POETS. MATTHEW PRIOR. ENGLISH LITERATURE. Matthew was brought up by his uncle, a vintner at Charing Cross, who sent him to Westminster school. It was in some respects a disadvantage to the poets He was afterwards taken home to assist in the busiof this period that most of them enjoyed a consider-ness of the inn; and whilst there, was one day seen able degree of worldly prosperity and importance, such by the Earl of Dorset reading Horace. The earl geneas has too rarely blessed the community of authors. rously undertook the care of his education; and in Some filled high diplomatic and official situations, his eighteenth year, Prior was entered of St John's and others were engaged in schemes of politics and college, Cambridge. He distinguished himself during ambition, where offices of state and the ascendency his academical career, and amongst other copies of of rival parties, not poetical or literary laurels, were verses, produced, in conjunction with the Honourable the prizes contended for. Familiar and constant in- Charles Montagu, the City Mouse and Country Mouse, in ridicule of Dryden's Hind and Panther.' The Earl of Dorset did not forget the poet he had snatched from obscurity. He invited him to London, and obtained for him an appointment as secretary to the Earl of Berkeley, ambassador to the Hague. In this capacity Prior obtained the approbation of King William, who made him one of the gentlemen of his bedchamber. In 1697 he was appointed secretary to the embassy on the treaty of Ryswick, at the conclusion of which he was presented with a considerable sum of money by the lords justices. Next year he was ambassador at the court of Versailles; and after some other temporary honours and appointments, was made a commissioner of trade. In 1701, he entered the House of Commons as representative for the borough of East-Grimstead, and abandoning his former friends, the Whigs, joined the Tories in impeaching Lord Somers. This came with a peculiarly bad grace from Prior, for the charge against Somers was, that he had advised the partition treaty, in which treaty the poet himself had acted as agent. He evinced his patriotism, however, by afterwards celebrating in verse the battles of Blenheim and Ramilies. When the Whig government was at length overturned, Prior became attached to Harley's administration, and went with Bolingbroke to France in 1711, to negotiate a treaty of peace. He lived in splendour in Paris, was a favourite of the French monarch, and enjoyed all the honours of ambassador. He returned to London in 1715; and the Whigs being again in office, he was committed to custody on a The accusation against charge of high-treason. Prior was, that he had held clandestine conferences with the French plenipotentiary, though, as he justly replied, no treaty was ever made without private interviews and preliminaries. The Whigs were indignant at the disgraceful treaty of Utrecht; but Prior only shared in the culpability of the government. The able but profligate Bolingbroke was the masterAfter two years' confinement, the poet was spirit that prompted the humiliating concession to France. released without a trial. He had in the interval written his poem of Alma; and being now left without any other support than his fellowship of St John's college, he continued his studies, and produced his Solomon, the most elaborate of his works. He had also recourse to the publication of a collected edition of his poems, which was sold to subscribers for five guineas, and realised the sum of £4000. An equal sum was presented to Prior by the Earl of Oxford, and thus he had laid up a provision for old age. He was ambitious only of comfort and private enjoyment. These, however, he did not long possess; for he died on the 18th of September 1721, at Lord Oxford's seat at Wimpole, being at the time in the fifty-seventh year of his age. That Bruz tercourse with the great on the part of authors, has The works of Prior range over a variety of style and subject-odes, songs, epistles, epigrams, and tales. His longest poem, 'Solomon,' is of a serious character, and was considered by its author to be his best production, in which opinion he is supported by Cowper. It is the most moral, and perhaps the most correctly written; but the tales and lighter pieces of Prior are undoubtedly his happiest efforts. In these 535 Dishonour'd did the sparkling goblet stand, Too flat I thought this voice, and that too shrill, The Thief and the Cordelier.-A Ballad. To the tune of 'King John and the Abbot of Canterbury.' Then, turning about to the hangman, he said, Who has e'er been at Paris, must needs know the Despatch me, I prithee, this troublesome blade; Grève, The 'squire, whose good grace was to open the scene, Seem'd not in great haste that the show should begin ; Now fitted the halter, now travers'd the cart; And often took leave, but was loath to depart. Derry down, &c. What frightens you thus, my good son? says the priest, You murder'd, are sorry, and have been confess'd. Pough, prithee ne'er trouble thy head with such fancies; Rely on the aid you shall have from St Francis ; And what will folks say, if they see you afraid? It reflects upon me, as I knew not my trade; Courage, friend, for to-day is your period of sorrow; And things will go better, believe me, to-morrow. Derry down, &c. For thy cord and my cord both equally tie, The Cameleon. As the Cameleon, who is known To be a statesman, or a wit; If haply he the sect pursues, POETS. ENGLISH LITERATURE. That eye dropp'd sense distinct and clear, She sigh'd, she smil'd; and to the flowers Ah me! the blooming pride of May [Abra's Love for Solomon.] [From Solomon on the Vanity of the World."] Or were remark'd but with a common eye; The look that awes the nations from the throne! Thou Sovereign Power, whose secret will controls Why hast thou plac'd such infinite degrees come. Here o'er her speech her flowing eyes prevail. I saw her; 'twas humanity; it gave 537 I Addison. son of an English dean, was born at Milston, Wiltshire, in 1672. He distinguished himself at Oxford by his Latin poetry, and appeared first in English verse by an address to Dryden, written in his twenty-second year. It opens thus: How long, great poet! shall thy sacred lays Grief chill'd his breast, and check'd his rising thought; 1 Probably an undertaker. Pensive and sad, his drooping muse betrays The Roman genius in its last decays. The youthful poet's praise of his great master is confined to his translations, works which a modern eulogist would scarcely select as the peculiar glory of Dryden. Addison also contributed an Essay on