Thomas Warton (9 January 1728 – 21 May 1790) was an English literary historian, critic, and poet. He was appointed Poet Laureate in 1785, following the death of William Whitehead.
Thomas Warton | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom | |
| In office 20 April 1785 – 21 May 1790 | |
| Monarch | George III |
| Preceded by | William Whitehead |
| Succeeded by | Henry James Pye |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 9 January 1728 Basingstoke, Hampshire, England |
| Died | 21 May 1790 (aged 62) Oxford, England |
| Parent |
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| Alma mater | Trinity College, Oxford |
| Occupation | Literary historian, critic, and poet |
He is sometimes called Thomas Warton the younger to distinguish him from his father, who had the same name. His most famous poem is The Pleasures of Melancholy, a representative work of the Graveyard Poets.
Life
editWarton was born in Basingstoke, Hampshire, the son of poet Thomas Warton, the Elder, and younger brother of Joseph Warton and Jane Warton. As a youngster, Warton demonstrated a strong predilection toward writing poetry, a skill he would continue to develop all of his life.[1] In fact, Warton translated one of Martial's epigrams at nine and wrote The Pleasures of Melancholy at seventeen.[2]
His early education was given to him by his father at home. In March 1744, aged 16, he entered Trinity College, Oxford. He graduated from Oxford in 1747, where he subsequently became a Fellow. Warton was selected as Poet Laureate of Oxford in 1747 and again in 1748. His duty in this post was to write a poem about a selected patroness of the university, which would be read to her on a specially appointed day.[1]
Warton was appointed Professor of Poetry at the university in 1757, a post that he held for ten years.[4]
In 1771, he was appointed rector of Kiddington in Oxfordshire, a post he held until his death. In 1785, he was appointed Camden Professor of History, as well as the eighth Poet Laureate.
Among other important contributions, Warton, along with his brother, was among the first to argue that Sir Thopas, by Geoffrey Chaucer, was a parody. Warton contributed to the general project of the ballad revival. He was a general supporter of the poetry of Thomas Gray—a fact that Johnson satirized in his parody "Hermit hoar, in solemn cell." Among his minor works were an edition of Theocritus, a selection of Latin and Greek inscriptions, the humorous Oxford Companion to the Guide and Guide to the Companion (1762); lives of Sir Thomas Pope and Ralph Bathurst; and an Inquiry into the Authenticity of the Poems attributed to Thomas Rowley (1782).[2]
Warton gave little attention to his clerical duties, and Oxford always remained his home. He was known as a very easy and convivial as well as a very learned don, with a taste for taverns and crowds as well as dim aisles and romances.
Poetry, criticism and historical works
editIn a poem written in 1745 he shows the delight in Gothic churches and ruined castles which inspired much of his subsequent work in romantic revival. Most of Warton's poetry was written before the age of twenty-three, when he took his M.A. degree.[2] In 1749, he penned The Triumph of Isis, a poem in praise of Oxford and the many students who had received their education there. Published anonymously, The Triumph of Isis rebutted William Mason's Isis, an Elegy published the previous year, which was anything but flattering to Oxford.[1]
Following the success of The Triumph of Isis, Warton wrote Newmarket, a Satire, which was followed by a collection of verses. His complete poetical works were included in an anthology that was published in 1853.[5]
Although he continued to write poetry, Warton's main energies were turned to poetical reading and criticism.[2] His first major academic work was Observations on the Faerie Queene of Spenser, published in 1754. He is, however, best known for the three-volume The History of English Poetry (1774–81), which covered the poetry of the 11th through the 16th centuries. Although the work was criticised for its many inaccuracies, it is nonetheless considered a highly important and influential historical tome.[citation needed]
In 1782, he wrote The History and Antiquities of Kiddington, an early example of English local history.[6]
Various works
edit- The Pleasures of Melancholy.
- Observations on the Faerie Queene of Spenser. 1754.
- The Oxford Sausage. 1764. – an anthology of verse and Oxford wit
- Inquiry into the Authenticity of the Rowley Poems. 1770.
- History of English Poetry. 1774–1781.
- The History and Antiquities of Kiddington. 1782.
Warton Lectures
editIn 1910, Frida Mond endowed the British Academy with a fund to establish an annual Shakespeare oration or lecture, as well as an annual lecture on English poetry to be called the Warton Lecture, as a tribute to the memory of Thomas Warton as a historian of English poetry. The inaugural lectures in these series were delivered in 1911 and 1910, respectively.[7][8]
References
edit- ^ a b c Life of Thomas Warton, the Younger Archived 14 March 2006 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ a b c d One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Warton, Thomas". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 28 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 337.
- ^ 'A literary party at Sir Joshua Reynolds's, D. George Thompson, published by Owen Bailey, after James William Edmund Doyle, published 1 October 1851
- ^ "He was ordained and eventually served as professor of poetry at Oxford from 1757 to 1767." Warton, Thomas, 1728–90, English poet and literary historian, Bartleby.com. Accessed 9 December 2022.
- ^ Willmott, Robert Aris, ed. (1853). The Poetical Works of Thomas Gray, Thomas Parnell, William Collins, Matthew Green, and Thomas Warton. London: Routledge.
- ^ Warton, T. The History and Antiquities of Kiddington. 3rd edition (1815) in Google Books. Accessed 9 December 2022.
- ^ "Frida Mond: A good friend to the British Academy". The British Academy.
- ^ "Warton Lectures on English Poetry". The British Academy.
External links
edit
- Lee, Sidney (1899). . In Lee, Sidney (ed.). Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 59. London: Smith, Elder & Co. pp. 432–436.
- Thomas Warton at the Eighteenth-Century Poetry Archive (ECPA)
- Works by Thomas Warton at Project Gutenberg
- Works by or about Thomas Warton at the Internet Archive
- Works by Thomas Warton at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks)
