twelvemonth. The beginning of 1717 carried him to Ireland; where, fays the Biographia," on the fcore of his extra

ordinary qualities, he had the honour "done him of being admitted, though "under age, to take his feat in the House " of Lords."

With this unhappy character we might have prefumed, almoft without evidence, that Young went to Ireland. From his Letter to Richardfon on Original Compofition, it is clear he was, at fome period of his life, in that country. "I "remember," fays he, in that Letter, fpeaking of Swift, " as I and others were "taking with him an evening walk, "about a mile out of Dublin, he ftopt fhort; we paffed on; but, perceiving

"he

he did not follow us, I went back,

and found him fixed as a statue, and "earneftly gazing upward at a noble "elm, which in its uppermoft branches was much withered and decayed. "Pointing at it, he faid, "I fhall be "like that tree, I fhall die at top." A note from Wharton, among Swift's Letters, clearly fhews that this vifit to Ireland was paid when he had an opportunity of going thither with his avowed friend and patron.

From The Englishman it appears that a tragedy by Young was in the theatre fo early as 1713; yet Bufiris was not brought upon Drury-Lane Stage till 1719. It was infcribed to the Duke of Newcastle, because the late inftances he

"had

"had received of his Grace's undeferved

"and uncommon favour, in an affair of "fome confequence, foreign to the thea66 tre, had taken from him the privilege "of chufing a patron." The Dedication he afterwards fuppreffed.-This was followed in the year 1721 by The Revenge. Left at liberty now to chufe his patron, he dedicated this famous tragedy to the Duke of Wharton. "Your Grace," fays, the Dedication, "has been pleased to make yourself accef

fary to the following fcenes, not only "by suggesting the most beautiful inci"dent in them, but by making all pof"fible provifion for the fuccc of the "whole."

That his Grace fhould have fuggefted the incident to which he alludes, whatever that incident be, is not unlikely. The last mental exertion of the unhappy fuperannuated young man, in his quarters at Lerida in Spain, was fome scenes of a tragedy on the story of Mary Queen of Scots.

Dryden dedicated Marriage à la Mode to Wharton's infamous relation Rochefter; whom he acknowledges not only as the defender of his poetry, but as the promoter of his fortune. Young concludes his addrefs to Wharton thus-" My pre"fent fortune is his bounty, and my "future his care; which I will venture "to fay will be always remembered to "his honour, fince he, I know, intended

*his generofity as an encouragement to "merit, though, through his very par"donable partiality to one who bears "him fo fincere a duty and respect, I

66

happen to receive the benefit of it."

That he ever had fuch a patron as Wharton, Young took all the pains in his power to conceal from the world, by excluding this Dedication from his works. He fhould have remembered, that he at the fame time concealed his obligation to Wharton for the most beautiful incident in what is furely not his leaft beautiful compofition. The paffage juft quoted is, in a poem afterwards addreffed to Walpole, literally copied : Be this thy partial smile from cenfure free; 'Twas meant for merit, though it fell on

me.