The Press.
London, England, 1855-11-10 00:00:00

SATURDAY,

yet he immortalised the ephemeral extrava-
gance, and gave lasting colours to the fading
fashions of sectarian grotesqueness. His
verses are still popular with the crowd;
while critics, in their easy-chairs, are gra.
tified by his wonderful power of vivifying
the conceptions gained by analysis. He
had an acute metaphysical faculty joined
to rare talent for the burlesque. Cervantes
and Rabelais are not the only authors recalled
to us by Butler. He has often made us think
of Pascal ; and some of the thoughts of •the
latter genius are not unlike those which might
spring from the brain of the author of " Hudi-
bras," as for example that quaintly profound
reflection, "If the nose of Cleopatra had been
" an inch shorter, the fate of the world might
" have been changed."
" Hudibras " is a poem requiring ample
annotation, in order to make the allusions
intelligible to general readers in our time,
and the present edition exhibits rare reading
and frequent references. Indeed, for the
introductory memoir there is rather a super-
fluity of annotation, and we should have pre-
ferred that Mr. Bell had taken some of his
foot-notes into the text of his commentary.
He has compressed into a small compass all
the main facts of Butler's life, which is a most
painfully-interesting chapter in literary bio-
graphy. It is sad to think how such rare
genius was neglected.
Tell 'em how Spenser died, how Cowley mourned,
How Butler's faith and service were returned,
wrote Otway, whose own fate was so sad.
And Dryden, in the " Hind and Panther,"
says :
This lasting verse shall on his tomb be read—
He shamed you living, and upbraids you dead.
But Oldham's lines are the finest of all in
reference to Butler, and are far superior to
Wesley's on the same subject. Mr. Bell has
cited them at length
On Butler who can think without just rage,
The glory, and the scandal of the age?
Fair stood his hopes, when first he came to town,
Met everywhere with welcomes of renown,
Courted, and loved by all, with wonder read,
And promises of princely favour fed;
But what reward for all had he at last,
After a life in dull expectance passed?
The wretch at summing up his misspent days
Found nothing left, but poverty and praise;
Of all his gains by verse he could not save
Enough to purchase flannel and a grave ;
Reduced to want, he in due time fell sick,
Was fain to die, and be interred on tick;
And well might bless the fever that was sent,
To rid him hence, and his worse fate prevent.
Party writers, whether in verse or prose,
hate always been doomed to injustice. The
passions which they have aided in exciting
grow cold, and their utility is disputed after
the occasions have passed away. Yet it is to
correct such injustice that " party " has been
instituted. Mr. Bell is warranted in saying
that, after all, there was nothing so exceptional
in the case of the author of " Hudibras.' It is
well observed by him :
It is unnecessary to seek in Butler's work, or in his
opinions, the causes of the indifference with which he was
treated, for it must be allowed that the Court was perfectly
impartial iu its neglect of literary claims. Otherwise we
might discover in the subject of his poem, and the integrity
of his religious convictions, some suggestions of a special
reason for consigning him to poverty. " Hudibras " cams
too late to render much practical service to the royalists.
The struggle was over, the victory was won, the adherents
of Cromwell were dispersed or dead, and the utmost that
the ridicule of the poet could effect was to disinter the
ascetic dogmas and dismal manners of Puritanism, and hold
them up to derision and contempt. This was something
hut it was an inferior merit to that of aiding in the contest
and contributing to the triumph, or to the still more valu-
able talent which was available for present and future uses.
They, however. who, like Cowley, suffered in the Civil
Wars, or, like Dryden, labored zealously under the Resto-
ration, fared little better. Nor can it be reasonably sup-
posed that Butler's uncompromising Protestantism had
anything to do with the ingratitude of royalty, since
Charles found it convenient to make the same profession
himself, and his successor ascended the throne with a
pledge to maintain the Established Church. Upon the
whole, there was nothing peculiar or exceptional in the
case of Butler. He shared the seine fate which, with
greater or lesser severity, descended upon all the writers
who supported the cause of the Stuarts.
Contemporary popularity was scarcely a com-
pensation for the neglect which he experienced.
The peril in which his fame was placed by his
imitators is remarkable :
In Butler's case the neglect of the Court was rendered
conspicuous by the approbation of the people. But from
this source, whatever consolation it may have yielded to