“Hudibras” is a poem by Samuel Butler on the popular figure of the “heroic knight”. The Poem is published in three parts in 1663, 1664 and 1678.
The poetic story depicts Hudibras, a Knight and Colonel in the Parliamentary army, being regularly defeated, sometimes by the skills and courage of women, and ends with a witty and detailed declaration that women are superior to men.
Part-3, Canto-III of Butler’s poem visualises Hudibras’s visit to a Lawyer for Counsel after he cudgels one Sidrophel for stealing his cloak and breaking his matrimony. The stanza from the Poem reads as under:
“…………………….
To this brave man the Knight repairs
For counsel in his law-affairs
And found him mounted in his pew,
With books and money plac’d for shew,
Like nest-eggs to make clients lay,
And for his false opinion pay
To whom the knight, with comely grace,
Put off his hat to put his case
Which he as proudly entertain’d
As th’ other courteously strain’d;
And, to assure him ‘t was not that
He look’d for, bid him put on’s hat.
Quoth he, There is one SIDROPHEL,
Whom I have cudgell’d — Very well.
And now he brags t’ have beaten me. —
Better and better still, quoth he. —
And vows to stick me to a wall
Where-e’er he meets me — Best of all.
‘Tis true, the knave has taken’s oath
That I robb’d him — Well done, in troth
When h’ has confess’d he stole my cloak,
And pick’d my fob, and what he took;
Which was the cause that made me bang him,
…………………………………….
Then there’s a Lady too — Aye, marry
That’s easily prov’d accessary;
A widow, who, by solemn vows
Contracted to me for my spouse,
Combin’d with him to break her word,
And has abetted all. — Good Lord
Suborn’d th’ aforesaid SIDROPHEL
To tamper with the Dev’l of Hell;
Who put m’ into a horrid fear,
Fear of my life. — Make that appear.”
William Hogarth was an English painter, engraver, pictorial satirist, social critic, editorial and occasional writer on art. His work ranges from realistic portraiture to comic strip-like series of pictures called “modern moral subjects”. Knowledge of his work is so pervasive that satirical political illustrations in this style are often referred to as “Hogarthian”.
In 1725, Hogarth translated the above stanza from Butler’s poem into an engraved art plate by showing a robed and wigged Lawyer sitting in his office like a King on his Throne. Hogarth’s engravings of Butler’s satirical epic summarize the social and political environment in England with the same cleverness and wit seen in his later works, including the Marriage à la Mode and A Harlot’s Progress.
Hogarth’s masterpiece engraving now adorns the wall of my office. Don’t miss the Law Clerks sitting under the Lawyer’s pew. The Lawyer’s Dogs can be seen on the left of the plate with Hudibras approaching the Lawyer.
