Hogan-Moganides: or the Dutch Hudibras. London, 1674.

The Irish Hudibras, or Fingallian Prince, taken from the Sixth Book of Virgil's Eneids, and adapted to the present times. London, 1689.

The Whigg's Supplication. A mock Poem, in two parts. By Sam. Colvil. Edinburgh, 1695.

Pendragon; or the Carpet Knight, his Kalendar. London, 1698. In Imitation of Hudibras. The Dissenting Hypocrite, or Occasional Conformist; with Reflections on Two of the Ringleaders, &c. London, 1704.

Vulgus Britannicus: or the British Hudibras. In fifteen Cantos. Containing the Secret History of the late London Mob, their rise, progress, and suppression by the Guards. Intermixed with the Civil Wars betwixt High-Church and Low-Church, down to this time: being a Continuation of the late ingenious Mr. Butler's Hudibras. Written by the Author of the London Spy. Second Edition. London, 1710.

Hudibras Redivivus: or a Burlesque Poem on the Times. In twenty-four Parts. With an Apology and some other Improvements throughout the whole. The fourth Edition. By E. Ward, Gent. London. N. D.

The Republican Procession; or the Tumultuous Cavalcade. A Merry Poem. The Second Impression, with additional Characters. 1714.

The Hudibrastic Brewer: or, a preposterous Union between Malt and Meter. A Satyr upon the supposed Author of the Republican Procession. London, 1714.

Four Hudibrastic Cantos, being-Poems on Four the greatest Heroes-That liv'd in any age since Nero's-Don Juan Howlet, Hudibras-Dickoba-nes and Bonniface. London, 1715. Posthumous Works in Prose and Verse of Mr. Samuel Butler, in three Volumes. The sixth Edition. London, 1720.

England's Reformation, (from the Time of K. Henry VIII. to the end of Oates's Plot.) A Poem in four Cantos. By Thomas Ward. London, 1747.

The Irish Hudibras, Hesperi-neso-graphia: or, a description of the Western Isle. In eight Cantos, with Annotations. By William Moffett, School-Master. London, 1755.

The Poetical Works of the ingenious and learned William Meston, A.M. Edinburgh, 1767.

It is the curse of original and successful writers to be dogged at the heels by a crowd of servile imitators, who copy and exaggerate their defects, caricature their peculiarities of thought and style, and force their own base metal into circulation by stamping it with the counterfeit impress of genius.* A work at once so novel and so powerful as Hudibras; so calculated to attract the admiration of the multitude by its oddity, of the courtier by its wit, and of the scholar by its sense and learning; falling in with the politics of the prevailing party, and extolled and quoted by the reigning sovereign; could hardly escape the martyrdom of imitation. It has naturally given rise to a number of plagiarisms and mimickries of its style, plan, and title, of various but all of infinitely inferior merit. These publications, though individually of little worth and interest, acquire some importance from their number and diversity, and a brief review of them, with some specimens of their styles, may not be altogether unprofitable and uninteresting. It required, however, no ordinary exertion of patience and perseverance to toil through the dreary pages of dull scurrility and studied obscenity, which have assumed and degraded the title of Hudibrastic Poems, and we have often paused in dismay and weariness, doubting whether the scanty gleanings of these barren flats would repay us for the labour of our cheerless researches. It is not our intention to advert to such works as the Scarronides, the Maronides, the Homer-à-la-Mode, &c. which have little in common with the poem of Butler, but the coarseness and the doggrel metre; but to confine ourselves to the more direct and avowed imitations of the style and plan of Hudibras.

"An imitator (says Butler, in his admirable Characters,) is a counterfeit stone, and the larger and fairer he appears the more apt he is to be discovered, whilst small ones, that pretend to no great value, pass unsuspected. He has a kind of monkey and baboon wit, that takes after some man's way, whom he endeavours to imitate, but does it worse than those things that are naturally his own; for he does not learn, but takes his pattern out, as a girl does her sampler. He is but a retainer to wit, and a follower of his master, whose badge he wears every where, and therefore his way is called servile imitation. His muse is not inspired, but infected with another man's fancy; and he catches his wit, like the itch, of somebody else that had it before, and when he writes he does but scratch himself. He binds himself prentice to a trade which he has no stock to set up with, if he should serve out his time, and live to be made free." Remains, vol. 2.

The Second Part of Hudibras, which stands at the head of our article, is one of those experiments which have been made, time out of mind, on the credulity of the public, by dishonest authors and publishers, to whose knavery the poem of Butler offered as conspicuous a mark as Don Juan and the Tales of my Landlord, in more modern times. This counterfeit continuation opens with a description of the multitude assembling to celebrate the May-games: they erect their May-pole at Kingston-upon-Thames, where Sir Hudibras happened to be dining with a justice of the peace, and a brother knight, who,

"did command the Cheshire forces,

And had a face as round as horses;
His teeth were grown to the same length,
And wanted nothing but in strength
To pass for one, beasts know not theirs,
And he was robb'd of his by fears;
His name did rumble like to thun-
Der, Gulielmo Knight Sir B-ton."

