acquaintance were generally of such a cast, as could be of no service to him.’
‘The manner of his becoming intoxicated was very particular. As he had no spirit to keep good company, so he retired to some obscure ale-house, and regaled himself with hot twopenny, which though he drank in very great quantities, yet he had never more than a pennyworth at a time.’
‘It was an affectation in Mr. Boyse 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 taste.’ When his wife died, ‘Boyse, whose circumstances were then too mean to put himself in mourning, was yet resolved that some part of his family should. He step’d into a little shop, purchased half a yard of black ribbon, which he fixed round his dog’s neck by way of mourning for the loss of its mistress.’
In 1749, the unhappy poet, whose works had been praised by Johnson and Fielding, died in obscure lodgings near Shoe Lane. ‘The remains of this son of the Muses,’ says his biographer, ‘were with very little ceremony hurried away by the parish officers, and thrown amongst common beggars.’
Perhaps the chief value of Cibber’s Lives is to be found in these obscurer memoirs, which give information concerning poets who would otherwise be forgotten. For the rest, the scheme of the work is more generous
book appeared, found out how he was being treated, he doubtless expressed his indignation to Johnson.
I am indebted to Mr. Nichol Smith for the elucidation of this problem. The corrections of Johnson’s account which are given in the text are based on an article in the Monthly Review for May, 1792. The article may be by Griffiths, who, when his mystifications had served their turn, enjoyed the credit of clearing them up.
