Complete Works of Matthew Prior

by Matthew Prior

  If all that drink must judge, and every Guest

  Be allowed to have an understanding Tast?

  Thus she: Nor could the Panther well inlarge,

  With weak defence, against so strong a Charge.

  There I call her a Panther, because she’s spotted, which is such a blot to the Reformation, as I warrant ’em they will never claw off, I Gad.

  But with a weary Yawn that shew’d her pride,

  Said, Spotless was a Villain, and she lyed.

  White saw her canker’d Malice at that word,

  And said her Prayers, and drew her Delphic Sword.

  T’other cry’d Murther, and her Rage restrain’d:

  And thus her passive Character maintain’d.

  But now alas —

  Mr. Iohnson, pray mind me this; Mr. Smith, I’ll ask you to stay no longer, for this that follows is so engaging; hear me but two Lines, I Gad, and go away afterwards if you can.

  But now, alas, I grieve, I grieve to tell

  What sad mischance these pretty things befel

  These Birds of Beasts —

  There’s a tender Expression, Birds of Beasts: ’tis the greatest Affront that you can put upon any Bird, to call it,Beast of a Bird: and a Beast is so fond of being call’d a Bird, as you can’t imagine.

  These Birds of Beasts, these learned Reas’ning Mice,

  Were separated, banish’d in a trice.

  Who would be learned for their sakes, who wise?

  Ay, who indeed? There’s a Patho’s, I Gad, Gentlemen, if that won’t move you, nothing will, I can assure you: But here’s the sad thing I was afraid of.

  The Constable alarm’d by this noise,

  Enter’d the Room, directed by the voice,

  And speaking to the Watch, with head aside,

  Said, Desperate Cures must be to desperate Ills apply’d.

  These Gentlemen, for so their Fate decrees,

  Can n’ere enjoy at once the But and Peace.

  When each have separated Interests of their own,

  Two Mice are one too many for a Town.

  By Schism they are torn; and therefore, Brother,

  Look you to one, and I’ll secure the t’other.

  Now whither Dapple did to Bridewell go,

  Or in the Stocks all night her Finger blow,

  Or in the Compter lay, concerns not us to know.

  But the immortal Matron, spotless White,

  Forgetting Dapple’s Rudeness, Malice, Spight,

  Look’d kindly back, and wept, and said, Good Night.

  Ten thousand Watchmen waited on this Mouse,

  With Bills, and Halberds, to her Country-House.

  This last Contrivance I had from a judicious Author, that makes Ten thousand Angels wait upon his Hind, and she asleep too, I Gad. —

  Iohn.

  Come, let’s see what we have to pay.

  Bayes.

  What a Pox, are you in such hast? You han’t told me how you like it.

  Iohn.

  Oh, extreamly well. Here, Drawer.

  FINIS.

  The Prose

  Allegory of the Peace of Utrecht by Antoine Rivalz, which concerns the series of treaties signed by the belligerents in the War of the Spanish Succession between April 1713 and February 1715. Until the death of Queen Anne, Prior held a prominent place in negotiations with the French court. 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.”

  Essays and Dialogues of the Dead

  Please note: these prose works are presented in their original form with old spellings.

  CONTENTS

  An Essay upon Learning.

  An Essay upon Opinion.

  Four Dialogues of the Dead.

  A Dialogue between Charles the Emperour and Clenard the Grammarian.

  A Dialogue between Mr John Lock and Seigneur de Montaigne.

  A Dialogue between The Vicar of Bray and Sir Thomas Moor.

  A Dialogue between Oliver Cromwell, and his Porter.

  The Examiner. No 6. Thursday 7. 1710.

  An Essay upon Learning.

  Heads for a Treatise upon Learning.

  WHAT We commonly call Schole-Learning is so necessary that he who has it not in some Degree can hardly be counted a Man; The several parts of it are to the Mind what our different Limbs are to the Body. As we cannot see without Eyes, or walk without feet so neither can we judge rightly of what we have seen, or tell exactly how or where we have walked without the Assistance of Arethmetic and Geometry: We cannot build or enclose, we cannot Attain or improve many other conveniencies and blessings of Life without some Knowledge in these parts of Mathematicks. We can neither rightly understand our own, or learn any other Modern Language without a previous insight into the Latin and the Greek. The good and Excellence of Learning has been the Theme of the greatest Writers for above Three thousand Years: The inconveniences and ills it may produce if not well regulated is the subject of my present Letter.

