Edward Young

For other people named Edward Young, seeEdward Young (disambiguation).

Edward Young

Edward Young(c. 3 July 1683– 5 April 1765) was an English poet, best remembered forNight-Thoughts,a series of philosophical writings inblank verse,reflecting his state of mind following several bereavements. It was one of the most popular poems of the century, influencingGoetheandEdmund Burke,among many others, with its notable illustrations byWilliam Blake.

Young also took holy orders, and wrote many fawning letters in search of preferment, attracting accusations of insincerity.

Early life

Young was a son ofEdward Young,laterDean of Salisbury,and was born at his father'srectoryatUpham,nearWinchester,where he was baptized on 3 July 1683.He was educated atWinchester College,and matriculated atNew College, Oxford,in 1702. He later migrated toCorpus Christi,and in 1708 was nominated by ArchbishopTenisonto a law fellowship atAll Souls.He took his degree ofDoctor of Canon Lawin 1719.

Literary career

Young's first publication was anEpistle to... Lord Lansdoune(1713). This was followed by aPoem on the Last Day(1713), dedicated toQueen Anne;The Force of Religion: or Vanquished Love(1714), a poem on the execution ofLady Jane Greyand her husband, dedicated to the Countess of Salisbury; and an epistle toJoseph Addison,On the late Queen's Death and His Majesty's Accession to the Throne(1714), in which he rushed to praise the new king. The fulsome style of the dedications jars with the pious tone of the poems, and they are omitted from his own edition of his works.

About this time he came into contact withPhilip, Duke of Wharton,whom he accompanied toDublinin 1717. In 1719 his play,Busiriswas produced atDrury Lane,and in 1721 hisThe Revenge.The latter play was dedicated to Wharton, to whom it owed, said Young, its "most beautiful incident". Wharton promised him two annuities of £100 each and a sum of £600 in consideration of his expenses as a candidate for parliamentary election atCirencester.In view of these promises Young refused two livings in the gift ofAll Souls' College, Oxford,and sacrificed a life annuity offered by theMarquess of Exeterif he would act as tutor to his son. Wharton failed to discharge his obligations, and Young, who pleaded his case beforeLord ChancellorHardwickein 1740, gained the annuity but not the £600. Between 1725 and 1728 Young published a series of seven satires onThe Universal Passion.They were dedicated to the Duke of Dorset,George Bubb Dodington,SirSpencer Compton,Lady Elizabeth Germainand SirRobert Walpole,and were collected in 1728 asLove of Fame, the Universal Passion.This is qualified bySamuel Johnsonas a "very great performance," and abounds in striking and pithy couplets.Herbert Croftasserted that Young made £3000 by his satires, which compensated losses he had suffered in theSouth Sea Bubble.In 1726 he received, through Walpole, a pension of £200 a year. To the end of his life he continued to seek preferment, but the king regarded his pension as an adequate settlement.

Young, living in a time when patronage was slowly fading out, was notable for urgently seeking patronage for his poetry, his theatrical works, and his career in the church: he failed in each area. He never received the degree of patronage that he felt his work had earned, largely because he picked patrons whose fortunes were about to turn downward.

Though his praise was often unearned, often fulsome, he could write, "False praises are the whoredoms of the pen / And prostitute fair fame to worthless men."

In 1728 Young became aroyal chaplain,and in 1730 he obtained the college living ofWelwyn,Hertfordshire. In 1731 he married Lady Elizabeth Lee, daughter of the1st Earl of Lichfield.Her daughter, by a former marriage with her cousin Francis Lee, married Henry Temple, son of the1st Viscount Palmerston.Mrs Temple died atLyonsin 1736 on her way toNice.Her husband and Lady Elizabeth Young died in 1740. These successive deaths are supposed to be the events referred to in theNight-Thoughtsas taking place "ere thrice yon moon had filled her horn."

