world equally inclined to favour him; and he
observed with some discontent, that though he offered his works at half
a guinea, he was able to procure but a small number in comparison
with those who subscribed twice as much to Duck. Nor was it without
indignation that he saw his proposals neglected by the queen, who
patronised Mr. Duck's with uncommon ardour, and incited a competition
among those who attended the court who should most promote his interest,
and who should first offer a subscription. This was a distinction
to which Mr. Savage made no scruple of asserting that his birth, his
misfortunes, and his genius, gave a fairer title than could be pleaded
by him on whom it was conferred.

Savage's applications were, however, not universally unsuccessful; for
some of the nobility countenanced his design, encouraged his proposals,
and subscribed with great liberality. He related of the Duke of Chandos
particularly, that upon receiving his proposals he sent him ten guineas.
But the money which his subscriptions afforded him was not less
volatile than that which he received from his other schemes; whenever
a subscription was paid him, he went to a tavern; and as money so
collected is necessarily received in small sums, he never was able
to send his poems to the press, but for many years continued his
solicitation, and squandered whatever he obtained.

The project of printing his works was frequently revived; and as his
proposals grew obsolete, new ones were printed with fresher dates. To
form schemes for the publication was one of his favourite amusements;
nor was he ever more at ease than when, with any friend who readily
fell in with his schemes, he was adjusting the print, forming the
advertisements, and regulating the dispersion of his new edition,
which he really intended some time to publish, and which, as long
as experience had shown him the impossibility of printing the volume
together, he at last determined to divide into weekly or monthly
numbers, that the profits of the first might supply the expenses of the
next.

Thus he spent his time in mean expedients and tormenting suspense,
living for the greatest part in fear of prosecutions from his creditors,
and consequently skulking in obscure parts of the town, of which he was
no stranger to the remotest corners. But wherever he came, his address
secured him friends, whom his necessities soon alienated; so that he had
perhaps a more numerous acquaintance than an