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HIS MOTHER.

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posed to have affected a woman who had proclaimed her crimes and solicited reproach, and on whom the clemency of the legislature had undeservedly bestowed a fortune, which would have been very little diminished by the expenses which the care of her child could have brought upon her. It was therefore not likely that she would be wicked without temptation; that she would look upon her son from his birth with a kind of resentment and abhorrence; and, instead of supporting, assisting, and defending him, delight to see him struggling with misery, or that she would take every opportunity of aggravating his misfortunes and obstructing his resources, and with an implacable and restless cruelty continue her persecution from the first hour of his life to the last.

But, whatever were her motives, no sooner was her son born than she discovered a resolution of disowning him; and in a very short time removed him from her sight by committing him to the care of a poor woman, whom she directed to educate him as her own, and enjoined never to inform him of his true parents.

Such was the beginning of the life of Richard Savage. Born with a legal claim to honour and to affluence, he was in two months illegitimated by the parliament, and disowned by his mother, doomed to poverty and obscurity, and launched upon the ocean of life only that he might be swallowed by its quicksands or dashed upon its rocks.

His mother could not indeed infect others with the same cruelty. As it was impossible to avoid the inquiries which the curiosity or tenderness of her relations made after her child, she was obliged to give some account of the measures she had taken; and her mother, the Lady Mason, whether in approbation of her design or to prevent more criminal contrivances, engaged to transact with the nurse, to pay her for her care, and to superintend the education of the child.

In this charitable office she was assisted by his godmother, Mrs. Lloyd, who while she lived always looked upon him with

8 Rather in fourteen months. He was born 16th January, 1696-7, and Villegitimated by Parliament" 15th March, 1697-8.

9

that tenderness which the barbarity of his mother made peculiarly necessary; but her death, which happened in his tenth year, was another of the misfortunes of his childhood; for though she kindly endeavoured to alleviate his loss by a legacy of three hundred pounds, yet, as he had none to prosecute his claim, to shelter him from oppression, or call in law to the assistance of justice, her will was eluded by the executors, and no part of the money was ever paid.1o

He was, however, not yet wholly abandoned. The Lady Mason still continued her care and directed him to be placed at a small grammar-school near St. Alban's, where he was called by the name of his nurse, without the least intimation that he had a claim to any other.11

Here he was initiated in literature, and passed through several of the classes, with what rapidity or with what applause cannot now be known. As he always spoke with respect of his master, it is probable that the mean rank in which he then appeared did not hinder his genius from being distinguished, or his industry from being rewarded; and if in so low a state he obtained distinction and rewards, it is not likely that they were gained but by genius and industry.

It is very reasonable to conjecture that his application was equal to his abilities, because his improvement was more

9 The person who took care of me, and as tenderly as the apple of her eye (the expression is in a letter of hers, a copy of which I found many years after her decease among her papers), was one Mrs. Lloyd, a lady that kept her chariot, and lived accordingly. But, alas! I lost her when I was but seven years of age.-SAVAGE to Mrs. Carter, May 10, 1739.

10 If there was such a legacy left, his not being able to obtain payment of it must be imputed to his consciousness that he was not the real person. The just inference should be, that by the death of Lady Macclesfield's child before its godmother, the legacy became lapsed, and therefore that Johnson's Richard Savage was an impostor. If he had a title to the legacy, he could not have found any difficulty in recovering it; for had the executors resisted his claims, the whole costs, as well as the legacy, must have been paid by them, if he had been the child to whom it was given.-BOSWELL, ed. Croker, p. 51.

Mr. Croker thinks this decisive. I confess I do not.

That I did pass under another name till I was seventeen years of age is truth, but not the name of any person with whom I lived.-SAVAGE to Mrs. Carter, May 10, 1739.

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HIS FATHER'S DEATH.

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than proportioned to the opportunities which he enjoyed; nor can it be doubted that, if his earliest productions had been preserved like those of happier students, we might in some have found vigorous sallies of that sprightly humour which distinguishes The Author to be Let,' and in others strong touches of that imagination which painted the solemn scenes of The Wanderer.'

While he was thus cultivating his genius, his father, the Earl Rivers, was seized with a distemper which in a short time put an end to his life. He had frequently inquired after his son, and had always been amused with fallacious and evasive answers; but, being now in his own opinion on his death-bed, he thought it his duty to provide for him among his other natural children, and therefore demanded a positive account of him, with an importunity not to be diverted or denied. His mother, who could no longer refuse an answer, determined at least to give such as should cut him off for ever from that happiness which competence affords, and therefore declared that he was dead; which is perhaps the first instance of a lie invented by a mother to deprive her son of a provision which was designed him by another, and which she could not expect herself though he should lose it.