Night-Thoughts

In the preface toNight-ThoughtsYoung states that the occasion of the poem was real, and Philander and Narcissa have been rather rashly identified with Mr and Mrs Temple. It has also been suggested that Philander representsThomas Tickell,an old friend of Young's, who died three months after Lady Elizabeth Young. The infidel Lorenzo was thought by some to be a sketch of Young's own son, but he was only eight years old at the time of publication.The Complaint,orNight Thoughts on Life, Death and Immortality,was published in 1742, and was followed by other "Nights," the eighth and ninth appearing in 1745. In 1753, his tragedy ofThe Brothers,written many years previous but suppressed because he was about to enter the Church, was produced at Drury Lane.Night-Thoughtshad made him famous, but he lived in almost uninterrupted retirement. He was made clerk of the closet to the Princess Dowager,Augusta of Saxe-Gotha,in 1761. He never recovered from his wife's death. He fell out with his son, who had apparently criticised the excessive influence exerted by his housekeeper Mrs Hallows. The old man refused to see his son until shortly before he died, but left him everything. A description of him is to be found in the letters of his curate and executor, John Jones, to Dr Thomas Birch (in Brit. Lib.Addit. M/s4311). He died at Welwyn, reconciled with his spendthrift son: "he expired a little before 11 of the clock at the night of Good Friday last, the 5th instant, and was decently buried yesterday about 6 in the afternoon" (Jones to Birch).

Young is said to have been a brilliant talker. AlthoughNight-Thoughtsis long and disconnected, it abounds in brilliant isolated passages. Its success was enormous. It was translated into French, German, Italian, Spanish,Portuguese,Swedish,Russian,Welsh, Polish andMagyar.In France it became a classic of the romantic school. Questions as to the "sincerity" of the poet did arise in the 100 years after his death. The publication of fawning letters from Young seeking preferment led many readers to question the poet's sincerity. In a famous essay,Worldliness and Other-Worldliness,George Eliotdiscussed his "radical insincerity as a poetic artist." If Young did not invent "melancholy and moonlight" in literature, he did much to spread the fashionable taste for them. Madame Klopstock thought the king ought to make himArchbishop of Canterbury,and some German critics preferred him toJohn Milton.Young's essay,Conjectures on Original Composition,was popular and influential on the continent, especially among Germans, as a testament advocating originality over neoclassical imitation. Young wrote good blank verse, and Samuel Johnson pronouncedNight-Thoughtsto be one of "the few poems" in whichblank versecould not be changed for rhyme but with disadvantage. The poem was a poetic treatment ofsublimityand had a profound influence on the youngEdmund Burke,whose philosophic investigations and writings on the Sublime and theBeautifulwere a pivotal turn in 18th-centuryaesthetictheory.

Young's masterpieceNight-Thoughtsemerged from obscurity by being mentioned inEdmund Blunden's World War One memoir,Undertones of War(1928), as a source of comfort during time in the trenches. This latter work emerged from the darkness of the more recent past thanks to its mention and discussion inPaul Fussell'sThe Great War and Modern Memory(1975), which discussed Blunden's reliance onNight-Thoughts.Blunden's mention of Young's poem reintroduced an interesting, sometimes bombastic precursor to the early Romantics to students of English literature.

Samuel Richardsonin a letter to booksellerAndrew Millardiscussed a new edition of Young's poem,Night-Thoughts(1750), which was already very popular, and which would become one of the most frequently-printed poems of the eighteenth century. Millar had purchased the copyright to the second volume ofNight-Thoughts(parts 7–11) from Young for £63 on 7 April 1749; the edition under discussion was the first in which Millar was involved, and it would be advertised for sale in the General Advertiser on 30 January 1750.

William Hutchinsonincluded a gloss onNight-Thoughtsin his series of lecturesThe Spirit of Masonry(1775), underlining themasonicsymbolism of the text.

Influence on romanticism

I would compare genius to virtue, and learning to riches. As riches are most wanted where there is least virtue; so learning where there is least genius. As virtue without much riches can give happiness, so genius without much learning can give renown... Learning is borrowed knowledge; genius is knowledge innate, and quite our own.

