Author: Boyd, Henry
Biography:
BOYD, Henry (1748/9-1832: ODNB)
Translator, clergyman, and poet, he was the son of Charles Boyd, a farmer, and was born at Dromore, Co. Antrim. His mother’s name is not known. He graduated MA from Trinity College Dublin in 1776 and was ordained. In the same year, he married Elizabeth Irwin; they had three sons and three daughters. From 1785 to 1809 he was vicar at Killeigh, Co. Offaly and from 1795 to 1818 he served as the incumbent at Bodenstown, Co. Kildare. He was chaplain to the earl of Charleville until he moved from Kildare to become vicar of Drumgarth, Co. Down, after the 1798 Rising. The family lived at Rathfriland. At the end of his life he was still working, serving as perpetual curate at Camlough, Co. Down. He died at Ballintemple, near Newry. Boyd remains significant as an important early translator into English of Dante's Divina Commedia: his 1802 translation of the entire poem was the first in English and he became known as “Dante Boyd.” ODNB notes, however, that he was limited by his view of the translator as a modernizer; he also bowdlerized the verse. He also translated Petrarch's Trionfi. He failed to find a publisher for his translation of Alonso de Ercilla’s La Arauncana. His translation of one of Vincenzo Monti's poems as The Penance of Hugo (1805) was the first full-length English version of any of Monti's works. (ODNB 12 Jan. 2021; DIB 12 Jan. 2021; ancestry.co.uk 12 Jan. 2021)
Other Names:
- H. Boyd