Chapter Blamire to Bolingbroke of B by Biographical Dictionary of English Literature

for Hollinshed’s Chronicle. The only predecessor of the work was the compendium of Major, and as it was written in a flowing and pleasing style it became very popular, and led to ecclesiastical preferment and Royal favour. Boece shared in the credulity of his age, but the charge of inventing his authorities formerly brought against him has been shown to be, to some extent at any rate, unfounded.

Boker, George Henry (1823-90).—Poet, was in the American Diplomatic Service. Among his dramas, generally tragedies, are Anne Boleyn, The Betrothed, and Francesca da Rimini, and among his books of poetry, Street Lyrics, Königsmark, and The Book of the Dead. His dramas combine poetic merit with adaptability for acting.

Bolingbroke, Henry St. John, 1st Viscount (1678-1751.—Statesman and philosopher, son of Sir Henry St. John, born at Battersea, and educated at Eton and perhaps Oxford, was during his youth noted chiefly for dissipation, but entering Parliament in 1701 as a supporter of Harley, soon made himself a name by his eloquence and talent. He held office as War and Foreign secretray successively, became a peer in 1712, intrigued successfully against Harley, and formed an administration during the last days of Queen Anne, with the intention of bringing back the Stuarts, which was frustrated by the Queen’s death. On the arrival of George I. and the accession to power of the Whigs, Bolingbroke was impeached, and his name erased from the Roll of Peers. He went to France, and became secretray of State to the Pretender James, who, however, dismissed him in 1716, after which he devoted himself to philosophy and literature. In 1723 he was pardoned and returned to England, and an act was passed in 1725 restoring his forfeited estates, but still excluding him from the House of Lords. He thereupon retired to his house, Dawley, near Uxbridge, where he enjoyed the society of Swift and Pope, on the latter of whom he exerted a strong influence. After some ineffectual efforts to regain a position in political life, he returned to France in 1735, where he remained for 7 years, and wrote most of his chief works.

B. was a man of brilliant and versatile talents, but selfish, insincere, and intriguing, defects of character which led to his political ruin. His writings, once so much admired, reflect his character in their glittering artificiality, and his pretensions to the reputation of a philosopher have long been exploded; the chief of them are Reflections upon Exile, Letters on the Study of History (in which he attacked Christianity), Letters on the Spirit of Patriotism, and Idea of a Patriot King. He left his MSS. to David Mallet (q.v.), who published a complete edition of his works in 5 vols. (1753-54).