Matthew Prior (July 21, 1664 – September 18, 1721) was an English poet and diplomat. July 21 is the 202nd day (203rd in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian Calendar, with 163 days remaining. ... Events March 12 - New Jersey becomes a colony of England. ... September 18 is the 261st day of the year (262nd in leap years). ... // Events Pope Innocent XIII becomes pope Johann Sebastian Bach composes the Brandenburg Concertos April 4 - Robert Walpole becomes the first prime minister of Britain September 10 - Treaty of Nystad is signed, bringing an end to the Great Northern War November 2 - Peter I is proclaimed Emperor of All the Russias... Royal motto (French): Dieu et mon droit (Translated: God and my right) Englands location within the British Isles Official language English de facto Capital London de facto Largest city London Area – Total Ranked 1st UK 130,395 km² Population – Total (mid-2004) – Total (2001 Census) – Density Ranked 1st UK... Poet is a term applied to a person who composes poetry, including extended forms such as dramatic verse. ... This page is about negotiations; for the board game, see Diplomacy (game). ...

Prior was the son of a Nonconformist joiner at Wimborne Minster, East Dorset. His father moved to London, and sent him to Westminster School, under Dr Busby. On his father's death, he left school, and was cared for by his uncle, a vintner in Channel Row. Here Lord Dorset found him reading Horace, and set him to translate an ode. He did so well that the earl offered to contribute to the continuation of his education at Westminster. One of his schoolfellows and friends was Charles Montagu, 1st Earl of Halifax. It was to avoid being separated from Montagu and his brother James that Prior accepted, against his patron's wish, a scholarship recently founded at St John's College, Cambridge. He took his B.A. degree in 1686, and two years later became a fellow. In collaboration with Montagu he wrote in 1687 the City Mouse and Country Mouse, in ridicule of John Dryden's The Hind and the Panther. A nonconformist is an English or Welsh Protestant of any non-Anglican denomination, chiefly advocating religious liberty. ... Location within the British Isles The Minster Wimborne Minster is a town in south east Dorset, England, and the name of the church in that town. ... Dorset (pronounced Dorsit, sometimes in the past called Dorsetshire) is a county in the southwest of England, on the English Channel coast. ... For other uses, see London (disambiguation). ... Motto: Dat Deus Incrementum The Royal College of St. ... The term vintner is applied to wine merchants as well as (erroneously) winemakers. ... Horace Quintus Horatius Flaccus, (December 8, 65 BC - November 27, 8 BC), known in the English-speaking world as Horace, was the leading lyric poet in Latin, the son of a freedman, but himself born free. ... Ode is a form of stately and elaborate lyrical verse. ... Charles Montagu, 1st Earl of Halifax (April 16, 1661 - May 19, 1715) was Chancellor of the Exchequer, poet, statesman, and Earl of Halifax. ... Full name The College of Saint John the Evangelist of the University of Cambridge Motto Named after The Hospital of Saint John the Evangelist, Cambridge, named after John the Evangelist Previous names Incorporates part of what was Merton Hall which no longer exists Established 1511 Sister College(s) Balliol College... John Dryden John Dryden (August 19, 1631 – May 12, 1700) was an influential English poet, literary critic, and playwright. ...

It was an age when satirists sure of patronage and promotion. Montagu was promoted at once, and Prior three years later became secretary to the embassy at the Hague. After four years of this, he was appointed a gentleman of the king's bedchamber. Apparently, also, he acted as one of the king's secretaries, and in 1697 he was secretary to the plenipotentiaries who concluded the Peace of Ryswick. Prior's talent for affairs was doubted by Pope, who had no special means of judging, but it is not likely that King William would have employed in this important business a man who had not given proof of diplomatic skill and grasp of details. Arms of The Hague The Hague (with capital T; Dutch: Den Haag, also s-Gravenhage) is the administrative capital of the Netherlands, located in the west of the country, in the province South Holland of which it is also the capital. ... Events September 20 - The Treaty of Ryswick December 2 – St Pauls Cathedral opened in London Peter the Great travels in Europe officially incognito as artilleryman Pjotr Mikhailov Use of palanquins increases in Europe Christopher Polhem starts Swedens first technical school. ... The Treaty of Ryswick was signed on 20 September 1697 and named after Ryswick in the United Provinces (now the Netherlands). ... Alexander Pope, an English poet best known for his Essay on Criticism and Rape of the Lock Pope, circa 1727. ... William III of England (14 November 1650 – 8 March 1702; also known as William II of Scotland and William III of Orange) was a Dutch aristocrat and a Protestant Prince of Orange from his birth, King of England and King of Ireland from 13 February 1689, and King of Scots...

