Matthew Prior

Matthew Prior ( born July 21, 1664 Dorset or Middlesex; † September 18, 1721 in Wimpole ) was an English writer and diplomat.

Life

Prior was taught at Westminster School, where Charles Sackville, 6th Earl of Dorset was aware of him and began to promote it. At Priors school friends was Charles Montagu, 1st Earl of Halifax. To be separated from Montagu and his brother James, Prior began studying at St John 's College, Cambridge, where in 1686 he received his Bachelor of Arts degree and two years later became a Fellow of the College. Together with Montagu he wrote in 1687 City Mouse and Country Mouse, a satire on John Dryden 's The Hind and the Panther.

Three years later, Prior was secretary to the English ambassador in The Hague. From then on, he made a meteoric career that culminated in the representation of the Tory government of the Earl of Oxford in the negotiations of the Peace of Utrecht ( 1713), who was known to his contemporaries under the name "Matt 's Peace ".

After the Whigs had regained power, Prior was arrested by Robert Walpole and spent almost two years in prison ( 1715-1717 ). Jonathan Swift, Alexander Pope and Lord Dorset left for Prior, who was also verlustigt his offices and his income, print a generously equipped folio volume in which such important poems as Alma; or, The Progress of the Mindund Solomon, and other Poems on several Occasions occurred. This Subskriptionsband was published in 1718 and brought a prior 4,000 Guineas, also a gift of 4,000 pounds of Lord Harley.

This time his enormous sums allowed prior to the acquisition of the estate Down Hall, where he led a secluded, but literary and horticulturally productive life. Prior died in Wimpole, Cambridgeshire and is buried in Westminster Abbey, where his grave stone in Poets' Corner is seen.

Works (selection)

• Harold B. Wright (ed.): The literary works of Matthew Prior Clarendon, Oxford, 1971 ( 2 vols ).