumb|Memorial to Butler, Westminster Abbey]]
Despite the popularity of ''Hudibras'', Butler was not offered a place at Court. "Satyrical Witts disoblige whom they converse with; and consequently make to themselves many Enemies and few Friends; and this was his manner and case."<ref>Aubrey's Brief Lives. Edited from the Original manuscripts. University of Michigan Press. Ann Arbor. 1957. p 46.</ref> However, Butler is thought to have been in the employment of the [[George Villiers, 2nd Duke of Buckingham|Duke of Buckingham]] in the summer of 1670, and accompanied him on a diplomatic mission to France.<ref>Norma E. Bentley. "'Hudibras' Butler Abroad", ''Modern Language Notes'', Vol. 60, No. 4, April 1945, pp.254–9</ref> Butler also received financial support in the form of a grant from [[Charles II of England|King Charles II]].<ref>Norma E. Bentley. "A Grant to 'Hudibras' Butler", ''Modern Language Notes'', Vol. 59, No.4, April 1944, pp.281.</ref>

During the latter part of his life, Butler lived in a house in the now partially demolished Rose Street, to the west of [[Covent Garden]].<ref name=Timbs>{{cite book|first=John|last=Timbs|author-link=John Timbs|title=Curiosities of London: Exhibiting the Most Rare and Remarkable Objects of Interest in the Metropolis|url=https://archive.org/stream/curiositiesoflon00timbrich#page/535/mode/1up|year=1855|publisher=D. Bogue|page=535}}</ref>

==Death==
Butler died of [[tuberculosis|consumption]] on 25 September 1680, and was buried on 27 September in the Church-yard of [[St. Paul's, Covent Garden]]; in the north part next to the church at the east end. "His feet touch the wall. His grave 2 yards distant from the Pillaster of the Dore (by his desire) 6 feet deep"<ref name="Aubrey's Brief Lives 1957. p 47">Aubrey's Brief Lives. Edited from the Original manuscripts. University of Michigan Press. Ann Arbor. 1957. p 47</ref> at the expense of a Mr. Longueville, although he was not in debt when he died.<ref name=Timbs /> Aubrey in ''[[Brief Lives]]'' describes his grave as "being in the north part next to the church at the east end ... 2 yards distant from the pillaster of the dore".<ref name="Aubrey's Brief Lives 1957. p 47" /><ref>John Aubrey. ''Brief Lives, chiefly of Contemporaries'', ed. Andrew Clark, (Oxford, Clarendon Press 1898) vol. 1, p. 136.</ref> Also, a monument to him was placed in Westminster Abbey in 1732 by a printer, John Barber, and the [[Lord Mayor of London]].<ref>Arthur Penrhyn Stanley.  ''Historical Memorials of Westminster Abbey''.  Fourth ed.  (London, John Murray, 1868), p. 280.</ref>  There is also a memorial plaque to him in the small village church of Strensham, Worcestershire, near the town of [[Upton upon Severn]], his birthplace.

==''Hudibras''==
{{main|Hudibras}}
[[File:HudibrasButler1744.jpg|thumb|250px|right|Frontispiece and titlepage of a 1744 illustrated and annotated edition of Butler's ''Hudibras'']]
''[[Hudibras]]'' is directed against religious sectarianism. The poem was very popular in its time, and several of its phrases have passed into the dictionary. It was sufficiently popular to spawn imitators. ''Hudibras'' takes some of its characterization from ''[[Don Quixote]]'' but, unlike that work, it has many more references to personalities and events of the day.<ref name="SBDEL"/> Butler was also influenced by satirists such as [[John Skelton (poet)|John Skelton]] and [[Paul Scarron]]'s ''[[Virgile travesti]]''; a satire on classical literature, particularly [[Virgil]].<ref>Butler, Samuel, ''Hudibras: The Second Part'', London 1663. Facsimile ed., 1994, Scholars' Facsimiles & Reprints, {{ISBN|978-0-8201-1469-9}}.</ref>

''Hudibras'' was reprinted many times in the centuries following Butler's death. Two of the more noteworthy editions are those edited by Zachery Grey (1744) and [[Treadway Russell Nash]] (1793). The standard edition of the work was edited by John Wilders (1967).

