Folger Shakespeare Library
CELM

Samuel Butler

1612–1680

Introduction

Literary Manuscripts

Samuel Butler's literary manuscripts have had a chequered history. Although there is no evidence of the survival of the original or printer's manuscripts of his most celebrated work, Hudibras, Butler is known to have left at his death a collection of unpublished manuscripts in verse and prose — described by Roger North as loose Papers, and indigested (Life of Francis North (London, 1742), p. 289). The papers were bequeathed to Butler's old friend and patron, the distinguished lawyer William Longueville (1639-1721), who, according to North, reduced them into Method and Order. After Longueville's death, the manuscripts passed to his son, Charles (d.1750), who in turn bequeathed them to his natural son, John Clarke (1743/4-89). In the 1750s the youthful Clarke placed them in the hands of Robert Thyer (1709-81), librarian of Chetham's Library in Manchester, and they provided the basis for his edition of The Genuine Remains in 1759. (For his own notes on the manuscripts, see BuS 6). The manuscripts subsequently passed to James Massey (1712/13-96), of Rosthern, near Knutsford, Cheshire, into whose family John Clarke married. In 1793 the editor of Hudibras, T.R. Nash, testified that what remains of them, still unpublished, are either in the hands of the ingenious Doctor Farmer, of Cambridge [i.e. Richard Farmer (1735-97)], or myself (Nash, I, xvi). Farmer's large Collection of Materials, by Mr. Samuel Butler, for Hudibras, with many other Poetical Pieces, Original Letters, to and from him, &c were sold as lot 8100 in the sale by Thomas King of the library of the Rev. Richard Farmer, FSA (1735-97), Master of Emmanuel College, Cambridge, literary scholar, 7 May to 6 June 1798. The papers were bought at this auction by John Thane, compiler of British Autography. Shortly after Thane's death (in 1818), the manuscripts appear to have belonged to the editors Charles Baldwyn and Henry Southern (a great quantity of [Butler's] unpublished manuscripts are now in our possession, wrote Southern in the London Magazine for September 1825).

Thereafter the fate of the manuscripts as a collection becomes obscure. What is known for certain is that a collection of Butler's manuscripts resurfaced in November 1885 when it was purchased at the Ellis sale at Sotheby's for the British Museum. From the evidence of earlier editions, it is clear that this collection (*BuS 5) represents about half of the total manuscripts left by Butler to William Longueville. It is quite unknown what happened to the rest of the manuscripts and it is even possible that they still survive. In the meantime, the loss is partly offset — not only by Thyer's edition, but by three surviving partial transcripts. One is William Longueville's own commonplace book (*BuS 7), in which he transcribed a very large selection of verse and prose from Butler's manuscripts, including much from the lost manuscripts. This commonplace book (which, in fact, was begun by Butler himself as an English-French dictionary) became generally known in the 1940s following its purchase in 1930 from P.J. and A.E. Dobell by A.S.W. Rosenbach, at which time it was erroneously described as one of Butler's own original compilations throughout.

A second recorded volume of transcripts is that made by Robert Thyer (BuS 6), a major part comprising a selective and re-ordered transcript of *BuS 5, but also including a substantial amount of prose material from the lost manuscripts. Thyer's manuscript accompanied *BuS 5 when it was purchased in 1885 by the British Museum.

A third collection of transcripts is a twenty-leaf notebook of verse remains of Butler, with insertions by Longueville, now in the library of the University of Manchester (BuS 8).

For more detailed accounts of the history of most of these manuscripts, see the editions cited above and, especially, De Quehen, Editing and Prose.

Butler's modus operandi

The most substantial extant autograph writings by Butler are contained in *BuS 5. For the most part they are set out in double columns — the first column generally containing his roughly drafted out ideas as they occurred to him; the second containing ideas revised and reworked selectively into a more formal, if not finished, shape. Butler's general method of composition, as shown in these papers and so far as his verse is concerned, has been described by E.S. de Beer as, roughly, to write long passages or detached themes; to save a few couplets from these for use in alternative treatments of the same theme, or in passages or other themes; and by process of distillation to collect enough material to be linked up into a canto (The Later Life of Samuel Butler, Review of English Studies, 4 (1928), 159-66 (p. 163)). Despite the claims to completeness of modern editors, Butler's miscellaneous drafts have still not been published in their entirety.

Literary Remains

The entries below (BuS 5-8) incorporate brief descriptions of Butler's literary remains. The nature of his lost manuscripts may be briefly deduced as follows. Besides the miscellaneous verse and prose in *BuS 5, Longueville inherited drafts or fair copies of The Elephant in the Moon and other satires; To The Happy Memory of the most Renown'd Du-Val (described by Thyer as in his owne Hand-writing among his Manuscripts, with some little Addition, and a few verbal Alterations); prose tracts including The Case of King Charles I truly stated and the Two Letters by John Audland and William Prynne; and over two hundred prose Characters.

It is evident, moreover, that all the early transcripts and editions of the manuscripts represent a substantial selection and re-ordering of them, so that other miscellaneous drafts, not copied by Longueville or Thyer, might well have been among the original manuscripts. Those pieces omitted from publication by Thyer included a further twenty-eight prose Characters and several hundred lines of verse which were edited by Henry Southern in a series of six articles on Butleriana. From Unpublished Manuscripts, in the London Magazine, NS 3, No. 9 (September 1825), 136-40, and No. 11 (November 1825), 425-30; NS 4, No. 13 (January 1826), 94-8, and No. 15 (March 1826), 401-6; NS 6, No. 22 (October 1826), 225-32, and No. 23 (November 1826), 396-401. For a discussion and partial reprint of five of these articles, see Josephine Bauer, Some Verse Fragments and Prose Characters by Samuel Butler Not Included in the Complete Works, Modern Philology, 45 (1947), 160-9 (and see also De Quehen's qualifying comments in Editing, pp. 91-2). Some of the verse printed by Southern is actually to be found in *BuS 5, while most of the Characters are transcribed in the manuscripts of Longueville and Thyer (BuS 6 and *BuS 7). However, Southern's articles remain the only known text for eight Characters (reprinted in Daves, pp. 319-28), as well as for many verse fragments, until such time as Butler's lost manuscripts come to light. One further glimpse of the lost originals is offered by John Thane in his British Autography, 3 vols (London, 1793 etc.), where (in Vol. III) he reproduces in facsimile from the Originals in his possession four autograph lines of verse beginning 'tis a Strange Age w' have liv'd in, & a Lewd (viz. lines 1-4 of the Satyr printed in Thyer, I, 69).

