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MATTHEW PRIOR (1664-1721)

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Originally appearing in Volume V22, Page 359 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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MATTHEW See also:PRIOR (1664-1721)  , See also:English poet and diplomatist, was the son of a See also:Nonconformist joiner at See also:Wimborne-See also:Minster, See also:East See also:Dorset, and was See also:born on the 21st of See also:July 1664 . His See also:father moved to See also:London, and sent him to See also:Westminster, under Dr See also:Busby . At his father's See also:death he See also:left school, and See also:fell to the care of his See also:uncle, a vintner in Channel See also:Row . Here See also:Lord Dorset found him See also:reading See also:Horace, and set him to translate an See also:ode . He acquitted himself so well that the See also:earl offered to contribute to the continuance of his See also:education at Westminster . One of his schoolfellows and See also:friends was See also:Charles See also:Montagu, afterwards earl of See also:Halifax . It was to avoid being separated from Montagu and his See also:brother See also:James that See also:Prior accepted, against his See also:patron's wish, a scholarship recently founded at St See also:John's See also:College . He took his B.A. degree in 1686, and two years later became a See also:fellow . In collaboration with Montagu he wrote in 1687 the See also:City See also:Mouse and See also:Country Mouse, in ridicule of See also:Dryden's See also:Hind and See also:Panther . It was an See also:age when satirists were in See also:request, and sure of patronage and promotion . The See also:joint See also:production made the See also:fortune of both authors . Montagu was promoted at once, and Prior three years later was gazetted secretary to the See also:embassy at the See also:Hague .

After four years of this employment he was appointed one of the gentlemen of the See also:

king's bedchamber . Apparently, also, he acted as one of the king's secretaries, and in 1697 he was secretary to the plenipotentiaries who concluded the See also:peace of See also:Ryswick . Prior's See also:talent for affairs was doubted by See also:Pope, who had no See also:special means of judging, but it is not likely that King See also:William would have employed in this important business a See also:man who had not given See also:proof of See also:diplomatic skill and grasp of details . The poet's knowledge of See also:French is specially mentioned among his qualifications, and this was recognized by his being sent in the following See also:year to See also:Paris in attendance on the English See also:ambassador . At this See also:period Prior could say with See also:good See also:reason that " he had commonly business enough upon his hands, and was only a poet by See also:accident." To See also:verse, however, which had laid the See also:foundation of his fortunes, he still occasionally trusted as a means of maintaining his position . His occasional poems during this period include an See also:elegy on See also:Queen See also:Mary in1695; a satirical version of Boileau's Ode sur le prise de See also:Namur (1695); some lines on William's See also:escape from assassination in 1696; and a brief piece called The Secretary . After his return from See also:France Prior became under-secretary of See also:state and succeeded See also:Locke as a See also:commissioner of See also:trade . In 1701 he sat in See also:parliament for East Grinstead . He had certainly been in William's confidence with regard to the See also:Partition Treaty; but when See also:Somers, See also:Orford and Halifax were impeached for their See also:share in it he voted on the Tory See also:side, and immediately on See also:Anne's See also:accession he definitely allied himself with Harley and St John . Perhaps in consequence of this for nine years there is no mention of his name in connexion with any public transaction . But when the Tories came into See also:power in 1710 Prior's diplomatic abilities were again called into See also:action, and till the death of Anne he held a prominent See also:place in all negotiations with the French See also:court, sometimes as See also:secret See also:agent, sometimes in an equivocal position as ambassador's See also:companion, sometimes as fully accredited but very unpunctually paid ambassador . His share in negotiating the treaty of See also:Utrecht, of which he is said to have disapproved, personally led to its popular See also:nickname of " Matt's Peace." When the queen died and the Whigs regained power he was impeached by See also:Sir See also:Robert See also:Walpole and kept in See also:close custody for two years (1715-1717) .

In 1709 he had already published a collection of verse . During this imprisonment, maintaining his cheerful See also:

philosophy, he wrote his longest humorous poem, See also:Alma; or, The Progress of the Mind . This, along with his most ambitious See also:work, See also:Solomon, and other Poems on several Occasions, was published by subscription in 1718 . The sum received for this See also:volume (4000 guineas), with a See also:present of 4000 from Lord Harley, enabled him to live in comfort; but he did not See also:long survive his enforced retirement from public See also:life, although he See also:bore his ups and See also:downs with rare equanimity . He died at Wimpole, See also:Cambridgeshire, a seat of the earl of See also:Oxford, on the 18th of See also:September 1721, and was buried in Westminster See also:Abbey, where his See also:monument may be seen in Poet's Corner . A See also:History of his Own See also:Time was issued by J . Bancks in 1740 . The See also:book pretended to be derived from Prior's papers, but it is doubtful how far it should be regarded as See also:authentic . Prior had very much the same easy, See also:pleasure-loving disposition as See also:Chaucer (with whose career his life offers a certain See also:parallelism), combined with a similar capacity for solid work . His poems show considerable variety, a pleasant scholarship and See also:great executive skill . The most ambitious, i.e . Solomon, and the See also:paraphrase of the See also:Nut-See also:Brown Maid, are the least successful .

But Alma, an admitted See also:

imitation of See also:Butler, is a delightful piece of wayward easy See also:humour, full of witty turns and well-remembered allusions, and Prior's mastery of the octo-syllabic See also:couplet is greater than that of See also:Swift or Pope . His tales in See also:rhyme, though often objectionable in their themes, are excellent specimens of narrative skill; and as an epigrammatist he is unrivalled in English . The See also:majority of his love songs are frigid and See also:academic, See also:mere See also:wax-See also:flowers of See also:Parnassus; but in See also:familiar or playful efforts, of which the type are the admirable lines To a See also:Child of Quality, he has still no See also:rival . " Prior's"—says See also:Thackeray, himself no mean proficient in this See also:kind—" seem to me amongst the easiest, the richest, the most charmingly humorous of English lyrical poems . Horace is always in his mind, and his See also:song and his philosophy, his good sense, his happy easy turns and See also:melody, his loves and his Epicurianism, See also:bear a great resemblance to that most delightful and accomplished See also:master." The largest collection of Prior's verses is that by R . Brimley See also:Johnson in the " Aldine Poets " (2 vols., 1892) . There is also a selection in the " See also:Parchment Library," with introduction and notes by See also:Austin See also:Dobson (1889) . (A .

End of Article: MATTHEW PRIOR (1664-1721)
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