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YOUNG, EDWARD (1683–1765)

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Originally appearing in Volume V28, Page 940 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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YOUNG, See also:EDWARD (1683–1765) , See also:English poet, author of See also:Night Thoughts, son of Edward Young, afterwards See also:dean of See also:Salisbury, was See also:born at his See also:father's rectory at Upham, near See also:Winchester, and was baptized on the 3rd of See also:July 1683. He was educated on the See also:foundation at Winchester See also:College, and matriculated in 1702 at New College, See also:Oxford. He soon removed to Corpus Christi, and in 1708 was nominated by See also:Archbishop See also:Tenison to a See also:law fellowship at All Souls', for the See also:sake of Dean Young, who died in 1705. He took his degree of D.C.L. in 1719. His first publication was an See also:Epistle to . . . . See also:Lord Lansdoune (1713). It was followed by a Poem on the Last See also:Day (17,3), dedicated to See also:Queen See also:Anne; The Force of See also:Religion: or Vanquish'd Love (1714), a poem on the See also:execution of See also:Lady Jane See also:Grey and her See also:husband, dedicated to the countess of Salisbury; and an epistle to See also:Addison, On the See also:late Queen's See also:Death and His See also:Majesty's See also:Accession to the See also:Throne (1714), in which he made indecent haste to praise the new See also:king. The fulsome See also:style of these dedications See also:ill accords with the pious See also:tone of the poems, and they are omitted in the edition of his See also:works See also:drawn up by himself. About this See also:time began his connexion with See also:Philip, See also:duke of See also:Wharton, whom he accompanied to See also:Dublin in 1717. In 1719 his See also:play of See also:Busiris was produced at See also:Drury See also:Lane, and in 1721 his Revenge. The latter play was dedicated to Wharton, to whom it owed, said Young, its " most beautiful incident." Wharton promised him two annuities of See also:loo each and a sum of £600 in See also:consideration of his expenses as a See also:candidate for See also:parliamentary See also:election at See also:Cirencester.

In view of these promises Young said that he had refused two livings in the See also:

gift of All Souls' College, Oxford, and had also sacrificed a See also:life See also:annuity offered by the See also:marquess of See also:Exeter if he would See also:act as See also:tutor to his son. Wharton failed to See also:discharge his obligations, and Young, who pleaded his See also:case before Lord See also:Chancellor See also:Hardwicke in 1740, gained the annuity but not the £600. Between 1725 and 1728 Young published a See also:series of seven satires on The Universal See also:Passion. They were dedicated to the duke of See also:Dorset, Bubb Dodington (afterwards Lord See also:Melcombe), See also:Sir See also:Spencer See also:Compton, Lady See also:Elizabeth Germain and Sir See also:Robert See also:Walpole, and were collected in 1728 as Love of Fame, the Universal Passion. This is qualified by See also:Samuel See also:Johnson as a " very See also:great performance," and abounds in striking and pithy couplets. See also:Herbert See also:Croft asserted that Young made £3000 by his satires, which compensated losses he had suffered in the See also:South See also:Sea Bubble. In 1726 he received, through Walpole, a See also:pension of £200 a See also:year. To the end of his life he continued to urge on the See also:government his claims to preferment, but the king and his advisers persisted in regarding this sum as an adequate See also:settlement. Young was nearly fifty when he decided to take See also:holy orders. It was reported that the author of Night Thoughts was not, in his earlier days, " the See also:ornament to religion and morality which he afterwards became," and his intimacy with the duke of Wharton and with Lord Melcombe did not improve his reputation. A statement attributed to- See also:Pope probably gives the correct view; " He had much of a See also:sublime See also:genius, though without See also:common sense; so that his genius, having no See also:guide, was perpetually liable to degenerate into bombast. This made him pass a foolish youth, the See also:sport of peers and poets; but his having a very See also:good See also:heart enabled him to support the clerical See also:character when he assumed it, first with decency and afterwards with See also:honour " (O.

Ruffhead, Life of A. Pope, p. 291). In 1728 he was made one of the royal chaplains, and in 1730 was presented to the college living of Welwyn, See also:

Hertfordshire. He married in 1731 Lady Elizabeth See also:Lee, daughter of the 1st See also:earl of See also:Lichfield. Her daughter, by a former See also:marriage with her See also:cousin See also:Francis Lee, married See also:Henry See also:Temple, son of the 1st See also:viscount See also:Palmerston. Mrs Temple died at See also:Lyons in 1736 on her way to See also:Nice. Her husband and Lady Elizabeth Young died in 1740. These successive deaths are supposed to be the events referred to in the Night Thoughts as taking See also:place " ere thrice See also:yon See also:moon had filled her See also:horn " (Night i.). In the See also:preface to the poem Young states that the occasion of the poem was real, and Philander and Narcissa have been rather rashly identified with Mr and Mrs Temple. M. See also:Thomas suggests that Philander represents Thomas See also:Tickell, who was an old friend of Young's, and died three months after Lady Elizabeth Young.

