WARTON, THOMAS (1728-90). An English poet and critic, born January 9, 1728, at Basing stoke. Ile was the younger brother of Joseph \Varton (q.v.). From the tuition of his father Luse went to Trinity College, (fxford, graduating B.A. in 1747, and M.A. in 1750. He remained at the university all his life. In 1757 he was elected professor of poetry at Oxford—a position which he held for tell years. In 1767 he took the degree of B.D. To him fell two church liv ings—Kiddington ill Oxfordshire (1771) and Earrance in Somersetshire (1782). In 1785 Luse was appointed Cannlen professor of histary at Oxford. and poet laureate in succession to Wil liam Whitehead. Ile died at Oxford, May 21, 1790.
Walston began writing verse in boyhood. His poems, consi'.ting of sonnets, odes, and descrip tive lyrics, collected in 1777, reached a fourth edition in 1789. Written in imitation of Spenser and Milton, they are most interesting as links between the older English poetry and the re markable poetic outburst beginning with Words worth and Coleridge. Warton gained his repu tation as a critic with Observations on Ole Puerie Queene (1754; enlarged to 2 vols., 17621,
a pioneer work in the revival of enthusiasm for magic and mystery. In 1774 appeared the first volume of his History of English Poetry. Two more volumes were added in 1778 and 1781. bringing the work down through the age of Elizabeth. A fourth volume, which was intended to carry the subject onward to Pope, was never written. In spite of many errors in fact and of generalizations proved incorrect by later investi gations. the History of English Poetry still pos sesses very great value. Judged historically, it marks an epoch in English literary history. War ton's la-kt important und(Idaking was an edition of Poems upon Screral Oveasions by John Milton 11785), winch in the judgment of David Masson is the best critical edition of Milton's early ever published. Warton's History of Eng/ish Poetry was reedited with suppressions and additions by IV, C. Hazlitt (London, 1874)." The standard memoir is prefixed to the Poems, ed. by R. Slant (2 vols., Oxford, 1802).