Matthew Prior: A Study of his Public Career and Correspondence

by Leopold George Wickham Legg

Overview

Matthew Prior (1664–1721) was a minor poet and diplomat under King William III and subsequently Queen Anne. As an envoy to the Netherlands and France and negotiator of the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713 he had a ringside seat at the European power struggles of his time, while at the same time forging a literary career by publishing poetry and angling for the post of Poet Laureate. Prior's surviving correspondence to his patrons and paymasters is a uniquely witty record of diplomatic life. The first full-length biography of Prior, this book was first published in 1921. Its author, Leopold George Wickham Legg, was an editor of the Dictionary of National Biography. The appendixes include detailed information about Prior's family background and transcriptions of some of his surviving letters and a diary from 1712.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781108015905
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	09/30/2010
Series:	Cambridge Library Collection - Literary Studies
Pages:	366
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 1.10(d)

Table of Contents

Preface; Titles of books referred to; 1. Youth and education; 2. Apprenticeship at the Hague; 3. The Peace of Ryswick; 4. The embassy at Paris; 5. The embassy at Paris; 6. The Irish Secretaryship and Parliament; 7. The commission of trade and the feud with the Duchess of Marlborough; 8. 'Mat's Peace'; 9. Paris once more; 10. The last year of Queen Anne; 11. The years of trouble; 12. Last years and death; Appendixes; Biographical notes; Index.