Edward Young facts for kids

Edward Young was a famous English poet.

Edward Young (born around July 3, 1683 – died April 5, 1765) was an English poet. He is best known for his long poem, Night-Thoughts. This poem was a series of philosophical writings. It was written in blank verse, which means it didn't rhyme. Young wrote it after several sad losses in his life.

Night-Thoughts became one of the most popular poems of its time. It influenced famous writers like Goethe and Edmund Burke. The poem also had famous illustrations by William Blake.

Young also became a priest. He wrote many letters trying to get better positions in the church. Some people thought he wasn't sincere because of this.

Edward Young's Early Life

Edward Young was the son of a priest, also named Edward Young. His father later became the Dean of Salisbury. Edward Young Jr. was born at his father's home in Upham, near Winchester. He was baptized on July 3, 1683.

He went to Winchester College for school. In 1702, he started studying at New College, Oxford. Later, he moved to Corpus Christi. In 1708, a church leader named Archbishop Tenison helped him get a law scholarship at All Souls. Young earned his law degree in 1719.

Edward Young's Writing Career

Young's first published work was an Epistle to ... Lord Lansdoune in 1713. An epistle is like a long letter or poem. After this, he wrote a Poem on the Last Day (1713), which he dedicated to Queen Anne.

He also wrote The Force of Religion: or Vanquished Love (1714). This poem was about the execution of Lady Jane Grey and her husband. He dedicated it to the Countess of Salisbury. In 1714, he wrote another letter-poem to Joseph Addison. This one praised the new king. The way he praised people in these dedications seems very different from the serious tone of his poems. Because of this, he left them out of his own collection of works.

Around this time, Young met Philip, Duke of Wharton. He traveled with Wharton to Dublin in 1717. In 1719, his play Busiris was performed in London. In 1721, his play The Revenge was also performed. Young dedicated The Revenge to Wharton. He said Wharton helped with a "most beautiful incident" in the play.

Wharton promised Young money, but he didn't keep his promises. Young had to go to court in 1740 to get the money he was owed. He won some of it, but not all.

Between 1725 and 1728, Young published seven satires. Satires are writings that use humor or irony to criticize people or ideas. These were collected in 1728 as Love of Fame, the Universal Passion. A famous writer named Samuel Johnson called this work "very great." It has many clever and memorable lines. Young reportedly earned a lot of money from these satires. In 1726, he also started receiving a yearly payment from the government. He kept trying to get more important jobs, but the king thought his payment was enough.

Young lived when rich people often supported artists. He tried very hard to get support for his poems, plays, and church career. However, he often chose people who later lost their wealth or power. Because of this, he never got as much support as he felt he deserved.

Life in the Church and Family Losses

In 1728, Edward Young became a special priest who served the king. In 1730, he got a church job in Welwyn, Hertfordshire. In 1731, he married Lady Elizabeth Lee. She was the daughter of the 1st Earl of Lichfield.

Lady Elizabeth had a daughter from a previous marriage. This daughter married Henry Temple, the son of the 1st Viscount Palmerston. Sadly, Mrs. Temple died in 1736 while traveling. Her husband and Lady Elizabeth Young both died in 1740. These sad events are believed to be what Young wrote about in Night-Thoughts. He mentioned them happening "ere thrice yon moon had filled her horn," meaning in a short period of time.

About Night-Thoughts

In the introduction to Night-Thoughts, Young said the poem was based on real events. Some people thought the characters Philander and Narcissa in the poem were Mr. and Mrs. Temple. Others thought Philander might be Thomas Tickell, an old friend of Young's who died around the same time.

The character Lorenzo, who doesn't believe in God, was thought by some to be Young's own son. However, his son was only eight years old when the poem was published.

The Complaint, or Night Thoughts on Life, Death and Immortality, was published in 1742. More parts, called "Nights," came out later, with the eighth and ninth appearing in 1745. In 1753, his play The Brothers was performed. He had written it years before but held it back because he was joining the church.

Night-Thoughts made Young famous. He mostly lived a quiet life after that. In 1761, he became a special assistant to the Princess Dowager, Augusta of Saxe-Gotha. He never fully recovered from his wife's death. He also had a disagreement with his son. Young refused to see his son until just before he died. However, he left everything to his son.

Young was known for being a brilliant talker. Even though Night-Thoughts is long, it has many wonderful parts. It was incredibly successful. It was translated into many languages, including French, German, and Russian. In France, it became a classic for the romantic writers.

Some people questioned if Young was truly sincere in his writings. This was because of the letters he wrote trying to get better jobs. A writer named George Eliot even discussed his "insincerity as a poetic artist."

Young helped make "melancholy and moonlight" popular in literature. Some critics even thought he was better than John Milton. Young's essay, Conjectures on Original Composition, was also very popular. It encouraged writers to be original instead of just copying old styles. Young wrote good blank verse. Samuel Johnson said that Night-Thoughts was one of the few poems where rhyming would make it worse. The poem also had a big impact on Edmund Burke's ideas about beauty and the sublime.

Night-Thoughts was mentioned in Edmund Blunden's World War One memoir, Undertones of War (1928). Blunden found comfort in the poem during his time in the trenches. This helped bring Young's work back into attention for students of English literature.

Samuel Richardson and bookseller Andrew Millar discussed a new edition of Night-Thoughts in 1750. The poem was already very popular and became one of the most printed poems of the 1700s.

Influence on Romanticism

In 1759, when he was 76, Young published an essay called Conjectures on Original Composition. This essay presented an important idea: that natural "genius" and originality were more valuable than just learning from old writers. He suggested that modern writers could even be better than the ancient Greek and Roman writers.

Conjectures was seen as a declaration of independence from old, strict writing rules. It quickly became very important in English and European literary criticism. It was translated into German right away and received good reviews. The idea of "genius" fit perfectly with a German literary movement called Sturm und Drang. This movement loved Young's ideas.

The young Goethe said in 1766 that he was learning English by reading Young and Milton. In his autobiography, Goethe admitted that Young's influence helped create the mood for his famous book The Sorrows of Young Werther. Young's name became a rallying cry for the young writers of the Sturm und Drang movement. Young himself helped his reputation as a pioneer of romanticism through his ideas and his own writing.

Edward Young's Church Career

Young was 47 years old when he became a priest. Some people said that in his younger days, he wasn't as religious or moral as he later became. His friendships with the Duke of Wharton and Dodington didn't help his reputation either.

A famous writer named Alexander Pope reportedly said that Young had a "sublime genius" but lacked common sense. This meant his talent sometimes went too far and became over-the-top. Pope said this made him have a "foolish youth." But because he had a good heart, he was able to be a good priest later in life.

Other Works by Edward Young

Here are some other works by Edward Young:

• 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-Thoughts was illustrated by William Blake in 1797. It was also illustrated by Thomas Stothard in 1799. Young himself worked on a revised edition of his poems, which came out in 1778. A complete collection of his works, including poetry and prose, was published in 1854.

See also

In Spanish: Edward Young para niños