889 



YOUNG, EDWARD. 



YOUNG, EDWARD. 



890 



the cathedral of Salisbury, was afterwards appointed chaplain to 

 William and Mary, and was finally preferred to the deanery of Salis- 

 bury. Dean Youug died at Salisbury in 1705. He published a 

 collection of his sermons in 1702, ' Sermons on several Occasions,' 

 2 vols. 8vo, of which a second edition was printed in 1706. 



Edward Young, author of the 'Night Thought.",' was placed by his 

 father on the foundation at Winchester College, where he remained 

 till he was nineteen without having been elected to a fellowship in 

 New College, Oxford, which he entered as an independent member, 

 October 13, 1703 ("at the age of nineteen" according to the Univer- 

 sity Register). A few mouths afterward?, on the death of the warden, 

 who was a friend of his father, and with whom he resided, he removed 

 to Corpus Christi College on the invitation of the president, who was 

 also one of his father's friends. In 1708 he was nominated, by Arch- 

 bishop Tenison to a law fellowship in All Souls College, where he 

 seems to have devoted himself to poetry in preference to law, and to 

 have adopted those decidedly religious principles which he retained 

 through life. Tindal, who frequently visited All Souls, speaking of 

 him, says, " The other boys I can always answer, because I know 

 whence they have their arguments, which I have read a hundred 

 times ; but that fellow Young is always pestering me with something 

 of his own." 



Young published, in 1713, a poetical 'Epistle to George, Lord 

 Lansdowne,' who was one of the twelve peers created by Queen Anne 

 in 1712. He also published, in 1713, ' The Last Day ' and ' The Force 

 of Religion, or Vanquished Love ; ' both of which are poems of con- 

 siderable length. 'The Last Day' is in three books, and part of it 

 was printed in 'The Tatler,' in 1710; so that he had been writing 

 poetry for some years before he published any. 



On the 23rd of April 1714, Young took the degree of B.C.L., and in 

 the same year published a ' Poem on the Death of Queen Anne,' 

 London, folio. He was probably in some estimation for his learning 

 as well as his poetry, for when the foundation of the Codriugton 

 Library was laid, he was appointed to deliver the Latin oration, 

 which he published, ' Oratio habita in Coll. Omnium Animarum cum 

 jacta sunt Fundamenta Bibliothecae Chickleio-Codringtonianse,' Oxon., 

 8vo, 1716. 



On the 10th of June 1719, he took the degree of D.C.L. In the 

 same year his tragedy of ' Busiris ' was acted at Drury Lane with con- 

 siderable success; and he published a 'Paraphrase on Part of the 

 Book of Job,' 4to ; aud a poetical ' Letter to Mr. Tickell, occasioned by 

 the Death of the Right Hon. Joseph Addison,' folio. 



Young had been tutor to Lord Burleigh, son of the Earl of Exeter, 

 but having become acquainted with the Duke of Wharton, he was, in 

 1719, induced by that nobleman to relinquish this situation. This fact 

 was proved in the case Stiles v. Attorney-General (Atkyns, ' Chan. 

 Rep.,' vol. 2, 1740), in which Lord-Chancellor Hardwicke was re- 

 quired to decide whether two annuities, granted to Young by the 

 Duke of Wharton, were for legal considerations. The deed for the 

 first annuity was dated March 24, 1719 ; in the preamble of which the 

 duke states, that, " Considering that the public good is advanced by 

 the encouragement of learning and the polite arts, and being pleased 

 therein with the attempts of Dr. Young, in consideration thereof and 

 of the love I bear him," &c. Lord Hardwicke decided that this was 

 not a legal consideration. The annuity was IQOl. for life; but the 

 payments having fallen into arrear to the amount of 350., the duke, 

 in lieu of this debt, gave him a second annuity of 100Z. in addition to 

 the first : the deed for the second was dated July 10, 1722, and the 

 duke afterwards charged both as one annuity of 2QQI. a year for life on 

 certain property. The duke died in 1731, in Spain, in great poverty, 

 his property had been in trust some years before his death, and the 

 other creditors resisted Young's claims. Young stated in his examina- 

 tion before the Master, February 4, 1730, that he had been offered an 

 annuity of 100. for life if he would continue tutor to Lord Burleigh, 

 but that he refused it in consequence of the Duke of Wharton having 

 promised to provide for him in a much more ample manner. Lord 

 Hardwicke decided that his refusal of this offer and the debt on the 

 first annuity were both legal considerations, and he directed the 2QQI. 

 annuities to be paid out of the trust-estates. It also appeared that, 

 besides these two annuities, the duke gave him a bond, dated March 

 15, 1721, to remunerate him for the expense which he had incurred in 

 standing, at the duke's request, a contested election for Cirencester, in 

 which he was defeated. No doubt the duke thought that he had 

 talents to qualify him for an orator, and in fact he' afterwards became 

 an eloquent preacher. Lord Hardwicke decided that this bond was 

 not for legal consideration, and it was not ordered to be paid. 



The tragedy of ' The Revenge ' was brought out at Drury Lane in 

 1721, with less success than ' Busiris.' His Satires were published 

 separately in folio, with the title of ' The Universal Passion,' which 

 was afterwards expanded into ' The Love of Fame, the Universal 

 Fassicn." The first four, which are on men, were published in 1725-6; 

 the two last, on women, in 1727-8. They were extremely successful. 

 Herbert Croft says that Young acquired 3000J. by them, but leaves it 

 uncertain how the whole sum was obtained, by stating, on the autho- 

 rity of Spence, that the Duke of Grafton gave him 2000?. for them. In 

 1726 he published ' The Instalment,' on Sir Robert Walpole being 

 made a knight of the Garter. 



