This fact marks the suddenness of the historic change from the influence of Puritanism to that of the restored Stuarts.
Hudibras is written in octosyllabic verse, frequently not rising above doggerel: it is full of verbal "quips and cranks and wanton wiles:" in parts it is eminently epigrammatic, and many of its happiest couplets seem to have been dashed off without effort.

Walpole calls Butler "the Hogarth of poetry;" and we know that Hogarth illustrated Hudibras.

The comparison is not inapt, but the pictorial element in Hudibras is not its best claim to our praise.

This is found in its string of proverbs and maxims elucidating human nature, and set forth in such terse language that we are inclined to use them thus in preference to any other form of expression.
Hudibras is the very prince of _burlesques_; it stands alone of its kind, and still retains its popularity.

Although there is much that belongs to the age, and much that is of only local interest, it is still read to find apt quotations, of which not a few have become hackneyed by constant use.
With these, pages might be filled; all readers will recognize the following: He speaks of the knight thus: On either side he would dispute, Confute, change hands, and still confute: * * * * * For rhetoric, he could not ope His mouth but out there flew a trope.
Again: he refers, in speaking of religious characters, to Such as do build their faith upon The holy text of pike and gun, And prove their doctrine orthodox, By apostolic blows and knocks; Compound for sins they are inclined to By damning those they have no mind to.
Few persons of the present generation have patience to read Hudibras through.