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 of preferment, he had refused an offer of a life annuity of 100l. offered by Lord Exeter on condition of his continuing to be tutor to Lord Burghley. There was also a bond for 600l. from Wharton, dated 12 March 1721, in consideration of Young's expenses in standing for the House of Commons (at Cirencester), and refusing to take two livings worth 200l. and 400l. a year in the gift of All Souls' College. Nothing more is known of the Exeter tutorship. The chancellor decided in favour of Young's claim for the annuities, and against the claim for 600l. The connection with Wharton must have begun about 1715. It was through Young's influence that Wharton gave a subscription of over 1,000l. to the new buildings at All Souls'. Young in 1716 pronounced a Latin oration upon the laying of the first stone of the library. Young also accompanied Wharton to Dublin in the beginning of 1717, and there saw something of Swift. On 7 March 1718–19 Young's play of ‘Busiris’ was produced at Drury Lane. It had a run of nine nights, and was ridiculed by Fielding, among other tragedies of the time, in ‘Tom Thumb.’ On 18 April 1721 the ‘Revenge,’ which ran for only six nights, was acted at the same theatre. The play, a variation upon the theme of ‘Othello,’ afterwards had a long popularity on the stage. The character of Zanga, Young's Iago, gave opportunity for effective rant; although Young's mixture of bombast and epigrammatic antithesis is apt to strike the modern reader as it struck Fielding. It was dedicated to Wharton, with a statement that Wharton suggested the ‘most beautiful incident,’ whatever that may be, in the play. Wharton's departure from England at the end of 1725 put an end to any hopes of advantage from this questionable patronage. Another gift, however, is mentioned. In 1725 Young began the publication of a series of satires called ‘The Universal Passion,’ finally collected in 1728. According to Spence, Wharton made him a present of 2,000l. for the poem, and defended himself to friends by saying that it was worth 4,000l. Croft takes this as an adaptation of the saying attributed to Lord Burghley when remonstrating with Queen Elizabeth about Spenser's pension—‘All this for a song!’ Croft himself asserts, what seems to be improbable, that Young made 3,000l. by his satires, which compensated him for a ‘considerable sum’ previously ‘swallowed up in the South Sea.’ Young's son told Johnson that the money lost was that made by the satires, which inverts the dates. The satires, though very inferior to Pope's, showed Young to be Pope's nearest rival, and were often compared favourably with the work of the greater writer. They imply that Young had hopes in a fresh quarter. The third (1725) is dedicated to Bubb Dodington, with whom Young was very intimate, and who was about this time coming into office, to be a rare instance, as Young hopes, of ‘real worth’ gaining its price. Dodington, born in 1691, cannot have been, as Doran says, a ‘fellow student’ at Oxford, if indeed he was at Oxford at all. In any case he was a promising Mæcenas, and was for many years intimate with Young. Christopher Pitt [q. v.] in an ‘Epistle of Dr. Young’ (1722), and Thomson in his ‘Autumn,’ both speak of Young's visits to Dodington at Eastbury. It was at Dodington's house at Eastbury that Young met Voltaire, and made the often-quoted epigram: Thou art so witty, profligate, and thin, At once we think thee Milton, Death, and Sin. The last satire of the ‘Universal Passion’ is dedicated to Sir Robert Walpole, to whom he had already addressed a poem called ‘The Instalment’ (i.e. in the order of the Garter, 1726). Walpole is there complimented on having turned the royal bounty towards Young. Young received (25 June 1726; see the grant published by, p. xxxvii) a pension of 200l. a year. It does not appear whether this was a reward for any particular services, though it is suggested that he may have been a writer for the government. Swift in the ‘Rhapsody on Poetry’ (1753) says that Young Must torture his invention To flatter knaves or lose his pension. Swift had previously ridiculed Young's flattery of Walpole and Sir Spencer Compton in ‘Verses written upon reading the “Universal Passion,”’ though in his letters he occasionally mentions Young respectfully.

Young was prompted by the first parliamentary speech of George II (27 Jan. 1727–1728) to produce an ode called ‘Ocean,’ to which was prefixed an ‘Essay upon Lyric Poetry.’ The essay is commonplace and the ode delightfully absurd. He afterwards sinned once or twice in the same way. About this time Young apparently decided that his most promising career would be in the line of ecclesiastical preferment. He took orders at an uncertain date, and in April 1728 was appointed chaplain to the king. Ruffhead declares that upon his ordination he ‘asked Pope to direct him in his theological studies.’ Pope recommended Aquinas. Young retired to study his author ‘at an obscure place in the suburbs.’ Pope sought him