PRIOR, MATTHEW, an English poet, was b., it is supposed, in Loudon, where his father was a joiner, on July English 1664. Ile was educated, through the liberality of an uncle, at Westminster school; and in 1682 he was sent by the earl of Dorset, whose friendship he had formed, to St. John's college, Cambridge. Here he took his B.A., obtained a fellowship, and made the acquaintance of Charles Montagu, afterward earl of Halifax. in conjunction with whom he produced The City Mouse and Country Mouse, written to ridicule Dryden, in which it did not in the least succeed, although it lives yet in virtue of its own wit, polish, and grace.
After 1688 Prior was introduced to court by the earl of Dorset, and was appointed secretary to the embassy which was sent to the IIague in 1600. His conduct gave satis faction to King William; and the lucky and well-mannered poet was appointed after ward to several posts of a similar description. He was a favorite at the courts of Holland and France. In 1701 Prior entered parliament; and soon after he deserted the Whigs, and went over to the tory party. In 1711 he was sent by government to Paris with private proposals for peace, and on his return he brought with him one of the French ministers, who was invested with full powers to treat. At Prior's house,
shortly after, the representatives of the British government met the French plenipo tentiary; and his with this meeting was made the ground of a charge of treason, on which he was committed to prison, but released after a confinement of two years, without a trial. He had now nothing to live by except his fellowship and his wits. The publication of his poems by subscription, however, brought him 4,000 guineas; and at the same time, lord Harley, son of the earl of Oxford, bought a small estate in Essex, end conferred it on him for life. At the age of 57 be died at the seat of the earl of Oxford, Sept. 18, 1721. A monument was erected to him in Westminster Abbey.
Prior was one of the few poets who was also a diplomatist and man of the world. He filled his public offices with credit to himself, and he had the knack of making friends among those who had the giving of places and pensions. His poems, which comprise odes, songs, epistles, epigrams, and tales, are act much read. He has no fire, uo enthusiasm, but everything is neat, pointed, well turned ; and his lighter pieces are graceful and witty. If there is little inspiration iu his verse, there are the polish and felicity of a scholar and man of society.