author
Samuel Butler
1612–1680
Best known for the wildly inventive satire Hudibras, this 17th-century English writer brought sharp wit to the political and religious arguments of his time. His verse is energetic, mocking, and surprisingly modern in its bite.
1 Audiobook
Hudibras, in Three Parts, Written in the Time of the Late Wars
by Samuel Butler
About the author
Born in Worcestershire and baptized in February 1612, Samuel Butler became an English poet and satirist whose reputation rests mainly on Hudibras. That long mock-heroic poem, published in parts during the 1660s, made him famous for turning the language of chivalry and epic poetry into a comic weapon.
Butler lived through the turmoil of the English Civil War and its aftermath, and his writing reflects that world closely. Hudibras is especially known for ridiculing Puritanism and political fanaticism, using quick rhymes, learned jokes, and a deliberately overblown style to expose hypocrisy and absurdity.
Although he was admired in his lifetime, Butler did not gain great wealth from his success. He died in London on September 25, 1680, but his influence lasted well beyond his own century, and Hudibras remains the work most closely tied to his name.