Samuel Butler

Butler, Samuel 

Born Feb. 8, 1612, in Worcester; died Sept. 25, 1680, in London. English poet and satirist. Son of a small farmer.

Butler began his literary career during the Restoration, the reinstatement of the Stuart dynasty (1660–88). An opponent of the Puritans, Butler was famous for his heroic comic poem Hudibras (parts 1–3, 1663–78), in which the self-satisfied, pedantic Presbyterian judge Sir Hudibras and his squire are portrayed. The poem ridicules the hypocritical manners and religious fanaticism of the bourgeois Puritans. At the same time, in the satire A Burlesque About Lords and Ladies and other works, Butler criticized the aristocracy and courtiers of the Restoration.

WORKS

Satires and Miscellaneous Poetry and Prose. Edited by R. Lamar. Cambridge, 1928.

REFERENCES

Istoriia angliiskoi literatury, vol. 1, issue 2. Moscow-Leningrad, 1945.
Burton, K. M. P. Restoration Literature. London, 1958.