BOYCE

BOYCE, HECTOR, a distinguished historian, was born at Dundee about the year 1465; being descended of a family which for several generations had possessed the barony of Panbride or Balbride. The orthography of his surname is extremely fluctuating; it is to be found under the various modifications of Boece, Boeth, Boeis, Boys, Boyse, Boyes, Boyis, Boiss, and Boyce. The first of these, we strongly suspect, was never a name belonging to any living man in Scotland: it was formed by the French from the name of the latest Roman classic, and on that account appears to have been adopted by Bellenden in his translation of the history. The real Scottish name is a monosyllable; and we adhere to the orthography of Boyce, as being most common in our own time. He received the first rudiments of learning at Dundee, and completed his course of study in the university of Paris, where he took the degree of B. D. He was appointed a professor of philosophy in the College of Montaigu; and in this seminary he became intimately acquainted with Erasmus, who in two epistles has testified his esteem for Boyce's character.¹ In his academic station he had already distinguished himself by his talents and attainments, when King's College was founded at Aberdeen by the munificence of William Elphinstone, bishop of the diocese. The papal bull for the erection of a university had been obtained in the year 1494, but the buildings were not sufficiently advanced, nor did the lectures commence, till about the year 1500. It was not without some degree of hesitation that he consented to quit the lettered society of Paris, and to become principal of this new college; but having at length accepted the conditions, he proceeded to Aberdeen, and experienced a kind reception from the canons of the cathedral, several of whom he has commemorated as men of learning. It was a part of his duty as principal to read lectures on divinity. The sub-principal was his friend William Hay, a native of the same county, who had been his fellow-student at Dundee and at Paris, and who at length succeeded him as head of the college.² The principal's brother, Arthur Boyce, doctor of the canon, and licentiate of the civil law, was appointed professor of the canon law, and afterwards became a judge of the court of session.³ The common branches of science and literature were taught with zeal and success; and the prosperity of the institution was greatly promoted by the talents and by the reputation of Boyce.

The emoluments of his office were not such as appear

very dazzling to modern eyes. "Boethius, as president of the university," says Dr Johnson, "enjoyed a revenue of forty Scottish marks, about two pounds four shillings and sixpence of sterling money. In the present age of trade and taxes, it is difficult even for the imagination so to raise the value of money, or so to diminish the demands of life, as to suppose four and forty shillings a year an honourable stipend; yet it was probably equal, not only to the needs, but to the rank of Boethius. The wealth of England was undoubtedly to that of Scotland more than five to one, and it is known that Henry the Eighth, among whose faults avarice was never reckoned, granted to Roger Ascham, as a reward of his learning, a pension of ten pounds a year."¹ But it is necessary to recollect that this was not the only preferment which Boyce enjoyed: he was not only principal of King's College, but was likewise a canon of Aberdeen, and rector of Tyrie in the same county. Under the date of July 14, 1527, we find a "grant to Maister Hector" of an annual pension of fifty pounds, to be paid by the sheriff of Aberdeen out of the king's casualties. And on the 26th of July 1529 was issued a "precept for a lettre to Mr Hector Boys, professor of theology, of a pension of L.50 Scots yearly, until the king promote him to a benefice of 100 marks Scots of yearly value; the said pension to be paid him by the customers of Aberdeen." In 1533 and 1534, one half of his pension was however paid by the king's treasurer, and the other half by the comptroller; and as no payment subsequent to that of Whitsuntide 1534 has been traced in the treasurer's accounts, he is supposed to have obtained his benefice soon after that period.²

His earliest publication, the lives of the bishops of Aberdeen, appeared under the subsequent title: "Episcoporum Murthlacensium et Aberdonensium per Hectorem Boetium Vitæ." Impressa sunt hac prelo Ascensiano, ad Idus Maius anno Salutis M.D.XXII. 4to. This little volume, which is of great rarity, was lately reprinted, for the members of the Bannatyne Club. "Hectoris Boetii Murthlacensium et Aberdonensium Episcoporum Vitæ, iterum in lucem editæ." Edinb. 1825, 4to. Of the bishops of this diocese the seat was originally at Murthlack, in the county of Banff, but it was afterwards transferred to Aberdeen. His notices of the early prelates are necessarily brief and unsatisfactory, and the most interesting portion of the book is that which relates to his liberal patron Bishop Elphinstone; of whose private history and public services he has given a circumstantial detail, which occupies nearly one third of the volume. Here we likewise find an account of the foundation and constitution of the college, together with some notices of its earliest members.

