Page:The lives of the poets of Great Britain and Ireland to the time of Dean Swift - Volume 4.djvu/54

44 fellow in the houſe, who is able to ſet us all right: upon which he named Prior, who was immediately ſent for, and deſired to give his opinion of Horace’s meaning in the Ode under conſideration; this he did with great modeſty, and ſo much to the ſatisfaction of the company, that the earl of Dorſet, from that moment, determined to remove him from the ſtation in which he was, to one more ſuited to his genius; and accordingly procured him to be ſent to St. John’s College in Cambridge, where he took his degree in 1686, and afterwards became fellow of the College.

During his reſidence in the univerſity, he contracted an intimate friendſhip with Charles Montague, eſq; afterwards earl of Hallifax, in conjunction with whom he wrote a very humorous piece, entitled The Hind and Panther tranſverſed to the ſtory of the Country Mouſe, and the City Mouſe, printed 1687 in 4to. in anſwer to Mr. Dryden’s Hind and the Panther, publiſhed the year before.

Upon the revolution Mr. Prior was brought to court by his great patron the earl of Dorſet, by whoſe intereſt he was introduced to public employment, and in the year 1690 was made ſecretary to the earl of Berkley, plenipotentiary to King William and Queen Mary at the Congreſs at the Hague.

In this ſtation he acquitted himſelf ſo well, that he was afterwards appointed ſecretary to the earls of Pembroke, and Jerſey, and Sir Joſeph Williamſon, ambaſſadors, and plenipotentiaries, at the treaty of Ryſwick 1697, as he was likewiſe in 1698 to the earl of Portland, ambaſſador to the court of France. While he was in that kingdom, one of the officers of the French King’s houſhold, ſhewing him the royal apartments, and curioſities at Verſailles,