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WARTON, THOMAS (1728-1790)

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Originally appearing in Volume V28, Page 337 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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WARTON, See also:THOMAS (1728-1790) , See also:English poet-See also:laureate and historian of See also:poetry, younger son of Thomas Warton (see above), was See also:born at See also:Basingstoke on the 9th of See also:January 1728. He was still more precocious as a poet than his See also:brother—translated one of See also:Martial's epigrams at nine, and wrote The Pleasures of See also:Melancholy at seventeen—and he showed exactly the same See also:bent, See also:Milton and See also:Spenser being his favourite poets, though he " did not fail to cultivate his mind with the soft thrillings of the tragic muse " of See also:Shakespeare. In a poem written in 1745 he shows the delight in See also:Gothic churches and ruined castles which inspired so much of his subsequent See also:work in romantic revival. Most of Warton's poetry, humorous and serious—and the humorous See also:mock-heroic was better within his See also:powers than serious See also:verse—was written before the See also:age of twenty-three, when he took his M.A. degree and became a See also:fellow of his See also:college (Trinity, See also:Oxford). Ile did not altogether abandon verse; his sonnets, especially, which are the best of his poems, were written later. But his See also:main energies were given to omnivorous poetical See also:reading and See also:criticism. He was the first to turn to See also:literary See also:account the See also: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 See also:long inaction, and to claim an See also:influence in the See also:modern See also:world. Warton, like his brother, entered the See also:church, and held one after another, various livings, but he did not marry. He gave little See also:attention to his clerical duties, and Oxford always remained his See also:home. In 1749 he published an heroic poem in praise of Oxford, The See also:Triumph of See also:Isis. He was a very easy and convivial as well as a very learned See also:don, with a See also:taste forpothouses and crowds as well as dim aisles and romances in See also:manuscript and See also:black See also:letter.

The first See also:

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 See also:professor of poetry, and held the See also:office for ten years, sending 'See also:round, according to the See also:story, at the beginning of See also:term to inquire whether anybody wished him to lecture. The first See also:volume of his monumental work, The See also: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 See also:research could proceed but slowly, and it was no wonder that Warton flagged in the See also:execution of it, and stopped to refresh himself with annotating (1785) the See also:minor poems of Milton, pouring out in this delightful work the accumulated suggestions of See also:forty years. In 1785 he became See also:Camden professor of history, and was made poet-laureate in the same See also:year. Among his minor See also:works were an edition of See also:Theocritus, a selection of Latin and See also:Greek See also:inscriptions, the humorous Oxford See also:Companion to the See also:Guide and Guide to the Companion (1762); The Oxford Sausage (1764); an edition of Theocritus (1770); lives of See also:Sir Thomas See also:Pope and See also:Ralph See also:Bathurst, college benefactors; a History of the Antiquities of Kiddington See also:Parish, of which he held the living (1781); and an Inquiry into the Authenticity of the Poems attributed to Thomas See also:Rowley (1782). His busy and convivial See also:life was ended by a paralytic stroke in May 1790. Warton's poems were first collected in 1777, and he was engaged at the See also:time of his See also:death on a corrected edition, which appeared in 1i91, with a memoir by his friend and admirer, See also:Richard See also:Mant. They were edited in 1822 for the See also:British Poets, by S. W. See also:Singer. The History of English Poetry from the See also:close of the zzth to the Commencement of the 28th See also:Century, to which are prefixed two See also:Dissertations: I.

On the Origin of Romantic Fiction in See also:

Europe; H. On the Introduction of Learning into See also:England (1774–1781) was only brought down to the close of the 16th century. It was criticized by J. See also:Ritson in 1782 in A See also:Familiar Letter to the Author. A new edition came out in 1824, with an elaborate introduction by the editor, Richard See also:Price, who added to the See also:text comments and emendations from See also:Joseph Ritson, See also:Francis See also:Douce, See also:George See also:Ashby, Thomas See also: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 See also:book was subjected to a See also:radical revision by Mr W. C. See also:Hazlitt. I-Ie cut out passages in which Warton had been led into See also:gross errors by misreading his authorities or relying on false See also:information, and supplied within brackets information on authors or works omitted. Warton's See also:matter, which was somewhat scattered, although he worked on a See also:chronological See also:plan, was in some cases re-arranged and the See also:mass of profuse and often contradictory notes was cut down, although new information was added by the editor and his associates, Sir See also:Frederick See also:Madden, Thomas See also:Wright, W. Aldis Wright, W.

W. See also:

Skeat, Richard See also:Morris and F. J. See also:Furnivall. When all criticism has been allowed for the inaccuracies of Warton's work, and the unsatisfactory nature of his See also:general plan, the fact remains that his book is still indispensable to the student of English poetry. Moreover, much that may seem See also:commonplace in his criticism was entirely fresh and even revolutionary in his own See also:day. Warton directed the attention of readers to See also: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 See also:Diary," by II. E. D.

Blakiston in the English See also:

Historical See also:Review (See also:April 1896) for illustrations of his inaccurate methods.

End of Article: WARTON, THOMAS (1728-1790)

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