drawing of his pension;" and gave him hopes, that, in a
short time, he should find himself supplied with a competence, "without
any dependence on those little creatures which we are pleased to call
the great."

The scheme proposed for this happy and independent subsistence was, that
he should retire into Wales, and receive an allowance of fifty pounds a
year, to be raised by a subscription, on which he was to live privately
in a cheap place, without aspiring any more to affluence, or having any
further care of reputation.

This offer Mr. Savage gladly accepted, though with intentions very
different from those of his friends; for they proposed that he should
continue an exile from London for ever, and spend all the remaining part
of his life at Swansea; but he designed only to take the opportunity,
which their scheme offered him, of retreating for a short time, that he
might prepare his play for the stage, and his other works for the press,
and then to return to London to exhibit his tragedy, and live upon the
profits of his own labour.

With regard to his works, he proposed very great improvements, which
would have required much time, or great application; and, when he had
finished them, he designed to do justice to his subscribers, by
publishing them according to his proposals.

As he was ready to entertain himself with future pleasures, he had
planned out a scheme of life for the country, of which he had no
knowledge but from pastorals and songs. He imagined that he should be
transported to scenes of flowery felicity, like those which one poet has
reflected to another; and had projected a perpetual round of innocent
pleasures, of which he suspected no interruption from pride, or
ignorance, or brutality.

With these expectations he was so enchanted, that when he was once
gently reproached by a friend for submitting to live upon a
subscription, and advised rather by a resolute exertion of his abilities
to support himself, he could not bear to debar himself from the
happiness which was to be found in the calm of a cottage, or lose the
opportunity of listening, without intermission, to the melody of the
nightingale, which he believed was to be heard from every bramble, and
which he did not fail to mention as a very important part of the
happiness of a country life.

While this scheme was ripening, his friends directed him to take a
lodging in the liberties of the Fleet, that he might be secure from his
creditors,