On the latter part of this epitaph the ingenious Mr Samuel Wesley wrote the following lines:
No generous patron would a dinner give;
See him, when starv'd to death, and turn'd to dust,
Presented with a monumental bust.
The poet's fate is here in emblem shown,
He ask'd for bread, and he received 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:
The body of Mr Samuel Butler,
Author of Hudibras.
He was a whole species of poets in one:
Admirable in a manner
In which no one else has been tolerable:
A manner which begun and ended in him,
In which he knew no guide,
And has found no followers.
Nat. 1612. Ob. 1680.
While in London, where Butler died, these tributes to his genius were set up at intervals by men of opposite principles, the place of his birth remained without any memorial until within the last few years, when a white marble tablet, with florid canopy, crockets, and finial, was placed in the parish church of Strensham, by John Taylor, of Strensham Court, Esq., upon whose estate the poet was born. In the design is a small figure of Hudibras, and the face of the tablet bears the following simple inscription:
"This tablet was erected to the memory of Samuel Butler, to transmit to future ages that near this spot was born a mind so celebrated. In Westminster Abbey, among the poets of England, his fame is recorded. Here, in his native village, in veneration of his talents and genius, this tribute to his memory has been erected by the possessor of the place of his birth—John Taylor, Strensham."
What became of the lady he married is unknown, as there is no subsequent trace of her; but it is presumed she died before him. Mr Gilfillan assumes that "subscriptions were raised for his widow," but gives no authority, and we believe none exists.
