Literature, Principally Belletristic - University of Tennessee, Knoxville

· INTELLECTUAL LIFE IN THE COLONIAL SOUTH '
elegies. Educated in British schools in Yorkshire and perhaps at the College
of William and Mary, he was the most prolific poet of pre-Revolutionary
Virginia.238 He may also have been the best. Bolling had acquired a considerable
and perhaps thorough knowledge of French and Italian and
Latin and possibly Greek during his school years, and his verses show the
influence of not only the British poets of his time, but of several Italian
and French authors such as Moliere and Metastasio, the latter of whom
was born a generation before Bolling but outlived the colonial American.
Undoubtedly Bolling could have read these and other French and Italian
poets in translation, but there survive from the Virginian's hand several
pieces in Italian and French, and in his manuscripts he quotes Italian lines
a number of times. One Italian piece by him was published in the Columbian
Magazine, Volume II. He published under various pseudonyms, as
"Prometheus," and under his own name or initials.
The Imperial Magazine began in I760 and lasted through three vol·
umes.239 Bolling's first appearance, signed "Prometheus," seems to be "A
Song" published in April and June I76I (II, 2I5 and 325), in four qua­
trains beginning
Oh! wou'dst those know what secret charm
Will thy Myrtilla's hate disarm;
Leave all those little trifling arts,
Which only please more trifling hearts.24o
In August in this journal "Prometheus" was represented by translations :
"On Matrimony, From the French of M. de Voltaire" and "Daphne's
Speech to SYLVIA, in Tasso's Aminta, translated and humbly [inscribed?]
to M.E.R. of [Corvilla?]," each translation introduced by a quotation from
the author in his own language. With the latter are four lines of "Sylvia's
Answer," also by "Prometheus."241 In October (II, 552-553) Bolling
published a sixty-line "Complaint" beginning "0 Melancholy, pensive
maid," a poem he attributes to himself in the Huntington library manuscript.
In 1762 his first pieces in the July journal are witty or satiric, followed
by "Yo a TURTLE DOVE," introduced by three Latin lines from Ovid
and addressed to Delia,242 followed in turn by an ironic epitaph and another
ironic piece. In August appears one of his better lyrics, "0, if I cou'd!
imitated from the Italian, and very humbly inscribed to Miss Randolph, of
Chatsworth," twenty-six lines signed "Prometheus." On the same page is
"To Miss PATIY DANGERFIELD. Imitated from Aristo," introduced by
two Italian lines, and then "To an amiable young Lady, on her determina­
tion to live single," identified by Bolling as "Miss Betty Randolph." "Prome­
theus" continues to contribute poems on ladies, enigmas, and other subjects
through the September I762 issue. Others of Italian and French inspiration
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