UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS STUDIES

LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE

Vol. II February, 1916 No. 1

Board of Editors

George T. Flom William A. Oldfather

Stl'art p. Sherman

pubushed by the university of illinois
Under the Auspices of the Graduate School
Urbana

THOMAS WARTON

A BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL STUDY

CLARISSA RINAKER

UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS
1916

CONTENTS

Page

Chapter I Ancestry. Early Life. Oxford c>

Chapter II Early Poetry, Published before lyjy 24

Chapter III Criticism : The Observations on the Faerie Queene of Spenser.

1754-1762 36

Chapter IV .Academic Life. 1747-1774 59

Chapter V The History of English Poetry. Volume I, 1774. The Triumph

of Romance 79

Chapter VI The History of English Poetry. Volume II, 1778. The

Revival of Learning 92

Chapter VII The History of English Poetry. Volume III, 1781. The Dawn

of the Great Poetic Age 104

Chapter VIII Critical Reception of the History of English Poetry 114

Chapter IX The Poetry of An .Antiquary. 1777-1790 127

Chapter X The .Antiquary 144

Chapter XI Last Years. 1780-1790. IS4

Chapter XII Conclusion 164

APPENDIX A Warton Genealogy 176

APPENDIX B A Bibliography of the Sources of Warton's History of Eng-
lish Poetry 177

BIBLIOGRAPHY 235

riiEFACE

Tin- purpost- of till- lollowing stiuly is to estimate tlu- iiitriiisiu and
liistoriial importaiiee of Thomas Wartoii. To this end it discusses the
relation of all his work— liis poetry, liis eritieism. his history of English
poetry, his various antii|uarian works — to the literary movements of his
day. This frequently underrated author was more than a small poet,
worthy eritic, and dahbler in literary antiquities; he was an important
eontrihutor to the literary reaction in the eighteenth century. Largely
becaus*' of his enthusiastic study of the middle ages, he was able to sup-
ply in every department of lit^-raturc which he entered an important
quality previously lacking. To poetry he added a new theme and much
picture.S(|ue imagery, and he furthered the return to nature and the son-
net revival. In criticism his study of the past produced the historical
method and helped greatly to enuincij^ate literary criticism from the
tyraiuiN- of the rides. To literary history he contributed a fuller study
of English poetry in its earlier periods than had previously been at-
temi)ted. and he showed that the poetry of the neglected mediseval period
was at least as important as classical literature in the development of
modern English literature.

To the main facts concerning Warton's life and writings, as they are
given by Sir Sidney Lee in the Dictioiiarij of Xutionul Biography, it has
not been jiossible to nud<e many a<l(litions. I have, however, been able to
make use of si.\ty-two uiii)ublislied and apparently hitherto unnoticed
letters in the British Museum and in the Bodleian and the Harvard
College Libraries, and a collection of niiscelhnieous notes in tlie Win-
chester College Library. I have also referred to the manuscripts at
Trinity College and in the possession of the descendants of the Wartou
family, which the previous biographer mentions. The bibliography of
the sources of the nistor;/ of Eiigluth rortri/ ha.s been compiled both as
an evidence of Warton's industry and erudition and as an interesting
list of the books on such a subject available to a scholar of that period.
In preparing it, I have not depended upon conjecture, other bibliogra-
phies, or library catalogxies, but have carefully compared hundreds of
the references in the history with the originals to make sure of finding
the books and editions actually useil. 1 have previously discussed War-
ton's criticism of Sjienser in the I'i(bUcations of the Modern Language
Assocuifion. March, 1915. ami Warton's poetry in the Sewance Review,

April, 1915. I published twenty-six of the new letters with notes in the
Journal of English and Germanic Philologi/, January, 1915.

In the pursuanee of this study I have, of coxirse, laid myself under
obligations to many other students of the eigliteenth century and the ro-
mantic movement. In my investigations I have been courteously helped
by the librarians of the various libraries in which I have worked. Spe-
cial tlianks are due ]\Iiss Catherine E. Lee for cordial permission to ex-
amine the Warton manuscripts in her possession; Mr. M. H. Green for
every courtesy in his power to offer in the furtherance of my investiga-
tions at Trinity College, Oxferd ; Mr. Herbert Chitty for placing at my
disposal the Warton material at Winchester College; Miss E. J. O'Meara
for bringing to my attention a copy of a rare edition of Warton "s poems
in the Yale University Library ; ilr. L. M. Buell for calling to my notice
tlie Warton-Percy letters in the Harvard College Library ; Miss Jennie
Craig for valuable help in the University of Illinois Library ; Mr. D. H.
Bishop for information concerning Joseph Wai'ton ; and Professor H. S.
V. Jones for helpful suggestions and criticism. Most of all, however, I
am indebted to Professor S. P. Sherman, at whose suggestion this work
was undertaken, and whose wise and genial counsel has directed its prog-
ress. Professor W. A. Oldfatlier has kindly assisted in seeing the work
tlirough tlie press. C. R.

Urbana, Illinois.

CHAPTER I

Ancestry Early Life Oxford

Family tradition derived the Warton family from a very ancient
and honourable one, the Wartons of Warton Hall, Lancashire,
through a collateral branch which had migrated to Beverley Parks,
Yorkshire, where the then head of the family, Michael Warton, was
knighted by Charles I, during the Civil Wars.' With the defeat of the
royalist cause the family estate was so impoverished by heavy fines that
they were unable to maintain the rank of gentry, and Laurence Warton,
second brother of Sir Michael, removed to Redness in tlie vicinity of
Sheffield. His second son, Francis, who probably went into the church
and migrated to the south of England, is very likely the same Francis
Warton of Breamore, Hampshire, who was the great-grandfather of
Thomas Warton, = the historian of English poetry. Certain it is that
Thomas Warton 's seal bore the Warton arms,^ 'Or, on a chevron azure,
a martlet between two pheons of the first.' Nothing further is known
of Francis Warton except that he destined his sou Anthony for the

'According to John Warton, the laureate's nephew, who, however, gave con-
flicting information to the biographers of his uncle and father. See Mant's Poetical
Works of Thomas Warton with . . . Memoirs, etc., 2 vols. London 1802, vol. I, p. ix,

and Wooll's Biographical Memoirs of Joseph Warton, London 1806, p. 2

and note.

The Lancashire Wartons seem not to have considered the Wartons of Beverley
to belong to their family. 'Edward B. Dawson, of Aldcliffe Hall, Lancaster,
descended from a collateral branch of the Wartons of Warton Hall, Carn forth,
in a letter to E. R. Wharton, dated Jan. 10, 1896, says that he never heard of the
Wartons of Beverly being at Warton. His ancestors were living at Warton Hall
in 1725, and for long before, as their records extend backwards at Warton for over
375 years ( — 1521).' Bodleian Library, MSS. Wharton, 14 f. 22b.

On the other hand Richard St. George's visitation of Yorkshire. 1612, derives
the Wartons of Beverley from a Christopher, and a John, "of Warton." J. Foster :
Visitation of Yorkshire, 1875, P- 386, quoted in MSS. Wharton, 14 f. 11.

-See Appendix A.

'I have seen several impressions of it upon Warton's letters, and the new
paneling in the Chapel at Winchester College has a copy of it as Joseph Warton's
among the arms of the masters of the college.

TU05IAS WARTON [10

church, Mini sent him, in 16(J(), when lie was a lad of sixteen to Magda-
len College, where he was entered as a 'pleb.'' Later he beeanie a
•elerk." took th.- usual degrees, received a number of church prefer-
ments, and settled in the livinp of Godalming, in Surrey." Of his three
sons, the two ihlest were deaf and duiid). and one of them, a painter of
some j>romise, died yoinig." Tiie tiiird, Thomas, we may presume had
some slight defect of sight suttieient to give point and sting to Amhursts
sobriquet of 'squinting Tom of Maudlin," but not serious enough to
hinder his progress eitiier at Oxford or in the church. It is perhaps to
this unfortunate inheritance that his son's, Thomas Warton's, slight
impediment of speech was due."

Thomas Warton the elder seems to have been a man of some inde-
pc-udeuee (if thought, thougli of very moderate ability. At Oxford he
was conspicuous and popular for his Jacobite sympathies, being the
author of a satirical poem on George I, called The Hanover Turnip, and
vers«'s on the Chevalier's picture." The extant poetry written by this
Tiiomas Warton does not show that he had any great claim to the poetry
professorship on account of tlie excellence of his verse, and it was prob-
ably his political bent ratiier than his literary ability that led to his
election to tiiat office in 1718 and his re-election five years later in spite
of considerable ojiposition. llis incompetence as a professor and a ser-
mon whicli 111' i)reacheil against the government were the subjects of
sarcastic and vigorous exposure and attack in Auilnirst's 'fc rrcc-Filius,"'
but his reputation seems not to have suffered seriously therefrom.

Although a friend of Pope, the elder Warton was not altogether
of his poetical faith. He was an admiring reader and imitator of

■•Foster, .-//iii/iiii Oxoiticnscs, Early Series, 1891. IV, p. 1577.

'This .Knthony Warton was not the author of the Refinement of Zion, published
in 1657. ascribed to him by Wooll.

•Mant, Op. cit. p. i.

■|.\nihiirstl : Tcrra-FUius: or, The Secret History of the University of
Oxford: ill Sri'eral Essays, etc. London 1726, p. 48.

•Johnson likened Warton's manner of speech to the gobble of a turkey-cock,
and the editor of the Probationary Odes declared that when Warton was about
to be ejected from the royal presence by a sturdy beef-eater, he was recognized
in time to avert the catastrophe by a 'certain hasty spasmodic mumbling, together
with two or three prompt quotations from \'irgil.' ( Mant, op. cit. p. cvi) , Even Daniel
Prince, the Oxford book-seller, who had no motive for ridicule, testified that his
organs of speech were so defective that he was not readily understood except by
those who were familiar with his manner of speaking. (Nichols: Literary
.liieedotes of the Eighteenth Century, etc. 9 vols. 1812-15. Ill, p. 702.)

^Terrae-Eilius: or, etc. p. 49.

'"Nos. X. XV. XVI.

11] ANCESTRY 11

Spenser and Jlilton," and wrote the first imitations of runic poetry, two
poetical versions of Latin translations qnoted by Sir William Temple
from the song of Regnor Ladborg, a northern king.^- These odes are
much more poetical than the feeble Spenserian imitation. Philander, an
Imitation of Spencer, occasioned hij the death of Mr. M'illiain Levim,
of M. C. College, O.ron. Nov. 1706,^^ which is significant only for its
early date, though both attempts are important as showing one of the
sources of the romantic tastes of his more gifted sons. The poems of
Tliomas Warton conii)osed a small voliune published by his sons''' in
1748 in order to pay the small debts left by their fatlier, of whom
both seem to have been extremely proud. The runic odes, which thus
appeared a dozen years before Gray's'"' and Percy's'" northern poetry,
nuist have fnruislied tliem witli some suggestion for expressing poetically
the interest in northern mythology so keenly aroused by Mallet's Intro-
duction a I'Histoire de la Dannemarc.''

It is impossible to say when the elder Warton 's poems were writ-
ten, perhaps after he had retired from the poetry professorship — he
had some years jireviously gone to reside regularly at his vicarage at
Basingstoke — and had witlidrawn still more from Oxford .society; they
were the parerga of a life busy with the successive vicarages of Fram-
field, Woking and Cobham, which he held in addition to his living at
Basingstoke, and with tlie Basingstoke grammar school, of which he was
master. His sons did not even know of the existence of his poems until
they found them among his papers after his death and after both sons
had given evidence that they had already come into their real poetical
patrimony.

Of Elizabeth Richardson, the mother of the Wartons, it is impos-
sible to discover more than tliat she was the second daughter of Josepli
Richardson, rector of Dunsfold, Surrey, who was also a younger son of

"Thomas Warton the younger relates an anecdote to show that his father was
the means of calling Pope's attention to Milton's Minor Poems, with which he was
wholly unfamiliar, and that he thus led to the sprinkling of phrases from Milton
in the Eloisa to Abelard. See his edition of Milton's Poems upon Scferal Occasions.
2nd ed. London, 1791. preface p. x.

'-Temple's Works, ed, 1720. I, p. 216.

'2.\ manuscript copy of this poem, probably the original manuscript, dated at
Mag. Coll. Oxon, Sept. 29, 1706, is in an uncatalogued manuscript in Winchester
College Library.

'^Joseph Warton's name alone appears on the title-page, but Thomas, who was
yet an undergraduate at Trinity, was consulted. Wooll, Op. cit. pp. 214-215.

'■'See Gray's Jl'orks, ed. Gosse, I, p. 60, and Walpole's Letters, ed. Toynbee, V.
p. 55 and VII, p. 175.

'*See Phelps's English Romantic Movement, Boston 1893, P- 142.

'"Published in. 1755, and translated by Percy in 1770.

12 THOMAS \V A KTON [12

a Yiirksliire family of some means and education, the Richardsons of
North Bicrley, several members of which attained some distinction in
the church. Mrs. Warton died at Winchester in 1762.'*

It was at the vicarage at Basingstoke, the ninth of January, 1728.
the year that his father's occupancy of the poetry profcssorsiiii) termi-
nated, that Thonuis Warton tiie younger, the poet and Oxford don, the
critic and historian of Engli.sh poetry, was born'" in a home comfortable,
but ncithir luxurious nor fa.shioiiable, where there were refinement and
iutcllectual gifts above the average. His brother Joseph, the master of
Winchester College, to whom he was singularly attached throughout his
life, and his sister Jane were both several years older than Tliomas.

As a child Thomas Warton sliowed many signs of precocity — a
fondness for study, a passion for reading, and an early bent to poetry.
He was no doubt greatly encouraged in these pursuits by his father,
certainly a man of ready sympathy, who, without in any way losing
the resjjcct of his sons, made himself their close friend and confidant.-"
He hail naturally assmned the task of their education, and Thomas, at
least, had no other master until he went up to Oxford, a lad of sixteen.
His education was, of course, largely classical, and the elder Warton
was able to communicate to his sons not only a substantial Latin style,
but a genuine enthusiasm for classical studies which neitlier of tliem
ever lost. It is possible that Thomas was more fortunate than otherwise
in remaining so long under his father's instruction; Joseph, writing to
his father from Winchester School, expressed the fear that the Latin
style of composition which was there permitted to be used would not
meet with his father's approval.-'

No doubt a very valuable part of Thomas Warton 's early education
consisted in browsing in his father's library, which must have been
a fairly well-stocked one, and jirobably contained more curious old
books than were usually included in the libraries of country clergymen.
Spenser nuist have been read early and often to have gained so firm a
hold upon Warton 's affections, and probably other early poets, perhaps
even a few romances. Certainly Milton was a favourite ; perhaps the
early edition of the Poctns on Several Occasions," or Fenton's edition,-^

".Anderson's British Pods, London 1795, vol. XI, p. 1053.

"'January the gth, 1727-8, Thomas, the soune of Mr. Thomas Warton, Vicar,
by Elizabeth his wife was borne, and baptized the 2Sth of the same month by
Mr. Hoylc. Curate.' Basingstoke Parish Register. Quoted from Baigent and
.Millard's History of Basingstoke, 1889, p. 649.

=»\Vooll, Op. cit. p. 10.

■^Ibid. p. g.

-'1673. In A Catalogue of books, (being the libraries of ... . Thomas
Warton. . . and others) to be sold by Thos. Payne, London. iSoi, this volume is
listed with the note, 'MS. notes by T. W.'

"1729. Ibid.

13] EARLY LIFE 13

both full of mainiscript notes"* in Wartoivs crabbed hand, were part
of the father's library which passed into the son's hands. Fenton's
edition, at least, is known to have belonged to Warton very soon after
he had gone to Oxford.-' As an evidence of the strength of the boy's
passion for reading it was related of him that he used to withdraw with
his books from the family group at the fire-side, even in the excessively
cold winter of 1739 and 1740^he was then but eleven years old — in
order to devote himself uninterruptedly to his reading.-'

Warton 's first poetical attempt was in the nature of a voluntary
school exercise, a translation from Martial, On Leander's swimming
over the Hellespont to Hero, which he sent in a letter to his sister.
Fortunately this evidence of the precocity of a boy of nine was pre-
served, though it is probably no great misfortune that other early poetical
attempts have been lost. The lines, not bad for a child, are in the
prevailing stilted diction of the day, —

When bold Leander sought his distant Fair,

(Nor could the sea a braver burthen bear)

Thus to the swelling waves he spoke his woe,

Drown me on my return. — but spare me. as I go.-"
The letter in wliich it was sent bears evidence, too, of the love for music
which was characteristic of "Warton; 'It will be my utmost ambition,'
%vrote tlie boy, 'to make some verses, that you can set to your liarpsi-
chord.'

Warton 's boyhood days seem not to have been entirely filled, how-
ever, witli study. Tliere is every reason to believe that his romantic
interest in the past, his fondness for the scenes of stirring events and
the varied life of earlier days was kindled at a very early age by famil-
iarity with historic places, not only in the immediate vicinity of
Basingstoke — the ruined Chapel of the Holy Ghost in the village itself,
adjacent to the grammar school, the scanty ruins of Basing House a
few miles away near the scene of a battle between the Saxons and the
Danes, Odiham Castle, where King David of Scotland was imprisoned
after the battle of Neville's Cross, — but also by excursions with his
father and brother to more distant places of interest. It seems quite
likely that Salisbury Plain and Stonehenge, whose mystery deeply
interested Warton,-* were visited, and it is certain that the brothers
were taken by their father to see Windsor Castle. Of this visit it was

-*These notes were first incorporated in the Obserx'alioiis on the F.ierie Queen,
and later amplified into an edition of the minor poems.

-^Mant, Op. cit., p. xxviii.

-*/6irf., p. xi.

^''Letter to Jane Warton, November 7. 1737. Ibid., p. xii.

-'Stonehenge was the subject of a sonnet published in the collected edition of
Warton's poems in 1777.

