present he seems merely a clever vagabond. Yet Dr. Johnson, who
could be so stern towards some of his contemporaries, condescended
to love the aforesaid vagabond, in a ponderous, elephantine way,
and deified him by writing the life of the ingrate, or an apology
therefor. Savage had, once upon a time, led the youthful Johnson more
than a few feet away from the path of rectitude, but the philosopher
forgave, without forgetting, the wiles of the tempter, and treated
him with a generosity by no means deserved. In the years of his
prosperity--and the remembrance did him credit--Johnson could never
forget that Savage and himself had been poor together, and had often
wandered through London with hardly a penny to show between them.

* * * * *

"It is melancholy to reflect," says Boswell, "that Johnson and Savage
were sometimes in such extreme indigence that they could not pay for
a lodging; so that they have wandered together whole nights in the
streets. Yet 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 this 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_."

* * * * *

The claim of Savage that he was the illegitimate son of the Countess
of Macclesfield--a claim which he was always asserting to the point of
coarseness--seems to have been the stock-in-trade of this vagabond's
life. There never was proof that the relationship which he thus
flaunted really existed; for, although the conduct of the Countess[A]
was unpardonable, the poet could never show that he had been the
mysterious infant which had this lady for its mother and Lord Rivers
for an unnatural father. The child disappeared, and nothing more was
ever known of its existence.

[Footnote A: Anne Mason, wife of Charles Gerrard, first Earl of
Macclesfield, was divorced from that nobleman by an Act of Parliament.
Another earl, Richard Savage, Lord Rivers, was the co-respondent.
This was the same Countess of Macclesfield who subsequently married
Cibber