==Other writings==
Most of his other writings never saw print until they were collected and published by [[Robert Thyer]] in 1759. Butler wrote many short [[biography|biographies]], [[epigram]]s and verses, the earliest surviving from 1644.  Of his verses, the best known is "The Elephant on the Moon", about a [[mouse]] trapped in a [[telescope]], a [[satire]] on [[Paul Neale|Sir Paul Neale]] of the [[Royal Society]].  Butler's taste for the [[mock heroic]] is shown by another early poem ''Cynarctomachy'', or Battle between Bear and Dogs, which is both a homage to and a parody of a Greek poem ascribed to [[Homer]], ''[[Batrachomyomachia]]''. 
He wrote the poem ''Upon Philip Nye's Thanksgiving Beard''<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/collection_object_details/collection_image_gallery.aspx?assetId=899641001&objectId=3315139&partId=1|title=Image gallery: Philip Nye's Thanksgiving Beard|website=British Museum|access-date=1 September 2017}}</ref><ref>Samuel Butler, The Genuine Poetical Remains, page 175</ref> about the Puritan [[Philip Nye]] and later also mentioned him in ''[[Hudibras]]''.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.asp?compid=45401|title=Acton - British History Online|website=www.british-history.ac.uk|access-date=1 September 2017}}</ref>

His supposed lack of money later in life is strange as he had numerous unpublished works which could have offered him income including a set of [[Theophrastus|Theophrastan]] character sketches which were not printed until 1759. Many other works are dubiously attributed to him.

==Quotations==
{{Copy to Wikiquote|section=yes}}
{{Blockquote|A News-monger is a Retailer of Rumour, that takes up upon Trust, and sells as cheap as he buys. He deals in a perishable Commodity, that will not keep: for if it be not fresh it lies upon his Hands, and will yield nothing. True or false is all one to him; for Novelty being the Grace of bothe, a Truth grows stale as soon as a Lye...|Samuel Butler, ''Characters''}}<ref>{{Gutenberg book|bullet=none|no=10699|name=Character Writings of the 17th Century|first=Henry|last=Morley|year=1891}}</ref>

==Notes==
{{Reflist}}

==References==
*{{citation |last=Dickins|first=Gordon |year=1987 |title=An Illustrated Literary Guide to Shropshire |publisher=Shropshire Libraries |pages=12, 101 |isbn=0-903802-37-6}}
*{{citation |first=Samuel |last=Pepys |date=1 September 2017 |chapter-url=http://www.pepysdiary.com/archive/1663/12/10/ |chapter=Thursday 10 December 1663 |editor-first= Phil |editor-last=Gyford. |title=The Diary of Samuel Pepys: Daily entries from the 17th century London diary |publisher=www.pepysdiary.com|access-date=23 January 2012}}
*{{citation |last=Willis-Bund |first=John William |author-link=John William Willis-Bund |year=1905 |title=The Civil War in Worcestershire 1642-1646 and the Scotch invasion of 1651|publisher=Simpkin, Marshall, Hamilton, Kent and Company|pages=[https://archive.org/stream/civilwarinworce00bundgoog#page/n37/mode/1up 25]}}

== External links ==
* {{Commons category-inline|Samuel Butler (poet)}}
* {{Wikiquote-inline|Samuel Butler (poet)}}
* {{wikisource author-inline}}
* {{Cite EB1911|wstitle=Butler, Samuel (poet) |short=x}}
* {{Gutenberg author |id=4418}}
* {{Internet Archive author |sname=Samuel Butler |birth=1613 |death=1680}}
* {{Librivox author |id=1305}}
* [http://www.exclassics.com/hudibras/hbintro.htm ''Hudibras'' etext]

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Butler, Samuel}}
[[Category:1613 births]]
[[Category:1680 deaths]]
[[Category:17th-century English poets]]
[[Category:17th-century English male writers]]
[[Category:17th-century English biographers]]
[[Category:17th-century deaths from tuberculosis]]
[[Category:People educated at King's School, Worcester]]
[[Category:English satirists]]
[[Category:English satirical poets]]
[[Category:People from Upton-upon-Severn]]
[[Category:English male poets]]