Collins vs. Prior
When Mr. Lowell was our Minister at the Court of St. James, he made an address on Coleridge, in Westminster Abbey, in the course of which he quoted the following couplet, attributing it to Collins,—
“Abra was with him ere he spoke her name,
And if he called another, Abra came.”
The lines thus incorrectly quoted are by Prior, and will be found in his “Solomon.” The monarch is speaking of a female slave who had a real affection for him,—
“And, when I called another, Abra came.”