Henry Boyd

Henry Boyd ( – 1832) was an Irish cleric and translator of Dante. Life Boyd was most probably educated at Trinity College, Dublin. By 1791 he was seeking subscriptions for his original poems. Anderson, writing to Thomas Percy in 1806, said that he had received some squibs written by Boyd against Mone, and that the humour was coarse. Boyd died at Ballintemple, near Newry, at an advanced age, 18 September 1832. In the title-pages to two of his works the author is described as vicar of Drumgath in Ireland; but in biographical notices and in the obituary record of the Gentleman's Magazine for September 1832, he is described simply as vicar of Rathfriland and chaplain to the Earl of Charleville. Works Boyd published a translation of Dante's 'Inferno' in English verse, the first of its kind, with a specimen of the 'Orlando Furioso' of Ariosto, 1785. It was printed by subscription, and dedicated to the Earl of Bristol, bishop of Derry. The dedication is dated from Killeigh, near Tullamore, of which place presumably Boyd was incumbent. In 1796 he published 'Poems chiefly Dramatic and Lyric,'