PRINZENRAUB 



PRIOR 



415 



have been brought to their present degree of per- 

 fection, that they give far superior results to those 

 from presses their impression is stronger, more 

 solid, and more uniform, and the sheets can he 

 laid on them with a precision unattainable with 

 hand-presses. Paper is not now made spongy and 

 stretcnable by being wetted, and the result of 

 working it dry is that the type is brought up with 

 greater brightness, and the delicate lines of engrav- 

 ings are printed finer, clearer, and cleaner. Im- 

 provements in ink-making have much conduced to 

 this desirable result. Paper has been produced for 

 book-printing with a specially prepared surface, 

 which admits of a far more excellent impression 

 than that formerly procurable. The soft Blanket 

 has been discarded, and the packing or covering of 

 the cylinder is now generally as hard as it can be 

 got. The aggregate results of these alterations 

 may be seen oy a comparison of the present issues 

 of an illustrated newspaper with those of fifty 

 years ago. Up to about 1840 there was actually 

 no press strong enough to properly print a woodcut 

 of 48 square inches in su|>erficies ; now, woodcuts of 

 2000 square inches, or 50 inches by 40, are printed 

 in the most perfect manner. The coloured supple- 

 ments of the pictorial journals are often admirable 

 reproductions of works of high art : it is within the 

 memory of persons of middle age that the first 

 crude attempts were made to print such pictures. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY. Historical: In addition to the works 

 referred to in the text may be mentioned Karl Faul- 

 mann, Illuttrierte Gtschichte der Buchdruckerkunst 

 (Vienna, 1882), his Die Erfindung der Buchd. nach der 

 ntuatrn Fortchungen ( Vienna, 1891 ) ; Theo. de Vinne, 

 The Invention nf Printing ( New York, 1877); and Van 

 der Linde, Getehifhte der Erfindung der Buchd. (3 vols. 

 Berlin, 1886). There is no complete history of printing 

 t> the English language, but in Bigmore and Wyman's 

 Bibliography of Printing (3 vols. 1880-86) some of the 

 most useful books will be found under the names of Ames, 

 Arber. Blades, Dibdin, Herbert, Hansard, Humphreys, 

 Hessels, Luokomhe, Ottley, T. B. Keed, Sotheby, Tim- 

 perley, and Watson. 



frnrliral. Southward, Practical Printing (2 vols. 3d 

 ed. 1887), and Printing Machine* and Machine Printing 

 (1888); Waldow, Illuitrierte EncylclopoMe der Oraph- 

 itchrn Kunite ( Leip. 1884 ) ; Desormes, Notion* de 

 Tttpmtraphie (Paris. 1888); F. J. F. Wilson, Printing 

 Machine, (3d ed. 1885) ; F. J. Jacobi, Printing (1890); 

 The American Dictionary of Printing and Bookmtikiny 

 ( 1891-94 ) ; Ringwalt, A merican JSnciKlop&dia of Printing 

 (New York, 1871). Besides, a multitude of small yet 

 useful books have been written on separate branches, and 

 for the use of professional students of the art. See also 

 the articles BIBLIA PAUPERUM, BOOK, BOOK-CLUB, ILLUS- 

 TRATION OF BOOKS, LITHOGRAPHY, PAPER, PRESS 

 (FREEDOM OF THE), PROOFS, STEREOTYPING, TYPES. 



Prinzenraub. See ALTENBURG. 

 Prior. See MONASTERY. 



Prior, MATTHEW, was lx>rn 21st July 1664. 

