Extract of Dr. Young's Night Thoughts (1770)
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Extract of Dr. Young’s Night Thoughts (1770)1 [Baker List, #323] Editorial Introduction: A major theme running through eighteenth-century English literature and art was the importance of viewing present pleasures and successes in perspective—by recalling the transitory nature of fortune, our mortality, and the accountability of eternal judgment. This theme found particular expression in a set of poets often referred to as “the graveyard school.” The roots of this school are traced to Edward Young’s A Poem on the Last Day (1713) and Thomas Parnell’s A Night Piece on Death (1722), both of which Wesley included in his Collection of Moral and Sacred Poems (1744).2 The school reached prominence mid-century, in works like Young’s Night Thoughts (1742–45), Robert Blair’s The Grave (1743), James Hervey’s Meditations among the Tombs (1746), and Thomas Gray’s Elegy Written in a Country Church Yard (1751). John Wesley resonated strongly with the themes of this school of eighteenth-century poetry.3 He was so drawn to their expression in Edward Young’s Night Thoughts that he incorporated into his 1744 Collection of Moral and Sacred Poems an extract from the installments of Young’s ongoing work that had appeared to date.4 This enthusiastic reprinting quite rightly drew complaint from Robert Dodsley, Young’s publisher, for violating the English copyright law adopted in 1710 (known as the “Statute of Anne”).5 The complaint was resolved by Wesley signing the following agreement on February 8, 1745: Having inadvertently printed, in a collection of poems published by me in three volumes, 12mo, some pieces that are the property of Mr. Robert Dodsley, Bookseller—viz., five of the Night Thoughts and some pieces of Mrs. Rowe—for which I have this day made him satisfaction by giving him two notes, one for 20£ payable in six days, and another for 30£ payable in three months, I hereby give him my word and promise that I will never again reprint the same in that or any other manner. John Wesley6 What is left unsaid in this agreement is that it was legally binding only until April 10, 1766; since the Statute of Anne limited copyright protection to twenty-one years, effective each April 10. Thus, Wesley was within his legal rights when, in December 1768, he began “reading over Dr. Young’s Night 1This document was produced under the editorial direction of Randy L. Maddox, with the diligent assistance of Aileen F. Maddox. Last updated: March 29, 2013. 2Wesley read Young’s Poem on the Last Day in 1729, and collected it in his MS Poetry Miscellany (1730), 155–774; before publishing it in MSP (1744), 2:71–94. He published Parnell’s Night Piece on Death in MSP (1744), 1:261–64; and reprinted it in the Arminian Magazine 11 (1788): 107–9. 3This is reflected in the many deathbed scenes that Wesley included in the Arminian Magazine, as well as his reprinting of Gray’s Elegy in AM 9 (1786): 570–74. 4Edward Young released The Complaint; or Night Thoughts on Life, Death, and Immortality (London: Robert Dodsley) in installments between 1742 and 1745. Only the first seven nights were in print in 1744, so Wesley’s extract in MSP (1744), 2:229–373 is limited to them. 5See Wesley’s letter to Robert Dodsley (Dec. 12, 1744), Works, 26:119. 6The original manuscript document is held in MARC; it is apparently in Dodsley’s hand, with Wesley providing only his signature. Cf. Wesleyan Methodist Magazine 71 (1848): 976. Thoughts, leaving out the indifferent lines, correcting many of the rest, and explaining the hard words, in order to make that noble work more useful to all, and more intelligible to ordinary readers.”7 The fruit of this labor appeared in early 1770, when Wesley published an extract of the entire set of Young’s Night Thoughts, with notes. Comparison of this extract with that in MSP (1744) quickly reveals that he did not just tack on the last two nights. Instead he worked through the entire volume again, often selecting or omitting different material than the first time. The main characteristic that Wesley’s two extracts share is that they both omit entirely Young’s “Night Three.” Edward Young (1683–1765) was a prominent English poet, dramatist, and literary critic. He suffered the death of his stepdaughter in 1736, her husband in 1740, and his own wife in 1741. These events surely contributed to his decision to compose a long blank verse poem (running roughly 9,750 lines) that focused on themes of grief, consolation, and reclamation of sinners; though he may have been responding as well to Alexander Pope’s optimistic account of human nature in Essay on Man (1734). Young titled the poem The Complaint, but it was soon referred to primarily by its subtitle Night Thoughts on Life, Death, and Immortality. The