It may be added that the share of Butler's remains which fell into the hands of T.R. Nash before 1793 is likely to have been largely, if not exclusively, confined to Longueville's commonplace book (*BuS 7). The latter contains Nash's inscription inside the upper cover, and in his edition of Hudibras (I, xxxix) Nash reproduces in facsimile two lines from this manuscript (which, however, are derived from Otway's prologue to Nathaniel Lee's Constantine the Great (1683) and are in Longueville's hand, not in Butler's as Nash supposed). Nash claimed, moreover (I, xvii-xviii), to possess another of Butler's manuscripts acquired from a different source. Purchased of some of our poet's relations, at the Hay, in Brecknockshire, it is described as a collection of legal cases and principles, regularly related from Lord Coke's Commentary on Littleton's Tenures: the language in Norman, or law French…the second book…is entitled by Butler, Le second livre del primer part del institutes de ley d'Engleterre…The MS is imperfect, no title existing, some leaves being torn, and is continued only to the 193d section…. This volume, apparently later owned by Henry Buxton Forman (1842-1917), bibliographer and forger, is reported to have been owned in 1991 by James Cummins, New York bookseller. Nash, it has to be said, was scarcely an infallible judge of Butler's hand, for he could not distinguish it from Longueville's. However, in view of its alleged provenance, this legal manuscript may conceivably have been Butler's and may, moreover, be tentatively added to the evidence (supplied by Aubrey and others) that Butler once studied for the law (see Michael Wilding, Butler and Gray's Inn, N&Q, 216 (August 1971), 293-5).

For some observations on the identification of books from Nash's library, apparently once preserved at Reigate, Surrey, see De Quehen, Prose, p. xx.

The Canon

Both before and after Butler's death, works in verse and prose were spuriously attributed to him, most notably in his so-called Posthumous Works, 3 vols (London, 1715-17). For these, see particularly A.H. De Quehen, An Account of Works Attributed to Samuel Butler, Review of English Studies, NS 33 (1982), 262-77, and Edward Ames Richards, Hudibras in the Burlesque Tradition (New York, 1937), pp. 171-8. Of the eighty or so suppositious works, a few are found in contemporary or near-contemporary manuscript copies. Two of these — Mercurius Menippeus. The Loyal Satyrist, or, Hudibras in Prose and the widely disseminated bawdy verse satire Dildoides — have been given entries below (BuS 37-39 and BuS 19-36). Others, not given entries, and almost certainly not by Butler, some of them widely circulated in manuscript copies, include:

  • A Thought upon the Death of King Charles I. James Shirley's well-known dirge The glories of our blood and state (see ShJ 140-174.8).
  • The Tub-Preacher. William Strode's poem The Town's New Teacher (see StW 1178-1188).
  • Upon the Late Storm at the Death of the Usurper, Oliver Cromwell. William Godolphin's parody of a well-known poem by Edmund Waller (see WaE 700-733.5 and Waller Introduction).
  • A Satyr on the Players.
  • A Satyr on the Poets; The Whig's Ghost.
  • The Quarrel between Frank and Nan.

In addition, what is alleged to be Butler's earliest doggerel verses was inscribed in his copy of Lewis Bayly's The Practice of Piety in 1642. The claim is made by Paul Bunyan Anderson, in Anonymous Critic of Milton: Richard Leigh? or Samuel Butler?, Studies in Philology, 44 (1947), 504-18 (p. 505). However, no indication is given of the whereabouts or subsequent provenance of the volume.

Letters

Apart from the manuscripts inherited by Longueville, examples of Butler's handwriting are extremely rare. Only two known letters written by him can be recorded below (*BuS 9-9.5).

Books Allegedly Owned or Annotated by Butler

Several printed books have been recorded on occasions as having been owned or inscribed by Butler. Two examples, both currently untraced, are recorded below (BuS 12-13).

In addition, a possible reference to one of Butler's annotated books occurs in Longueville's commonplace book (*BuS 7), f. [ii], in his transcript of Butler's account of his visit to France in 1670. He observes at one point: Vide al fine de Dr Lockey's Geography. beaucop de mr Butlers notes sr France (De Quehen, Prose, p. 250). The identity of that volume — presumably owned by Dr Thomas Lockey (1602-79), Librarian of the Bodleian — remains equally obscure.

There is also a tiny slip of paper containing the inscription, in an unidentified hand, Dono Mri Ward transferor in possess. Sam. Butler. Cantabr. an. dom. MDCLXVI Nil pretij dono, gratâ re, gratia Wardo (i.e. By the gift of Mr Ward I am transferred into the possession of Samuel Butler of Cambridge, 1666, It cost nothing, it is a gift, thanks to Ward). This document was formerly in the collection of Roger W. Barrett, of Chicago, and, like so much else, is now untraced.

Extracts from Hudibras

There is no evidence that Butler's works enjoyed an extensive circulation in manuscript during his lifetime, although Hudibras — his most popular work, even enjoyed by King Charles II — was evidently not immune to piracy by unauthorized publishers. There are, however, contemporary transcripts of two of his canonical works, including the Second Part of Hudibras, recorded in the entries below (BuS 1, BuS 4). Besides a dramatisation of the poem (BuS 1.3), extracts from the various parts of Hudibras, presumably taken from printed sources, are not uncommon in miscellanies of the late seventeenth and eighteenth centuries and a number of examples of these have been given entries below (BuS 0.1-0.9).

For a little-known printed broadside of extracts from Hudibras — published in 1681 as The Priviledge of our Saints in the business of Perjury — see James L. Thorson, A Broadside by Samuel Butler (1612-1680), BLR, 9, No. 3 (1974), 178-86.

Miscellaneous

Various documents of interest relating to Butler, some concerning Hudibras, have not been given separate entries below but may be listed here briefly.

