English diplomat and poet
Prior by
Thomas Hudson
Matthew Prior
(21 July 1664 ? 18 September 1721) was an
English
poet and diplomat.
[1]
[2]
He is also known as a contributor to
The Examiner
.
Early life
[
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]
Prior was born in
Wimborne Minster
,
Dorset
, where he lived with his father George, a
Nonconformist
joiner.
[3]
His father moved to
London
, and sent him to
Westminster School
, under
Dr Richard Busby
. After his father's death, he left school, and was cared for by his uncle, a
vintner
in Channel Row. Here,
Lord Dorset
found him reading
Horace
, and set him to translate an ode. He did so well that the Earl offered to contribute to the continuation of his education at Westminster.
One of his schoolfellows and friends at Westminster was
Charles Montagu, 1st Earl of Halifax
. It was to avoid being separated from Montagu and his brother James that Prior accepted, against his patron's wish, a scholarship recently founded at
St John's College, Cambridge
. He took his
B.A.
degree in 1686, and two years later became a
fellow
.
[4]
In collaboration with Montagu, he wrote in 1687 the
City Mouse and Country Mouse
, in ridicule of
John Dryden
's
The Hind and the Panther
.
Diplomacy and Early Writings
[
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]
Matthew Prior after
Jonathon Richardson
, circa 1718
During an age when satirists could be sure of patronage and promotion, Montagu was promoted at once, and Prior, three years later, became secretary to the embassy at
the Hague
. After four years, he was appointed a
Gentleman of the Bedchamber
at court. Apparently, he acted as one of the King's secretaries, and in 1697 he was secretary to the
plenipotentiaries
who concluded the
Peace of Ryswick
. Prior's talent for affairs was doubted by
Alexander Pope
, who admittedly had little experience in diplomatic affairs, but it is not likely that
King William
would have employed in this important business a man who had not given proof of diplomatic skill and grasp of details.
[5]
The poet's knowledge of French was recognised by his being sent in the following year to Paris in attendance on the English ambassador. At this period Prior could say with 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 elegy on
Queen Mary
in 1695; a satirical version of
Boileau
's
Ode sur le prise de Namur
(1695); some lines on William's escape from assassination in 1696; and a brief piece called
The Secretary
.
After his return from France, Prior became under-
secretary of state
and succeeded
John Locke
as a commissioner of trade. In 1701 he sat in
Parliament
for
East Grinstead
. He had certainly been in William's confidence with regard to the
Partition Treaty
; but when
Somers
,
Orford
and
Halifax
were impeached for their share in it he voted on the
Tory
side, and immediately on Anne's accession he allied himself with
Robert Harley
and St John. Perhaps as a consequence of this; there is no mention of his name in connection with any public transaction for nine years. But when the
Tories
came into power in 1710, Prior's diplomatic abilities were again called into action, and until the death of Anne he held a prominent place in all negotiations with the French court, sometimes as secret agent, sometimes in an equivocal position as ambassador's companion and sometimes as fully accredited but very unpunctually paid ambassador. His share in negotiating the
Treaty of Utrecht
, of which he is said to have disapproved personally, led to its popular nickname of "Matt's Peace."
Prior is also known as a contributor to
The Examiner
newspaper.
[
citation needed
]
Imprisonment and Poetry
[
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]
Monument to Prior in Westminster Abbey
When
Queen Anne
died and the
Whigs
regained power, Prior was impeached by
Robert Walpole
and kept in close custody from 1715 to 1717. By this time he had already published a collection of verse, written in 1709.
During his imprisonment, he wrote his longest humorous poem,
Alma; or, The Progress of the Mind
. It was published by subscription in 1718, along with
Poems on Several Occasions.
The sum received for this volume (4000 guineas), with a present of £4000 from Lord Harley, enabled him to live in some comfort.
[
citation needed
]
Death and Legacy
[
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]
Prior died in 1721 at
Wimpole Hall
, Cambridgeshire, and was buried in
Westminster Abbey
.
[
citation needed
]
A monument to Prior, sculpted by
John Michael Rysbrack
and designed by Gibbs, was erected in
Poets' Corner
of the Abbey.
[6]
A biography called
The History of His Own Time
was issued by
John Bancks
in 1740. The book claimed to be derived from Prior's papers, although some scholars doubt its authenticity.
[7]
[8]
Prior is commemorated by a plaque at
Wittenham Clumps
in
Oxfordshire
, where he is said to have written
Henry and Emma
.
[
citation needed
]
He was also commemorated by other poets and writers;
Everett James Ellis
named Prior as a significant influence and source of inspiration, while
William Thackeray
(1811-1863) claimed Prior’s works to be “amongst the easiest, the richest, the most charmingly humorous of English lyrical poems.”
[
citation needed
]
References
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]
External links
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