poem begins as meant to console, but its main aim is to instruct. It is addressed throughout to the shadowy figure of Lorenzo, a skeptical and profligate son whom the narrator seeks to impress with the sorrow of the world and the majesty of God. It is divided into nine parts, each signifying a particular night. The first five nights primarily articulate the subjective nature of grief, while the last four turn toward Christian apologetics. The work received high acclaim when it was first published, going through 100 editions by 1800. Most critics agree that Young’s Night Thoughts was admired in the eighteenth century as much for its religious and moral principles as for its poetic achievement. Wesley clearly shared this dual focus. He continued here a practice, which he adopted for his extract of Milton’s Paradise Lost, of highlighting passages that he judged of particular value with an asterisk (*). Indeed, in this extract he uses both “a single or double mark (i.e, **)” to point out what he considers “the sublimest strokes of poetry, and the most pathetic stokes of nature and passion” (p. iv). This may suggest that the single mark is for the first stated purpose and the double mark for the second. In any case, the double marked passages are clearly most commended. While he does not mention it in the preface, Wesley frequently (though not always) indicates the end of the section that he is commending by use of a closing bracket: ]. Examples of all three marks can be seen on page 10 below. There were 120 copies of Wesley’s Extract of Young still in inventory at his house in London when Wesley died in 1791. He appears to have been anticipating the need for a reprint, because his personal copy, which remains in the remnant of his library at Wesley’s House in London, has several manuscript markings of corrections. These corrections are annotated in the transcription below. While the transcription adopts modern principles of capitalization, we have generally retained the spelling of Wesley’s original. Likewise, we have retained his line numbering (since he refers to it in the notes), even when it is incorrect (though we note such instances, as on p. 15). Editions: John Wesley. An Extract of Dr. Young’s Night-Thoughts on Life, Death, and Immortality. Bristol: Pine, 1770. 7Wesley, Journal (Dec. 20–30, 1768), Works, 22:167. Table of Contents To the Reader...................................................................... iii Night 1........................................................................... 7 Notes ....................................................................... 22 Night 2........................................................................... 24 Notes ....................................................................... 42 Night 4........................................................................... 45 Notes ....................................................................... 66 Night 5........................................................................... 68 Notes ....................................................................... 90 Night 6........................................................................... 92 Notes ...................................................................... 111 Night 7.......................................................................... 114 Notes ...................................................................... 150 Night 8.......................................................................... 152 Notes ...................................................................... 184 Night 9.......................................................................... 187 Notes ...................................................................... 239 [Page 1] AN EXTRACT FROM DR. YOUNG’S NIGHT-THOUGHTS ON LIFE, DEATH, AND IMMORTALITY. [Page 2] [blank] [Page] iii To the Reader. 1. It is the observation of a late ingenious writer, What is usually called a correct taste, is very much offended with Dr. Young’s Night Thoughts. It is obvious, that the poetry sometimes sinks into childish conceits, or prosaic flatness; but oftner rises into the turgid, or false sublime: and that it is often perplext and obscure. …Yet this work contains many strokes of the most sublime poetry, … and is full of those pathetic strokes of nature and passion, which touch the heart in the most tender and affecting manner. Besides … there are afflictions too deep to bear either reasoning or amusement: they may be soothed; but cannot be diverted. The gloom of the Night Thoughts perfectly corresponds with this state of mind. It indulges and flatters [Page] iv the present passion, and at the same time presents those motives of consolation, which alone can render certain griefs supportable. … We may here observe