Hudibras

Hudibras

Samuel Butler

Poeta nascitur non fit, [poets are born, not made] is a sentence

of as great truth as antiquity; it being most certain, that all the

acquired learning imaginable is insufficient to compleat a poet,

without a natural genius and propensity to so noble and sublime

an art. And we may, without offence, observe, that many very

learned men, who have been ambitious to be thought poets,

have only rendered themselves obnoxious to that satyrical

inspiration our Author wittily invokes:

Which made them, though it were in spight

Of nature and their stars, to 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

PART I