Warton, Thomas, the Younger

Warton, Thomas, the Younger

▪ English poet
born Jan. 9, 1728, Basingstoke, Hampshire, Eng.
died May 21, 1790, Oxford
 poet laureate from 1785 and author of the first history of English poetry, brother of the poet and critic Joseph Warton, and son of Thomas Warton the Elder (1688?–1745), professor of poetry at Oxford University (1718–26).

      Warton gained an early reputation as a poet, and in his meditative, blank verse poem The Pleasures of Melancholy (published anonymously in 1747) he displayed the love of medieval and “romantic” themes that coloured much of his later work as a critic. Most of his best verse was written before he was 23. His later work included the mandatory formal odes published after his appointment as poet laureate in 1785.

      Warton is now most highly regarded as a scholar and as a pioneer of literary history. His Observations on the Faerie Queene of Spenser (1754; 2nd enlarged edition, 1762) contains a final section that briefly surveys English literature from Chaucer to the Restoration. It prefigures the work that was to occupy Warton for the rest of his life: The History of English Poetry from the Close of the Eleventh to the Commencement of the Eighteenth Century, 3 vol. (1774–81), which he did not live to complete, the history running to the end of Queen Elizabeth's reign early in the 17th century. This was the first attempt at such a synoptic survey. He published other works of antiquarian scholarship and corresponded with notable figures who shared his interests, including the writer Horace Walpole, the antiquarian Thomas Percy, and the scholar and editor Edmund Malone.

Additional Reading
David Fairer (ed.), The Correspondence of Thomas Warton (1995).

* * *


Universalium. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Поможем написать реферат

Look at other dictionaries:

  • Warton, Thomas, The Elder; Joseph; And Thomas, The Younger — (1688 1800)    • Thomas, the elder, the father, 1688 1745    The son of Antony Warton, vicar of Godalming, Surrey, he graduated, B.A. (1709 10), M.A. (1712), and B.D. (1725) from Magdalen College, Oxford. His Jacobite sympathies made him popular… …   British and Irish poets

  • Warton, Thomas — (1728 1790)    Literary historian and critic, younger s. of Thomas W., Prof. of Poetry at Oxf., and brother of the above, was ed. under his f. at Basingstoke and at Oxf. At the age of 19 he pub. a poem of considerable promise, The Pleasures of… …   Short biographical dictionary of English literature

  • Thomas Warton — (January 9, 1728 ndash; May 21, 1790) was an English literary historian and critic, as well as a poet. From 1785 through 1790 he was the Poet Laureate of England.LifeWarton was born in Basingstoke, Hampshire, England, the son of poet Thomas… …   Wikipedia

  • The Young and the Restless minor characters — The following are characters from the American soap opera The Young and the Restless who are notable for their actions or relationships, but who do not warrant their own articles. Contents 1 Current Characters 1.1 Genevieve …   Wikipedia

  • Western architecture — Introduction       history of Western architecture from prehistoric Mediterranean cultures to the present.       The history of Western architecture is marked by a series of new solutions to structural problems. During the period from the… …   Universalium

  • Joseph Warton — (April 1722 ndash; 23 February 1800) was an English academic and literary critic.He was born in Dunsfold, Surrey, England, but his family soon moved to Hampshire, where his father, the Reverend Thomas Warton, became vicar of Basingstoke. There, a …   Wikipedia

  • Bowles, William Lisle — ▪ British poet and clergyman born , September 24, 1762, Kings Sutton, Northamptonshire, England died April 7, 1850, Salisbury, Wiltshire  English poet, critic, and clergyman, noted principally for his Fourteen Sonnets (1789), which expresses with …   Universalium

  • Poets laureate of Britain — ▪ Table Poets laureate of Britain John Dryden (Dryden, John) 1668 89 Thomas Shadwell (Shadwell, Thomas) 1689 92 Nahum Tate (Tate, Nahum) 1692 1715 Nicholas Rowe (Rowe, Nicholas) 1715 18 Laurence Eusden (Eusden, Laurence) 1718 30 Colley Cibber… …   Universalium

  • List of abbeys and priories in England — Contents 1 Overview 1.1 Article layout 2 Abbreviations and key …   Wikipedia

  • 1747 in literature — The year 1747 in literature involved some significant events and new books.Events* The Battle of Lauffeldt, where the French defeat the English * Samuel Johnson begins work on his dictionary of the English language * David Garrick becomes one of… …   Wikipedia

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”