Poems in a very extraordinary manner, by publishing his story in the Plain Dealer* with fome affecting lines, which he afferts to have been written by Mr. Savage upon the treatment received by him from his mother, but of which he was himself the author, as Mr. Savage afterwards declared. These lines, and the paper in which they were inferted, had a very powerful effect upon all but his mother, whom, by making her cruelty more public, they only hardened in her averfion.

Mr. Hill not only promoted the subscrip tion to the Mifcellany, but furnished likewife the greatest part of the Poems of which it is compofed, and particularly The Happy Man, which he published as a fpecimen.

The fubfcriptions of thofe whom thefe, papers fhould influence to patronize merit in diftrefs, without any other folicitation, were directed to be left at Button's coffee

*The Plain Dealer was a periodical paper, written by Mr. Hill and Mr. Bond, whom Mr. Savage called the two contending powers of light and darkness. They wrote by turns each fix Effays; and the character of the work was obferved regularly to rife in Mr. Hill's weeks, and fall in Mr. Bond's.

house; and Mr. Savage going thither a few days afterwards, without expectation of any effect from his proposal, found to his surprise feventy guineas*, which had been fent him in confequence of the compaffion excited by Mr. Hill's pathetic representation.

To this Mifcellany he wrote a Preface, in which he gives an account of his mother's cruelty in a very uncommon ftrain of humour, and with a gaiety of imagination, which the fuccefs of his fubfcription probably produced.

The Dedication is addreffed to the Lady Mary Wortley Montague, whom he flatters without referve, and, to confess the truth, with very little tart. The fame obfervation

may

* The names of those who so generously contributed to his relief, having been mentioned in a former account, ought not to be omitted here. They were the Dutchess of Cleveland, Lady Cheyney, Lady Caftlemain, Lady Gower, Lady Lechmere, the Dutchefs Dowager and Dutchefs of Rutland, Lady Strafford, the Countefs Dowager of Warwick, Mrs. Mary Floyer, Mrs. Sofuel Noel, Duke of Rutland, Lord Gainsborough, Lord Milfington, Mr. John Savage.

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This the following extract from it will prove. "Since our country has been honoured with the glory of your wit, as elevated and immortal as your foul, it no " longer

may
be extended to all his Dedications: his
compliments are constrained and violent,
heaped together without the grace of order,
or the decency of introduction: he seems to
have written his Panegyrics for the perufal
only of his patrons, and to have imagined
that he had no other task than to pamper
them with praises however grofs, and that
flattery would make its way to the heart,
without the affiftance of elegance or invention.

Soon afterwards, the death of the king furnished a general fubject for a poetical contest, in which Mr. Savage engaged, and is allowed to have carried the prize of honour from his competitors; but I know not whether he gained

longer remains a doubt whether your sex have strength of "mind in proportion to their sweetness. There is something “ in your verses as diftinguished as your air.-They are as

ftrong as truth, as deep as reafon, as clear as innocence, "and as smooth as beauty-They contain a nameless and peculiar mixture of force and grace, which is at once fo movingly ferene, and fo majestically lovely, that it is too "amiable to appear any where but in your eyes and in writings.

your

"As fortune is not more my enemy than I am the enemy of flattery, I know not how I can forbear this application "to your Ladyfhip, because there is fcarce a poffibility that "I should fay more than I believe, when I am speaking of your Excellence.".

by his performance any other advantage than the increase of his reputation; though it must certainly have been with farther views that he prevailed upon himself to attempt a fpecies of writing, of which all the topics had been long before exhausted, and which was made at once difficult by the multitudes that had failed in it, and those that had fucceeded.

He was now advancing in reputation, and though frequently involved in very distressful perplexities, appeared however to be gaining upon mankind, when both his fame and his life were endangered by an event, of which it is not yet determined, whether it ought to be mentioned as a crime or a calamity.

On the 20th of November 1727, Mr. Savage came from Richmond, where he then lodged, that he might purfue his studies with less interruption, with an intent to discharge another lodging which he had in Weftminfter; and accidentally meeting two gentlemen his acquaintances, whofe names were Merchant and Gregory, he went in with them to a neighbouring coffee-houfe, and fat drinking

drinking till it was late, it being in no time of Mr. Savage's life any part of his character to be the first of the company that defired to separate. He would willingly have gone to bed in the fame houfe; but there was not room for the whole company, and therefore they agreed to ramble about the ftreets, and divert themselves with fuch amufements as fhould offer themselves till morning.

In this walk they happened unluckily to difcover a light in Robinson's coffee-house, near Charing-crofs, and therefore went in. Merchant, with fome rudenefs, demanded a room, and was told that there was a good fire in the next parlour, which the company were about to leave, being then paying their reckoning. Merchant, not fatisfied with this anfwer, rushed into the room, and was followed by his companions. He then petulantly placed himself between the company and the fire, and foon after kicked down the table. This produced a quarrel, fwords were drawn on both fides, and one Mr. James Sinclair was killed. Savage, having wounded likewise a maid that held him, forced