extreme poverty. His first and chief poem, _The Farmer's Boy_, was
composed in a room where half a dozen other men were at work, and the
finished lines he carried in his head until there was time to write them
down. The manuscript, after passing through various hands, fell into
those of Capel Lofft, a Suffolk squire of literary tastes, by whose
exertions it was _pub._ with illustrations by Bewick in 1800. It had a
signal success, 26,000 copies having been sold in three years. The Duke
of Grafton obtained for him an appointment in the Seal Office, and when,
through ill-health, he was obliged to resign this, allowed him a pension
of 1s. a day. Other works were _Rural Tales_ (1804), _Wild Flowers_
(1806), _The Banks of the Wye_ (1811), and _May Day with the Muses_
(1817). An attempt to carry on business as a bookseller failed, his
health gave way, his reason was threatened, and he _d._ in great poverty
at Shefford in 1823. B.'s poetry is smooth, correct, and characterised by
taste and good feeling, but lacks fire and energy. Of amiable and simple
character, he was lacking in self-reliance.


BODENHAM, JOHN (_fl._ 1600).--Anthologist, is stated to have been the ed.
of some of the Elizabethan anthologies, viz., _Politeuphuia_ (_Wits'
Commonwealth_) (1597), _Wits' Theater_ (1598), _Belvidere, or the Garden
of the Muses_ (1600), and _England's Helicon_ (1600). Mr. Bullen says
that B. did not himself ed. any of the Elizabethan miscellanies
attributed to him by bibliographers: but that he projected their
publication, and he befriended the editors.


BOECE, or BOETHIUS, HECTOR (1465?-1536).--Historian, probably _b._ at
Dundee, and _ed._ there and at Paris, where he was a regent or professor,
1492 to 1498. While there he made the acquaintance of Erasmus. Returning