"The Hind and the Panther transversed to the story of the Country Mouse, and the City Mouse," which was published in 1687. Soon after the revolution, Prior, who had no great relish for an academical life, came to London, and addressed the following epistle to his friend Fleetwood Shepherd, Esq. who seems, by what is said in it, to have been the first occasion of his removal from the business of a tavern.

When crowding folks with strange ill faces
Were making legs and begging places,
And some with patents, some with merit,
Tir'd out my good Lord Dorset's spirit,
Sneaking, I stood amongst the crew,
Desiring much to speak with you.
I waited while the clock struck thrice,
And footman brought out fifty lies,

'Till patience vex'd, and legs grown weary.
I thought it was in vain to tarry;
But did opine it might be better,
By penny-post to send a letter,
Now if you miss of this epistle,

I'm baulk'd again, and may go whistle.
My business, Sir, you'll quickly guess,
Is to desire some little place;
And fair pretensions I have for't,
Much need, and very small desert:
Whene'er I writ to you, I wanted,
I always begg'd, you always grauted.
Now as you took me up, when little,
Gave me my learning, and my vittle,

Ask'd for me, from my Lord,* things fitting
Kind as I'd been of your begetting;

* The Earl of Dorset.

2 c2

Confirm

Confirm what formerly you've given
Nor leave me now at six and sevens,
As Sunderland has done Mum Stephens.
No family that takes a whelp,
When first he laps, and scarce can yelp,
Neglects, or turns him out of gate,
When he's grown up to dog's estate:
Nor parish, if they once adopt

The spurious brats, of strollers dropt,
Leave 'em, when grown up lusty fellows
To the wide world, that is, the gallows :
No, thank them for their love, that's worse,
Than if they'd throttled 'em at nurse.

My uncle, rest his soul, when living,
Might have contriv'd me ways of thriving,
Taught me with cider to replenish

My vats, or ebbing tide of Rhenish;

So when for hock I drew prickt white wine,
Swear't had the flavour, and was right wine:
Or sent me with ten pounds to Furni-
vals Iun, to some good rogue attorney,
Where now, by forging deeds, and cheating
I'd found some handsome ways of getting.
All this, you made me quit to follow
That sneaking, whey-fac'd God, Apollo;
Sent me among a fiddling crew,
Of folks I'd never seen nor knew,
Calliope and God knows who.
To add no more invectives to it,
You spoil'd the youth to make a poet.
In common justice, Sir, there's no man

}

That makes the whore, but keeps the woman.
Among all honest Christian people,

Whoe'er breaks limbs, maintains the cripple.
The sum of all I have to say

Is that you'd put me in some way,

And your petitioner shall pray.

There's

There's one thing more I'd almost slipt,
But that may do as well in postscript;
My friend, Charles Montague's preferr'd,
Nor would I have it long observ'd

That one mouse eats while t'other's starv'd.*

This pleasant petition had its effect; for Mr. Shepherd interested himself so much in Prior's behalf, that the Earl of Dorset introduced him at court, and the next year he was appointed English secretary in the congress assembled at the Hague. He gave such satisfaction in this employment, that King William made him a gentleman of the bed-chamber, which being a situation of ease, he devoted much of his leisure time to the service of the Muses. In 1697, he was employed as secretary to the English negociators at

*

When the Earl of Dorset was made Lord Chamberlain, he introduced Mr. Montague to king William, saying, "May it please your majesty, I have brought a Mouse to have the honour of kissing your hand." The king smiled, and being informed of the reason of that address, which was in allusion to the satire against Dryden, he replied, "You will do well to put me in a way of making a man of him:" aud immediately ordered him a pension of five hundred pounds a year, till an opportunity should offer of promoting him. He was afterwards made Chancellor of the Exchequer, and First Commissioner of the Treasury. In 1700, he was advanced to the peerage, by the title of Baron Halifax. On the accession of George I. he was created an Earl, and a second time appointed First Commissioner of the Treasury. He died in 1715.

the treaty of Ryswick. The year following, he went secretary of legation to the court of France in which post he continued during the two successive embassies of the Earls of Portland and Jersey. He had not been long there, when one of the French king's officers shewed him the royal apartments at Versailles, and pointing in a particular manner to the victories of Louis the XIV. painted by the famous Le Brun, asked Prior, whether king William's actions were also to be seen in his palace?"No, Sir," answered the secretary, "the monuments of my master's actions are to be seen every where except in his own house."

In 1700, he was created master of arts at Cambridge, by mandamus, and about the same time succeeded Mr. Locke at the board of trade. At the accession of Queen Anne, Prior distinguished himself, with several other writers, in attacking the great Duke of Marlborough. This was done severely enough, in a paper called the Examiner, which was set up under the influence of Harley and St. John, afterwards Lords Oxford and Bolingbroke. The other conductors of this violent political satire, were Swift, Dr. Friend, Mrs. Manley, Mr. Oldisworth, and some others. very abusive fable was also published against Marlborough, under the title of the "Widow and her Cat," of which Prior and Swift were said to be the authors. The concluding stanza is this:

A

So glaring is thine insolence

So vile thy breach of trust is,

That longer with thee to dispense

Were want of power, or want of sense,
Here, Towzer, do him justice.

About the same time Prior was made one of the commissioners of the customs, a situation, "which he hated" says Swift, "because it spoiled his wit, and he could dream of nothing but cockets and dockets, and drawbacks, and other jargonwords of the custom house."

He did not, however, long continue in this office, for in 1711, he was appointed ambassador to the French court, in which capacity he gave great satisfaction, not only to his royal mistress but to Louis XIV, who, in a letter to Queen Anne, written with his own hand, speaks of Mr. Prior's "conduct as being very agreeable to him:" and the queen in her answer, observes, "I send back Mr. Prior to Versailles, who, in continuing to conduct himself in the manner that shall be entirely agreeable to you, does no more than execute, to a tittle, the orders which I have given

him."

While Mr. Prior was ambassador in France, being at the opera at Paris, and seated in a box with a nobleman belonging to the court, as soon as the principal performer came upon the stage, and began to sing, the nobleman joined in the favourite air, and in accompaniment with others so raised the concert that the voice of the

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