A letter by Edward Hyde, Earl of Clarendon, to Secretary Henry Bennett (? 1663), requesting a licence for the printing of all three parts of Hudibras, is in the National Archives, Kew, SP 29/109/8.

A licence to Butler, dated 23 November 1663, for the printing of all three parts of Hudibras is copied in the Signet Book in the National Archives, Kew, SP Dom. Signet Office VI, SO1/6, p. 10.

A licence for the printing of the second part of Hudibras is entered as a minute in Entry Book 15, p. 252:SP 29/84/24.

A draft in the hand of Joseph Williamson of the royal warrant granting Butler sole rights of republishing any part of Hudibras is in the National Archives, Kew, SP 29/398/188.

The royal warrant itself, drawn up by John Berkenhead and signed by Charles II on 10 September 1677, is now in the British Library, Add. MS 4293, f. 7. The text of this is printed in Nash, I, viii.

The original manuscript of John Aubrey's important biographical account of Butler (including his transcript of one of the additional passages for Hudibras: BuS 3) is in the Bodleia (MSS Aubrey 6, ff. 114v-15r; 7, f. 5v; and 8, f. 7r): see his Brief Lives, ed. Andrew Clark, 2 vols (Oxford, 1898), I, 135-8.

For documents relating to later editorial and copyright matters, see BuS 14-18.

Abbreviations

Daves
Samuel Butler, Characters, ed. Charles W. Daves (Cleveland and London, 1970).
De Quehen, Editing
A.H. De Quehen, Editing Butler's Manuscripts, in Editing Seventeenth Century Prose, ed. D.I.B. Smith (Toronto, 1972), pp. 71-93.
De Quehen, Prose
Samuel Butler, Prose Observations, ed. Hugh De Quehen (Oxford, 1979).
Lamar
Samuel Butler, Satires and Miscellaneous Prose and Poetry, ed. René Lamar (Cambridge, 1928).
Nash
Samuel Butler, Hudibras, ed. Treadway Russell Nash, 3 vols (London, 1793).
Thyer
The Genuine Remains in Verse and Prose of Mr. Samuel Butler, Author of Hudibras. Published from the Original Manuscripts, formerly in the Possession of W. Longueville, Esq, ed. Robert Thyer, 2 vols (London, 1759).
Waller
Samuel Butler, Characters and Passages from Note-Books, ed. A.R. Waller (Cambridge, 1908).

Verse

Hudibras ('Sir Hudibras his passing worth')

Part I first published in London, 1663 [i.e. 1662]. Part II published in London, 1664 [i.e. 1663]. Part III published in London 1678 [i.e. 1677]. the whole poem first published in London, 1684. Edited by John Wilders (Oxford, 1967).

BuS 0.1

Extracts.

A quarto miscellany, in several hands, written from both ends, 77 leaves, in contemporary calf gilt.

Compiled by members of the Cartwright family, of Aynho, Northamptonshire, including (ff. 4r-7v) verse by William Cartwright (1634-76).

Mid-17th century

Inscribed names including Will: Cartwright, Jo: Cartwright, and Katherin Cartwright. Myers, sale catalogue No. 291 (1933), item 120.

Bodleian Library, Don. MSS (MS Don. e. 6 f. 37r)
BuS 0.2

Extracts.

A quarto miscellany of verse and prose, i + 200 leaves (ff. 129-199 blank), in quarter-vellum over boards.

Compiled by John Phillipps, of Exeter College, Oxford, and the Middle Temple, who has inscribed the front pastedown John Phillipps. med: Temp: Lond: 1776.

c.1776-1804

Acquired from Cumming of Exeter, 1941.

Bodleian Library, Eng. misc. MSS (MS Eng. misc e. 241 f. 45r)
BuS 0.3

A six-line extract.

An octavo miscellany of poems, many on affairs of state and with Jacobite sympathies, in a single hand, with an index, iv + 182 pages, in vellum boards.

c.1742

Owned in 1742 by John Conyers, of Copt Hall, Essex. Pickering & Chatto, sale catalogue No. 353 (1953), item 490.

Bodleian Library, Eng. poet. e. MSS (MS Eng. poet. e. 87 f. iiir)
BuS 0.4

A few notes on Hudibras by Lewis, based on the printed edition of 1744.

A folio composite volume of ecclesiastical papers, in various hands, 369 leaves, in contemporary calf.

Early 18th century

Compiled by, and partly in the hand of, the Rev. John Lewis (1675-1747), of Margate, antiquary.

BuS 0.5

Extracts, headed Hudibras 1st Part Lond. 1663.

A tall folio composite volume of commonplace-book notes and extracts, chiefly in the hand of John Evelyn the younger, on various paper sizes, 248 leaves, in modern half-morocco.

Late 17th century

Volume CCLXXVI of the Evelyn Papers. Formerly Christ Church, Oxford, Evelyn MS 281.

BuS 0.6

Extract.

A quarto notebook of verse and prose, in English, Latin and French, in several hands over a period, much in a small cursive hand, 50 leaves, in quarter-morocco gilt.

Probably compiled in part by Edmund Killingworth (of Winchester College and New College, Oxford).

Late 17th-early 18th century

Discussed in Hilton Kelliher, Dryden Attributions and Texts from Harley MS. 6054, BLJ, 25.1 (Spring 1999), pp. 1-22, with facsimiles of ff. 20r and 27r on pp. 4 and 10.

BuS 0.8

Extracts.

A quarto verse miscellany, largely in one hand, with additions by others, written from both ends, material at the reverse end dated 1708-9, ii + 114 leaves, in 19th-century half-calf.

Inscribed (f. [iir]), probably by the compiler, Ex Libris Georgij Wright [b.1685/6] Sti Johannis Collegis Cantabrigiensis Alumni, Decimo quarto Junij. Annoq. Domini 1703.

c.1703-9

Also inscribed (f.[iir]) Mrs Frances Wright 1708. A postal address on f. 95r (rev.) reads: Direct to Margtt Borrett att Mrs. Borretts In Kirkby=stephen Westmoorland p brough bag _ These.

Recorded in IELM, II.ii, as the Wright MS: WaE Δ 12.

Edinburgh University Library (MS Dc. 3. 76 ff. 64r, 66v, 67v-8r, 72r, 75r)
BuS 0.9

Extract.

