THE

LIFE OF BOYSE,

BY MR. CHALMERS.

THE following account of this unhappy poet is taken chiefly from the Lives of the Poets published under the name of Cibber; from the Biographia Britannica; and from the useful notes appended to Mr. Nichols' select Collection of Poems. Some unpublished letters of Boyse in the British Museum have enabled me to correct or coufirm a few particulars in all these authorities.

Samuel Boyse, the only son of Joseph Boyse, a dissenting minister of considerable eminence in Dublin', was born in the year 1708, and after receiving the rudiments of education in a private school in that city, was sent at the age of eighteen to the university of Glasgow. His father's intention was that he might cultivate the studies that are preparatory to entering into the ministry, but before he had resided many mouths at Glasgow, he contracted an attachment for a Miss Atchenson, the daughter of a tradesman in that city, and married her about a year after, probably without the consent of the parents on either side.

By this imprudent match his studies were in some measure interrupted, and his expenses increased. The family of his wife were either unwilling or unable to support their new relation, and he soon found it necessary to repair to Dublin in hopes of receiving assistance from his father. On this expedition he was accompanied by his wife and her sister, but notwithstanding this additional encumbrance, and the general levity of his conduct, his father received him with kindness, and out of the scanty and precarious income which he derived from his congregation by voluntary subscriptions, and from a small estate of eighty pounds a year in Yorkshire, endeavoured to maintain his son, aud to reclaim him to the prosecution of his studies. Tenderness like this, however, which only to mention is to excite gratitude, produced no corresponding effects on our poet, who abandoned his mind and time to dissipation and idleness, without a thought of what he owed to his father or to himself. In this course, too, he was unhappily encouraged by the girl he married, who, while she imposed upon the good old man by a show of decency and even sanctity, became in fact devoid of all shame, and at length shared her

His life is in the Biographia Britannica. C.

favours with other men, and that not without the knowledge of her husband, who is said to have either wanted resolution to resent her infidelity, or was reconciled by a share of the profits of his dishonour. Such a connection and such a mind, at an age when the manly and ingenuous feelings are usually strongest, may easily account for the miseries of his subsequent life.

His father died in the year 1728, and his whole property having been exhausted in the support of his son, the latter repaired in 1730 to Edinburgh, where his poetical genius raised him many friends and some patrons of considerable eminence, particularly the lords Stair, Tweedale, and Stormont, and there is some reason to think that he was occasionally entertained at their houses. In 1731, he published a volume of poems, to which was subjoined a translation of the Tablature of Cebes, and a letter upon Liberty which had been before published in the Dublin Journal. This volume, which was addressed to the countess of Eglinton, a lady of great accomplishments, procured him much reputation. He also wrote an elegy on the viscountess Stormont, entitled, The Tears of the Muses, in compliment to her ladyship's taste as a patroness of poets. Lord Stormont was so much pleased with this mark of respect to the memory of his lady, that he ordered a handsome present to be made to the author, whom, however, it was not easy to find. Such was Boyse's unsocial turn and aversion to decent company, that his person was known only among the lower orders, and lord Stormont's generous intention would have been frustrated, if his agent had not put an advertisement into the papers desiring the author of The Tears of the Muses to call upon him.

By means of lady Eglinton and lord Stormont, Boyse became known to the dutchess of Gordon, who likewise was a person of literary taste, and cultivated the correspondence of some of the most eminent poets of her time. She was so desirous to raise Boyse above necessity, that she employed her interest in procuring the promise of a place for him and accordingly gave him a letter, which he was next day to deliver to one of the commissioners of the Customs at Edinburgh." But it unluckily happened that he was then some miles distant from the city, and the morning on which he was to have ridden to town, with her grace's letter, proved to be rainy. This trivial circumstance was sufficient to discourage Boyse, who was never accustomed to look beyond the present moment; he declined going to town on account of the rainy weather; and while he let slip the opportunity, the place was bestowed upon another, which the commissioner declared he kept for some time vacant, in expectation of seeing a person recommended by the dutchess of Gordon."

Such is the story of this disappointment, in which all Boyse's biographers have acquiesced, although it is not very consistently told. If the commissioner kept the place open for some time, which seems to imply weeks, Boyse might have easily repaired the neglect of not presenting his letter next day; but the truth perhaps was that he disliked the offer of regular employment, and loitered about until he could pretend that it was no longer in his choice. It is certain that this as well as every other kind intention of his patrons in Scotland, were defeated by his perverse conduct, and that he remained at Edinburgh until contempt and poverty were followed by the dread of a jail.

While any project, however, remained of a more advantageous lot, he could still depend on the friends who first noticed him, and he had no sooner communicated his design of going to England, than the dutchess of Gordon gave him a recommendatory letter to Mr. Pope, and obtained another for him to sir Peter King, then lord chancellor. Lord Stormont also recommended him to his brother the solicitor-general, afterwards