This zealous triumvirate sally out, attended by their squires, to put down the popish abomination of the May-pole, but are defeated and soundly banged by the rabble. The two knights propose different schemes of vengeance on their plebeian adversaries; but, finding the justice less implacable in his resentment, they leave the place in dudgeon. Falling in with a French mountebank, vending his wares on a stage, they valiantly capture him and his attendants, convey them to an inn, and condemn the prisoners to pay the whole of the reckoning. The latter, however, give them the slip during the night, and carry off the cash and cloaks of the tipsy squires. A fair, which takes place the next morning, rouses the reforming spirit of Sir Hudibras; and he and his companion, mounting their horses, advance to assail the assembled multitude, and make a dreadful havoc with the puppets and hobby horses. Their triumphal career is soon interrupted by the opposition of the butchers and their dogs, and the knights-errant are finally dismounted and vanquished. The literary merits of this unknown writer are on a par with his honesty: indeed, we have never had the misery of reading a more contemptible and worthless publication.

Butler's Ghost, or Hudibras the Fourth Part, written by Tom D'Urfey, of facetious memory, is a continuation of Butler's story. The knight, driven to despair by the fatal Epistle

Sir William Brereton.

of the Widow, resolves to end his miserable existence, and makes preparations for suspending himself in his own barn. He is, however, prevented from carrying this desperate resolve into execution by the intervention of Ralpho, who assures him of success in his amour if he will be guided by his advice. In obedience to the directions of his sapient squire, Sir Hudibras lays aside his tattered warlike habiliments, orders a gay courting dress, and completely modernizes his outward man. By a well-timed bribe to the widow's trustees, (to whom that dame had been as liberal of her favours as she had been niggardly to the knight,) Sir Hudibras obtains their consent, which is followed by that of the lady. The festivity of their weddingfeast is interrupted by the squabbles of the disputatious guests, who proceed from words to blows, and it requires all the authority and eloquence of the knight to restore order. The bride and one of her trustees had withdrawn during the scuffle; and the knight, convinced of their perfidy, with the assistance of his trusty squire, vanquishes and commits them to durance vile, and then retires to bed,

"And mourns in tears his late miscarriage,
And curses fatal love and marriage."

This composition is little more than a tissue of tasteless ribaldry, without any seasoning of wit, or even of amusing absurdity. The following passage is the nearest approach to any thing Hudibrastic. The knight, on hearing of his spouse's infidelity, starts a scruple, whether sight was an evidence to be trusted in a case of such intricacy and importance.

""Tis possible, my friend (quoth he)
And all the schoolmen do agree,
That drowzy epileptick Nature
Cannot at all times judge o' th' matter,
The eyes and understanding being
Unfit for knowledge, or for seeing;
The sense by sleep may be corrupted,
As 'tis by wine, when long we have supt it,
And the objects, which we seem to view,
May be but fancies, and not true,
The effects of rage and stupid folly,
Diseases, or of melancholy,
Sudden surprizes and affrights;
As women, walking in dark nights,
Charm'd by their fear, think every post

Or bush, a devil or a ghost;

The laws of honour are so nice,
That it behoves us to be wise,
And in our minds the proverb keep,
That bids us look before we leap,
And take substantial satisfaction
O' th' truth, before we fall to action:
The stoicks tell us,

(And those I think were learned fellows)
That no one certain matter knows,

But only through a grand suppose;

As thus now if thy passive bones

Were drub'd with plant, or bruis'd with stones,
Or that opinionated scull

Were bastinadoed soft as wool,

Beating you must not bluntly own,

But only must suppose it done;
Implying from less things to greater,
There is no certainty in nature:
And this philosophy should teach thee,
If any occult art can reach thee,
Not to affirm what objects show,
But to suppose it may be so."

Butler's Ghost.

Hudibras at Court, published in Butler's Spurious Remains, is so utterly destitute of merit, that we have been unable to find a passage in it to extract. It relates, in spiritless doggrel, the return of the knight and squire from "colonelling," after the downfall of the Rump, their conferences on the best methods of securing their necks, and the resolution of Sir Hudibras to try his fortune at court. The partiality of the king for the poem of Hudibras is absurdly transferred to the hero, and his ingratitude to him, "who fitted out this knight and squire," is commented on in a very just, but a very dull manner. ble Downs, in the same delectable collection, is almost as worthless as its companion, and, like that, is eked out with scraps from Hudibras,

"Like fustian heretofore with satin."

Dunsta

It relates the attempt of Sir Hudibras to enclose Dunstable Downs, and his capture and circumvention by the gypsie king.

There are also Hudibras's Elegy and Hudibras's Epitaph, but we shall not afflict our readers with any specimens of such contemptible impositions.

Having despatched these apocryphal continuations, we shall briefly notice the principal poems which have been written