 Some doubt prevails as to his birthplace ; but the 

 bulk of the evidence points to Wimborne Minster 

 in East Dorset. His father is said to have been a 

 joiner, who, coming to London, probably to educate 

 Ins son, took up his abode in Stephen's Alley, West- 

 minster. Young Prior went to Westminster School, 

 then under the redoubtable Dr Busby. His father 

 died, and, liix mother being unable to pay his school- 

 fees, he fell into the care of his uncle, a vintner in 

 Channel ( now Cannon ) Kow, who took him into 

 the bar to keep accounts. Here his familiarity with 

 Horace and Ovid attracted the attention of Charles, 

 Earl of Dorset, and other visitors to the Rhenish 

 Wine House, with the result that he returned to 

 Westminster, his uncle finding him in clothes, and 

 Dorset in books. At Westminster he formed a life- 

 long friendship with the two sons of the Honourable 

 George Montague, the elder of whom afterwards 

 became Earl of Halifax. In order to follow his 



friends to Cambridge, Prior, against Lord Dorset's 

 wish, accepted a scholarship from the Duchess of 

 Somerset at St John's College. He was admitted 

 Bachelor in 1686, and in the following year wrote 

 with Charles Montague the clever parody of Dryden, 

 entitled The Hind and the Panther transvers'd to 

 the Story of the Country-mouse and the City-mouse, 

 which, according to tradition, greatly annoyed 

 Dryden. In April 1688 Prior obtained a fellowship ; 

 and his composition of the yearly college tribute to 

 the Exeter family, a rhymed excursus upon Exodus, 

 iii. 14, led to his going to Burleigh as tutor to Lord 

 Exeter's sons. Lord Exeter shortly afterwards 

 removed to Italy, and Prior applied ( through Fleet- 

 wood Shepherd) to his former patron Dorset for 

 advancement. He was, being then twenty-six, 

 made secretary to Lord Dursley, afterwards Earl of 

 Berkeley, then going as ambassador to the Hague. 

 In Holland Prior remained some years, finding 

 especial favour with King William. In 1697 he 

 brought over the Articles of Peace at the treaty of 

 Uyswick ; and, after being nominated Secretary of 

 State for Ireland, he was made secretary in 1698 to 

 the Earl of Portland's embassy to France, continuing 

 this office under the Earl of Jersey. In this capacity 

 he found favour both with Anne and Louis XIV. 

 In 1699 he became an under-secretary of state, the 

 university of Cambridge made him an M.A., and 

 he succeeded Locke as commissioner of trade and 

 plantations. In 1701 he entered parliament as 

 member for East Grinstead. Under Anne.he joined 

 the Tories, and in 1711 was employed in the pre- 

 liminaries of the peace of Utrecht, going to Paris 

 as ambassador in the following year. With the 

 queen's death in 1714 came the triumph of the 

 Whig^s, and in 1715 Prior, returning to England, 

 was impeached and imprisoned. In 1717 he was 

 excepted from the Act of Grace, but was, none the 

 less, subsequently discharged. The remainder of 

 his life was passed chiefly at Down-Hall in Essex, 

 a country-house purchased partly with the profits of 

 a subscription edition of his poems and partly with 

 the assistance of his friend Lord Harley, at whose 

 seat of Wimpole he died, 18th September 1721, 

 being then in his fifty-eighth year. He was buried 

 in Westminster Abbey, under a monument decor- 

 ated with his bust by Antoine Coysevox, given to- 

 him by Louis XIV. His portrait was painted by 

 Richardson ( National Portrait Gallery ), by Belle 

 (St John's College), Kneller, Dahl, and others. 



Of Prior's abilities as a diplomatist there are 

 diverse opinions. Pope sneered at them. But 

 BolinghroKe and Swift extolled them ; and it is 

 stated that the archives at Paris show him to have 

 been far abler and more resourceful than is generally 

 supposed. As a poet, in which capacity he is now 

 remembered, lie holds a unique position. Without 

 much real sentiment or humanity, his verses have a 

 wit, a grace, a neatness and a finish, which link 

 him to the lighter Latin poets on the one hand, and 

 to the best French writers of familiar verse on the 

 other. Cowper praised his 'easy jingle,' Thack- 

 eray ' his good sense, his happy easy turns and 

 melody.' He collected his poems, described by 

 himself as consisting of 'Publick Panegyrics, 

 Amorous Odes, Serious Reflexions, or Idle Tales' 

 (many of which had been contributed to Dryden 's 

 and other miscellanies), in 1709, and again, in 

 extended form, in 1718. By this latter issue he 

 made 4000. His more ambitious pieces, Solomon 

 on the Vanity of the World and a paraphrase of 

 the old ballad of the Nut Brown Maid, are not 

 now thought to be his best, although they had con- 

 siderable popularity with the readers of the 18th 

 century. But a third lonjj poem, Alma; or, the 

 Progress of the Mind, an imitation of Butler, is 

 full of wit and waywardness. His Tales resemble 

 the French contes too much in their objectionable 



