Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 06.djvu/141

 the same.' The work was dedicated to Bancroft, who had lately been made chancellor of the university of Oxford, and in the 'dedicatorie epistle' Boys speaks of his 'larger exposition of the Gospels and Epistles 'as shortly about to appear. It appeared accordingly next year in 4to, under the title of 'An Exposition of the Dominical Epistles and Gospels used in our English Liturgie throughout the whole yeere,' and was dedicated to his 'very dear uncle,' Sir John Boys of Canterbury. In his dedication Boys takes the opportunity of mentioning his obligations to Sir John and to Archbishop Whitgift for having watered what 'that vertuous and worthy knight ' had planted. The work supplied a great need and had a very large and rapid sale ; new editions followed one another in quick succession, and it would be a difficult task to draw up an exhaustive bibliographical account of Boys's publications.

Archbishop Bancroft died in November 1610, and Abbot was promoted to the primacy in the spring of 1611. Boys dedicated to him his next work, 'An Exposition of the Festival Epistles and Gospels used in our English Liturgie,' which, like its predecessors, was published in 4to, the first part in 1614, the second in the following year. Hitherto he had received but scant recognition of his services to the church, but preferment now began to fall upon him liberally. Abbot presented him with the sinecure rectory of Hollingbourne, then with the rectory of Monaghan in 1618, and finally, on the death of Dr. Fotherby, he was promoted by the king, James I, to the deanery of Canterbury, and installed on 3 May 1619. Meanwhile in 1616 he had put forth his 'Exposition of the proper Psalms used in our English Liturgie,' and dedicated it to Sir Thomas Wotton, son and heir of Edward, lord Wotton of Marleigh. In 1620 he was made a member of the high commission court, and in 1622 he collected his works into a folio volume, adding to those previously published five miscellaneous sermons which he calls lectures, and which are by no means good specimens of his method or his style. These were dedicated to Sir Dudley Digges of Chilham Castle, and appear to have been added for no other reason than to give occasion for paying a compliment to a Kentish magnate.

On 12 June 1625 Henrietta Maria landed at Dover. Charles I saw her for the first time on the 13th, and next day the king attended service in Canterbury Cathedral, when Boys preached a sermon, which has been preserved. It is a poor performance, stilted and unreal as such sermons usually were ; but it has the merit of being short. Boys held the deanery of Canterbury for little more than six years, and died among his books, suddenly, in September 1625. There is a monument to him in the lady chapel of the cathedral. He left no children ; his widow died during the rebellion. Boys's works continued to be read and used very extensively till the troublous times set in ; but the dean was far too uncompromising an Anglican, and too unsparing in his denunciation of those whom he calls the novelists, to be regarded with any favour or toleration by presbyterians, or independents, or indeed by any who sympathised with the puritan theology. When he began to be almost forgotten in England, his works were translated into German and published at Strasburg in 1683, and again in two vols. 4to in 1685. It may safely be affirmed that no writer of the seventeenth century quotes so widely and so frequently from contemporary literature as Boys, and that not only from polemical or exegetical theology, but from the whole range of popular writers of the day. Bacon's 'Essays' and 'The Advancement of Learning,' Sandys's 'Travels,' Owen's, More's, and Parkhurst's 'Epigrams,' 'The Vision of Piers Plowman,' and Verstegan's 'Restitution,' with Boys's favourite book, Sylvester's translation of Du Bartas's 'Divine Weeks,' must have been bought as soon as they were published. Indeed Boys must have been one of the great book collectors of his time. Boys's works are full to overflowing of homely proverbs, of allusions to the manners and customs of the time, of curious words and expressions.

 BOYS, JOHN (1561-1644). [See .]  BOYS, JOHN (1614?–1661), translator of Virgil, was the son of John Boys (b. 1590) of Hoad Court, Blean, Kent, and nephew of, 1599-1677 [q. v.] His mother was Mary, daughter of Martin Fotherby, bishop of Salisbury. He was born about 1614. His grandfather, Thomas Boys (d.