ryden_, vol. i, p. 330.

110 "He was to have been in the same commission with the Duke of
Shrewsbury, but that that nobleman," says Johnson, "refused to be
associated with one so meanly born. Prior therefore continued to act
without a title till the duke's return next year to England, and
then he assumed the style and dignity of ambassador."

He had been thinking of slights of this sort when he wrote his
Epitaph:--

Nobles and heralds by your leave,
Here lies what once was Matthew Prior,
The son of Adam and of Eve;
Can Bourbon or Nassau claim higher?

But, in this case, the old prejudice got the better of the old joke.

111 His epigrams have the genuine sparkle:

THE REMEDY WORSE THAN THE DISEASE.

I sent for Radcliff; was so ill,
That other doctors gave me over:
He felt my pulse, prescribed a pill,
And I was likely to recover.

But when the wit began to wheeze,
And wine had warmed the politician,
Cured yesterday of my disease,
I died last night of my physician.

----

Yes, every poet is a fool;
By demonstration Ned can show it;
Happy could Ned's inverted rule
Prove every fool to be a poet.

----

On his death-bed poor Lubin lies,
His spouse is in despair;
With frequent sobs and mutual sighs,
They both express their care.

A different cause, says Parson Sly,
The same effect may give;
Poor Lubin fears that he shall die,
His wife that he may live.

112 PRIOR TO SIR THOMAS HANMER.

"Aug. 4, 1709.

"DEAR SIR,

"Friendship may live, I grant you, without being fed and cherished
by correspondence; but with that additional benefit I am of opinion
it will look more cheerful and thrive better: for in this case, as
in love, though a man is sure of his own constancy, yet his
happiness depends a good deal upon the sentiments of another, and
while you and Chloe are alive, 'tis not enough that I love you both,
except I am sure you both love me again; and as one of her scrawls
fortifies my mind more against affliction than all Epictetus, with
Simplicius's comments into the bargain, so your single letter gave
me more real pleasure than all the works of Plato.... I must return
my answer to your very kind question concerning m