Hudibrastic is a type of
English language poetry named for Samuel Butler's
Hudibras, published in parts from 1663 to 1678.
[Cox, Michael, editor, The Concise Oxford Chronology of English Literature, Oxford University Press, 2004, ] For the poem, Butler invented a
mock-heroic verse structure.
Description
Instead of
pentameter, the lines were written in iambic tetrameter. The
rhyme scheme is the same as in
heroic verse (AA BB CC DD), but Butler used frequent
feminine rhyme for humor.
[Baldick, Christopher (1996). " Hudibrastic verse" in The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Literary Terms. Oxford Reference Online (subscription required), Oxford University Press. Retrieved on February 27, 2007.]
Example
The first fourteen lines of
Hudibras illustrate the verse form:
- When civil dudgeon first grew high,
- And men fell out they knew not why;
- When hard words, jealousies, and fears,
- Set folks together by the ears,
- And made them fight, like mad or drunk,
- For Dame Religion, as for punk;
- Whose honesty they all durst swear for,
- Though not a man of them knew wherefore:
- When Gospel-Trumpeter, surrounded
- With long-ear'd rout, to battle sounded,
- And pulpit, drum ecclesiastick,
- Was beat with fist, instead of a stick;
- Then did Sir Knight abandon dwelling,
- And out he rode a colonelling.
Further description
The rhyme of "swear for" with "wherefore" and "ecclesiastic" with "(in)stead of a stick" are surprising, unnatural, and humorous. Additionally, the rhyme of "-don dwelling" with "a colonelling" is strained to the point of breaking, again for humorous effect. Further, the rhyme scheme in a Hudibrastic will imply inappropriate comparisons. For example, the rhyme of "drunk" and "punk" (meaning "a prostitute") implies that the religious ecstasies of the
were the same as that of sexual intercourse and inebriation.
The hudibrastic has been traditionally used for satire. Jonathan Swift, for example, wrote nearly all of his poetry in hudibrastics.
Other usage
In 18th-century usage, "hudibrastic" could also be used grandiloquently to indicate any general satire, as in its use for
The Caricature Magazine or Hudibrastic Mirror published by
Thomas Tegg between 1807 and 1819.
Notes
