generally read and perpetually quoted. The wit of Butler has still preserved many lines; but Hudibras now attracts comparatively few readers. The eulogies of Johnson' seem rather adapted to what he remembered to have been the fame of Butler than to the feelings of the surrounding generation; and since his time new sources of amusement have sprung up, and writers of a more intelligible pleasantry have superseded those of the seventeenth century.

2. In the fiction of Hudibras there was never much to divert the reader, and there is still less left at present. But what has been censured as a fault-the length of dialogue, which puts the fiction out of sight—is, in fact, the source of all the pleasure that the work affords. The sense of Butler is masculine, his wit inexhaustible, and it is supplied from every source of reading and observation. But these sources are often so unknown to the reader that the wit loses its effect through the obscurity of its allusions, and he yields to the bane of wit—a purblind, molelike pedantry. His versification is sometimes spirited, and his rhymes humorous; yet he wants that ease and flow which we require in light poetry.

"The poem of Hudibras is one of those compositions of which a nation may justly boast; as the images which it exhibits are domestic, the sentiments unborrowed and unexpected, and the strain of diction original and peculiar. . . . If inexhaustible wit could give perpetual pleasure, no eye could ever leave half read the work of Butler; for what poet has ever brought so many remote images so happily together? It is scarcely possible to peruse a page without finding some association of images never found before. By the first paragraph the reader is amused, by the next he is delighted, and by a few more, strained to astonishment."—DR. JOHNSON: Lives of the Poets.

EXTRACTS FROM HUDIBRAS.

[INTRODUCTION.-Hudibras is a political satire, written in the mock-heroic vein, its aim being to ridicule the Puritans. There is, properly speaking, no plot in the poem. Sir Hudibras and his squire go forth to stop the amusements of the common people, against which the Rump Parliament has passed some severe laws. "It is," says Angus, "in the description of the scenes in which they mingle, in the sketches of character, and in the most humorous dialogue in which the two heroes indulge that the power of the book consists.” The meter is iambic tetrameter—that is, the octosyllabic line of the legends of the Round Table and of the old Norman romances-and is scanned thus: When civil dud'- | geon first' | grew high'.]

I.-ACCOMPLISHMENTS OF HUDIBRAS.

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; ...
When gospel-trumpeter, surrounded
With long-eared rout, to battle sounded;

NOTES. Line 1. dudgeon, fury. By 2. they knew not why. This is, of course,

"civil dudgeon" is meant the

civil war which broke out in

England in 1642, between Par

a royalist view; the stern Puritans thought they knew pretty well "why" they "fell out."

liament and Charles I. The 3. hard words. The reference is to the

uncouth religious terms employed by the Presbyterians. gospel-trumpeter. The reference is to the Puritan preachers, who, by their denunciations of royalty and episcopacy, did so much to bring about the state of things that precipitated the civil war. "Rout " = crew,

parliamentarians, in general, be-
longed to the Puritan or Presby-
terian sect; while the royalists, 5.
who called themselves Cava-
liers, were Episcopalians. The
conduct of the war on the side
of Parliament soon fell into the
hands of Oliver Cromwell, who
carried it to a successful issue. 6. long-eared rout.
Charles I. was executed in 1649,
and Cromwell became Lord
Protector of England; but the
house of Stuart was restored in
1660 in the person of Charles
II.

set. The Puritans were called, in derision, Roundheads, on account of their practice of cropping their hair short-a fashion which "made their ears appear to greater advantage."

LITERARY ANALYSIS. — I-IO. When civil... a-colonelling. What kind of sentence is this rhetorically?-What effect is gained by employing the term "dudgeon," a word belonging to the diction of burlesque?

And pulpit, drum ecclesiastic,

Was beat with fist instead of a stick;
Then did Sir Knight abandon dwelling,
And out he rode a-colonelling.

A wight he was, whose very sight would
Entitle him mirror of knighthood,

That never bowed his stubborn knee
To anything but chivalry,

Nor put up blow but that which laid
Right worshipful on shoulder-blade.

