Page:The Lives of the Most Eminent English Poets, Volume 3.djvu/265

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SAVAGE.
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and that he thought it reasonable to believe, that he who obstructed the rise of a good man without reason, would for bad reasons promote the exaltation of a villain.

The clergy were universally provoked by this satire; and Savage, who, as was his constant practice, had set his name to his performance, was censured in "The Weekly Miscellany[1]" with severity, which he did not seem inclined to forget.

But

  1. A short satire was likewise published in the same paper, in which were the following lines:
    "For cruel murder doom'd to hempen death,
    Savage, by royal grace, prolong'd his breath.
    Well might you think he spent his future years
    In prayer, and fasting, and repentant tears.
    —But, O vain hope!—the truly Savage cries,
    "Priests, and their slavish doctrines, I despise.
    "Shall I ————
    "Who, by free-thinking to free action fir'd,
    "In midnight brawls a deathless name acquir'd,
    "Now stoop to learn of ecclesiastic men?—
    "—No, arm'd with rhyme, at priests I'll take my aim,
    "Though prudence bids me murder but their fame."
    "Weekly Miscellany."

    An answer was published in The Gentleman's Magazine," written by an unknown hand, from which the following lines are selected:

    "Transform'd by thoughtless rage, and midnight wine,
    From malice free, and push'd without design;

In