Prior
Prior names 2 different subjects across the 6 encyclopedias on this shelf. Each is set out below.
Prior MATTHEW, an English poet
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
MATTHEW, an English poet; born in Wimborne-Minster, England, July 21, 1644; educated at Westminster School and Ca Cambridge. At college he contracted an intimacy with Charles Montagu, afterward Earl of Halifax, with whom, in 1687, he composed the "Country Mouse and City Mouse"-a parody on Dryden's "Hind and Panther." This work brought him fame, and in 1690 he was appointed secretary to the English embassy at The Hague. In 1697 he was nominated secretary to the plenipotentiaries who concluded the Peace of Ryswick, and on his return was made secretary to the lord-lieutenant of Ireland. In 1701 he entered Parliament as a Whig, but soon after changed his politics and joined the Tory party. In 1711 he was employed in secretly negotiating at Paris the terms of the treaty of Utrecht, and he remained in France Vol. VII-Cyc till 1714, at first as secret agent, afterward as ambassador. On the accession of George I., he was kept in custody on a charge of high treason for two years. During his imprisonment he wrote "Alma, or the Progress of the Mind," MATTHEW PRIOR which with his most ambitious work, "Solomon," was published in 1718. He died in Wimpole, Sept. 18, 1721.
Prior a title loosely applied before the 13th century to
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
a title loosely applied before the 13th century to any monk ranking above his fellows. Priors are now of two kinds: conventual and claustral. A conventional prior is the head of a religious house, either independently, as among the Regular Canons, the Carthusians, and the Dominicans, or as superior of a cell or offshoot from some larger monastery. A claustral prior is appointed in houses in which the head is an abbot, to act as superior in the abbot's absence.
What Has Changed in the Last Century
The outline of Prior's life stands, but Collier's 1921 birth date of 1644 is twenty years out: he was born in 1664, which is why he was still a young man when he and Charles Montagu wrote "The Country Mouse and the City Mouse" in 1687 and why he was only 57 when he died at Wimpole in 1721. Taste has moved decisively against the "most ambitious work," the long philosophical poem "Solomon"; Prior is now read almost entirely for his short pieces, the epigrams, songs and familiar verse, along with "Alma." The standard modern edition is the two-volume Literary Works edited by H. Bunker Wright and Monroe Spears (1959), and his diplomatic papers have been worked over by historians of the Utrecht negotiations. On the second entry, nothing has changed: conventual and claustral priors are still distinguished in just these terms, and the Dominicans and Carthusians still elect priors as their superiors.
Written for this edition, 2026.