which he
found some letters written to her by the lady Mason, which informed him
of his birth, and the reasons for which it was concealed.

He was no longer satisfied with the employment which had been allotted
him, but thought he had a right to share the affluence of his mother;
and, therefore, without scruple, applied to her as her son, and made use
of every art to awaken her tenderness, and attract her regard. But
neither his letters, nor the interposition of those friends which his
merit or his distress procured him, made any impression upon her mind.
She, still resolved to neglect, though she could no longer disown him.

It was to no purpose that he frequently solicited her to admit him to
see her: she avoided him with the most vigilant precaution, and ordered
him to be excluded from her house, by whomsoever he might be introduced,
and what reason soever he might give for entering it.

Savage was at the same time so touched with the discovery of his real
mother, that it was his frequent practice to walk in the dark
evenings[54] for several hours before her door, in hopes of seeing her
as she might come by accident to the window, or cross her apartment with
a candle in her hand.

But all his assiduity and tenderness were without effect, for he could
neither soften her heart nor open her hand, and was reduced to the
utmost miseries of want, while he was endeavouring to awaken the
affection of a mother. He was, therefore, obliged to seek some other
means of support; and, having no profession, became, by necessity, an
author.

At this time the attention of the literary world was engrossed by the
Bangorian controversy, which filled the press with pamphlets, and the
coffee-houses with disputants. Of this subject, as most popular, he made
choice for his first attempt, and, without any other knowledge of the
question than he had casually collected from conversation, published a
poem against the bishop[55].

What was the success or merit of this performance, I know not; it was
probably lost among the innumerable pamphlets to which that dispute gave
occasion. Mr. Savage was himself in a little time ashamed of it, and
endeavoured to suppress it, by destroying all the copies that he could
collect.

He then attempted a more gainful kind of writing[56], and, in his
eighteenth year, offered to the stage a comedy, borrowed from a Spanish
plot, which was refused by the players, and was, therefore, given by him
to Mr. Bullo