for the next eight or nine years Young
was a sort of _attache_ of Wharton's. In 1719, according to legal
records, the Duke granted him an annuity, in consideration of his having
relinquished the office of tutor to Lord Burleigh, with a life annuity of
100 pounds a year, on his Grace's assurances that he would provide for
him in a much more ample manner. And again, from the same evidence, it
appears that in 1721 Young received from Wharton a bond for 600 pounds,
in compensation of expenses incurred in standing for Parliament at the
Duke's desire, and as an earnest of greater services which his Grace had
promised him on his refraining from the spiritual and temporal advantages
of taking orders, with a certainty of two livings in the gift of his
college. It is clear, therefore, that lay advancement, as long as there
was any chance of it, had more attractions for Young than clerical
preferment; and that at this time he accepted the Duke of Wharton as the
pilot of his career.

A more creditable relation of Young's was his friendship with Tickell,
with whom he was in the habit of interchanging criticisms, and to whom in
1719--the same year, let us note, in which he took his doctor's
degree--he addressed his "Lines on the Death of Addison." Close upon
these followed his "Paraphrase of part of the Book of Job," with a
dedication to Parker, recently made Lord Chancellor, showing that the
possession of Wharton's patronage did not prevent Young from fishing in
other waters. He know nothing of Parker, but that did not prevent him
from magnifying the new Chancellor's merits; on the other hand, he _did_
know Wharton, but this again did not prevent him from prefixing to his
tragedy, "The Revenge," which appeared in 1721, a dedication attributing
to the Duke all virtues, as well as all accomplishments. In the
concluding sentence of this dedication, Young naively indicates that a
considerable ingredient in his gratitude was a lively sense of
anticipated favors. "My present fortune is his bounty, and my future his
care; which I will venture to say will always be remembered to his honor;
since he, I know, intended his generosity as an encouragement to merit,
through his very pardonable partiality to one who bears him so sincere a
duty and respect, I happen to receive the benefit of it." Young was
economical with his ideas and images; he was rarely satisfied with using
a clever thing once, and this bit of ingenious humility was afte