View source for Thomas Warton

{{short description|18th-century English literary historian, critic, and poet}}
{{Other people|Thomas Wharton}}
{{anchor|Thomas Warton the younger}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=June 2021}}
{{Use British English|date=May 2012}}
{{Infobox officeholder
| name          = Thomas Warton
| image         = Thomas Warton by Reynolds.jpg
| office        = [[Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom]]
| monarch            = [[George III]]
| term_start         = 20 April 1785
| term_end           = 21 May 1790
| predecessor        = [[William Whitehead (poet)|William Whitehead]]
| successor          = [[Henry James Pye]]
| imagesize     =
| alt           =
| caption       = Portrait by [[Joshua Reynolds]], 1784
| birth_date     = {{Birth date|1728|1|9|df=y}}
| birth_place    = [[Basingstoke]], [[Hampshire]], [[England]]
| death_date     = {{Death date and age|1790|5|21|1728|1|9|df=y}}
| death_place    = [[Oxford]], [[England]]
| resting_place =
| occupation    = Literary historian, critic, and poet
| nationality   = English
| citizenship   =
| education     =
| alma_mater    = [[Trinity College, Oxford]]
| father        = [[Thomas Warton the elder|Thomas Warton]]
}}

'''Thomas Warton''' (9 January 1728{{snd}}21 May 1790) was an English [[history of literature|literary historian]], critic, and poet. He was appointed [[Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom|Poet Laureate]] in 1785, following the death of [[William Whitehead (poet)|William Whitehead]].

He is sometimes called ''Thomas Warton the younger'' to distinguish him from [[Thomas Warton the elder|his father, who had the same name]]. His most famous poem is ''The Pleasures of Melancholy'', a representative work of the [[Graveyard Poets]].

==Life==

Warton was born in [[Basingstoke]], [[Hampshire]], the son of poet [[Thomas Warton, the Elder]], and younger brother of [[Joseph Warton]] and [[Jane Warton (writer)|Jane Warton]]. As a youngster, Warton demonstrated a strong predilection toward writing poetry, a skill he would continue to develop all of his life.<ref name="life">[http://caxton.stockton.edu/pom/stories/storyReader$8 Life of Thomas Warton, the Younger] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060314170930/http://caxton.stockton.edu/pom/stories/storyReader$8 |date=14 March 2006 }}
</ref> In fact, Warton translated one of [[Martial]]'s epigrams at nine and wrote ''The Pleasures of Melancholy'' at seventeen.<ref name="EB1911"/>

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.<ref name="life"/>
{{The Club|align=right}}

Warton was appointed [[Professor of Poetry]] at the university in 1757, a post that he held for ten years.<ref>"<cite>He was ordained and eventually served as professor of poetry at Oxford from 1757 to 1767.</cite>" [http://www.bartleby.com/65/wa/Warton-T2.html Warton, Thomas, 1728–90, English poet and literary historian], Bartleby.com. Accessed 9 December 2022.</ref>

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 of the United Kingdom|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).<ref name="EB1911">{{EB1911|inline=y|wstitle=Warton, Thomas (1728-1790)|display=Warton, Thomas|volume=28|page=337}}</ref>

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 (honorific)#Academia|don]], with a taste for [[tavern]]s and crowds as well as dim [[aisle]]s and [[Chivalric romance|romances]].

==Poetry, criticism and historical works==
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 his [[Master of Arts|M.A.]] degree.<ref name="EB1911"/>
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 (poet)|William Mason's]] Isis, an Elegy published the previous year, which was anything but flattering to Oxford.<ref name="life"/>

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.<ref>{{cite book |title=The Poetical Works of Thomas Gray, Thomas Parnell, William Collins, Matthew Green, and Thomas Warton |date=1853 |publisher=Routledge |location=London |editor-last=Willmott|editor-first=Robert Aris | editor-link=Robert Aris Willmott}}</ref>

Although he continued to write poetry, Warton's main energies were turned to poetical reading and criticism.<ref name="EB1911"/> His first major academic work was ''Observations on the [[The Faerie Queene|Faerie Queene]] of [[Edmund Spenser|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|date=December 2022}}

In 1782, he wrote ''The History and Antiquities of Kiddington'', an early example of [[English local history]].<ref>Warton, T. ''The History and Antiquities of Kiddington''. 3rd edition (1815) in [https://books.google.com/books?id=oFdbAAAAQAAJ Google Books]. Accessed 9 December 2022.</ref>

==Various works==
*{{Cite book |title=The Pleasures of Melancholy  |url=http://loki.stockton.edu/~kinsellt/projects/pom/pom.html }}
*{{Cite book |title=Observations on the Faerie Queene of Spenser |year=1754 }}
*{{Cite book |title=The Oxford Sausage |year=1764 }} – an anthology of verse and Oxford wit
*{{Cite book |title=Inquiry into the Authenticity of the Rowley Poems |year=1770 }}
*{{Cite book |title=[[The History of English Poetry|History of English Poetry]] |date=1774–1781 }}
*{{Cite book |title=The History and Antiquities of Kiddington |year=1782 }}

==Warton Lectures==
In 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.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Frida Mond: A good friend to the British Academy|url=https://www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/publishing/review/25/frida-mond-good-friend-british-academy/|website=The British Academy|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Warton Lectures on English Poetry|website=The British Academy|url=https://www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/events/lectures/listings/warton-lectures-english-poetry/}}</ref>

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
{{wikisource|works=or}}
{{wikiquote}}
* {{cite DNB |wstitle=Warton, Thomas (1728-1790)|last=Lee|first=Sidney |author-link=Sidney Lee|volume=59|pages=432–436}}
* [http://www.eighteenthcenturypoetry.org/authors/pers00053.shtml Thomas Warton] at the [http://www.eighteenthcenturypoetry.org/ Eighteenth-Century Poetry Archive (ECPA)]
* {{Gutenberg author | id=36522}}
* {{Internet Archive author |sname=Thomas Warton}}
* {{Librivox author |id=8273}}

{{s-start}}
{{s-court}}
{{s-bef|before=[[William Whitehead (English poet)|William Whitehead]]}} 
{{s-ttl|title=British [[Poet Laureate]]|years=1785–1790}} 
{{s-aft|after=[[Henry James Pye]]}}
{{s-end}}

{{Poets Laureate of the United Kingdom}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Warton, Thomas}}
[[Category:1728 births]]
[[Category:1790 deaths]]
[[Category:People educated at Winchester College]]
[[Category:Alumni of Trinity College, Oxford]]
[[Category:18th-century English poets]]
[[Category:English literary critics]]
[[Category:British poets laureate]]
[[Category:English medievalists]]
[[Category:People from Basingstoke]]
[[Category:18th-century English writers]]
[[Category:18th-century English male writers]]
[[Category:Oxford Professors of Poetry]]
[[Category:Camden Professors of Ancient History]]
[[Category:English male poets]]
[[Category:English male non-fiction writers]]