WARTON, Joseph, English poet and critic: b. Dunsfold, Surrey, 1722 (baptized 22 April) ; d. Wickham, 23 Feb. 1800. He was the son of Thomas Warton the elder and brother of Thomas Warton the younger (q.v.). He studied at his father's granunar school at Basingstoke; then at Winchester, and finally at Oriel Col lege, Oxford, where he was graduated B.A., 13 March 1743-44. During the next 10 years he served successively as curate at Basingstoke, rector of Winslade and rector of Tunworth. Then, in 1755, he became usher, or second mas ter, and in 1766 headmaster of Winchester College. In 1759 he had received from Oxford the degree of M.A.; in 1768 he received those of B.D., and D.D. He remained at VvItichester 38 years, but, after suffering three student in surrections, he resigned in 1793 and withdrew to a living at Wickham. There he died, 23 Feb. 1800.
Among English writers of the 18th century, Joseph Warton is significant for being probably the earliest consciously romantic poet The romanticism evident in his hostility to the cold correctness of the school of Pope, and in his enthusiasm for Spenser, Shakespeare and Mil ton, appears consistently throughout his works. It appears in 'The Enthusiast ; or the Lover of Nature,' .written in 1740 when Warton was 18 and included in his first volume (Ode on reading West's Pinda0 (1744).
" What are the kys of artful Addism, Coldly correct. to Shakespeare's warbling. wild? Whom on the winding Avon's willow'd banks Fair Fancy fotmd. and bore the smiling babe To a close cavern." His romanticism he again avows in the adver tisement to his second volume 'Odes on Various Subjects' (1746). eThe Public has been so much accustomed of late to didactic poetry alone, and essays on moral subjects, that any work where the imagination is much indulged, will perhaps not be relished or regarded. The
author therefore of these pieces is in some pain lest certain austere critics should think them too fanciful or descriptive. But as he is con vinced that the fashion of moralizing in verse has been carried too far, and as he looks upon invention and imagination to be the chief facul ties of a poet, so he will be happy if the follow ing Odes may be looked upon as an attempt to bring back Poetry into its right channe1.0 This romantic creed he states even more completely in his 'Essays on the Genius and Writings of Pope) (1757). This book has been called the emost important of all the critical works that aided the Romantic movement . . . one of the most significant books of the whole century.' In it, Warton _openly attacked the poetry of Pope; demolished the ideals of the pseudo classical school, and in their place set up the romantic standards that have since been ac cepted. It makes Warton, despite the compara tive inconsequence of his poetry, one of the most important forerunners of English Roman ticism.
His chief works are (Ode on Reading West's Pindar' (1744) ; 'Odes on Various Sub jects' (1746) ; an edition of Virgil in Latin and English, to which he contributed translations of the Eclogues and the Georgics (1753) ; 24 essays, chiefly in literary criticism, contributed to 'The Adventurer' (1753-56) ; 'Essays on the Genius and Writings of Pope' (Vol. I, 1757; Vol. II, 1782), and an edition of Pope's works in nine volumes (1797).