[The following elegant Latin ode, as Mr. Malone states, was But I should think myself much wanting, many years ago pointed out to both to my illustrious friend and my readJames Bindley, Esq. as written by John-ers, did I not introduce here, with more son, and may safely be attributed to him:

[It is stated by Hawkins: we shall see all through this work, the very peculiar value which Johnson set on conversational powers; and there seems no reason to doubt that Dr. Birch's conversation exceeded his writings in vivacity. The editor has seen a MS. letter of Bishop Warbur-particular affair are uncalled for, as the debt was ton's, in which he insists, in his usual decisive tone, on the poor use which Birch made in his writings of the materials which he possessed. ED.]

It is melancholy to reflect, that Johnson and Savage were sometimes in such extreme indigence3, that they could not pay for a lodging; so that they have wandered together whole nights in the streets. Yet weapon, may be inferred from the use made of it in that rash encounter which is related in his Life." The dexterity here alluded to was, that Savage, in a nocturnal fit of drunkenness, stabbed which he was tried at the Old Bailey, and found guilty of murder.

a man at a coffee-house, and killed him: for

thing in 1744 for the Gentleman's Magazine but the Prefacet. His life of Barretier was now re-published in a pamphlet by itself. But he produced one work this year, fully sufficient to maintain the high reputation which he had acquired. This was "THE LIFE OF RICHARD SAVAGE*;" a man of whom it is difficult to speak impartially, without wondering that he was for some time the intimate companion of Johnson; for his character was marked by profligacy, insolence, and ingratitude: yet, as he undoubtedly had a warm and vigorous, though unregulated mind, had seen life in all its varieties, had been much in the company of the statesmen and wits of his time, he could communicate to Johnson an abundant supply of such materials as his philosophical curiosity most eagerly desired; and as Savage's misfortunes and misconduct had reduced him to the lowest state of wretch-Magazine for April, 1738, which I am assured edness as a writer for bread, his visits to St. John's Gate naturally brought Johnson and him together 2.

little doubt that from his connexion with that work he derived for some years the chief and almost the only means of subsistence for himself and his wife: perhaps he may have acted as general editor with an annual allowance, and he no doubt employed himself on more literary works than have been acknowledged. In this point the public loss is perhaps not great. What he was unwilling to avow we need not be very solicitous to discover. Indeed his personal history is about this period a blank, hidden, it is to be feared, in the obscurity of indigence; and we cannot but think with a tender commiseration of the "distress" of such a man, rendered more poignant by being shared with a woman whom he so tenderly loved.-Ed.]

As a specimen of Savage's temper, I insert the following letter from him to a noble lord [Tyrconnel], to whom he was under great obligations, but who, on account of his bad conduct, was obliged to discard him. The original was in the hands of the late Francis Cockayne Cust, Esq. one of his majesty's counsel learned in the law:

"Right Honourable BRUTE and BOOBY.
"I find you want (as Mr. is pleased to
hint) to swear away my life, that is, the life of
your creditor, because he asks you for a debt.
The publick shall soon be acquainted with this,
to judge whether you are not fitter to be an Irish
evidence, than to be an Irish peer.-I defy and
despise you.-I am, your determined adversary,
R. S."-BoSWELL.

2 Sir John Hawkins gives the world to understand, that Johnson," being an admirer of genteel manners, was captivated by the address and demeanour of Savage, who, as to his exterior, was to a remarkable degree accomplished."-Hawkins's Life, p. 52. But Sir John's notions of gentility must appear somewhat ludicrous, from his stating the following circumstance as presumptive evidence that Savage was a good swordsman: "That he understood the exercise of a gentleman's

Johnson, indeed, describes him as having "a grave and manly deportment, a solemn dignity of mien; but which, upon a nearer acquaintance, softened into an engaging easiness of manners." How highly Johnson admired him for that knowledge which he himself so much cultivated, and what kindness he entertained for him, appears from the following lines in the Gentleman's

were written by Johnson:

"Ad RICARDUM SAVAGE. "Humani studium generis cui pectore fervet O colat humanum te foveatque genus.”—BOSWELL. [Boswell should have stated his authority for attributing this poor, obscure, and harsh couplet Magazine (which Boswell, more prudently than to Johnson. The absurd title prefixed to it in the candidly, sinks) is still less in Johnson's manner, and reminds us of Marat and Anacharsis Clootz.

"Ad Ricardum Savage,

Humani generis Amatorem !!!”

