"The Character of a Fanatick. By a Person of Quality;" a set of eleven
Characters appeared in 1675; "A Whip for a Jockey, or a Character of an
Horse-Courser," in 1677; "Four for a Penny, or Poor Robin's Character of
an unconscionable Pawnbroker and Ear-mark of an oppressing Tally-man,
with a friendly description of a Bum-bailey, and his merciless setting
cur or Follower," appeared in 1678; and in the same year the Duke of
Buckingham's "Character of an Ugly Woman." In 1681 appeared the
"Character of a Disbanded Courtier," and in 1684 Oldham's "Character of
a certain ugly old P----." In 1686 followed "Twelve ingenious
Characters, or pleasant Descriptions of the Properties of sundry Persons
and Things." Sir William Coventry's "Character of a Trimmer," published
in 1689, had been written before 1659, when it had been answered by a
"Character of a Tory," not printed at the time, but included (1721) in
the works of George Villiers, second Duke of Buckingham. In 1689
appeared "Characters addressed to Ladies of Age," and also "The
Ceremony-Monger his Character, in Six Chapters, by E. Hickeringill,
Rector of All Saints, Colchester." Ohe! Enough, enough!_

SAMUEL BUTLER,

_Author of "Hudibras," who died in 1680, also exercised his wit in
Character writing. When Butler's "Remains" were published in two volumes
in 1759 by R. Thyer, Keeper of the Public Library of Manchester, 460
pages of the second volume, (all the volume except forty or fifty pages
of "Thoughts on Various Subjects,") was occupied by a collection of 120
Characters that he had written. I close this volume of "Character
Writings of the Seventeenth Century" with as many of Samuel Butler's
Characters as the book has room for,--none are wittier--space being left
for one Character by a poet of our own century, Wordsworth's "Character
of the Happy Warrior" to bring us to a happy close._

CHARACTERS.

BY SAMUEL BUTLER.

A DEGENERATE NOBLE; OR, ONE THAT IS PROUD OF HIS BIRTH,

Is like a turnip, there is nothing good of him but that which is
underground; or rhubarb, a contemptible shrub that springs from a noble
root. He has no more title to the worth and virtue of his ancestors than
the worms that were engendered in their dead bodies, and yet he believes
he has enough to exempt himself and his posterity from all things of
that nature for ever. This makes him glory in the antiquity of his
family, as if his nobility were the better the further off it i