An octavo miscellany of verse and prose, in at least two cursive hands, written largely on rectos only, unfoliated, c.90 leaves (plus numerous blanks), in contemporary calf.

c.1700

Inscribed inside the lower cover Will Graves/Memoranda. Thomas Thorpe, Catalogue of upwards of fourteen hundred manuscripts (1836). Afterwards owned by Sir Thomas Phillipps, Bt (1792-1872), book and manuscript collector: Phillipps MS 9621. Sotheby's, 17 May 1897 (Phillipps sale), lot 627. Donated in 1937 by Leicester Bradner. Formerly MS Vault, Section 10, Drawer 3 Commonplace book.

Yale (Gen MSS Vol. 339 f. [42r])
BuS 1.1

Extracts, headed Some of Hudibras's Verses.

An octavo miscellany of verse and drama, largely in a single small cursive hand, with later additions by one or two hands after p. 142, 185 pages (including blanks) plus a tipped-in leaf at the end, in brown calf.

Late 17th century

Sotheby's, 13 June 1870, lot 157, to James Orchard Halliwell-Phillipps (1820-89), literary scholar and book collector; thence, on 5 July 1870, to Warwick Castle Library. Formerly Folger MS 3.4.

BuS 1.2

Extracts, in double columns.

A quarto verse miscellany, largely in two neat mixed hands, with subsequent additions in other hands, 32 leaves, in modern half crushed morocco.

Probably compiled in Scotland by members of the Rutherford family.

c.1680-1710

Inscribed (f. 1r) Mr Gideon Rutherford and Jean Rutherford, and (ff. 11v-13v) including a poem on John Reutherfoord. Acquired in 1924 from Maggs Bros.

Briefly discussed in Marcia Allentuck, An Unpublished Commonplace Book of Scottish Interest in the Folger Shakespeare Library, SSL, 7, No. 4 (April 1970), 270-1.

BuS 1.3

MS of Hudibras: a drama, founded on the Poem of Butler, in a single hand, with some apparent revisions, 14 + 131 large quarto pages, on rectos only, in stiff paper wrappers.

19th century
Harvard, other MSS (MS Eng 1132)
BuS 1.5

Extracts.

A quarto miscellany of verse and prose, chiefly in one cursive hand, written from both ends, 271 leaves (including numerous blanks), in contemporary vellum boards.

c.1700
BuS 1.6

A Latin translation of extracts from the work.

A duodecimo miscellany of verse, on affairs of state etc., and prose, including Latin academic exercises, in a single small hand, compiled by an Oxford University man, written from both ends, iii + 87 leaves, in old morocco.

c.1670s

Bookplate of Arthur Ashpitel, FSA, and bequeathed by him 1869.

Society of Antiquaries (MS 330 f. 55v rev.)
BuS 1.7

Extracts.

A commonplace book compiled by Richard Porson (1758-1805).

c.1780
University of Chicago (MS 639 p. 84)
BuS 1.8

Extracts.

A duodecimo miscellany of chiefly Restoration verse and drama, including thirteen poems by Waller and also extracts from 45 poems by Donne, the greater part in a single neat hand (also responsible for Cambridge University Library, MS Add. 4146), 241 pages (plus blanks).

c.1690-1700

Inscribed (on front pastedown and f. 133r) by one Peter Save and, in 1743, by one Joseph Butler.

Cited in IELM, II.ii (1993), as the Save MS: WaE Δ 13.

University of Illinois (821.08/C737/17— ff. 32v-40r)
BuS 2

Copy of twelve lines, in the hand of John Aubrey, headed Hudibras unprinted and beginning No Jesuite ever took in hand, preceded by Aubrey's note (intended for Anthony Wood) Insert in vita Sam. Butler his verses of the Jesuites, not printed, which I gave to you about 12 or 14, on a single octavo leaf.

These lines first pub. (from this MS) in the anonymous Life of Butler in Hudibras (London, 1704), sig. a8v. Also edited from this MS in John Aubrey, Brief Lives, ed. Andrew Clark, 2 vols (Oxford, 1898), I, 137. The lines correspond, albeit in a redacted form, to a passage in Butler's autograph additions to Hudibras in BuS 5 (f. 80).

A folio composite autograph manuscript of the first part of Brief Lives by John Aubrey (1626-97), 121 largely folio leaves, in vellum within modern boards.

c.1679/80-1681
Bodleian Library, other MSS (MS Aubrey 6 f. 115r)
BuS 2.5

Extracts.

A formal folio miscellany of verse and prose, in English and Latin, chiefly on affairs of state, in a single professional hand, individual items dated as late as 1697, 286 pages.

c.late 1690s
University of Minnesota (MS 690235f p. 177)
BuS 3

Copy of twelve untitled lines beginning No Jesuit e'er took in hand, subscribed S Butler, followed by Latin versions of three brief passages subscribed Translated by Dr [John] Hanmar [1594?-1670] Greek profess: Oxon.

A copy of Hudibras, in a single cursive hand, 100 octavo pages, in modern boards.

Late 17th century
To the Happy Memory Of the most Renown'd Du-Val (''Tis true, to compliment the Dead')

First published in London, 1671. Thyer (1759), I, 145-54. Lamar, pp. 97-103.

BuS 4

Copy, on six pages of four folio leaves.

