Page:Biographia Hibernica volume 1.djvu/198

BOYSE. 187 because I have not money to pay for my bed two nights past, which is usually paid before-hand, and I am loth to go into the Compter 'till I can see if my affair can possibly be made up: I hope therefore you will bave the humanity to send me half a guinea for support, 'till I finish your papers in my hands.-The Ode to the British Nation I hope to have done to-day, and want a proof copy of that part of Stowe you design for the present magazine, that it may be improved as far as possible from your assistance. Your papers are but ill transcribed.I agree with you as to St. Augustin's Cave. I bumbly entreat your answer, having not tasted any thing since Tuesday evening I came here, and my coat will be taken off my back for the charge of the bed, so that I must go into prison naked, which is too shocking for me to think of. 5 I am, with sincere regard, Sir, Your unfortunate humble servant, S. BoysE. “ Crown Coffee-house, Grocer's alley, Poultry, July 21, 1742. "July 21, 1742. "Received from Mr. Cave the sum of half-a-guinea, by me, in confinement. S. BoYsE. " 10s. 6d. Sent. I send Mr. Van Haren's Ode on Britain. "To Mr. Cave, at St. John's-gate, Clerkenwell." The Ode on the British Nation, mentioned here, is a translation from Van Haren, a Dutch poet, from whose works he translated some other passages. The " part of Stowe" was a part of his poein on Lord Cobham's gardens. The greater number of the poems which he wrote for the Gentleman's Magazine during the years above men- tioned, are reprinted in the late edition of the English Poets; but all of bis fugitive pieces were not written for the magazine, some of them having been composed long before he had formed a connection with Cave, and, as there