Page:The Lives of the Most Eminent English Poets, Volume 4.djvu/357

Rh characters; though at the same time some passages respecting Philander do not appear to suit either Mr. Temple, or any other person with whom Young was known to be connected or acquainted, while all the circumstances relating to Narcissa have been constantly found applicable to Young's daughter-in-law.

At what short intervals the poet tells us he was wounded by the deaths of the three persons particularly lamented, none that has read the "Night Thoughts" (and who has not read them?) needs to be informed.

Yet how is it possible that Mr. and Mrs. Temple and Lady Elizabeth Young could be these three victims, over whom Young has hitherto been pitied for having to pour the "Midnight Sorrows" of his religious poetry? Mrs. Temple died in 1736; Mr. Temple four years afterwards, in 1740; and the poet's wife, seven months after Mr. Temple, Rh