The Works of Samuel Johnson, LL.D. in Nine Volumes, Volume 08

Being, however, generally known and esteemed, he was encouraged to add other poems to those which he had printed, and to publish them by subscription. The expedient succeeded by the industry of many friends, who circulated the proposals[7 - Swift obtained many subscriptions for him in Ireland. II.], and the care of some, who, it is said, withheld the money from him, lest he should squander it. The price of the volume was two guineas; the whole collection was four thousand; to which lord Harley, the son of the earl of Oxford, to whom he had invariably adhered, added an equal sum for the purchase of Downhall, which Prior was to enjoy during life, and Harley after his decease.

He had now, what wits and philosophers have often wished, the power of passing the day in contemplative tranquillity. But it seems that busy men seldom live long in a state of quiet. It is not unlikely that his health declined. He complains of deafness; “for,” says he, “I took little care of my ears while I was not sure if my head was my own.”

Of any occurrences in his remaining life I have found no account. In a letter to Swift, “I have,” says he, “treated lady Harriot at Cambridge, (a fellow of a college treat!) and spoke verses to her in a gown and cap! What, the plenipotentiary, so far concerned in the damned peace at Utrecht! the man that makes up half the volume of terse prose, that makes up the report of the committee, speaking verses! Sic est, homo sum.”

He died at Wimpole, a seat of the earl of Oxford, on the 18th of September, 1721, and was buried in Westminster; where, on a monument, for which, as the “last piece of human vanity,” he left five hundred pounds, is engraven this epitaph:

Sui temporis historiam meditanti,

Paulatim obrepens febris

Operi simul et vitæ filum abrupit,

Sept. 18, An. Dom. 1721. Ætat. 57

H.S.E

Vir eximius

Serenissimis

Regi Gulielmo, reginæque MARIÆ,

In congressione fœderatorum

Hagæ anno 1690 celebrata;

Deinde Magnæ Britanniæ legatis;

Tum iis,

Qui anno 1697 pacem Ryswicki confecerunt;

Tum iis,

Qui apud Gallos annis proximis legationem obierunt;

Eodem etiam anno, 1697, in Hibernia

Secretarius;

Nee non in utroque honorabili consessu

Eorum,

Qui anno 1700 ordinandis commercii negotiis,

Quique anno 1711 dirigendis portorii rebus,

Præsidebant,

Commissionarius;

Postremo

Ab Anna,

Felicissinæ memoriæ regina,

Ad Ludovicum XIV. Galliæ regem

Missus anno 1711

De pace stabilienda,

(Pace etiamnum durante

Diuque ut boni jam omnes sperant duratura)

Cum summa potestate legatus;

MATTHÆUS PRIOR, armiger:

Qui

Hos omnes, quibus cumulatus est, titulos

Humanitatis, ingenii, eruditionis laude

Superavit;

Cui enim nascenti faciles arriserant musæ

Hune puerum schola hie regia perpolivit;

Juvenem in collegio S’ti Johannis

Cantabrigia optimis scientiis instruxit;

Virum denique auxit; et perfecit

Multa cum viris principibus consuetudo;

Ita natus, ita institutus,

A vatum chioro avelli nunquam potuit,

Sed solebat sæpe rerum civilium gravitatem