and, having no public bufinefs, is supposed to have amufed himself by writing his two tragedies. He died February 24, 1720-21. He was thrice married; by his two firft wives he had no children: by his third, who was the daughter of king James by the countefs of Dorchester, and the widow of the earl of Anglesey, 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 Sheffield. 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 loose opinions. His fentiments with refpect 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 instance of inattention * Backwardness in the payment of debts, is one evidence of cove tousness, and that this was a part of the duke's character may be inferred from the following story, which was related to me by two different perfons, at very remote periods: One of the workmen employed in building the houfe in the park, I think it was Strong the mason, had a large demand on the duke, which he could not prevail on him to discharge. He therefore waited on him, and by fome pretence or other having decoyed him up to the leads, he told him how much he wanted money, and how often his grace had broken his word, concluding his complaints with a menace, backed with an oath, that, unlefs his neceffities were immediately and on the spot fatisfied, he would tumble him over the balustrade; and with a feeming resolution to make good his threats he seized him by the collar: the duke upon this began to expoftulate, faying, that he could not be fuppofed to have any large fum about him, and for the purpose of payment must go down into the houfe; but the man 126 SHEF F. I EL D. inattention to his affairs, as if a man might not at once be corrupted by avarice and idlenefs. He is faid, how ever, to have had much tenderness, and to have been very ready to apologise for his violences of paffion. He is introduced into the late collection only as a poet; and, if we credit the testimony 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 fplendor, and, being able to take a more steady view, difcovers him to be a writer that fometimes glimmers, but rarely fhines, feebly laborious, and at beft but pretty. His fongs are upon common topicks; he hopes, and grieves, and repents, and despairs, and rejoices, like any other maker of little ftanzas: to be great, he hardly tries; to be gay, is hardly in his power. 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 doubtless by many more whofe eulogies have perished. Upon this piece he appears to have fet a high value; for he was all his life improving it by fucceffive revifals, fo that there is scarcely any poem to be found of which the laft edition differs more from the firft. Amongst man was prepared for fuch an excufe, he produced pen ink and paper, and compelled the duke to fign a draft on Child's fhop for the fum demanded; then, defcending the stairs, he bolted the door that opened on the leads, leaving the duke a prifoner. As he paffed through the hall, he told the fervants that the duke was upon the leads amuling himself with the profpect, and would want one of them in half an hour. While that time was paffing, he got to the banker's, and converted his draft into money. other 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 first appeared, Milton's fame was not yet fully established, and therefore Taffo and Spenfer were fet before him. The two laft lines were thefe. The Epick Poet, fays he, Must above Milton's lofty flights prevail, Succeed where great Torquato, and where greater Spenfer fail. The last line in fucceeding editions was fhortened, and the order of names continued; but now Milton is at laft 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 scarcely be fuppofed to have read Scaliger's poetry; perhaps he found the words in a quotation. Of this Effay, which Dryden has exalted fo highly, it may be justly said that the precepts are judicious, sometimes new, and often happily expreffed; but there are, after all the emendations, many weak lines, and some strange appearances of negligence; as, when he gives the laws of elegy, he infifts upon connection and coherence; without which, fays he, 'Tis 'Tis epigram, 'tis point, 'tis what you No Panegyrick, nor a Cooper's Hill. will; 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 perspicuity and elegance of an hiftorian, but not the fire and fancy of a poet. PRIOR. ΜΑ nence. ATTHEW PRIOR is one of thofe that have burst out from an obfcure original to great emiHe was born July 21, 1664, according to fome, at Winburne in Dorfetfhire, 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 historian of his actions might find him fome illustrious alliance. He is supposed to have fallen, by his father's death, into the hands of his uncle, a vintner near Charing *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, Ma thew Prior of Dorfetfire, in which county, not in Middlesex, Winborn, or Wimborne as it ftands in the Villare, is found. When he ftood candidate for his fellowship, five years afterwards, he was registered again by himself as of Middlesex. The last record ought to be preferred, because it was made upon oath. It is obfervable, that, as a native of Winborne, he is stiled Fili Georgii Prior, generofi; not confiftently with the common account of the meanness of his birth. VOL. III. K crofs, |