Hudibras in Tribulation, plate six from Hudibras

William Hogarth illustrated the story of a sad-sack adventurer named Hudibras in twelve engravings. His source was Samuel Butler’s satirical, mock-heroic poem written in the vein of Cervantes and Rabelais. Ridiculing the puritan party’s attempts to overthrow the British monarchy during the Great Civil War of 1640, Butler’s poem exposes the hypocrisy and pretensions of the Presbyterians, Independents, and Zealots who hoped to establish themselves as leaders.Here, Hudibras himself and his squire spend time in the stocks after their latest misadventure and loss to the woman Trulla, with the fiddle and case on top of the torture device replaced with Hudibras’ overly-large boots, hat, gun and sword.