arrowly escaped being blown up in the
castle of Rathfarnam. About the time of the conclusion of the war in
England, he left Ireland, and being shipwrecked, came to London in a
very necessitous condition. After he had made a short stay in the
metropolis, he travelled on foot to Cambridge, where his great
industry, and love of learning, recommended him to the notice of
several scholars, by whose assistance he became so compleat a master
of the Latin tongue, that in 1646 he published an English translation
of Virgil, which was printed in large 8vo. and dedicated to William
marquis of Hereford. He reprinted it at London 1654 in fol. with this
title; The Works of Publius Virgilius Maro, translated and adorned
with Sculptures, and illustrated with Annotations; which, Mr. Wood
tells us, was the fairest edition, that till then, the English press
ever produced. About the year 1654 our indefatigable author learned
the Greek language, and in four year's time published in fol. a
translation of Homer's Iliad, adorned with excellent sculptures,
illustrated with Annotations, and addressed to King Charles II. The
same year he published the Bible in a large fol. at Cambridge,
according to the translation set forth by the special command of King
James I. with the Liturgy and Articles of the Church of England, with
Chorographical Sculptures. About the year 1662 he went into Ireland,
then having obtained a patent to be made master of the revels there, a
place which Sir William Davenant sollicited in vain. Upon this
occasion he built a theatre at Dublin, which cost him 2000 l. the
former being ruined during the troubles. In 1664 he published in
London, in fol. a translation of Homer's Odyssey, with Sculptures, and
Notes. He afterwards wrote two heroic poems, one entitled the Ephesian
Matron, the other the Roman Slave, both dedicated to Thomas earl of
Ossory. The next work he composed was an Epic Poem in 12 Books, in
honour of King Charles I. but this was entirely lost in the fire of
London in September 1666, when Mr. Ogilby's house in White Fryars was
burnt down, and his whole fortune, except to the value of five pounds,
destroyed. But misfortunes seldom had any irretrievable consequences
to Ogilby, for by his insinuating address, and most astonishing
industry, he was soon able to repair whatever loss he sustained by any
cross accident. It was not long till he fell on a method of raising a
fresh sum of money. Procuring his house to be rebuil