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is crippled prose; and familiar images in laboured language have nothing to recommend them but absurd novelty, which, wanting the attractions of Nature, cannot please long. One excellence of 'The Splendid Shilling' is, that it is short. Disguise can gratify no longer than it deceives.

Field Sports; a Poem. Humbly addressed to his Royal Highness the Prince. London: Btagg, 1742, folio.

Hobbinol, or the Rural Games; a Burlesque Poem in Blank Verse, London: J. Stagg, 1740, 4to. Dedicated to Hogarth. Third edition 8vo. 1740.

RICHARD SAVAGE.

117

VOL II.

SAVAGE 1
1697-8-1743.

The Natural Son of Earl Rivers by the Countess of Macclesfield-Cruelty of his Mother-His Father's Death-His Godmother's Death-His Early Misfortunes-Lady Mason's kindness-Is placed with a Shoemaker-Becomes an Author by Profession-Sir Richard Steele interests himself in his behalf-His Two Comedies-Mrs. Oldfield's kindness-His Tragedy of 'Sir Thomas Overbury'-Aaron Hill's kindness-Publishes a Miscellany-Is tried for killing Mr. James Sinclair-Obtains a Pardon-Received into Lord Tyrconnel's family-Publishes 'The Wanderer,' a Poem-His Poem of The Bastard '-Assumes the office of Volunteer Laureat-Obtains a Pension from Queen Caroline-Loses his Pension on the Death of the Queen-Fruitless endeavours of Pope and others to serve him-His Irregular Life-His Retirement to Swansea-Death in a Prison at Bristol-Burial in the Churchyard of St. Peters,' Bristol-Works and Character.

Ir has been observed in all ages that the advantages of nature or of fortune have contributed very little to the promotion of happiness, and that those whom the splendour of their rank, or the extent of

1 Savage died on the 31st July, 1748, and in the 'Gentleman's Magazine' for August, 1748 (p. 416), is the following letter from Johnson, on the subject of his intended 'Life of Savage:'— "MR. URBAN,-As your collections show how often you have owed the ornaments of your poetical pages to the correspondence of the unfortunate and ingenious Mr. Savage, I doubt not but you have so much regard to his memory as to encourage any design that may have a tendency to the preservation of it from insults or calumnies; and therefore, with some degree of assurance, intreat you to inform the public, that his life will speedily be published by a person who was favoured with his confidence, and received from himself an account of most of the transactions which he proposes to mention, to the time of his retirement to Swansea, in Wales.

"From that period to his death in the prison of Bristol, the account will be continued from materials still less liable to objection; his own letters and those of his friends, some of which will be inserted in the work, and abstracts of others subjoined in the margin.

"It may be reasonably imagined that others may have the same design; but as it is not credible that they can obtain the same materials, it must be expected they will supply from invention the want of intelligence, and that under the title of 'The Life of Savage' they will publish only a novel, filled with romantic adventures and imaginary amours. You may, therefore, perhaps gratify the lovers of truth and wit, by giving me leave to inform them, in your Magazine, that my account will be published in 8vo. by Mr. Roberts, in Warwick Lane.' (No signature.)

On the 14th December, 1748, Johnson signed a receipt for fifteen guineas received from Cave, "for compiling and writing the Life of Richard Savage, Esq., deceased, and in full for all materials thereto applied and not found by the said Edward Cave;" and in February, 1744, was

their capacity, have placed upon the summit of human life have not often given any just occasion to envy in those who look up to them from a lower station; whether it be that apparent superiority incites great designs, and great designs are naturally liable to fatal miscarriages; or that the general lot of mankind is misery, and the misfortunes of those whose eminence drew upon them an universal attention have been more carefully recorded because they were more generally observed, and have in reality been only more conspicuous than those of others, not more frequent, or more severe.

That affluence and power, advantages extrinsic and adventitious, and therefore easily separable from those by whom they are possessed, should very often flatter the mind with expectations of felicity which they cannot give, raises no astonishment; but it seems rational to hope that intellectual greatness should produce better effects; that minds qualified for great attainments should first endeavour their own benefit; and that they who are most able to teach others the way to happiness should with most certainty follow it themselves

But this expectation, however plausible, has been very frequently disappointed. The heroes of literary as well as civil history have been very often no less remarkable for what they have suffered than for what they have achieved; and volumes have been written only to enumerate the miseries of the learned, and relate their unhappy lives and untimely deaths.

To these mournful narratives I am about to add the Life of Richard Savage, a man whose writings entitle him to an eminent rank in the classes of learning, and whose misfortunes claim a degree of compassion not always due to the unhappy, as they were often the consequences of the crimes of others rather than his own. In the year 1697, Anne Countess of Macclesfield,' having lived

published anonymously, in one vol. 8vo., p. 180, "An Account of the Life of Mr. Richard Savage, son of the Earl Rivers. London: printed for J. Roberts, in Warwick Lane, 1744." The Insertion of a single paragraph towards the end about Henley and Pope was the only addition which Johnson made to it in after life. "I wrote," he had been heard to say, "forty-eight octavo pages of the Life of Savage at a sitting; but then I sat up all night."-(Boswell by Croker, ed. 1847, p. 50.)

* Anne Mason, wife of Charles Gerrard Earl of Macclesfield of the first creation. The Ear! died in 1704, and was succeeded by his brother, who also dying without issue, the title became extinct.

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