What God, what genius did the pencil fervants gathering and deftroying move, When Kneller painted these ! "Twas friendship, warm as Phoebus, kind as love, And ftrong as Hercules. He was in the right to fupprefs the flowers, Kneller fent him word he must shut up the door.Ratcliffe replied peevishly, "Tell him he may do any thing with it but paint it."" And I, answered Sir Godfrey, can take any thing from him but phyfic." He married Sufannah Cawley, daughter of the minifter of Henley upon Thames. She out-lived him, and was buried at Henley, where are monuments for her and her father. Before his marriage, Sir Godfrey had an intrigue with a Quaker's wife, whom he purchafed of her husband, and had a daughter, whofe portrait he drew like St. Agnes with a lamb; there is a print of it by Smith. Kneller had amaffed a great fortune, though he lived magnificently, and loft 20,0001. in the SouthSea; yet he had an eftate of near 2,0001. a year left.. Part he bequeathed to his wife, and entailed the reft on Godfrey Hockle, his daughter's fon, with orders that he fhould affume the name of Kneller. To three nieces at Hamburgh, the children of his brother he left legacies; and an annuity of 1001. a year to Bing, an old fervant, who, with his brother, had been his affiftants. Of thefe he had many, you, as may be concluded from the quantity of his works, and the badness of so choofe your place." His wit was many. His chief performers were, ready; his bon mots defervedly admired, In Great Queen-ftreet he lived next door to Dr. Ratcliffe; Kneller was fond of flowers, and had a fine collection. As there was a great intimacy between him and the phyfician, he permitted the latter to have a door into his garden; but Ratcliffe's Pieter, Vander, Roer, and Bak- Kneller frequently drew his own portrait; my father had one, a head when young, and a small F 3 one one of the fame age very mafter. Account of the life of Mr. Samuel ly; it is now mine. It was engraved by Becket. Another in a wig; by Smith. A half-length fent to the Tufcan gallery. A half-length in a brocaded waiftcoat with his gold chain; there is a mezzotinto of it adjoined to the Kit-cat-heads. Another head with a cap; a half-length prefented to the gallery at Oxford, and a double piece of himfelf and his wife. Great numbers of his works have been engraved, particularly by Smith, who has done more than justice to them; the draperies are preferable to the originals. The first print taken from his works was by White, of Charles II. He had an hiftoric piece of his own painting before ⚫ he went to Italy, Tobit, and the angel. At his feat at Witton were many of his own works, fold fome years after his death. He intended that Sir James Thornhill fhould paint the ftair-cafe there, but hearing that Sir Ifaac Newton was fitting to Thornhill, Kneller was offended, faid, No portrait-painter fhould paint his houfe, and employed Laguerre. Pope was not the only hard that foothed this painter's vainglory. The most beautiful of Addifon's poetic works was addreffed to him the fingular happiness of the allufions, and applications of fabulous theology to the princes drawn by Kneller, is very remark able:: Great Pan, who wont to chafe the fair, Boyse. MR. Samuel Boyfe was the feph Boyfe, a diffenting minifter of great eminence in Dublin, much refpected, not only for learning and abilities, but his extenfive humanity and undiffembled piety. During his minifterial charge at Dublin, he published many fermons, which compofe feveral folio volumes, a few poems, and other tracts: but what chiefly diftinguished him as a writer, was the controverfy he carried on with Dr. King, archbishop of Dubiin, and author of the Origin of Evil, concerning the office of a fcriptural bishop. This controverted point was managed on both fides with great force of argument and calmness of temper. The bishop afferted that the epifcopal right of jurifdiction had its foundation in the New Teftament: Mr. Boyfe, confiftent with his principles, denied that any ecclefiaftical fuperiority appeared there, with the greatest candour and good manners. Samuel was born in 1708, and received the rudiments of his fon of the reverend Mr. Jo education in a private school in Dublin. When he was but eighteen. years old, his father, who probably intended him for the miniftry, fent him to the univerfity of Glafgow, that he might finish his education there. He had not been a year at the univerfity, when he fell in love with one Mifs Atchenfon, the daughter of a tradefman For Charles II.