Hudibras is a mock heroic narrative poem from the 17th century written by Samuel Butler.
Purpose
The work is a satirical
polemicPolemics is the practice of disputing or controverting significant, broad-reaching topics of magnitude such as religious, philosophical, political, or scientific matters...
upon
Roundhead"Roundhead" was the nickname given to the supporters of Parliament during the English Civil War. Also known as Parliamentarians, they were the supporters of Oliver Cromwell against King Charles I. Cromwell rose to prominence as a Member of Parliament and Parliamentary soldier, and eventually...
s,
PuritanA Puritan of 16th and 17th-century England was an associate of any number of religious groups advocating for more "purity" of worship and doctrine, as well as personal and group piety. Puritans felt that the English Reformation had not gone far enough, and that the Church of England was tolerant...
s, Presbyterians and many of the other factions involved in the
English Civil WarThe English Civil War was a series of armed conflicts and political machinations between Parliamentarians and Royalists. The first and second civil wars pitted the supporters of King Charles I against the supporters of the Long Parliament, while the third war saw fighting between supporters of...
. The work was begun, according to the title page, during the civil war and published in three parts in 1663, 1664 and 1678, with the first edition encompassing all three parts in 1684 (see
1684 in poetryNationality words link to articles with information on the nation's poetry or literature .-Events:* April 15 – Nicolas Boileau-Despréaux, a France poet, critic and scholar, was admitted to the Académie française, and then only by the king's wish-Works published:* Aphra Behn, Poems Upon...
). The
Mercurius Aulicus (an early newspaper of the time) reported an unauthorised edition of the first part was already in print in early 1662.
Published only four years after
Charles IICharles II was the King of England, Scotland, and Ireland.Charles II's father King Charles I was executed at Whitehall on 30 January 1649, at the climax of the English Civil War. The English Parliament did not proclaim Charles II king at this time. Instead they passed a statute making such a...
had been
restoredThe English Restoration, often shortened to the Restoration, began in 1660 when the English, Scottish and Irish monarchies were all restored under Charles II after the Commonwealth of England that followed the English Civil War...
to the
throneThe Throne of England is the English term used to identify the throne of the King of England. The term can refer to very specific seating, as in King Edward's Chair, which is used in the coronations of British kings for eight centuries. The term a refer to the specific chair used only by the...
and
the ProtectorateIn British history, the Protectorate was the period 1653–1659 during which the Commonwealth of England was governed by a Lord Protector.-Background:...
of
Oliver CromwellOliver Cromwell was an English military and political leader best known for his involvement in making England into a republican Commonwealth and for his later role as Lord Protector of England, Scotland, and Ireland.He was one of the commanders of the New Model Army which defeated the royalists in...
being completely over the poem found an appreciative audience. The satire is not balanced as Butler was fiercely
royalistCavalier was the name used by Parliamentarians for a Royalist supporter of King Charles I during the English Civil War . Prince Rupert, commander of much of Charles I's cavalry, is often considered an archetypical Cavalier.-Early usage:...
and only the
parliamentarian"Roundhead" was the nickname given to the supporters of Parliament during the English Civil War. Also known as Parliamentarians, they were the supporters of Oliver Cromwell against King Charles I. Cromwell rose to prominence as a Member of Parliament and Parliamentary soldier, and eventually...
side are singled out for ridicule. Butler also uses the work to parody some of the dreadful poetry of the time.
The epic tells the story of Sir Hudibras, a knight errant who is described dramatically and with laudatory praise that is so thickly applied as to be absurd, and the conceited and arrogant person is visible beneath. He is praised for his knowledge of logic despite appearing stupid throughout, but it is his religious fervour which is mainly attacked:
- For his Religion, it was fit
- To match his learning and his wit;
- 'Twas Presbyterian true blue;
- For he was of that stubborn crew
- Of errant saints, whom all men grant
- To be the true Church Militant;
- Such as do build their faith upon
- The holy text of pike and gun;
- Decide all controversies by
- Infallible artillery;
- And prove their doctrine orthodox
- By apostolic blows and knocks;
- Call fire and sword and desolation,
- A godly thorough reformation,
- Which always must be carried on,
- And still be doing, never done;
- As if religion were intended
- For nothing else but to be mended.
His
squireThe English word squire comes from the Old French , itself derived from the Late Latin , in medieval or Old English a scutifer. The Classical Latin equivalent was , "arms bearer". One became a squire at the age of 13 or 14.A squire was originally a young man who aspired to the rank of knighthood...
, Ralpho, is of a similar stamp but makes no claim to great learning, knowing all there is to know from his religion or “new-light”, as he calls it. Butler satirises the competing factions at the time of the protectorship by the constant bickering of these two principal characters whose religious opinions should unite them.