14 THOMAS VVARTON [14

ri'lati'tl that wliili- the fatluT and tlic older brother were exainiiiiug every
detail witli eaper and volubh- attention, the younger observed what he
saw with 80 quiet a regard tliat his fatlier misconstrued his silence as
lack of interest and remarkeil to Joseph, 'Thomas goes on, and takes no
notice of any thing he has seen.' Joseph, however, came later to realize
how deei)]y impressed witli everything he saw the younger boy had
k'en, and remarked, 'I believ<- my brother was more struck with what he
saw, and took more notice of every object, than either of us.'=° The
efTeet of this \-isit and similar experiences in his early youth probably
made a i)rofounder impression than even Joseph realized; to them was
partly due, no doubt, Thouuis's love of Gothic architecture and old
ruins. In a reHection upon Milton he probably described his own
youthful experience; 'Impressions made in earliest youth are ever
afterwards most sensibly felt. Milton was probably first affected with,
and often indulged the pensive i)leasure wliieli the awful solemnity of
a Gothic church conveys to the mind, . . . while he was a school-boy at
St. Paul's'.™

In March, 1744, when Thomas had reached the age of sixteen, he
was sent to Oxford,"' tlie city of 'dreaming spires and droning dons,'
where he spent the renuunder and by far tlie greater part of his life.
At the same time Joseph had .just taken his first degree and entered
holy orders, becoming his father's curate. It is evident from the father's
letters at this time that the expense of maintaining his sons at the
tuiiversity was a considerable drain upon the slender resources of the
country vicar, who was, however, eager that his sons should have every
opportunity within his means to develop their talents and put them in the
way of securing honourable ])referment in the church. It must have
been tiieii a great relief that Thomas was elected one of the twelve
scholars of Trinity College in the following year, especially since his
father died soon after, leaving a few debts and no resources except his
poems. But Joseph hit upon the plan of publishing the latter by sub-
serii)tion, depending upon tlie large circle of his father's acquaintance
to ensure tiieir sale, and wrote to his brother, 'Do not doubt of being
able to get some money this w-inter; if ever I have a groat, you may
depend upon having twopence. '■-

At Oxford Thomas Warton found a place at ouce congenial to his
aesthetic and ]ioetical tastes and an atmosphere conducive to the clas-
sical and antiquarian studies of which he was already fond. With
habits of study already formed and with an eager thirst for knowledge

-"Mant. Op. cit., p. x.\i.x.

'^"Obscniilioiis on the Faerie Queen, ed. 1807. II. p. 140.

•■'Foster: Atumni Oxonieuses. 1715-1886. 4 vols. O.xford, iSgi. IV. p. 1505.

^-Oct. 29. 1746. Wooll, Op. cit., p. 215.

15] OXFORD 15

he was at most ouly momentarily or rarely distracted from his studies
by tile iiniversal tendency to idleness and dissipation which prevailed
at Oxford throughout the eighteenth century. Wartou himself had
exactly that sort of 'quick sensibility and ingenuous disposition,' that
vivid sense of the reality of the past, which, he said, was able to evoke
and create 'the inspiring deity,' the 'GENIUS of the placr,' at the
reflection that he was 'placed under those venerable walls, where a
HOOKER and a HAiDIOND, a BACON and a NEWTON, once pur-
sued the same course of science, and from whence they soared to the
most elevated heights of literary fame.' lie was able to feel 'that
incitement which Tully, according to his own testimony, experienced
at Athens, when he contemplated the porticos where Socrates sat, and
the laurel-groves where Plato disputed."" Warton found in this emo-
tional stimulus a substitute for the intellectual vigour that was unques-
tionably lacking at Oxford during the eighteenth century. Nothing
more reveals tiie man than tlie nature of his reaction to the life of the
University.

Testimony as to the intellectual stagnation at Oxford virtually
throughout the whole eighteenth century is almost unanimous. The
torpor into which the Church of England had sunk early in the century
was shared by the University. The old spell of tradition and reverence
for church authority was losing its potency, but without as yet being
supjjlanted by any very \'igorous and general spirit of reform. With
tile theological apathy that had fallen upon the universities was joined
the curse of formalism and obsolete methods in education. The life of
the university was expended too largely in political factions, in Jacobite
sympathies, or in petty disputes over fellowships and preferments. The
professors seem to have ceased to demand regular attendance at lectures
which they seldom delivered, antl the interests of the fellows were dis-
tracted between their fellowships and their benefices.

West Mrote to Gray from Christ Church as from a 'strange coun-
try, inhabited by things that call themselves doctors and masters of
arts; a country flowing with syllogisms and ale, where Horace and
Virgil are equally unknown.''* Even more emphatically Gibbon la-
mented the fourteen months he had spent at Magdalen College as the
most idle and unprofitable of his whole life,^' and testified that he was
' never summoned to attend even the ceremony of a lecture ; and, ex-
cepting one voluntary visit to his rooms, during the eight months of his

^^Idler, no. Z3^ by Thomas Warton. Johnson's Works, Lynam ed. 1825. II,
p. 484.

^*Letter to Gray, November 14, 1735.

^^Memoirs of my Life and IVritings, Miscellaneous fVorks. 5 vols. London,
1814, I, p. 47-

16 TnOSlAS WABTOK [16

titular offiw, the tutor and pupil lived in the same college as strangers
to each other.'" The eonipany of the fellows he found no more stimu-
lating. 'From the toil of reading, or thinking, or writing, they had
absolved their conscience;' and instead of the 'questions of literature'
which he expected them to discuss, 'their conversation stagnated in a
round of eoll.ge business. Tory politics, personal anecdotes, and private
scandal: their dull and deep potations excused the brisk intemperance
of youth.'"

For clever satirical descriptions of the abuse of academic privilege
which was almost universal at Oxford we are indebted to "Warton him-
self, wlio was. however, not averse to profiting by the leisure which the
universal neglect of college exercises gave him for his own pursuits, and
who doubtless enjoyed many an undignified frolic with his fellows. He
has drawn two spirited pictures of the usual college fellow, for wliicli
only too many of his colleagues might have sat. The first, in the Prog-
ress of Discontent, recounts the history of a collegian from the time —

When now mature in classic knowledge,

The joyful youth is sent to college,

and his father, —

At Oxford bred — in ,\nna's reign,

bespeaks a scholarship : —

'Sir, I'm a Glo'stershire divine.
And this my eldest son of nine;
My wife's ambition arid my own
Was that this child should wear a gown.'

Our pupil's hopes, tho' twice defeated.
Are with a scholarship completed:
A scholarship but half maintains,
And college-rules are heavy chains :
In garret dark he smokes and puns.
A prey to discipline and duns;
And now, intent on new designs,
Sighs for a fellowship — and fines.

That prize attained at length, he covets a benefice, and marries, only, at
last, to long for the joys of his Oxford days again —

'When calm around the common room

I putT'd my daily pipe's perfume!

Rode for a stomach, and inspected,

At annual bottlings, corks selected :

And din'd untax'd, untroubled, under

The portrait of our pious Founder !'

"Ibid., p. s&
"Ibid., p. 53.

17] OXFORD 17

The other, the very amusing Journal of a Senior Fcllotv, or Genuine
Idler, contributed to Johnson's Idler, ^^ was undoubtedly drawn from the
life and portrays the trivial employments of a majority of college fel-
lows, and their absolute waste of academic leisure.

Monday, Nine o'Clock. Turned off my bed-maker for waking me at eight.
Weather rainy. Consulted my weather-glass. No hopes of a ride before dinner.

Ditto, Ten. After breakfast, transcribed half a sermon from Dr. Hickman.
N. B. Never to transcribe any more from Calamy; Mrs. Pilcocks, at my curacy,
having one volume of that author lying in her parlour window.

Ditto, Eleven. Went down into my cellar. Mem. My Mountain will be fit
to drink in a month's time. A'. B. To remove the five-j'ear-old port into the new
bin on the left hand.

Ditto, Twelve. Mended a pen. Looked at my weather-glass again. Quick-
silver very low. Shaved. Barber's hand shakes.

Ditto, One. Dined alone in my room on a soal. iV. B. The shrimp-sauce not
so good as Mr. H. of Peterhouse and I used to eat in London last winter, at the
Mitre in Fleet-street. Sat down to a pint of Madeira. Mr. H. surprised me over
it. We finished two bottles of port together, and were very cheerful. Mem. To
dine with Mr. H. at Peterhouse next Wednesday. One of the dishes a leg of pork
and peas, by my desire.

Ditto, Six. Newspaper in the common room.

Ditto, Seven. Returned to my room. Made a tiff of warm punch, and to bed
before nine ; did not fall asleep till ten, a young fellow-commoner being very
noisy over my head.

Tuesday, Nine. Rose squeamish. A fine morning. Weather-glass very high.

Ditto, Ten. Ordered my horse, and rode to the five-mile stone on the New-
market road. Appetite gets better. A pack of hounds in full cry crossed the road,
and startled my horse.

Ditto, Twelve. Dressed. Found a letter on my table to be in London the
19th inst. Bespoke a new wig.

Ditto, One. .^t dinner in the hall. Too much water in the soup. Dr. Dry
always orders the beef to be salted too much for me.

Ditto, Two. In the common-room. Dr. Dry gave us an instance of a gentle-
man who kept the gout out of his stomach by drinking old Madeira. Conversation
chiefly on the expeditions. Company broke up at four. Dr. Dry and myself
played at back-gammon for a brace of snipes. Won.

Ditto, Five. At the coffee-house. Met Mr. H. there. Could not get a sight
of the Monitor.

Ditto, Seven. Returned home, and stirred my fire. Went to the common-
room, and supped on the snipes with Dr. Dry.

Ditto, Eight. Began the evening in the common-room. Dr. Dry told several
stories. Were very merry. Our new fellow, that studies physics, very talkative

toward twelve. Pretends he will bring the youngest Miss to drink tea

with me soon. Impertinent blockhead ! etc.^'

^'December 2, 1758. No. 33.

39Chalmers: The British Essayists; etc. London 1808, vol. XXXIH, p. 112.

Ifi THOMAS WAKTON [18

Thf unclirpruduutcs' indilTereiice to everything but pleasure, the
inevitable result of tlie wlf-iiululgence of their superiors, came in for
itM sliure of ridicule in the CumiMinioii to tin Guide, and Guide to the
Companioii,*" a satire on Oxford guide-books and antiquarian studies as
well as u humorous exposure of university abuses. Here Warton pro-
fi-aw-d to describe a nundjer of residence halls previously over-looked,
•in other words Inns, or Tipi)ling Houses; or, as our colleges are at
presi-nt. I'laa s of Entertainimnt,' the 'Libraries founded in our Coffee-
Housis. for the benefit of such of the Academics as have neglected, or
lost, their Latin and Greek,' in which the JIagazines, Reviews, Novels,
Occasional I'wms, and Political I'ampldets were supplied. And, 'as
there are here Books suited to every Taste, so there are Liquors adapted
to every species of reading,' for Politics, coffee, for Divinity, Port, and
80 on. Then there were a number of schools not commonly included in
the guide-books: among them 'three spacious and superb Edifices, situ-
ated to the southward of the High-Street, 100 feet long, by 30 in breadth,
vulgarly called Tenim Courts, where Exercise is regularly performed
both morning and afternoon. Add to these, certain Schools familiarly
denominated Billiard Tables, where the Laws of Motion are exemplified,
and which may be considered as a necessary Supplement to our Courses
of E.vperimental Philosophy. Nor must we omit the many Nine-pin
and Skittle-Alleys, open and dry, for the instruction of Scholars in
Geometrical Knowledge, and particularly, for proving the centripetal
prinei|)le.' Among public edifices he solemnly noted the stocks, the town-
pump and 'PEXNYLESS BENCH "a Place properly dedicated

to the MUSES, [where] History and Tradition, report, that many
eminent Poets have been Bcnchfrs,'" enumerating among them Phillips
and the author of the Panecjtjric on Oxford Ale.

Although Oxford was perhaps no longer a power in the intellectual
world, it was still one of the few places in England where there were
any considerable libraries or facilities for study, and there was always
there a little group of devoted scholars and serious men who used the
abundant leisure afforded by the laxity of college discipline for individ-
ual research and study. A few such names redeemed the dishonour of
Oxford during the eighteenth century. There have always been at
Oxford a few scholars who were genuinely devoted to the classics.
There were others whose interests centered in literary and historical
antiiiuities, but who, because of the general contempt for such subjects
and their own inability either to command respect for their work or to
divert their interest to more immediately useful channels, fell under a
certain obloquy as 'mere Antiquarians.' But however small were the

"1-60?

^'Quotations from the second edition, London (1762?).

19 J OXFORD 19

results of their laborious studies, they kept alive ami transmitted to
their successors in more favourable days an ardent interest in scholar-
ship. Hickes actually made the study of Anglo-Saxon somewhat the
rage among this class of students at Oxford at the beginning of the
century, and his influence was perpetuated in the founding of the Raw-
linson professorship by a member of his College (St. John's) about the
middle of the century, an endowment which became effectual at its
close wheu Anglo-Saxon scholarship was coming into its own. Trinity
College, too, had its antiquarian tradition, best represented by John
Aubre.y, who contributed his manuscript Minutes of Lives to Anthony a
Wood's Antiquities of Oxford; Thomas Coxeter, an industrious collector
of old English plays, who was still living when Thomas Warton went
up to Trinity and from whom he must have gained what was more
valuable than notes for his History of English Poetry, access to his
collection of plays ; and Francis Wi.se, tlie archeologist and under keeper
of the Bodleian, at whose home at Ellsfield Warton was a frequent and
welcome guest, and who helped liim with his Life of Bathurst. In this
connection Robert Lowth, 1)ishop of London, poetrj^ professor when
Warton went to Oxford and one of the most distinguished Oxford men
of the eighteenth century, cannot be overlooked. Warton gave him
some slight assistance with his life of Wykeham,''- and perhaps received
from him the suggestion for his lives of the founder and a president of
his college. Sir Thomas Pope and Ralph Bathurst.

Such was the state of Oxford when Warton matriculated in 1744;
such it practically remained during the forty -seven years he lived there.
And no one was more keenly alive than he to all its possibilities of
pleasure and profit. Although most of his life was passed within the
boundaries of college walls, of the 'High,' the 'Broad,' and the 'Corn,'
of Cherwell and Isis and the adjacent parks and water-walks, he was
master of every inch of that domain and was equally at home in his
own common-room and 'Captain Jolly's,' among his fellow dons and
the watermen along the river. He found at Oxford many other charms
besides a favourable place to study, with ample leisure, and in an
atmosphere permeated with the spirit of centuries of learning. It was
to him the source of keen sesthetie pleasure. With appreciative eyes
he viewed the Thames and Cherwell with their 'willow-fringed banks,'
the charming water-walks bordered with fiue old trees whose protruding
roots and mossy trunks afforded many a delightful place to read, while
the gently-rolling meadows beyond invited to morning rambles when
the fields were purpling under the rising sun and the birds were begin-
ning their songs.*^ These he may well have preferred to the more arti-

^-Letter from Lowth to Warton, Oct. 20, 1757. Wooll, Op. cit., pp. 249-252.
■•^Ode, Morning. The Author confined to College.

20 THOMAS WARTON [20

ficial beauties of his own college gardens, then in their prime of eight-
eenth eentury toi>iary formality, with their 'walls all round cover 'd
witli Green Yew in I'annelwork' enclosing a 'wilderness extremely de-
lightful with variety of mazes, in which 'tis easy for a man to lose
himself.' It is pretty unlikely that Warton was often tempted to sit
down and study on the benches placed 'here and there in this Laby-
rinth;' he. at least, preferred the 'setlgy banks' of Cherwell to the 'neat
Fountain witli Artitieial Flowers on the Surface of the Water.'" The
real glory of the garden, then as now, must have been the beautiful
avenue of lime trees to the north of the labyrinth, which had been
planted tliirty years before Warton came to Trinity, and whose arches
and knarlfd boughs probably even then resembled the wood-timbered
roof of a mediieval hall.

The fine old Gothic buildings of the University delighted even
more. No one, perhaps, has viewed them with more enthusiastic appre-
ciation than Thomas Warton. In an age that despised tlie Gothic his
admiration for it grew steadily, and liis taste was no doubt stimulated
by the fine old gateway of Magdalen College, on wliich he was especially
fond of gazing.*' His Triumph of Isis contains a tribute to the beauties
of Oxford, —

Ye fretted pinnacles, ye fanes sublime,

Ye towers that wear the mossy vest of time;

Ye massy piles of old munificence.

At once the pride of learning and defence ;

Ye cloisters pale, that lengthening to the sight.

To contemplation, step by step, invite ;

Ye high-arch'd walks, where oft the whispers clear

Of harps unseen have swept the poet's car ;

Ye temples dim, where quiet duty pays

Her holy hymns of ever-echoing praise;

Lo ! your lov'd Isis, from the bordering vale.

With all a mother's fondness bids you hail !
Especially during his first years at Oxford Warton probably did
not devote himself exclusively to scholarly pursuits, but tasted the
robuster pleasures and petty trials of the lighter side of Oxford life,
contributing his share to an afternoon's pleasure at Wolvereote, enter-
ing with zest into games of skittles, excursions on the river by wherry,
or cros.s-country gallops, and finishing the day's pleasures with a 'care-
less round in Iligh-street' with calls at 'Jolly's for the casual draught.'**
This aspect of his college career is reflected in his early humorous

"J. Pointer's Oxford Guide, 1749, quoted by H. E. D. Blakiston. friiiity Col-
lege, London, 1898, p. 201.

*i>Mant. Op. cit., p. c, quoting the Biografhical Dictionary.
"Warton's Ode to a Grisslc Wig.

21] OXFORD 21

academic poems witli a lively realism that betrays actual experience of
the joys and sorrows they describe.

