1790 Samuel Butler HUDIBRAS Political Satire English Civil War Samuel Johnson 2v

“Loyalty is still the same, whether it win or lose the game; true as a dial to the sun, although it be not shined upon.”
― Samuel Butler, Hudibras

Beginning in 1779, Samuel Johnson began comprising a collection of biographies and important works of English authors and poets who were eminent during the 18th-century. This work, “Lives of the Most Eminent English Poets,” highlighted the most important of these writers including Milton, Dryden, Pope and Swift. In addition to the major names, others such as Samuel Butler were also included in the fold.

Samuel Butler, a 17th-century satirist, is mostly remembered only for his work ‘Hudibras’ which satirizes religious sects, such as Puritans and Presbyterians, during the English Civil War. It became an instant success and was popular throughout Great Britain, but perhaps its most notable publication came through the political satire artwork of William Hogarth.

Voltaire thought highly of Butler’s ‘Hudibras’
“There is one English poem, the title whereof is ‘Hudibras’; it is ‘Don Quixote’ – it is our Satyre Menippee blended together: I never met with so much wit in one single book as in this.” (Lowndes 335)

This fine two-volume printing of Butler’s ‘Hudibras’ comes from the edits of Samuel Johnson and is beautifully bound with marbled fore-edging. In addition to ‘Hudibras,’ this edition includes other notable works of Butler including ‘Elephant in the Moon’ ‘Satire on Royal Society,’ and other lesser-known satires on marriage, drunkenness, gaming, and plagiaries.

Item number: #1981

Price: $350

BUTLER, Samuel

The works of the English poets : with prefaces, biographical and critical, by Samuel Johnson

London : Printed by Rivington and Marshall, For Buckland [et al]., 1790.

Details:
•Collation complete with all pages; 2 volumes:
oVol 1 – [4], 324p
oVol 2 – [4], 356p
•Provenance: Armorial Bookplate – Hugh Reveley L.L.B. of Christ Church in Oxford
oMotto: “Optima Revelation Stella”
oThe surname Revely was first found in Northumberland. The Reveleys, who trace their pedigree to the reign of Edward II., were originally seated at the manor-house of Reveley, on the northern bank of the river Beamish, at the south-east of Cheviot, and subsequently at Ancroft, in Northumberland.
•References: Lowndes 1218;
•Language: English
•Binding: Leather; tight & secure
•Size: ~6in X 4in (15cm x 10cm)

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