Thomas Warton | |
|---|---|
 Portrait byJoshua Reynolds, 1784 | |
| 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 | (1728-01-09)9 January 1728 Basingstoke,Hampshire,England |
| Died | 21 May 1790(1790-05-21) (aged 62) Oxford,England |
| Parent |
|
| Alma mater | Trinity College, Oxford |
| Occupation | Literary historian, critic, and poet |
Thomas Warton (9 January 1728 – 21 May 1790) was an Englishliterary historian, critic, and poet. He was appointedPoet Laureate in 1785, following the death ofWilliam Whitehead.
He is sometimes calledThomas Warton the younger to distinguish him fromhis father, who had the same name. His most famous poem isThe Pleasures of Melancholy, a representative work of theGraveyard Poets.
Warton was born inBasingstoke,Hampshire, the son of poetThomas Warton, the Elder, and younger brother ofJoseph Warton andJane 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 ofMartial's epigrams at nine and wroteThe Pleasures of Melancholy at seventeen.[2]
His early education was given to him by his father at home. In March 1744, aged 16, he enteredTrinity 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 appointedProfessor of Poetry at the university in 1757, a post that he held for ten years.[4]
In 1771, he was appointed rector ofKiddington in Oxfordshire, a post he held until his death. In 1785, he was appointedCamden Professor of History, as well as the eighthPoet Laureate.
Among other important contributions, Warton, along with his brother, was among the first to argue thatSir Thopas, byGeoffrey Chaucer, was a parody. Warton contributed to the general project of theballad revival. He was a general supporter of the poetry ofThomas Gray—a fact that Johnson satirized in his parody "Hermit hoar, in solemn cell." Among his minor works were an edition ofTheocritus, a selection of Latin and Greek inscriptions, the humorousOxford Companion to the Guide and Guide to the Companion (1762); lives ofSir Thomas Pope andRalph Bathurst; and anInquiry 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 learneddon, with a taste fortaverns and crowds as well as dimaisles andromances.
In 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 hisM.A. degree.[2]In 1749, he pennedThe 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 rebuttedWilliam Mason's Isis, an Elegy published the previous year, which was anything but flattering to Oxford.[1]
Following the success ofThe Triumph of Isis, Warton wroteNewmarket, 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 wasObservations on theFaerie Queene ofSpenser, published in 1754. He is, however, best known for the three-volumeThe 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 wroteThe History and Antiquities of Kiddington, an early example ofEnglish local history.[6]
In 1910,Frida Mond endowed theBritish 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]
One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Warton, Thomas".Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 28 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 337.
| Court offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | BritishPoet Laureate 1785–1790 | Succeeded by |
