WARTON, THOMAS (1728-1790)

This article appears in Volume V28, Page 337 of the Encyclopedia Britannica.

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WARTON, THOMAS (1728-1790) , English poet-laureate and historian of poetry, younger son of Thomas Warton (see above), was born at Basingstoke on the 9th of January 1728. He was still more precocious as a poet than his brothertranslated one of Martial's epigrams at nine, and wrote The Pleasures of Melancholy at seventeenand he showed exactly the same bent, Milton and Spenser being his favourite poets, though he " did not fail to cultivate his mind with the soft thrillings of the tragic muse " of Shakespeare.
In a poem written in 1745 he shows the delight in

Gothic

GOTHIC

churches and ruined castles which inspired so much of his subsequent

work

WORK

in romantic revival. Most of Warton's poetry, humorous and seriousand the humorous mock-heroic was better within his powers than serious versewas written before the age of twenty-three, when he took his M.A. degree and became a fellow of his college (Trinity, Oxford). Ile did not altogether abandon verse; his sonnets, especially, which are the best of his poems, were written later. But his main energies were given to omnivorous poetical reading and criticism. He was the first to turn to literary account the medieval treasures of the Bodleian Library. It was through him, in fact, that the medieval spirit which always lingered in Oxford first began to stir after its long inaction, and to claim an influence in the modern world. Warton, like his brother, entered the church, and held one after another, various livings, but he did not marry. He gave little attention to his clerical duties, and Oxford always remained his home. In 1749 he published an heroic poem in praise of Oxford, The

Triumph

TRIUMPH (triumphus)

of Isis. He was a very easy and convivial as well as a very learned don, with a taste forpothouses and crowds as well as dim aisles and romances in manuscript and black

letter

LETTER (through Fr. lettre from Lat. littera or litera, letter of the alphabet; the origin of the Latin word is obscure; it has probably no connexion with the root of linere, to smear, i.e. with wax, for an inscription with a stilus)

. The first proof that he gave of his extraordinarily wide scholarship was in his Observations on the Poetry of Spenser (1754). Three years later he was appointed professor of poetry, and held the office for ten years, sending 'round, according to the story, at the beginning of term to inquire whether anybody wished him to lecture. The first volume of his monumental

work

WORK

, The History of English Poetry, appeared . twenty years later, in 1774, the second volume in 1778, and the third in 1781. A work of such enormous labour and research could proceed but slowly, and it was no wonder that Warton flagged in the execution of it, and stopped to refresh himself with annotating (1785) the

minor

poems of Milton, pouring out in this delightful work the accumulated suggestions of

forty

FORTY

years.
In 1785 he became Camden professor of history, and was made poet-laureate in the same year. Among his

minor

works were an edition of Theocritus, a selection of Latin and Greek

inscriptions

INSCRIPTIONS (from Lat. inscribere, to write upon)

, the humorous Oxford Companion to the Guide and Guide to the Companion (1762); The Oxford Sausage (1764); an edition of Theocritus (1770); lives of Sir Thomas Pope and Ralph Bathurst, college benefactors; a History of the Antiquities of Kiddington Parish, of which he held the living (1781); and an Inquiry into the Authenticity of the Poems attributed to Thomas Rowley (1782). His busy and convivial life was ended by a paralytic stroke in May 1790.
Warton's poems were first collected in 1777, and he was engaged at the time of his death on a corrected edition, which appeared in 1i91, with a memoir by his friend and admirer, Richard

Mant

MANT, RICHARD (1776–1848)

. They were edited in 1822 for the British Poets, by S. W. Singer.
The History of English Poetry from the close of the zzth to the Commencement of the 28th Century, to which are prefixed two Dissertations: I. On the Origin of Romantic Fiction in Europe; H. On the Introduction of Learning into England (17741781) was only brought down to the close of the 16th century. It was criticized by J. Ritson in 1782 in A Familiar

Letter

LETTER (through Fr. lettre from Lat. littera or litera, letter of the alphabet; the origin of the Latin word is obscure; it has probably no connexion with the root of linere, to smear, i.e. with wax, for an inscription with a stilus)

to the Author. A new edition came out in 1824, with an elaborate introduction by the editor, Richard Price, who added to the text comments and emendations from Joseph Ritson, Francis Douce, George Ashby, Thomas Park and himself. Another edition of this, stated to be " further improved by the corrections and additions of several eminent antiquaries," appeared in 184o. In 1871 the book was subjected to a radical revision by Mr W. C. Hazlitt. I-Ie cut out passages in which Warton had been led into gross errors by misreading his authorities or relying on false information, and supplied within brackets information on authors or works omitted. Warton's matter, which was somewhat scattered, although he worked on a chronological plan, was in some cases re-arranged and the mass of profuse and often contradictory notes was cut down, although new information was added by the editor and his associates, Sir Frederick Madden, Thomas

Wright

CARROLL
- CARROLL, CHARLES (1737-1832)
- CARROLL, JOHN (1735-1815)
_DAVIDSON_1840_1.html">WRIGHT,
CARROLL
- CARROLL, CHARLES (1737-1832)
- CARROLL, JOHN (1735-1815)
DAVIDSON (1840-1909)
WRIGHT, CHAUNCEY (1830-1875)
WRIGHT, JOSEPH (1734-1797)
WRIGHT, SILAS (1795-1847)
WRIGHT, THOMAS (1809–1884)
WRIGHT, THOMAS (1810—1877)
WRIGHT, WILLIAM ALDIS (1836– )

, W. Aldis

Wright

, W. W. Skeat, Richard Morris and F. J. Furnivall. When all criticism has been allowed for the inaccuracies of Warton's work, and the unsatisfactory nature of his general plan, the fact remains that his book is still indispensable to the student of English poetry. Moreover, much that may seem commonplace in his criticism was entirely fresh and even revolutionary in his own day. Warton directed the attention of readers to early English literature, and, in view of the want of texts, rendered inestimable service by transcribing large extracts from early writers. Of the poets of the 16th century he was an extremely sympathetic critic and has not been superseded.
See " T. Warton and Machyn's Diary," by II. E. D. Blakiston in the English Historical Review (April 1896) for illustrations of his inaccurate methods.

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