Late 17th century
Yale (Gen MSS Misc Group 1218, Item F-1)

Verse and Prose

Remains
*BuS 5
Autograph

A collection of numerous autograph drafts and fair copies bound together (somewhat irregularly) on different sizes and foldings of paper, the majority folio, now all mounted on guards; containing approximately 15,700 lines of verse and a thousand passages of prose averaging about ninety words per passage; including (ff. 2-82) verse passages, usually written in double columns, under a series of headings (some occurring more than once), principally: Wit & Folly, Modern War, Cowardise, Nature, Learning, Bookes & Schooles, Truth, Conscience, Love, Honor, Magique, Astrology, War, Religion, Marriag, Chymistry, Hope, Government, Custome, Cruelty, Arts & Sciences, Antiquity, Popery, Opinion, Folly, The Burning of the Rump, The Moon, Trade, Time, Stinke, Art, Treachery, Gluttony,Absurdities, Fortune, Feare, Wit, Pride, Virtuoso, Friendship, Treachery, Law, The world, Fanatiques, Theft, The Populace, Rabble, Women, Poetry, History, Nonsense, Learning & Devotion, Injustice, Avarice, Vice, Wealth, Lust, Writers, Physique, Zeal, Courage, Numbers, The Sea, Prelates, Infancy, Vulgarity and Morality; together with some verse Additions to Hudibras (f. 79), a verse fragment On Phil Nyes thanksgiving Beard (ff. 83v-3), a draft passage originally for Hudibras, Book III, canto iii (f. 139), a ballad (ff. 84v-5) and other verse satires and fragments (ff. 85v, 86v-7, 88-9, 90-138v, 217v); also with drafts of two letters by Butler to a gentleman, 28 June [no year], and to his sister[-in-law], [no date] (ff. 1-86); a series of draft prose satires, observations and reflections (on ff. 84, 87v, 89v, 144-217, 218-36v) on subjects similar to his verse observations, including:

Antiquaries, Religion, Law, Government, Learning & Knowledge, Truth & Falsehood, Wit & Folly, Ignorance, Reason, Virtue & Vice, Opinion, Nature, History, Physique, Princes & Government, Criticisms upon Bookes & Authors (ff. 196-205), and Contradictions, together with other prose passages, including five Characters (Bankrupt, War, A Horse-corser, Church-warden and Covetous Man, on ff. 235-6v, 230-1v); some prose notes and lists on ff. 141-3v added later by John Clarke (1743/4-89); these papers forming a portion of those bequeathed by Butler to William Longueville (1639-1721) and containing some marginal notes in Longueville's hand; later used by Robert Thyer (1709-81), who has added pencil crosses in the margin to denote passages he wished to transcribe (see BuS 6).

Most of this MS edited, at various times, in re-arranged selections, in Thyer (1759, and also editions of 1822 and 1827) [viz. verse, including additions to Hudibras]; in Waller (1908) [viz. Characters and most of the verse and some prose]; and in De Quehen, Prose (1979), pp. 1-246 [viz. Characters, letters and miscellaneous prose]. The MS discussed notably in De Quehen, Editing and Prose (esp. pp. xxxix-xlvii).

Facsimile examples of ff. 1 and 139 in Greg, English Literary Autographs, plate LX; of f. 139 in Croft, Autograph Poetry, I, 49; of f. 196 in Garnett & Gosse (1903), III, 144; of f. 202v in De Quehen, Editing, p. 80 (plate V); of ff. 235 and 202v in De Quehen, Prose, after p. xxxviii; of f. 79r in IELM, II.i (1987), Facsimile IV, after p. xxiv; of ff. 79r, 139r, 202v and 235r in DLB, 126 (1993), pp. 30-2; and of f. 79r and one of the draft letters in Chris Fletcher, et al., 1000 Years of English Literature: A Treasury of Literary Manuscripts (British Library, [2000]), pp. 78-9.

A folio composite volume of Butler's papers, almost entirely autograph, 236 leaves.

c.late 1660s-70s

Sotheby's, 19 November 1885 (stock of the bookseller F.S. Ellis), lot 803.

BuS 6

Folio, 154 leaves; composite volume of selective transcripts of, and systematically, arranged extracts from, Butler's autograph literary remains in verse and prose.

Folio, 154 leaves; composite volume of selective transcripts of, and systematically, arranged extracts from, Butler's autograph literary remains in verse and prose, made by Robert Thyer (1709-91); a substantial part transcribed from BuS 5; much, principally 66 prose Characters (ff. 82-147v), transcribed from Butler's lost MSS; this MS retained by Thyer and not given to the publisher to be edited in his Genuine Remains (1759); including (f. 2) a letter by Jacob Tonson, 8 January 1756, discussing the printing of Thyer's forthcoming edition, other related notes by Thyer, and (ff. 150-4) lists of Butler's MSS in his possession.

c.1750s

Sold in the Ellis sale at Sotheby's, 19 November 1885, in lot 803.

The Characters in this MS edited in Waller (1908), pp. 197-267, and in Daves (1970, pp. 247-319). The MS briefly discussed in De Quehen, Editing and Prose, passim.

*BuS 7
Autograph

Quarto MS volume originally used by Butler comprising his autograph English-French dictionary and transcripts of a large amount of miscellaneous verse and prose from Butler's autograph MSS.

4°, 184 leaves; MS volume originally used by Butler, the first 81 leaves (after preliminaries: i.e. ff. [iv-lxxxiv]) comprising his autograph English-French dictionary, arranged alphabetically from A to L in double columns; the volume bequeathed to William Longueville (1639-1721) and the remaining blank leaves subsequently used by him as a commonplace book, incorporating, together with notes and extracts from other works, his selective transcripts of a large amount of miscellaneous verse and prose from Butler's autograph MSS; transcribed partly from BuS 5 (about 250 passages of prose and some verse), partly from lost MSS (about 180 passages of prose and some verse); consisting of approximately 430 prose passages (including a few Characters), together with a number of verse passages, under the following headings: France and the French, Creacon, Antiquity & Antiquary, Vnderstanding, Wisdome, Assent, Writing, Learning, ye Soule, Poetry, Sin, Content, Anger, Cheating, Flattery, Misfortunes, Confidence, Lawyer, Law, Dueller, Thoughts, Life & Death, Death, Charity, Nature, Censure, Schoolmaster, ye People, ye King, Incongruous & Inconsistent Opinions, Marriage & women, Obstinacy, ffaith, Drunkennesse, Idolatry, Reputation, Honour, Gratitude, Patria, Pleasure, Punishmt, Parents, Power, Pope, God, Popery, Priests, Preaching, Oppressor, Virtue and vice, Example, Ingenuity & Witt, Tragedy of Nero [i.e. extracts from the anonymous tragedy published in 1624], History, Madnesse, Words, Governmt disorderd, Warr, Princes, Riches, ye World, Conversation, Patience, Pride, Lying, Love, Honesty, Truth, Talke, Prophesy, Religion, Christian Religion, Jews, Reformation, Atheist, Man, Immoderate desire of Knowledge, Passion, Reason, Conscientia and Conscience.

c.1640s [-18th century]

This volume bequeathed to William Longueville (1639-1721); later owned by Treadway Russell Nash (1725-1811), whose inscription of provenance is inside the upper cover; by his son-in-law John Somers Cocks, first Earl Somers (1760-1841); by P.J. and A.E. Dobell (in 1930); and by A.S.W. Rosenbach (item 135 in his catalogue [45] English Poetry to 1700 (1941); re-offered as item 130 in his catalogue [37] of 1947.

