PRIOR.

MATTHEW PRIOR is one of thofe thạt

have burft out from an obfcure original to great eminence. He was born July 21, 1664, according to fome at Winburne in Dorfetfhire, of I know not what parents; others fay that he was the fon of a Joiner of London: he was perhaps willing enough to leave his birth unfettled*, in hope, like Don Quixote, that the hiftorian of his actions might find him fome illuftrious alliance.

He is fuppofed to have fallen, by his father's death, into the hands of his uncle, a vintner † near Charing-crofs, who fent him for fome time to Dr.

*The difficulty of fettling Prior's birth-place is great. In the regifler of his College he is called, at his admiffion by the Prefident, Matthew Prior of Winburn in Middlefex; by himself next day, Matthew Prior of Dorfetfhire, in which county, not in Middlesex, Winborn, or Wimborne, as it ftands in the Villare, is found. When he flood candidate for his fellowship, tive 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 obfervable, that as a native of Winborne, he is filed Filius Georgii Prior, generofi; not confi ently with the common account of the meannefs of his birth. Dr. J.

+ Samuel Prior kept the Rummer Tavern near Charing-cross in 1685. The

parish of St. Ma teaft of the nobility and gentry living in the

that year. VOL. III.

in the Fields was held at his houfe, Oct. 14,

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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 Dorfet, celebrated for patronage of genius, found him by chance, as Burnet relates, reading Horace, and was fo well pleased with his proficiency, that he undertook the care and coft of his academical education.

He entered his name in St. John's College at Cambridge in 1632, in his eighteenth year; and it may be reasonably fuppofed that he was diftinguifhed among his contemporaries. He became a Bachelor, as is ufual, in four years; and two years afterwards wrote, the poem on the Deity, which ftands firft in his volume.

It is the established practice of that College, to fend every year to the earl of Exeter fome poems upon facted fubjects, in acknowledgement of a benefaction enjoyed by them from the bounty of his ancestor. On this occafion were those verses written, which, though nothing is faid of their fuccefs, feem to have recommended him to fome notice; for his praife of the countefs's mufick, and his lines on the famous picture of Seneca, afford reafon for imagining that he was more or lefs converfant with that family.

The fame year he published the City Mouse and Country Moufe, to ridicule Dryden's Hind and Panther, in conjunction with Mr. Montague. There is a ftory of great pain fuffered, and of tears fhed, on this occafion, by Dryden, who thought it hard that " an old man fhould be fo

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

† Spence.

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"treated by thofe to whom he had always been "civil." By tales like thefe is the envy, raifed by fuperior abilities, every day gratified: when they are attacked, every one hopes to fee them humbled: what is hoped is readily believed, and what is believed is confidently told. Dryden had been more accustomed to hoftilities, than that fuch enemies. fhould break his quiet; and if we can fuppofe him vexed, it would be hard to deny him fenfe enough to conceal his uneafiness.

The City Mouse and Country Moufe procured its authors more folid advantages than the pleafure of fretting Dryden; for they were both speedily preferred. Montague, indeed, obtained the first notice, with fome degree of discontent, as it seems, in Prior, who probably knew that his own part of the performance was the beft. He had not, however, much reason to complain; for he came to London, and obtained fuch notice, that (in 1691) he was fent to the Congrefs at the Hague as fecretary to the embaffy. In this affembly of princes and nobles, to which Europe has perhaps fcarcely feen any thing equal, was formed the grand alliance against Lewis, which at last did not produce effects proportionate to the magnificence of the tranfaction.

The conduct of Prior, in this fplendid initiation into publick bufinefs, was fo pleafing to king William, that he made him one of the gentlemen of his bed-chamber; and he is fuppofed to have paffed fome of the next years in the quiet cultivation of literature and poetry.

The death of queen Mary (in 1695) produced a fubject for all the writers: perhaps no funeral was ever fo poetically attended. Dryden, indeed, as a

man discountenanced and deprived, was filent; but fcarcely any other maker of verfes omitted to bring his tribute of tuneful forrow. An emulation of elegy was univerfal. Maria's praife was not confined to the English language, but fills a great part of the Mufa Anglicana.

Prior, who was both a poet and a courtier, was too diligent to miss this opportunity of respect. He wrote a long ode, which was prefented to the king, by whom it was not likely to be ever read.

In two years he was fecretary to another embassy at the treaty of Ryfwick (in 1697*); and next year had the fame office at the court of France, where he is faid to have been confidered with great diftinction.

As he was one day furveying the apartments at Verfailles, being fhewn the Victories of Lewis, painted by Le Brun, and afked whether the king of England's palace had any fuch decorations; "The monuments of my Master's actions," faid he," are to be feen every where but in his own "houfe." The pictures of Le Brun are not only in themselves fufficiently oftentatious, but were. explained by inscriptions fo arrogant, that Boileau and Racine thought it neceffary to make them more fimple..

He was in the following year at Loo with the king; from whom, after a long audience, he carried orders to England, and upon his arrival became under-secretary of state in the earl of Jerfey's office; a poft which he did not retain long, be

*Hc receivel, in September 1697, a prefent of 200 guineas from the ords juftices, for his trouble in b.inging over the treaty of peace.

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