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Дата написания1970-01-01
Язык книгиen
Возрастное ограничение0+
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зарубежная классиказарубежная старинная литературалитература 18 века

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Sui temporis historiam meditanti,

Paulatim obrepens febris

Operi simul et vitæ filum abrupit,

Sept. 18, An. Dom. 1721. Ætat. 57

H.S.E

Vir eximius

Serenissimis

Regi Gulielmo, reginæque MARIÆ,

In congressione fœderatorum

Hagæ anno 1690 celebrata;

Deinde Magnæ Britanniæ legatis;

Tum iis,

Qui anno 1697 pacem Ryswicki confecerunt;

Tum iis,

Qui apud Gallos annis proximis legationem obierunt;

Eodem etiam anno, 1697, in Hibernia

Secretarius;

Nee non in utroque honorabili consessu

Eorum,

Qui anno 1700 ordinandis commercii negotiis,

Quique anno 1711 dirigendis portorii rebus,

Præsidebant,

Commissionarius;

Postremo

Ab Anna,

Felicissinæ memoriæ regina,

Ad Ludovicum XIV. Galliæ regem

Missus anno 1711

De pace stabilienda,

(Pace etiamnum durante

Diuque ut boni jam omnes sperant duratura)

Cum summa potestate legatus;

MATTHÆUS PRIOR, armiger:

Qui

Hos omnes, quibus cumulatus est, titulos

Humanitatis, ingenii, eruditionis laude

Superavit;

Cui enim nascenti faciles arriserant musæ

Hune puerum schola hie regia perpolivit;

Juvenem in collegio S’ti Johannis

Cantabrigia optimis scientiis instruxit;

Virum denique auxit; et perfecit

Multa cum viris principibus consuetudo;

Ita natus, ita institutus,

A vatum chioro avelli nunquam potuit,

Sed solebat sæpe rerum civilium gravitatem

Amœniorum literarum studiis condire:

Et cum omne adeo poetices genus

Haud infeliciter tentaret,

Tum in fabellis concinne lepideque texendis

Mirus artifex

Neminem habuit parem

Hæc liberalis animi oblectamenta,

Quam nullo illi labore constiterint,

Facile ii perspexere, quibus usus est amici;

Apud quos urbanitatum et leporum plenus

Cum ad rem, quæcunque forte inciderat,

Apte varie copioseque alluderet,

Interea nihil quæsitum, nihil vi expressum

Videbatur,

Sed omnia ultro effluere,

Et quasi jugi e fonte afiatim exuberare,

Ita suos tandem dubios reliquit,

Essetue in scriptis, poeta elegantior,

An in convictu comes jucundior

Of Prior, eminent as he was, both by his abilities and station, very few memorials have been left by his contemporaries; the account, therefore, must now be destitute of his private character and familiar practices. He lived at a time when the rage of party detected all which it was any man’s interest to hide; and, as little ill is heard of Prior, it is certain that not much was known. He was not afraid of provoking censure; for, when he forsook the whigs8 under whose patronage he first entered the world, he became a tory, so ardent and determinate, that he did not willingly consort with men of different opinions. He was one of the sixteen tories who met weekly, and agreed to address each other by the title of brother; and seems to have adhered, not only by concurrence of political designs, but by peculiar affection, to the earl of Oxford and his family. With how much confidence he was trusted has been already told.

He was, however, in Pope’s9 opinion, fit only to make verses, and less qualified for business than Addison himself. This was, surely, said without consideration. Addison, exalted to a high place, was forced into degradation by the sense of his own incapacity; Prior, who was employed by men very capable of estimating his value, having been secretary to one embassy, had, when great abilities were again wanted, the same office another time; and was, after so much experience of his knowledge and dexterity, at last sent to transact a negotiation in the highest degree arduous and important; for which he was qualified, among other requisites, in the opinion of Bolingbroke, by his influence upon the French minister, and by skill in questions of commerce above other men.

Of his behaviour in the lighter parts of life, it is too late to get much intelligence. One of his answers to a boastful Frenchman has been related; and to an impertinent he made another equally proper. During his embassy, he sat at the opera by a man, who, in his rapture, accompanied with his own voice the principal singer. Prior fell to railing at the performer with all the terms of reproach that he could collect, till the Frenchman, ceasing from his song, began to expostulate with him for his harsh censure of a man who was confessedly the ornament of the stage. “I know all that,” says the ambassador, “mais il chante si haut, que je ne saurais vous entendre.”

In a gay French company, where every one sang a little song or stanza, of which the burden was, “Bannissons la mélancolie;” when it came to his turn to sing, after the performance of a young lady that sat next him, he produced these extemporary lines:

Mais cette voix, et ces beaux yeux, Font Cupidon trop dangereux; Et je suis triste quand je crie, Bannissons la mélancolie.

Tradition represents him as willing to descend from the dignity of the poet and the statesman to the low delights of mean company. His Chloe, probably, was sometimes ideal; but the woman with whom he cohabited was a despicable drab10 of the lowest species. One of his wenches, perhaps Chloe, while he was absent from his house, stole his plate, and ran away; as was related by a woman who had been his servant. Of this propensity to sordid converse I have seen an account so seriously ridiculous, that it seems to deserve insertion11.

I have been assured that Prior, after having spent the evening with Oxford, Bolingbroke, Pope, and Swift, would go and smoke a pipe, and drink a bottle of ale, with a common soldier and his wife, in Long-acre, before he went to bed; not from any remains of the lowness of his original, as one said, but, I suppose, that his faculties,

“Strain’d to the height, In that celestial colloquy sublime, Dazzled and spent, sunk down, and sought repair.”

Poor Prior! why was he so strained, and in such want of repair, after a conversation with men, not, in the opinion of the world, much wiser than himself? But such are the conceits of speculatists, who strain their faculties to find in a mine what lies upon the surface.

His opinions, so far as the means of judging are left us, seem to have been right; but his life was, it seems, irregular, negligent, and sensual.

Prior has written with great variety, and his variety has made him popular. He has tried all styles, from the grotesque to the solemn, and has not so failed in any as to incur derision or disgrace.

His works may be distinctly considered, as comprising Tales, Love-verses, Occasional Poems, Alma, and Solomon.

His Tales have obtained general approbation, being written with great familiarity and great sprightliness; the language is easy, but seldom gross, and the numbers smooth without appearance of care. Of these tales there are only four. The Ladle; which is introduced by a preface, neither necessary nor pleasing, neither grave nor merry. Paulo Purganti; which has likewise a preface, but of more value than the tale. Hans Carvel, not over-decent; and Protogenes and Apelles, an old story, mingled, by an affectation not disagreeable, with modern images. The Young Gentleman in Love has hardly a just claim to the title of a tale. I know not whether he be the original author of any tale which he has given us. The adventure of Hans Carvel has passed through many successions of merry wits; for it is to be found in Ariosto’s satires, and is, perhaps, yet older12. But the merit of such stories is the art of telling them.

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