This MS is presumably that once (erroneously) described by Rosenbach as Hudibras. The Original Manuscript. An early version in his [54] Catalogue of an Exhibition of Manuscripts and Rare Books January — February 1931, p. 15). This MS (once mistakenly believed to be in Butler's hand throughout) discussed and some passages edited by Norma E. Bentley in Another Butler Manuscript, MP, 46 (1948-9), 132-5, and in Hudibras Butler Abroad, MLN, 60 (1945), 254-9, and by De Quehen in Prose (esp. pp. lv-lx); also described in Nash (1793), I, xvi-xvii. Selected passages edited from this MS in Daves, pp. 329-30, and in De Quehen, Prose, pp. 247-303.

Facsimiles of ff. [94v-5r] (ff. 9v-10 of second foliation) in Clive E. Driver, A Selection from our Shelves: Books, manuscripts and drawings from the Philip H. & A.S.W. Rosenbach Foundation Museum (Philadelphia, 1973), No. 45; of f. [1r] in De Quehen, Prose (frontispiece); and of f. 2r in DLB, 126 (1993), p. 36. Facsimile of two lines of verse [by Thomas Otway] also in Nash, I, xxxix.

BuS 8

A notebook of verse remains of Butler, copied in a professional hand, with corrections and insertions in the hand of the lawyer William Longueville (1639-1721), on c.20 folded folio leaves, in marbled wrappers.

Late 17th-early 18th century

Evidently owned by the librarian Robert Thyer (1709-81), and among papers of the Thyer, Hale, Killer and Bellot families. Bequeathed by Professor Hugh Hale Bellot, 1969.

Discussed in David Parkes, Documents relating to Samuel Butler (1613-1680), N&Q, 238 (September 1993), 324-5.

The University of Manchester Library (Bellot Papers, Box 11/22)

Letters and Documents

Letter(s)
*BuS 9
Autograph

Autograph draft of a letter by Butler, to an unidentified gentleman, 28 June [no year], and to his sister[-in-law], [no date] (ff. 1, 86).

Edited (with BuS 9.5) in De Quehen, Prose, pp. 242-4. Facsimile of the signed subscription in John Thane, British Autography (1793 etc.), Vol. III.

A folio composite volume of Butler's papers, almost entirely autograph, 236 leaves.

c.late 1660s-70s

Sotheby's, 19 November 1885 (stock of the bookseller F.S. Ellis), lot 803.

*BuS 9.5
Autograph

Autograph draft of a letter by Butler, to his sister[-in-law], [no date].

Edited (with BuS 9) in De Quehen, Prose, pp. 242-4.

A folio composite volume of Butler's papers, almost entirely autograph, 236 leaves.

c.late 1660s-70s

Sotheby's, 19 November 1885 (stock of the bookseller F.S. Ellis), lot 803.

BuS 10 1663

Copy of a letter by Butler, about Hudibras, to Sir George Oxenden, president of the East India Company, 19 March 1662/3, originally accompanying a corrected presentation printed exemplum of the First Part of the poem.

The original letter cannot be found among Oxenden papers in the Centre for Kentish Studies, the Folger, and the India Office.

Edited, with related correspondence in the letter-book, in Ricardo Quintana, The Butler-Oxenden Correspondence, MLN, 48 (1933), 1-11, and also in Hudibras, ed. John Wilders (Oxford, 1967), pp. 450-1.

A letterbook, belonging to Sir George Oxenden, president of the East India Company.

Document(s)
*BuS 11
Autograph

A four-line autograph subscription signed by Butler as secretary to the second Duke of Buckingham, probably in June 1673, at the foot of a petition for a fellowship at Trinity College, Cambridge, sent to Buckingham by Edward Bathurst.

1673
National Archives, Kew (SP 29/336/45)

Books Allegedly Owned or Annotated by Butler

Davila, Henrico Caterino. The Continuation and Conclusion of the Civil Warres of France (London, 1648)
BuS 12

Allegedly Butler's printed exemplum, described as containing his autograph inscription on [the] title-page, Liber Samueli Butleri, An. Dom. 1667, and, on the fly-leaf, the inscription Samuell Butler his Book, 1667.

Inscribed in another hand Henry Spurway bought this book of Sam. Butler, Anno. 1669, pr. 15s.. Pickering & Chatto's A Catalogue of Old and Rare Books, [c.1910?], item 1546.

Untraced, miscellaneous ([Davila volume])
Smith, Sir Thomas. Thomae Smithi Angli de Republica Anglorum lib. iii (Leiden, 1630)
BuS 13

Alleged autograph of Samuel Butler His Booke, in a 32mo volume.

Originally accompanying BuS 5 when sold at Sotheby's, 19 November 1885, as item 9 in lot 803, to Quaritch.

Untraced, miscellaneous ([Smith volume])

Related Documents

Editorial and Copyright Papers
BuS 14 1743

Copy of Zachary Grey's publishing agreement of 26 July 1743 for his edition of Hudibras.

A composite volume of letters and papers of Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832), philosopher and reformer, 348 leaves.

Volume XVIII of the Bentham Papers.

BuS 15 1742-3

Two autograph letters signed by Zachary Grey concerning his edition of Hudibras and agreement with booksellers, dated 11 October 1742 and 9 March 1742/3.

Formerly Christ Church, Oxford, Evelyn MS 4, Vol. ii, Nos. 17-18.

A folio composite volume of letters and papers, iii + 192 leaves, in half modern calf.

Volume DXVII of the Evelyn Papers. Formerly Christ Church, Oxford, Evelyn MS 3 (William Upcott vol.).

