Butler, Samuel (‘Hudibras’)
Butler, Samuel (‘Hudibras’) ( 1613 – 80 ),born at Strensham, a hamlet south of Worcester, the son of a farmer, and educated at the King's School, Worcester. He is said to have served as a clerk to a local justice of the peace and later to have become secretary to the countess of Kent. By 1661 he was steward at Ludlow Castle to Richard Vaughan , earl of Carbery. The most significant event in an otherwise obscure life was the publication in 1663 of his Hudibras , which instantly became the most popular poem of its time. It was probably as a result of its success that he became secretary to the second duke of Buckingham . In 1677 he was awarded an annual pension of £100 by Charles II , but by then he himself appears to have given currency to the complaint that, though a loyal satirist, he had been left to endure his old age in poverty. He wrote a number of shorter satirical poems, including ‘The...
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