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See also: English poet and diplomatist, was the son of a See also: Nonconformist joiner at See also: Wimborne-Minster, See also: East 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 Horace, and set him to translate an 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 City See also: Mouse and Country Mouse, in ridicule of See also: Dryden's See also: Hind and See also: Panther
.
It was an age when satirists were in See also: request, and sure of patronage and promotion
.
The joint 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 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 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 proof of See also: diplomatic skill and grasp of details
.
The poet's knowledge of 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 ambassador
.
At this See also: period Prior could say with See also: good reason that " he had commonly business enough upon his hands, and was only a poet by accident." To verse, however, which had laid the 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 Mary in1695; a satirical version of Boileau's Ode sur le prise de See also: Namur (1695); some lines on William's 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 parliament for East Grinstead
.
He had certainly been in William's confidence with regard to the See also: Partition Treaty; but when Somers, See also: Orford and Halifax were impeached for their share in it he voted on the Tory See also: side, and immediately on See also: Anne's 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 power in 1710 Prior's diplomatic abilities were again called into See also: action, and till the death of Anne he held a prominent place in all negotiations with the French See also: court, sometimes as secret See also: agent, sometimes in an equivocal position as ambassador's 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 Robert Walpole and kept in close custody for two years (1715-1717)
.
In 1709 he had already published a collection of verse . During this imprisonment, maintaining his cheerful 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 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 Abbey, where his 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 authentic
.
Prior had very much the same easy, 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 paraphrase of the See also: Nut-See also: Brown Maid, are the least successful
.
But Alma, an admitted imitation ofSee 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 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 Thackeray, himself no mean proficient in this 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 melody, his loves and his Epicurianism, bear a great resemblance to that most delightful and accomplished 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 Dobson (1889)
.
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