My sober evening let the tankard bless,

With toast embrown'd, and fragrant nutmeg fraught,

While the rich draught with oft-repeated whiffs

Tobacco mild improves. Divine repast I

Where no crude surfeit, or intemperate joys

Of lawless Bacchus reign ; but o'er my soul

A calm Lethean creeps ; in drowsy trance

Each thought subsides, and sweet oblivion wraps

My peaceful brain, as if the leaden rod

Of magic Morpheus o'er mine eyes had shed

Its opiate influence. What tho' sore ills

Oppress, dire want of chill-dispelling coals

Or cheerful candle (save the make-weight's gleam

Haply remaining) heart-rejoicing ALE

Cheers the sad scene, and every want supplies.'"
Lines surely

' with honest love

Of ALE divine inspir'd, and love of song!
On the other hand the petty annoyances are no less realistically
represented, — the vacant afternoons —

When tatter'd stockings ask my mending hand

Not unexperienc'd,
and 'the tedious toil Slides unregarded' comforted by draughts of
' all-pow 'rful ALE;' the inevitable daj's of reckoning after careless joys
when

. . . generous Captain JOLLY ticks no more,**'

Nor SHEPPARD, barbarous matron, longer gives

The wonted trust.'"
and

Th' unpitying Bursar's cross-affixing hand

Blasts all my joys, and stops my glad career,'"'
and the invasion of his Eden by irate tradesmen, — the 'plaintive voice
Of Laundress slirill,' the 'Barber spruce,' the 'Taylor with obsequious
bow,' and the Groom 'with defying front And stern demeanour.'

Warton's poetical gift at times combined with his genial spirits to
enliven somewhat the tedium of college life. Among the poetasters of
the Bachelor's Common Room he started an amusing organization of the
bachelors, which provided for the annual election, 'on Tuesday imme-
diately after Mid-Lent Sunday,' of a 'Lady Patroness' from among the

"Panegyric on Oxford Ale.

*'The Oxford Newsman's Verses, for the year 1767.

*^P(iiiegyric on Oxford Ale.

THOMAS WAKTON

[22

Oxfonl 'Toasts' aii.l a 'I'(K-t Laurt-at' to sing her charms for the ainuse-
iiu'iit of thi- otli.r Imcliflurs wliilc thi-y eoiisumcd a bottli' of wine 'from
thi-ir publii-k Stwk.' an.l liiv.Tt.-d thi'msilvis at the expense of their
Laureate, who read his 'Verses before the Court' wearing 'a Chaplet of

Laurel coini)osfd by tlie Conuaon-Room JIan after the manner

of the Ancients.''" Warton iiinisi-lf served in the capacity of laureate
for tlie first two years of tlie club's existence, but his verses to Miss
Jenny Cotes and Miss Molly Wilinot have never been thought worthy
of being transferred to any edition of his poems from the red-morocco-
bound quarto in which they were carefully copied by the Common-
Room man.' Warton seems to have been tlie life of the club, and after
he deserted tlie Bachelors' for the Fellows' Common Room, the
club languished; its records became intermittent and finally ceased
altogether.''^

In this atmosphere of mingled gaiety and work, in this environ-
ment of obvious pleasure and obscure study, Warton spent an active but
uneventful life. Immediately upon taking his first degree he entered
holy orders and became a tutor. Shortly after he had proceeded
Master of Arts, he succeeded to a fellowship, and he remained a tutor
and fellow of Trinity all his life. In this way he escaped the struggle
for a livelihood which darkened the early years of some of his con-
temporaries. Warton knew nothing of the hard life of Grub Street nor
tlie bitti'r disappointments against which his friend Dr. Johnson had
contended. His academic and clerical preferments ensured him a com-
fortable, I'ven a luxurious, living, congenial surroundings, libraries, and
probably the most convenient facilities for literary work to be found
anywhere in England, and a considerable amount of leisure to devote
to his favourite jnirsuits. Warton seems never to have regarded him-
self as a professional man of letters. His first love, his first interest,
was Oxford ; his first loyalty, his first duty, was to her. And if he was

'"St.itiitcs Ordered and .Agreed upon by the Members of tlic Batchellors' Com-
mon Room. This book, in which the minutes of the club were kept, was deposited
in Trinity College Library in November, 1820, and it was there that, through the
kindness of Mr. Green, the present librarian, I examined the curious old book.
"They were printed in the Gentleman's Magasine, vol. LXVI, p. 236.
In one of Warton's notebooks in Trinity College Library at O.xford is a bit
*f verse of a similar sort, called 'E.xtempore on a Lady with fine Eyes & bad
Voice', as follows :

'Oxonia's Sons fair Arnold view

At once with Love and wonder.
She bears Jove's Lightening in her Eyes,
But in her Voice his Thunder.

Oxon. Sept. 17, 1752.'
'=In 17&4.

23] OXFORD 23

somewhat remiss iu his lectures, he had every encouragement to be so;
and he more than once suffered liis own work to languish while he
devoted himself to his pupils.

It was very natural that Warton sliould be in a certain sense
indolent. Without the spur of necessity to keep him steadily at one
piece of work until it was finished, without great ambition for academic
or church preferment, without the incentive of conspicuous examples
of important scholarship, with abundant poetical taste, but without
much creative poetical genius, with great abilities and an enthusiastic
interest in a wide range of subjects, it was eas.y for him to drift from
one subject to another, to have his energies frequently diverted into new
channels. He passed with perfect ease and unabated enthusiasm from
poetry to criticism, from antiquarian to classical research, from literary
history to the editing of his favourite poet. And his work has all the
merits of a labour of love : enthusiasm, appreciative criticism, sympa-
thetic interpretation and thoroughness in purpose, if not always in
accomplishment ; it is distinguished in everj' field.

CHAPTER II

Earlt Poetry, Published Before 1777

Naturally enough Warton first attempted to express his genius in
pot^ry, and the bulk though not the best of his poems were written
while" lie was yet a young man. Then, because the age in which he lived
was unfavourable to poetry, especially the new kind that he was writing,
and because, as Christopher North said, 'the gods had made him poet-
ical, but not a poet,'' he turned later to criticism and history where he
won more immediate as well as more enduring fame. He did not,
however, so completely abandon poetry as not to produce some pieces
which, when compared with the work of his contemporaries, have real
intrinsic value and take an important place in the development of poetry
in his century. Moreover, his early verse, though largely imitative, imitates
new models, the poet's favourites, Spenser and Milton, more than the
pseudo-classical models, and shows a real originality in its introduction
of the Gothic or mediaeval subjects in which the poet was always deeply
interested, in its genuine interest in nature, and in its attempts of the
sonnet form. Besides this, his verse illustrates more completely than
that of any one of his contemporaries the whole change that was taking
place in English poetry; it includes practically every tendency of the
new movement: the repudiation of the pseudo-classical models, the
Spenserian and Miltonic revivals, the return to nature, the cult of soli-
tude, the melancholy of the 'grave-yard school,' the interest in the
supernatural, and the Gothic revival. Although Warton lacked the
lyrical sweetness and poetic insight of his friend Collins — whose quali-
ties he could at least appreciate — and the poetic fire and inspiration of
Gray — to whom he paid the tribute of a sonnet — these are the poeta
with wliom one feels bound to compare him. If he had less poetical
genius than either of them, he had at least a greater variety of interests,
and he made distinguished contributions in the direction of his principal
interests.

Mn Hour's Talk about Poctrv, Blackivood's Edinburgh Magii:iiic, XXX, p.
483.

25] EARLY POETRY 25

Warton's first published poem,= printed without his name in his
brother's thin quarto of Odes on Various Subjects in 1746, was, like his
earlier school-boy exercise, a classical imitation. The j'ear before it
appeared, when the poet was but seventeen, he had written his first
long poem. The Pleasures of Melancholy, and he published it anony-
mously in a quarto pamphlet in 1747. The poem shows how devoted a
student of Milton the young poet was, the tone and diction being de-
cidedly Miltonic although the title and the form were obviously directly
suggested by Akenside's much less romantic Pleasures of Imagination.
The poem follows the general plan of II Penseroso, being a description
of the various pleasures which the man devoted to melancholy contem-
plation ma}^ enjoy, and it is fuU of personifications of abstractions and
Miltonic epithets and diction. A few typical passages will illustrate
both Wartou 's command of blank verse and the influence of Milton : —
the invocation, —

Mother of musings. Contemplation sage,

Whose grotto stands upon the topmost rock

Of Teneriff;
and such direct allusions as, —

the dazzling spells

Of wily Comus cheat th' unweeting eye

With blear illusion, and persuade to drink

That charmed cup, which Reason's mintage fair

Unmoulds, and stamps the monster on the man ;
and, —

The taper'd choir, at the late hour of pray'r,

Oft let me tread, while to th' according voice

The many-sounding organ peals on high,

The clear slow-dittied chaunt, or varied hymn,

Till all my soul is bath'd in ecstasies.

And lapp'd in Paradise.^
The whole poem is saturated too with the melancholy of the grave-
yard school of poets, and passages can be selected which seem to have
been directly inspired by various of their poems. The j'oung poet gives
every evidence of having tried his hand in the style of each of them;
but he combined the results into a whole with some characteristic addi-

'To a Fountain. Imitated from Horace, Ode Kill, Book III, p. 32 in War-
ton's Odes.

A small collection of poems. Five Pastoral Eclogues, which was published
anonymously in 1745 and subsequently in Pearch's Continuation of Dodsley's Col-
lection, has been attributed to Warton, but probably erroneously. At least he
never acknowledged them, and his sister assured Bishop Mant that he positively
disclaimed them. Mant, Op. cit., p. xiv.

^Cf. II Penseroso, lines 161-6.

26 ' THOMAS WARTON [26

tioiis of Ilis own. Among: the linos tliat show Warton's debt to the
early poets of the nielaneholy scliool tiie following are obviously imita-
tions of Parnell and Young, —

But when the world

Is clad in Midnight's raven-coloiir'd robe,

'Mid hollow charncl let me watch the flame

Of taper dim. shedding a livid glare

O'er the wan heaps; while airy voices talk

Along the glimm'ring walls; or ghostly shape

At distance seen, invites with beck'ning hand

My lonesome steps, thro' the far-winding vaults.

Nor undelightful is the solemn noon

Of night, when haply wakeful from my couch

I start : lo. all is motionless around !

Roars not the rushing wind; the sons of men

And every beast in mute oblivion lie;

.Ml nature's hush'd in silence and in sleep.

O then how fearful is it to reflect.

That thro' the still globe's awful solitude,

No being wakes but me !
The description of 'fall'n Persepolis' was surely written with Dyer's
Ruins of Rome fresh in memory, —

Here columns heap'd on prostrate columns, torn

From their firm base, increase the mould'ring mass.

Far as the sight can pierce, appear the spoils

Of sunk magnificence ! a blended scene

Of moles, fanes, arches, domes and palaces,

Where, with his brother Horror, Ruin sits.
The description of the morning rain-storm, no doubt suggested by
Thomson and not without echoes of Spenser, bears at the same time
unmistakable evidence of Warton's close observation of rural scenes
and his ability to portray them in simple but clear outlines, —

Yet not ungrateful is the morn's approach,

When dropping wet she comes, and clad in clouds,

While thro' the damp air scowls the louring south,

Blackening the landscape's face, that grove and hill

In formless vapours undistinguish'd swim;

Th' afflicted songsters of the sadden'd groves

Hail not the sullen gloom; the waving elms

That, hoar tliro' time, and rang'd in thick array.

Enclose with stately row some rural hall,

Are mute, nor echo with the clamors hoarse

Of rooks rejoicing on their airy boughs;

While to the shed the dripping poultry crowd,

A mournful train: secure the village-hind

Hangs o'er the crackling blaze, nor tempts the storm;

Fix'd in th' unfinish'd furrow rests the plough.

27] EARLY POKTRY 27

This choice of models was not accidental even from the first ; it was
part of a consistent and deliberate reaction against the prevailing mod-
els and a rejection of them. His preference for Spenser rather than
Pope Warton stated expressly in this first long poem and defended on
the very 'romantic' ground that livelier imagination and warmer pas-
sion are aroused by the artless magic of the Faerie Queene than by the
artificial brilliance of the Rape of the Lock, —

Thro' POPE'S soft song tho' all the Graces breathe,

And happiest art adorn his Attic page ;

Yet does my mind with sweeter transport glow,

As at the root of mossy trunk reclin'd.

In magic SPENSER'S wildly warbled song

I see deserted Una wander wide

Thro' wasteful solitudes, and lurid heaths,

Weary, forlorn ; than when the fated fair

Upon the bosom bright of silver Thames

Launches in all the lustre of brocade,

Amid the splendors of the laughing Sun.

The gay description palls upon the sense.

And coldly strikes the mind with feeble bliss.*
Warton 's relation to the melancholy group of poets who drew their
inspiration largely from II Pciiseroso is, moreover, not that of a mere
imitator. He made positive contributions to that style of poetry by
contriving to preserve a more objective tone in his own melancholy and
by introducing the Gothic note'* tliat later frequently became dominant
in his own verse and constituted his distinctive contribution to poetry.
Of even greater importance is the fact that he may fairly be credited
with having influenced pretty directly the greatest poem of the elegiac
school, Gray's Elegy in a Countrtj Church-yard. The following passage
gives the setting for Gray's poem too clearly for the similarity to be
dismissed as altogether accidental, —

Beneath yon ruin"d abbey's moss-grown piles

Oft let me sit, at twilight hour of eve,

Where thro' some western window the pale moon

Pours her long-levell'd rule of streaming light ;

While sullen sacred silence reigns around,
*This brief but happy comparison of Pope's verse with Spenser's expresses
the same idea that was given fuller discussion nearly ten j'ears later by the poet's
brother in his revolutionary Essay on Pope, 1756.

'The poem also gives evidence of Warton's interest in native mythology :
'Contemplation' is represented as having been found by a Druid

Far in a hollow glade of Mona's woods,
and carried to the 'close shelter of his oaken bow'r' where she

lov'd to lie

Oft deeply list'ning to the rapid roar

Of wood-hung Meinai, stream of Druids old.

28 THOMAS WARTON [28

Save the lone schreech-owl's note, who builds his bow'r

Amid the mould'ring caverns dark and damp,

Or the calm breeze, that rustles in the leaves

Of flaunting ivy, that with mantle green

Invests some wasted tow'r.
The additional fact tliat Gray took up again in the winter of 1749 —
two years after The Pleasures of MeUinchohj was published— the poem
he had begun several years earlier" increases the likelihood that War-
ton's poem prompted and influenced the completion of his own : —

Now fades the glimmering landscape on the sight,
And all the air a solemn stillness holds,

Save that from yonder ivy-mantled tow'r

The mopeing owl does to the moon complain
Of such as, wand'ring near her secret bow'r,
Molest her ancient solitary reign.

Warton's devotion to his Alma Mater inspired the Triumph of I sis,
in 1749, the first poem to attract the attention of the academic world.
The year before, William Mason, in Isis: an Elegy, had glanced at the
Jacobite leanings of Oxford as tliey had given rise to a foolish drunken
out-break which had been carried to tlie King's bench and had reflected
dishonour upon the heads of some of the colleges. Warton, encouraged
by Dr. Iluddesford, the president of Trinity, hastened to the defense
of his university in a poem that at least surpassed Mason's. The youth-
ful poet received a substantial compliment from Dr. King, whom he
had especially commended, and who left five guineas with Daniel Prince,
the bookseller, to be given to the author. The Triumph of Isis is not one
of Warton's best poems. It is largely pseudo-classical in its tise of the
heroic couplet, its artificial diction, — such as 'vernal bloom,' 'oliv'd
portal,' 'pearly grot,' 'floating pile,' 'dalliance with the tuneful Nine,'^
and in its stereotyped classical allusions. It is full of Miltonic personi-
fications of abstractions and places mingled with the deities and
heroes of classical myth and history ; we meet with Freedom and Gratu-
lation, Cam and Isis, Muse and Naiad, Tully, Cato and Eurus. But
there is quite as much mediaeval colouring. Warton's characteristic
love of the past appears in one of the finest passages in the poem in
which his admiration for Gothic architecture is only second to his love
of Oxford.'

Following the appearance of these poems Warton was asked to con-
tribute to the Student, or, the Oxford, and Cambridge Monthly Miscel-
lany, and brought out four poems of earlier composition which were

•See Gray's Works, ed. Gosse, I, p. 72.
'Quoted p. 20.

29] EARLY POETRY 29

printed over various signatures.* One, Morning. The Author confined
to College, in six line stanzas, shows some influence of Milton and a
personal enjoyment of natural scenes, and one is a paraphrase of Job
XXXIX in heavy couplets, unlike any other of Warton's verse. Two
of the poems were humorous academic verse, experiments in satire and
burlesque in the taste of the Augustans. The earliest of them, the
Progress of Discontent,^ written in 1746, was considered by the poet's
brother, who may not have been an impartial critic, the best imitation of
Swift that had ever appeared." It is a mild satire upon the career of
many a young man who, with discontented indolence rather than ambi-
tion, sought advancement through the university and church, and the
story is told in vigorous Hudibrastic measure with considerable relish
and spirit. The Panegyric on Oxford Alc^^ is probably the best of his
humorous academic pieces. It is a burlesque of ililton's epic style after
the manner of Phillips's Splendid Shilling. The blank verse is weU
managed, and the mock dignified humour well kept up throughout the
poem. The models are unmistakable ; there are direct allusions to both,
and the poem concludes with comparing the imhappiness of the poet
whose supply of ale is cut off with that of Adam shut out from Paradise, —
a grief he professed to share in common with his master, the author of
the Splendid Shilling, —

Thus ADAM, exil'd from the beauteous scenes
Of Eden, griev'd, no more in fragrant bow'r
On fruits divine to feast, fresh shade and vale
No more to visit, or vine-mantled grot ;

Thus too the matchless bard, whose lay resounds

The SPLENDID SHILLING'S praise, in nightly gloom

Of lonesome garret, pin'd for cheerful ALE;

Whose steps in verse Miltonic I pursue,

Mean follower : like him with honest love

Of ALE divine inspir'd, and love of song.

But long may bounteous Heav'n with watchful care

Avert his hapless lot ! Enough for me

^A Panegyrick on Ale, signed T. W. x. y. z., p. 65-8; Morning. An Ode,
signed /. /. Trin. Coll. Cambridge, p. 234-5 1 The Progress of Discontent, signed
T. W. X. y. z., p. 23S-8; Job, Chapter XXXIX, signed e, p. 278-9. O.xford, 1750,
vol. I.