BuS 15.5 1677

A Royal Warrant, drawn up by John Berkenhead and signed by Charles II, granting Butler sole rights of republishing any part of Hudibras, 10 September 1677.

The text of this is printed in Samuel Butler, Hudibras, ed. Treadway Russell Nash, 3 vols (London, 1793), I, viii.

A composite volume of miscellaneous and historical letters and papers, collected by Thomas Birch (1705-66), biographer and historian.

BuS 16

MS of critical, historical and explanatory notes upon Hudibras by way of supplement to the two editions published in the years 1744 and 1745 by the editor Zachary Grey (1688-1766), …to which is prefixed A dissertation upon burlesque poetry by the late learned and ingenious Montagu Bacon…1752

c.1752
BuS 17

Copy of a commentary on Hudibras by the Rev. Zachary Grey (1688-1766), writer, in a neat rounded hand, on pp. 21-71 in a large quarto volume of ii + 76 pages, in old calf.

With a title-page: Critical, Historical, and Explanatory Notes upon Hudibras by Way of Supplement to the Two Editions published in the Years 1744 and 1745. By Zachary Grey. LL D. To which is prefixed A Dissertation upon Burlesque Poetry [&c.]...1752.

1752

Inscribed inside the cover M A Slaney.

Grey's notes on Hudibras derived from William Warburton (1698-1779), Bishop of Cloucesters, who was not pleased with his use of them in Grey's edition of the work in 1744-5. His supplement was published in 1752.

BuS 18 1757

A receipt by W. Johnston for £2 5s from J. Lounds for a share of the copyright of Hudibras, on an oblong octavo leaf, 9 February 1757.

A folio guardbook comprising Original Assignments of Copy-rights of Books and other Literary Agreements between various Publishers, from 1712 to 1822: collected by William Upcott [(1779-1845), antiquary and autograph collector] of the London Institution. 1825, in various hands and paper sizes, i + 207 leaves.

Apocryphal Verse and Prose

Dildoides ('Such a sad Tale prepare to hear')

Dated in some sources 1672 but not published until 1706.

BuS 19

Copy, as supposed written by Sr Charles Sidley.

A large folio formal miscellany of verse and prose, in a single rounded hand throughout, the margins ruled in red, and with an alphabetical index (pp. 719-21), 738 pages (pp. 722-38 blank), plus 40 pages of preliminary inserted material, in contemporary elaborately tooled leather.

Including thirteen poems and a mock-speech in the Marvell canon and eleven poems by Rochester, as well as apocryphal items, compiled — in stages, probably for the most part in chronological sequence, over a period of up to fifteen years — by Sir William Haward (or Hawarde or Hayward) of Tandridge, Surrey (his signature, dated 21 January 1676/7, on p. 66).

c.1667-82 [the poems by Marvell and Rochester c.1670s]

Sir William Haward was knighted in 1643, served as a Gentleman of the Privy Chamber to Charles I, Charles II, James II and William III, was M.P. for Bletchingley (1661-78), a Fellow of the Royal Society (1665) and a Commissioner for the Sale of Fee Farm Rents (1670 onwards); he lived sometime in Scotland Yard and was still living in 1702 (see, inter alia, W. Paley Baildon, The Hawardes of Tandridge Co. Surrey (London, 1894), pp. 23-31). John Evelyn described him as a greate pretender to English antiquities &c:. An autograph letter by him, dated 23 March 1688/9, is in the British Library (Add. MS 29563, f. 453).

Later owned by Peter Le Neve (1661-1729), by his wife Frances Le Neve (signature on p. vii), by their servant Joseph Allen, who entered additional items in 1729, and by her second husband Thomas Martin (1697-1771) of Palgrave. Later in the library of the Aston family of Tixall, Staffordshire (and sold in the Tixall sale at Sotheby's, 7 November 1899, lot 430 to Bertram Dobell (1842-1914)). Afterwards owned by George Thorn-Drury (1860-1931) and sold in 1935 by P.J. Dobell.

Cited in IELM as the Haward MS: MaA Δ 2. The Marvell canon selectively collated in Margoliouth and in POAS, I and II and the Rochester canon selectively collated in Vieth and in Walker. See also Paul Hammond, The Dating of Three Poems by Rochester from the Evidence of Bodleian MS. Don. b. 8, BLR, 11 (1982), 58-9.

Facsimile of p. 277 in POAS, I, facing p. 228 (see MaA 98).

Bodleian Library, Don. MSS (MS Don. b. 8 pp. 194-7)
BuS 20

Copy.

A folio miscellany of poems on affairs of state entitled A Choice Collection of Poems, Lampoons, Satyrs &ca, xx + 412 pages (339-411 blank).

c.1700

Among the collections of Sir Charles Harding Firth (1857-1936), historian.

This MS collated in POAS, I.

Bodleian Library, other MSS (MS Firth c. 15 pp. 3-10)
BuS 21

Copy.

A quarto miscellany of poems on affairs of state, in six chiefly professional hands, 124 leaves (plus numerous blanks) and including, ff. 123r-4r, two tipped-in octavo leaves, in modern half red crushed morocco on cloth boards gilt.

c.1710
BuS 22

Copy.

A folio miscellany of poems on affairs of state, in a single professional hand, 151 pages (plus 128 blank pages), with a table of contents (f. 1*r), in modern half crushed morocco on cloth boards gilt.

End of 17th century
BuS 23

Copy, dated 1675.

A large quarto miscellany of poems chiefly on affairs of state, entitled Collection of Choice Poemes, in a single neat hand, with a Catalogue of contents (ff. 382v-6v), 387 leaves, in half brown morocco gilt.

c.1703

Note of purchase (f. 1r) pd - 6 - 9 -/ April 24 1703.

BuS 24

Copy.

A bundle of unbound verse MSS, in various hands.

Among papers of the Sackville and Cranfield families, Earls of Dorset and of de la Warr, of Knole Park, Kent.

Recorded in HMC, 4th Report (1874), Appendix, pp. 303-4.

Centre for Kentish Studies, Maidstone (U269 F36 [unnumbered])
BuS 25

Copy.

A long, narrow, ledger-size composite miscellany of poems on affairs of state, 112 pages (some misnumbered and pp. 45-6 excised), in 19th-century calf gilt.

