"Prior's 'Pritty Spanish Conceit'," in Modern Language Notes, Vol. 87, No. 6, November, 1972, pp. 3-11.

In the following essay, Fellows posits a Spanish source for a poetical concept developed in Prior's Alma.

"Dediti ventri et turpissimae parti corporis"
 (Sallust, Bellum Jugurthinum, Chapter 85)

Matthew Prior's ancestors were, for the most part, farm laborers. His father, however, was a carpenter, and his uncle a prosperous tavern keeper. Upon his father's death, the uncle took young Matthew into his employ as a waiter at the Rhenish Wine Tavern. There the earl of Dorset discovered the boy trying to read Horace. Impressed with the youth's knowledge of Latin and his ready wit, Dorset became his patron and sent him first to Westminster for formal schooling. By the time he received the degree of Bachelor of Arts at Cambridge in 1686, Prior had grown into a tall, thin young man with considerable poise whose bony features...