"The poem was founded on a Latin exercise which was commended by Dr.
Huddesford, and at his request thus paraphrased in English. Mant, Op. cit., II,
p. 192.

i°J. Warton's edition of Pope, 9 vols. London, 1797, 11, p. 302.

"Quoted above p. 21.

TUpMAS WARTON [30

That burning with congenial flame I dar'd

His guiding steps at distance to pursue.

And sing his favorite theme in kindred strains.
In tlu- suiiu- vcar Wartoii matle two ofluT modest ofTt-rings, both of
sliglit iiniwrtanci-! X<wmark(t, u Satire, published aiionyniously, was a
somewhat hcavj' Popeian satire in closed coupk-ts with balance, antithesis,
and not infrequent epigrammatic turns of thought. Another pamphlet
contained an academic poem, an Ode for Musk, written for the anniver-
sary in. commemoration of tlie benefactors to the university, and per-
formed at the Sheldonian Theatre, July 2, 1751.

In all these attempts the poet was evidently trying to find both
him.self an<l his public. Tluit he felt the need of winning an audience
for poetry which was tleliberately different from the prevailing fashion
is shown by the fact that much of it was published anonymously and that
in his next publication, to which he did not afifix his name, — The Union:
or Srlict Scots and English Poems, containing some of his brother's odes,
Collins "s Ode to Evening, and Gray's Elegij' a few- ancient Scottish
poems, and minor poems by some of his contemporaries, — he asked for the
verdict of the public upon two new poems of his own which he included
witliout owning them.'= In his preface, as in the table of contents, he
ascribed them to 'a late member of the University of Aberdeen, whose
modesty would not permit us to print his name,' and he further drew
tiiem and their author to public attention by adding, 'from these
ingenious essays, the public may be enabled to form some judgment
beforehand of a poem of a nobler and more important nature which he
is now i)reparing.' Since it was Warton's life-long practice to announce
in his various publications work which he had then in hand or intended
soon to inibli.sh, there is no reason for supposing t'aat he did not at the
time actually intend to write a serious and extended poem of some kind,
with which the favour of the public did not encourage him to proceed.
Of the two poems thus modestly proffered, the Pasiorcd in the Man-
ner of Spenser was patently inspired by the poet whose work Warton
was then studying carefully both as poet and critic, and the Ode on the
Approach of Summer was obviously I\Iiltonic. The former is a double
imitation, a paraphrase of the 20th IdiiUium of Theocritus in the manner
of Spenser's Shepherd's Calendar with pseudo-Spenserian diction. But
like other eighteenth century imitators of Spenser — of whom, it will be
remembered, his father was perhaps the first — Warton had not enough
knowledge of Spenser's language to escape such solecisms as 'did
deemen', nor could his admiration save him.

Some passages of the Ode are little more than rearrangements of

"His verses Inscribed On a Beautiful Grotto near the Water were also in-
cluded, but without his name.

31] E^VRLY POETRY 31

Milton's thought and even diction, although it is noticeable that Warton
was somewhat truer to the spirit of his model than many of Milton's
imitators; his melanchol.v is not so obtrusive as theirs, and he retains
much of Milton's genuine classicism, with which he was in close
sympath}-. All of these points are illustrated by the following passage,
selected almost at random, —

Or bear me to yon antique wood,

Dim temple of sage Solitude !

There within a nook most dark,

Where none my musing mood may mark,

Let me in many a whisper'd rite

The Genius old of Greece invite,

With that fair wreath my brows to bind.

Which for his chosen imps he twin'd,

Well nurtur'd in Pierian lore,

On clear Illissus' laureate shore.

Warton was, however, more interested in the mysteries of native
superstition than in Grecian rites. Stirred by reading Spenser and old
romances, he sighed for 'more romantic scenes,' for the

. . . fairy bank, or magic lawn,
By Spenser's lavish pencil drawn :
Or bow'r in Vallombrosa's shade.
By legendary pens pourtray'd.

He longed to visit

The rugged vaults, and riven tow'rs
Of that proud castle's painted bow'rs,
Whence HARDYKNUTE, a baron bold,
In Scotland's martial days of old,
Descended from the stately feast,
Begirt with many a warrior guest,
To quell the pride of Norway's king.
With quiv'ring lance and twanging string.

And when he continued, —

Might I that holy legend find,
By fairies spelt in mystic rhymes.
To teach enquiring later times.
What open force, or secret guile,
Dash'd into dust the solemn pile,

he had passed from the influence of Milton and Spenser into his own
best-loved poetical province, the glories of the Gothic past.

This most representative of Warton 's earliest poems contains also
what appears to be his poetical program. It has been said before that
the preface to the collection in which these poems appeared had hinted
at a longer poem by the same author soon to be published should these

TnOMAS WARTON [32

meet witli favour; the Ode suggests what the nature of that 'nobler and
more important' poem might have been. The prophecy of his most
striking contribution to the new movement in poetry, the poetical embodi-
ment of tin- past, begun even in his early work, appears in a passage near
tlic dos.' of the poem wliere the poet, ensconced in his ideal retreat,
promises to dedicate his days to poetry, poetry which shall celebrate
England's glorious past, —

Nor let me fail, meantime, to raise

The solemn song to Britain's praise:

To spurn the shepherd's simple reeds,

And paint heroic ancient deeds :

To chant fam'd ARTHUR'S magic tale,

And EDWARD, stern in sable mail;

Or wand'ring BRUTUS' lawless doom.

Or brave BONDUCA, scourge of Rome.
Tliesf are the themes we find constantly recurring through Warton's
I)octry, finding their best expression later in the odes On the Grave of
King Arthur and The Crusade.

That "Warton was not simply an imitative poet was steadily proved
by each new poem, and by none more strikingly than by two sonnets
l)nblished in 1755 in Dodsley's Collections^ He was a constant experi-
menter with forms as well as subjects of poetry. It may have been —
pretty certainly was — his admiration for Milton again that interested
him in the sonnet, but tlie subjects of his sonnets are not only so un-
Miltonic but so original in their use of the form to express personal
emotion in the presence of natural scenes as to show him a real and
important innovator. Warton was not, however, the first eighteenth
century poet to write sonnets; Mason, Stillingfleet, and Edwards had
each written a few, so that the whole credit for its revival cannot be
claimed for any one of them.'* But certainly "Warton's greater impor-

'■■•Vol. IV, p. 221-2.

'^Mason has a sonnet written before 1748, according to his own somewhat
loose statement, but not published until 1797. See Mason's Works, ed. 1811, I,
p. 121.

Edwards wrote fifty. (See Phelps's Romantic Movement, p. 45-6). Thirteen
were published in volume II of Dodsley's Collection, 1748 (2nd ed.) in which
Warton's first two sonnets were published, vol. IV, (ed. 1755). See my note in
Mod. Lang. Notes, XXX, p. 232.

Some of Stillingfleet's sonnets were certainly written before 1750. Phelps, as
above.

Gray's Sonnet on the Death of West has an even earlier date, 1742, but it was
not published until after his death.

See also E. P. Morton's list of fifty sonnets before 1750 in Mod. Lang. Notes,
XX, p. 97-8, The English Sonnet, (1658-1750), which does not include Mason's first
sonnet.

33] EARLY POETRY 33

tance as a man of letters and the superior merit and originality of theme
of his sonnets make his influence greater in the revival of the sonnet
than that of any of his predecessors.

The Sonnet Written at Winslade in Hampshire 'about 1750' is the
better of the two. It is not free from the influence of Miltonic diction —
though not the diction of the sonnets; it is distinctly personal and
reflective in tone, and further it indicates Wartou 's feeling that in their
poetical inspiration the native charms of the village were peculiarly
adapted to his genius. It shows that his interest in natural scenes as
the source of poetic emotion was as conscious and deliberate in his early
verse as his interest in the past for the same purpose, —

Her faire3t landskips whence my Muse has drawn,

Too free with servile courtly phrase to fawn,

Too weak to try the buskin's stately strain.
The Sonnet on Bathing^'' is likewise Miltonic in diction, but it wholly
lacks the personal note that distinguishes the other. Both are written
in the Miltonic form, with better rhymes than some of his later sonnets.
The important long poem promised in the preface to the Union
never appeared. The poet was not only not sufficiently encouraged by
the reception of his poems in that collection, but so far discouraged as
to publish no more serious poems until after his fame as the critic of
Spenser and historian of English poetry made them sure of a favourable
hearing, perhaps, too, until his critical work had somewhat won the
taste of his age to the new sort of poetry. He made, however, one
further venture in the humorous vein which had always a certain vogue.
In 1764 he was the unconfessed editor of a misceUany of humorous verse
called The Oxford Sausage; or, Select Poetical Pieces: Written by the
Most Celebrated Wits of the University of Oxford. His own earlier
academic verse with several new pieces of inferior merit were included
in this miscellany with a great many similar poems by. his contempora-
ries. The preface, in mock-serious style, explained the purpose and
praised the novelty of such a collection and poked slyly at the growing
fondness for poring over manuscript collections : ' That nothing might
escape us, we have even examined the indefatigable Dr. Rawlinson's
voluminous collection of manuscripts presented to the Bodleian Library,
but, we must acknowledge, without success; as not one poignant ingre-
dient was to be found in all that immense heap of rare and invaluable
originals.'^" Of the two poems little need be said. The not very amusing
dialogue between the Phaeton and the One-Horse Chair is, apparently,

I'This sonnet was the only one of Warton's included by Coleridge in his
privately-printed pamphlet containing twenty-eight 'Sonnets from various Authors',
to be bound up with those of Bowles.

"Preface, p. vi, ed. 1821, Oxford.

34 THOMAS W.VHTON [34

118 a revit'WiT in tht- Monthly Review" observed, an imitation of Smart's
fahli- of tiK' RugAVio and Tohicco-Pipc. Jlore clever is the little
Odt to a Grhzli Wig in wliidi Warton, while comparing the relative
merits of 'bob' and 'grizzle', frequently burlesqued with relish the man-
ner of Milton's shorter poems. These poems and the Oxford News-
man's Vcrsrs were eviilently dashed off with more enjoyment of the
fun than jioetry, and their eliief interest lies in the fact that they show
the poet in his most robust and genial mood.

The most interesting of the new Warton poems, however, is not by
Thomas Warton, but by his brother Joseph, the Epistle from Thomas
Jluirnr, Antiquanj, to the Author of the Companion to the Oxford
Guide." which on the authority of Mant'» has been pretty generally
accepted as written by Thomas Warton.-" But surely there are many
who are loath to believe that Warton directed this clever squib at him-
self, when the author of the Companion and the editor of the Sausage
were so generally gues.sed to be tlie same, and who are glad to find
among Joseph Warton 's letters a letter to Thomas in which he calls it
his own.-' "The poet addressed Warton as —

Friend of the moss-grown spire and crumbling arcli,
and concluded with a curse upon his antiquarian studies —
may curses every search attend

That seems inviting! May'st thou pore in vain

For dubious door-ways ! May revengeful moths

Thy ledgers eat. May chronologic spouts

Retain no cypher legible ! May crypts

Lurk undisccrn'd ! Nor may'st thou spell the names

Of saints in storied windows ! Nor the dates

Of bells discover! Nor the genuine site

Of Abbots' pantries ! And may Godstowe veil,

Deep from thy eyes profane, her Gothic charms!
Warton 's apparent abandonment of poetry at the very moment
when he seems to have been passing from poetry largely imitative to
poetry with considerable originality and intrinsic value demands some
explanation. The reasons for Warton 's partial desertion of poetry and
turn to critical and historical studies are in part the same. It is gener-
ally recognized that the eighteenth century was conspicuously an age
of prose, of reason, of skepticism, of didacticism ; its characteristic poetry
was either prosaic or merely brilliant and correct; and its attitude

■'XCI. p. 275.

'M Companion to the Guide, and a Guide to the Companion, London (1760).
'"Who included it in his edition of Warton's poems, II, p. 189.
="11 is quoted among Warton's antiquarian pieces by Professor Beers in
English Romanticism in the Eighteenth Century, p. 201-2.
^"Letter of July 5, 1769, Wooll, Op. cit., p. 348.

35] E^VRLY POETRY 35

toward imagination, enthusiasm, romance, decidedly hostile. It was
not the age to encourage such a poet as Thomas Warton with his enthu-
siastic love of the older neglected poets and his fondness for romance,
nor to be moved by descriptions of the glories of the past. The stand-
ards and ideals of tlie school of Pope were not yet overthrown, — Warton
himself did not immediateh' escape from their influence in his own
poetry, — and there jjrobably were few who read his verse with sympa-
thetic appreciation. And Warton 's poetical genius was not suf3Sciently
robust to weather the storms of unfavourable criticism. Later in his
life his sensitiveness to ridicule of his poetry — he could endure with
composure the most virulent abuse of his other work — cost him the
friendship of Dr. Johnson ; at this period criticism simply repressed his
poetic fervor. It is characteristic of his natural modesty as well as of
his appreciation of the general lack of sympathy with his Gothic muse
that, except in very early letters to liis brotlier,-- although he wrote freely
of his plans, his progress with all his other work of all sorts, there is no
mention of his poetry, even in his letters to Price, to whom he wrote
intimately.-''

As far as we can judge from the poetry which Warton wrote, excel-
lent as some of it is, his was not a great poetical genius. Poetical taste,
feeling and enthusiasm he had in abundance, but there seems to have
been a lack of the creative spark. How great a poet he might have
become in more favourable circumstances it would be futile to enquire ;
we can only concern ourselves with the reasons whj- he was not, and
with watching the development of his genius in other fields.

Unlike Gray,-* who, under similar circumstances and with a greater
poetic gift than Warton, was all but silenced by his uncongenial envi-
ronment and his inability to express himself, Warton was able to turn
the force of his genius into other channels. In Gray both the poet and
the scholar were repressed ; his powers were apparently inhibited by
forces beyond his control, an involuntary but unconquerable inertia.
Warton with greater energy, robuster health, and more vigorous hold
upon reality, could accomplish what Gray, because of his sensitive
reticence, continual ill-health and dreamy impracticality, could not.

With less practical force, and probably less profound scholarship,
Warton turned his gifts to better account and made for himself a much
larger place in the history of English criticism and scholarship. Gray

^^Letters of October 29, 1746 and June 7, 1753. Wooll, Op. cit., pp. 214, 217.

=^In two letters to Malone there is very brief mention of poetry. Jul. 29,
1787. 'You flatter me much in your opinion of my last Ode.' Jan. 3, 1789. 'I appear
in the Papers, not only as an Esquire, but as the author of a New Year's Ode
which I never wrote.' British Museum Additional MSS. No. 30375.

-*See Arnold's Essay.

36 THOMAS WARTON [36

had uot the versatility and adaptability which enabled Warton to find
anotlier outlet for his genius when that of poetr.y proved difficult. He
was equally a scholar with Warton, but his scholarship was barren. Both
as u poet and as a scholar his fervor was repressed and his genius ren-
dered inarticulate. In the ease of Warton there was no such tragedy
of unexpressed genius. Discouraged as a poet, he turned his poetical
enthusiasm, his love for the Gothic, for romance, into criticism and
history ; the poet all but disappeared in the .scholar. And with the
works which were tlie results of his scholarship before us, we cannot
regret the loss of that we never knew, when it would mean the sacrifice
of much the value of which we partly recognize.

CHAPTER III

Ckiticism : The Observations on the F^verie Queene op Spenser

1754-1762

Warton did not immediately find liimself in another field. He
undertook a number of different kinds ot work at this time, and either
partly or wholly abandoned each. British antiquities claimed his atten-
tion, and this interest produced the Description of . . . Winchester;^
the study of mediseval antiquity resulted in a project merely — that of
collaborating with his brother in a historj' of the revival of learning," —
but it bore fruit later; as a result of his interest in the classics he planned
translations of Homer and Apollonius Rhodius; the Obscrvatious on the
Faerie Queene was the commencement of a larger plan of writing obser-
vations on the best of Spenser's work.

The hand of the poet is as evident as that of the scholar in the
Observations on the Faerie Queene of Spenser.^ Warton 's love for
Spenser and his poetical enthusiasm were here first turned to criticism,
but of a sort unknown before. And the secret of the new quality is to
be found in this poetical enthusiasm of the writer which enabled him to
study the poem from its own point of view, not hampered by artificial,
pseudo-classical standards of which the poet had known nothing, but
with a sj'mpathetie appreciation of his literary models, the spirit of his
age, his heritage of romance and chivalry, and the whole many-coloured
life of the middle ages. These things Warton was able to see and to
reveal not with the eighteenth century prejudice against, and ignorance
of, the Gothic, but with the understanding and long familiarity of the
real lover of Spenser.

^A Description of the City, College and Cathedral of Winchester. . . . The
whole illustrated with . . . particulars, collected from a manuscript of A. Wood.
London, n. d. [1750] 12°.

-Select Epistles of Angelus Politianus, Desiderius Erasmus, Hugo Grotius,
and others, with notes of such importance as to constitute a history of the revival
of learning. Perhaps this was abandoned because of the plan of their mutual
friend, Collins, to publish a History of the Restoration of Learning under Leo the
Tenth. See WooU, op. cit., p. 29 and Hist. Eng. Poetry, II, p. 361, note x.

^London, 1754. Second edition, corrected and enlarged, 2 vols. 1762. Refer-
ences are to the third edition, 2 vols., 1807.