*

*

We grant, although he had much wit,
H' was very shy of using it,
As being loath to wear it out,
And therefore bore it not about,
Unless on holidays or so,

As men their best apparel do.

7. drum ecclesiastic. Alluding to the vehement action of the Presby

colonel in the Parliamentary army.

terian preachers in the pulpit, | II. wight, person.

which they were in the habit 13, 14. That never...

of pounding vigorously.

9, 10. Sir Knight... a-colonelling. "Sir

Knight" is Sir Hudibras, the

. chivalry: that is,

he knelt to the king when he knighted him, but on no other

occasion.

hero of the poem. The original 15, 16. Nor put up blow... shoulder-blade.

is supposed to have been Sir
Samuel Lake, in whose family
Butler lived for some time after

the civil war, and who was a

LITERARY ANALYSIS.-7. drum ecclesiastic. What figure is "drum?" (See Def. 20.)-Observe the mock-majesty of placing the epithet after the noun. 7, 8. ecclesiastic... a stick. It will be noted that each of these lines contains a redundant syllable; or, in the language of prosody, they are hypermeters.-The speaking of "a stick" as one word with the stress upon a heightens the burlesque effect.

11. wight. Does this word belong to the grave or the burlesque style? What term would probably be used in the grave style?

13. stubborn knee. Why "stubborn?"

19. to wear it out.

Observe how the image suggested by this phrase is

carried out in the simile in the last part of the sentence.

25. difficile (pronounced difficile), difficult.

30. had not one word: that is, did not know one word of Greek or Latin.

32. analytic. "Analytic method takes the whole compound as it finds it, whether it be a species or an individual, and leads us into the

generic nature and special prop-
erties: this is called the method
of resolution." DR. WATTS:
Logic.

33, 34. He could... south-west side.
The reference is to the subtle
distinctions made by the class
of philosophers called school-

men.

knowledge of it by resolving it 36. change hands: that is, take the
into its principles or parts, its
other side of the argument.

LITERARY ANALYSIS.-23-26. Besides... whistle. Point out the two ludicrous comparisons in this sentence.-How is the ridiculous effect heightened by the rhymes?

34. A hair 'twixt south, etc. What term, expressing the idea in this sentence, do we often apply to a person who makes needlessly fine distinctions? What is the figure of speech? (See Def. 20.) (See Def. 27.)

40. a lord may be an owl. What is the effect intended?

35

49

3C

25

A calf an alderman, a goose a justice,
And rooks committee-men and trustees.
He'd run in debt by disputation,
And pay with ratiocination.
All this by syllogism, true

In mood and figure, he would do.
For rhetoric, he could not ope

His mouth but out there flew a trope;
And when he happened to break off
I' th' middle of his speech, or cough,
H' had hard words ready to show why,
And tell what rules he did it by ;
Else, when with greatest art he spoke,
You'd think he talked like other folk;
For all a rhetorician's rules

Teach nothing but to name his tools.

But when he pleased to show 't, his speech
In loftiness of sound was rich-

A Babylonish dialect

Which learned pedants* much affect:

42. committee-men. During the English | 46. In mood and figure.

civil war there were formed, in several counties siding with Parliament, committees composed of such men as were for the "good cause," as it was called. 44. ratiocination, formal reasoning. 45. syllogism, the regular logical form

"Mood" and

"figure" have reference to the nature and the order of the three propositions in a syllogism.

47. ope = open.

48. trope, a certain class of figures of speech, as metaphor, synecdoche, etc.

of every argument, consisting
of three propositions, of which 59.
the first two are called premises,
and the last the conclusion.

Babylonish dialect, the sort of jargon spoken at Babel after the confusion of tongues.

LITERARY ANALYSIS. —41, 42. A calf... trustees. Supply the ellipsis in these lines.

47-56. What two passages in this sentence are familiar quotations? Is it true that the rules of sound rhetoric teach one "nothing but to name his tools?" Do they not also teach how to handle these tools?

59. dialect. What is the grammatical construction of "dialect?"