Young, Edward 1683-1765
English poet

Born in Upham rectory, near Winchester, he was educated at Winchester, and New College and Corpus Christi College, Oxford, and in 1708 he received a law fellowship of All Souls, Oxford. His first poetic work appeared in 1712, an Epistle to George Granville on being created Lord Lansdowne. In 1719 he produced a tragedy, Busiris, at Drury Lane; his second tragedy, The Revenge, was produced in 1721, and his third and last, The Brothers, in 1753. His satires, The Love of Fame, the Universal Passion (1725-28), brought financial reward as well as fame, and for The Instalment (1726), a poem addressed to Sir Robert Walpole, he received a pension of �200. In 1724 Young took orders, in 1727 he was appointed a royal chaplain and in 1730 he became rector of Welwyn. The Complaint, or Night Thoughts on Life, Death and Immortality (1742-45), usually known as Night Thoughts, and occasioned by his wife's death and other sorrows, has many lines which have passed into proverbial use.

Bibliography: H C Shelby, The Life and Letters of Edward Young (1912)