This unhappy gentleman, who led a course of life imbittered with the
most severe calamities, was not yet destitute of a friend to close his
eyes. It has been remarked of Cowley, who likewise experienced many of
the vicissitudes of fortune, that he was happy in the acquaintance of
the bishop of Rochester, who performed the last offices which can be
paid to a poet, in the elegant Memorial he made of his Life. Though Mr.
Savage was as much inferior to Cowley in genius, as in the rectitude of
his life, yet, in some respect, he bears a resemblance to that great
man. None of the poets have been more honoured in the commemoration of
their history, than this gentleman. The life of Mr. Savage was written
some years after his death by a gentleman, who knew him intimately,
capable to distinguish between his follies, and those good qualities
which were often concealed from the bulk of mankind by the abjectness of
his condition. From this account[1] we have compiled that which we now
present to the reader.

In the year 1697 Anne countess of Macclesfield, having lived for some
time on very uneasy terms with her husband, thought a public confession
of adultery the most expeditious method of obtaining her liberty, and
therefore declared the child with which she then was big was begotten by
the earl of Rivers. This circumstance soon produced a separation, which,
while the earl of Macclesfield was prosecuting, the countess, on the
10th of January 1697-8, was delivered of our author; and the earl of
Rivers, by appearing to consider him as his own, left no room to doubt
of her declaration. However strange it may appear, the countess looked
upon her son, from his birth, with a kind of resentment and abhorrence.
No sooner was her son born, than she discovered a resolution of
disowning him, in a short time removed him from her sight, and committed
him to the care of a poor woman, whom she directed to educate him as her