ification, and, being without money for the present
occasion, sold his poem to the first bidder, and, perhaps, for the first
price that was proposed; and would, probably, have been content with
less, 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
panegyrick, and the warmest professions of gratitude, but by no means
remarkable for delicacy of connexion or elegance of style.

These praises, in a short time, he found himself inclined to retract,
being discarded 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 assigned
very different reasons, 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 constant practice of Mr. Savage to
enter a tavern with any company that proposed it, drink the most
expensive wines with great profusion, 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
consequences; but if they were refractory, and expected that the wine
should be paid for by him that drank it, his method of composition was,
to take them with him to his own apartment, assume the government of the
house, and order the butler, in an imperious manner, to set the best
wine in the cellar before his company, who often drank till they forgot
the respect due to the house in which they were entertained, indulged
themselves in the utmost extravagance of merriment, practised the most
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, stamped with his own
arms, he had the mortification to see them, in a short time, exposed to
sale upon the stalls, it being usual with Mr. Savage, when he wanted a
small sum, to take his books to the pawnbroker.

Whoever was acquainted with Mr. Savage easily credited both these
accusations; for having been obliged, from his first entrance into the
world, to subsist 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 bee