with decency,
but with cheerfulness; nor was his gaiety clouded even by his last
disappointments, though he was in a short time reduced to the lowest
degree of distress, and often wanted both lodging and food. At this time
he gave another instance of the insurmountable obstinacy of his spirit:
his clothes were worn out, and he received notice that at a coffee-house
some clothes and linen were left for him: the person who sent them did
not, I believe, inform him to whom he was to be obliged, that he might
spare the perplexity of acknowledging the benefit; but though the offer
was so far generous, it was made with some neglect of ceremonies, which
Mr. Savage so much resented that he refused the present, and declined
to enter the house till the clothes that had been designed for him were
taken away.

His distress was now publicly known, and his friends therefore thought
it proper to concert some measures for his relief; and one of them
[Pope] wrote a letter to him, in which he expressed his concern "for
the miserable withdrawing of this pension;" and gave him hopes that in
a short time he should find himself supplied with a competence, "without
any dependence on those little creatures which we are pleased to
call the Great." The scheme proposed for this happy and independent
subsistence was, that he should retire into Wales, and receive an
allowance of fifty pounds a year, to be raised by a subscription, on
which he was to live privately in a cheap place, without aspiring any
more to affluence, or having any further care of reputation. This offer
Mr. Savage gladly accepted, though with intentions very different from
those of his friends; for they proposed that he should continue an exile
from London for ever, and spend all the remaining part of his life at
Swansea; but he designed only to take the opportunity which their scheme
offered him of retreating for a short time, that he might prepare his
play for the stage, and his other works for the press, and then to
return to London to exhibit his tragedy, and live upon the profits
of his own labour. With regard to his works he proposed very great
improvements, which would have required much time or great application;
and, when he had finished them, he designed to do justice to his
subscribers by publishing them according to his proposals. As he was
ready to entertain himself with future pleasures, he had planned out a
scheme of life for the country, of which he had no knowled