Here a sheer hulk lies poor Tom Bowling,
  The darling of the crew ...

BOWYER (Master), usher of the black rod in the court of queen Elizabeth.—­Sir W. Scott, Kenilworth (time, Elizabeth).

BOWZYBE’US (4 syl.), the drunkard, rioted for his songs in Gray’s pastorals, called The Shepherd’s Week.  He sang of “Nature’s Laws,” of “Fairs and Shows,” “The Children in the Wood,” “Chevy Chase,” “Taffey Welsh,” “Rosamond’s Bower,” “Lilly-bullero,” etc.  The 6th pastoral is in imitation of Virgil’s 6th Ecl., and Bowzybeus is a vulgarized Silenus.

  That Bowzybeus, who with jocund tongue,
  Ballads, and roundelays, and catches sung. 
  Gay, Pastoral, vi. (1714).

BOX AND COX, a dramatic romance, by J. M. Morton, the principal characters of which are Box and Cox.

BOY BACHELOR (The), William Wotton, D.D., admitted at St. Catherine’s Hall, Cambridge, before he was ten, and to his degree of B.A. when he was twelve and a half (1666-1726).

BOY BISHOP (The), St. Nicholas, the patron saint of boys (fourth century).

(There was also an ancient custom of choosing a boy from the cathedral choir on St. Nicholas’ Day (December 6) as a mock bishop.  This boy possessed certain privileges, and if he died during the year was buried in pontificalibus.  The custom was abolished by Henry VIII.  In Salisbury Cathedral visitors are shown a small sarcophagus, which the verger says was made for a boy bishop.)

BOY BLUE (Little) is the subject of a poem in Eugene Field’s Little Book of Western Verse.

  The little toy-dog is covered with dust,
  But sturdy and staunch he stands;
  And the little toy-soldier is red with rust,
  And his musket moulds in his hands. 
  Time was when the little toy-dog was new,
  And the soldier was passing fair,
  And that was the time when our Little Boy Blue
  Kissed them and put them there.

  Ay, faithful to Little Boy Blue they stand,
  Each in the same old place,
  Awaiting the touch of a little hand,
  The smile of a little face. (1889.)

BOY CRUCIFIED. It is said that some time during the dark ages, a boy named Werner was impiously crucified at Bacharach, on the Rhine, by the Jews.  A little chapel erected to the memory of this boy stands on the walls of the town, close to the river.  Hugh of Lincoln and William of Norwich are instances of a similar story.

  See how its currents gleam and shine ... 
  As if the grapes were stained with the blood
  Of the innocent boy who, some years back,
  Was taken and crucified by the Jews
  In that ancient town of Bacharach.

Longfellow, The Golden Legend.

BOYET’, one of the lords attending on the princess of
France.—­Shakespeare, Love’s Labor’s Lost (1594).

BOYTHORN (Laurence), a robust gentleman with the voice of a Stentor; a friend of Mr. Jarndyce.  He would utter the most ferocious sentiments, while at the same time he fondled a pet canary on his finger.  Once on a time he had been in love with Miss Barbary, lady Dedlock’s sister.  But “the good old times—­all times when old are good—­were gone.”—­C.  Dickens, Bleak House (1853).