—and for James, in that city, and was imprudent Old Saturn too, with upcaft eyes And the reft on William and Mary, Anne, and George 1. are all ftamped with the most juft refemblance. enough to interrupt his education, by marrying her, before he had entered into his 20th year. The natural extravagance of his temper foon expofed him to want, and as he had had now the additional charge of and a great admirer of poetry. The a wife, his reduced circumstances obliged him to quit the university, and go over with his wife (who alfo carried a fifter with her) to Dublin; where they relied on the old gentleman for fupport. Young Boyfe was of all men the furtheft removed from a gentleman; he had no graces of perfon, and fewer ftill of converfation. Never were three people of more libertine characters than young Boyfe, his wife, and fifter-in-law; yet the two ladies wore fuch a mafk of decency before the old gentleman, that his fondness was never abated. The eftate his father poffeffed in York hire was fold to discharge his debts; and when the old man lay in his laft fickness, he was entirely furported by prefents from his congregation, and buried at their expence. We have no further account of Mr. Boyfe, till we find him foon after his father's death at Edinburgh. At this place his poetical genius raifed him many friends, and fome patrons of very great eminence. He publifhed a volume of poems, 1731, to which is fubjoined the Tablature of Cebes, and A letter upon liberty, inferted in the Dublin journal, 1726'; and by these he obtained a very great reputation. They are addreffed to the countefs of Eglington. This amiable lady was patronefs of all men of wit, and very much diftinguifhed Mr. Boyfe, while he refided in that country. Upon the death of the viscountefs Stormont, Mr. Boyfe wrote an elegy, which was very much applauded by her ladyfhip's relations. This elegy he intituled, The tears of the muses, as the deceafed lady was a woman of the moft refined tafte in the fciences, lord Stormont was fo much pleafed with this mark of esteem paid to the memory of his lady, that he ordered a very handfome prefent to be given to Mr. Boyfe by his attorney at Edinburgh. The notice which lady Eglington and the lord Stormont took of our poet, recommended him likewise to the patronage of the duchess of Gordon, who was fo folicitous, to raise him above neceflity, that fhe employed her intereft in procuring the promife of a place for him. She gave him a letter, which he was next day to deliver to one of the commiffioners of the cuftoms at Edinburgh. It happened that he was then fome miles diftant from the city, and the morning on which he was to have rode to town with her grace's letter of recommendation proved to be rainy: this flender circumftance was enough to difcourage Boyfe, who never looked beyond the prefent moment; he declined going to town on account of the rainy weather, and while he let flip the opportunity, the place was bestowed upon another, which the commiffioner declared he kept for fome time vacant, in expectation of feeing a perfon recommended by the duchefs of Gordon. Boyfe at laft, having defeated all the kind intentions of his pa trons towards him, fell into contempt and poverty, which obliged him to quit Edinburgh. He communicated his defign of going to London to the duchess of Gordon, who having still a very high opinion of his poetical abilities, gave him a letter of recommendation to Mr. Pope, and obtained anòther for him to Sir Peter King, the lord chancellor of England. Lord Stormont recommended him to the folicitor-general, his brother, and many other perfons of the first fafhion. Upon receiving thefe letters, he, with great caution, quitted Edinburgh, regretted by none but his creditors. Upon his arrival in London, he went to Twickenham, in order to deliver the duchefs of Gordon's letter to Mr. Pope; but that gentleman not being at home, Mr. Boyfe never gave himself the trouble to repeat his vifit. He wrote poems, but thofe, though excellent in their kind, were loft to the world, by being introduced with no advantage. He had fo ftrong a propenfity to groveling, that, his acquaintance were generally of fuch a caft as could be of no fervice to him; and thofe in higher life he addreffed by letters, not having fufficient confidence or politenefs to converse familiarly with them. Thus unfit to fupport himself in the world, he was expofed to variety of diftreffes, from which he could invent no means of extricating himself, but by writing mendicant letters. It will appear amazing, but impartiality obliges us to relate it, that this man, of fo abject a fpirit, was voluptuous and luxurious; he had no taste for any thing elegant, and yet was to the last degree expenfive. Can it be believed, that often when he had received but a guinea, in confequence of a fupplicating letter, he would go into a tavern, order a fupper to be prepared, drink of the richeft wines, and Spend