BOYSE, Boys, or Bois, John, one of the translators of the Bible in the reign of James I. was son of William Bois, rector of West Stowe, near St Edmundsbury, Suffolk, and born at Nettlestead in Suffolk on the 3d of January 1560. He was taught the first rudiments of learning by his father; and his capacity was such, that at the age of five li£ was able, it is said, to read the Bible in Hebrew. He went afterwards to Hadley school; and at fourteen was admitted of St John’s College, Cambridge, where he distinguished himself by his skill in Greek. Happening to catch the small-pox when he was elected fellow, he caused himself to be carried for admission in blankets, in order to preserve his seniority. He applied himself for some time to the study of medicine; but, fancying himself affected with every disease he read of, he quitted that science. He was during ten years principal Greek lecturer in his college, and read every day. He voluntarily read a Greek lecture for some years at four in the morning, in his own chamber, which was frequented by many of the fellows. On the death of his father, he succeeded to the rectory of West Stowe. At the age of thirty-six he married the daughter of Mr Holt, rector of Buxworth, in Cambridge-shire, whom he succeeded in that living in October 1596. On his quitting the university, the college gave him L.100. But his young wife, who had been bequeathed to him with the living, which was an advowson, having proved a bad economist, and he himself being wholly addicted to his studies, he soon became so much involved in debt that he was obliged to sell his choice collection of books, consisting of almost every Greek author then extant. When a new translation of the Bible was directed to be made, Mr Bois was elected one of the Cambridge translators. He performed not only his own, but also the part assigned to another, with great reputation. He was also one of the six who had met at Stationers’ Hall to revise the whole; which task they performed in nine months, having each, from the company of stationers, during that time, thirty shillings a week. He afterwards assisted Sir Henry Savile in publishing the works of St Crysostom. In 1615 Dr Lancelot Andrews, bishop of Ely, bestowed on him, unasked, the prebend in his church. He died on the 14th of January 1643, in the eighty-fourth year of his age, and left a great many manuscripts behind him, particularly a Commentary on almost all the books of the New Testament. When Bois was a young student at Cambridge, he received from the learned Dr Whitaker three rules for avoiding those distempers which usually attend a sedentary life, to which he adhered with equal constancy and success. The first was, To study always standing; the second, Never to study in a window; and the third, Never to go to bed with his feet cold.

Boyse, Samuel, a man remarkable for the fineness of his genius, the lowness of his manners, and the wretchedness of his life. He was born in 1708, and received the rudiments of his education at a private school in Dublin. When he was but eighteen years old, his father, a non-conformist clergyman, sent him to the university of Glasgow, that he might finish his education there. But he had not been a year at the university, when he fell in love with the daughter of a tradesman in that city, and was imprudent enough to interrupt his education by marrying her before he had entered into his twentieth year. The natural extravagance of his temper soon exposed him to want; and as he had now the additional charge of a wife, his reduced circumstances obliged him to quit the university, and go over with his wife (who also carried a sister along with her) to Dublin, where they relied on the old clergyman for support. Young Boyse was of all men the farthest removed from the character of gentleman. He had no graces of person, and still fewer of manners or conversation. Never were three people of more libertine habits than young Boyse, his wife, and his sister-in-law; yet the two women wore such amaskof decency before the old non-conformist gentleman, that his fondness was never abated. The estate which he possessed in Yorkshire was sold to discharge his son’s debts; and his means were utterly wasted, so that, when seized with his last sickness, he was entirely supported by presents from his congregation, and at length buried at their expense. We have no further account of Boyse till we find him soon after his father’s death at Edinburgh. At this place his poetical genius raised him many friends, and some patrons of eminence. He published a volume of poems in 1731, to which are subjoined 7‰ Tablature of Cebes, and A Letter upon Liberty, inserted in the Dublin Journal, 1726, by which he obtained considerable reputation. These poems arc addressed to the Countess of Eglintoun. This amiable lady was the patroness of all men of wit, and greatly distinguished Boyse [7:5:169] while he resided in Scotland. Upon the death of the Viscountess Stormont, Boyse wrote an elegy, which was much applauded by her ladyship’s relations. This elegy he entitled The Tears of the Muses, as the deceased lady was a woman of the most refined taste in the sciences, and a great admirer of poetry. The Lord Stormont was so much pleased with this mark of attention paid to the memory of his lady, that he ordered a handsome present to be o∙iven to Boyse by his attorney at Edinburgh. The notice which Lady Eglintoun and the Lord Stormont took of our poet recommended him likewise to the patronage of the Duchess of Gordon, who was so solicitous to raise him above necessity, that she employed her interest in procuring the promise of a place for him. She gave him a letter, which he was next day to deliver to one of the commissioners of the customs at Edinburgh. But it happened that he was then some miles distant from the city; and th< ’)t the morning on which he was to have proceeded to town with her Grace’s letter of recommendation proved rainy. This slender circumstance was enough to discourage Boyse, who never looked beyond the present moment. He declined going to town on account of the rainy weather; and thus letting 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 Duchess of Gordon. Having defeated all the kind intentions of his patrons towards him, Boyse at last fell into contempt and poverty, which obliged him to quit Edinburgh. He cointnunicated his design of going to London to the Duchess of Gordon, who, having still a high opinion of his poetical abilities, gave him a letter of recommendation to Mr Pope, and obtained another for him to Sir Peter King, the lord chancellor of England. Lord Stormont recommended him to the solicitor general his brother, and many other persons of the first fashion. Upon receiving these letters he quitted Edinburgh with great caution, despised by all, and regretted by none but his creditors. Upon his arrival in London, he went to Twickenham in order to deliver the Duchess of Gordon’s letter to Mr Pope; but that gentleman not being at home, Mr Boyse never gave himself the trouble to repeat his visit. He wrote poems; but these, though possessing some intrinsic merit, were lost to the world, by being introduced with no advantage. He had so great a propensity to low company, that his acquaintance were generally of such a cast as could be of no service to him; and those in higher life he addressed by letters, not having sufficient breeding or common good manners to converse familiarly with them. Thus unfit to support himself in the world, he was exposed to a variety of distresses, from which he could invent no means of extricating himself except by writing mendicant letters. Yet this man, of so abject a spirit, was voluptuous and luxurious; he had no taste for any thing elegant, but was to the last degree expensive. Often when he had received a guinea in consequence of a supplicating letter, he would go into a tavern, order a supper to be prepared, drink of the richest wines, and spend all the money that had just been given him in charity, without having any one to participate the regale with him, and whilst his wife and child were starving at home.

