2°^ S. VIII. Sept. 17. '59.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



231 



cording to his own declaration, " whereof I give to 

 you now this last edition." He demitted all his 

 labours, as indicated by a MS. Note of his, on 

 '■'■ Qrd March, 1653. Heere the Author loas neere 

 his end and was able to doe no more." It may now 

 be regarded as a pretty well ascertained fact, as to 

 which formerly there were many conjectures, that 

 he was born in 1585, and died towards the end of 

 March, or in the early part of April, 1653. The 

 poetical afflatus had more specially descended 

 upon him within the last twelve years or so of his 

 life. 



In "The Epistle Dedicatory" of the Psalms 

 " To the right Reverend, thefaithfull Ministers of 

 God's Word of Britain and^Ireland. From Glas- 

 gow, 1648, your humble servant in the Lord, M. 

 Zachary Boyd," we are informed " At the direc- 

 tion of the Generall Assembly, A?mo 1644, I put 

 my hand to the work of the Psalmes," so that it 

 would appear in the course of four years he had 

 diligently tasked himself in putting forth four edi- 

 tions "for the publike service of God in his 

 Church." These, like others of his printed books, 

 had probably been so much appreciated as to be 

 bought greedily and read to tatters, and to such a 

 cause may be imputed the present scarcity of the 

 first two editions, and also that of Ihe last two. 

 The 1646 was in all likelihood the competing 

 edition he had before the Assembly, as by their 

 Minute, dated 11 Feb. 1647, "The Commission 

 appoynts a letter of encouragement to be written 

 to Mr. Zechariah Boyd for his paines in his Para- 

 phrase of the Psalmes, shewing that they have 

 sent them to their Commissioners at London to be 

 considered and made use of there by those that 

 are upon the same work." These Commissioners 

 may also have had the "use" of the 1648 edition, 

 as the author had time to prepare it before the 

 close of their labours in 1650. I think every 

 circumstance sufficiently weighed in reference to 

 his version, the author, and his auxiliary friends, 

 that they were all somewhat harshly treated by 

 Principal Baillie*, who, perhaps, as in some others 

 of his opinions on affairs, in the heat of his en- 

 thusiasm had overrated himself. Hear the simple 

 explanations of Mr. Zachary, in 1648, and so dis- 

 interested that few authors can speak in the same 

 tenour : " I desire that no man esteem that in a 

 mercenary way I am seeking gain by those my 

 labours, though the work hath been both painfull 

 and chargeable. I with a most willing mind 

 offer all in a free will offering to the Lord ; seek 

 gaines who will, I will have none, nor do I stand 

 in need, praised bee the Lord. I hope the judi- 

 cious reader shall finde this last mended in many 



* He was a remarkably learned, able servant of the 

 Church, and an intimate friend of Mr. Zachary, but took 

 to his heels when Cromwell came to Glasgow, while the 

 latter remained firm to his ministerial post, and bravely 

 faced and repritnanded the invader of the city. 



things. If any thing hath been observed by any 

 in the former editions, let them consider it, if it 

 bee mended in this last, which as I have hitherto 

 done, I submit in all humility to the judgement of 

 my Brethren in the Ministry. TAe Spiiits of the 

 Prophets are subject to the Prophets, 1 Cor. 14. 32." 

 Rather curiously in the copy before me there 

 are in several places rifacimenti of the metres 

 printed on small slips of paper pasted over the 

 former readings (a practice he adopted also in his 

 MS. works), in which remaking, in his own idea, 

 he had striven even for greater improvement. 

 There are also on the face of the print numerous 

 pen and ink emendations in an old hand, those 

 likely of some clerical brother who had carefully 

 "considered" the version agreeably to the au- 

 thor's advice. From the version authorised by 

 the Assembly, in 1650, his did not carry the day; 

 but he had the honour of sharing in a Minute by 

 the Commissioners of the Assembl3', " how usefull 

 their travells have been in the correcting of the 

 Old Paraphrase of the Psalmes, and in compiling 

 the New, Doe therefore returne their heartie 

 thanks for these their labours," &c. 



With an equal zeal he had employed much of 

 his attention in a metrical translation of the "Holy 

 Songs of the Old and New Testament." The 

 first edition of them which I find, is " Printed at 

 Glasgow by George Anderson, 1648 (forming the 

 last part of the 2nd vol. 8vo. of the "Garden of 

 Zion," by the same printer, and dated a year 

 earlier), which he dedicated to the " Royall Lady 

 Mary, his Majesties Elder Daughter, Princessc of 

 Orange." " To the Reader," he says : — 



" I as yet have known none that in poesie hath turned 

 all the Songs of Scripture, except llieodore Bezc, who 

 hath done it very accurately in the French tongue. If 

 the So7ig of Songs, and the Songs of J}Ioses, DehoraJi, 

 Hannah, Ezehiah, Mary, Simeon, and Zechariah, and 

 divers others, be so heavenly as all maj' see, it were to be 

 wished that in the Church tliey had place to be sung with 

 the Psalmes of David, unto the which they are not in- 

 feriour." 



He published them also with his Psalms in 

 1646, and in the subsequent edition, dated "From 

 Glasgow, 27 of February, 1648," in an Address 

 " To the right Reverend the faithfuU Ministers of 

 God's AVord of the Church of Scotland" he notices 

 " That it pleased You in the Generall Assembly last, at 

 Edinburgh, Anno 1647, to take to your consideration the 

 great utility the Church of God may have by the Songs 

 contained in Holy Scriptures. After due deliberation, it 

 pleased You to ordain that I should labour in that work : 

 In obedience to Yon, I have endeavoured to come as neer 

 to the Text as was possible for me to do. And those my 

 labours, I in all humility offer to be considered," &c. 



And in conformity to his statement in the pre- 

 ceding, the Assembly, by a Minute of 28th Aug., 

 same year, "doth further recommend that Mr. 

 Zachary Boyd be at the paines to translate the 

 other Scripturall Songs in meeter, and to report 

 his iravells also to the Commissioners of the As- 



