ced in St Paul's, Covent Garden, by
residents of the parish. This was destroyed in 1845. Later, another was set
up at Strensham by John Taylor of that place. Perhaps the happiest epitaph
on him is one by John Dennis, which calls Butler "a whole species of poets
in one."

_Hudibras_ itself, though probably quoted as often as ever, has dropped
into the class of books which are more quoted than read. In reading it, it
is of the utmost importance to comprehend clearly and to bear constantly in
mind the purpose of the author in writing it. This purpose is evidently not
artistic but polemic, to show in the most unmistakable characters the
vileness and folly of the anti-royalist party. Anything like a regular
plot--the absence of which has often been deplored or excused--would have
been for this end not merely a superfluity but a mistake, as likely to
divert the attention and perhaps even enlist some sympathy for the heroes.
Anything like regular character-drawing would have been equally unnecessary
and dangerous--for to represent anything but monsters, some alleviating
strokes must have been introduced. The problem, therefore, was to produce
characters just sufficiently unlike lay-figures to excite and maintain a
moderate interest, and to set them in motion by dint of a few incidents not
absolutely unconnected,--meanwhile to subject the principles and manners of
which these characters were the incarnation to ceaseless satire and
raillery. The triumphant solution of the problem is undeniable, when it has
once been enunciated and understood. Upon a canvas thus prepared and
outlined, Butler has embroidered a collection of flowers of wit, which only
the utmost fertility or imagination could devise, and the utmost patience
of industry elaborate. In the union of these two qualities he is certainly
without a parallel, and their combination has produced a work which is
unique. The poem is of considerable length, extending to more than ten
thousand verses, yet Hazlitt hardly exaggerates when he says that "half the
lines are got by heart"; indeed a diligent student of later English
literature has read great part of _Hudibras_ though he may never have
opened its pages. The tableaux or situations, though few and simple in
construction, are ludicrous enough. The knight and squire setting forth on
their journey; the routing of the bear-baiters; the disastrous renewal of
the contest; Hudibras and Ralph in the stocks; the lady's release and
c