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Title: The Works of Samuel Johnson, LL.D. in Nine Volumes
Volume the Eighth: The Lives of the Poets, Volume II

Author: Samuel Johnson

Release Date: January 8, 2008 [EBook #24218]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LIVES OF THE POETS, VOL II ***

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THE
WORKS
OF
SAMUEL JOHNSON, LL.D.

IN NINE VOLUMES.

VOLUME THE EIGHTH.

[Illustration]

OXFORD,
PUBLISHED BY TALBOYS AND WHEELER;
AND W. PICKERING, LONDON.
MDCCCXXV.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

CONTENTS OF THE EIGHTH VOLUME

THE LIVES OF THE ENGLISH POETS.

Prior
Congreve
Blackmore
Fenton
Gay
Granville
Yalden
Tickell
Hammond
Somervile
Savage
Swift
Broome
Pope
Pitt
Thomson
Watts
A. Philips
West
Collins
Dyer
Shenstone
Young
Mallet
Akenside
Gray
Lyttelton

[Transcriber's Note: "CONTENTS OF THE EIGHTH VOLUME" list of poets
was not present in the original text.]

------------------------------------------------------------------------

PRIOR.

Matthew Prior is one of those that have burst out from an obscure
original to great eminence. He was born July 21, 1664, according to
some, at Winburn, in Dorsetshire, of I know not what parents; others
say, that he was the son of a joiner of London: he was, perhaps, willing
enough to leave his birth unsettled[1], in hope, like Don Quixote, that
the historian of his actions might find him some illustrious alliance.

He is supposed to have fallen, by his father's death, into the hands of
his uncle, a vintner[2], near Charing-cross, who sent him for some time
to Dr. Busby, at Westminster; but, not intending to give him any
education beyond that of the school, took him, when he was well advanced
in literature, to his own house, where the earl of Dorset, celebrated
for patronage of genius, found him by chance, as Burnet relates, reading
Horace, and was so well pleased with his proficiency, that he unde