all the money that had juft been given him in charity, without having any one to participate the regale with him, and while his wife and child were ftarving at home? It was about the year 1740, that Mr. Boyfe, reduced to the laft extremity of human wretchednefs, had not a fhirt, a coat, or any kind of apparel to put on; the fheets in which he lay were carried to the pawnbroker's, and he was obliged to be confined to his bed, with no other covering than a blanket. He had but little fupport but what he got by writing letters to his friends in the most abject ftyle, but was perhaps afhamed to let this inftance of his diftrefs be known, which probably was the occafion of his remaining fix weeks in that fituation. During this time, he had fome employment in writting verfes for the magazines; and whoever had feen him in his ftudy, must have thought the object fingular enough; he fat 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, fcribbled in the beft manner he could the verfes he was obliged to make: whatever he got by thofe or any other of his begging letters, was but juft fufficient for the prefervation of life. And perhaps he would have remained much longer in this diftrefsful state, had not a compaffionate gentleman, hearing this circumstance related, ordered his cloaths to be taken out of pawn, and enabled him to appear again abroad. This fix weeks penance one would have imagined fufficient to deter him for the future, from fuffering himfelf to be expofed to fuch diftreffes; but by a long habit of want it grew familiar to him, and as he had lefs delicacy than other men, he was perhaps lefs affected with this exterior meannefs. For upon the the future, whenever his diftreffes fo preffed, as to induce him to difpofe of his fhirt, he fell upon an artificial method of fupplying one. He cut fome white paper in flips, which he tied round his wrifts, and in the fame manner fupplied his neck. In this plight he frequently appeared abroad, with the additional inconvenience of the want of breeches. About 1745, Mr. Boyfe's wife died. He was then at Reading, and pretended much concern when he heard of her death. It was an affectation in Mr. Boyfe to ap pear very fond of a little lap-dog, which he always carried about with him in his arms, imagining it gave him the air of a man of tafte. Boyfe, whofe circumftances were then too mean to put himself in mourning, was yet refolved that fome part of his family should. He stepped into a little fhop, purchafed half a yard of black ribbon, which he fixed round his dog's neck by way of mourning for the lofs of its mistress. As he had no fpirit to keep good company, fo he retired to fome obfcure ale-house, and regaled himself with hot two-penny, which, though he drank to excefs, yet he had never more than a pennyworth of it at a time. At Reading, his bufinefs was to compile a Review of the moft material tranfactions at home and abroad, during the laft war: in which he has included a fhort account of the late rebellion. Upon his return from Reading, his behaviour was more decent than it had ever been before, and there were fome hopes that a reformation, though late, would be wrought upon him. He was em ployed by a bookfeller to tranflate Fenelon on the existence of God, during which time he married a fecond wife, a woman in low circumftances, but well enough adapted to his tafte. He began now to live with more regard to his chara&er, and fupported a better appearance than ufual; but while his circum-" ftances were mending, and his irregular appetites lofing ground, his health vifibly declined he had the fatisfaction, while in this lingering illnefs, to obferve a poem of his, intituled The Deity, recommended by two eminent writers, the ingenious Mr. Fielding, and the reverend Mr. James Hervey, author of The Meditations. The former, in the beginning of his humorous hiftory of Tom Jones, calls it an excellent poem. Mr. Hervey ftyles it a pious and inftructive piece; and that worthy gentleman, upon hearing that the author was in neceffitous circumftances, depofited two guineas in the hands of a trufty perfon to be given him, whenever his occafions fhould prefs. The poem, indeed, abounds with fhining lines and elevated fentiments on the feveral attributes of the Supreme Being; but then it is without a plan, or any connection of parts; for it may be read either backwards or forwards, as the reader pleafes. Mr. Boyfe's mind was often religioufly difpofed; he frequently talked upon that fubject, and probably fuffered a great deal from the remorfe of his confcience. The early impreffions of his good education were never entirely obliterated, and his whole life was a continued ftruggle between his will and reafon, as he was always vio |