Virum denique auxit; & perfecit A Vatum Choro avelli nunquam potuit, Tum in Fabellis concinne lepideque texendis Neminem habuit parem. Hæc liberalis animi oblectamenta: Sed omnia ultro effluere, Et quafi jugi è fonte affatim exuberare, Of Prior, eminent as he was, both by his abilities and station, very few memorials have been left by his contemporaries; the account therefore must now be deftitute of his private character and familiar practices. He lived at a time when the rage of party detected all which it was any man's intereft to hide; and as little ill is heard of Prior, it is certain that not much was known. He was not afraid of provoking cenfure; for when he forfook the Whigs*, under whofe patronage he first entered the world, he became a Tory fo ardent and determinate, that he did not willingly confort with men of different opinions. He was one of the fixteen Tories who met weekly, and agreed to addrefs each other by the title of Brother; and feems to have adhered, not only by concurrence of political defigns, but by peculiar affection, to the earl of Oxford and his family. With how much confidence he was trufted, has been already told. He was however, in Pope's* opinion, fit only to make verfes, and lefs qualified for business than Addison himfelf. This was furely faid without confideration. Addifon, exalted to a high place, was forced into degradation by the fenfe of his own incapacity; Prior, who was employed by men very capable of eftimating his value, having been fecretary to one embaffy, had, when great abilities were again wanted, the fame office another time; and was, after fo much experience of his knowledge and dexterity, at laft fent to tranfact a negociation in the highest degree arduous and important; for which he was qualified, among other requifites, in the opinion of Bolingbroke, by his influence upon the French minifter, and by fkill in queftions of commerce above other men. Of his behaviour in the lighter parts of life, it is too late to get much intelligence. One of his anfwers to a boastful Frenchman has been related, and to an impertinent he made another equally proper. During his embatly, he fat at the opera by a man, who, in his rapture, accompanied with his own voice the principal finger. Prior fell to railing at the performer with all the terms of reproach that he could collect, till the Frenchman, ceafing from * Spence. his fong, began to expoftulate with him for his harfh cenfure of a man who was confeffedly the ornament of the ftage. "I know all that," fays the ambaffador, " mais il chante fi haut, que je ne "fçaurois vous entendre." In a gay French company, where every one fung a little fong or ftanza, of which the burden was, "Banniffons la Melancholie;" when it came to his turn to fing, after the performance of a young lady that fat next him, he produced thefe extemporary lines: Mais celle voix, et ces beaux yeux, Tradition reprefents him as willing to defcend from the dignity of the poet and ftatefman to the low delights of mean company. His Chloe probably was fometimes ideal: but the woman with whom he cohabited was a defpicable drab* of the loweft fpecies. One of his wenches, perhaps Chloe, while he was abfent from his houfe, ftole his plate, and ran away; as was related by a woman who had been his fervant. Of this propensity to fordid converfe I have feen an account fo ferioufly ridiculous, that it feems to deferve infertion t "I have been affured that Prior, after having "fpent the evening with Oxford, Bolingbroke, "Pope, and Swift, would go and smoke a pipe, "and drink a bottle of ale, with a common foldier *Spence; and fee Gent. Mag. vol. LVII. p. 1039.] and " and his wife in Long-Acre, before he went to "bed; not from any remains of the lowness of his "original, as one faid, but, I fuppofe, that his faculties, "Strain'd to the height, "In that celeftial colloquy fublime, "Dazzled and spent, funk down and fought repair." Poor Prior, why was he fo ftrained, and in such want of repair, after a coverfation with men not, in the opinion of the world, much wifer than himfelf? But fuch are the conceits of fpeculatifts, who ftrain their faculties to find in a mine what lies upon the furface. His opinions, fo far as the means of judging are left us, feem to have been right; but his life was, it feems, irregular, negligent, and fenfual. PRIOR has written with great variety, and his variety has made him popular. He has tried all ftyles, from the grotefque to the folemn, and has not fo failed in any as to incur derifion or difgrace. His works may be diftinctly confidered as comprifing Tales, Love-verfes, Occafional Poems, Alma, and Solomon. His Tales have obtained general approbation, being written with great familiarity and great fpritelinefs: the language is eafy, but feldom grofs, and the numbers fmooth, without appearance of care. Of thefe Tales there are only four. Ladle which is introduced by a Preface, neither neceffary nor pleafing, neither grave nor merry. The Paulo Paulo Purganti; which has likewife a Preface, but of more value than the Tale. Hans Carvel, not over decent; and Protogenes and Apelles, an old story, mingled, by an affectation not disagreeable, with modern images. The Young Gentleman in Love has hardly a just claim to the title of a Tale. I know not whether he be the original author of any Tale which he has given us. The Adventure of Hans Carvel has paffed through many fucceffions of merry wits; for it is to be found in Ariofto's Satires, and is perhaps yet older. But the merit of fuch ftories is the art of telling them. In his Amorous Effufions he is lefs happy; for they are not dictated by nature or by paffion, and have neither gallantry nor tendernefs. They have the coldnefs of Cowley, without his wit, the dull exercises of a skilful verfifier, refolved at all adventures to write something about Chloe, and trying to be amorous by dint of ftudy. His fictions therefore are mythological. Venus, after the ex« ample of the Greek Epigram, afks when the was feen naked and bathing. Then Cupid is mistaken ; then Cupid is difarmed; then he lofes his darts to Ganymede; then Jupiter fends him a fummons by Mercury. Then Chloe goes a-hunting with an ivory quiver graceful at her fide; Diana mistakes her for one of her nymphs, and Cupid laughs at the blunder. All this is furely defpicable; and even when he tries to act the lover, without the help of gods or goddeffes, his thoughts are unaffecting or remote. He talks not "like a man of this world." The greatest of all his amorous effays is Henry and Emma; a dull and tedious dialogue, which excites neither efteem for the man, nor tenderness for the woman. The example of Emma, |