[Ryan is here on one of his favourites theme, the malignant combination of great abilities with ‘idleness and dissipation’ (p.181) which likewise marred the career of Paul Hiffernan. Boyse is considered to have frauded money from patrons with talk of works written or yet to be written on topics to their taste - thus Sir Hans Sloane was gulled over a book supposed to be written by Boyse on Sir Francis Drake. One other occasions he begged for money from publishers and friends - who grew tired of his hoaxes and demands - writing shameful begging letters examples of which Ryan reproduces in his article. Theophilus Cibber recorded that, at his lowest ebb, Boyse he had to pawn his shirt and was reduced to cutting white paper into slips which he tied round his wrists and neck. When he did make money with his writing, he was a spendthrift and a heavy drinker. in his illness, gave up all alcohol except for wine for reasons of health.]

[Begins:] It has been asserted with some truth, that the number of individuals to whom no circumstances can teach wisdom is absolutely countless, and amongst that numerous class may be included the subject of the present memoir.

[...; quotes unnamed "life" of Boyse:]

If the life of Boyse be considered with a reference to these remarks, it will be found that he was scarcely ever in a situation of distress, of which he could justly complain. He exhausted the patience of one set of friends {196} after another, with such unfeeling contempt and ingratitude, that we are not to wonder at his living the precarious life of an outcast, of a man who belongs to no society, and whom no society is bound to maintain. Among his patrons were many persons of high rank and opulence, whom he rendered ashamed of their patronage, and perhaps prevented from the exercise of general kindness, lest it might be disgraced by the encouragement of those who dissipate every favour in low and wanton excesses.

[...]

As a poet, his reputation has been chiefly fixed on the production entitled “Deity,” which, although irregular and monotonous, contains many striking proofs of poetical genius. The effort indicates no small elevation of mind, even while we must allow that success is beyond all human power. His other pieces may be regarded as curiosities, as the productions of a man who never enjoyed the undisturbed exercise of his powers, who wrote in circumstances of peculiar distress, heightened by the consciousness that he could obtain only temporary relief, that he had forfeited the respect due to genius, and could expect to be rewarded only by those to whom he was least known. We are told that he wrote all his poems with ease, and even {197} rapidity. That many of his lines are incorrect will not therefore excite surprise, especially when we consider that he wrote for immediate relief, and not for fame, and that when one piece had produced him a benefaction, he generally dismissed it from his mind, and began another, about which he had no other care than that it might answer the same purpose. (End.)