Beschreibung
Poems on Several Occasions, by Matthew Prior. 1718. First Edition, Large Paper Copy, Printed in London for Jacob Tonson & John Barber. The Volume is in Very Good Condition re-backed, retaining the Cambridge style paneled calf, with the newer spine divided into seven compartments by six raised bands, and with black letter-piece in the second compartment from the top, with board edges gilt-tooled. Externally the boards are lightly scuffed in general, with the corners repaired, and with the spine new. Internally the leaves are generally clean with ample margins, with a repaired tear in the gutter of 3N1, staining at 3P2 to 3Q1, and mild scattered foxing throughout, with some faint toning otherwise. The Volume is Complete in All Respects with Frontispiece. This is a large Paper Subscribers Copy, with the Strasbourg watermark. A few copies were issued on super-fine paper with the Fleur-de-lis watermark. The general issue had the London Arms watermark. The volume is paginated as follows: [xlii], 506, [vi]. The volume collates as follows: [x]1, A, a-c2, d1., e-i2, B-6O2. The volume measures about 46 cm. By 30 cm. By 5.5 cm. Each leaf measures about 445 mm. By 275 mm. Matthew Prior was probably born in Middlesex, 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, however he left school, On his father's death, 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. 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. After his return from France Prior became under-secretary of state and succeeded John Locke as a commissioner of trade. 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." Prior is also known as a contributor to The Examiner newspaper. 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. Prior Visit our website for More Images and/or Binding Spins. Bestandsnummer des Verkäufers ABE-1576513104836
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