These are fawning but barbed portraits and are thought to represent personalities of the times but the actual analogues are, now as then, debatable. "A Key to Hudibras" printed with one of the work's editions (1709) and ascribed to
Roger L'EstrangeSir Roger L'Estrange was an English pamphleteer and author, and staunch defender of royalist claims...
names Sir
Samuel LukeSir Samuel Luke was born 21 March 1603 in Southill, Bedfordshire, England to Sir Oliver Luke of Parliament and Elizabeth Knightley. He was buried 30 August 1670 in Cople, Bedfordshire, England....
as the model for Hudibras. Certainly, the mention of Mamaluke in the poem makes this possible although Butler suggests Hudibras is from the West Country making
Henry RosewellSir Henry Rosewell of Forde Abbey, Devon, was a puritan and supporter of the New World colonies.-Early years and education:Henry Rosewell was born on 1 November, 1590 at Forde Abbey in Devon...
a candidate. The
witchfinderA witch hunt is a search for witches or evidence of witchcraft, often involving moral panic, mass hysteria and lynching, but in historical instances also legally sanctioned and involving official witchcraft trials....
,
Matthew HopkinsMatthew Hopkins was an English witchhunter whose career flourished during the time of the English Civil War. He held, or claimed to hold, the office of Witch-Finder General, although this was not a title ever bestowed by Parliament, and conducted witch-hunts in the counties of Suffolk, Essex,...
,
John Desborough-Life:He was the son of James Desborough of Eltisley, Cambridgeshire, and of Elizabeth Hatley of Over in the same county, was baptized on 13 November 1608. He was educated for the law...
,
parliamentarianThe Parliament of England was the legislature of the Kingdom of England. The English Parliament traces its origins to the Anglo-Saxon Witenagemot. In 1066, William of Normandy brought a feudal system, by which he sought advice of a council of tenants-in-chief and ecclesiastics before making laws...
general, and
William PrynneWilliam Prynne was an English lawyer, author, polemicist, and political figure. He was a prominent Puritan opponent of the church policy of the Archbishop of Canterbury, William Laud. Although his views on church polity were presbyterian, he became known in the 1640s as an Erastian, arguing for...
, lawyer, all make appearances, and the character of Sidrophel is variously seen as either
William LillyWilliam Lilly , was a famed English astrologer and occultist during his time. Lilly was particularly adept at interpreting the astrological charts drawn up for horary questions, as this was his speciality....
or Paul Neale.
Structure
Butler is clearly influenced by Rabelais and particularly
Cervantes-People:*Alfonso J. Cervantes , mayor of St. Louis, Missouri*Cervantes , a fictional character in the Soul series of fighting games*Francisco Cervantes de Salazar, 16th-century man of letters*Ignacio Cervantes, Cuban composer...
'
Don Quixote, fully titled The Ingenious Hidalgo Don Quixote of La Mancha , is a novel written by Spanish author Miguel de Cervantes...
. But whereas in Cervantes, the noble knight although being mocked is supposed to draw readers' sympathies, Hudibras is offered nothing but derision.
The title comes from the name of a knight in
Edmund SpenserEdmund Spenser was an English poet best known for The Faerie Queene, an epic poem celebrating, through fantastical allegory, the Tudor dynasty and Elizabeth I. He is recognized as one of the premier craftsmen of Modern English verse in its infancy.-Life:Edmund Spenser was born in London around 1552...
's Faerie Queene who is described as "not so good of deeds as great of name" and "more huge in strength then wise in work". Spenser in turn probably got the name from the legendary English king
Rud Hud HudibrasRud Hud Hudibras was a legendary king of the Britons as recounted by Geoffrey of Monmouth. He was the son of King Leil and ruled during a civil war....
.
Hudibras was written in an
iambAn iamb or iambus is a metrical foot used in various types of poetry. Originally the term referred to one of the feet of the quantitative meter of classical Greek prosody: a short syllable followed by a long syllable...
ic
tetrameterIn poetry, a tetrameter is a line of four metrical feet. The particular foot, of course, can vary, as follows:*Anapestic tetrameter:**"And the sheen of their spears was like stars on the sea" *Iambic tetrameter:**"Because I could not stop for Death" *Trochaic...
in
closed coupletIn poetics, closed couplets are two line units of verse that do not extend their sense beyond the line's end. Furthermore, the lines are usually rhymed. When the lines are in iambic pentameter, they are referred to as heroic verse. However, Samuel Butler also used closed couplets in his iambic...
s, with surprising
feminine rhymeA feminine rhyme is a rhyme that matches two or more syllables, usually at the end of respective lines. Often the final syllable is unstressed.-English:Feminine rhyme is relatively rare in English poetry and usually appears as a special effect...
s. The dramatic meter portends tales of dramatic deeds, but the subject matter and the unusual rhymes undercut its importance. This verse form is now referred to as
HudibrasticHudibrastic is a type of English verse named for Samuel Butler's Hudibras, published in parts from 1663 to 1678. For the poem, Butler invented a mock-heroic verse structure. Instead of pentameter, the lines were written in iambic tetrameter...
