Savage, Richard (c. 1697–1742)

English poet and dramatist. Among his poems are ‘The Bastard’ 1728 and The Wanderer 1729, and his plays include Love in a Veil 1718 and The Tragedy of Sir Thomas Overbury 1723.

He claimed to be the illegitimate son of Richard Savage, 4th Earl Rivers, and Anne, wife of the 2nd Earl of Macclesfield, but this was never proved. He was a friend of the lexicographer Samuel Johnson, who wrote a biography of him 1744.