EDWARDS, THOMAS, a critic and a poet, was born in London or its vicinity, in the year 1699, and received Isis grammatical education at Eton school. Ile entered upon the study of the law at Lincoln's Inn, with the view of practising at the bar ; but was discouraged by a re markable hesitation in his speech, from engaging much in the duties of that profession. He applied himself indeed from his youth rather to the cultivation of polite literature, than to the perusal of the statutes; and was, in particular, an ardent admirer of the works of Shak speare. He first appeared as an author in 1744, by publishing a letter to the author of a late epistolary de dication, addressed to Mr Warburton, in which he at tacked the critical tenets of that celebrated writer. War burton had hinted in the preface to his edition of Shalt speare, that he had once intended to have given his readers a body of canons for literary criticism; but now referred them to what he had occasionally said upon the subject in the course of his annotations. This idea was humorously taken up by Mr Edwards, who framed a set of canons ridiculously absurd, which he illustrated by examples from Warburton's notes. This perform ance appeared in 1747, as " A Supplement to Mr War burton's edition of Shakspeare," and afterwards under the title of " Canons of Criticism." It was remarkably well received by the public ; and besides effectually ex posing the singular aberrations of the ingenious critic in question, holds up to deserved contempt, the rash and fanciful style of critical exposition and emendation which then began to prevail. Warburton, in return, intro
duced Edwards into the Dunciad, in a scurrilous note upon line 567, kc. of book fourth; a retort which the latter, from the irascible character of his antagonist, might have been prepared to expect, and which scarce ly deserved the indignant reply which he prefixed to a future impression of his " Canons." He produced ano ther small piece, entitled, " An Account of the trial of the letter Y alias Y," which regards the orthography of the English language ; and in which lie chiefly recom mends attention to uniformity in spelling, and to the marks of etymology. He was more eminent as a clas sical scholar, and an elegant critic in the English lan guage, than as a writer of poetry. All his pieces in this last mentioned capacity, excepting one ode, were in the form of sonnets, in the style of Spenser, thirteen of which are printed in Dodsley's collection, eight in Pearch's, four in Nicol's; and the whole of these, with twenty seven additional, are to be found in the last edition of his " Canons," in 1765. A small tract on predestination, was published after his death. From the year 1739, till his decease, he resided at his estate at Turrick. He died in January 1757; and, in an inscription upon his monument in the church-yard of Ellesborough, is de scribed as a sincere Christian, a friend to the cause of liberty, and an enemy to licentiousness and faction. See .Vey Biog. Diet. and Biog. Britan. (q)