poet; some of his observations may be amusing, I shall therefore insert them in a note. He married Mrs. Herbert, whether she was a widow, or 2 "The French use so many words, upon all occasions, that if they did not cut them short in pronunciation, they would grow tedious, and insufferable. "They infinitely affect rhyme, though it becomes their language the worst in the world, and spoils the little sense they have to make room for it, and make the same syllable rhyme to itself, which is worse than metal upon metal in heraldry: they find it much easier to write plays in verse than in prose, for it is much harder to imitate nature, than any deviation from her; and prose requires a more proper and natural sense and expression than verse, that has something in the stamp and coin to answer for the alloy and want of intrinsic value. I never came among them, but the following line was in my mind: Raucaq; garrulitas, studiumq; inane loquendi; for they talk so much, they have not time to think; and if they had all the wit in the world, their tongues would run before it. "The present king of France is building a most stately triumphal arch in memory of his victories, and the great actions which he has performed: but, if I am not mistaken, those edifices which bear that name at Rome, were not raised by the emperors whose names they bear (such as Trajan, Titus, &c.) but were decreed by the Senate, and built at the expence of the public; for that glory is lost, which any man designs to consecrate to himself. "The king takes a very good course to weaken the city of Paris by adorning of it, and to render it less, by making it appear greater and more glorious; for he pulls down whole streets to make room for his palaces and public structures. "There is nothing great or magnificent in all the country, that I have seen, but the buildings and furniture of the king's houses and the churches; all the rest is mean and paltry. "The king is necessitated to lay heavy taxes upon his subjects in his own defence, and to keep them poor, in order to keep them quiet; for if they are suffered to enjoy any plenty, they are naturally not, is uncertain; with her he expected a considerable fortune, but, through various losses, and knavery, he found himself disappointed: to this some have attributed his severe strictures upon the professors of the law; but if his censures be properly considered, they will be found to bear hard only upon the disgraceful part of each profession, and upon false learning in general: this was a favourite subject with him, but no man had a greater regard for, or was a better judge of the worthy part of the three learned professions, or learning in general, than Mr. Butler. How long he continued in office, as steward of Ludlow Castle, is not known; but he lived the latter part of his life in Rose-street, Covent Gar so insolent, that they would become ungovernable, and use him as they have done his predecessors: but he has rendered himself so strong, that they have no thoughts of attempting any thing in his time. "The churchmen overlook all other people as haughtily as the churches and steeples do private houses. "The French do nothing without ostentation, and the king himself is not behind with his triumphal arches consecrated to himself, and his impress of the sun, nec pluribus impar. "The French king having copies of the best pictures from Rome, is as a great prince wearing clothes at second hand: the king in his prodigious charge of buildings and furniture does the same thing to himself that he means to do by Paris, renders himself weaker, by endeavouring to appear the more magnificent: lets go the substance for shadow." den, in a studious retired manner, and died there in the year 1680.-He is said to have been buried at the expence of Mr. William Longueville, though he did not die in debt. Some of his friends wished to have interred him in Westminster Abbey with proper solemnity; but not finding others willing to contribute to the expence, his corpse was deposited privately in the yard belonging to the church of Saint Paul's Covent Garden, at the west end of the said yard, on the north side, under the wall of the said church, and under that wall which parts the yard from the common highway.' I have been thus particular, because, in the year 1786, when the church was repaired, a marble monument was placed on the south side of the church on the inside, by some of the parishioners, which might tend to mislead posterity as to the place of his interment: their zeal for the memory of the learned poet does them honour; but the writer of the verses seems to have mistaken the character of Mr. Butler. The inscription runs thus, "This little monument was erected in the year "1786, by some of the parishioners of Covent * See Butler's Life, printed before the small edition of Hudibras, in 1710, and reprinted by Dr. Grey. "Garden, in memory of the celebrated Samuel "Butler, who was buried in this church, A.D. "1680. "A few plain men, to pomp and state unknown, "O'er a poor bard have rais'd this humble stone, "Whose wants alone his genius could surpass, "Victim of zeal! the matchless Hudibras! "What though fair freedom suffer'd in his page, "Reader, forgive the author for the age! "How few, alas! disdain to cringe and cant, "When 'tis the mode to play the sycophant. "But, oh! let all be taught, from Butler's fate, "Who hope to make their fortunes by the great, "That wit and pride are always dangerous things, "And little faith is due to courts and kings." In the year 1721, John Barber, an eminent printer, and alderman of London, erected a monument to our poet in Westminster Abbey, the inscription is as follows: M. S. Samuelis Butler Qui Strenshamiæ in agro Vigorn. natus 1612, Vir doctus imprimis, acer, integer, Ne cui vivo deerant fere omnia Deesset etiam mortuo tumulus Hoc tandem posito marmore curavit Johannes Barber civis Londinensis 1721. On the latter part of this epitaph the ingenious Mr. Samuel Wesley wrote the following lines: While Butler, needy wretch, was yet alive, No generous patron would a dinner give; See him, when starv'd to death, and turn'd to dust, The poet's fate is here in emblem shown, He ask'd for bread, and he receiv'd a stone. Soon after this monument was erected in Westminster Abbey, some persons proposed to erect one in Covent Garden church, for which Mr. Dennis wrote the following inscription: Near this place lies interr'd He was a whole species of poets in one: In which no one else has been tolerable: And has found no followers. Nat. 1612. Ob. 1680. Hudibras is Mr. Butler's capital work, and though the characters, poems, thoughts, &c. pub lished by Mr. Thyer, in two volumes octavo, are |