Ireland. From his letter to Richardson on "Original Composition,"
it is clear he was, at some period of his life, in that country. "I
remember," says he, in that letter, speaking of Swift, "as I and
others were taking with him an evening walk, about a mile out of
Dublin, he stopped short; we passed on; but perceiving he did not
follow us, I went back, and found him fixed as a statue, and
earnestly gazing upward at a noble elm, which in its uppermost
branches was much withered and decayed. Pointing at it, he said, 'I
shall be like that tree, I shall die at top.'" Is it not probable,
that this visit to Ireland was paid when he had an opportunity of
going thither with his avowed friend and patron?

From "The Englishman" it appears that a tragedy by Young was in the
theatre so early as 1713. Yet Busiris was not brought upon Drury
Lane stage till 1719. It was inscribed to the Duke of Newcastle,
"because the late instances he had received of his grace's
undeserved and uncommon favour, in an affair of some consequence,
foreign to the theatre, had taken from him the privilege of choosing
a patron." The Dedication he afterwards suppressed.

Busiris was followed in the year 1721 by The Revenge. He dedicated
this famous tragedy to the Duke of Wharton. "Your Grace," says the
Dedication, "has been pleased to make yourself accessory to the
following scenes, not only by suggesting the most beautiful incident
in them, but by making all possible provision for the success of the
whole." That his grace should have suggested the incident to which
he alludes, whatever that incident might have been, is not unlikely.
The last mental exertion of the superannuated young man, in his
quarters at Lerida, in Spain, was some scenes of a tragedy on the
story of Mary Queen of Scots.