It was further supposed that the infidel Lorenzo was a See also:

sketch of Young's own son, a statement disproved by the fact that he was a See also:child of eight years old at the time of publication. The Complaint, or Night Thoughts on Life, Death and See also:Immortality, was published in 1742, and was followed by other " Nights," the eighth and ninth appearing in 1745. In 1753 his tragedy of The See also:Brothers, written many years before, but suppressed because he was about to enter the See also:Church, was produced at Drury Lane. Night Thoughts had made him famous, but he lived in almost uninterrupted retirement, although he continued vainly to solicit preferment. He was, however, made clerk of the closet to the princess See also:dowager in 1761. He was never cheerful, it was said, after his wife's death. He disagreed with his son, who had remonstrated, apparently, on the excessive See also:influence exerted by his housekeeper See also:Miss (known as Mrs) Hallows. The old See also:man refused to see his son before he died, but is said to have forgiven him, and See also:left him his See also:money. A description of him is to be found in the letters of his See also:curate, See also:John See also:Jones, to Dr Samuel See also:Birch. He died at Welwyn on the 5th of See also:April 1765. Young is said to have been a brilliant talker. He had an extraordinary knack of See also:epigram, and though the Night Thoughts is See also:long and disconnected it abounds in brilliant isolated passages.

Its success was enormous. It was translated into See also:

French, See also:German, See also:Italian, See also:Spanish, Portuguese, See also:Swedish and Magyar. In See also:France it became one of the See also:classics of the romantic school. The suspicion of insincerity that damped the See also:enthusiasm of English readers acquainted with the facts of his career did not exist for French readers. If he did not invent " See also:melancholy and moonlight " in literature, he did much to spread the fashionable See also:taste for them. Madame See also:Klopstock thought the king ought to make him archbishop of See also:Canterbury, and some German critics preferred him to See also:Milton. Young wrote good See also:blank See also:verse, and Samuel Johnson pronounced Night Thoughts to be one of " the few poems " in which blank verse could not be changed for See also:rhyme but with disadvantage. Other works by Young are: The See also:Instalment (to Sir R. Walpole, 1726); Cynthio (1727); A Vindication of See also:Providence . (1728), a See also:sermon; An See also:Apology for See also:Punch (1729), a sermon; Imperium Pelagi, a See also:Naval Lyrick . (1730) ; Two Epistles to Mr Pope concerning the Authors of the See also:Age (1730) ; A Sea-Piece . . .

(1733) The See also:

Foreign Address, or The Best See also:Argument for See also:Peace (1734) The Centaur not Fabulous; in Five Letters to a Friend (1755); An Argument . for the Truth of His [See also:Christ's] Religion (1758), a sermon preached before the king; Conjectures on See also:Original Composi- tion . (1759), addressed to Samuel See also:Richardson; and Resignation . . . (1762), a poem. Night Thoughts was illustrated by See also:William See also:Blake in 1797, and by Thomas See also:Stothard in 1799. The Poetical Works of the Rev. Edward Young . were revised by himself for publication, and a completed edition appeared in 1i78. The See also:Complete Works, See also:Poetry and See also:Prose, of the Rev. Edward Young with a life by John See also:Doran, appeared in 1854. His Poetical Works are included in the Aldine Edition of the See also:British Poets, with a life by J. See also:Mitford (1830–1836, 1857 and 1866). Sir Herbert Croft wrote the life included in Johnson's Lives of the Poets, but the See also:critical remarks are by Johnson.

For Young s influence on foreign literature see See also:

Joseph Texte, See also:Jean Jacques See also:Rousseau, A Study of the See also:Literary Relations between France and See also:England during the Eighteenth See also:Century (Eng. trans., 1889), pp. 304–14; and J. Barnstoff, Young's Nachtgedanken and ihr Einfluss auf See also:die deutsche Litteratur (1895). See also W. Thomas, Le Pate Edward Young (See also:Paris, 1901), who gives an exhaustive study of Young's life and See also:work.

End of Article: YOUNG, EDWARD (1683–1765)

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