38 THOMAS WABTON [38

The result of Wurton's combiiifd poetical enthusiasm and scholarly
study of SpcnstT was that he produml in the Observations on the Faerie
Qtiirne the first important piece of niO(h'rn historical criticism in the field
of English literature. By the variety of its new tenets and the definitive-
ness of its revolt against tlie pseudo-classical criticism by rule, it marks
the Ijcpinnintr of a new school. Out of the turmoil of the quarrel between
the 'ancients' and the 'moderns' the pseudo-classical compromise had
emerged. The 'moderns', by admitting and apologizing for a degree of
barbarity and uncouthne.ss in even their greatest poets, had established
tlieir right to a secure and rei)utahle ])lace in the assembly of immortals,
altliougli on tlie very questionable ground of conformity with the ancients
and by submitting to be judged by rules wliich had not determined their
development. It was thus by comparisons with the ancients that Drydeu
had found Spenser's verse harmonious but his design imperfect;* it was
in tlie light of the classical rules for epic poetry that Addison had praised
Paradise Lost/' and that Steele had wislied an'Encomium of Spencer "'also.

Impossible as was the task of reconciling literature partly romantic
and modern with classical and ancient standards, the critics of a rational-
istic age did not hesitate to accomplish it; common sense was the pseudo-
classical handmaiden tluit justified the rules, methodized nature,
standardized critical taste, and restrained the 'Euthusiastick Spirit" and
the je ne sais qvoi of the school of taste. The task was a hard one, and
the pseudo-classical position dangerous and ultimately untenable. A
more extended study of literary history — innocuously begun by Rymer' —
and an enlightened freedom from prejudice would show at the same time
the inadequacy of the rules and the possibility of arriving at sounder
critical standards.

The.se are the two principal gifts that Thomas Warton had with
which he revolutionizeil criticism : intelligent independence to throw off
the bondage of the rules, and broad knowledge to supply material for
juster criteria. When he said, 'It is absurd to think of judging either
Ariosto or Spenser by precepts whicli they did not attend to,'* he not
merely asserted their right to be judged by Gotliic or 'romantic', as op-
poseti to jjseudo-elassical, standards, but sounded the death-knell of criti-
cism b}' rule, and the bugle-note of the modern seliool. When, in the same
critical work, and even more impressively in two later ones,^ he brought

*Essay on Satire.
^Spectator, Jan. to May, 1712.
'^Spectalor, No. 540.

^A Short I'inv of Tragedy, 1693. See Chapter V.
'Obsen'alions. I, p. 21.

"Hist. Eiig. Poetry, 1774, 1778, 1781. Milton's Poems upon Several Occasions.
1783.

39] ... CRITICISM ... 39

to bear upon the subject in hand a rich store of ideas and illustrnlions
drawn from many literatures — Latin, Greek, Italian, French, and English
in its obscure as well as its more familiar eras, — he rendei'ed an even
more important service on the side of constructive criticism.

Warton's Obsiri'atioiis is connected not only with the history of
critical theory in the eighteenth centurj^ but also with what is called
the Spenserian revival. It was partly the culmination of one of several
related movements tending toward the restoration of the older English
classics. While Chaucer was slowly winning a small circle of appre-
eiators; Shakespeare, from ignorantly apologetic admiration and garbled
staging, through serious study and intelligent comprehension, was coming
into his own ; and Milton was attaining a vogue that left its mark on the
new poetry : the Spenserian revival was simultaneously preparing to
exert an even greater influence. Altliough Spenser was never witliout
a select circle of readers, that circle was small and coldly critical during
the pseudo-classical period when his principal charm was that which his
moral afforded readers who held that the purpose of poetry was to
instruct. Jlost readers assented to Jonson's dictum that Spenser 'writ
no language' without attending to the caveat tliat followed, 'Yet I would
have him read for his matter. ' The difficulties of his language, the tire-
someness of his stanza,'" the unclassical imperfection of his design, and
the extravagance of the adventures too often obscured even tlie beauty
of his moral. Therefore it was after a pi'etty general neglect of his
poetry that tlie eighteentli century saw a species of Spenserian imitation
arise which showed to what low ebb the study of Spenser had sunk. The
first of these imitators eitlier ignorantly fancied that any arrangement
of from six to ten iambic pentameter lines caj)i)ed with an Alexandrine,
with distinctly Popeian cadence and a sjjrinkling of 'I ween', 'I weet'
and 'whilom' by way of antiquated diction, could pass for Spenserian
verse," or followed the letter of the stanza closely enough, but failed to

'"Hughes, Rciiiarks on the Fairy Queen prefixed to Spenser's ll'orl.^s, 2nd.
ed. 1750. I, p. Ixvii.

"Prior: Ode to the Queen, 'irilten in imitation of S/'cnser's Style. 1706.
Preface. Whitehead: Vision of Solomon, 1739, and two Odes to the Hon. Charles
To'LOisend. Boyse : The Olizes an Heroic Ode, etc. in the stanca of Spenser
(ababcdcdee) 1736-7. Vision of Patience: an Allegorical Poem; Psalm XLH: In
imitation of the Style of S/'enser (ababcc, no .Mexandrine) 1740. Blacklock:
Hymn to Divine Love, and Philantheus (ababbcc) 1746. T. Warton, Sr. : Philan-
der (ababcc) 1748. Lloyd: Progress of Enz-y (ababcdcdd) 1751. Sniitli : Thales
(ababbccc) 1751. See W. L. Phelps: Beginnings of the English Romantic Move-
ment. Boston, 1902. Ch. on Spenserian Revival, and .Appendix I, for a more
complete list.

40 THOMAS WARTON [40

take their model seriously, and misapplied it to vulgar burlesque, social
and politieal satire, and mere moralizing.'- Tluir ignorance of the poet
whom tliey professed to imitate is marked. Often tliey knew him only
through Prior's imitations; usually their attempts at antiquated diction
betray tliem.'^ Occasionally, as in the case of Shenstone, a study of
Spenser followed imitation of him, and led to a new attitude, changes in
the imitation, and finally, apparently, to an admiration tliat he neither
understood nor cared to admit.'*

Of course by far the best of the Spenserian imitators was James
Thomson, whose work was tlie first to rise above tlie merely imitative and
to have an independent value as creative poetry. Althougli his Advcr-

"Pope : The Alley, date unknown, an exercise in versification, and ill-natured
burlesque. Croxall: Two Original Cantos of the Fairy Queen. 1713 and 1714.
Akenside: The Virtuoso, 1737, mild satire. G. West: Abuse of Travelling, 1739,
satire. Cambridge: ^rf/iimasf, 1742-50, a clever parody. Shenstone: The School-
mistress, 1742, satirical. Pitt: The Jordan, 1747, vulgar burlesque. Ridley: Psyche,
1747, moral allegory. Mendez: The Seasons, 1751, Squire of Dawes, 1748-58.
Thomson: Castle of Indolence, 1748. See also Phelps, as above.

"Such slips as 'nor ceasen he from study' and 'he would oft ypine' in Aken-
side's I'irtuoso and even Thomson's note. "The letter y is frequently placed in
the beginning of a word by Spenser to lengthen it a syllable ; and en at the end
of a word for the same reason.' Glossary to the Castle of Indolence.

'*! cannot agree with Professor Phelps that, 'as people persisted in admiring
The Schoolmistress for its own sake, he finally consented to agree with them,
and in later editions omitted the commentary explaining that the whole thing was
done in jest'. The Beginning of the English Romantic Movement, p. 66. On the
contrary, it seems pretty clear that although Shenstone had probably not come to
any very profound appreciation of the older poet, his admiration for him became
more and more serious, but that he lacked the courage of his convictions, and
conformed outwardly with a public opinion wholly ignorant of Spenser. Two
later letters of Shenstone's indicate pretty clearly that it was he, and not 'the
people", whose taste for Spenser had developed. In November, 1745, he wrote to
Graves (to whom he had written of his early contempt) that he had read Spenser
once again and 'added full as much more to my School-inistrcss, in regard to
number of lines; something in point of matter (or manner rather), ivhich does

not displease me. I would be glad if Mr. were, upon your request, to give

his opinion of particulars,' etc. Evidently the judgment was unfavorable, for he
wrote the next year, 'I thank you for your perusal of that trivial poem. If I were
going to print it, I should give way to your remarks implicitly, and would not
dare to do otherwise. But so long as I keep it in manuscript, you will pardon my
silly prejudices, if I chuse to read and shew it with the addition of most of my
new stanzas. I own, I have a fondness for several, imagining them to be more in
Spenser's way, yet more independent on the antique phrase, than any part of the
poem; and, on that account, I cannot yet prevail on myself to banish them entirely;
but were I to print, I should (with some reluctance) give way to your sentiments.'
Shenstone's Works. 1777. Ill, pp. 105-6.

41] CRITICISM 41

tisement and a few burlesque touclies throughout the poem are evidence
of the influence of the Schoolmistress and of the prevailing attitude
toward Spenser, Thomson went further than mere external imitation
and reproduced something of the melody and atmosphere of the Fairy
Queen. Thus poetical enthusiasm began the Spenserian revival; it
remained for a great critical enthusiasm to vindicate the source of tliis
inspiration and to establish it on the firm basis of scholarly study and
intelligent appreciation.

The first attempt at anything like an extended criticism of the
Fairy Queen was in the two essays On Allegorical Poetry and
Remarks on the Fairy Queen which prefaced John Hughes's edition
of Spenser's works in 1715, the first eighteenth century edition." Steele,
in the 540th Spectator, three year sbefore, had desired an 'Encomium of
Spencer', 'that charming author', like Addison's Milton papei's, but
nothing further than his own meagre hints was forthcoming. And
Hughes's attitude, like that of the imitators, was wholly apologetic.

Hughes seems almost to have caught a glimpse of the promised land
when he refused to examine the Fairy Queen by the classical rules for
epic poetrj', saying: 'As it is plain the Author never design 'd it by
those Rules, I think it ought rather to be consider 'd as a Poem of a par-
ticular kind, describing in a Series of Allegorical Adventures or Episodes
the most noted Virtues and Vices : to compare it therefore with the
Models of Antiquity, wou 'd be like drawing a Parallel between the Roman
and the Gothick Architecture.'" At first sight one is inclined to think
this very near to Warton's revolutionary dictum, but the bungling way
in which he spoiled the effect of this striking statement by preparing in
advance a set of pseudo-classical and misfit standards to apply as he
exposed the unsuitability of the old, merely by the substitution of allegory
for epic, shows that he was a true pseudo-classicist after all. He could
not, nor would, throw off his allegiance to the ancients. If the Fairy
Queen could not be considered as an epic, it could be judged as an
allegory, the rules of which, though not described by the ancients, were
easily determinable. And in attempting to set forth the rules for
allegorical poetry, he tried to conform to the spirit of the classical critics
as he understood it, and to illustrate his subject by examples from
classical poets. Nevertheless he felt some reluctance in introducing a
subject which was 'something out of the way, and not expressly treated

■'And the first attempt at an annotated edition. Spenser's Works, to which is
prefix'd . . . an Essay on Allegorical Poetry by Mr. Hughes. 6 vols. London,
1715. Second edition, 1750. There is a second preface, Reuiarks on the Fairy
Queen. References are to the second edition.

'^Remarks on the Fairy Queen. I, p. xliii.

42 THOMAS WARTON

[42

upon l>v tlios." wlio havi- laid down Rules for the Art of Poetry.'"
llll^'ll.•s"'s i.lcas of wliat slioiild constitute successfid allegory were there-
fore embodied in his Kssay un AlUgorUul Poetry, by the uncertain light
of which the critic hoped 'uot only to discover many Beauties in the
Fdini Qurin, but likewise to excuse some of its Irregularities.'"

Iliigii.-s tlid not, however, yield to the spell of 'magic Spenser's
wildlv-\variiled .song." While he admitted that his fable gave 'the
greatest Sco|)e to that Range of Fancy which was so remarkably his
Talent ■'" and that his plan, though not well chosen, was at least well
execute.l and adapted to his talent, he apologized for and excused both
fable and plan on the score of the Italian models which he followed, and
the remnants of the 'old Gothic Chivalry" wliicli yet survived. The only
praise he could give the poem was wholly pseudo-classical, — for the moral
and ditlaetic bent which the poet had contrived to give the allegory,^"
and for some fine passages where the author 'rises above himself and
imitates the ancients.-' In spite of his statement that the Fairy Queen
was uot to be examined by the strict rules of epic poetry, he could not
free himself from that bondage, and the most of his essay is taken up
with a discussion of the poem in the light of the rules. Moreover Hughes
was but ill-equipped for his task : he failed even to realize that a great
field of literary history must be thoroughly explored before the task of
elucidating Spenser could be intelligently undertaken, and that genuine
enthusiasm for the poet could alone arouse much interest in him. These
are the reasons why nearly forty ye'ars elapsed before the edition was
reprinted, and why it failed to give a tremendous impetus to the
Spenserian revival. Yet, notwithstanding its defects, it is extremely
im])ortant that Hughes should have undertaken at all the editing of so
neglected a poet.-- It is a straw that points the direction of the wind.

The next attempt at Spenserian criticism was a small volume of
Remarks on Spenser's Poems and on Milton's Paradise Regained, pub-
lished anonymously in 1734, and soon recognized as the work of Dr.
Jortin, a classical scholar of some repute. This is practically valueless
as a piece of criticism. But Jortin was at least parth' conscious of his

'''Essay on Allegorical Poetry, I, p. xxi.

'^Remarks on the Fairy Queen, I, p. xlii.

'»/6i(/. I. p. xliv.

-"Ibid. I, p. xl. Essay on Allegorical Poetry.

^'Ibid. I, p. 1.

=-The neglect of Spenser is licst shown by the few editions of either the Fairy
Queen or tlie complete works which had appeared since the first three books of
the former were pul)lished in 1590. Faerie Queene, 1st. ed. 4to. 1590-6: 2nd, 1596;
3rd, fol., 1609; Birch ed. 3 vols. 4to. 1751. Poetical Works, ist fol. ed. 1611;
2nd, 1617-18; 3rd. 1679. Hughes, ist ed. 1715, 2nd, 1750.

43] CRITICISM 43

failure and of a reason for it, though he was more auxious to liavc the
exact text determined by a 'collation of Editions, and by comparing the
Author with himself than to furnish an interpretive criticism; and he
acknowledged himself unwilling to bestow the necessary~time and applica-
tion for the work,-'' — a gratifying acknowledgement of the fact tliat no
valuable work could be done in this field without sj)ecial preparation
for it.

And when Thomas Warton was able to bring this special prepara-
tion for the first time to the study of the Fairy Queen, he produced a
revolution in criticism. Freed from the tyranny of the rules by the
perception of their limitations, he substituted untried aveimes of
approach and juster standards of criticism, and revealed beauties which
could never have been discovered with the old restrictions. That he
should be witliout trace of pseudo-classicism is something we cannot
expect; but tliat his general critical method aiui princijdes are ultimately
irreconcilable with even the most generous interpretation of that term
is a conclusion one cannot escape after a careful study of the Observa-
tions on fhe Fairy Queen.

Briefly, the causes of Warton 's superiority over all previous critics
of Spenser, the reasons why he became through this piece of critical
writing the founder of a new kind of criticism, are four. First, he
recognized the inadequacy of the classical rules, as interpreted by Boileau
and other modern commentators, as standards for judging modern
literature, and declared his independence of them and his intention of
following new methods based upon the belief that the author's purpose is
at least as important a subject for critical study as the critic's theories
and that imagination is as important a factor in creative literature as
reason. Second, he introduced the modern historical method of criticism
by recognizing that no work of art could be independently judged,
isolated from the conditions under which it was produced, without
reference to the influences which determined its character, and without
considering its relation to other literatures. In taking this broad view
of his subject, Warton was, of course, recognizing the necessity for a
comparative study of literature. In the third place, and as a conse-
quence of this independence and this greater breadth of view, Warton
understood more fully than his contemporaries the true relation between
classical and modern literature, understood that the English writers of
the boasted Augustan age, in renouncing their heritage from the middle
ages, had deprived themselves of the qualities which alone could have
redeemed their desiccated pseudo-classicism. And last, Warton made a
place in criticism for the reader's spontaneous delight and enthusiasm.

-'Jortin's conclusion quoted in Nichols's Literary Anecdotes, II, p. S3. H. E.
Cory says nothing of Jortin's Remarks in his monograph, The Critics of Edmund
Spenser, Univ. of California Pub. in Mod. Phil. II ; 2, pp. 71-182.

44 THOMAS WARTON [44

Few critics of tlie eighteenth century recognized any difference
botwctMi th<'ir own rules and jiractipe and those of the ancients, or saw the
need for niodiTn standards for judging modern poems. Just here comes
the important and irreparable break between Warton and his contem-
poraries. While Hughes and the rest attempted to justify Spenser by
pointing out conformities to the rules=* where they existed or might be
fancied, and condemned his practice when they failed to find any, Warton
was at some pains to show that Hughes failed and that such critics must
fail because their critical method was wrong." He pointed out that the
Fairy Qiuai cannot be judged by rule, that the 'plan and conduct' of
Spenser's poem 'is highly exceptionable', 'is confused and irregular', and
has 'no general unity';-" it fails completely when examined by the rules.
To Warton this clearly showeil the existence of another standard of
criticism — not the Aristotelian, but the poet's: Spenser had not tried to
write like Homer, but like Ariosto; his standard was romantic, not
cla.ssical ; and he was to be judged by what he tried to do.

Warton 's declaration of independence of pseudo-classical criticism
was a conscious revolt; yet it was one to which he made some effort to
win the as.sent of his contemporaries by conceding that Spenser's frequent
extravagances" did violate the rules approved by an age that took pride
in its critical taste. His desire to engage their interest, however, neither
succeeded in that purpose nor persuaded him that those rules were
properly applied to poems written in ignorance of them. There is no
uncertainty, no coniprniiiise with pseudo-classical criticism in the flat
defiance, 'it is absurd to think of judging either Ariosto or Spenser by
precepts which they did not attend to.'-^

Having thus condemned the accepted standards as inadequate for a
just criticism of the Fairy Qiiccn, Warton 's next purpose was to find
those by which it could be properly judged: not the rules of which the
poet was ignorant, but the literature with which he was familiar. He
recognized quite clearly a distinction between a classical and a romantic
poet, and accounted for it by a difference of circumstances. Warton 's
even then extensive knowledge of the neglected periods of earlier English
literature gave him a power that most of his contemporaries lacked and

2*Dryden had done the same thing in the Dedication to the Translation of
Juvenal by pointing out how the character of Prince Arthur 'shines throughout
the whole poem,' and Warton took issue squarely with him on the point and denied
any such unity. See Observations, I, p. lo-ll. Addison used the same method in his
papers on Paradise Lost. Beni was probably the originator of this sort of mis-
applied criticism in his comparison of Tasso with Homer and Virgil. I, p. 3.