If Johnson wrote this sad stuff, it was probably before he knew much of Savage. They were not, as he himself said, acquainted till after London was written. Now London was written in 1738, and finished, probably in March, certainly in April; and Johnson was in negotiation with Cave and Dodsley for the sale of it when this epigram was published. Perhaps, at this time, Johnson supposed Savage to stand high in the opinion of Cave, and may have hoped to propitiate the latter by praise of the former, as there is reason to suspect he did, about the same time, in the cases of Miss Carter and Dr Birch. (See ante, p. 64. note.)-Ed.]

3 The following striking proof of Johnson's extreme indigence, when he published the Life of Savage, was communicated to Mr. Boswell, by Mr. Richard Stowe of Apsley, in Bedfordshire, from the information of Mr. Walter Harte, author of the Life of Gustavus Adolphus:

"Soon after Savage's Life was published, Mr. Harte dined with Edward Cave, and occasionally praised it. Soon after meeting him, Cave said, you made a man very happy t'other day.'-' How could that be?' says Harte; nobody was there but ourselves.' Cave answered, by reminding him that a plate of victuals was sent behind a screen, which was to Johnson, dressed so shabbily, that he did not choose to appear; but on hearing the conversation, he was highly delighted with the encomiums on his book."-MALONE.

4 As Johnson was married before he settled in London, and must have always had a habitation for his wife, some readers have wondered how he

in these almost incredible scenes of distress, we may suppose that Savage mentioned many of the anecdotes with which Johnson afterwards enriched the life of his unhappy companion, and those of other poets.

He told Sir Joshua Reynolds, that one night in particular, when Savage and he walked round St. James's-square for want of a lodging, they were not at all depressed by their situation; but, in high spirits and brimful of patriotism, traversed the square for several hours, inveighed against the minister, and "resolved they would stand by their country.”

I am afraid, however, that by associating with Savage, who was habituated to the dissipation and licentiousness of the town, Johnson, though his good principles remained steady, did not entirely preserve that conduct, for which, in days of greater simplicity, he was remarked by his friend Mr. Hector; but was imperceptibly led into some indulgences which occasioned much distress to his virtuous mind1.

That Johnson was anxious that an authentick and favourable account of his extraordinary friend should first get possession of the publick attention, is evident from a letter which he wrote in the Gentleman's Magazine for August of the year preceding its publication.

"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, entreat you to inform the publick, 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 romantick 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.]

ever could have been driven to stroll about with Savage, all night, for want of a lodging. But it should be remembered, that Johnson, at different periods, had lodgings in the vicinity of London; and his finances certainly would not admit of a double establishment. When, therefore, he spent a convivial day in London, and found it too late to return to any country residence he may occasionally have had, having no lodging in town, he was obliged to pass the night in the manner described above; for though, at that period, it was not uncommon for two men to sleep together, Savage, it appears, could accommodate him with nothing but his company in the open air.-The epigram given above, which doubtless was written by Johnson, shows, that their acquaintance commenced before April, 1738. See p. 103, n.— MALONE. [Mr. Malone appears to have forgotten that Sir J. Hawkins relates, that about this period of Johnson's intimacy with Savage, a kind of separation took place between him and his wife, who went to reside with some relations near the Tower: this was, probably, part of the period posing that this temporary separation was prowhich Johnson calls their distress; which, if Mr. duced by pecuniary distress, and not by an interMalone's anecdote of the plate of victuals sent be- ruption of affection. Johnson would be naturally hind the screen be correct, must have extended to, solicitous that his wife should find in her own at least, 1744, and may, it is feared, have lasted family a temporary refuge from the want with a few years later. As to the inference Mr. Ma- which he was struggling. There never has exlone draws from the epigram, it may be observed, isted any human being, all the details of whose life, that it by no means proves any intimacy, and it all the motives of whose actions, all the thoughts has been shown in the last note that if any ac- of whose mind, have been so unreservedly brought quaintance existed at the time the epigram was before the publick; even his prayers, his most sewritten, it must have been very recent.-ED.] cret meditations, and his most scrupulous self re[Sir John Hawkins very uncharitably attri-proaches, have been laid before the world; and butes to the influence of Savage a separation there is not to be found, in all the unparalleled which took place (as he alone asserts), between mass of information thus exposed to us, a single Johnson and his wife about this period, "when trace to justify the accusation which Hawkins so she was harboured," as he expressess it, "by a wantonly and so odiously, and it may be assumed, friend near the Tower." This separation (if Haw- so falsely makes. Johnson's fate in this particukins be even so far correct) may be explained with-lar is a little hard; he is at once ridiculed for out any reference to Savage. The whole course being extravagantly uxorious, and censured for a of Johnsor's life and conduct warrants us in sup- profligate disregard of his wife.-ED.]