His more famous work, the history of Scotland, was published after an interval of five years: "Scotorum Historiæ a prima gentis origine, cum aliarum et rerum et gentium illustratione non vulgari: præmissa epistola nuncu-

patoria, tabellisque amplissimis, et non paritenda Isagoge, quæ ab hujus tergo explicabatur diffusius. Quæ omnia impressa quidem sunt Iodoci Badii Ascensii typis et opera; impensis autem nobilis et prædicti viri Hectoris Boetii Deidonani, a quo sunt et condita et edita." Fol. The title and colophon have no date, but the commendatory epistle by Alexander Lyon, precentor of the cathedral of Elgin, bears the fifteenth of March 1527. This edition contains seventeen books. Another edition, containing the eighteenth book and a fragment of the nineteenth, was published by Ferrerius, who has added an appendix of thirty-five pages.³ Paris, 1574, fol. Though published at Paris, the latter edition appears from the colophon to have been printed at Lausanne.

The composition of Boyce's history displays much talent; and if the style does not always reach the standard of ancient purity, it displays a certain vein of elegance, which generally renders it attractive. The author's love of his native country, and his anxiety to emblazon the heroic deeds of his countrymen, are conspicuous in every part of the work; nor must we leave unnoticed those aspirations after political freedom, by which he was honourably distinguished at a period when the human mind was so generally chained to the earth by the most slavish maxims of submission. It may be recorded as commendation, instead of reproach, that his principles of polity have been represented as no better than those of Buchanan. Boyce's imagination was however stronger than his judgment: of the extent of the historian's credulity, his narrative exhibits many unequivocal proofs; and if this circumstance admits of a sufficient excuse from the common propensity of the age in which he lived, his work presents strong indications of another fault, for which it is not so easy to find an apology. According to Bishop Lloyd, he put Fordun's tales "into the form of an history, and pieced them out with a very good invention, that part in which he chiefly excelled."⁴ He professes to have obtained from the monastery of Icolmkill, through the good offices of the earl of Argyle and his brother the treasurer, certain original historians of Scotland, and among the rest Veremundus and Campbell, of whose writings not a single vestige is now to be found. In his dedication to the king, he is pleased to state that Veremundus, a Spaniard by birth, was archdeacon of St Andrews, and that he wrote in Latin a history of Scotland from the origin of the nation to the reign of Malcolm the Third, to whom he inscribed his work. According to Bishop Stillingfleet, whose opinion has been adopted by many other writers, these historians never existed except in Boyce's fertile imagination.⁵ From the charge of downright fabrication he has very recently been vindicated by Mr Maitland; but notwithstanding the ingenuity of the defence, we find it extremely difficult to divest ourselves of a strong impression, that the historian's account of his original materials, if not destitute of truth, is at least destitute of verisimilitude. His propensity to

the marvellous¹ was at an early period exposed in the following tetrastich of Leland, which Dempster has erroneously ascribed to Humphrey Lhuyd:²

Hectoris historici tot quot mendacia scripsit,
Si vis ut numerem, lector amice, tibi,
Me jubeas etiam fluctus numerare marinos,
Et liquidi stellarum connumerare poli.³

Lhuyd, who attacked him in different works, spoke of his fabrications without management or scruple;⁴ nor did he experience much better treatment from Stanihurst, an Irish writer of considerable reputation.⁵ Of his merits as an historian, a very unfavourable estimate has more recently been formed by Lord Hailes and Mr Pinkerton. But, in the opinion of Mr Wallace, a learned lawyer, his "elegant style and correct composition, not to add beautiful genius and fine fancy, are conclusive proofs that his understanding could not be inaccurate."⁶ And, as Mr Maitland has remarked, "in forming a final estimate of the literary character of Boyce, we must bear in mind, that when scholar-craft, in this country at least, was rare, he was a scholar, and contributed, by reviving ancient learning, to dispel the gloom of the middle ages; and that, while the history of his country existed only in the rude page of the chroniclers who preceded him, or in the fading records of oral tradition, he embodied it in narrative so interesting, and language so beautiful, as to be worthy of a more refined age."⁷

