was lost. In 1663
the first part of _Hudibras_ was _pub._, and the other two in 1664 and
1668 respectively. This work, which is to a certain extent modelled on
_Don Quixote_, stands at the head of the satirical literature of England,
and for wit and compressed thought has few rivals in any language. It is
directed against the Puritans, and while it holds up to ridicule the
extravagancies into which many of the party ran, it entirely fails to do
justice to their virtues and their services to liberty, civil and
religious. Many of its brilliant couplets have passed into the proverbial
commonplaces of the language, and few who use them have any idea of their
source. Butler, notwithstanding the popularity of his work, was neglected
by the Court, and _d._ in poverty.

Ed. of B.'s works have been issued by Bell (3 vols., 1813), and Johnson
(2 vols., 1893).

BUTLER, SAMUEL (1825-1902).--Miscellaneous writer, _ed._ at Shrewsbury
and Camb., wrote two satirical books, _Erewhon_ (nowhere) (1872), and
_Erewhon Revisited_ (1901). He translated the _Iliad_ and _Odyssey_ in
prose, and mooted the theory that the latter was written by a woman.
Other works were _The Fair Haven_, _Life and Habit_, _The Way of all
Flesh_ (a novel) (1903), etc., and some sonnets. He also wrote on the
Sonnets of Shakespeare.

BYRON, GEORGE GORDON, 6TH LORD BYRON (1788-1824).--Poet, was _b._ in
London, the _s._ of Captain John B. and of Catherine Gordon, heiress of
Gight, Aberdeenshire, his second wife, whom he _m._ for her money and,
after squandering it, deserted. He was also the grand-nephew of the 5th,
known as the "wicked" Lord B. From his birth he suffered from a
malformation of the feet, causing a slight lameness, which was a cause of
lifelong misery to him, aggravated by the knowledge that with proper care
it might have been cured. After the departure of his _f._ his mother went
to Aberdeen, where she lived on a small salvage from her fortune. She was
a capricious woman of violent temper, with no fitness for guiding her
volcanic son, and altogether the circumstances of his early life explain,
if they do not excuse, the spirit of revolt which was his lifelong
characteristic. In 1794, on the death of a cousin, he became
heir-presumptive to the title and embarrassed estates of the family, to
which, on the death of his great-uncle in 1798, he succeeded. In 1801 he
was sent to Harrow, where he remained until 1805, when he proceeded to
Trinity Coll.,