Boyse, Samuel

(1708-1749)

   Born in Dublin, the son of a dissenting minister, Boyse's studies at Glasgow University were interrupted by a premature marriage and he returned to Ireland. When his father died in 1728, Boyse went to Edinburgh and later moved to England. However, he seems to have been unable to manage his financial affairs, and being constantly in debt, he wrote begging letters to several of his father's friends. It is reported that by 1740 he was so destitute that everything he had-clothing and sheets-were in the pawn shop and his only covering was a blanket. He died in that state. Some of his major publications: Translations and Poems, 1731. The Tears of the Muses, 1736. Translations and Poems, 1738. The Deity: A Poem, 1739. Albion's Triumph, 1743. The Friend of Liberty, 1751. Poems on Several Occasions, 1757. Some of his poems: "On Platonic Love," "Retirement: A Poem," "The Force of Love: A Pastoral Essay," "The Tears of the Muses," "The Triumphs of Nature," "Written in the Ancient Palace of Falkland, Sept. 1735."

   Sources: Dictionary of National Biography. Electronic Edition 1.1. Oxford University Press, 1997. English Poetry: Author Search. Chadwyck-Healey Ltd., 1995 (http://www.lib.utexas.edu:8080/search/epoetry/author.html). SETIS: The Scholarly Electronic Text and Image Service (http://setis. library.usyd.edu.au/). The Columbia Granger's Index to Poetry. 11th ed. The Columbia Granger's World of Poetry, Columbia University Press, 2005 (http://www.columbiagrangers.org). The Oxford Book of Garden Verse. John Dixon Hunt, ed. Oxford University Press, 1993.