xiv
LIFE OF SAMUEL BUTLER.
mistaken the character of Mr Butler. The inscription runs thus:
"This little monument was erected in the year 1780, by some of the parishioners of Covent 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."
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."
Forty years after his burial at Covent Garden, that is, in 1721, John Barber, an eminent printer, and Lord Mayor of London, erected a monument to his memory in Westminster Abbey, with the following inscription:
M. S.
Samuelis Butler
Qui Strenshamiae in agro Vigorn. natus 1612,
Obiit Lond. 1680.
Vir doctus imprimis, acer, integer,
Operibus ingenii non item praemiis felix.
Satyrici apud nos carminis artifex egregius,
Qui simulatae religionis larvam detraxit
Et perduellium scelera liberrime exagitavit,
Scriptorum in suo genere primus et postremus.
Ne cui vivo deerant fere omnia
Deesset etiam mortuo tumulus
Hoc tandem posito marmore curavit
Johannes Barber civis Londinensis 1721.[1]
Samuelis Butler
Qui Strenshamiae in agro Vigorn. natus 1612,
Obiit Lond. 1680.
Vir doctus imprimis, acer, integer,
Operibus ingenii non item praemiis felix.
Satyrici apud nos carminis artifex egregius,
Qui simulatae religionis larvam detraxit
Et perduellium scelera liberrime exagitavit,
Scriptorum in suo genere primus et postremus.
Ne cui vivo deerant fere omnia
Deesset etiam mortuo tumulus
Hoc tandem posito marmore curavit
Johannes Barber civis Londinensis 1721.[1]
- ↑ Translation.—Sacred to the memory of Samuel Butler, who was born at Strensham, in Worcestershire, in 1612, and died in London, in 1680,—a man of great learning, acuteness, and integrity; happy in the productions of his intellect, not so in the remuneration of them; a super-eminent master of satirical poetry, by which he lifted the mask of hypocrisy, and boldly exposed the crimes of faction. As a writer, he was the first and last in his peculiar style. John Barber, a citizen of London, in 1721, by at length erecting this marble, took care that he, who wanted almost everything when alive, might not also want a tomb when dead. For an Engraving of the Monument, see Dart's Westminster Abbey, vol. i. plate 3.