Boyce's history of Scotland was translated into the Scottish language by John Bellenden, archdeacon of Moray and canon of Ross, of whom we have already presented our readers with a copious notice. While the learned archdeacon was engaged in translating the work into prose, another individual was engaged in the more formidable task of translating it into verse. A copy of this metrical version, containing about 70,000 lines, is preserved in the library of the university of Cambridge: a leaf seems to be wanting at the beginning, and the manuscript has suffered some other mutilations. The name of the versifier does not appear, nor has it been ascertained from any other document; but we learn from the prologue, that his labours, like those of Bellenden, were intended for the benefit of the young monarch. From the concluding lines, it is ascertained that he began his task in April 1581, and concluded it in September 1585. His verses are not distinguished by any considerable degree of energy or elegance, and the writer is chiefly to be commended for his perseverance. The prologue, which is unfortunately mutilated, contains an account of his motives for engaging in this laborious undertaking: it is conducted in the form of a dialogue between the translator and a certain lady, who is probably some allegorical personage. The following is perhaps the most curious passage which it contains.

Bot yit, scho said, I dreid in my intent
That to his grace it be ovr eloquent;
For quhy the termis polest ar perfyte
Of eloquence, in rycht plesand indyte,
In Latene tounge sententiouslie and schort,
Quhilk for to heir is plesand and confort.
Madame, I said, quha wes it drew that storie?
Ane man, scho said, of sic hie laud and glorie,
In Albione sen stories wes begun,
Wes nevir nane sic amang our poetis fun.
Madame, I said, quhat is that mannis name?
Ane Hector Boyce, said scho, of nobill fame,
Maister in art, doctor in theologie,
In all science ane profound clerk is he.
Madame, I said, now tell me or ye ga,
Quhat is the caus that ye commend it sua.
That sall I do, quoth scho, and yow wald heir.
Our old storeis befoir thir mony yeir,
Tha war destroyit all with Inglismen
In Wallace weir, as it is eith to ken:
Syne efterwart quhen that tha wreit the storie,
Ald eldaris dedlis to put into memorie,
Tha maid tha bukis, thair tractatis, and thair tabillis,
Part be ges, and part be fenzet fabillis,
Part tha fand in ald bladis of bukis,
Part in lous quairis, liand wer in nukis:
Tha tuke sic cuir sic thingis to considder,
Syne in ane volume pat thame altogidder,
Without ordour, fassoun, or effect;
Mikill wantit, and all the lave suspect.
Madame, said I, now gar me vnderstand
Into quhat place that he tha stories fand.
That sall I do, than said scho, with gud will.
Intill ane place callit Ecolomkill,
Ane abba sumtyme of authoritie,
In Iona yle, within the occident ze,
Quhilk oft syis had of kingis corps the cuir;
Lang of the ald thair wes thair sepultur:
And thair wes keipit thair storeis and bukis,
As in this libell yow sall se quhen yow luikis:
And in that place thair wes thir stories fand,
Sum in lous quairis, and uther sum weill band,
As Beid, Turgot, and Weremund alsus,
Corneill Campbell, and mony uther ma,
All tell and fynd ane fassoun and effect,
In ornate spech, and nothing to suspect.
And for this caus I haif socht to ye heir:
Hartlie as now thairof, I ye requair,
Translat this libell in our mother tounge,
And preis ye nocht my purpos to impugn.
The kingis grace I knaw is nocht perfyte
In Latyn tounge, and namelie in sic dyte;
It wil be tedious, that dar I tak on hand,
To reid the thing he can not vnderstand:
War it translatid in our vulgar tounge,
Out throw that realme the rumor [should be rounge.]

In the year 1528, soon after the publication of his history, Boyce took the degree of D. D. at Aberdeen; and on this occasion the magistrates voted him a present of a tun of wine when the new wines should arrive, or, according

to his option, the sum of twenty pounds to purchase a new bonnet.¹ He appears to have survived till the year 1586; for on the 22d of November in that year, the king presented John Garden to the rectory of Tyrie, vacant by the death of "Mr Hector Boiss." He died at Aberdeen, and, according to the most probable conjecture, he had then attained or at least approached the age of seventy. (x.)