Mr. Wilks, by whom, says the author of his Life, he was pitied,
caressed, and relieved. Sir Richard Steele declared in his favour, with
that genuine benevolence which constituted his character, promoted his
interest with the utmost zeal, and taking all opportunities of
recommending him; he asserted, 'that the inhumanity of his mother had
given him a right to find every good man his father.' Nor was Mr. Savage
admitted into his acquaintance only, but to his confidence and esteem.
Sir Richard intended to have established him in some settled scheme of
life, and to have contracted a kind of alliance with him, by marrying
him to a natural daughter, on whom he intended to bestow a thousand
pounds. But Sir Richard conducted his affairs with so little oeconomy,
that he was seldom able to raise the sum, which he had offered, and the
marriage was consequently delayed. In the mean time he was officiously
informed that Mr. Savage had ridiculed him; by which he was so much
exasperated that he withdrew the allowance he had paid him, and never
afterwards admitted him to his house.

He was now again abandoned to fortune, without any other friend but Mr.
Wilks, a man 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 Mr. Wilks's interposition Mr.
Savage once obtained of 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 ever performed.

Being thus obliged to depend [Transcriber's note: 'depended' in
original] upon Mr. Wilks, he was an assiduous frequenter of the
theatres, and, in a short time, the amusements of the stage took such a
possession of his mind, that he was never absent from a play in several
years.

In the year 1723 Mr. Savage brought another piece on the stage. He made
choice of the subject of Sir Thomas Overbury: If the circumstances in
which he wrote it be considered, it will afford at once an uncommon
proof of strength of genius, and an evenness of mind not to be ruffled.
During a considerable part of the time in which he was employed upon
this performance, he was without lodging, and often without food; nor
had he any other conveniencies for study than the fields, or the street;
in which he used to walk, and form his speeches, and aft