Study Edition · Essay 14
A Degenerate Noble
Source: Butler's Characters (written 1660s, published 1759), in Henry Morley (ed.), Character Writings of the Seventeenth Century (1891). Text from Project Gutenberg #10699. Archaic verb forms modernized; vocabulary kept and glossed.
Butler, author of the comic poem Hudibras, wrote nearly 200 characters. This one is a merciless portrait of an aristocrat who has inherited a great name and done nothing to deserve it. The piece is a rapid string of comparisons (a turnip, rhubarb, a ruin, a ghost, candles replacing the sun, a word that has lost its meaning), each one sharper than the last. Like other characters, it begins without a subject.
13 sentences: 0 simple, 3 moderate, 10 complex. Hover a number for its paraphrase; click it for the full note.
Key Vocabulary
- degeneratehaving fallen below the standard of one's ancestors
- contemptibledeserving scorn
- engenderedbred; produced
- exemptto free from an obligation
- posteritydescendants; future generations
- antiquitygreat age; ancient origin
- desertmerit; what one deserves (stress on 2nd syllable)
- qualityhigh social rank
- meddleto concern oneself; to interfere
- substancethe real, solid part of something
- privilegedlegally exempted; protected by special right
- wantlack
- fanatica religious extremist (Butler's term for Puritan sectarians)
- superstructurethe part of a building above its foundation
- disquietunease; anxiety
- ignoblenot noble; dishonourable
- industryhard work
- derivedtaken from an earlier source
- verbalconsisting of words only
- proportiona ratio or share
The Essay
Is like a turnip, there is nothing good of him but that which is underground; or rhubarb, a contemptible shrub that springs from a noble root.1 He has no more title to the worth and virtue of his ancestors than the worms that were engendered in their dead bodies, and yet he believes he has enough to exempt himself and his posterity from all things of that nature for ever.2 This makes him glory in the antiquity of his family, as if his nobility were the better the further off it is, in time as well as desert, from that of his predecessors.3 He believes the honour that was left him as well as the estate is sufficient to support his quality without troubling himself to purchase any more of his own; and he meddles as little with the management of the one as the other, but trusts both to the government of his servants, by whom he is equally cheated in both.4 He supposes the empty title of honour sufficient to serve his turn, though he has spent the substance and reality of it, like the fellow that sold his ass but would not part with the shadow of it; or Apicius, that sold his house, and kept only the balcony to see and be seen in.5 And because he is privileged from being arrested for his debts, supposes he has the same freedom from all obligations he owes humanity and his country, because he is not punishable for his ignorance and want of honour, no more than poverty or unskilfulness is in other professions, which the law supposes to be punishment enough to itself.6 He is like a fanatic, that contents himself with the mere title of a saint, and makes that his privilege to act all manner of wickedness; or the ruins of a noble structure, of which there is nothing left but the foundation, and that obscured and buried under the rubbish of the superstructure.7 The living honour of his ancestors is long ago departed, dead and gone, and his is but the ghost and shadow of it, that haunts the house with horror and disquiet where once it lived.8 His nobility is truly descended from the glory of his forefathers, and may be rightly said to fall to him, for it will never rise again to the height it was in them by his means, and he succeeds them as candles do the office of the sun.9 The confidence of nobility has rendered him ignoble, as the opinion of wealth makes some men poor, and as those that are born to estates neglect industry and have no business but to spend, so he being born to honour believes he is no further concerned than to consume and waste it.10 He is but a copy, and so ill done that there is no line of the original in him but the sin only.11 He is like a word that by ill-custom and mistake has utterly lost the sense of that from which it was derived, and now signifies quite contrary; for the glory of noble ancestors will not permit the good or bad of their posterity to be obscure.12 He values himself only upon his title, which being only verbal gives him a wrong account of his natural capacity, for the same words signify more or less, according as they are applied to things, as ordinary and extraordinary do at court; and sometimes the greater sound has the less sense, as in accounts, though four is more than three, yet a third in proportion is more than a fourth.13
Sentence Notes
In plain English: A degenerate nobleman is like a turnip: the only good part of him is underground (his buried ancestors). Or like rhubarb, a worthless plant growing from a valuable root.
Why this phrase is worth keeping: A savage, funny opening: the family's only value lies with the dead.
Reference & context: Medicine: in the 1600s rhubarb was grown for its root, an expensive imported medicine, not for its stalks.
In plain English: He has no more right to his ancestors' merit and virtue than the worms that grew in their corpses; and yet he thinks he has inherited enough to excuse himself and his children from ever needing virtue of their own.
