Stormont recommended him to the folicitor-general his brother, and many other perfons of the firft fashion. 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 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 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 exposed 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 taíte for any thing elegant, and yet was to the laft 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 fpend 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 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 distress be known, which probably was the occafion of his remaining fix weeks in that fituation. During this time he had fome employment in writing 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 verses he was obliged to make: whatever he got by those, 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 distressful state, had not a compaffionate gentleman, upon hearing this circumftance 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

the future, whenever his distreffes 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 tyed round his wrifts, and in the fame manner supplied 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 appear 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, whose circumftances were then too mean to put himself in mourning, was yet refolved that fome part of his family fhould. He ftepp'd 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 tho' 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 employed by a bookfeller to tranflate

1

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 character, and fupported a better appearance than ufual; but while his circumftances were mending, and his irregular appetites lofing ground, his health visibly declined: he had the fatisfaction, while in this lingering illness, 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 neceflitous circumftancès, 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 connexion of parts, for it may be read either backwards or forwards, as the reader pleafes.

Mr. Boyfe's mind was often religiously disposed; 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 reason, as he was always violating his duty to the one, while he fell under the fubjection

of the other. It was in confequence of this war in his mind, that he wrote a beautiful poem called The recantation. In May 1749, he died in obfcure lodgings near Shoe-lane; but in fentiments, there is the greatest reafon to be lieve, very different from thefe, in which he had spent the greatest part of his life. An old acquaintance of his endeavoured to collect money to defray the expences of his funeral, fo that the fcandal of

performed with great fpirit, and received at the rate of threepence a line for his trouble. Mr. Ogle published a complete edition of that old poet's Canterbury tales modernized; and Mr. Boyfe's name is put to fuch tales as were done by him. In 1743 Mr. Boyfe published, without his name, an ode on the battle of Dettingen, entitled Albion's triumph.

be avoided, but in vain: the remains of this fon of the mufes were, with very little ceremony, hurried away by the parish officers. Never was a life fpent with lefs grace, than that of Mr. Boyfe, and never were fuch diftinguished abilities given to lefs purpose. His genius was not confined to poetry only, he had a tafte for painting, mufic, and heraldry, with the latter of which he was very well acquainted. His poetical pieces, if collected, would make fix mo. derate volumes. Many of them are fcattered in The gentleman's magazine, marked with the letter Y.

and Alceus. Two volumes were

published in London. An ode of his in the manner of Spenfer, entitled The olive, was addreffed to Sir Robert Walpole, which procured him a prefent of ten guineas. He tranflated a poem from the high Dutch of Van Haren, in praife of peace, upon the conclufion of that made at 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 tranflate fome of Chaucer's tales into modern English, which he

Churchill.

HIS gentleman was the fon

TH

of the Rev. Mr. Charles Churchill, curate and lecturer of St. John's in Westminster; he was alfo educated in Westminster-school, and received fome applause for his abilities from "his tutors in that famous feminary. His capacity however was greater than his application, fo that he received the character of a boy who could do good if he would. As the flightest accounts of perfons fo noted are agreeable, it may not be amiss to obferve, that having one day got an exercise to make, and from idlenefs or inattention, having failed to bring it at the time appointed, his mafter thought proper to chaftife him with fome feverity, and even reproach his ftupidity: what the fear of ftripes could not effect, the fear of fhame foon produced, and he brought his exercise the next day finished in fuch a manner, that he received the public thanks

of all the mafters.

Still, however, it is to be fuppofed that his progrefs in the learned languages was but flow, nor is it to be wondered at, if we con,

fider how difficult it was for a ftrong imagination, fuch as he was poffeffed of, to conform and walk tamely forward in the trammels of a fchool education: minds like his are ever ftarting afide after new purfuits, defirous of embracing a multiplicity of amufing objects, eager to come at the end without the painful investigation of the means; and, if we may borrow a term from the mercantile world, a genius like his difdaining the painful affiduity of earning knowledge by retail, aimed at being a wholefale dealer in the treasures of literature. This much was neceffary to premife, in order to palliate his being refufed admittance into the univerfity of Oxford, to which he was fent by his father, for want of proper fill in the learned lan guages. He has often mentioned his repulfe upon that occafion; but whether his juftification of himself is to be admitted, we will not undertake to determine. Certain it is, that both he and his companions have often afferted, that he could have answered the college examination had he thought proper; but he fo much defpifed the trifling queftions that were put to him, that instead of making the proper replies, he only launched out in fatyrical reflections upon the abilities of the gentleman whofe office it was to judge of his.