-^Ibid. I, p. II S.

'"Ibid. I, p. 17.

"Ibid. I. p. 18.

''Ibid, I, p. 21.

45] CRITICISM 45

enabled him to see that Spenser's peculiarities were those of his age,
that the 'knights and damsels, the tournaments and enchantments, of
Spenser' were not oddities but the familiar and admired features of ro-
mance, a prevailing literary form of the age, and that 'the fashion of
the times' determined Spenser's purpose of becoming a 'romantic Poct.'-^

Warton determined therefore not only to judge but to praise Spen-
ser as a romantic'" poet. He found that as the characteristic appeal of
pseudo-classical poetry was to the iutellect, to the reason, romantic
poetry addressed itself to the feelings, to the imagination. Its excel-
lence, therefore, consisted not in design and proportion, but in interest
and variety of detail. The poet's business was 'to engage the fancy, and
interest the attention by bold and striking images, in the formation, and
the disposition of. which, little labour or art was applied. The various
and marvelous were the chief sources of delight '.'• Hence Spenser
had ransacked 'reality and romance', 'truth and fiction' to adorn his
'fairy structure', and "Warton revelled in the result, in its very form-
lessness and richness, which he thoiight preferable, in a romantic poem,
to exactness. 'Exactness in his poem,' he said, 'would have been like
the cornice which a painter introduced in the grotto of Calypso. Spen-
ser's beauties are like the flowers in Paradise. '"-

Wlien beauties thus transcend nature, delight goes beyond reason.
Warton did not shrink from the logical result of giving rein to imagina-
tion ; he was willing to recognize the romantic quest for beauties beyond
the reach of art, to sacrifice reason and 'nature methodiz'd' in an
exaltation of a higher quality which rewarded the reader with a higher
kind of enjojTnent. 'If the Fairy Queen,' he said, 'be destitute of that
arrangement and seconomy which epic severity requires, yet we scarcely
regret the loss of these, while their place is so amply supplied by some-
thing which more powerfully attracts us: something which engages the
affections, the feelings of the heart, rather than the cold approbation of
the head. If there be any poem whose graces please, because they are
situated beyond the reach of art, and where the force and faculties of
creative imagination^' delight, because they are unassisted and unre-

-^Ibid. II, p. -2.

■"■"Warton used the word romantic as a derivative of romance, implying the
characteristics of the medixval romances, and I have used the word frequently in
this chapter with that meaning.

^'^Ibid. I, p. 22.

^-Ibid. I, p. 23.

^^Without the same precision in nomenclature but with equal clearness of idea
Warton distinguished between creative and imaginative power in exactly the same
way that Coleridge diiTerentiated imagination and fancy. He did not compose exact
philosophical definitions of the two qualities, but in a careful contrast between the
poetic faculties of Spenser and Ariosto, he made the same distinction. Spenser's

46 THOMAS WARTON [46

straiiioil by those of deliberate judgment, it is this. In reading Spenser,
if the eritic is not satisfied, yet tlie reader is transported.''*

When Warton thus made a phiee for transport in a critical dis-
course, he had parted company witli his contemjjoraries and opened
the way for the whole romantic exaltation of feeling. He had turned
from Dr. Jolinson, who condemned 'all power of fancy over reason' as
a "dctrrec of insanity ','' and faced toward Blake, who exalted the
imagination anil called reason the only evil."" Every propriety of Queen
Anne criticism had now been violated. Not satisfied with condemning
all previous Spenserian criticism as all but nonsense, Warton dared to
place the uncritical reailer's delight above the critic's deliberate dis-
approval, and tlieii to commend that enthusiasm and the beauties that
aroused it. In repudiating the pseudo-classical rules, Warton enunciated
two revolutionary dicta: there are other critical standards than those
of Boileau and the ancients (save the mark!) ; there are other poetical
beauties than tho.se of Pope and 'nature methodiz'd.'

Revolutionary as he was in his enjoyment of Spenser's fable, War-
ton had not at the time he wrote the Observations freed himself from
the pseudo-classical theories of versification and he agreed with his prede-
ces.sors in his discussion of this subject. Altough he did not feel the nine-
teenth century romanticist's entliusiasm for Spenser's versification, he
was nevertiieless sufficiently the poet to appreciate and to enjoy his suc-
cess with it. 'It is indeed surprising,' he said, 'that Spenser should exe-
cute a poem of uncommon length, with so nuich spirit and ease, laden as
he was with so many shackles, and embarrassed with so eoniplieated a

bondage of riming His sense and sound are equally flowing

and uninterrupted.'^' Similarly, with respect to language, we neither
expect nor find enthusiasm. Warton thought Jonsou 'perhaps unrea-
sonable,''" and found the origin of his language in the language of his
age, as he found the origin of his design in its romances. Long acquaint-

power, imagination, he described as creative, vital ; it endeavours to body forth the
unsubstantial, to represent by visible and external symbols the ideal and abstracted.
(II, p. 77.) Ariosto's faculty, fancy, he called imitative, lacking in inventive power.
(I, p. 308; II, p. 78.) Although Warton at times applied the term imagination
loosely to both, there was no confusion of ideas ; when he used both terms it was
with the difference in meaning just described. In speaking of the effect of the
marvels of romance upon the poetic faculty he said they 'rouse and invigorate all
the powers of imagination' and 'store the fancy with . . . images.' (II, p. 323.)

^*Ibid. I, p. 24.

^'•Rassdas. Ch. XLIV.

•'"'H. C. Robinson: Diary. Ed. Sadler, Boston 1870, II, p. 43.

'"Ofcj. I, pp. 168-170.

^*In his opinion that 'Spenser, in affecting the ancients, writ no language*. I,
p. 184.

47] CRITICISM 47

ance enabled him to read the Fairy Queen with ease; he denied that
Spenser's language was either so affected or so obsolete as it was gener-
ally supposed, and asserted that 'For many stanzas together we may
frequently read him with as much facility as we can the same number
of lines in Shakespeare."' In his approval and appreciation of Spen-
ser's moral purpose Warton was, of course, nearer to his pseudo-classical
predecessors than to his romantic followers ; however, without relin-
quishing that prime virtue of the old school, the solidity which comes
from well-establislied principles, he attained to new virtues, greater catho-
licity of taste and flexibility of judgment.

In seeking in the literature of and before the sixteenth century and
in the manners and customs of the 'spacious times of great Elizabeth'
for the explanation of Spenser's poem — so far as explanation of genius
is possible — "Warton was, as has been said, laying the foundations of
modern historical criticism. Some slight progress had been made in this
direction before, but without important results. Warton was by no
means original in recognizing Spenser's debt to the Italian romances
which were so popular in his day, and to Ariosto in particular. And
many critics agreed that he was 'led by the prevailing notions of his
age to write an irregular and romantic poem.' They, however, regarded
his age as one of barbarity and ignorance of the rules, and its literature
as unworthy of study and destitute of intrinsic value. No critic before
Warton had realized the importance of supplementing an absolute by
an historical criticism, of reconstructing, so far as possible, a poet's
environment and the conditions under which he worked, in order to
judge his poetrj'. 'In reading the works of a poet who lived in a remote
age,' he said, 'it is necessary that we should look back upon the customs
and manners which prevailed in that age. We should endeavour to place
ourselves in the writer's situation and circumstances. Hence we shall
become better enabled to discover how his turn of thinking, and manner
of composing, were influenced by familiar appearances and established
objects, which are utterly different from those with which we are at
present surrounded.'*" And, realizing that the neglect of these details
was fatal to good criticism, that the 'commentator*' whose critical enqui-

^^Ibid. I, p. 185. This parallel does not greatly help the case in an age when
Attertiury could write to Pope that he found 'the hardest part of Chaucer . . . more
intelligible' than some parts of Shakespeare and that 'not merely through the faults
of the edition, but the obscurity of the writer.' Pope's Works, Elwin-Courthope
ed. IX, p. 26.

*°Obs. II, p. 71.

■•^Warton ably and sharply met Pope's attack on Theobald for including in his

edition of Shakespeare a sample of his sources, of ' " All such reading as never

was read",' and concluded 'If Shakespeare is worth reading, he is worth explain-

48 THOMAS WARTON [48

ries are einploj-ed on Spenser, Jonson, and the rest of our elder poets,
will in vain give specimens of his classical erudition, unless, at the same
time, he brings to his work a mind intimately' acquainted with those
books, which tliough now forgotten, were yet in common use and high
repute about the time in which his authors respectively wrote, and
wliicli tliey conse(|uently must have read,'*= he resolutely reformed his
own practice.

Warton not only perceived the necessity of the historical method
of studying the older poets, but he had acquired what very few of his
conteinporarics had attained, sufficient knowledge of the earlier English
literature to undertake such a study of Spenser. He embarked upon
the study of the Fuinj Queen, its sources and literary background, with
a fund of knowledge which, however much later scholars, who have taken
up large lioldings in the territory charted by that pioneer, may un-
justly scorn its superficiality or inexactness, was for that time quite
excejitional, and which could not fail to illuminate the poem to the point
of transfiguration. Every reader of Spenser had accepted his statement
that he took Ariosto as his model, but no one before Warton had re-
nuirked another model, one closer in respect of matter, which tlie poet
no doubt thouglit too obvious to mention, the old romances of chivalry.
Warton observed that where Spenser's plan is least like Ariosto 's, it
most resembles the romances; that, although he 'formed his Faerie
Queene upon the fanciful plan of Ariosto', he formed the particular
adventures of his knight upon the romances. 'Spenser's first book is,'
he said, 'a regular and precise imitation of such a series of action as
we frequently find in books of chivalry.'*^

In proof of Spenser's indebtedness to the romances Warton cited
the prevalence of romances of chivalry in his day, and pointed out
particular borrowings from this popular poetry. In the first place he
insisted again and again not only that the 'encounters of chivalry' which
appeared extraordinary to modern eyes were familiar to readers in
Spenser's day,** but that the practices of chivalry were even continued

ing; and the researches used for so valuable and elegant a purpose, merit the
thanks of genius and candour, not the satire of prejudice and ignorance.' II, p. 319.
In similar vein he rebuked such of his own critics as found his quotations from
the romances 'trifling and uninteresting" : 'such readers can have no taste for
Spenser.' I, p. 91.

*-Ibid. II, pp. 317-18.

*mid. I, p. 26.

**And even later to the time of Milton. Warton found Milton's 'mind deeply
tinctured with romance reading* and his imagination and poetry affected thereby.
I, p. 257 and p. 350. Even Dryden wanted to write an epic about Arthur or the
Black Prince but on the model of Virgil and Spenser, not Spenser and the romances.
Essay on Satire.

49] CRITICISM 49

to some extent.*^ Warton's close acquaintance with the literature of
the sixteenth century and before showed him that the matter of the
romances was common property and liad permeated other works than
those of mediivval poets. He discovered that the story of Ai'thur, from
which Spenser borrowed most, was so generally kno\vn and so great a
favourite that incidents from it were made the basis for entertainment
of Elizabeth at Kenilworth,*" and that Arthur and his knights were
alluded to by writers so various as Caxton, Aschani, Sidney, Puttenhara,
Bacon, and Jouson ;■"" that even Ariosto''* himself borrowed from the
story of Arthur. At the same time his first-hand knowledge of the
romances enabled him to point out among those which most directly
influenced the Fairy Queen Malory's Morte Arthur, the largest contrib-
utor, of course, from which such details as the story of Sir Tristram,
King Ryence and the Mantle of Beards, the Holy Grail, and the Blatant
Beast were drawn;** Bevis of Southampton, which furnished the inci-
dent of the well of marvelous healing power j'^" the ballad of the Boy
and the Mantle, from the French romance, Le Court Mantel, which sug-
gested Spenser's conceit of Florimel's girdle.^' Warton also carefully
discussed Spenser's fairy mythologj', which supplanted the classical
mythology as his romantic adventures replaced those of antiquity,

*^Obs. I, p. 27 and II, pp. 71-72. Warton cited Holinshed's Chronicles (Stowe's
contin.) where is an account of a tourney for the entertainment of Queen Eliza-
beth, in which Fulke Greville and Sir Philip Sidney, among others, entered the
lists. Holin. Chronicles, ed. 1808. IV, p. 437 ff.

*'Warton quotes Laneham's 'Letter 'wherein part of the Entertainment untoo
the Queen's Majesty at KiJliineorth Casll in IVanvicksheer in this Soomer's prog-
ress, 1575, is signified,' and Gascoig^e's Pleasures of Kenilworth Castle, Works,
1576. Obs. I, pp. 41. 43-

<'/birf. I, pp. 50-74.

*mid. I. pp. 53-57.

*^Ibid. I, pp. 27-57.

^"Ibid. I, pp. 69-71.

^^Ibid. I, p. 76. Warton says an 'ingenious correspondent communicated' to him
this 'old ballad or metrical romance.' Part of Le Court Mantel he found in
Sainte Palaye's Memoires sur I'ancienne Chevalcrie, 1760. Other details, which
could not be traced to particular romances, Warton attributed to 'a mind strongly
tinctured with romantic ideas.' One of these, the custom of knights swearing on
their swords, Upton had explained as derived from the custom of the Huns and
Goths, related by Jornandes and Ammianus Marcellinus, but Warton pointed out
that it was much more probably derived from the more familiar romances. II, p.
65. A Bodleian MS. containing Sir Degore and other romances is quoted from
and described, II, pp. 5-9.

50 THOMAS WAKTON [50

ascribing its origin to romance and folk-lore of Celtic and ultimately
Oriental origin.'-

As in the case of medieval romance, Warton was the first critic to
consider in any detail Spenser's indebtedness to Chaucer. Antiqua-
rians and a few poets had been mildly interested in Chaucer, but his
importance for the study of the origins of English poetry had been
ignored in the prevalent delusion that the classics were the ultimate
sources of poetry. Dryden, to be sure, had remarked that Spenser
imitated Chaucer's language," and subsequent readers, including War-
ton, concurred. But it still remained for Warton to point out that
Spenser was also indebted to Chaucer for ideas, and to show the extent
and nature of his debt by collecting 'specimens of Spenser's imitations
from Chaucer, both of language and sentiment.'" Without, of course,
attempting to exhaust the subject, Warton collected enough parallel
passages to prove that Spenser was not only an 'attentive reader and
professed admirer', but also an imitator of Chaucer. For example, he
pointed out that the list of trees in the wood of error was more like
Chaucer's in the Assevihly of Foivls than like similar passages in classical
poets mentioned by Jortin;''^ that he had borrowed the magic mirror
which Merlin gave Ryence from the Squire's Tale,'^^ and from the Ro-
mance of tlie Rose, the conceit of Cupid dressed in flowers.^^ By a
careful comparison with Chaucer's language, Warton was able to explain
some doubtful passages as weU as to show Spenser's draughts from 'the
well of English undefiled.'

One can scarcely overestimate the importance of Warton 's evident
first-hand knowledge of Chaucer in an age when he was principally
known only through Dryden 's and Pope's garbled modernizations, or
Milton's reference to him who

'left half-told

The story of Cambuscan bold.'

^^Ibid. I, pp. 77-89. Warton often used the terms Celtic and Norse very loosely
without recognizing the difference. Like Huet and Mallet and other students of
romance he was misled by the absurd and fanciful ethnologies in vogue in the 17th
and i8th centuries. For his theory of romance see his dissertation 'On the Origin
of Romantic Fiction in Europe' prefixed to the first volume of his History of
English Poetry, 1774.

'■^Essay on Satire. Dryden frequently referred to Chaucer as Spenser's mas-
ter, meaning in the matter of language. See also Dedication of the Pastorals and
Preface to the Fables.

"Section V 'Of Spenser's Imitations from Chaucer.'

""In his Remarks on Spenser's Poems. See Observations I, p. 190.

'■"Ibid. I, p. 205. Warton showed many instances of Spenser's interest in
Cambuscan, including his continuation of part of the story. See also pp. 210 ff.

"Ibid. I, p. 221.

51] CRITICISM 51

Warton was not satisfied that Chaucer should be studied merely to
illustrate Spenser ; he recognized his intrinsic value as well, and suffered
his enthusiasm for Chaucer to interrupt the thread of his criticism of
Spenser, while he lauded and recommended to his neglectful age the
charms of the older poet.^' To be sure his reasons for admiring Chaucer
were somewhat too romantic to convince an age that preferred regular
beauties; his 'romantic arguments', 'wildness of painting', 'simplicity
and antiquity of expression', though 'pleasing to the imagination' and
calculated to 'transport us into some fairy region', were certainly not
the qualities to attract Upton or Hughes or Dr. Johnson. Unlike the
pseudo-classical admirers of Chaucer, Warton held that to read modern
imitations was not to know Chaucer; that to provide such substitutes
was to contribute rather to the neglect than to the popularity of the
original. With characteristic soundness of scholarship he condemned
the prevalence of translations because they encouraged 'indolence and
illiteracy', displaced the originals and thus gradually vitiated public
taste.'^

The study of Spenser's age yielded the third element which Warton
introduced into Spenserian criticism — the influence of the mediseval
moralities and allegorical masques. Warton 's study of Spenser's alle-
gory is of quite another sort than Hughes's essay. Instead of trying to
concoct a set of a priori rules for a kind of epic which should find its
justification in its moral, Warton, as usual, was concerned with forms
of allegory as thej' actually existed and were familiar to his poet, and
with the history of allegorical poetry in England. Without denying the
important influence of Ariosto, he pointed out that his predecessors had
erred in thinking the Orlando Furioso a sufficient model ; he saw that
the characters of Spenser's allegory much more resembled the 'emblemat-
ical personages, visibly decorated with their proper attributes, and ac-
tually endued with speech, motion and life',"" with which Spenser was
familiar upon the stage, than the less symbolical characters of Ariosto.
Warton could support his position by quoting references in the Fairy

^^Warton found opportunity to express more fully his enthusiasm for Chaucer
in a detailed study comparable to this of Spenser, in his History of English Poetry
twenty years later.

