Two fathers join'd to rob my claim of one!
My mother too thought fit to have no fon !
The fenate next, whofe aid the helpless own,
Forgot my infant wrongs, and mine alone!
Yet parents pitiless, nor peers unkind,
Nor titles loft, nor woes mysterious join'd,
Strip me of hope-by heaven thus lowly laid,
To find a Pharaoh's daughter in the shade,

You cannot hear unmov'd when wrongs implore, Your heart is woman, though your mind be more; Kind, like the power who gave you to our prayers, You would not lengthen life to sharpen cares: They who a barren leave to live beftow, Snatch but from death to facrifice to woe. Hated by her, from whom my life I drew, Whence fhould I hope, if not from Heaven and You? Nor dare I groan beneath affliction's rod, My Queen, my mother; and my father, God.

The pitying Mufes faw me wit pursue,

A Baftard Son, alas! on that fide too,
Did not your eyes exalt the poet's fire,
And what the Mufe denies, the Queen inspire;
While rifing thus your heavenly foul to view,
I learn, how Angels think, by copying You.
Great Princess! 'tis decreed-once every year
I march uncall'd your Laureat Volunteer;
Thus fhall your poet his low genius raife,

And charm the world with truths too vaft for praife.
Nor need I dwell on glories all your own,
Since furer means to tempt your fmiles are known;
Your poet fhall allot your Lord his part,

And paint him in his nobleft throne, your heart.
Is there a greatness that adorns him best,

A rifing with that ripens in his breast?

Has he fore-meant fome diftant age to blefs,
Difarm oppreffion, or expel diftrefs?

VOL. III

X

Plans

Plans he fome scheme to reconcile mankind,
People the feas, and busy every wind?
Would he, by pity, the deceiv'd reclaim,
And smile contending factions into fhame?
Would his example lend his laws a weight,
And breathe his own foft morals o'er his state?
The Mufe fhall find it all, fhall make it feen,
And teach the world his praife, to charm his Queen.
Such be the annual truths my verfe imparts,
Nor frown, fair Favourite of a people's hearts!
Happy if plac'd perchance, beneath your eye,
My Muse unpenfion'd might her pinions try,
Fearless to fail, while you indulge her flame,
And bid me proudly boaft your Laureat's name;
Renobled thus by wreaths my Queen bestows,
I lofe all memory of wrongs and woes.

Such was the performance, and fuch its reception} a reception which, though by no means unkind, was yet not in the higheft degree generous: to chain down the genius of a writer to an annual panegyric fhewed in the Queen too much defire of hearing her own praises, and a greater regard to herself than to him on whom her bounty was conferred. It was a kind of avaricious generofity, by which flattery was rather pur chafed than genius rewarded.

Mrs. Oldfield had formerly given him the fame allowance with much more heroic intention; fhe had no other view than to enable him to profecute his ftudies, and to fet himself above the want of affiftance, and was contented with doing good without ftipulating for encomiums.

Mr. Savage however was not at liberty to make exceptions, but was ravifhed with the favours which he had received, and probably yet more with those which

he

he was promifed; he confidered himself now as a favourite of the Queen, and did not doubt but a few annual poems would establish him in fome profitable employment.

He therefore affumed the title of Volunteer Laureat, not without some reprehenfions from Cibber, who informed him, that the title of Laureat was a mark of honour conferred by the King, from whom all honour is derived, and which therefore no man has a right to bestow upon himself; and added, that he might, with equal propriety, style himself a Volunteer Lord, or Volunteer Baronet. It cannot be denied that the remark was juft; but Savage did not think any title, which was conferred upon Mr. Cibber, fo honourable as that the ufurpation of it could be imputed to him as an inftance of very exorbitant vanity, and therefore continued to write under the fame title, and received every year the fame reward.

He did not appear to confider thefe encomiums as tefts of his abilities, or as any thing more than annual hints to the Queen of her promife, or acts of ceremony, by the performance of which he was intitled to his pension, and therefore did not labour them with great diligence, or print more than fifty each year, except that for fome of the last years he regularly inferted them in The Gentleman's Magazine, by which they were difperfed over the kingdom.

Of fome of them he had himself fo low an opinion, that he intended to omit them in the collection of poems, for which he printed propofals, and folicited fubfcriptions; nor can it seem strange, that being confined to the fame fubject, he should be at some times indolent, and at others unfuccefsful; that he should

fometimes delay a disagreeable task, till it was too late to perform it well; or that he should sometimes repeat the fame fentiment on the fame occafion, or at others be misled by an attempt after novelty to forced conceptions and far-fetched images.

He wrote indeed with a double intention, which fupplied him with fome variety; for his business was to praise the Queen for the favours which he had received, and to complain to her of the delay of those which the had promifed: in fome of his pieces, therefore, gratitude is predominant, and in fome difcontent; in fome he reprefents himself as happy in her patronage, and in others as difconfolate to find himself neglected.

Her promife, like other promifes made to this unfortunate man, was never performed, though he took fufficient care that it fhould not be forgotten. The publication of his Volunteer Laurcat procured him no other reward than a regular remittance of fifty pounds.

He was not fo depreffed by his difappointments as to neglect any opportunity that was offered of advancing his intereft. When the Princefs Anne was married, he wrote a poem upon her departure, only, as he declared," because it was expected from him," and he was not willing to bar his own profpects by any appearance of neglect.

He never mentioned any advantage gained by this poem, or any regard that was paid to it; and therefore it is likely that it was confidered at court as an act of duty to which he was obliged by his dependence, and which it was therefore not neceffary to reward by

*Printed in the late collection,

any

A MM M

309 any new favour: or perhaps the Queen really intended his advancement, and therefore thought it fuperfluous to lavish presents upon a man whom the intended to establish for life.

About this time not only his hopes were in danger of being fruftrated, but his penfion likewife of being obftructed, by an accidental calumny. The writer of The Daily Courant, a paper then published under the direction of the ministry, charged him with a crime, which, though not very great in itfelf, would have been remarkably invidious in him, and might very justly have incenfed the Queen against him. He was accused by name of influencing elections against the court, by appearing at the head of a tory mob; nor did the accufer fail to aggravate his crime, by reprefenting it as the effect of the most atrocious ingratitude and a kind of rebellion against the Queen, who had first preserved him from an infamous death, and afterwards diftinguished him by her favour, and fupported him by her charity. The charge, as it was open and confident, was likewife by good fortune very particular. The place of the tranfaction was mentioned, and the whole series of the rioter's conduct related. This exactness made Mr. Savage's vindication eafy; for he never had in his life feen the place which was declared to be the scene of his wickedness, nor ever had been prefent in any town when its reprefentatives were chofen. This anfwer he therefore made hafte to publish, with all the circumftances neceffary to make it credible; and very reasonably demanded, that the accufation should be retracted in the fame paper, that he might no longer fuffer the imputation of fedition and ingratitude. This demand was likewife preffed by X 3

him