For when the Scots army came within sight, He ran to his tent, they ask'd what he meant, The colonel sent for him back again, To quarter him in the van a ; But Sir John did swear, he came not there To cure his fear, he was sent to the rear, But now there is peace, he's return'd to increase But his lost honour must, still lie in the dust, At Barwick away it went a. Sir John Suckling's troop certainly behaved badly, but the cutting remarks upon his own want of spirit in this lampoon, are probably more severe than just.The following account of Sir John Suckling's death, is given by Spence, upon the authority of Pope, and is sufficient to warrant an opinion that regard to personal safety was not a main ingredient in his character. "Sir John was a man of great vivacity and spirit. He died about the beginning of the civil war, and his death was occasioned by a very uncommon accident. He entered warmly into the king's interest, and was sent over by him into France, with some letters of great consequence to the Queen. He arrived late at Calais, and in the night his servant ran away with his portmanteau, in which were his money and papers. When he was told of this in the morning, he immediately enquired which way his servant had taken ; and in pulling on his boots, found one of them extremely uneasy to him, but as his horses were at the door, he leaped into his saddle, and forgot his pain. He pursued his servant so eagerly, that he overtook him two or three posts off,-recovered his portmanteau, and soon after complained of a vast pain in one of his feet, and fainted away with t. When they came to pull off his boots, to fling him into bed, they found one of them full of blood. It seems, his servant, who knew his master's temper well, and was sure he would pursue him as soon as his villainy should be discovered, had driven a nail up into one of his boots in hopes of disabling him from pursuing him. Sir John's impetuosity made him regard the pain only just at first, and his pursuit hurried him from the thoughts of it for some time after: however, the wound was so bad, and so much inflamed, that it flung him into a violent fever, which ended his life in a few days. This incident, strange as it may seem, might be proved from some original letters in Lord Oxford's collection. JOHN BOYS. LIVING IN 1612 AND IN 1672. Virgil's divine.-let him alone for me! * * He's hard to imitate in any sort, He shoots well that comes nigh.-though always short. Virgil is to be known, I know not when. * But all that's nothing; thine, and every book, Is now, or good or bad, as it hath luck; None can confront the world. (CHARLES FOTHERBY.) Such were the sensible hints given to this Kentish Worthy by his cousin, in a long copy of verses, which notwithstanding he chose to prefix to a translation of the sixth Eneid of Virgil. The family of Boys is one of the most ancient, respectable, and widely extended in the county of Kent. John Boys, of whose works we have to speak, was the son of Thomas Boys, of Hode Court, in the parish of Blean, near Canterbury, and great nephew to Sir John Boys, of the same place, who was Member of Parliament for Sandwich, Recorder of Canterbury, and founder of Jesus's, or Boy's Hospital, in that city, and died in 1612. Sir John Boys bequeathed his mansion house of Hode Court, to his nephew above named, from whom it passed to f our poet, and continued in his descendants until the death of Colonel John Boys in 1748, whose daughters and heiresses carried it into other families. John Boys, appears to have been educated at Cambridge, was a learned and pious man, a loyal subject in trying times, and an indifferent rhymer. Of his printed works, which are scarce from having passed through single editions, and consequently of high price, we have been able to obtain only one, a small quarto, and the following is its title: "Æneas his Descent into Hell: as it is inimitably described by the prince of poets, in the sixth of his Eneis. Made English by John Boys, of Hode Court, Esq. Together with an ample and learned comment upon the same, wherein all passages critical, mythological, philosophical, and historical, are fully and clearly explained. To which are added certain pieces relating to the public, written by the author. Invia virtuti nulla est via.-London: printed by R. Hodgkinson, living in Thames Street, over against Barnard Castle, 1661.” A dedication follows in the ordinary style of flattery, to Edward Lord Hide, High Chancellor, and occupies three pages. The preface to the reader occupies six pages, and contains the following modest acknowledgment:"The truth is, I am a very great admirer of this author, and therefore my affection may haply prompt me to attempt what the mediocrity of my parts was not able to make good." 8 Two long copies of commendatory verses succeed, from one of which we have made some extracts, and it will be but fair to select a short specimen of the other, which bears the name of Thomas Phillipot, who addresses his friend in the following style of bombast. But, sir, your lines become the thread of life The fatal sisters manage, and e'en be For you have built a trophy to your name Shall dull the teeth of time, and from that flame The translation itself occupies thirty-three pages. The following is our translator's making English of the sublime passage, beginning "Principio coelum, ac terras, camposque liquentes." The heavens, the earth, the watry plains, the bright To them their operations, hence grief, joy, |