Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 08.djvu/80

 by Granger that Butler was in receipt of a pension of 100l. a year at the time of his death.

The success of ‘Hudibras,’ and a rumour that a large quantity of Butler's unpublished manuscript was in existence, encouraged the production of a great many spurious posthumous collections of his verses. For some reason or other, however, the papers of Butler were preserved untouched by William Longueville, who bequeathed them to his son Charles, and he in his turn to a John Clarke of Walgherton in Cheshire. This gentleman, in November 1754, consented to allow R. Thyer, the keeper of the public library in Manchester, to examine them. The result was the publication in 1759 of two very interesting volumes, entitled ‘The Genuine Remains in Verse and Prose of Mr. Samuel Butler.’ These volumes contain much that is only second in merit to ‘Hudibras’ itself, among others a brilliant satire on the Royal Society, entitled ‘The Elephant in the Moon,’ and a series of prose ‘Characters.’ The collection of manuscripts from which these were selected was sold in London to the British Museum in 1885, and is now numbered there (MSS. Addit. 32625–6). Several of the pieces are still unpublished. ‘Hudibras,’ which received the honour of being illustrated by Hogarth in 1726, was several times carefully edited during the eighteenth century (for an account of the illustrated editions see Notes and Queries, 4th series, xi. 352, and 5th series, iii. 456). The edition of Dr. Grey, which appeared first in 1744, is still considered the standard one. ‘Hudibras’ was translated into French verse with great skill by John Townley (1697–1782). In 1721 a monument to Butler was raised in Westminster Abbey, at the expense of the lord mayor, John Barber, a graceful act which Pope rewarded in two spiteful lines: But whence this Barber? that a name so mean Should, join'd with Butler's, on a tomb be seen. A portrait of Butler by Lely is in the gallery at Oxford; another by Lely was painted for Clarendon (see Diary,  and, iii. 444); Soest painted a third portrait, which was engraved for Grey's edition of ‘Hudibras.’

[Very little has been discovered with regard to Butler's life beyond what Wood (Athenæ Oxon. (Bliss) iii. 874) reported. That little was mainly given to the world by Dr. Nash, in the second volume of his Collections for the History of Worcestershire, in 1782. There have been no later discoveries than those made by Nash more than a century ago. Oldys made some notes for a life of Butler, which are in Brit. Mus. MS. Addit. 4221, pp. 198–203. See also Granger's Biog. Hist. iv. 38–40.]  BUTLER, SAMUEL (1774–1839), bishop of Lichfield and Coventry, born at Kenilworth 30 Jan. 1774, was the son of William Butler of that place; was admitted to Rugby 31 March 1783, and entered St. John's College, Cambridge, in 1792. At Cambridge his career was singularly brilliant. He obtained three of Sir William Browne's medals, and in 1793 was elected Craven scholar in competition with Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Keate, afterwards head-master of Eton, and Christopher Bethell, afterwards bishop of Bangor. He was a senior optime in the mathematical tripos of 1796, when he proceeded B.A. He carried off the chancellor's medals in 1797, and the member's prizes for 1797 and 1798. He became fellow of St. John's 4 April 1797, and in 1798 was appointed head-master of Shrewsbury School. He held this appointment for thirty-eight years. Although many ecclesiastical benefices were conferred on him within that period, the school occupied most of his attention, and it acquired a very high reputation during his head-mastership, in which he was succeeded by his pupil, Dr. Benjamin Hall Kennedy, in 1836. In 1802 Butler became vicar of Kenilworth, and in 1811 he proceeded D.D. In 1807 he was instituted to a prebend at Lichfield, in 1821 to the archdeaconry of Derby, and in June 1836 (when he left Shrewsbury) to the bishopric of Lichfield and Coventry. In December 1836 the archdeaconry of Coventry was annexed to the see of Worcester, and left Butler bishop of Lichfield. While holding this office Butler suffered much ill-health, but he administered his diocese with great energy, and was popular with his clergy. He died 4 Dec. 1839, and was buried in St. Mary's Church, Shrewsbury. He married in 1798 Harriet, daughter of the Rev. East Apthorp, B.D., vicar of Croydon and rector of St. Mary-le-Bow, by whom he had two daughters, Mary and Harriet, and one son, Thomas. His elder daughter married Edward Bather [q. v.], and his son became rector of Langar.

Butler was the author of many educational works, the chief of which are: 1. An elaborate edition of ‘Æschylus,’ published at the Cambridge University Press in four volumes between 1809 and 1826. 2. ‘A Sketch of Modern and Ancient Geography,’ Shrewsbury, 1813 (and frequently reprinted). 3. ‘An Atlas of Ancient Geography.’ 4. ‘An Atlas of Modern Geography.’ He was also the editor of ‘M. Musuri Carmen in Platonem, Is. Casauboni in Josephum Scaligerum Ode. Accedunt Poemata et Exercitationes utriusque linguæ,’ 1797, he wrote ‘A Praxis on the Latin Prepositions with Exercises,’ 1823; and several sermons, one of them being the funeral ser- 