hat such weakness is very common,
and that there are few who do not sometimes, in the wantonness of
thoughtless mirth, or the heat of transient resentment, speak of their
friends and benefactors with levity and contempt, though in their cooler
moments they want neither sense of their kindness nor reverence for
their virtue; the fault, therefore, of Mr. Savage was rather negligence
than ingratitude. But Sir Richard must likewise be acquitted of
severity, for who is there that can patiently bear contempt from one
whom he has relieved and supported, whose establishment he has laboured,
and whose interest he has promoted?

He was now again abandoned to fortune without any other friend than
Mr. Wilks; a man who, whatever were his abilities or skill as an actor,
deserves at least to be remembered for his virtues, which are not often
to be found in the world, and perhaps less often in his profession than
in others. To be humane, generous, and candid is a very high degree of
merit in any case; but those qualifications deserve still greater praise
when they are found in that condition which makes almost every other
man, for whatever reason, contemptuous, insolent, petulant, selfish, and
brutal.

As Mr. Wilks was one of those to whom calamity seldom complained without
relief, he naturally took an unfortunate wit into his protection, and
not only assisted him in any casual distresses, but continued an equal
and steady kindness to the time of his death. By this interposition Mr.
Savage once obtained from his mother fifty pounds, and a promise of one
hundred and fifty more; but it was the fate of this unhappy man that
few promises of any advantage to him were performed. His mother was
infected, among others, with the general madness of the South Sea
traffic; and having been disappointed in her expectations, refused to
pay what perhaps nothing but the prospect of sudden affluence prompted
her to promise.

Being thus obliged to depend upon the friendship of Mr. Wilks, he was
consequently an assiduous frequenter of the theatres: and in a short
time the amusements of the stage took such possession of his mind
that he never was absent from a play in several years. This constant
attendance naturally procured him the acquaintance of the players,
and, among others, of Mrs. Oldfield, who was so much pleased with his
conversation, and touched with his misfortunes, that she allowed him
a settled pension of fifty pounds a year, which was dur