At the acceffion of queen Anne, whom he is faid to have courted when they were both young, he was highly favoured. Before here coronation (1702) fhe made him lord privy feal, and foon after lord lieutenant of the North Riding of Yorkshire. He was then named commiffioner for treating with the Scots about the Union; and was made next year, firft, duke of Normanby, and then of Buckinghamshire, there being fufpected to be fomewhere a latent claim to the title of Buckingham.

Soon after, becoming jealous of the duke of Marlborough, he refigned the privy-feal, and joined the discontented Tories in a motion, extremely offenfive to the Queen, for inviting the princefs Sophia to England. The Queen courted him back with an offer no less than that of the chancellorship; which he refused. He now retired from bufinefs, and built that house in the Park which is now the Queen's, upon ground granted by the Crown.

When the miniftry was changed (1710), he was made lord chamberlain of the household, and concurred in all transactions of that time, except that he endeavoured to protect the Catalans. After the Queen's death, he became a conftant opponent of the court; and, having no publick business, is supposed to have amused himfelf by writing his two tragedies. He died February 24, 1720-21.

He was thrice married; by his two first wives he had no children; by his third, who was the daughter of king James by the countess of Dorchefter, and the widow of the earl of Anglefey, he had, befides other children that died early, a fon born in 1716, who died in 1735, and put an end to the line of Shef

1.1

field.

field. It is obfervable, that the duke's three wives were all widows. The dutchefs died in 1742.

His character is not to be propofed as worthy of imitation. His religion he may be fuppofed to have learned from Hobbes; and his morality was fuch as naturally proceeds from loofe opinions. His fenti ments with respect to women he picked up in the court of Charles; and his principles concerning property were fuch as a gaming-table fupplies. He was cenfured as covetous, and has been defended by an inftance of inattention to his affairs, as if a man might not at once be corrupted by avarice and idlenefs. He is faid, however, to have had much tendernefs, and to have been very ready to apologise for his violences of paffion.

He is introduced into this collection only as a poet; and, if we credit the teftimony of his contemporaries, he was a poet of no vulgar rank. But favour and flattery are now at an end; criticism is no longer foftened by his bounties, or awed by his fplendour, and, being able to take a more steady view, discovers him to be a writer that fometimes glimmers, but rarely fhines, feebly laborious, and at best but pretty. His fongs are upon common topicks; he hopes, and grieves, and repents, and defpairs, and rejoices, like any other maker of little ftanzas; to be great, hardly tries; to be gay, is hardly in his power.

he

In the Effay on Satire he was always fuppofed to have had the help of Dryden. His Effay on Poetry is the great work for which he was praised by Rofcommon, Dryden, and Pope; and doubtlefs by many more whofe eulogies have perished.

Upon

2

Upon this piece he appears to have fet a high value; for he was all his life-time improving it by fucceffive revifals, so that there is fcarcely any poem to be found of which the laft edition differs more from the firft. Amongst other changes, mention is made of fome compofitions of Dryden, which were written after the first appearance of the Effay.

At the time when this work firft appeared, Milton's fame was not yet fully established, and therefore Taffo and Spenfer were fet before him. The two last lines were these. The Epick Poet, fays he,

Muft above Milton's lofty flights prevail,

Succeed where great Torquato, and where greater
Spenfer, fail.

The laft line in fucceeding editions was fhortened, and the order of names continued; but now Milton is at last advanced to the highest place, and the paffage thus adjusted:

Muft above Taffo's lofty flights prevail,

Succeed where Spenfer, and ev'n Milton, fail.

Amendments are feldom made without fome token of a rent: lofty does not fuit Taffo fo well as Milton. One celebrated line feems to be borrowed. The Effay calls a perfect character

A faultlefs monfter which the world ne'er faw.

Scaliger, in his poems, terms Virgil fine labe monftrum. Sheffield can fcarcely be fuppofed to have read Scaliger's poetry, perhaps he found the words in a quotation.

Of

. Of this Effay, which Dryden has exalted fo highly,

it

may be justly faid that the precepts are judicious, fometimes new, and often happily expreffed; but there are, after all the emendations, many weak lines, and fome ftrange appearances of negligence; as, when he gives the laws of elegy, he infifts upon connection and coherence; without which, fays he,

'Tis epigram, 'tis point, 'tis what you will;
But not an elegy, nor writ with fkill,

No panegyrick, nor a Cooper's Hill.

Who would not fuppofe that Waller's Panegyrick and Denham's Cooper's Hill were elegies?

His verfes are often infipid; but his memoirs are lively and agreeable; he had the perfpicuity and elegance of an hiftorian, but not the fire and fancy of a poet.

PRIO R.

MATTHEW PRIOR is one of thofe that have burst out from an obfcure original to great eminence. He was born July 21, 1664, according to fome, at Winburn in Dorfetfhire, of I know not what parents; others fay, 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 fome illuftrious alliance.

* The difficulty of fettling Prior's birth-place is great. In the register 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 Dorsetshire, in which county, not in Middlefex, Winborn, or Winborne as it ftands in the Villare, is found. When he flood candidate for his fellowship, five years afterwards, he was registered again by himself as of Middlefex. The laft record ought to be preferred, because it was made upon oath. It is obfervable, that, as a native of Winborne, he is ftiled Filius Georgii Prior, generofi; not confiftently with the common account of the meanness of his birth. Dr. J.