When he had signed the paper, he was told by Walpole, that the committee were not satisfied with his behaviour, nor could give such an account of it to the commons as might merit favour; and that they now thought a stricter confinement necessary than to his own house. Here, says he, Boscawen played the moralist, and Coningsby the Christian, but both very awkwardly. The messenger, in whose custody he was to be placed, was then called, and very decently asked by Coningsby, if his house was secured by bars and bolts? The messenger answered, No, with astonishment. At which Coningsby very angrily said, Sir, you must secure this prisoner; it is for the safety of the nation: if he escape, you shall answer for it.
They had already printed their report; and in this examination were endeavouring to find proofs.
He continued thus confined for some time; and Mr. Walpole, June 10, 1715, moved for an impeachment against him. What made him so acrimonious does not appear: he was by nature no thirster for blood. Prior was, a week after, committed to close custody, with orders that no person should be admitted to see him without leave from the speaker.
When, two years after, an act of grace was passed, he was excepted, and continued still in custody, which he had made less tedious by writing his Alma. He was, however, soon after discharged.
He had now his liberty, but he had nothing else. Whatever the profit of his employments might have been, he had always spent it; and, at the age of fifty-three, was, with all his abilities, in danger of penury, having yet no solid revenue but from the fellowship of his college, which, when in his exaltation he was censured for retaining it, he said, he could live upon at last.
Being, however, generally known and esteemed, he was encouraged to add other poems to those which he had printed, and to publish them by subscription. The expedient succeeded by the industry of many friends, who circulated the proposals7, and the care of some, who, it is said, withheld the money from him, lest he should squander it. The price of the volume was two guineas; the whole collection was four thousand; to which lord Harley, the son of the earl of Oxford, to whom he had invariably adhered, added an equal sum for the purchase of Downhall, which Prior was to enjoy during life, and Harley after his decease.
He had now, what wits and philosophers have often wished, the power of passing the day in contemplative tranquillity. But it seems that busy men seldom live long in a state of quiet. It is not unlikely that his health declined. He complains of deafness; for, says he, I took little care of my ears while I was not sure if my head was my own.
Of any occurrences in his remaining life I have found no account. In a letter to Swift, I have, says he, treated lady Harriot at Cambridge, (a fellow of a college treat!) and spoke verses to her in a gown and cap! What, the plenipotentiary, so far concerned in the damned peace at Utrecht! the man that makes up half the volume of terse prose, that makes up the report of the committee, speaking verses! Sic est, homo sum.
He died at Wimpole, a seat of the earl of Oxford, on the 18th of September, 1721, and was buried in Westminster; where, on a monument, for which, as the last piece of human vanity, he left five hundred pounds, is engraven this epitaph:
Sui temporis historiam meditanti,Paulatim obrepens febrisOperi simul et vitæ filum abrupit,Sept. 18, An. Dom. 1721. Ætat. 57H.S.EVir eximiusSerenissimisRegi Gulielmo, reginæque MARIÆ,In congressione fœderatorumHagæ anno 1690 celebrata;Deinde Magnæ Britanniæ legatis;Tum iis,Qui anno 1697 pacem Ryswicki confecerunt;Tum iis,Qui apud Gallos annis proximis legationem obierunt;Eodem etiam anno, 1697, in HiberniaSecretarius;Nee non in utroque honorabili consessuEorum,Qui anno 1700 ordinandis commercii negotiis,Quique anno 1711 dirigendis portorii rebus,Præsidebant,Commissionarius;PostremoAb Anna,Felicissinæ memoriæ regina,Ad Ludovicum XIV. Galliæ regemMissus anno 1711De pace stabilienda,(Pace etiamnum duranteDiuque ut boni jam omnes sperant duratura)Cum summa potestate legatus;MATTHÆUS PRIOR, armiger:QuiHos omnes, quibus cumulatus est, titulosHumanitatis, ingenii, eruditionis laudeSuperavit;Cui enim nascenti faciles arriserant musæHune puerum schola hie regia perpolivit;Juvenem in collegio Sti JohannisCantabrigia optimis scientiis instruxit;Virum denique auxit; et perfecitMulta cum viris principibus consuetudo;Ita natus, ita institutus,A vatum chioro avelli nunquam potuit,Sed solebat sæpe rerum civilium gravitatemAmœniorum literarum studiis condire:Et cum omne adeo poetices genusHaud infeliciter tentaret,Tum in fabellis concinne lepideque texendisMirus artifexNeminem habuit paremHæc liberalis animi oblectamenta,Quam nullo illi labore constiterint,Facile ii perspexere, quibus usus est amici;Apud quos urbanitatum et leporum plenusCum ad rem, quæcunque forte inciderat,Apte varie copioseque alluderet,Interea nihil quæsitum, nihil vi expressumVidebatur,Sed omnia ultro effluere,Et quasi jugi e fonte afiatim exuberare,Ita suos tandem dubios reliquit,Essetue in scriptis, poeta elegantior,An in convictu comes jucundiorOf Prior, eminent as he was, both by his abilities and station, very few memorials have been left by his contemporaries; the account, therefore, must now be destitute of his private character and familiar practices. He lived at a time when the rage of party detected all which it was any mans interest to hide; and, as little ill is heard of Prior, it is certain that not much was known. He was not afraid of provoking censure; for, when he forsook the whigs8 under whose patronage he first entered the world, he became a tory, so ardent and determinate, that he did not willingly consort with men of different opinions. He was one of the sixteen tories who met weekly, and agreed to address each other by the title of brother; and seems to have adhered, not only by concurrence of political designs, but by peculiar affection, to the earl of Oxford and his family. With how much confidence he was trusted has been already told.
He was, however, in Popes9 opinion, fit only to make verses, and less qualified for business than Addison himself. This was, surely, said without consideration. Addison, exalted to a high place, was forced into degradation by the sense of his own incapacity; Prior, who was employed by men very capable of estimating his value, having been secretary to one embassy, had, when great abilities were again wanted, the same office another time; and was, after so much experience of his knowledge and dexterity, at last sent to transact a negotiation in the highest degree arduous and important; for which he was qualified, among other requisites, in the opinion of Bolingbroke, by his influence upon the French minister, and by skill in questions of commerce above other men.