ere used to
patch broken windows there in the last century. Butler went into the
service of Elizabeth, Countess of Kent, at Wrest in Bedfordshire, where
he had the use of a good library and the friendship of John Selden, then
steward of the Countess's estate. It was there and in association with
Selden that he began his literary work. Some time afterward he held a
servitor's position in the family of an officer of Cromwell's army, Sir
Samuel Luke, of Woodend, Bedfordshire. A manuscript note in an old
edition of 'Hudibras,' 1710, "from the books of Phil. Lomax by gift of
his father, G. Lomax," confirms the tradition that this Cromwellian
colonel was the original of Hudibras. The elder Lomax is said to have
been an intimate friend of Butler. Another name on the list of
candidates for this humorous honor--the honor of contributing with Don
Quixote to the increase of language--is that of Sir Henry Rosewell of
Ford Abbey, Devonshire. But it is unnecessary to limit to an individual
sample the satirist and poet of the whole breadth of human nature. A
presumption that Butler was in France and Holland for a time arises from
certain references in his writings. It was about 1659, when the decline
of the Cromwells became assured, that Butler ventured, but anonymously,
into print with a tract warmly advocating the recall of the King. At the
Restoration, and probably in reward for this evidence of loyalty, he was
made secretary to the Earl of Carbury, President of Wales, by whom he
was appointed steward of Ludlow Castle. About this time he married a
gentlewoman of small fortune, and is said to have lived comfortably upon
her money until it was lost by bad investments. The King having come to
his own again, Butler obtained permission in November 1662 to print the
first part of 'Hudibras.' The quaint title of this poem has attracted
much curious cavil. The name is used by Milton, Spenser, and Robert of
Gloucester for an early king of Britain, the grandfather of King Lear;
and by Ben Jonson--from whom Butler evidently adopted it--for a
swaggering fellow in the 'Magnetic Lady':--

"_Rut_--Where is your captain
Rudhudibrass de Ironside?"

_Act iii., Scene 3._

Charles II. was so delighted with the satire that he not only read and
reread it, but gave many copies to his intimates. The royal generosity,
lavish in promises, never exerted itself further than to give Butler--or
Boteler, as he is writ in the warrant--a monopol