Be this as it will, Mr. Churchill was rejected from Oxford, and probably this might have given occafion to the frequent invectives we find in his works against that most refpectable univerfity. Upon his returning from Oxford, he again applied himself to his ftudies at Weftminster-school; and there, at the age of feventeen, contracted an

intimacy with the lady to whom he was married, and who still survives him. This was one of those imprudent matches which generally begin in paffion and end in difguft. However, the beginning of this young couple's regards for each other were mutual and fincere, and fo continued for feveral years after. At the ufual age for going into orders, Mr. Churchill was ordained by the late bishop of London, notwithstanding he had taken no degree, nor ftudied in either of our univerfities; and the first place he had in the church, was a small curacy of thirty pounds a year in Wales. To this remote part of the kingdom he brought his wife; they took a little houfe, and he went through the duties of his station with chearfulness and affiduity. Happy had it been for him in this life, perhaps more happy in that to which he has been called, if he had ftill continued here in piety, fimplicity, and peace. His parishioners all loved and esteemed him; his fermons, though rather raised above the level of his audience, were however commended and followed. In order to eke out his fcanty finances, he entered into a branch of trade which he thought might end in riches, but which involved him in debts that preffed him for fome years after this was no other than keeping a cyder cellar, and dealing in this liquor through that part of the country. A poet is but ill qualified for merchandise, where small gains are to be patiently expected, and carefully accumulated. He had neither patience for the one, nor œconomy for the other; and a fort of rural bankruptcy was the confequence of his attempt.

L

:

Upon

Upon leaving Wales, he came up to London, and his father foon after dying, he stept into the church in which he had officiated. In order to improve his fcanty finances, which in this fituation did not produce full an hundred pounds yearly, he undertook to teach young ladies to read and write English, and was employed for this purpofe in the boarding fchool of Mrs. Dennis, where he behaved with that decency and piety which became his profeffion nor fhould we here omit paying proper deference to a mode of female education which feems new amongst us. While in other fchools our young miffes are taught the arts of perfonal allurements only, this fenfible governefs pays the ftricteft attention to the minds of her young pupils, and endeavours to fit them for the domeftic duties of life, with as much affiduity as they are elsewhere formed to levity and fplendor.

While Mr. Churchill was in this fituation, his method of living bearing no proportion to his income, feveral debts were contracted in the city, which he was not in a capacity of paying; and a gaol, the continual terror of indigent genius, feemed now ready to close upon his miferies. From this wretched ftate of uneafinefs he was relieved by the benevolence of Mr. Loyd, father to the poet of that name, who paid his debts, or at leaft fatisfied his creditors.

In the mean time, while Mr. Loyd, the father, was thus relieving Churchill by his bounty, Mr. Loyd the fon began to excite him by his example. The Alor, a poetical epiftle, written by this gentleman, and addreffed to Mr. Bonnel Thornton, was read and relished by all the judges of poetical merit,

and gave the author a distinguished place among the writers of his age. Mr. Churchill foon undertook to write the Rofciad, a work tho' upon a more confined plan, yet more adapted to excite public curiofity. It firft came out without the name of the author; but the juftness of its remarks, and particularly the severity of the fatire, foon excited public curiofity. Though he never difowned his having written this piece, and even openly gloried in it; yet the public, unwilling to give fo much merit to one alone, afcribed it to a combination of wits: nor were Meffrs. Loyd, Thornton, or Coleman left unnamed upon this occafion. This mifplaced praife foon induced Mr. Churchill to throw off the mask, and the fecond edition appeared with his name at length; and now the fame, which before was diffused upon many objects, became centered to a point. As the Rofciad was the first of this poet's performances, fo many are of opinion that it is his beft; and indeed I am inclined to concur in the fame fentiment. In it we find a very close and minute difcuffion of the particular merit of each performer; their defects pointed out with candour, and their merits praised without adulation. This poem, however, feems to be one of thofe few works which are injured by fucceeding editions: when he became popular, his judgment began to grow drunk with applaufe; and we find, in the later editions, men blamed whose merit is inconteftible, and others praised that were at that time in no degree of efteem with the judicious, and whom, at present, even the mob are beginning to forfake.

His next performance was his Apology to the Critical reviewers :