Matthew Prior

Matthew Prior (1664-1721) was an English poet and diplomatist, born near Wimborne, East Dorset. He studied at Cambridge, became Fellow of Trinity College, and was ambassador to France. He involved himself in an intrigue, for which he was imprisoned, and on his release lived in retirement. He is remembered as a poet. He wrote in 1687 a parody of Dryden's "Hind and Panther," entitled "The Story of the Country Mouse and the City Mouse," and afterwards, "Solomon on the Vanity of the World," "Alma; or, The Progress of the Mind," after Butler, as well as tales, lyrics, and epigrams. Professor Saintsbury calls him "the king of 'verse of society'".

Wisdom & Quote

• The end must justify the means.

- Hans Carvel

• For hope is but the dream of those that wake.

- Solomon

• Cured yesterday of my disease,

I died last night of the physician.
- The Remedy Worse than the Disease

• They never taste who always drink:

They always talk who never think.
- Upon this Passage in the Scaligeriana

John Arbuthnot