The truly great, though from a hostile clime, The sacred Nine embalm; then, Muses, chant, In grateful numbers, Gallic Lewis' praise: For private murder quell'd; for laurel'd arts, Invented, cherish'd in his native realm; For rapine punish'd; for grim famine fed; For sly chicane expell'd the wrangling bar; And rightful Themis seated on her throne: But, chief, for those mild laws his wisdom fram'd, To guard the Ethiop from tyrannic sway! Did such, in these green isles which Albion claims, Did such obtain; the Muse, at midnight hour, This last brain-racking study had not ply'd: But, sunk in slumbers of immortal bliss, To bards had listned on a fancied Thames ! All hail, old father Thames! though not from far Thy springing waters roll; nor countless streams, Of name conspicuous, swell thy watʼry store; Though thou, no Plata, to the sea devolve Vast humid offerings; thou art king of streams: Delighted Commerce broods upon thy wave; 640 priety, mountain-strawberry. But though it resembles the large Chili-strawberry in looks and size; yet being inelegant of taste, it is seldom eaten. The botanical name is cereus scandens minor. The rind of the fruit is here and tiere studded with tufts of small sharp prickles. Ver. 613. Candle-weed.] This shrub, which produces a yellow flower somewhat resembling a narcissus, makes a beautiful hedge, and blows about November. It grows wild every where. It is said to be diuretic, but this I do not know from experience. Ver. 638. Plata.] One of the largest rivers of South America. | | And every quarter of this sea-girt globe And tips yon tamarinds, tips yon cane-crown'd vale, sense, 659 Imperfect swim!-See! in that flaming scroll, 670 That other race, that long'd-for era, hail! 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 Some unpublished letters of Boyse in the British Museum have enabled me to correct or confirm a few particulars in all these authorities.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 months 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, and 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. |