Samuel Butler (December 4,1612 - June 18,1680) was born in Worcestershire: he is remembered now primarily for a long satirical burlesque poem on Puritanism entitled Hudibras . There is a memorial plaque to him in the small village church of Strensham, Worcestershire, near the town of Upton upon Severn, his birthplace.

The figure of Hudibras is a "true blew Englishman," a perfect Puritan knight of the Cromwellian stamp. Butler pretends to write a fawning, heroic poem in praise of Hudibras and his exploits, but the poem is a mock heroic or parody.

Hudibras was written in an iambic tetrameter in closed couplets, with surprising feminine rhymes. This verse form is now referred to as Hudibrastic. Consider the following from the opening of the poem, where the English Civil War is described thus:

"When civil dudgeon first grew high,
And men fell out they knew not why?
When hard words, jealousies, and fears,
Set folks together by the ears,
And made them fight, like mad or drunk,
For Dame Religion, as for punk;
Whose honesty they all durst swear for,
Though not a man of them knew wherefore...."

Hudibras was published in three parts in 1663, 1664, and 1678. One fan was Charles II, who granted him a pension. He is buried in Westminster Abbey.

Butler wrote many short biographies, epigrams and verses. Of his verses, the best known is "The Elephant on the Moon", about a mouse in a telescope, a satire on Sir Paul Neale of the Royal Society.

Quotation

• 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 (17th c.), Characters

External link

• e-text of Hudibras

For the 19th-century author of Erewhon, see Samuel "Erewhon" Butler.