To the close rock the frighted raven flies,
Soon as the rising eagle cuts the air:
The shaggy wolf unseen and trembling lies,
When the hoarse roar proclaims the lion near.
Ill-starr'd did we our forts and lines forsake,
To dare our British foes to open fight:
Our conquest we by stratagem should make;
Our triumph had been founded in our flight.
'Tis ours, by craft and by surprise to gain:
'Tis theirs, to meet in arms, and battle in the plain[14].
By this new structure of his lines he has avoided difficulties; nor am I
sure that he has lost any of the power of pleasing; but he no longer
imitates Spenser.
Some of his poems are written without regularity of measure; for, when
he commenced poet, we had not recovered from our Pindarick infatuation;
but he probably lived to be convinced, that the essence of verse is
order and consonance.
His numbers are such as mere diligence may attain; they seldom offend
the ear, and seldom sooth it; they commonly want airiness, lightness,
and facility; what is smooth, is not soft. His verses always roll, but
they seldom flow.
A survey of the life and writings of Prior may exemplify a sentence
which he doubtless understood well, when he read Horace at his uncle's;
"the vessel long retains the scent which it first receives." In his
private relaxation he revived the tavern, and in his amorous pedantry he
exhibited the college. But on higher occasions and nobler subjects, when
habit was overpowered by the necessity of reflection, he wanted not
wisdom as a statesman, nor elegance as a poet.
-----
[Footnote 1: The difficulty of settling Prior's birthplace is great. In
the register of his college he is called, at his admission by the
president, Matthew Prior, of Winburn, in Middlesex; by himself, next
day, Matthew Prior, of Dorsetshire, in which county, not in Middlesex,
Winborn, or Winborne, as it stands in the Villare, is found. When he
stood candidate for his fellowship, five years afterwards, he was
registered again by himself as of Middlesex. The last record ought to be
preferred, because it was made upon oath. It is observable, that, as a
native of Winborne, he is styled filius Georgii Prior, generosi; not
consistently with the common account of the meanness of his birth. Dr.
J.]
[Footnote 2: Samuel Prior kept the Rummer tavern near Charing-cross, in
1685. The annual feast of the nobility and gentry living in the parish
of St. Martin in the Fields was held at his house, Oct. 14, that year.
N.]
[Footnote 3: He was admitted to his bachelor's degree in 1686; and to
his master's, by mandate, in 1700. N.]
[Footnote 4: Spence.]
[Footnote 5: He received, in September, 1697, a present of two hundred
guineas from the lords justices, for his trouble in bringing over the
treaty of peace. N.]
[Footnote 6: It should be the earl of Dorset.]
[Footnote 7: Swift obtained many subscriptions for him in Ireland. II.]
[Footnote: 8 Spence.]
[Footnote: 9 Spence.]
[Footnote 10: Spence; and see Gent. Mag. vol l vii. p. 1039.]
[Footnote 11: Richardsoniana.]
[Footnote 12: It is to be found in Poggii Facetiae. J.B.]
[Footnote 13: The same thought is found in one of Owen's epigrams,
lib. i. epig. 123. and in Poggii Facetiae. J.B.]
[Footnote 14: Prior was not the first inventor of this stanza; for
excepting the alexandrine close, it is to be found in Churchyard's
Worthies of Wales. See his introduction for Brecknockshire. J.B.]