— Edward Young, Conjectures on original composition

In 1759, at the age of 76, he published a piece of critical prose under the title ofConjectures on Original Compositionwhich put forward the vital doctrine of the superiority of "genius," of innate originality being more valuable than classic indoctrination or imitation, and suggested that modern writers might dare to rival or even surpass the "ancients" of Greece and Rome.

The Conjectures was a declaration of independence against the tyranny of classicism and was at once acclaimed as such becoming a milestone in the history of English, and European, literary criticism. It was immediately translated into German atLeipzigand atHamburgand was widely and favourably reviewed. The cult of genius exactly suited the ideas of theSturm und Drangmovement and gave a new impetus to the cult of Young’ (Harold Forster, ‘Some uncollected authors XLV: Edward Young in translation I’).

The youngGoethetold his sister in 1766 that he was learning English from Young and Milton, and in his autobiography he confessed that Young's influence had created the atmosphere in which there was such a universal response to his seminal workThe Sorrows of Young Werther.Young's name soon became a battle-cry for the young men of theSturm und Drangmovement. Young himself reinforced his reputation as a pioneer of romanticism by precept as well as by example.

Clerical career

Young was forty-seven when he took holy orders.It was reported that the author ofNight-Thoughtswas not, in his earlier days, "the ornament to religion and morality which he afterwards became", and his friendships with the Duke of Wharton and with Dodington did not improve his reputation. A statement attributed toAlexander Popeis that: "He had much of a sublime genius, though without common sense; so that his genius, having no guide, was perpetually liable to degenerate into bombast. This made him pass a foolish youth, the sport of peers and poets; but his having a very good heart enabled him to support the clerical character when he assumed it, first with decency and afterwards with honour" (O Ruffhead,Life of A. Pope,p. 291).

Other works

Other works by Young are:

• Busiris, King of Egypt(1719), a play
• The Revenge(1721), a play
• The Instalment(to Sir R. Walpole, 1726)
• Cynthio(1727)
• The Brothers(1728), a play
• A Vindication of Providence...(1728), a sermon
• An Apology for Punch(1729), a sermon
• Imperium Pelagi, a Naval Lyrick...(1730)
• Two Epistles to Mr Pope concerning the Authors of the Age(1730)
• A Sea-Piece...(1733)
• The Foreign Address, or The Best Argument for Peace(1734)
• The Centaur not Fabulous; in Five Letters to a Friend(1755)
• An Argument... for the Truth of His [Christ's] Religion(1758), a sermon preached before the king
• Conjectures on Original Composition...(1759), addressed to Samuel Richardson
• Resignation...(1762), a poem.

Night-Thoughtswas illustrated byWilliam Blakein 1797, and byThomas Stothardin 1799.The Poetical Works of the Rev. Edward Young...were revised by himself for publication, and a completed edition appeared in 1778.The Complete Works, Poetry and Prose, of the Rev. Edward Young..., with a life by John Doran,appeared in 1854.Sir Herbert Croftwrote the life included in Johnson'sLives of the Poets,but the critical remarks are by Johnson. Selections fromNight-Thoughtswas also set byNew EnglandCongregationalistcomposerWilliam Billingsin hisEaster Anthem.

References

• This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain:Chisholm, Hugh,ed. (1911). "Young, Edward".Encyclopædia Britannica(11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.

External links

• "Young, Edward".Dictionary of National Biography.London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900.
• Works by Edward YoungatProject Gutenberg
• Works by Edward YoungatLibriVox(public domain audiobooks)
• Works by Edward YoungatFaded Page(Canada)
• Works by or about Edward Youngat theInternet Archive
• Edward Young, "The Poetical Works of Edward Young,"Vol. I,Vol. II,London: Bell and Daldy, 1858.
• Edward Young at the Bibliotheca Augustana
• Mentioned in the 1962Anya SetonnovelDevil Water.
• "Archival material relating to Edward Young".UK National Archives.
• Portraits of Edward Youngat theNational Portrait Gallery, London
• Edward Youngat theEighteenth-Century Poetry Archive (ECPA)