. Consider the following from the opening of the poem, where the
English Civil WarThe English Civil War was a series of armed conflicts and political machinations between Parliamentarians and Royalists. The first and second civil wars pitted the supporters of King Charles I against the supporters of the Long Parliament, while the third war saw fighting between supporters of...
is described thus:
"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,
And made them fight, like mad or drunk,
For Dame Religion, as for punk;
Whose honesty they all durst swear for,
Though not a man of them knew wherefore...."
The work was published in three parts, each divided into three
cantoThe canto is a principal form of division in a long poem, especially the epic. The word comes from Italian, from the Latin canto, meaning "I sing," and has a corollary in the Sanskrit , or "chapter." Famous examples of epic poetry which employ the canto division are Valmiki's The Ramayana ,...
s with some additional heroic epistles. It is possible that a fourth part was planned, which would have given the work twelve parts in imitation of
VirgilPublius Vergilius Maro was a classical Roman poet, best known for three major works—the Eclogues , the Georgics, and the Aeneid—although several minor poems are also attributed to him.The son of a farmer, Virgil came to be...
's
AeneidThe Aeneid is a Latin epic poem written by Virgil in the late 1st century BC that tells the legendary story of Aeneas, a Trojan who traveled to Italy, where he became the ancestor of the Romans. It is written in dactylic hexameter...
.
Plot
The knight and his squire sally forth and come upon some people
bear-baitingBear-baiting is a blood sport involving the baiting of bears.-Bear-baiting in England:Bear-baiting was popular in England until the nineteenth century. From the sixteenth century, many herds of bears were maintained for baiting...
. After deciding that this is anti-Christian they attack the baiters and capture one after defeating the bear. The defeated group of bear-baiters then rallies and renews the attack, capturing the knight and his squire. While in the stock the pair argue on religion.
Part two describes how the knight's imprisoned condition is reported by
FameIn Greek mythology, Pheme was the personification of fame and renown, her favour being notability, her wrath being scandalous rumors. She was a daughter either of Gaia or of Hope, was described as "she who initiates and furthers communication" and had an altar at Athens...
to a widow Hudibras has been wooing and she comes to see him. With a captive audience, she complains that he does not really love her and he ends up promising to
flagellateFlagellates are cells with one or more whip-like organelles called flagella. Some cells in animals may be flagellate, for instance the spermatozoa of most phyla. Higher plants and fungi do not produce flagellate cells, but the closely related green algae and chytrids do...
himself if she frees him. Once free he regrets his promise and debates with Ralpho how to avoid his fate with Ralpho suggesting that oath breaking is next to saintliness:
- For breaking of an oath, and lying,
- Is but a kind of self-denying;
- A Saint-like virtue: and from hence
- Some have broke oaths by Providence
- Some, to the glory of the Lord,
- Perjur'd themselves, and broke their word;
Hudibras then tries to convince Ralpho of the nobility of accepting the beating in his stead but he declines the offer. They are interrupted by a skimmington, a procession where women are celebrated and men made fools. After haranguing the crowd for their lewdness, the knight is pelted with rotten eggs and chased away.
He decides to visit an
astrologerAn astrologer practices one or more forms of astrology. Typically an astrologer draws a horoscope for the time of an event, such as a person's birth, and interprets celestial points and their placements at the time of the event to better understand someone, determine the auspiciousness of an...
, Sidrophel, to ask him how he should woo the widow but they get into an argument and after a fight the knight and squire run off in different directions believing they have killed Sidrophel.
The third part was published 14 years after the first two and is considerably different from the first parts. It picks up from where the second left off with Hudibras going to the widow's house to explain the details of the whipping he had promised to give himself but Ralpho had got there first and told her what had actually happened. Suddenly a group rushes in and gives him a beating and supposing them to be spirits from Sidrophel, rather than hired by the widow, confesses his sins and by extension the sins of the
PuritanA Puritan of 16th and 17th-century England was an associate of any number of religious groups advocating for more "purity" of worship and doctrine, as well as personal and group piety. Puritans felt that the English Reformation had not gone far enough, and that the Church of England was tolerant...
s. Hudibras then visits a lawyer—the profession Butler trained in and one he is well able to satirise—who convinces him to write a letter to the widow. The poem ends with their exchange of letters in which the knight's arguments are rebuffed by the widow.
