Savage

Savage, RICHARD, claimed to be the natural and neglected son of Lord Rivers and the Countess of Macclesfield, and was born in 1697. Recent investigations lead to the almost irresistible conclusion that this story has no foundation Notes and Queries, 1858), and that it was invented by Savage for the purpose of levying blackmail on his alleged mother. Nothing certain is known of him until 1717, when he published The Convocation, an attack in verse on Bishop Hoadley. For some years as an actor and playwright he led a reckless, disorderly, and wretched existence, being in 1727 condemned to death for killing a man in a duel; he was pardoned, and shortly afterwards wrote The Bastard, a savage poetical onslaught on his mother, whose nephew, Lord Tyrconnel, gave him a pension. In a brief period of tranquillity he composed The Wanderer, his best performance, but soon quarrelled with his protector and again became an outcast. He supplied Pope with some materials for The Dunciad, and evidently produced a favourable impression on Johnson, who had but just come to London. By the efforts of his friends a small annuity was raised for him on condition that he lived in Wales. Thither he went in 1739, but soon tired of his exile, and started on his return to London, when death overtook him in 1743 at Bristol, where he had been imprisoned for debt.