Murder by the butler in Mary Roberts Rinehart's 1930 mystery The Door helped popularize this 4-word cliche

Even Poole this doctor's butler abandons his post when his alter ego makes things unpleasant

Stephano is the drunken butler of the shipwrecked king Alonso of Naples in this Shakespeare play

Old but reliable Betteredge the butler narrates the search for a fabulous missing gem in this Wilkie Collins work

This admirable butler of J.M. Barrie's play rises above his aristocrat employers & becomes their king