Verse of this quality, which might be amply quoted, is of interest to the student of literature, since in Young's day it passed current for poetry. But in accepting his claims as a poet the faith of the age must have been often strained. Walpole, who despised the whole tribe of poets, and cared nothing for literature, had by some strange chance awarded to Young a pension of £200 a-year, whereupon in a piece called _The Instalment_, addressed to Sir Robert, Britain is called upon to behold 'His azure ribbon and his radiant star,' and the poet's breast 'glows with grateful fire' as he exclaims: 'The streams of royal bounty turned by thee Refresh the dry domains of poesy. My fortune shows, when arts are Walpole's care, What slender worth forbids us to despair: Be this thy partial smile from censure free, 'Twas meant for merit, though it fell on me.' Following in the steps of George Sandys, but with inferior power, and in a less racy diction, Young performed the vain task of paraphrasing part of the Book of Job, one of the noblest poems the world possesses, and translated in our authorized version in language not to be surpassed for dignity and simplicity. In 1719 his _Busiris_ was performed. _The Revenge_, a better known tragedy, written on the French model, followed in 1721, and kept the stage for some time. Seven years later _The Brothers_, his third and last tragedy, was in rehearsal, but the poet, who had lately taken holy orders, withdrew it at the last moment. These tragedies, which are full of sound and fury, are destitute of tragic power. _The Revenge_, in which Zanga acts the part of an Iago, has some forcible scenes, and so, despite much rant and fustian, has _Busiris_. Plenty of blood is shed, of course, and the heroines of the plays die by their own hands. Tragedy is supposed to exercise an elevating influence, but to counteract this happy result, _Busiris_ and _The Revenge_ are followed by indecent epilogues, in which the speakers jest at the feelings which the plays may have excited. For _The Brothers_ Young wrote his own epilogue. It is decent and dull. His genius was better fitted for satire than for the drama, and _The Universal Passion_, which consists of seven satires published in a collected form in 1728, brought him reputation and money. The poet Crabbe was never more surprised in his life than when John Murray (the famous 'My Murray' of Byron) gave him £3,000 for the copyright of his poems; Young received the same sum for work immeasurably inferior in value, and in a less legitimate way. Two thousand pounds, it is stated, was a gift from the Duke of Grafton, who said it was the best bargain he ever made, as the satires were worth £4,000. Young, it will be seen, preceded Pope as a satirist. He is more generous and humane, and has none of the venomous attacks on living persons by which Pope added piquancy to his verse. But he is a careless