^^Obs. I, pp. 269-71. Warton extended his criticism to translations of classical
authors as well. Of course the greatest of the classicists, Dryden and Johnson,
realized the limits of translation, that it was only a makeshift. See Preface to
translation of Ovid's epistle, to Sylvce and to the Fables, and Boswell's Johnson,
Hill ed. Ill, p. 36. But the popularity of Dryden's translations and the large
number of translations and imitations that appeared during his and succeeding
generations, justified Warton's criticism.

^''Obs. II, p. 78.

52 THOMAS WARTON l^^

Queen to masques and dumb shows,"' aud by tracing somewhat the prog-
ress of allegory iu English poetry before Spenser."- It is characteristic
that he sliouldnot have been satisfied to observe that allegory was popu-
lar in Spenser "s age, but that he should wish to explain it by a 'retro-
spect of English poetry from the age of Spenser.'" Superficial and
hasty as this survey is, it must have confirmed Warton's opinion that
a thorougli exploration of early English poetry was needed, and so
anticipated his magnum opus. And we can find little fault with its con-
clusions, even when he says that this poetry 'principally consisted in
visions and allegories', when he could add as a matter of information,
'there are, indeed, the writings of some English poets now remaining,
who wrote before Gowcr or Chaucer.'

In rejecting the conclusions of pseudo-classical criticism, in regard-
ing Spenser as the heir of the middle ages, Warton did not by any
means overlook the influence of the renaissance, of the classical revival,
upon his poetry. His study of the classical sources from wliieh Spenser
embellished his plan"^ is as careful and as suggestive as his study of the
mediroval sources ; it is not only so strikingly new. His attack on Scali-
ger, who subordinated a comparative method to the demonstration of
o priori conclusions, shows that he was a sounder classicist than that
pseudo-classical leader. Scaliger, he said, more than once 'betrayed his
ignorance of the nature of ancient poetry ' f" he ' had no notion of simple
and genuine beauty; nor had ever considered the manners and customs
which prevailed in early times. '°° Warton was a true classicist in his
admiration for Homer and Aristotle, and in his recognition of them as
'the genuine and uncorrupted sources of ancient poetry and ancient
criticism ' ;*" but, as has been said, he did not make the mistake of sup-
posing them the sources of modern poetry and criticism as well.

"Warton shows in this essay an extraordinarily clear recognition of
the relation between classical, medieval and modern literatures, and a
corresponding adaptation of criticism to it. By a wide application of

"/6i(/. II, pp. 78-81. 'Spenser expressly denominates his most exquisite groupe
of allegorical figures, the Maske of Cupid. Thus, without recurring to conjec-
ture, his own words evidently demonstrate that he sometimes had representations
of this sort in his eye.'

''Ibid. II, pp. 93-103. Beginning with .Adam Davy and the author of Piers
Plowman. Like Spence, Warton recognized in Sackville's Induction the nearest
approach to Spenser, and a probable source of influence upon him.

»»/&i"(/. II, p. 92.

"•■•/fcirf. I, pp. 92-156.

"•Ibid. I, p. 147.

"Ibid. I, p. 133.

"Ibid. I, p. I.

53] CRITICISM 53

the historical method he saw that English poetry was the joint product
of two principal strains, the ancient or classical, and the mediaeval or
romantic; and that the poet or critic who neglected either disclaimed
half his birthright. The poetry of Spenser's age, Warton perceived,
drew from both sources. Although the study of the ancient models was
renewed, the 'romantic manner of poetical composition introduced and
established by the Provencial bards' was not suiierseded by a 'new and
more legitimate taste of writing.' And Warton as a critic accepted —
as Scaliger would not — the results of his historical study : he admired
and desired the characteristic merits of classical poetry, 'justness of
thought and design', 'decorum', 'uniformity',"' he 'so far conformed to
the reigning maxims of modern criticism, as ... to recommend clas-
sical propriety';'"* but he wished them completed and adorned with the
peculiar imaginative beauties of the 'dark ages', those fictions which
'rouse and in\'igorate aU the powers of imagination [and] store the fancy
with those sublime and charming images, which true poetry best delights
to display.''"

The inevitable result of recognizing the relation between the clas-
sical and romantic sources of literature was contempt for pseudo-clas-
sicism, for those poets and critics who rejected the beauties of romance
for the less natural perfections approved by tlie classical and French
theorists, who aped the ancients withouf knowing them and despised
their own romantic ancestry. The greatest English poets, Warton per-
ceived, were those who combined both elements in their poetry ; those
who rejected either fell short of the liighest rank. And therefore he
perceived the loss to English poetry when, after the decline of romance
and allegory, 'a poetry succeeded, in which imagination gave way to
correctness, sublimity of description to delicacy of sentiment, and majes-
tic imagery to conceit and epigram.' Warton 's brief summary of this
poetry points out its weakness. 'Poets began now to be more attentive
to words, than to things and objects. The nicer beauties of happy
expression were preferred to the daring strokes of great conception.
Satire, that bane of the sublime, was imported from France. The muses
were debauched at court ; and polite life, and familiar manners, became
their only themes. The simple dignity of Milton"' was either entirely
neglected, or mistaken for bombast and insipidity, by the refined readers
of a dissolute age, whose taste and morals were equally vitiated.'"

»8/6,rf. I, p. 2.

"^Ibid. 11, pp. 324-5.
''"Ibid. II, pp. 322-3.

"There is a digression on Milton in the Observations (I, pp. 335-350, the
prelude to his edition of Milton, 1785 and 1791.
~--Ibid. II, pp. 106-8.

THOMAS WARTON [54

The culmination— perliaps tlie crowning— glory of Warton's first
piece of critical writing is his keen delight in the task. Addison had
praised and popularized criticism," but with reservations; and most
people — even until recent times (if indeed the idea has now wholly
disappeared from the earth)— would agree with Warton that the 'busi-
ness of criticism is commonly laborious and dry.' Yet he affirms that
his work 'has proved a most agreeable task;' that it lias 'more frequently
amused than fatigued (his) attention,' and that 'much of the pleasure
that Spenser experienced in composing the Fairy Queen, must, in some
measure, be shared by his commentator ; and the critic, on this occasion,
may speak in the words, and with the rapture, of the poet, —

The wayes through which my weary steppes I guyde

In this dclightfull land of faerie.

Are so exceeding spacious and wyde,

And sprinkled with such sweet varietie

Of all that pleasant is to ear or eye,

That I nigh ravisht with rare thoughts delight,

My tedious travel do forgett thereby :

And when I gin to feele decay of might,

It strength to me supplies, and cheares my dulled spright.
"Warton's real classicism and his endeavours to carry his contempo-
raries with him by emphasizing wherever possible his accord with them
blinded them for a time to the strongly revolutionary import of the
Observations on the Fairy Queen, and the book was well received by
pseudo-classical readers. Its scholarly merits and the impulse it gave
to the study of literature were generously praised by Dr. Johnson,'*
who could partly appreciate the merits of the historical method, but
would not emulate them. This is however scarcely a fair test, for the
'watch-dog of classicism', although an indifferent scholar when com-
pared with Warton, had an almost omnivorous thirst for knowledge,
and althougli he despised research for its own sake, his nearest sympathy
with the romantic movement was when its researches tended to increase
the sum of human knowledge. "Warburton was delighted with the 06-

"In his critical essays in the Spectator.

"*July i6, 1754. 'I now pay you a very honest acknowledgement, for the ad-
vancement of the literature of our native country. You have shewn to all, who
shall hereafter attempt the study of our ancient authours, the way to success; by
directing them to the perusal of the books which those authours had read. Of
this method, Hughes and men much greater than Hughes, seem never to have
thought. The reason why the authours, which are yet read, of the sixteenth cen-
tury, are so little understood, is, that they are read alone; and no help is borrowed
from those who lived with them, or before them.' Boswell's Johnson, Hill ed. I,
p. 270.

55] CRITICISM 55

servations, and told "Warton so." Walpole complimented the author
upon it, though he had no fondness for Spenser."* The reviewer for the
Monthly Review''^ showed little critical perception. Although he dis-
cussed the book section by section, he discovered notliiug extraordinary
in it, nothing but the usual influence of Ariosto, defects of the language,
parallel passage and learned citation ; and he reached the height of
inadequacy when he thus commended Warton 's learning: 'Upon the
whole, Mr. Wartoti seems to have studied his author with much atten-
tion, and has obliged us with no bad prelude for the edition, of which
he advises us.'^ His acquaintance with our earliest writers must have
qualified him with such a relish of the Anglo-Saxon dialect, as few poets,
since Prior, seem to have imbibed.' A scurrilous anonjnnous pamphlet,
The Observer Observ'd, or Remarks on a certain curio^is Tract, intitl'd,
Oiscrvations on the Faiere Queen of Spencer, hij Thomas Warton, A. M.,
etc, which appeared two years after the Observations, deserved the
harsh treatment it received at the hands of the reviewers.'' The imme-
diate results on the side of Spenserian criticism were not striking. Two
editions of the Fairy Queen, bj' John Upton and Ralph Church, appeared
in 1758. Of these, the first was accused at once of borrowing without
acknowledgment from Warton 's Observations ;^° the second is described
as having notes little enlightening;'^ both editors were still measuring
Spenser by the ancients.'-

From this time the Spenserian movement was poetical. Warton 's
essay put a new seal of critical approval upon the Fairy Queen and

''Warburton's Letters, Xo. CLVII, Nov. 30, 1762. Works, London, 1809.
XIII, p. 338.

'"Walpole to Warton, October 30, 1767. Walpole's Letters, ed. cit. VII, p. 144.

''August, 1754, XI, pp. 112-124.

"Perhaps Upton's Edition of the Fairy Qtteen, which is frequently referred to
in the second edition of the Observations. There is ample evidence in Johnson's
letters and Warton's comments upon them, as well as in his own manuscript notes
in his copy of Spenser's JVorks that he intended a companion work of remarks
on the best of Spenser's works, but this made so little progress that it cannot have
been generally known. See Boswell's Johnson, I, p. 276, and Warton's copy of
Spenser's Works, ed. 1617. This quarto volume, which I have examined in the
British Museum, contains copious notes which subsequently formed the basis for
the Observations. The notes continue partly through the shorter poems as well
as the Fairy Queen. Some of them were evidently made for the second edition,
for they contain references to Upton's edition.

"A/OM. Rev. July, 1756, XV, p. 90. Crit. Rev. May, 1756, I, p. 374-

^°An impartial Estimate of the Rev. Mr. Upton's notes on the Fairy Queen,
reviewed in Crit. Rev. VIII, p. 82 flf.

"CriV. Rev. VII, p. 106.

*-H. E. Cory, : Op. cit., pp. 149-50.

56 THOMAS WARTON [56

Spenser's position as the poet's poet was established with the new school.
He was no longer regarded judicially as an admirable poet who imfor-
tiinatcly chose inferior models for verse and fable with whicli to present
his moral ; he was enthusiastically adopted as an inexhaustible source of
poetic inspiration, of imagination, of charming imagerj-, of rich colour,
of elusive mystery, of melodious verse.

Although Warton's pseudo-classical contemporaries did not perceive
the full significance of his study of Spenser, his general programme
began to be accepted and followed ; and his encouragement of the study
of media>val institutions and literature gave a great impetus to the
new romantic movement. Ilis followers were, however, often credited
with the originality of their master, and their work was apt to arouse
stronger protest from the pseudo-classicists." "When Kurd's very ro-
mantic Letters on Chivalry and Romance appeared, tliey were credited
with liaving influenced Warton to greater tolerance of romance and
chivalry.** This unjust conclusion was derived no doubt from the tone
of greater confidence that Hurd was able to assume. Following both
the Wartons, he sharpened the distinction between the prevailing pseudo-
classical school of poetry and what he called the Gothic ; insisted upon
the independence of its standards ; and even maintained the superiority

s'While even Dr. Johnson had only praise for the Observations, Joseph War-
ton's Essay on Pope, on the whole a less revolutionary piece of criticism, touched
a more sensitive point. He found the essay instructive, and recommended it as a
'just specimen of literary moderation.' Johnson's Works, ed. 1825, V, p. 670.
But as an attack on the reputation of the favourite Augustan poet, its drift was
evident, and pernicious. This heresy was for him an explanation of Warton's
delay in continuing it. 'I suppose he finds himself a little disappointed, in not
having been able to persuade the world to be of his opinion as to Pope.' Boswell's
Johnson, I, p. 448.

**Cn7. Rev. XVI, p. 220. It is perfectly evident however that the debt does
not lie on that side. Kurd's Letters and the second edition of the Observations
appeared in the same year, which would almost conclusively preclude any borrow-
ings from the first for the second. But Warton's first edition, eight years before,
had enough of chivalry and romance to kindle a mind in sympathy. Hurd was a less
thorough student of the old romances themselves than Warton was. He seems to
have known them through a French work, probably Sainte Palaye's Meiiioircs sur
I'Ancienne Chcvalerie (1750), for he said, 'Not that I shall make a merit with you in
having perused these barbarous volumes myself. . . . Thanks to the curiosity of
certain painful collectors, this knowledge may be obtained at a cheaper rate. And I
think it sufficient to refer you to a learned and very elaborate memoir of a French
writer.' Letters on Chivalry and Romance. Letter IV, Kurd's Works, ed. 181 1,
IV, p. 260. Warton also knew this French work (Ste. Palaye's at least) and
quoted from it, Observations, I, p. 76, and frequently in his History of English
Poetry.

57] CRITICISM 57

of its subjects.*' In all this however he made no real departure from
"Warton, the difference being one of emphasis ; Hurd gave an important
impetus to the movement his master liad begun. But with all his mo-
dernit}-, his admiration for the growing school of imaginative poets, he
lacked Warton 's faith in his school ; he had no forward view, but looked
back on the past with regret, and toward the future without hope.'"

On the side of pure literary criticism Warton 's first and most im-
portant follower was his elder brother, Joseph, whose Essay on Pope
was a further application of his critical theories to the reigning favour-
ite. This very remarkable book was the first extensive and serious attack
upon Pope's supremacy as a poet, and it is credited with two very
important contributions to the romantic movement: the overthrow of
Pope and his school ; and the substitution of new models, Spenser, Shake-
speare, Hilton, and the modern school;'^ it contained the first explicit
statement of the new poetic theories.'*

*5'May there not be something in the Gothic Romance peculiarly suited to the
views of a genius, and to the ends of poetry?' Hurd, IV, p. 239. 'Under this idea
then of a Gothic, not classical poem, the Fairy Queen is to be read and criticized.'
IV, p. 292. 'So far as the heroic and Gothic manners are the same, the pictures of
each, . . . must be equally entertaining. But I go further, and maintain that the
circumstances, in which they differ, are clearly to the advantage of the Gothic
designers . . .' could Homer 'have seen . . . the manners of the feudal ages, I
make no doubt but he would certainly have preferred the latter,' because of ' "the
improved gallantry of the Gothic Knights; and the superior solemnity of their
superstitions".' IV, p. 280.

*°Hurd's Letters, IV, p. 350.

^'Joseph Warton placed Spenser, Shakespeare, Milton, 'our only three sublime
and pathetic poets,' in the first class, at the head of English poets. The object of
the essay was to determine Pope's place in the list. 'I revere the memory of
Pope/ he said, 'I respect and honour his abilities ; but I do not think him at the
head of his profession. In other words, in that species of poetry wherein Pope
excelled, he is superior to all mankind ; and I only say, that this species of poetry
is not the most excellent one of the art.' Dedication, pp. i-ii. 'The sublime and
pathetic are the two chief nerves of all genuine poetry. What is there transcend-
ently sublime or pathetic in Pope.?' Ded., p. vi. After a careful examination
of all Pope's works Joseph Warton assigned him the highest place in the second
class, below Milton and above Dryden. He was given a place above other modern
English poets because of the 'excellencies of his works in general, and taken all
together; for there are parts and passages in other modern authors, in Young and
in Thomson, for instance, equal to any of Pope, and he has written nothing in a
strain so truly sublime, as the Bard of Gray.' II, p. 405. References are to the
fifth edition, 2 vols. 1806.

**The first volume of Joseph VVarton's Essay on Pope appeared in 1756, two
years after the Observations. Though its iconoclasm was more apparent, the
later essay made little advance in the way of new theory upon the earlier one, and
there is rather more of hedging in the discussion of Pope than in that of Spenser.

58 THOMAS WARTON [58

Warton's Observations on the Faerie Queene thus wrought so great
aud so salutary a change in literary criticism that it is hardly possible
to exaggerate its importance. Here first the historical method was
appreciated and extensively employed. Here first the pseudo-classicism
of till' age of Pope was exposed. Here first is maintained a nice and
difficult balance between classical and romantic criticism: without under-
estimating the influence of classical literature upon the development of
Englisii poetry, Warton first insisted that due attention be paid the
neglected literature of the Middle Ages, which with quite independent
but equally legitimate traditions contributed richly not only to the poetry
of Spenser but to all great poetry since. His strength lies in the solidity
and the inclusiveness of his critical principles. "Without being carried
away by romantic enthusiasm to disregard the classics, he saw and ac-
counted for a difference between modern and ancient poetry aud adapted
his criticism to poetry as he found it instead of trying to conform poetry
to rules which were foreign to it. This new criticism exposed the fatal
weakness in the prevailing pseudo-classical poetry and criticism; it
showed the folly of judging either single poems or national literatures
as independent and detached, and the necessity of considering them in
relation to the national life and literature to which they belong. Thus
Warton's freedom from prejudice and preconceived standards, his inter-
est in the human being who %vrites poetry, and the influences both social
and literary which surround him, his — for that day — extraordinary
knowledge of aU those conditions, enabled him to become the founder
of a new school of criticism.

