ther, which, though remarkably delicate and tender, is a proof how deep an impression it had upon his mind.

This must be at least acknowledged, which ought to be thought equivalent to many other excellencies, that this poem can promote no other purposes than thofe of virtue, and that it is written with a very ftrong fenfe of the efficacy of religion.

But my province is rather to give the hif tory of Mr. Savage's performances, than to display their beauties, or to obviate the criticifms which they have occafioned; and there fore I fhall not dwell upon the particular pasfages which deferve applause; I shall neither fhew the excellence of his descriptions, nor expatiate on the terrific portrait of fuicide, nor point out the artful touches, by which he has diftinguished the intellectual features of the rebels, who fuffered death in his laft canto. It is, however, proper to obferve, that Mr. Savage always declared the characters wholly fictitious, and without the leaft allufion to any real perfons or actions.

From

From a poem fo diligently laboured, and fo fuccefsfully finished, it might be reafonably expected that he should have gained confiderable advantage; nor can it, without fome degree of indignation and concern, be told, that he fold the copy for ten guineas, of which he afterwards returned two, that the two last sheets of the work might be reprinted, of which he had in his absence intrusted the correction to a friend, who was too indolent to perform it with accuracy.

A fuperftitious regard to the correction of his sheets was one of Mr. Savage's peculiarities: he often altered, revised, recurred to his firft reading or punctuation, and again adopted the alteration; he was dubious and irrefolute without end, as on a queftion of the last importance, and at last was feldom fatisfied: the intrufion or omiffion of a comma was fufficient to difcompose him, and he would lament an error of a fingle letter as a heavy calamity. In one of his letters relating to an impreffion of fome verses, he remarks, that he had, with regard to the correction of the proof, "a fpell upon him;" and indeed the anxiety with which he dwelt

upon the minutest and most trifling niceties, deferved no other name than that of fafcina tion.

That he fold fo valuable a performance for fo small a price, was not to be imputed either to neceffity, by which the learned and ingenious are often obliged to submit to very hard conditions; or to avarice, by which the bookfellers are frequently incited to opprefs that genius by which they are fupported; but to that intemperate defire of pleasure, and habitual flavery to his paffions, which involved. him in many perplexities. He happened at that time to be engaged in the pursuit of fome trifling gratification, and, being without money for the prefent occafion, fold his poem to the first bidder, and perhaps for the first price that was propofed, and would probably have been content with lefs, if less had been offered him.

This poem was addressed to the Lord Tyrconnel, not only in the first lines, but in a formal dedication filled with the highest strains of panegyric, and the warmest profeffions of gratitude, but by no means remarkable for delicacy of connection or elegance of style, These

6

Thefe praises in a fhort time he found himfelf inclined to retract, being difcarded by the man on whom he had bestowed them, and whom he then immediately discovered not to have deserved them. Of this quarrel, which every day made more bitter, Lord Tyrconnel and Mr. Savage affigned very different reafons, which might perhaps all in reality concur, though they were not all convenient to be alleged by either party. Lord Tyrconnel affirmed, that it was the conftant practice of Mr. Savage to enter a tavern with any company that propofed it, drink the moft expenfive wines with great profufion, and when the reckoning was demanded, to be without money: If, as it often happened, his company were willing to defray his part, the affair ended, without any ill confequences; but, if they were refractory, and expected that the wine should be paid for by him that drank it, his method of compofition was, to take them with him to his own apartment, affume the government of the house, and order the butler in an imperious manner to fet the best wine in the cellar before his company, who often drank fill they forgot the refpect due to the house

in

in which they were entertained, indulged themselves in the utmoft extravagance of merriment, practifed the moft licentious frolicks, and committed all the outrages of drunkenness.

Nor was this the only charge which Lord Tyrconnel brought against him: Having given him a collection of valuable books, ftamped with his own arms, he had the mortification to see them in a short time exposed to fale upon the ftalls, it being ufual with Mr. Savage, when he wanted a finall fum, to take his books to the pawnbroker.

Whoever was acquainted with Mr. Savage eafily credited both these accufations: for, having been obliged from his first entrance into the world to fubfift upon expedients, affluence was not able to exalt him above them; and so much was he delighted with wine and conversation, and so long had he been accustomed to live by chance, that he would at any time go to the tavern without fcruple, and truft for the reckoning to the liberality of his company, and frequently of company to whom he was very little known. This conduct indeed very feldom drew upon