"No tenth transmitter of a foolish face."

But the fact is, that this poem was published some years before Johnson and Savage were acquainted.

In February, 1744, it accordingly came forth from the shop of Roberts, between whom and Johnson I have not traced any connexion, except the casual one of this publication. In Johnson's "Life of Savage," although it must be allowed that its acquainted 3, and in the whole of Johnson's It no where appears when they became moral is the reverse of" Respicere exem-life of his profligate friend there is no kind plar vitæ morumque jubebo,” a very useful lesson is inculcated, to guard men of warm passions from a too free indulgence of them;

and the various incidents are related in so clear and animated a manner, and illuminated throughout with so much philosophy, that it is one of the most interesting narratives in the English language2. Sir Joshua Reynolds told me, that upon his return from Italy he met with it in Devonshire, knowing nothing of its authour, and began to read it while he was standing with his arm leaning against a chimneypiece. It seized his attention so strongly, that, not being able to lay down the book till he had finished it, when he attempted to move, he found his arm totally benumbed. The rapidity with which this work was composed is a wonderful circumstance. Johnson has Aug. 19, 1773.

of date.

disquisition there appears a very strong It is remarkable, that in this biographical symptom of Johnson's prejudice against buted to the following causes: first, the players 4; a prejudice which may be attridefective that he was not susceptible of the imperfection of his organs, which were so fine impressions which theatrical excellence produces upon the generality of mankind; secondly, the cold rejections of his tragedy; and, lastly, the brilliant success of Garrick, who had been his pupil, who had come to London at the same time with him, not in self, and whose talents he undoubtedly a much more prosperous state than himrated low, compared with his own. His being outstripped by his pupil in the race of immediate fame, as well as of fortune, been heard to say, "I wrote forty-probably made him feel some indignation, eight of the printed octavo pages as thinking whatever might be Garrick's of the Life of Savage at a sitting; merits in his art, the reward was too great but then I sat up all night." He exhibits the genius of Savage to the cessful efforts of literary labour could atwhen compared with what the most sucbest advantage, in the specimens of his poe-tain. At all periods of his life Johnson try which he has selected, some of which are of uncommon merit. We, indeed, occasionally find such vigour and such point, as might make us suppose that the generous aid of Johnson had been imparted to his friend. Mr. Thomas Warton made this

remark to me; and, in support of it, quoted from the poem entitled "The Bastard," a line in which the fancied superiority of one "stamped in Nature's mint with ecstasy" is contrasted with a regular lawful descendant of some great and ancient family:

1 [There seems reason to Suppose that Cave sometimes permitted the name of another printer to appear on the title pages of books of which he was in fact the publisher; see ante, p. 53. In this case the fact is certain; as it appears from the letter to Cave, August, 1738 (ante, p. 62), that Johnson sold the work to him even before it was written.-ED.]

2

[It gives, like Raphael's Lazarus or Murillo's Beggar, pleasure as a work of art, while the original could only excite disgust. Johnson has spread over Savage's character the varnish, or rather the veil, of stately diction and extenuatory phrases, but cannot prevent the observant reader from seeing that the subject of this biograpical essay was, as Mr. Boswell calls him, "an ungrateful and insolent profligate;" and so little do his works show of that poetical talent for which he has been celebrated, that if it had not been for Johnson's embalming partiality, his works would probably be now as unheard of as they are unread.-ED.]

used to talk contemptuously of players; but in this work he speaks of them with peculiar acrimony; for which, perhaps, there centious and dissolute manners of those enwas formerly too much reason from the lito add, that in our own time such a change gaged in that profession. It is but justice has taken place, that there is no longer

room for such an unfavourable distinction.

His schoolfellow and friend, Dr. Taylor, told me a pleasant anecdote of Johnson's triumphing over his pupil, David Garrick. When that great actor had played some

3 [This acquaintance probably commenced in the spring of 1738; certainly not earlier, if it be true, that they first met at St. John's Gate, as Johnson was not known to Cave till February or March, 1738.-ED.]

4 [It is another of those remarkable inconsistencies in Johnson's character, before alluded to (p. 49), that as the first publication of this determined admirer of the metropolis was a satire on London, so the first production of this despiser of the stage should be a play! Mr. Boswell is obliged to admit what was too obvious to be concealed-but he does so with reluctance and great tenderness of expression-that Dr. Johnson envied Garrick, and we shall see that he even envied Sheridan, and to this source must, we fear, be attributed his "indignation" against players. This is no doubt a blot on Johnson's character, and we have seen, and shall see, too many instances of this infirmity.-ED.]