Before the visit to the lawyer there is a digression of an entire canto in which much fun is had at the events after
Oliver CromwellOliver Cromwell was an English military and political leader best known for his involvement in making England into a republican Commonwealth and for his later role as Lord Protector of England, Scotland, and Ireland.He was one of the commanders of the New Model Army which defeated the royalists in...
's death. The succession of his son
Richard CromwellRichard Cromwell was the third son of Oliver Cromwell, and was the second Lord Protector of England, Scotland and Ireland, for just under nine months, from 3 September 1658 until 25 May 1659....
and the squabbles of factions such as the
Fifth MonarchistsThe Fifth Monarchists or Fifth Monarchy Men were active from 1649 to 1661 during the Interregnum, following the English Civil Wars of the 17th century...
are told with no veil of fiction and no mention of Sir Hudibras.
Significance
Hudibras was an extremely popular work with pirate copies and a spurious second part being issued before Butler could produce his genuine second part in 1664. It was highly praised with
VoltaireFrançois-Marie Arouet , better known by the pen name Voltaire, was a French Enlightenment writer, essayist, and philosopher known for his wit and his defense of civil liberties, including both freedom of religion and free trade.Voltaire was a prolific writer and produced works in almost every...
in his
Letters on the EnglishLettres anglaises is a series of essays written by Voltaire based on his experiences living in England between 1722 to 1734. It was first published under the name Lettres philosophiques in 1734. In 1778, Voltaire, who was fluent in English, rewrote and published the work as Letters on the English...
saying "I never found so much wit in one single book". One reader though was distinctly unimpressed. On 26 December, 1662
Samuel PepysSamuel Pepys, FRS was an English naval administrator and Member of Parliament, who is now most famous for his diary. Although Pepys had no maritime experience, he rose by patronage, hard work and his talent for administration, to be the Chief Secretary to the Admiralty under both King Charles II...
recorded in his diary that he bought
Hudibras, but, despite its being extremely popular at the time, he admitted finding no humour in it and selling it the same day. Two months later he bought it again to try to find what he was missing. He still found nothing funny about it, due to his finding its treatment of Puritans too vicious and being insensitive to the humor of the rhymes.
The mock heroic epic and its jaunty verse form known as Hudibrastic became the standard of satire for some time after that with at least twenty-seven direct imitations being produced. Of the most famous was
Ned WardNed Ward was a satirical writer and publican in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth century based in London, England. His most famous work is The London Spy. Published in 18 monthly instalments starting in November 1698 it was described as a "complete survey" of the London scene...
and his
Hudibras Redivivus with
Samuel WesleySamuel Wesley , is now known as the father of a great religious leader, John Wesley; in his own time he was known to many as a poet and a writer of controversial prose.-Family:...
father of
John WesleyJohn Wesley was an Anglican cleric and Christian theologian. Wesley is largely credited, along with his brother Charles Wesley, with founding the Methodist movement which began when he took to open-air preaching in a similar manner to George Whitefield...
emulating the work.
Fifty years after the last part was written a new edition was published, with illustrations by
William HogarthWilliam Hogarth was a major English painter, printmaker, pictorial satirist, social critic and editorial cartoonist who has been credited with pioneering western sequential art. His work ranged from excellent realistic portraiture to comic strip-like series of pictures called "modern moral...
, one of the foremost artists of the day. The work remained popular for several centuries as a warning against the zealotry during the
Civil WarThe English Civil War was a series of armed conflicts and political machinations between Parliamentarians and Royalists. The first and second civil wars pitted the supporters of King Charles I against the supporters of the Long Parliament, while the third war saw fighting between supporters of...
period of English history although it has lately gone out of fashion.
A curious fact is that Butler in his poem originated the phrase "Spare the rod and spoil the child," and although the phrase is often taken to be a Biblical injunction about child-rearing, (probably as a corruption of
Book of ProverbsThe Book of Proverbs is a book of the Hebrew Bible , included in the collected works known as the "Writings" or Ketuvim.-Title:...
13:24), it is in the context of
Hudibras a bawdy metaphor suggesting the best way to curtail amorous passions or, through double entendre, to prevent conception:
- If matrimony and hanging go
- By dest'ny, why not whipping too?
- What med'cine else can cure the fits
- Of lovers when they lose their wits?
- Love is a boy by poets stil'd
- Then spare the rod and spoil the child (Part II, Canto I, ll. 839-44).
External links