Page:The lives of the poets of Great Britain and Ireland to the time of Dean Swift - Volume 4.djvu/131

Rh a lady in the country; and another, intitled the Tea-Table: He had likewiſe planned a comedy which he intended to call The School of Action.——As Sir Richard was beloved when living, ſo his loſs was ſincerely regretted at his death. He was a man of undiſſembled, and extenſive benevolence; a friend to the friendleſs, and as far as his circumſtances would permit, the father of every orphan: His works are chaſte, and manly, he himſelf admired virtue, and he drew her as lovely as ſhe is: of his works it may be ſaid, as Sir George Lyttleton in his prologue to Coriolanus obſerves of Thomſon, that there are not in them

He was a ſtranger to the moſt diſtant appearance of envy or malevolence, never jealous of any man’s growing reputation, and ſo far from arrogating any praiſe to himſelf, from his conjunction with Mr. Addiſon, that he was the firſt who deſired him to diſtinguiſh his papers in the Spectator, and after the death of that great man was a faithful executor of his fame, notwithſtanding an aſperſion which Mr. Tickell was ſo unjuſt to throw upon him. Sir Richard’s greateſt error was want of œconomy, as appears from the two following inſtances related by the elegant writer of Mr. Savage’s Life, to whom that gentleman communicated them.

‘Savage was once deſired by Sir Richard, with an air of the utmoſt importance, to come very early to his houſe the next morning. Mr. Savage came as he had promiſed, found the chariot at the door, and Sir Richard waiting for him ready to go out. What was intended, and whither they were