In 1727 Young took orders, and was nominated one of the royal 



chaplains. He immediately withdrew bis tragedy of ' The Brothers ' 

 from the player*, who had it in rehearsal. In 1727 he published 

 'Cynthio, an Ode on the Death of the Marquis of Carnarvon;' in 1728, 

 'Ocean, an Ode, with a Discourse on Lyric Poetry,' to which was 

 prefixed an ' Ode to the King, Pater Patria;,' and ' A True Estimate of 

 Human Life ;' in 1729, a Sermon, preached before the House of Com- 

 mons, entitled ' An Apology for Princes, or the Reverence due to 

 Government.' 



On the 30th of July, 1730, the college of All Souls presented him 

 with the rectory of Welwyn in Hertfordshire, valued at 3001. a year, 

 and to which the lordship of the manor was attached. In this year he 

 published ' Imperiutn Pelago, a Naval Lyric;' 'Two Poetical Epistles 

 to Mr. Pope, concerning the Authors of the Age;' and 'A Sea-Piece,' 

 addressed to Voltaire, with whom he seems to have been on terms of 

 familiarity when Voltaire was in England. 



In 1731 Young married Lady Elizabeth Lee, widow of Colonel Lee, 

 and daughter of the Earl of Lichfield. By Lady Elizabeth Young he 

 had a son, Frederic, who was born in 1733. Lady Young had a 

 daughter by her former husband, who was married in 1735 to Mr. 

 Temple, son of Lord Palmerston. Mrs. Temple died of consumption 

 in 1736, at Lyon, on her way to Nice. She was accompanied by 

 Young, and probably by her husband and Lady Young ; for Croft 

 says that " after her death, the rest of the party passed the ensuing 

 winter at Nice." Mr. Temple died in 1740. Lady Elizabeth Young 

 herself died in 1741. The Philander and Narcissa of the 'Night 

 Thoughts' have been supposed to represent Mr. and Mrs. Temple. 

 The authorities at Lyon refused to allow Mrs. Temple to be buried in 

 consecrated ground, and this fact accords with Young's description of 

 the funeral of Narcissa ; but the dates just stated are inconsistent 

 with the third of the following lines : 



" Insatiate archer ! could not one suffice 1 

 Thy shaft flew thrice, and thrice' my peace was slain, 

 And thrice ere thrice yon moon had filled her horn." 



Lady Young's name in the poem seems to be Lucia. The Lorenzo 

 could not have been Young's eon, as has often been stated; for 

 Frederic Young, having been born in 1733, was under ten years of 

 age when the first books of the ' Night Thoughts ' were published, 

 while Lorenzo is represented as having been married to a lady whose 

 name in the poem is Clarissa, and who died in childbed, leaving a son, 

 Florello. 



Young seems to have begun the ' Night Thoughts ' soon after the 

 death of his wife. They were published in London, 1742-46. In 1753 

 he brought out his tragedy of ' The Brothers,' the profits of which he 

 intended to give to the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, but 

 the play having been unsuccessful, he gave the Society 10001. His 

 prose work, ' The Centaur not Fabulous, in Six Letters on the Life in 

 Vogue,' was published in 1758. There is a letter from Seeker to 

 Young, dated July 8, 1758. Seeker was then Archbishop of Canter- 

 bury, and Young, at that time seventy-four years of age, had been 

 soliciting the archbishop to use his influence with the king to obtain 

 some preferment for him. Seeker's letter is characteristic. He excuses 

 hiuiself by saying, " No encouragement hath ever been given me to 

 mention things of this nature to his majesty;" and concludes by 

 observing, " Your fortune and your reputation set you above the need 

 of advancement, and your sentiments above that concern for it. on 

 your own account, which, on that of the public, is sincerely felt by," 

 &c. Young would understand, if he did not feel, Seeker's allusion to 

 the inconsistency between his ' sentiments ' and his solicitations for 

 worldly advancement. His ' Thoughts on Original Composition ' 

 were published in 1759. At last, on the 4th of January 1761, his 

 ruling passion received a slight gratification he succeeded Dr. Stephen 

 Hales as clerk of the closet to the Princess Dowager of Wales. 



His poem called ' Resignation ' was published in 1762, and in the 

 same year he published a collected edition of his Works, 4 vols. 12mo, 

 from which he excluded some of his dedications, as well as two or 

 three of the smaller works. He died on the 12th of April 1765. He 

 had performed no public duty lor two or three years, but retained his 

 faculties to the last. 



Young's son Frederic was educated at Winchester, whence he went 

 to New College, Oxford, and then to Balliol College, from which, 

 according to the ' Biographia Britannica,' he was expelled for misbe- 

 haviour. According to the same authority, Young was so much 

 incensed at his son's misconduct that he refused to see him, even on 

 his death-bed, but left him the bulk of his fortune, which was con- 

 siderable. He left 1000. to his housekeeper, and added a codicil, in 

 which he requested that she would destroy all his manuscripts after 

 his death, " which would greatly oblige her deceased friend." He had 

 left another lOOOi. "to his friend Henry Stevens, a hatter near the 

 Temple Gate," but Stevens died before him. Young's son erected a 

 monument " pio et gratissimo animo " to his father and mother. 



Young, from the commencement of his career as a writer almost to 

 the termination of his long life, displayed an eager desire for place and 

 preferment, and seems never to have let slip an opportunity of paying 

 his court to those who had them at their disposal. Every work, 

 whether in prose or verse, each separate satire of ' The Love of Fame,' 

 and each separate book of the ' Night Thoughts,' was addressed to 

 some person of distinction, including Queen Anne, George I., and 



