This plan, though finally established, took more than a
year before it was carried into execution. In the mean time, the
intended retreat of Savage called to Johnson's mind the third satire of
Juvenal, in which that poet takes leave of a friend, who was withdrawing
himself from all the vices of Rome. Struck with this idea, he wrote that
well-known poem, called London. The first lines manifestly point to
Savage.
"Though grief and fondness in my breast rebel,
When injur'd Thales bids the town farewell;
Yet still my calmer thoughts his choice commend;
I praise the hermit, but regret the friend:
Resolv'd, at length, from vice and London far,
To breathe, in distant fields, a purer air;
And, fix'd on Cambria's solitary shore,
Give to St. David one true Briton more."
Johnson, at that time, lodged at Greenwich. He there fixes the scene,
and takes leave of his friend; who, he says in his life, parted from him
with tears in his eyes. The poem, when finished, was offered to Cave. It
happened, however, that the late Mr. Dodsley was the purchaser, at the
price of ten guineas. It was published in 1738; and Pope, we are told,
said, "The author, whoever he is, will not be long concealed;" alluding
to the passage in Terence, "Ubi, ubi est, diu celari non potest."
Notwithstanding that prediction, it does not appear that, besides the
copy-money, any advantage accrued to the author of a poem, written with
the elegance and energy of Pope.
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