This was therefore an act of wickedness which could not be defeated, because it could not be suspected; the Earl did not imagine there could exist in a human form a mother that would ruin her son without enriching herself, and therefore bestowed upon some other person six thousand pounds which he had in his will bequeathed to Savage.13

12 He died 18th August, 1712. "Lord Rivers, who robbed his father, lived out of England for some years for fear of being hanged, and has always gone by the name of Dick of Tyburn, and is allowed by all people to be a man that is capable of all manner of villany."-SARAH, DUCHESS of MARLBOROUGH (Private Correspondence of, i. 249).

13 I have examined Lord Rivers's will, but there is no mention in it either of Savage or of the Countess of Macclesfield. The chief inheritor of his large fortune, of his house, "Rivers House," in Great Queen Street, and of his house at Ealing, in Middlesex, was "Mrs. Elizabeth Colleton, alias Johnson, one of the daughters of Sir Peter Colleton, Bart." 'Miss Bessy Savage," a girl under age, was the next largest inheritor. The executors were the Duke of Shrewsbury, and Harley, Earl of Oxford. The will contains liberal bequests to his

The same cruelty which incited his mother to intercept this provision which had been intended him prompted her in a short time to another project, a project worthy of such a disposition. She endeavoured to rid herself from the danger of being at any time made known to him, by sending him secretly to the American Plantations. 14

By whose kindness this scheme was counteracted, or by whose interposition she was induced to lay aside her design, I know not it is not improbable that the Lady Mason might persuade or compel her to desist; or perhaps she could not easily find accomplices wicked enough to concur in so cruel an action; for it may be conceived that those who had by a long gradation of guilt hardened their hearts against the sense of common wickedness would yet be shocked at the design of a mother to expose her son to slavery and want, to expose him without interest and without provocation; and Savage might on this occasion find protectors and advocates among those who had long traded in crimes, and whom compassion had never touched before.

Being hindered, by whatever means, from banishing him into arother country, she formed soon after a scheme for burying him in poverty and obscurity in his own; and, that his station of life, if not the place of his residence, might keep him for ever at a distance from her, she ordered him to be placed with a shoemaker in Holborn, that, after the usual time of trial, he might become his apprentice.13

servants and others. He desires to be decently buried at Macclesfield, in Cheshire, among his ancestors, and leaves 10007. for that purpose. He died unmarried. "Did I tell you of Lord Rivers's will? He has left legacies to about twenty paltry old whores by name, and not a farthing to any friend, dependent, or relation: he has left from his only child, Lady Barrymore, her mother's estate, and given the whole to his heir-male, a popish priest, a second cousin, who is now Earl Rivers, and whom he used in his life like a footman. After him it goes to his chief wench and bastard. Lord Treasurer and Lord Chamberlain executors of this hopeful will. I loved the man, but detest his memory."-SWIFT: Journal to Stella, 9 Oct. 1712.

14 Savage's Preface to his 'Miscellanies' [p. xi.]-JOHNSON.

'Miscellaneous Poems and Translations by Several Hands. Published by Richard Savage, son of the late Earl Rivers. London: printed for Samuel Chapman, at the Angel in Pall-Mall,' 1726, 8vo.

15 Savage's Preface to his Miscellanies.'-JOHNSON.

When I was about fifteen, her affection began to awake; and had I but

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HE DISCOVERS HIS PARENTS.

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It is generally reported that this project was for some time successful, and that Savage was employed at the awl longer than he was willing to confess; nor was it perhaps any great advantage to him that an unexpected discovery determined him to quit his occupation.

About this time his nurse, who had always treated him as her own son, died; and it was natural for him to take care of those effects which by her death were, as he imagined, become his own he therefore went to her house, opened her boxes, and examined her papers, among which he found some letters written to her by the Lady Mason, which informed him of his birth, and the reasons for which it was concealed.

He was no longer satisfied with the employment which had been allotted him, but thought he had a right to share the affluence of his mother; and therefore, without scruple, applied to her as her son, and made use of every art to awaken her tenderness and attract her regard. But neither his letters nor the interposition of those friends which his merit or his distress procured him made any impression upon her mind. She still resolved to neglect, though she could no longer disown him.

It was to no purpose that he frequently solicited her to admit him to see her; she avoided him with the most vigilant precaution, and ordered him to be excluded from her house, by whomsoever he might be introduced, and what reason soever he might give for entering it.

Savage was at the same time so touched with the discovery of his real mother that it was his frequent practice to walk in the dark evenings for several hours before her door, in hopes of seeing her as she might come by accident to the window or cross her apartment with a candle in her hand. 16

But all his assiduity and tenderness were without effect, for he could neither soften her heart nor open her hand, and was reduced to the utmost miseries of want while he was endeavourknown my interest, I had been handsomely provided for: in short, I was solicited to be bound apprentice to a very honest and reputable occupation--a shoemaker, an offer which I undutifully rejected (p. xi.).

16 See The Plain Dealer.'-JOHNSON. No. 28. By Aaron Hill, reprinted by Savage before his Miscellaneous Poems, 1726, 8vo.