Matthew Prior
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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HANS CARVEL, Impotent and Old, Married a Lass of LONDON Mould: Handsome? enough; extremely Gay: Lov'd Musick, Company, and Play: High Flights She had, and Wit at Will: And so her Tongue lay seldom still: For in all Visits who but She, To Argue, or to Repartée? She made it plain, that Human Passion Was order'd by Predestination; That, if weak Women went astray, Their Stars were more at Fault than They: Whole Tragedies She had by Heart: Enter'd into ROXANA'S Part: To Triumph in her Rival's Blood, The Action certainly was good. How like a Vine young AMMON curl'd! Oh that dear Conqu'ror of the World! She pity'd BETTERTON in age, That ridicul'd the God-like Rage. She, first of all the Town, was told, Where newest INDIA Things were sold So in a Morning, without Bodice, Slipt sometimes out to Mrs THODY'S; To cheapen Tea, to buy a Screen: What else could so much Virtue mean? For to prevent the least Reproach, Betty went with Her in the Coach. But when no very great Affair Excited her peculiar Care; She without fail was wak'd at Ten; Drank Chocolate, then slept again: At Twelve She rose: with much ado Her Cloths were huddl'd on by Two: Then; Does my Lady Dine at home? Yes sure; -- but is the Colonel come? Next, how to spend the Afternoon, And not come Home again too soon; The Change, the City, or the Play, As each was proper for the Day; A Turn in Summer to HYDE-PARK, When it grew tolerably Dark. Wife's Pleasure causes Husband's Pain: Strange Fancies come in HANS'S Brain: He thought of what He did not name; And wou'd reform; but durst not blame. At first He therefore Preach'd his Wife The Comforts of a Pious Life: Told Her, how Transient Beauty was; That All must die, and Flesh was Grass: He bought Her Sermons, Psalms, and Graces; And doubled down the useful Places. But still the Weight of worldly Care Allow'd Her little time for Pray'r: And CLEOPATRA was read o'er, While SCOT, and WAKE, and Twenty more, That teach one to deny one's self, Stood unmolested on the Shelf. An untouch'd Bible grac'd her Toilet: No feat that Thumb of Her's should spoil it. In short, the Trade was still the same: The Dame went out: the Colonel came. What's to be done? poor CARVEL cry'd: Another Batt'ry must be try'd: What if to Spells I had Recourse? 'Tis but to hinder something Worse. The End must justifie the Means: He only Sins who Ill intends: Since therefore 'tis to Combat Evil; 'Tis lawful to employ the Devil. Forthwith the Devil did appear (For name Him and He's always near) Not in the Shape in which He plies At Miss's Elbow when She lies; Or stands before the Nurs'ry Doors, To take the naughty Boy that roars: But without sawcer Eye or Claw, Like a grave Barrister of Law. HANS CARVEL, lay aside your Grief, The Devil says: I bring Relief. Relief, says HANS: pray let me crave Your Name, Sir. -- SATAN. -- Sir, your Slave: I did not look upon your Feet: You'll pardon Me: -- Ay, now I see't: And pray, Sir, when came You from Hell? Our Friends there, did you leave Them well? All well: but pr'ythee, honest HANS, (Says SATAN) leave your Complaisance: The Truth is this: I cannot stay Flaring in Sun-shine all the Day: For, entre Nous, We Hellish Sprites, And oft'ner our Receipts convey In Dreams, than any other Way. I tell You therefore as a Friend, Ere Morning dawns, your Fears shall end: Go then this Ev'ning, Master CARVEL, Lay down your Fowls, and broach your Barrel; Let Friends and Wine dissolve your Care; Whilst I the great Receipt prepare: To Night I'll bring it, by my Faith; Believe for once what SATAN saith. Away went HANS: glad? not a little; Obey'd the Devil to a Tittle; Invited Friends some half a Dozen, The Colonel, and my Lady's Cousin. The Meat was serv'd; the Bowls were crown'd; Catches were sung; and Healths went round: Barbadoes Waters for the Close; 'Till Hans had fairly got his Dose: The Colonel toasted to the best: The Dame mov'd off, to be undrest: The Chimes went Twelve: the Guests withdrew: But when, or how, HANS hardly knew. Some Modern Anecdotes aver, He nodded in his Elbow Chair; From thence was carry'd off to Bed: JOHN held his Heels, and NAN his head. My Lady was disturb'd: new Sorrow! Which HANS must answer for to Morrow. In Bed then view this happy Pair; And think how HYMEN Triumph'd there. Hans, fast asleep, as soon as laid; The Duty of the Night unpaid: The waking Dame, with Thoughts opprest, That made Her Hate both Him and Rest: By Such a Husband, such a Wife! 'Twas ACME'S and SEPTIMIUS' Life. The Lady sigh'd: the Lover snor'd: The punctual Devil kept his Word: Appear'd to honest HANS again; But not at all by Madam seen: And giving Him a Magick Ring, Fit for the Finger of a King; Dear Hans, said He, this Jewel take, And wear it long for SATAN'S Sake: 'Twill do your Business to a Hair: For long as You this Ring shall wear, As sure as I look over LINCOLN, That ne'er shall happen which You think on. HANS took the ring with Joy extreme; (All this was only in a Dream) And thrusting it beyond his Joint, 'Tis done, He cry'd: I've gain'd my Point. What Point, said She, You ugly Beast? You neither give Me Joy nor Rest: 'Tis done. -- What's done, You drunken Bear? " |
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Matthew Prior (21 July 1664 – 18 September 1721) was an English poet and diplomat.
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.
It was an age when satirists could be 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 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.
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.
After his return from France Prior became under-secretary of state and succeeded John 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 Robert 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 until 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."
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.
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."
Wittenham Clumps in Oxfordshire is said to be where Prior wrote Henry and Emma, and this is now commemorated by a plaque. Prior has been commemorated by other poets as well; Everett James Ellis named Prior as a significant influence and source of inspiration.