Virgil's Georgics, prefixed to Dryden's translation. His remarks are brief, but finely and clearly written. At the same time, he translated the fourth Georgic, and it was published in Dryden's Miscellany, issued in 1693, with a warm commendation from the aged poet on the most ingenious Mr Addison of Oxford." Next year he ventured on a bolder flight-An Account of the Greatest English Poets, addressed to Mr H. S. (supposed to be the famous Dr Sacheverell). April 3, 1694. This Account is a poem of about 150 lines, containing sketches of Chaucer, Spenser, Cowley, Milton, Waller, &c. We subjoin the lines on the author of the Faery Queen, though, if we are to believe Spence, Addison had not then read the poet he ventured to criticise: Old Spenser next, warm'd with poetic rage, This subdued and frigid character of Spenser shows dramatic representation; and in the bowers and shades of Woodstock, the poet had materials for scenic description and display. The genius of Addison, however, was not adapted to the drama; and his opera being confined in action, and written wholly in rhyme, possesses little to attract either readers or spectators. He wrote also a comedy, The Drummer, or the Haunted House, which Steele brought out after the death of the author. This play contains a fund of quiet natural humour, but has not strength or breadth enough of character or action for the stage. Addison next entered upon his brilliant career as an essayist, and by his papers in the Tatler, Spectator, and Guardian, left all his contemporaries far behind in this delightful department of literature. In these papers, he first displayed that chaste and delicate humour, refined observation, and knowledge of the world, which now form his most distinguishing characteristics; and in his Vision of Mirza, his Reflections in Westminster Abbey, and other of his graver essays, he evinced a more poetical imagination and deeper vein of feeling than his previous writings had at all indicated. In 1713, his tragedy of Cato was brought upon the stage. Pope thought the piece deficient in dramatic interest, and the world has confirmed his judgment; but he wrote a prologue for the tragedy in his happiest manner, and it was performed with almost unexampled success. Party spirit ran high: the Whigs applauded the liberal sentiments in the play, and their cheers were echoed back by the Tories, to show that they did not apply them as censures on themselves. After all the Whig enthusiasm, Lord Bolingbroke sent for Booth the actor, who personated the character of Cato, and presented him with fifty guineas, in acknowledgment, as he said, of his defending the cause of liberty so well against a perpetual dictator (a hit at the Duke of Marlborough). Poetical eulogiums were showered upon the author, Steele, Hughes, Young, Tickell, and Ambrose Philips, being among the writers of these encomiastic verses. The queen expressed a wish that the tragedy should be dedicated to her, but Addison had previously designed this honour for his friend Tickell; and to avoid giving offence either to his loyalty or his friendship, he published it without any dedication. It was translated into French, Italian, and German, and was performed by the Jesuits in their college at St Omers. Being,' says Sir Walter Scott, in form and essence rather a French than an English play, it is one of the few English tragedies which foreigners have admired.' The unities of time and place have been preserved, and the action of the play is consequently much restricted. Cato abounds in generous and patriotic sentiments, and contains passages of great dignity and sonorous diction; but the poet fails to unlock the sources of passion and natural emotion. It is a splendid and imposing work of art, with the grace and majesty, and also the lifelessness, of a noble antique statue. Addison was now at the height of his fame. He had long aspired to the hand of the countess-dowager of Warwick, whom he had first known by becoming tutor to her son, and he was united to her in 1716. The poet married discord in a noble wife.' His marriage was as unhappy as Dryden's with Lady Elizabeth Howard. Both ladies awarded to their husbands the heraldry of hands, not hearts,' and the fate of the poets should serve as beacons to warn ambitious literary adventurers. Addison received his highest political honour in 1717, when he was made secretary of state; but he held the office only for a short time. He wanted the physical boldness and ready resources of an effective public speaker, and was unable to defend his measures in parlia ment. He is also said to have been slow and fastidious in the discharge of the ordinary duties of office. When he held the situation of under secretary, he was employed to send word to Prince George at Hanover of the death of the queen, and the vacancy of the throne; but the critical nicety of the author overpowered his official experience, and Addison was so distracted by the choice of expression, that the task was given to a clerk, who boasted of having done what was too hard for Addison. The love of vulgar wonder may have exaggerated the poet's inaptitude for business, but it is certain he was no orator. He retired from the principal secretaryship with a pension of £1500 per annum, and during his retirement, engaged himself in writing a work on the Addison's Walk, Magdalen College, Oxford. Evidences of the Christian Religion, which he did not live to complete. He was oppressed by asthma and dropsy, and was conscious that he should die at comparatively an early age. Two anecdotes are related of his deathbed. He sent, as Pope relates, a message by the Earl of Warwick to Gay, desiring to see him. Gay obeyed the summons; and Addison begged his forgiveness for an injury he had done him, for which, he said, he would recompense him if he recovered. The nature or extent of the injury he did not explain, but Gay supposed it referred to his having prevented some preferment designed for him by the court. At another time, he requested an interview of the Earl of Warwick, whom he was anxious to reclaim from a dissipated and licentious life. I have sent for you,' he said, that you may see in what peace a Christian can die.' The event thus calmly anticipated took place in Holland house on the 17th of June 1719. A minute or critical review of the daily life of Addison, and his intercourse with his literary associates, is calculated to diminish our reverence and affection. The quarrels of rival wits have long been proverbial, and Addison was also soured by political differences and contention. His temper was jealous and taciturn |