page_title: Richard Savage (poet)
section_title: Friendship with Samuel Johnson and final years
hierarchical_section_title: Richard Savage (poet) / Life / Friendship with Samuel Johnson and final years
caption_attribution_description: Francis Greenway - Father of Australian Architecture imprisoned here in 1812. Richard Savage - Poet &amp; Playwright died here in 1743. Bristol
context_page_description: Richard Savage was an English poet. He is best known as the subject of Samuel Johnson's Life of Savage, originally published anonymously in 1744, on which is based one of the most elaborate of Johnson's Lives of the English Poets.
context_section_description: It is not clear when Savage befriended writer Samuel Johnson, but it seems to have occurred in the latter years of the 1730s. How their friendship began is equally unclear, but Johnson relates having often accompanied Savage on his nighttime wanderings about London, where he witnessed the poet's poverty and frequent occurrences of public humiliation. These encounters provided much of the material for the Life of Savage. Johnson was fascinated by the independence, and the spirit of protest and outrage in Savage's character. He was also aware of the instability of mind which prevented Savage taking positive control of his life.
  In the meantime, Savage's financial situation worsened to the point that he had virtually no income. To save him from poverty, his longtime friend Alexander Pope launched a campaign involving several of his philanthropic acquaintances, including Ralph Allen, James Thomson and David Mallet. The purpose of this was to send Savage to Wales, where he could live with an annual allowance of £50. Pope also tried to push Savage into writing a letter to Sir William Leman, Mrs Brett's legitimate daughter's husband, begging him to intervene on his behalf with Lord Tyrconnel. Savage refused outright, a decision which was applauded by Johnson, since he considered the scheme to send Savage to Wales equivalent to exile.
  Savage did eventually leave London in July 1739, thus breaking up his friendship with Johnson, with whom he had become a close literary ally. By spending his entire allowance as soon as he received it, Savage quickly alienated all his benefactors except Pope.
  When in Wales, Savage lived in Swansea, then in England at Bristol, where he completed a new version of Sir Thomas Overbury. Harassed by creditors and abandoned by friends, Savage reverted to a nocturnal existence.
  On the night of 10 January 1743, Savage was arrested for a debt of eight pounds and confined in the debtors' section of the Bristol Newgate Prison. He died there on 1 August 1743, probably from liver failure brought on by drinking.
caption: Plaque on the wall of the old site of Bristol Newgate Prison
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