their general application, not sufficient of a local habitation and a name to be embodied by the painter's art. To some few of the notes explanatory of phrases and words, the printer has ventured to make trifling additions, which he has placed within brackets that they may not be supposed to be Dr. Nash's, though had the excellent dictionary of the truly venerable Archdeacon Todd, and the Glossary of the late Archdeacon Nares, from which they are principally taken, been in existence in 1793, there can be little doubt but Dr. Nash would have availed himself of them. W. N. AUTOGRAPH OF SAMUEL BUTLER. thinke how Spencer dyed, how Cowly mound How Butler's faith & Serbias were Returnd. ON SAMUEL BUTLER, ESQ., AUTHOR OF HUDIBRAS. THE life of a retired scholar can furnish but little matter to the biographer: such was the character of Mr. Samuel Butler, author of Hudibras. His father, whose name likewise was Samuel, had an estate of his own of about ten pounds yearly, which still goes by the name of Butler's tenement: he held, likewise, an estate of three hundred pounds a year, under Sir William Russel, lord of the manor of Strensham, in Worcestershire.* He was not an ignorant farmer, but wrote a very clerk-like hand, kept the register, and managed all the business of the parish under the direction of his landlord, near whose house he lived, and from whom, very probably, he and his family received instruction and assistance. From his landlord they imbibed their principles of loyalty, as Sir William was most zealous royalist, and spent great part of his fortune in the cause, being the only person exempted from the benefit of the treaty, when Worcester surrendered to the parliament in the year 1646. Our poet's father was churchwarden of the parish the year before his son Samuel was born, and has entered his baptism, dated February 8, 1612, with his own hand, in the parish register. He had four sons and three daughters, born at Strensham; the three daughters, and one son older than our poet, and two *This information came from Mr. Gresley, rector of Strensham, from the year 1706 to the year 1773, when he died, aged 100: so that he was born seven years before the poet died. sons younger: none of his descendants remain in the parish, though some of them are said to be in the neighboring villages. Our author received his first rudiments of learning at home; he was afterwards sent to the college school at Worcester, then taught by Mr. Henry Bright,* prebendary of that cathedral, a celebrated scholar, and many years the famous master of the King's school there; one who made his business his delight; and, though in very easy circumstances, continued to teach for the sake of doing good, by benefiting the families of the neighboring gentlemen, who thought themselves happy in having their sons instructed by him. How long Mr. Butler continued under his care is not known, but, probably, till he was fourteen years old. * Mr. Bright is buried in the cathedral church of Worcester, near the north pillar, at the foot of the steps which lead to the choir. He was born 1562, appointed schoolmaster 1586, made prebendary 1619, died 1626. The inscription in capitals, on a mural stone, now placed in what is called the Bishop's Chapel, is as follows: Mane hospes et lege, Magister HENRICUS BRIGHT, Qui scholæ regiæ istic fundatæ per totos 40 annos Quo non alter magis sedulus fuit, scitusve, ac dexter, Teste utraque academia quam instruxit affatim Sed et totidem annis eoque amplius theologiam professus Vir pius, doctus, integer, frugi, de republica A laboribus per diu noctuque ab anno 1562 in Domino. See this epitaph, written by Dr. Joseph Hall, dean of Worcester, in Fuller's Worthies, p. 177. I have endeavored to revive the memory of this great and good teacher, wishing to excite a laudable emulation in our provincial schoolmasters; a race of men, who, if they execute their trust with abilities, industry, and in a proper manner, deserve the highest honor and patronage their country can bestow, as they have an opportunity of communicating learning, at a moderate expense, to the middle rank of gentry, without the danger of ruining their fortunes, and corrupting their morals or their health: this, though foreign to my present purpose, the respect and affection I bear to my neighbors extorted from me. Whether he was ever entered at any university is uncertain. His biographer says he went to Cambridge, but was never matriculated: Wood, on the authority of Butler's brother, says, the poot spent six or seven years there; but as other things are quoted from the same authority, which I believe to be false, I should very much suspect the truth of this article. Some expressions, in his works, look as if he were acquainted with the customs of Oxford. Coursing was a term peculiar to that university; see Part iii. c. ii. v. 1244. Returning to his native country, he entered into the service of Thomas Jefferies, Esq., of Earls Croombe, who, being a very active justice of the peace, and a leading man in the business of the province, his clerk was in no mean office, but one that required a knowledge of the law and constitution of his country, and a proper behavior to men of every rank and occupation: besides, in those times, before the roads were made good, and short visits so much in fashion, every large family was a community within itself: the upper servants, or retainers, being often the younger sons of gentlemen, were treated as friends, and the whole family dined in one common hall, and had a lecturer or clerk, who, during meal times, read to them some useful or entertaining book. Mr. Jefferies's family was of this sort, situated in a retired part of the country, surrounded by bad roads, the master of it residing constantly in Worcestershire. Here Mr. Butler had the advantage of living some time in the neighborhood of his own family and friends: and having leisure for indulging his inclinations for learning, he probably improved himself very much, not only in the abstruser branches of it, but in the polite arts: here he studied painting, in the practice of which indeed his proficiency was but moderate; for I recollect seeing at Earls Croombe, in my youth, some portraits said to be painted by him, which did him no great honor as an artist. I have heard, lately, of a portrait of Oliver Cromwell, said to be painted by our author. His residing in the neighborhood might, perhaps, occasion the idea of his having been at Cambridge. † In his MS. Common-place book is the following observation: It is more difficult, and requires a greater mastery of art in painting, to foreshorten a figure exactly, than to draw three at their just length; so it is, in writing, to express any thing naturally and briefly, than to enlarge and dilate: |