The poet's knowledge of French is specially mentioned among his qualifications, and this was recognized by his being sent in the following year to Paris in attendance on the English ambassador. At this period Prior could say with good reason that "he had commonly business enough upon his hands, and was only a poet by accident." To verse, however, which had laid the foundation of his fortunes, he still occasionally trusted as a means of maintaining his position. His occasional poems during this period include an elegy on Queen Mary in 1695; a satirical version of Boileau's Ode sur le prise de Namur (1695); some lines on William's escape from assassination in 1696; and a brief piece called The Secretary. The Eiffel Tower has become a symbol of Paris throughout the world. ... Events January 27 - Change of emperor of the Ottoman Empire from Ahmed II to Mustafa II (1695-1703) July 17 - The Bank of Scotland is founded by an Act of Parliament of the old Scottish Parliament. ... Nicolas Boileau-Despréaux, commonly called Boileau, (November 1, 1636 - March 13, 1711) was a French poet and critic. ...

After his return from France Prior became under-secretary of state and succeeded Locke as a commissioner of trade. In 1701 he sat in parliament for East Grinstead. He had certainly been in William's confidence with regard to the Partition Treaty; but when Somers, Orford and Halifax were impeached for their share in it he voted on the Tory side, and immediately on Anne's accession he definitely allied himself with Harley and St John. Perhaps in consequence of this for nine years there is no mention of his name in connection with any public transaction. But when the Tories came into power in 1710 Prior's diplomatic abilities were again called into action, and till the death of Anne he held a prominent place in all negotiations with the French court, sometimes as secret agent, sometimes in an equivocal position as ambassador's companion, sometimes as fully accredited but very unpunctually paid ambassador. His share in negotiating the Treaty of Utrecht, of which he is said to have disapproved, personally led to its popular nickname of "Matt's Peace." Events January 18 - Frederick I becomes King of Prussia. ... Insert non-formatted text hereInsert non-formatted text here:This article is about the legislative institution. ... East Grinstead was a parliamentary constituency in the United Kingdom. ... This article does not cite its references or sources. ... The Treaties of Utrecht (April 11, 1713) were signed in Utrecht, a city of the United Provinces. ...

When the queen died and the Whigs regained power he was impeached by Robert Walpole and kept in close custody for two years (1715–1717). In 1709 he had already published a collection of verse. During this imprisonment, maintaining his cheerful philosophy, he wrote his longest humorous poem, Alma; or, The Progress of the Mind. This, along with his most ambitious work, Solomon, and other Poems on several Occasions, was published by subscription in 1718. The sum received for this volume (4000 guineas), with a present of £4000 from Lord Harley, enabled him to live in comfort; but he did not long survive his enforced retirement from public life, although he bore his ups and downs with rare equanimity. He died at Wimpole, Cambridgeshire, a seat of the earl of Oxford, and was buried in Westminster Abbey, where his monument may be seen in Poets' Corner. A History of his Own Time was issued by J Bancks in 1740. The book pretended to be derived from Prior's papers, but it is doubtful how far it should be regarded as authentic. Anne ( 6 February 1665 – 1 August 1714 ) became Queen of England, Queen of Scotland and Queen of Ireland on 8 March 1702. ... While the Whigs (along with the Tories) are often described as one of the two political parties in late 17th to mid 19th century Great Britain, it is more accurate to describe them as loose political groupings or tendencies. ... The Right Honourable Robert Walpole, 1st Earl of Orford, KG, KB, PC (26 August 1676 – 18 March 1745), usually known as Sir Robert Walpole, was a British statesman who is generally regarded as having been the first Prime Minister of Great Britain. ... // Events January 12 - Two-month freezing period begins in France - The coast of the Atlantic and Seine River freeze, crops fail and at least 24. ... Cambridgeshire (abbreviated Cambs) is a county in England, bordering Lincolnshire to the north, Norfolk to the northeast, Suffolk to the east, Essex and Hertfordshire to the south, and Bedfordshire and Northamptonshire to the west. ... The Abbeys western façade The Collegiate Church of St Peter, Westminster, which is almost always referred to as Westminster Abbey, is a mainly Gothic church, on the scale of a cathedral, in Westminster, London, just to the west of the Palace of Westminster. ... Poets corner Poets Corner is the name traditionally given to a section of the South Transept of Westminster Abbey due to the number of poets, playwrights and writers now buried and commemorated there. ...

