Oxford English Classics.

DR. JOHNSON'S WORKS.

LIVES OF THE POETS.

VOL. II.

THE

WORKS

OF

SAMUEL JOHNSON, LL.D.

IN NINE VOLUMES.

VOLUME THE EIGHTH.

OXFORD,

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

MDCCCXXV.

CONTENTS OF THE EIGHTH VOLUME
LIVES OF THE POETS.

[Transcriber’s Note: This “CONTENTS OF THE EIGHTH VOLUME” list of poets was not present in the original text.]

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