Amendments are seldom made without some token of a rent: lofty does not suit Tasso so well as Milton.

One celebrated line seems to be borrowed. The Essay calls a perfect character

"A faultless monster which the world ne'er saw."

Scaliger, in his poems, terms Virgil sine labe monstrum. Sheffield can scarcely be supposed to have read Scaliger's poetry: perhaps he found the words in a quotation.

Of this Essay, which Dryden has exalted so highly, it may be justly said that the precepts are judicious, sometimes new, and often happily expressed; but there are, after all the emendations, many weak lines, and some strange appearances of negligence; as, when he gives the laws of elegy, he insists upon connection and coherence; without which, says he,

"Tis epigram, 'tis point, 'tis what you will;

But not an elegy, nor writ with skill,

No Panegyric, nor a Cooper's Hill.”

Who would not suppose that Waller's Panegyric and Denham's Cooper's Hill were Elegies?

His verses are often insipid; but his memoirs are lively and agreeable: he had the perspicuity and elegance of an historian, but not the fire and fancy of a poet.

16

'An Essay on Poetry,' fol., 1691, 2nd ed.; and A Collection of Poems. London: printed for Daniel Brown,' 1701, 8vo.

Must above Milton's lofty flights prevail

Succeed where Spenser and Torquato fail.

Ib. at end of Roscommon's 'Poems' (Tonson, 8vo. 1717), where it is printed, as Tonson says, "with the leave and with the corrections of the author."

16 Such was the man, whose rules and practice tell,
"Nature's chief masterpiece is writing well."

POPE: Essay on Criticism.

Dryden dedicated to him his 'Aurengzebe' and his 'Eneid,' and Lee his 'Alexander.' Sheffield's first publication was 'The Temple of Death,' printed in A Collection of Poems, written upon several occasions by several persons. Never before in print. London: printed for Hobart Kemp, 1672.' 12mo. It opens the volume. The other contributors are Dorset, Etherege, and Sedley. All are anonymous.

MATTHEW PRIOR.

( 201 )

PRIOR.

1664-1721.

Born at Wimborne, in Dorsetshire Educated at Westminster and Cambridge Patronised by the Earl of Dorset Joins Montague in a Satire on The Hind and Panther'6 Made Secretary to the English Embassy at the Hague, and a Gentleman of the Bedchamber to William III. Made Secretary to the Embassy at the Treaty of Ryswick, Under-Secretary of State, and a Commissioner of Trade - Collects his Poems - His future advancement stopped by the meanness of his Birth and the accession of the House of Hanover-His intimacy with Harley, Earl of Oxford - Is taken into custody and examined before the Privy Council Released - Retires on his Cambridge FellowshipPublishes his Poems by subscription - His Deafness - Death, Burial, and Monument in Westminster Abbey-Works and Character.

MATTHEW PRIOR is one of those that have burst out from an obscure original to great eminence. He was born July 21, 1664, according to some, at Wimborne, in Dorsetshire, of I know not what parents; others say that he was the son of a joiner of London: he was perhaps willing enough to leave his birth unsettled,' in hope, like Don Quixote, that the historian of his actions might find him some illustrious alliance.2

1 The difficulty of settling Prior's birth-place is great. In the register of his college [St. John's, at Cambridge] he is called, at his admission by the president, Matthew Prior of Winburn in Middlesex; by himself next day, Matthew Prior of Dorsetshire, in which county, not in Middlesex, Winborn, or Wimborne, as it stands in the Villare, is found. When he stood candidate for his fellowship, five years afterwards, he was registered again by himself as of Middlesex. The last record ought to be preferred, because it was made upon oath. It is observable, that, as a native of Winborne, he is styled Filius Georgii Prior, generosi; not consistently with the common account of the meanness of his birth.-JOHNSON.

Prior was born in Abbot Street, one mile from Wimborne Minster, in Dorsetshire. See Wilson's De Foe,' iii. 646.

2 Swift, in his 'Journal to Stella' (20 Nov. 1711), speaks of Prior's " mean birth;" and Queen Anne, in a letter to Lord Oxford, writes thus:-" You propose my giving Mr. Prior some inferior character: what that can be I don't know; for I doubt his birth will not entitle him to that of Envoy, and the Secretary of the Embassy is filled. If there be any other you can think of that

3

He is supposed to have fallen, by his father's death, into the hands of his uncle, a vintner, near Charing-cross, who sent him for some time to Dr. Busby, at Westminster; but, not intending to give him any education beyond that of the school, took him, when he was well advanced in literature, to his own house, where the Earl of Dorset, celebrated for patronage of genius, found him by chance, as Burnet relates, reading Horace, and was so well pleased with his proficiency, that he undertook the care and cost of his academical education.

He entered his name in St. John's College, at Cambridge, in 1682, in his eighteenth year; and it may be reasonably supposed that he was distinguished among his contemporaries. He became a Bachelor, as is usual, in four years; and two years afterwards wrote the poem on the Deity, which stands first in his volume.6

It is the established practice of that college to send every year to the Earl of Exeter some poems upon sacred subjects, in acknowledgment of a benefaction enjoyed by them from the bounty of his ancestor. On this occasion were those verses written, which, though nothing is said of their success, seem to have recommended him to some notice; for his praise of the Countess's music, and his lines on the famous picture of Seneca, afford reason for imagining that he was more or less conversant with that family.

7

is fit for him, I shall be very glad to do it.”—QUEEN ANNE to Lord Oxford, Nov. 16, 1711. Lansdowne MSS. 1236, fol. 153.

3 His uncle, Samuel Prior, kept the Rummer Tavern at Charing Cross. See Rummer Tavern in Cunningham's 'Handbook of London,' ed. 1850, p. 433.

My uncle, rest his soul! when living,
Might have contriv'd me ways of thriving;
Taught me with cider to replenish

My vats, or ebbing wine of Rhenish;

So when for hock I drew prickt white wine,
Swear't had the flavour and was light wine.

PRIOR to Fleetwood Shephard.

4 Burnet's Own Times,' ed. 1823, vol. vi. p. 65.

5 He was admitted to his Bachelor's degree in 1686, and to his Master's, by mandate, in 1700.

6. e. The splendid subscription folio of his works. See p. 213.

By Jordaens, and still at Burleigh House, the seat of the Earl (now Marquis) of Exeter.