crofs, who fent him for fome time to Dr. Busby at Westminster; but, not intending to give him any education beyond that of the school, 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 coft 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 fuppofed that he was diftinguished among his contemporaries. He became a Bachelor, as is usual, 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 poems upon facred fubjects, in acknowledgment of a benefaction enjoyed by them from the bounty of his ancestor. On this occafion were thofe verfes written, which, though nothing is faid of their fuccefs, feem to have recommended him to fome notice; for his praife 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 publifhed the City Moufe and Country Moufe, to ridicule Dryden's Hind and Panther, in conjunction with Mr. Montague. There is a ftory+ of great pain fuffered, and of tears fhed, on this occafion, by Dryden, who thought it hard that an old man fhould be fo treated by thofe to whom he had always been civil. By tales like these is the envy, raised by fuperior He was admitted to his Bachelor's degree in 1686, and to his Masters, by mandate, in 1700. + Spence. abilities, 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 such enemies should break his quiet; and if we can fuppofe him vexed, it would be hard to deny him fenfe enough to conceal his uneafiness. The City Moufe 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 best. 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 Congrefs at The Hague as fecretary to the embaffy. In this aflembly of princes and nobles, to which Europe has perhaps fcarcely 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 fo pleafing to king William, that he made him one of the gentlemen of his bedchamber; and he is fuppofed to have paffed fome of the next years in the quiet cultivation of literature and poetry. The death of Queen Mary (in 1695) produced a fubject for all the writers: perhaps no funeral was ever fo poetically attended. Dryden, indeed, as a man dit countenanced and deprived, was filent; but scarcely any other maker of verfes omitted to bring his tribute K 2 of tuneful forrow. An emulation of elegy was univerfal. Maria's praife was not confined to the English language, but fills a great part of the Mufa Anglicana. Prior, who was both a poet and a courtier, was too diligent to mifs this opportunity of refpect. He wrote a long ode, which was prefented to the king, by whom it was not likely to be ever read. In two years he was fecretary to another embaffy at the treaty of Ryfwick (in 1697); and next year had the fame office at the court of France, where he is faid to have been confidered with great distinction. As he was one day furveying the apartments at Verfailles, being fhewn the Victories of Lewis, painted by Le Brun, and asked whether the king of England's palace had any fuch decorations; The monuments of my Mafler's allions, faid he, are to be feen every where but in his own boufe. The pictures of Le Brun are not only in themselves fufficiently oftentatious, but were explained by infcriptions fo arrogant, that Boileau and Racine thought it neceffary to make them more fimple. He was in the following year at Loo with the king; from whom, after a long audience, he carried orders to England, and upon his arrival became under-fecretary of state in the earl of Jerfey's office; a poft which he did not retain long, because Jersey was removed; but he was foon made commiffioner of Trade. This year (1700) produced one of his longest and moft fplendid compofitions, the Carmen Seculare, in which he exhaufts all his powers of celebration. I mean not to accufe him of flattery; he probably thought all that he writ, and retained as much veracity as can be properly exacted from a poet profeffedly encomiaftic. King William fupplied copious materials for t for either verfe or profe. His whole life had been action, and none ever denied him the refplendent qualities of steady refolution and perfonal courage. He was really in Prior's mind what he reprefents him in his verfes; he confidered him as a hero, and was accuftomed to fay, that he praised others in compliance with the fashion, but that in celebrating king William he followed his inclination. To Prior gratitude would dictate praise, which reafon would not refuse. years Among the advantages to arife from the future of William's reign, he mentions a Society for useful Arts, and among them Some that with care true eloquence fhall teach, That from our writers diftant realms may know The thanks we to our monarch owe, And schools profefs our tongue through every land, Tickell, in his Profpect of Peace, has the fame hope of a new academy: In happy chains our daring language bound, Whether the fimilitude of thofe paffages which exhibit the fame thought on the fame occafion proceeded from accident or imitation, is not eafy to determine. Tickell might have been impreffed with his expectation by Swift's Propofal for afcertaining the English Language, then lately published. In the parliament that met in 1701, he was chofen reprefentative of East Grinstead. Perhaps it was about this time that he changed his party; for ne voted for the impeachment of thofe lords who had perfuaded K 3 the the king to the Partition-treaty, a treaty in which he had himself been minifterially employed. A great part of queen Anne's reign was a time of war, in which there was little employment for negotiators, and Prior had therefore leifure to make or to polish verfes. When the battle of Blenheim called forth all the verfe-men, Prior, among the refst, took care to fhew his delight in the increasing honour of his country by an Epistle to Boileau. He published, foon afterwards, a volume of poems, with the encomiaftic character of his deceafed patron the duke of Dorfet: it began with the College Exercife, and ended with the Nut-brown Maid. The battle of Ramillies foon afterwards (in 1706). excited him to another effort of poetry. On this occafion he had fewer or lefs formidable rivals; and it would be not cafy to name any other compofition produced by that event which is now remembered. Every thing has its day. Through the reigns of William and Anne no profperous event paffed undignified by poetry. In the laft war, when France was difgraced and overpowered in every quarter of the globe, when Spain, coming to her affiftance, only fhared her calamities, and the name of an Englishman was reverenced through Europe, no poet was heard amidst the general acclamation; the fame of our counfellors and heroes was intrufted to the Gazetteer. The nation in time grew weary of the war, and the queen grew weary of her minifters. The war was burdenfome, and the minifters were infolent. Harley and his friends began to hope that they might, by driving the Whigs from court and from power, gratify at once the queen and the people. There was now a call for writers, |