Samuel Butler (poet)
Samuel Butler (4 December 1612 – 18 June 1680) was born in Strensham, Worcestershire and baptized 14 February 1613. He is remembered now chiefly for a long satirical burlesque poem on Puritanism entitled Hudibras.
He was the son of a farmer and was educated at the King's School, Worcester, under Henry Bright whose teaching is recorded favorably by Thomas Fuller a contemporary writer in his Worthies of England. In early youth he was page to the Countess of Kent, and thereafter clerk to various Puritan justices, some of whom are believed to have suggested characters in Hudibras. Through Lady Kent he met John Selden who influenced his later writings. He also tried his hand at painting but was reportedly not very good at it; one of his editors reporting that "his pictures served to stop windows and save the tax" (on window glass).
After the Restoration he became Secretary to the Lord President of Wales, and about the same time married a Mrs. Herbert, a widow with a jointure, which, however, was lost. In 1663 the first part of Hudibras was published, and the other two in 1664 and 1678 respectively. One fan was Charles II, who granted him a pension.
Notwithstanding the popularity of Hudibras, Butler was neglected by the Court and died in 1680, although whether in a state of poverty as often claimed and how much this may have been a self imposed exile either by choice or because of his sharp satirical wit is uncertain. John Aubrey in his notebook jottings called Brief Lives records that Charles II gave him a gift of £300 and that he had been secretary to George Villiers, 2nd Duke of Buckingham, when the latter was chancellor of the University of Cambridge; Butler was close enough to Buckingham to collaborate with him in The Rehearsal, a satirical play mocking the heroic drama of the time.
Butler is buried in Westminster Abbey. There is a memorial plaque to him in the small village church of Strensham, Worcestershire, near the town of Upton upon Severn, his birthplace.
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