lose the remembrance of an injury. He always continued to fpeak with anger of the infolence and partiality of Page, and a fhort time before his death revenged it by a satire *.

It is natural to enquire in what terms Mr. Savage fpoke of this fatal action, when the danger was over, and he was under no neceffity of ufing any art to fet his conduct in the faireft light. He was not willing to dwell upon it; and, if he tranfiently mentioned it, appeared neither to confider himfelf as a murderer, nor as a man wholly free from the guilt of bloodt. How much and how long he regretted it, appeared in a poem which he published many years afterwards. On occafion of a copy of verfes, in which the failings of good men were recounted, and in which the author had endeavoured to illuftrate his pofition, that "the " beft may fometimes deviate from virtue," by an inftance of murder committed by Savage in the heat of wine, Savage remarked, that it was no very just reprefentation of a good man, to fuppofe him liable to drunkennefs, and difpofed in his riots to cut throats.

* Printed in the late collection.

+ In one of his letters he ftyles it " a fatal quarrel, but too-well known."

He was now indeed at liberty, but was, as before, without any other fupport than accidental favours and uncertain patronage afforded him; fources by which he was fometimes very liberally fupplied, and which at other times were fuddenly ftopped; so that he spent his life between want and plenty; or, what was yet worse, between beggary and extravagance; for as whatever he ceived was the gift of chance, which might as well favour him at one time as another, he was tempted to fquander what he had, because he always hoped to be immediately fupplied,

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Another cause of his profufion was the abfurd kindness of his friends, who at once warded and enjoyed his abilities, by treating him at taverns, and habituating him to pleafures which he could not afford to enjoy and which he was not able to deny him felf, though he purchased the luxury of a figle night by the anguish of cold and hunger a week,

for

The experience of thefe inconveniences determined him to endeavour after fome fet

tled income, which, having long found fubmiffion and intreaties fruitless, he attempted to extort from his mother by rougher methods. He had now, as he acknowledged, loft that tenderness for her, which the whole series of her cruelty had not been able wholly to reprefs, till he found, by the efforts which she made for his deftruction, that she was not content with refusing to affist him, and being neutral in his struggles with poverty, but was as ready to fnatch every opportunity of adding to his misfortunes, and that fhe was to be considered as an enemy implacably malicious, whom nothing but his blood could fatisfy. He therefore threatened to harass her with lampoons, and to publish a copious narrative of her conduct, unless she confented to purchase an exemption from infamy, by allowing him a pension.

This expedient proved fuccefsful. Whether fhame ftill furvived, though virtue was extinct, or whether her relations had more delicacy than herself, and imagined that some of the darts which fatire might point at her would glance upon them; Lord Tyrconnel, whatever were his motives, upon his promise

to

to lay afide his defign of expofing the cru elty of his mother, received him into his family, treated, him as his, equal, and engaged to allow him a pension of two hundred pounds a year.

This was the golden part of Mr. Savage's life; and for fome time he had no reafon to complain of fortune; his appearance was fplendid, his expences large, and his acquaintance extenfive. He was courted by all who endeavoured to be thought men of genius, and careffed by all who valued themfelves upon a refined tafte. To admire Mr. Savage, was a proof of difcernment; and to be acquainted with him, was a title to poetical reputation. His prefence was fufficient to make any place of public entertainment popular; and his approbation and example conftituted the fashion. So powerful is genius, when it is invested with the glitter of affluence! Men willingly pay to fortune that regard which they owe to merit, and are pleafed when they have an opportunity at once of gratifying their vanity, and practising their duty.

This interval of profperity furnished him with opportunities of enlarging his knowledge of human nature, by contemplating life from its higheft gradations to its loweft; and, had he afterwards applied to dramatic poetry, he would perhaps not have had many fuperiors; for as he never suffered any fcene to pafs before his eyes without notice, he had treasured in his mind all the different combinations of paffions, and the innumerable mixtures of vice and virtue, which diftinguish one character from another; and, as his conception was ftrong, his expreffions were clear, he cafily received impreffions from objects, and very forcibly tranfmitted them to others,

Of his exact obfervations on human life he has left a proof, which would do honour to the greatest names, in a small pamphlet, called, The Author to be let*, where he introduces Ifcariot Hackney, a prostitute fcribbler, giving an account of his birth, his education, his difpofition and morals, habits of life, and maxims of conduct. In the introduction are related many fecret histories of

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Printed in his Works, vol. II. p. 231.

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