66

"thankful to the Almighty, that, though he "has thought fit to vifit me (on my birthnight) with affliction, yet (fuch is his great goodness!) my affliction is not without alleviating circumstances. I murmur not; "but am all refignation to the divine will. "As to the world, I hope that I shall be en"dued by Heaven with that prefence of "mind, that ferene dignity in misfortune, "that conftitutes the character of a true no❝bleman; a dignity far beyond that of co"ronets; a nobility arifing from the juft "principles of philofophy, refined and exalt❝ed by thofe of christianity."

He continued five days at the officer's, in hopes that he should be able to procure bail, and avoid the neceffity of going to prifon. The ftate in which he paffed his time, and the treatment which he received, are very juftiy expreffed by him in a letter which he wrote to a friend: "The whole day," fays he," has been employed in various peoples' "filling my head with their foolish chimeri"cal fyftems, which has obliged me coolly

(as far as nature will admit) to digest, and "accommodate myfelf to, every different perfon's

A a 3

"perfon's way of thinking; hurried from

one wild fyftem to another, till it has quite "made a chaos of my imagination, and no

66

thing done promised-disappointed—or"dered to fend, every hour, from one part "of the town to the other.'

When his friends, who had hitherto careffed and applauded, found that to give bail and pay the debt was the fame, they all refused to preferve him from a prifon at the expence of eight pounds; and therefore, after having been for fome time at the officer's house, at an immenfe expence," as he obferves in his letter, he was at length removed to Newgate.

This expence he was enabled to support by the generosity of Mr. Nash at Bath, who, upon receiving from him an account of his condition, immediately fent him five guineas, and promised to promote his fubfcription at Bath with all his interest.

By his removal to Newgate, he obtained at least a freedom from fufpenfe, and rest from the disturbing viciffitudes of hope and disappointment; he now found that his

friends

friends were only companions, who were willing to share his gaiety, but not to partake of his misfortunes; and therefore he no longer expected any affistance from them.

It must however be obferved of one gensleman, that he offered to release him by paying the debt; but that Mr. Savage would not confent, I fuppose because he thought he had before been too burthenfome to him.

He was offered by fome of his friends, that a collection fhould be made for his enlargement; but he "treated the proposal," and declared," he should again treat it, with "difdain. As to writing any mendicant let66 ters, he had too high a spirit, and deter"mined only to write to fome ministers of "state, to try to regain his pension."

He continued to complain of those that had fent him into the country, and objected to them, that he had "loft the profits of his "play, which had been finished three years;" and in another letter declares his refolution to publish a pamphlet, that the world might know how " he had been used."

This pamphlet was never written; for he in a very short time recovered his usual tranquillity, and chearfully applied himself to more inoffensive ftudies. He indeed steadily declared, that he was promised a yearly allowance of fifty pounds, and never received half the fum; but he seemed to resign himfelf to that as well as to other misfortunes, and lose the remembrance of it in his amusements and employments.

The chearfulness with which he bore his confinement, appears from the following letter, which he wrote, January the 30th, to one of his friends in London:

I now write to you from my. confine

4

ment in Newgate, where I have been ever "fince Monday laft was fe'nnight, and "where I enjoy myself with much more

tranquillity than I have known for upwards "of a twelvemonth paft; having a room

entirely to myself, and pursuing the amufe"ment of my poetical ftudies, uninterrupted, "and agreeable to my mind. I thank the

Almighty, I am now all collected in my"felf; and, though my perfon is in confine

ment,

ત્

ment, my mind can expatiate on ample " and ufeful fubjects with all the freedom "imaginable. I am now more converfant "with the Nine than ever; and if, instead "of a Newgate-bird, I may be allowed to be "a bird of the Mufes, I affure you, Sir, I ❝fing very freely in my cage; fometimes "indeed in the plaintive notes of the night66 ingale; but, at others, in the chearful "strains of the lark.".

In another letter he obferves, that he ranges from one fubject to another, without confining himself to any particular task; and that he was employed one week upon one attempt, and the next upon another.

Surely the fortitude of this man deserves, at least, to be mentioned with applause; and, whatever faults may be imputed to him, the virtue of fuffering well cannot be denied him. The two powers which, in the opinion of Epictetus, conftituted a wife man, are those of bearing and forbearing, which cannot indeed be affirmed to have been equally poffeffed by Savage; and indeed the want of one obliged him very frequently to practise the other,

He