Examine Samuel Butler’s use of
satire in Hudibras.
Answer: Published shortly after the Restoration
of Charles II, Samuel Butler’s Hudibras was a
powerful but “low” satire on the Puritans who had been subdued with the
restoration of Charles II to the throne of England in 1660. Butler was not a
courtier, nor was he a member of the nobility, and the story goes that he died
in poverty. Nevertheless, in his attack on the Puritans he outdid many a
courtier. Hudibras enjoyed excessive popularity with the courtiers
and the king himself who used to keep a copy of it always in his pocket. The
poem is formless, crabbed in versification and gross at numerous places, but
none can deny the force of punches Butler levelled against the Puritans.
In
its form Hudibras is a burlesque of high romance representing
puissant knights out to defend virtue. That way it resembles Cervantes’ Don
Quixote which is also a burlesque of the same kind. But it has also
elements reminiscent of the French poet Scarron who burlesqued the epic of
Virgil.
The
name “Hudibras” is taken from Spenser’s Faerie Queene. Butler’s
Hudibras is a Presbyterian who is hypocritical, covetous, cowardly, and full of
pedantic learning. Ralpho, an Independent, is his squire. The hero rides a
rickety horse and is equipped with rusty arms. In the company of his squire, he
comes out in search of some righteous adventure. However, his squire and he go
all the time quarrelling about minute points of religious doctrine, and their
quarrels consume a sizable proportion of the poem. Hudib.ras is
described to be
in Logic a great critic,
Profoundly skill ‘d in Analytic;
He could distinguish, and divide
A hair ‘twixt south and south-west side;
On either which he would dispute,
Confute, change hands, and still confute.
Profoundly skill ‘d in Analytic;
He could distinguish, and divide
A hair ‘twixt south and south-west side;
On either which he would dispute,
Confute, change hands, and still confute.