  As in general, Reading improves the Judgment of a Man of Sense it only renders the Caprice of a Coxcomb more visible. It has been truly said that he who is Master of three or four Languages may be reckoned three or four Men. Understanding and being understood in as many Countries: But if he utters impertinences he is only the same Fool so many times Multiplyed. If he had been bred by his Friends at home to what an honest Farmer would call reading and writing he could have been rediculous only from Isles of Orkney to the Cliff of Dover, but being Sent to One of our Universities first, and thence to a foreign Academy his Sphere of Activity is enlarged and he has the Priviledge to be laughed at at Paris or Madrid, at Rome or Constantinople. Languages in the Mouth of a Fool are like weapons in the hand of a Madman the more he has of them the more harm he may do to himself as well as to every body within his reach.

  Too great an application to any one sort of Study may spoil a Man of good Natural parts either as to his being agreable in Conversation or use full to the Public: being too far involved in Mathematicks and abstracted Science he may become neither heedful enough to mind or able enough to Answer what is said in Company; And from reading of History and Travel he may be at last a Meer Story Teller, rather able to recite matter of Fact then to apply it to a Right Purpose. As to that study indeed which a Man makes his Profession there is an Exception, for life is so short and the avocations of it so various that without a Peculiar application to one kind of Learning he cannot attain to a very eminent Perfection in it. Thus Divines, Lawyers and Physitians are esteemed great Scholars if they understand and Discourse well of what belongs to their own Profession, & allowances are made in other parts of general Learning in which they may not be so perfectly versed: It is therefore incumbent on these Gentlemen to gain this point as well for their Reputation as their Profit. History in general is Pleasurable, and as it depends upon the Memory is to be acquired while we are Young. The History of our own Country from the Conquest and of the other Nations of Europe for about Three hundred Years past is most diligently to be studied especially by Persons of Quality and such as are to make any figure in the State or Design for any public Employmt. I have heard some quote Alexander and Cæsar who knew very little of Gustavus Adolphus or William of Orange, and were acquainted rather with Thomyris and Zenobia than with Katharine of Medicis, or Queen Elizabeth. They can dispute if there were four Gordions in Rome without being very well assured there were as many Henrys in France. As to Antient History it may be remarked that you find Letters and Orations not Genuine, which tell You not what the Persons spake or wrote but what the Historian fancys they should have done. The Politicians, Soldiers and Women in Tacitus make observations and turn Sentences alike, and all Livys Heroes Harangue in the same Style. Julius Cæsar commonly esteemed so happy in that he had a Pen able to grave in neat Language what his Sword had first more roughly cut out if rightly examined may be censured on this head, for he who for the Credit of his own Wit makes the most bar
barous People speak in a Style much better than they could possibly have, may for the honor of his Conquests make them light in an other manner than they really did. But in Modern History it is otherwise. These sort of Memoires are proved to be Authentic, and give You the very Pictures of their minds in whose Name they were Published, or at least such an Idea as you may conceive to be just. Who ever reads the Apology of William the first of Orange, whom I just now Quoted, will find a Patriot determined, Valiant and Great. Who ever peruses the Conferences and Declarations of King Charles the First will presently acknowledge a Prince just and Pious Tenacious of his own Right but with great regard to the good and safety of his People: Pieces of this kind give You as infallibly an Idea of the Situation of Mind and Circumstance of Fortune of the Person you read of as an Original Drawing will show You the hand of any Painter. It can hardely be Counterfeited the by a better hand, nay even as to Minors and Weak Princes the it cannot be supposed that they write their own Letters there may be found a likeness of their Thought from the better Draught that their Ministers have given of it.

  Again the Customes and Maximes of the Greeks and Romans are so different from those of the present Nations and Times, that the we may be thought more Learned we are not in proportion so fully instructed from these as from more Modern Authors, and they are only usefull as compared to what is nearer Us, and as to Quoting History the greatest Care imaginable is to be taken that the Story be proper to the Subject upon which it was introduced, In this some have a peculiar happyness, and others often Miscarry therefore every Man is to Consult his own Tallent avoiding long Stories and especially Tautology.

