out six months later, and was just in time to prevent an irretrievable ‘derangement.’ The story, said to be told by Pope to Warburton, is probably some joke converted into a statement of fact. Young was already known to Pope in the time of quarrel with Tickell and Addison (1715). ‘Tragic Young’ is mentioned by Gay as one of the friends who welcome Pope's ‘return from Troy.’ He often refers to Pope with great respect, and in 1730 addressed him in two epistles ‘upon the authors of the age’—that is, Pope's antagonists in the war roused by the ‘Dunciad.’
An undated letter from Young to Mrs. Howard (soon afterwards Lady Suffolk), first published in the ‘Suffolk Letters’ (i. 284–7), and conjecturally dated 1727, was probably written in 1730. An incidental reference to Townshend as still in office shows that it cannot have been later. Young, however, says that he is ‘turned of fifty,’ that he has been seven years in his majesty's service, and that he is still without preferment. He says that he has in some way given up 300l. a year in consequence of his expectations of royal favour. Letters in the Newcastle Papers, now in the British Museum, show that he was still complaining bitterly to the Duke of Newcastle in 1746 and as late as 1758. He says that he is the only person who, having been in the king's service before his accession to the throne, had yet received nothing. It does not appear what his special services had been, though in 1746 he says that they began twenty-four years previously, and evidently considers that they deserved at least a deanery. In July 1730 he was presented by All Souls' to the rectory of Welwyn in Hertfordshire, worth 300l. a year. On 27 May 1731 he married Lady Elizabeth, younger daughter of Edward Henry Lee, first earl of Lichfield [see under Lee, George Henry, third Earl], and widow of Colonel Lee. Young, according to Croft, was known to this lady through her relationship to Anne Wharton, first wife of the elder Wharton, who had been a friend of his father, the dean. To the same friendship is ascribed, but on vague conjecture, Young's connection with the Duke of Wharton.
For some years Young published nothing except another absurd ode in 1734, called ‘The Foreign Address,’ and written ‘in the character of a sailor.’ He had one child by his wife, called Frederick after his godfather, the Prince of Wales. Lady Elizabeth had a daughter by her former husband, married to Henry Temple, son of Henry Temple (1673?–1757), first viscount Palmerston [q. v.] Mrs. Temple died of consumption at Lyons in October 1736 on her way to Nice; Young had accompanied her, and passed the winter at Nice. Temple died on 18 Aug. 1740, and Lady Elizabeth in January 1741. Reference in the ‘Night Thoughts’ to three deaths happening ‘ere thrice yon moon had filled her horn’ is apparently a poetical allusion to these misfortunes. Mrs. Temple is supposed to be Narcissa, while Philander in the same poem represents Temple. A story afterwards became current that ‘Narcissa’ had died at Montpellier, where her grave was pointed out in a garden. Young in the ‘Night Thoughts’ (‘Third Night’) describes a surreptitious burial made necessary by the superstitious refusal of a grave to a heretic. Mrs. Temple is proved by records to have been regularly buried in the protestant ground at Lyons. It has therefore been argued that Young may have had a daughter, who may have died at Montpellier in 1741, and may have been buried in the manner described. It is easier to suppose that he was taking a poetic license (see Notes and Queries, 1st ser. vols. iii. iv. and v.; in 4th ser. viii. 484–5 is a reference to various pamphlets on the subject. The documents in regard to Mrs. Temple's death and her epitaph are given in Breghot du Lut's Nouveaux Mélanges, &c., 1829–31, pp. 362–8). Judicious critics have also pointed out that the infidel Lorenzo in the same poem could not be meant for the poet's own son, inasmuch as the son was only eight years old at the time of publication. ‘The Complaint; or Night Thoughts on Life, Death, and Immortality,’ appeared in June 1742, and was followed by the later ‘Nights.’ The ‘Night Thoughts’ achieved immediate popularity, and Young was now regarded as an ornament to religion and literature. He never obtained, however, the preferment to which he thought himself entitled. Apparently his hopes, like those of his friend Dodington, depended mainly upon the Prince of Wales, who was never able to reward his adherents. As Young said characteristically in the ‘Fourth Night:’
My very master knows me not;
I've been so long remembered, I'm forgot.
He had, however, become rich and led a dignified life of retirement at Welwyn. He was a friend of the Duke of Portland, and occasionally visited Tunbridge Wells and Bath. Mrs. (Elizabeth) Montagu describes him at Tunbridge Wells in 1745, where he received her homage affably and made little excursions with her. She was surprised to find that his chief intimate was
