WARTON, THOMAS, the younger brother of the preceding, was born in 1728, at Bas ingstoke, in Hampshire, of which place his father had then become vicar. His earlier education he received chiefly at home from his father; and in 1743 be was entered at Trinity college, Oxford, where, in 1750, he took his degree of M.A. The year after, he obtained a fellowship. He remained at the university, employed as a tutor; and in 1757 he was made professor of poetry, in which capacity he was much esteemed as a lecturer. In 1767 he took his degree as bachelor of divinity, and was soon after pre sented to the living of Kiddington by the earl of Lichfield. In 1782 that of 11111 Far ranee, in Somersetshire, fell to him by favor of his college; and these two unimportant pieces of ecclesiastical preferment were the only ones he ever enjoyed. Very early he became known as a poet, and in 1754 he published a volume' entitled, Observations on the Fairie Qaeene of Spenser, which established his reputation as one of the first critics of the day. In a second edition of the work, issued in 1762, it was expanded into two volumes. Of Warton's miscellaneous literary activity, no account need be given in detail. The work by which he is now chiefly remembered is his History of English
Poetry, the first volume of which was published in 1774. Two other volumes followed in 1778 and 1781, but at his death the work remained unfinished. In its wealth of information regarding the earlier portion of our literature, the book remains to this day unrivaled. As a poet, also, Warton takes distinct, if not very high rank. In 1777 he published a collection of such of his scattered pieces as he deemed most worthy of being reprinted. and the acceptance it met with is shown in the successive editions of 1778, 1779, and 1789, as also in the fact, that on the death of Whitehead, the poet-laureate, Warton had the honor, such as it might be, of being selected to succeed him in the office. The last work on which he was engaged was an elaborately annotated edition of the minor poems of Milton. Of this, published in 1785, a carefully prepared re-impres sion was issued the year after his death, which took place suddenly on May 21, 1790. In 1802 a new edition of his poems was published, with a life of the author by Mr. Mant.