  Of History in general, Chronology is the very life and Quintisence, the rest without it is but a Rope of Sand, A Tale of a Tub, where any Writer has failed in it his whole Book has been Condemned, and where any Speaker is not guided by it, his Discourse will not be minded. Medals are again a help to Chronology, but the scarsity and expence of good Ones make it difficult for any Man less than a Prince to possess such a Series of them as shal be of real use to him. For, here I make the greatest difference imaginable between Study and Curiosity since one is to profit the Mind the t’other to please the £ye. The Gentleman who likes Medals very well will always be desirous to possess the best of them, and the Antiquary or Vertuose will be sure to top false ones upon him, besides that too much Money may be spent in the Acquisition, too much time may be spent in the contemplation of them. Medals as to reading are what Counters are to Cards, You may contemplate the Figures upon them while you neglect going on with your Game. Monsieur Spanheim one of the greatest Antiquaries and Scholars of the last Centuary had no other Medals but those printed in Series and Books but I stil restrain this Curiosity rather than condemn it.

  The antient Poets are more looked into, and oftner quoted than the Historians, the Mythology of their Religion, and the Morality as well as the beauty of their Ideas continuing always the same. Our Judgment as well as our fancy is engaged in favor of Poets, we are taught it very young, and finding when we come into the World that it meets with Universal approbation, as we have learned it from our Fathers we study it our selves, and deliver it to our Children by a kind of Tradition, but here we must take special care for it is easier to play the Pedant by way of Quotation in Poetry then in Prose: There are a hundred scraps of Verses which for above twice as many Years People have successively quoted, and by often hearing them every body are tired of, these are absolutely to be rejected, as are likewise all common Place Jests or observations in prose, they ought never to be used except they give a greater force to the argument you would maintain, or a new turn to the thought you would express: Then indeed the commoness of the Quotation is so far from taking off that it adds to the Lustre of the Discourse.

  The Italian and Spanish Writers have quoted with great Success, but where they have made bold with Passages in Holy Scripture which indeed is too frequently they are not to be Imitated. The French and the English in the Choice of their Texts as well as in the body of their Sermons and discourses have done Justice to the Writers of the Bible, who besides the Truth & Loftiness of their Thought have really more Wit than any People who have lived since. Amongst the French the Jesuits have Excelled in this; And amongst our English writers the Author of the whole Duty of Man, and of those books that pass under his Name, some now living as Dr. Atterbury, Smaldridge, Gastrel, have placed Texts of Scripture as advantagiously as expert Jewellers would set precious Stones: Without degrading from others, I think this Nicety of Judgment particularly eminent: Those bred at Westminster Schole and rained probably from their being used very Young to what Dr. Sprat calls the Genius of that place which is to Verses made Extempore, and Declamations composed in very few hours, in which sort of Exercises when Children they take from whence so ever they can, which when Men they repay with great Interest from the abundance of their own Thought thus Exercised, improved and Dilated.

  As I have said You must be sure to Quote with justness or you will be insipid, you may quote with freedom in matters of Panygeric but with great reserve in those of Satyr. Your saying is an inscription engraven round an Insense Pot, but a bloody Letter if bound to an Arrow. In the first case your bon mot will be praised for the present and in some time forgot, but [the] ill Nature of Men will help their Memory, and the reflection being conveyed in the Sentence already known the Sarcasm may happen to remain much longer than either He on whom it was spoken, or he who spake it may Desire.