Why this phrase is worth keeping: A grotesque image: the heir is no more their true descendant than the worms that ate them.
In plain English: So he boasts about how ancient his family is, as if his nobility got better the further it was, both in time and in merit, from that of his ancestors.
In plain English: He thinks the honour he inherited, like the estate, is enough to keep up his rank without any effort to earn more. He takes as little care of his honour as of his property, leaving both to his servants, who cheat him of both equally.
Reference & context: The source misprints “as little” as “us little”; corrected here.
In plain English: He thinks an empty title is good enough, though he has used up all the real substance of honour. He is like the man who sold his donkey but refused to give up its shadow, or Apicius, who sold his house but kept the balcony so he could watch and be watched.
Reference & context: Fable: Demosthenes told the Athenians of a man who hired a donkey and sat in its shadow to escape the heat; the owner sued, saying he had rented the donkey, not its shadow. Historical: Apicius was a Roman glutton who squandered a huge fortune on luxury.
In plain English: And because peers can't be arrested for debt, he assumes he's equally free from all his duties to humanity and his country, since no law punishes him for ignorance or dishonour. In other professions too, the law doesn't punish poverty or incompetence, because it assumes they are punishment enough in themselves.
Reference & context: Law: members of the House of Lords enjoyed “privilege of peerage,” which protected them from arrest in civil cases such as debt.
In plain English: He is like a religious fanatic who is satisfied with calling himself a “saint” and uses that title as a licence to commit every kind of sin; or like the ruins of a great building, of which only the foundations remain, and even those are hidden under the rubble of what was built on top.
Why this phrase is worth keeping: The ruin image is precise: his own collapse buries the very foundations (his ancestors) he boasts of.
Reference & context: Historical: radical Puritans of the Civil War period called themselves “saints.” Some sects believed God's elect could not sin, whatever they did. Butler, a royalist, mocked them in Hudibras.
In plain English: His ancestors' living honour died long ago; his is only its ghost, haunting with dread and unease the family home where it once really lived.
Why this phrase is worth keeping: Inherited honour without merit as a ghost: present, but no longer alive.
In plain English: His nobility has truly “descended” from his ancestors' glory, and it has properly “fallen” to him, since he will never raise it back to their height. He follows them the way candles take over from the sun: a poor substitute.
Why this phrase is worth keeping: One of Butler's best lines: the heir is a candle trying to do the sun's job.
Reference & context: Wordplay: “descended” and “fall to” are normal terms for inheritance, but Butler takes them literally to mean a downward slide.
In plain English: Being sure of his nobility has made him ignoble, just as believing they are rich makes some people poor. And just as those born to fortunes don't bother to work and only spend, he, born to honour, thinks his only business is to use it up and waste it.
In plain English: He is just a copy of his ancestors, and so badly made that the only feature of the original that survives in him is sin.
Why this phrase is worth keeping: A theological pun as a final verdict: the one thing he truly inherited is original sin.
Reference & context: Wordplay: a pun on “original sin,” the Christian doctrine that all humans inherit Adam's sin.
In plain English: He's like a word that, through bad usage and error, has completely lost its original meaning and now means the opposite. A famous family name means its descendants' good and bad deeds can never stay hidden.
Why this phrase is worth keeping: A clever comparison for language learners: a noble title, like a word, can drift until it means its opposite.
Reference & context: Language: Butler is right that words shift meaning. “Nice” once meant foolish; “silly” once meant blessed.
In plain English: He values himself only by his title, which, being just words, misleads him about his real abilities. Words mean more or less depending on what they're applied to, as “ordinary” and “extraordinary” do in court titles. Sometimes the bigger-sounding word means less, as in arithmetic: four is more than three, yet a fourth is smaller than a third.
Reference & context: Court language: officials “in ordinary” held regular posts (e.g. “Physician in Ordinary”), while an “Ambassador Extraordinary” was on a special mission. Neither word means what it seems.
Modernized: be → is
Fun Fact
Butler's poem Hudibras was King Charles II's favourite book; he reportedly carried a copy and quoted it constantly. Yet the noble patrons who laughed at Butler's jokes left him to die poor in 1680, and friends had to pay for his burial. Forty years later a wealthy admirer put up a monument to him in Westminster Abbey, prompting Samuel Wesley's bitter epigram: “See him, when starved to death and turned to dust, / Presented with a monumental bust.” Butler had judged the degenerate nobility correctly.