 Smart was left alone, except for his cat Jeoffrey and the occasional gawker. It is very possible that he felt "homeless" during this time and surely felt that he was in a "limbo ... between public and private space". In London, only a few of his works were still being published. However, not everyone viewed Smart's "madness" as problematic, and Johnson defended him, sometimes seriously and sometimes comically, many times. A century later, Robert Browning later remarked that A Song to David was great because Smart was mad, and that the poem allowed him to rank alongside of Milton and Keats. It is no wonder that a few of his loyal friends did come to Mr. Potter's and free him.