  What ever you read you must so observe and digest as to form from it in speaking especially in your own Language a Stile close, distinct and familiar, and in your writing easy and Civil. How many do I know who have read a great deal, and can scarse finish one intelligible Sentence, many have talked to me of Demosthenes’ Orations and Tullys Epistles who tell You but very sadly in the beginning of their Letter that they are in health or at the end of it that they are your humble Servant. The First of the first and Second of the second, Namely, Thirdly, and Lastly &c. Of the Divines, and the under favor and with submission to better Judgments, and pray spare me one word &ca of the Lawyers. In short all cant of Words of any Profession must be avoided. Artis est celare artem is in this case a true Maxim, your hiding Your Method gives the greatest beauty to it. A plain free Polite gentile Style, must with the greatest Industry be acquired and fixed, for every Man is obliged to Speak and Write Prose, As to Poetry I mean the writing of Verses it is another thing: I would advise no Man to attempt it except he cannot help it, and if he cannot it is in Vain to diswade him from it. This Genius is perceived so soon even in our Childhood, and increases so strongly in our Youth, that he who has it will never be brought from it, do what you will: Cowley felt it at Ten Years old, and Waller could not get rid of it at Sixty. Poet a Morietur may be said as truly as Poeta Nascitur. The greatest care imaginable must be taken of Those who have this particular bent of Thought, they must begin soon and continue long in the course of some severer Studies. As to my own part I found this impulse very soon, and shal continue to feel it as long as I can think, I remember nothing further in life than that I made Verses, I chose Guy of Warwick for my first Hero and killed Colborn the Gyant before I was big enough for Westminster Schole, But I had two Accidents in Youth which hindered me from being quite possessed with the Muse: I was bred in a College where Prose was more in fashion than Verse, and as soon as I had taken my first Degree was sent the Kings Secretary to the Hague: There I had enough to do in Studying French and Dutch and altering my Terentian and Virgilian Style into that of Articles Conventions and Memorials: So that Poetry wch by the bent of my Mind might have become the Business of my life, was by the happyness of my Education only the Amusement of it: And in this too having the prospect of some little Fortune to be made, and friendship to be Cultivated with the great Men. I did not launch much out into Satyr, which however agreable for the present to the Writers or Incouragers of it does in time do neither of them good considering the Uncertainty of Fortune, and the various change of Ministry, where every Man as
he resents may Punish in his turn of greatness, & that in England a Man is less safe as to Politicks than he is in a Bark upon the Coast in regard to the Change of the Wind, and the danger of Shipwreck.

  Wit in Conversation, which is easier perceived when one hears it then explained by any Diffinition, depend[s] upon the Support of great stock and Plentiful Variety of reading, without which what ever a Mans humor may be his thought will not be sufficiently various and Plentiful, his catching in Discourse upon a Subject which he understands will be too easily perceived, and one shal almost know what he would say before he begins to speak, his Jest will be, if I may so express it, too Identical, he will endeavor to turn every thing into his own way, as those who have not a sufficient plenty of Water bring every Brook to their own Canal. Villiers Duke of Buckingham was too much enclined to Burlesque, Sr. Fleetwood Shepherd ran too much into Romance and Improbability, and the late Earl of Ranelagh in Quibble and Banter, Yet each of these Three had a great deal of Wit, and if They had had more Study than generally a Court life allows as their Ideas would have been more numerous their Wit would have been more perfect. The late Earl of Dorset was indeed a great Exception to this Rule for he had Thoughts which no Book could lend him, and a way of Expressing them which no Man ever knew to prescribe. One general rule is that Wit what ever share a Man has Naturally of it, or however he may have Fortifyed it by reading, it should be used as a Shield rather than a Sword to defend your self but not to wound another. However this sort of Warfare has sometimes been necessary as the World is at present Ordered, especially in Public Assemblies in our Parliaments and even amongst our Divines in Convocation, when a Man sees a blow coming he is actually obliged to prevent it by striking first for if he deferred the stroke it will be too late to strike at all. In this case no rule is to be given to your Eloquence more than to your Valour in the Field, You must ward Cautiously and strike boldly, and as Poet Bays sayd of his Rant if it is not Civil egad it must be Sublime. But in ordinary Conversation it is a very low Character to be as Witty as you can, many like the thing but few Esteem the Person, and if a Man is thought to have so much Wit that his good Nature begins to be called in Question, in my Opinion he has made but a sad Bargain by the Exchange. I knew one Man, and never but One, who had this Talent of Railary in so particular a manner that while he said things severe enough he rather Surprised than hurt the Person he Assailed and brought himself always off so with the mention of some greater Merit to compensate the Foible he Attacked in the same Person that by a turn imperceptible his Satyrs slid into Panygeric, which appeared the finer as it seemed less meant; But this is a perfection so hard to Attain, and a thing so Clumsey if a Man aims at and misses it, that it is safer and better not to Attempt it.