A compendium of several separate collections of poems, each with its general heading, including nineteen poems by the Earl of Rochester, copied in a single hand, that of Robert Mylne (1643?-1747), antiquary.

c.1680s-1700s

Recorded and selectively collated in Vieth and in Walker. Recorded in IELM, II.ii as the Edinburgh MS: RoJ Δ 6.

Edinburgh University Library (MS Dc. 1. 3/1 pp. 54-6)
BuS 26

Copy.

A folio miscellany of poems chiefly on affairs of state, entitled A Collection of Poems, including 27 poems by Rochester (all ascribed to him), xii + 299 pages (plus a number of blanks), including a table of contents, in contemporary calf (rebacked).

In a single professional hand but for a few later additions at the very end (pp. 295-8, with some pages tipped-in).

c.1690s

Recorded in IELM, II.ii as the Harvard MS: RoJ Δ 7.

Harvard, other MSS (fMS Eng 636 pp. 267-74)
BuS 27

Copy.

An unbound collection of poems chiefly of a bawdy nature or on affairs of state (including a number in the Rochester and apocryphal Rochester canon), in a non-professional hand, possibly derived at least in part from printed sources, 29 folio leaves.

c.1700

Among the papers of the Turner family of Kirkleatham.

North Yorkshire Record Office, Northallerton (ZK MIC 1275/9785 ff. [7r-8v])
BuS 29

Copy.

A formal folio miscellany of poems on affairs of state, including eleven by Rochester and Sodom, as well as apocryphal items, probably in a single professional hand, 444 leaves (including a six-leaf index).

c.1690s

Cited in IELM, II.ii as the Vienna MS: RoJ Δ 12. Discussed in Rudolf Brotanek, Beschreibung der Handschrift 14090 (Supplement 1776) der Nationalbibliothek in Wien, in Festschrift der Nationalbibliothek in Wien (Vienna, 1926), 145-62. Recorded and selectively collated in Vieth and in Walker.

BuS 30

Copy, headed Dildoides. By the Author of Hudibras, 1673.

A folio miscellany of poems on affairs of state, in a single professional rounded hand, entitled A Collection of Choyce Poems, Lampoons, and Satyrs from 1673 to 1689. Never Extant in Print, 335 pages (plus a Table of contents and blanks), in modern red morocco.

c.1690s

In the collection of Robert H. Taylor (1908-85), American book and manuscript collector. Formerly Restoration poetry MS 2.

This MS collated in POAS, I.

Princeton (RTC01 No. 35 pp. 1-7)
BuS 31

Copy.

A large octavo verse miscellany, chiefly lampoons and poems on affairs of state, including 21 poems by Rochester and various others in the Rochester apocrypha, nearly 600 pages in all, with a 14-page index.

Written in a single hand which can be identified as that of the Scottish pasquil-writer and antiquary Robert Mylne (1643?-1747), who was also responsible for RoJ Δ 6.

c.1705
Private owners in the UK (Mylne MS pp. 174-8)
BuS 32

Copy, headed Dildoides A Burlesque Poem by Lemuel Butler Gent.

A quarto formal verse anthology entitled The Whimsical Medley or A Miscellaneous Collection of severall Pieces in Prose & Verse [etc.], in a single stylish italic hand, with a tipped-in six-leaf table of contents, bound in three volumes, also incorporating printed pamphlets, 217 + 232 + 216 leaves (plus blanks), each volume in contemporary calf gilt.

Compiled by Theophilus Butler (1669-1723), first Baron Newtown of Newtown-Butler, book collector.

c.1720

Old pressmark I. 5. 1-3.

BuS 33

Copy.

A large folio miscellany of poems on affairs of state, entitled A Collection of Poems and Lampoons &ca Not yet Edited, in a single professional rounded hand (the same as in University of Nottingham, Pw V 43 and University of Nottingham, Pw V 44), 461 pages plus an eight-page Table of contents, in contemporary blind-stamped calf.

c.1705
University of Nottingham (Pw V 42 pp. 4-13)
BuS 34

Copy.

A folio miscellany of poems on affairs of state, in a single professional hand, in two volumes: Vol. I, including twelve poems by Rochester and Sodom, as well as apocryphal items, pp. 1-461 (plus index); Vol. II, pp. 462-842 (with irregularities of pagination).

This MS is closely related to Österreichische Nationalbibliothek, Vienna, Cod. 14090.

c.1690s-1700

Later owned by Alexander Dyce (1798-1869), literary scholar and editor, who records that £50 was given by Perry, for these 2 volumes.

Cited in IELM, II.ii (1993), as the Dyce MS: RoJ Δ 15.

Victoria and Albert Museum (Dyce MS 43 (Pressmark Dyce 25.F.37-38) pp. 113-119)
BuS 35

Extracts.

A composite collection of separate copies of English verse, 64 folio and quarto pages.

Assembled by the traveller Lorenzo Magalotti (1637-1712).

Late 17th century

Sotheby's, 19 July 1966, lot 518.

Yale, Osborn, others (Osborn MS fb 66 No. 32)
BuS 36

Copy.

A folio composite volume of poems on affairs of state, 319 pages, disbound.

Late 17th century

This MS owned in 1682 by Narcissus Luttrell (1657-1732). Later Phillipps MS 8301 and Osborn MS. Chest II, Number 52.

Yale, Osborn, others (Osborn MS fb 70 ff. 49r-50v)
Mercurius Menippeus

A satire first published in 1682 with the subtitle The Loyal Satyrist, or, Hudibras in Prose. Almost certainly written by Thomas Winyard (or Winnard or Winwood), Fellow of St John's College, Oxford: see De Quehen, RES, (1982), 274-5, and Lamar, pp. 347-65. Before its re-publication in Butler's Posthumous Works, it was heavily doctored with interpolated Hudibrastic verses.

BuS 37

Copy of the original version.

A quarto miscellany of poems on affairs of state, in a single neat hand, iv + 248 pages, imperfect at the end, in contemporary calf.

Compiled by an Oxford University man.

End of 17th century

Sold by J.W. Jarvis & Sons, 5 December 1888.

Bodleian Library, Eng. poet. e. MSS (MS Eng. poet. e. 4 pp. 125-41)

Contents