Matthew Prior is one of those that have burst out from an obscure original to great
eminence. He was born July 21, 1664, according to some, at Wimborne, in Dorsetshire,
of I know not what parents; others say that he was the son of a joiner of London: he was
perhaps willing enough to leave his birth unsettled, in hope, like Don Quixote, that the
historian of his actions might find him some illustrious alliance. He is supposed to have
fallen, by his father's death, into the hands of his uncle, a vintner near Charing Cross,
who sent him for some 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 Dorset, celebrated for patronage of genius,
found him by chance, as Burnet relates, reading Horace, and was so well pleased with his
proficiency, that he undertook the care and cost 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 supposed that he was distinguished 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 send every year to the Earl of Exeter some
poems upon sacred subjects, in acknowledgment of a benefaction enjoyed by them from
the bounty of his ancestor. On this occasion were those verses written, which, though
nothing is said of their success, seem to have recommended him to some notice; for his
praise of the countess's music, and his lines on the famous picture of Seneca, afford
reason for imagining that he was more or less conversant with that family.
The same year he published "The City Mouse and Country Mouse," to ridicule Dryden's
"Hind and Panther," in conjunction with Mr. Montague. There is a story of great pain
suffered, and of tears shed, on this occasion by Dryden, who thought it hard that "an old
man should be so treated by those to whom he had always been civil." By tales like these
is the envy raised by superior abilities every day gratified. When they are attacked every
one hopes to see them humbled; what is hoped is readily believed, and what is believed is
confidently told. Dryden had been more accustomed to hostilities than that such enemies
should break his quiet; and, if we can suppose him vexed, it would be hard to deny him
sense enough to conceal his uneasiness.
"The City Mouse and Country Mouse" procured its authors more solid advantages than
the pleasure of fretting Dryden, for they were both speedily preferred. Montague, indeed,
obtained the first notice with some 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 reason to complain, for he came to London and obtained such notice that (in 1691)
he was sent to the Congress at the Hague as secretary to the embassy. In this assembly of
princes and nobles, to which Europe has perhaps scarcely seen anything equal, was
formed the grand alliance against Louis, which at last did not produce effects
proportionate so the magnificence of the transaction.
