תמונות בעמוד
PDF
ePub

[3]

PRIO R.

MAT

ATTHEW PRIOR is one of those that have burft out from an obscure original to great eminence. He was born July 21, 1664, according to fome, at Winburne in Dorsetshire, 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*

[ocr errors]

He

* The difficulty of settling 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 himfelf 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, five years afterwards, he was registered again by himself as of Middlefex. The laft record ought to he preferred,

B 2

He is fuppofed to have fallen, by his fa ther's death, into the hands of his uncle, a vintner near Charing-cross, who sent him for fome time to Dr. Busby at Westminster; but, not intending to give him any education beyond that of the fchool, 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 cóft of his academical education.

He entered his name in St. John's College at Cambridge in 1682, in his eighteenth

year; and it may be reasonably supposed 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 stands first in his volume..

It is the established practice of that College to fend every year to the earl of Exeter fome

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.

poems

poems upon facred fubjects, in acknowledgment of a benefaction enjoyed by them from the bounty of his ancestor. On this occafion were those verfes written, which, though nothing is faid of their fuccess, seem to have recommended him to fome notice; for his praise of the countess's music, 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 Moufe and Country Mouse, to ridicule Dryden's Hind and Panther, in conjunction with Mr. Montague. There is a story* of great pain suffered, and of tears shed, on this occafion, by Dryden, who thought it hard that an old man Should be fo treated by thofe to whom he had always been civil. By tales like these is the envy raised 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 should break his quiet; and if we can suppose

[blocks in formation]

him vexed, it would be hard to deny him fenfe enough to conceal his uneafinefs.

The City Mouse and Country Moufe procured its authors more folid advantages than the pleasure of fretting Dryden; for they were both speedily preferred. Montague indeed obtained the firft 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 reafon to complain; for he came to London, and obtained fuch notice, that (in 1691) he was fent to the congress at The Hague as fecretary to the embassy. In this affembly of princes and nobles, to which Europe has perhaps scarcely feen any thing equal, was formed the grand alliance against Lewis; which at laft did not produce effects proportionate to the magnificence of the tranfaction,

The conduct of Prior, in this fplendid initiation into public bufinefs, was so pleasing to king William, that he made him one of the gentlemen of his bedchamber; and he is fupposed to have paffed some of the next years in the cultivation of literature and poetry.

The

« הקודםהמשך »