CHAPTER IV
Academic Life. 1747-1772

"Warton had not intended to have done wdth Spenser when he pub-
lished his criticism of the Faerie Queene, but purposed to follow it with
a similar treatment of the shorter poems. His own copy of Spenser's
works, the wide margins of which he covered with notes of all sorts, —
glosses, comparisons with other poems, references to romances, illus-
trative and interpretive comments, — show that he carried out this plan
for many of the poems. But tutorial duties hindered ; he permitted his
interest to be diverted to other matters, and the work went no further.
Dr. Johnson 's letters to him during the winter following the publication
of the Oiservations show that he was urgiug him to the completion of
work which he perceived was languishing. In November he wrote, 'I
am glad of your hindrance in your Spenserian design,^ yet I would not
have it delayed. Three hours a day stolen from sleep and amusement
will produce it.'- No one knew better than Dr. Johnson the temptations
to procrastinate ; therefore he wrote again with anxiety on the same
subject: — 'Where hangs the new volume? Can I help? Let not the
past labour be lost, for want of a little more : but snatch what time you
can from the Hall, and the pupils, and the coffee-house, and the parks,
and complete j'our design.''

Although Warton abandoned this project of making a complete
commentary on Spenser's works, he undertook to prepare a second
edition of the Observations, in which he made some additions and correc-
tions, but no material changes. When Percy undertook seriously to
publish a collection of old ballads, he promptly engaged Warton 's inter-
est and assistance by sending him a few ballads, including the Boy and
the Mantle, the source of Spenser's conceit of Florimel's girdle. Warton
was delighted with Percy 's plan and with the suggestion for the improve-
ment of his own work, and wrote to Percy, ' The old Ballads are extremely
curious, & I heartily wish you success in your intended publication.

^" 'Of publishing a volume of observations on the best of Spenser's works. It
was hindered by my taking pupils in this College.' Warton." Boswell's Johnson,
ed. cit., I, p. 276, note.

2N0V. 28, 1754. Ibid.

'Feb. 4, 1754, Ibid., p. 279.

60 THOMAS WARTON [60

Spenser certaiuly had the Boy & the Mantle in view. I must beg leave
to keep them all a little time longer as they will much enrich & illustrate
a new edition of that work whieli you are pleased to place in so favour-
able a Light. It is already in the Press. '^ He was careful, however,
not to anticipate Percy's scheme by publishing extracts from the ballads
and romances, and explained in his next letter: 'My Design is to give
abstract.s only of what you have sent me." At the same time he ex-
pressed his appreciation of the 'ingenious Remarks on my book, which
I receive as useful hints for the improvement of my new Edition."

Warton immediately busied himself helping Percy with his new
plan. But at the same time he asked that Percy's and Lye's further
retnarks on his own work be sent 'in a Post or two, as we go on very
quickly at Press, & I can insert them in the last Section,' adding, 'In-
deed I am much obliged to you for what you have already communicated,
& the kind offer you make, in your last, of searching the libraries of your
neighbourliood, to assist me in any future pursuit'." His next letter,
written during the following summer, announced 'Spenser' as 'just
ready for publication," and it immediately appeared.

Somewhat earlier, perhaps even before the publication of the Obser-
vations on the Faerie Qneene, "Warton was at work on a translation of
Apollonius Rhodius,* but, although Johnson urged him to continue it*
as he had urged him to complete the observations on Spenser, — he seems
to have had both of them under way at the same time," — it met the
same fate. It seems to have been regarded for some time rather as a
work deferred than abandoned, for in 1770 Dr. Barnard wrote him in

*Trin. Coll. Oxon. Jun. 19, 1761, Warton MSS. in Harvard College Library,
fol. 2.

°Jul. II, 1761, same MSS. fol. 4.

^Ibid.

'Nov. 23, 1761, same MSS. fol. 6.

'Jul. 17, 1762, same MSS. fol. 9.

'Among the Warton papers in Trinity College Library, Oxford, is a small
notebook of notes upon Apollonius and a synopsis of the Argonautica. See also
Mant, Op. cit., p. xxxiv. Mant's informant thought a translation of Homer was also
intended. 'Thomas Warton, January 21, 1752, agreed to translate the Argonautics
of Apollonius Rhodius for 80 pounds.' Willis's Current Notes, Nov. 1854, p. 90.
See also Boswell's Johnson, I, p. 289, note.

*May 13, 1755. 'How goes Apollonius? Don't let him be forgotten. Some
things of this kind must be done, to keep us up.' Ibid.

'"See Wooll, Op. cit., p. 225.

''Dr. Jeffrey Ekins. Evidently the reply was satisfactory, for the next year,
1771, his Loves of Medea and Jason; . . . translated from the Greek of Apollo-
nius Rhodius's Argonautics was published.

61] AC.U>EMIC LIFE 61

behalf of a friend of his" to know whether or not he had definitely given
up the project.

After the completion of the second edition of Spenser, Warton's
researches in Euglisli literature were somewhat vicarious, although no
doubt his efforts in Percy's behalf were of some value to his collections
for the history of poetry. His previous studies in early English poetry
for the Observations made him invaluable to Percy iu tlie extensive
projects which he undertook with remarkable susceptibility to the grow-
ing interest of his age in the older poetry. Percy's first undertakings
of this sort, the editions of Buckingham^- and of Surrey,^' — which how-

^-An edition of the Works of George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham, with an
account of his Life . . . and a new key to the Rehearsal, was agreed upon between
Percy and Tonson, June 12, 1761 and most of it then printed ; it was resumed
in 179s, but never completed. (See Nichols: Lit. llliis. VI, p. 556, Lit. A)iec. Ill,
p. 161, note, and Arbcr Reprints, XIII, introd.) I print all the extracts from
Warton's letters to Percy relative to this undertaking as they partly show the
nature and extent of Warton's help.

'The Pieces of Buckingham &c, which you mention, are not in the Bodleian ;
nor is there any circumstance relating to the Duke in Aubrey's Papers.' Jun. 19,

1761 (Harv. MSS. fol. 2). 'I have looked over the Letter to Osborne [?] in the
Bodleian, & find no striking marks of Buckingham ; nor, upon the whole, do I
think it written by him. If I hear of those Editions of the Rehearsal you men-
tion, I will let you know.' Oxon. Nov. 23, 1761 (same MSS. fol. 6). 'At my
Return to 0.xford, which will be about the tenth of next October, I will carefully
transcribe the MSS. you mention relating to Buckingham.' Winchester, Sept. 4,

1762 (same MSS. fol. 11). 'You shall receive a copy of the D. of Buckingham's
MSS. with the rest. ... I imagine you must know, that B. . . . [?] in the Strand,
lately published a Catalogue of the D. of Buckingham's Pictures; with his Life
by Brian Fairfax never before printed.' What sort of a thing it is I know not'
Oxon. Nov. 5, 1762, (same MSS. fol. 14). 'Next week you will receive MSS.
D. Buckingham.' Oxon. Nov. 12, 1762 (same MSS. fol. 15). 'I presume you know
there is a Life of Buckingham in the last new volume of the Biographia.' Oxon.
Mar. 14, 1763 (same MSS. fol. 22).

"The edition of Surrey was agreed upon with Tonson Mar. 24, 1763, and was
printed in one volume, but was similarly delayed, and nearly the whole impression
was destroyed by fire in 1808. (Lit. Iltus. VI, p. 560). Only four copies are
known to have survived, but these probably do not include the copy mentioned in
Warton's letter of Feb. 26, 1767, below, which Percy had sent to him, and which
was sold with the rest of Warton's library. See A Catalogue of books, [being
the libraries of Dr. Joseph Warton, Thomas Warton . . . and others] to be sold
by Thomas Payne, London, 1801.

As before I print extracts from Warton's letters to Percy referring to this
work.

'I have found out . . Ld. Surrey's blank verse Translation, but fear I shall

a. 17S8, with advertisement, by Horace Walpole. See ed. of The Reliearsal in the Arber
Reprints, vol. XIII, and Diet. Nat. Biog. art. Villiers.

G2 THOMAS WARTON [62

ever were never publislied — Wartoii encouraged and assisted as much as
possible by si-nrchiiig for editions, and securing transcripts, and urging J

the continuation of the work when he perceived it to be languishing. 1

He probably helped little with the proposed edition of the Spectator,^*' J

although he was interested in it." His help was, of course, most val-
uable in the preparation of Percy's folio manuscript of old poems for

not be able to transmitt them to you while I stay in town. I will however leave •

directions about it.' London, Jan. i, 1763 (Harv. MSS. as above, fol. 20). ^

'I must beg your Patience for . . . Surrey a little longer.' London, Jan. 9, 1763
(same MSS. fol. 21). 'By Mr. Garrick's and Dr. Hoadly's Interest, I have pro-
cured, and have now in my hands, Surrey's Translation into blank verse of the
second & fourth books of the ^neid, for Tottel, ISS7- It is a most curious
specimen of early blank verse, & will prove a valuable Restoration to Lord Surrey's
Works. It belongs to a Mr. Warner of London, who is a great black-letter Critic.
How shall I send it to you?' O.xon. Mar. 14, 1763 (Same MSS. fol. 22). 'If you
prosecute the Edition of Surrey's Poems, I shall be happy to be employed in
sending you all the assistance which our O-xford Repositories afford.' Trin. Coll.
Dec. S, 1764 (Same MSS. fol. 29). 'The Edition of Surrey, 1557, I know not
where to borrow.' Oxon. Jun. 15, 1765 (Same MSS. fol. 30).

'Can I be of any further assistance in the new edition of antient Songs, or of
Lord Surrey? ... I beg a sight of what is printed of Surrey as soon as you
conveniently can send it.' Oxon. Nov. 29, 1766 (Same MSS. fol. 28).

'I like your Text of Surrey very much : and shall be extremely glad to see your
Notes and Life. I hope, they are in Forwardness. If you intend a Table of
various Readings, I could gett Collections of the Bodleian Copies.' Trin. Coll.
Oxon. Feb. 26, 1767 (Same MSS. fol. 31).

'I despair of finding any Editions of Surrey in the private Libraries ; but will
however examine the Catalogues.' Trin. Coll. Oxon. Apr. 21, 1767 (Same MSS.
fol. 32).

'I have lately had a Letter from Dr. Hoadly, by whose means I lent you an
Edition of Surrey belonging to Mr. Warner. It seems Mr. Warner wants the
Book, for a work he has now in hand; and would be extremely glad if you would
return it to him at Woodford Row, Essex, or Will's Coffee house Lincolns inn
fields. When he has done with it, he will return it to you again. He does not
mean to keep it long. I think I likewise lent you a book of Dr. Hoadly's, Surry's
Translation of fart of Virgil. At your Leisure you may return that to me next
October at Oxford. You will excuse me for mentioning these Particulars. But
Dr. Hoadly desired me to write to you on the Subject' Winton. Sept. 13, 1770
(Same MSS. fol. 38).

"See letters to Tonson and agreement with him, 1764, Lit. IIlus. VI, pp. 557 ff.
'"The following communication to Percy was obviously not his first upon the
subject. 'I have mentioned your Scheme of the Spectators, &c. to my brother and
Dr. Hoadly long since; but will remember to renew my applications, in the most
effectual way, when I see them next long vacation.' Oxon. Jun. 15, 1765 (Same
MSS. fol. 30).

63] ACADEMIC LIFE 63

publication. One of the first scholars to whom Percy appealed for
approval and help with this project, Warton was indefatigable in his
efforts to assist, ransacking the Oxford libraries,'" his own collections
and those of his friends, comparing manuscript and other versions of
the poems," looking up additions to the collection and to the notes," and

"They however yielded little at first : 'We have nothing, as I recollect, in
our Libraries which will contribute to your Scheme.' Trin. Coll. Oxon. Jun. ig,
1761 (Same MSS. fol. 2). 'Was there any thing in our public or private Libraries
which would contribute to your scheme, I would transcribe & transmitt them
with pleasure. But I am sorry to say that we are totally destitute of Treasures
of this sort.' Jul. 11, 1761 (Same, fol. 4).

"For example, for the three ballads relating to Guy of Warwick, of which
Percy published only Guy & Amarant and The Legend of Sir Guy, based upon
Guy & Phillis in the original, Warton furnished the following pretty correct data:
'I know of no MSS. poem of Guy. I am however of opinion, that the Piece, of
which you sent me a specimen, is probably Philips's ; as the style is agreeable to his
age, & the composition not bad. I have some notion that I once saw a Poem
called Guy Earl of li'anvick in the Harleian Miscellany; but I can't be positive.
Among Wood's Codd. impress, in Mus. Ashmol. is a Poem called "The Famoui
History of Guy Earl of Warwick," by Sam : Rowlands, 1649. It is a Mighty poor
thing, & certainly different from your Specimen, I know of no copy of the Harl.
Miscell. here; otherwise I would consult it for you.' Oxon Jul. 17, 1762 (same,
fol. 9). Warton's memory, to which he trusted for much of the next communi-
cation, was somewhat at fault, for he confuses Rowland's modern version with
some fragments found in the cover of an old book by Sir Thomas Phillips (See
Hale's and Furnivall's ed. of the Percy Folio MSS. II, p. 510). 'When I told'
you, in my Last, that the Poem on Guy is probably Phillips's, I fancy I meant a
Phillips, who, as I think I told you in the same Letter, wrote a Poem in the year
1649, or thereabouts, on Guy. I think now this was my meaning; for when I
wrote to you that account of Guy, I copied it from a memorandum in one of my
Pocket-books. When I am at Oxford I can settle this matter. In the same
Pocket book, I recollect I had likewise entered. See the Harl. Miscell. for Guy.
The Pocket-book is at Oxford.' Winchester, Sept. 4, 1762 (same, fol. 11). Later
he added, 'I don't think Guy & Amarant any Part of Rowland's Poem,' but exami-
nation showed that Percy's 'stanzas of Guy and Amarant [were] literally taken
from Rowlands's said poem.' Trin. Coll. Oxon. Nov. 5 and 12, 1762 (same, fols.
14, and is).

''For example. King Ryence's Challenge, which was not in the folio, having
been referred to in the Observations on the Faerie Queene as a ballad found in
Morte Arthur (ed. cit. I, p. 36), Warton was called upon to supply a copy of it,
and sent the following information, most of which appears in Percy's notes
(Reliques, ed. Wheatley, London, 1891, III, p. 24 ff.). 'You will find the ballad,
of which I quote a Piece, in P. Enderbury's [Enderbie] Cambria Triumphans. pag.
197. It is not in my edition of Morte Arthur, which evidently is the same as
your's. I presume it is in the older Editions, from whence the author quoted by

64 THOMAS WARTON [64

trying by every means to encourage the completion of an undertaking"
80 important for tlie 'revival of the study of antient English Literature.'
Warton, who probably was ignorant of the liberties Percy was tak-
ing with tile manuscript in his possession, made no objection to the
introduction of modern imitations of old poems based upon old stories.

mc, pag. 24, probably took it. . . . Enderbury [ut supra] was lent me by a clergj-
nian in Hants; whither I am going in a few Days for the long vacation; & will
from thence send you the Song.' Trin. Coll. Oxon. Jul. il, 1761 (^same, fol. 4).
'I have collated the Ballad in Enderbie with the MSS. inserted in the Bodleian
Morte Arthur, & with the printed copy of it in the Letter describing Q. Elizabeth's
Entertainment a Kenihvorth; & here send you the various Readings in Both.
From the Title to the MSS Copy, it is plain that this Ballad is not very old. I
should judge, with you, that the story only was taken from M. Arthur, was it
not for the passage, immediately following, in the Letter. By which one would
suspect, that it was printed in some editions of M. Arthur. At least we may
conclude from thence, that it was not occasionally composed for the Kenihvorth
festivities. My mistake in quoting it as a ballad in M. Arthur, arose from my
finding it written into the Bodleian copy, in the place, as I imagined, of a Leaf
torn out : for there are no pages in that Edition. This supposition was strength-
ened by the mention of this ballad in the Letter.' Trin. Coll. Oxon. Nov. 23, 1761
(same, fol. 6). 'I find a copy of K. Ryence's Challenge in an old Miscellany of
time of Charles I. But as you have given so correct a copy of this piece, it will
be of no service, unless you chuse to mention it in your Preface.' London, Jan.
li '"63 (same, fol. 20). Percy, however, paid no heed to Warton's last suggestion
and says that the ballad was composed for the festivities at Kenihvorth ( Rcliqucs,
ed. cit. Ill, p. 24).

Two other additional poems, not found in the folio, in the preparation of
which Warton had a share are King Cophetua & the Beggar Maid and King"
Edward & the Tanner of Tannvorth. With reference to a copy of the first. War-
ton wrote : 'The King & the Beggar which you send me (which I see is from the
little l2mo Collection of Songs in 3 vols) is quite different from Johnson's in the
Crovnie Garland. The Bodleyan is shut up on account of its annual visitation. It
will be open on Tuesday, when I will begin the transcript.' And then he corrected
himself in the same letter, T think, & am pretty sure, that your initial Stanca of
the King &• Beggar in your letter, is the same as Johnson's in the Crowne-Garland.
But this I shall ascertain when the Library is opened,' and later he sent the tran-
script of it from that collection. Nov. 5 and 12, 1762 (fols. 14 and 15). See also
Reliqucs.

After promising a transcript of the ballad, Warton wrote, 'On Examination,
the King & the Tanner appears to be imperfect by the last Line only, which was
carelessly pared off in the Bind [ery. It (MS. torn)] is mentioned somewhere, I
cannot recollect exactly where, by Hea[rn]'. Nov. 12, 1762. An extract from
Hearn's Account of Some Antiquities in & about Oxford was sent in a letter of
Jan. 9, 1763, but it pertained to Heywood's play. The first & second parts of King
Edward the Fourth, conteining the Tanner of Tamworth, etc, 1613 and not The

65] ACADEMIC LIFE 65

He said of Percy's Valentine and Ursine, a poem suggested by The
Emperour & the Childe in the original manuscript, which Percy rejected
on the pretense that it was 'in a wretched corrupt state, unworthy the
press':-" The 'