SOURCE: Ellis, Frank H. “Johnson and Savage: Two Failed Tragedies and a Failed Tragic Hero.” In The Author in His Work: Essays on a Problem in Criticism, edited by Louis L. Martz and Aubrey Williams, pp. 337-46. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1978.

In the following excerpt, Ellis explores Samuel Johnson's friendship with Savage, the latter's failed play Sir Thomas Overbury, and Johnson's fascination with Savage despite his many failings.

Two failed tragedies lie in the background of the ill-sorted relationship between Richard Savage and Samuel Johnson. Irene: A Tragedy and The Tragedy of Sir Thomas Overbury were indeed one of the few common denominators between Johnson and Savage. Otherwise the ratio between them was oddly proportioned. Savage's fascination for Johnson arose from his unquestionable possession of the very thing that Johnson lacked—the thing that young Samuel Johnson, like every young person, calls “Knowledge of Life.” Savage...