About the year 1740, Boyse, reduced to the last extremity of human wretchedness, had not a shirt, a coat, nor any kind of apparel, to put on; the sheets in which he lay were carried to the pawn-broker’s, and he was obliged to be confined to his bed with no other covering than a blanket. He had little support except what he got by writing letters in the most abject style; and he remained for six weeks in the situation we have described. During this time he had some employment in writing verses for the Magazines. PIe sat up in bed with the blanket wrapt about him, through which he had cut a hole large enough to admit his arm, and placing the paper upon his knee, scribbled in the best manner lie could the verses he was obliged to write; whatever he got by these, or by begging letters, being barely sufficient for the preservation of life. And perhaps he would have remained much longer in this distressful condition, had not a compassionate gentleman, upon hearing the circumstance related, ordered his clothes to be taken out of pawn, and enabled him to appear abroad again.

About the year 1745 Boyse’s wife died. He was then at Reading, and pretended much concern when he heard of her death. His business at Reading was to compile a review of the most material transactions at home and abroad during the war; and in this he has included a short account of the rebellion. Upon his return from Reading, his behaviour was more decent than it had ever been before; and hopes were entertained that a reformation, though late, might be wrought upon him. He was employed by a bookseller to translate Fenelon on the Existence of a God; and during the time he was occupied in this he married a second wife, a woman in low circumstances, but well enough suited to his taste. He now began to live with more regard to character, and supported a better appearance than usual; but whilst his circumstances were mending, and his irregular appetites losing their hold, his health visibly declined. While suffering from a lingering illness, he had the satisfaction to observe a poem of his, entitled The Deity, recommended by two writers of very opposite principles and talents, Mr Fielding the novellist, and the Reverend James Harvey, author of The Meditations.

Boyse’s mind was often religiously disposed; he frequently talked upon this subject, and probably suffered a great deal from remorse of conscience. The early impressions of his education were never entirely obliterated; and his whole life was a continued struggle between his reason and his passions, as he was always violating the dictates of the one, while he fell under the dominion of the other. It was in consequence of this war in his mind that he wrote his poem entitled The Recantation. In May 1749 he died in obscure lodgings near Shoe-lane, under the influence, it is believed, of sentiments very different from those in which he had spent the greater part of his life. An old acquaintance of his endeavoured to collect money to defray the expenses of his funeral, and spare his remains the dishonour of being buried by the parish; but his efforts were vain, and the corpse of this son of the Muses was, with very little ceremony, hurried away by the parish-officers.

Never was a life spent with less grace than that of Boyse, and never were good abilities given to less purpose. His genius was not confined to poetry alone. He had a taste for painting, music, and heraldry; with the last of which he was very well acquainted. His poetical pieces, if collected, would form six moderate volumes. Many of them are scattered in The Gentleman s Magazine, marked with the letter Y, and the signature Akens. Two volumes were published in London. Anode of his in the manner of Spenser, entitled The Olive, was addressed to Sir Robert Walpole, which procured him a present of ten guineas. He translated a poem from the High Dutch of Van Haren, in praise of peace, upon the conclusion of that of Aix-la-Chapelle; but the poem which procured him the greatest reputation was that upon the attributes of the Deity. He was employed by Mr Ogle to translate some of Chaucer’s tales into modern English, which he executed with great spirit, and received at the rate of threepence a line for his, trouble. Mr Ogle published a [7:5:170]complete edition of Canterbury Tales modernized', and Boyse’s name is put to such tales as were done by him. In 1743 Boyse published, without his name, an ode on the battle of Dettingen, entitled Albion’s Triumph.