Butler Samuel

Butler, Samuel, satirist, was born in 1612 in Worcestershire. After occupying various secretarial positions to people of influence, among them Sir Samuel Luke, a Puritan colonel of Bedfordshire, and supposed to be the original Hudibras, he published the first part of Hudibras in 1663. It became immediately popular, and Charles II. himself is reported to have been continually quoting it. A second part came out in 1664 and a third in 1678. Two years later Butler died of consumption and in poverty. Among other pieces that he wrote the chief was a satire on the Royal Society, viz. The Elephant in the Moon.