YOUNG, EDWARD (1683-1765). An English poet, born at Upham, in Hampshire, where his father was rector. Be was educated at Winches ter School and at Oxford. He first came before the world as a poet with an Epistle to George Granville on Granville's being created a peer (1713). The next year this piece of fulsome flattery was followed by The Last Day, dedi cated to the Queen: Force of Religion, with a dedication to the Countess of Salisbury; and an epistle on The Late Queen's Death. In 1719 Young tried his baud at a tragedy entitled Bo siris, which was succeeded by Revenge (1721), long popular on the stage, and The Brothers (first produced in 1753). For The Instalment (1726), on the occasion of Walpole's being in vested with the order of the Garter, Young was granted a Government pension of 1200 a year. Between 1725 and 1728 appeared in succession a series of satires entitled The Lore of Fame, the Universal Passion. Taking orders, 'Young be came chaplain to the King (1728), and recto• of Welwyn. in Hertfordshire (1730). In 1731 lie married Lady Elizabeth Lee, who was a daughter of the second Earl of Lichfield, and (lied in 1741. Then followed the famous Night Thoughts on Life, Death, and Immortality (17-12-45). Young passed his last years mostly in retirement, and died at the rectory of Welwyn.
Young's reputation rests almost wholly upon Night Thoughts. This series of poems contains
passages of fine imagination, and sayings, like "Procrastination is the thief of time," that have passed into popular speech. The Night Thoughts, read by everybody, gave rise to a school of grave yard poets. Translated into French and German, the series was received with equal enthusiasm abroad. Besides his verse, Youn, wrote a re markable essay entitled eon /rehires on Original Composition (1759). Like the Night Thong', Is, its influence was great on the Continent, espe cially in Germany. Vaing collected his works (4 vols., 1757). The poems. with a memoir by Herbert Croft, were included in Johnson's Lires of the Poets. A folio edition of Thoughts (1797) was illustrated with designs by William Blake (q.v.). Consult Young's Poetical Works, edited with a Life by .1. i\litford ( London, 185k), and by G. Gilfillan (Edinburgh, 1853) ; and the exhaustive study of his life and works by Thomas, under the title, Le mule Edward Young ( Paris, 1901). For his influence in France, consult lexte, Cosmopolilisme litte'ranrc ( Paris, 1895; Eng.
trans. by W. Matthews, London, 1899), 1:eorge Eliot wrote a famous essay on Young. entitled and Of her Worldliness," in West minst,r RcricIr (1857).