Epitaph of Samuel Butler (author of 'Hudibras')

Epitaph
of
Samuel Butler
(1612 - 1680)

This is the inscription by Mr. Samuel Wesley on the tombstone erected to the memory of the author of 'Hudibras' in Westminster abbey (1720):

"While Butler, needy wretch, was yet alive,
No generous patron would a dinner give;
See him, when starv'd to death, and turn'd to dust,
Presented with a monumental bust.
The poet's fate is here in emblem shown,
He ask'd for bread, and he received a stone.