Prior's poems show considerable variety, a pleasant scholarship and great executive skill. The most ambitious, i.e. Solomon, and the paraphrase of the Nut-Brown Maid, are the least successful. But Alma, an admitted imitation of Samuel Butler, is a delightful piece of wayward easy humour, full of witty turns and well-remembered allusions, and Prior's mastery of the octo-syllabic couplet is greater than that of Jonathan Swift or Pope. His tales in rhyme, though often objectionable in their themes, are excellent specimens of narrative skill; and as an epigrammatist he is unrivalled in English. The majority of his love songs are frigid and academic, mere wax-flowers of Parnassus; but in familiar or playful efforts, of which the type are the admirable lines To a Child of Quality, he has still no rival. "Prior's"—says Thackeray, himself no mean proficient in this kind—"seem to me amongst the easiest, the richest, the most charmingly humorous of English lyrical poems. Horace is always in his mind, and his song and his philosophy, his good sense, his happy easy turns and melody, his loves and his Epicureanism, bear a great resemblance to that most delightful and accomplished master." Samuel Butler Samuel Butler (4 December 1612–18 June 1680) was born in Strensham, Worcestershire and baptised 14 February 1613. ... Jonathan Swift Jonathan Swift (November 30, 1667 – October 19, 1745) was an Anglo-Irish writer who is famous for works like Gullivers Travels, A Modest Proposal, and A Tale of a Tub. ... An epigram is a short poem with a clever twist at the end or a concise and witty statement. ... Mount Parnassus (also Mount Parnassos) is a mountain in central Greece that towers above Delphi. ... William Makepeace Thackeray (18 July 1811 – 24 December 1863) was an English novelist of the 19th century. ... Epicureanism is a system of philosophy based upon the teachings of Epicurus (c. ...

Wittenham Clumps in Oxfordshire is said to be where Prior wrote Henry and Emma, and this is now commemorated by a plaque. Wittenham Clumps are a set of small hills in the flat Thames Valley, Oxfordshire, England, near village of Little Wittenham. ... Oxfordshire (abbreviated Oxon, from Latin Oxonia) is a county in south-east England, bordering on Northamptonshire, Buckinghamshire, Berkshire, Wiltshire, Gloucestershire, and Warwickshire. ...

East Grinstead was a parliamentary constituency in the United Kingdom. ... The Chief Secretary was the most important position for determining British policy in Ireland after the Lord Lieutenant, and was frequently a cabinet level position in the 19th and early twentieth centuries. ... Charles Talbot, 1st Duke of Shrewsbury ( 24 July 1660 – 1 February 1718), was the only son of Francis Talbot, 11th Earl of Shrewsbury and his second wife, Anne-Marie Brudenell, a daughter of Robert Brudenell, 2nd Earl of Cardigan; (she became the notorious mistress of the 2nd Duke of Buckingham... Traditionally, the Embassy to France was the most prestigious posting in the British foreign service, although in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, diplomatic representation was often lacking due to wars between the two countries. ... John Dalrymple, 2nd Earl of Stair (July 20, 1673 - May 9, 1747) was a Scottish soldier and diplomat. ...

References

• This article incorporates text from the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica, a publication in the public domain.

Encyclopædia Britannica, the 11th edition The 11th edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica (1910–1911) is perhaps the most famous edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica. ... The public domain comprises the body of all creative works and other knowledge—writing, artwork, music, science, inventions, and others—in which no person or organization has any proprietary interest. ...

External links

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Matthew Prior

• The Matthew Prior Project, Prior's complete correspondence
• Poems from PoemHunter.com
• Quotations
• Matthew Prior (1664–1721) — Samuel Johnson's Life of Matthew Prior