Hudibras is the most perfect; that was the rich fruit
of matured meditation, of wit, of learning, and of leisure. A mind of
the most original powers had been perpetually acted on by some of the
most extraordinary events and persons of political and religious
history. Butler had lived amidst scenes which might have excited
indignation and grief; but his strong contempt of the actors could only
supply ludicrous images and caustic raillery. Yet once, when villany was
at its zenith, his solemn tones were raised to reach it.[318]

The SECOND part was precipitated in the following year. An interval of
fourteen years was allowed to elapse before the THIRD and last part was
given to the world; but then everything had changed! the poet, the
subject, and the patron! The old theme of the sectarists had lost its
freshness, and the cavaliers, with their royal libertine, had become as
obnoxious to public decency as the Tartuffes. Butler appears to have
turned aside, and to have given an adverse direction to his satirical
arrows. The slavery and dotage of Hudibras to the widow revealed the
voluptuous epicurean, who slept on his throne, dissolved in the arms of
his mistresses. "The enchanted bower," and "The amorous suit," of
Hudibras reflected the new manners of this wretched court; and that
Butler had become the satirist of the party whose cause he had formerly
so honestly espoused, is confirmed by his "Remains," where, among other
nervous satires, is one, "On the licentious age of Charles the Second,
contrasted with the puritanical one that preceded it." This then is the
greater glory of Butler, that his high and indignant spirit equally
satirised the hypocrites of Cromwell and the libertines of Charles.

SHENSTONE'S SCHOOL-MISTRESS.

The inimitable "School-Mistress" of Shenstone is one of the felicities
of genius; but the purpose of this poem has been entirely misconceived.
Johnson, acknowledging this charming effusion to be "the most pleasing
of Shenstone's productions" observes, "I know not what claim it has to
stand among the _moral works_." The truth is, that it was intended for
quite a different class by the author, and Dodsley, the editor of his
works, must have strangely blundered in designating it "a moral poem."
It may be classed with a species of poetry, till recently, rare in our
language, and which we sometimes find among the Italians, in their _rime
piacevoli_, or _poesie burlesche_, which do not always consi