ページの画像
PDF
ePub

But the son of Young would almost sooner, I know, pass for a Lorenzo, than see himself vindicated, at the expense of his father's memory, from follies which, if it may be thought blameable in a boy to have committed them, it is surely praiseworthy in a man to lament, and certainly not only unnecessary but cruel in a biographer to record.

Of the "Night Thoughts," notwithstanding their author's professed retirement, all are inscribed to great or to growing names. He had not yet weaned himself from Earls and Dukes, from the Speakers of the House of Commons, Lords Commissioners of the Treasury, and Chancellors of the Exchequer. In " Night Eight" the politician plainly betrays himself

Think no post. needful that demands a knave.
When late our civil helm was shifting hands,
So P thought; think better if you can.

Yet it must be confessed, that at the conclusion of "Night Nine," weary perhaps of courting earthly patrons, he tells his soul,

Henceforth

Thy patron he, whose diadem has dropt
Yon gems of Heaven; Eternity thy prize;
And leave the racers of the world their own.

The Fourth Night" was addressed by "a much indebted Muse" to the Honourable Mr. York, now Lord Hardwicke; who meant to have laid the Muse under still greater obligation, by the living of Shenfield in Essex, if it had become

vacant.

The "First Night" concludes with this passage

Dark, though not blind, like thee, Meonides:
Or Milton, thee. Ah! could I reach your strain;
Or his who made Meonides our own!

Man too he sung. Immortal man I sing.
Oh had he prest his theme, pursu'd the track
Which open out of darkness into day!
Oh had he mounted on his wing of fire,
Soar'd, where I sink, and sung immortal man—
How had it blest mankind, and rescu'd me!

To the author of these lines was dedicated, in 1756, the first volume of an "Essay on the Writings "and Genius of Pope," which attempted, whether justly or not, to pluck from Pope his "Wing of "Fire," and to reduce him to a rank at least one degree lower than the first class of English poets. If Young accepted and approved the dedication, he countenanced this attack upon the fame of him whom he invokes of his Muse.

Part of "parer-sparing" Pope's Third Book of the "Odyssey," deposited in the Museum, is written upon the back of a letter signed "E. Young," which is clearly the hand writing of our Young. The Letter, dated only May the 2d, seems obscure; but there can be little doubt that the friendship he requests was a literary one, and that he had the highest literary opinion of Pope. a prologue, I am told.

[ocr errors]

"Dear Sir,

The request was

May the 2d.

"Having been often from home, I know not if

you have done me the favour of calling on me. "But, be that as it will, I much want that instance "of your friendship I mentioned in my last a

66

'friendship I am very sensible I can receive from "no one but yourself. I should not urge this thing "so much but for very particular reasons; nor "can you be at a loss to conceive how a trifle of "of this nature' may be of a serious moment to 66 me; and while I am in hopes of the great advan"tage of your advice about it, I shall not be so "absurd as to make any further step without it. "I know you are much engaged, and only hope to "hear of you at your entire leisure.

"I am, Sir, your most faithful

" and obedient servant,

"E. YOUNG."

"Night

Nay, even after Pope's death, he says, in " "Seven,"

Pope, who could'st make immortals, art thou dead?

Either the "Essay," then, was dedicated to a patron who disapproved its doctrine, which I have been told by the author was not the case; or Young appears, in his old age, to have bartered for a dedication an opinion entertained of his friend through all that part of life when he must have been best able to form opinions.

From this account of Young, two or three short passages, which stand almost together in " Night "Four" should not be excluded. They afford a picture by his own hand, from the study of which my readers may choose to form their own opinion of the features of his mind and the complexion of his life.

Ah me! the dire effect

Of loitering here, of death defrauded long ;
Of old so gracious (and let that suffice)
My very master knows me not.

I've been so long remember'd, I'm forgot.

*

When in his courtiers' ears I pour my plaint,

They drink it as the Nectar of the Great;

And squeeze my hand, and beg me come to-morrow.

Twice told the period spent on stubborn Troy,
Court-favour, yet untaken, I besiege.

If this song lives, Posterity shall know

One, though in Britain born, with courtiers bred,
Who thought ev'n gold might come a day too late ;
Nor on his subtle death-bed plann'd his scheme
For future vacancies in church or state.

Deduct from the writer's age "twice told the period

66

spent on stubborn Troy," and you will still leave him more than forty when he sat down to the miserable siege of court-favor. He has before told us "A fool at forty is a fool indeed."

After all, the siege seems to have been raised only in consequence of what the General thought his "death-bed."

By these extraordinary Poems, written after he was sixty, of which I have been led to say so much, I hope, by the wish of doing justice to the living and the dead, it was the desire of Young to be principally known. He entitled the four volumes which he published himself, "The works of the author of "the Night Thoughts." While it is re

membered that from these he excluded many of his writings, let it not be forgotten that the rejected pieces contained nothing prejudicial to the cause of virtue, or of religion. Were every thing that

Young ever wrote to be published, he would only appear perhaps in a less respectable light as a poet, and more despicable as a dedicator; he would not pass for a worse Christian, or for a worse man. This enviable praise is due to Young. Can it be claimed by every writer? His dedications, after all, he had perhaps no right to suppress. They all, I believe, speak, not a little to the credit of his gratitude, of favours received; and I know not whether the author, who has once solemnly printed an acknowledgment of a favour, should not always print it.

Is it to the credit or to the discredit of Young, as a poet, that of his "Night Thoughts" the French are particularly fond?

Of the "Epitaph on Lord Aubrey Beauclerk," dated 1740, all I know is, that I find it in the late body of English Poetry, and that I am sorry to find it there.

Notwithstanding the farewell which he seemed to have taken in the "Night Thoughts" of every thing which bore the least resemblance to ambition, he dipped again in politics. In 1745 he wrote. "Reflections on the public situation of the King“dom, addressed to the Duke of Newcastle;" indignant, as it appears, to behold

-a pope-bred Princeling crawl ashore, And whistle cut throats, with those swords that scrap'd

« 前へ次へ »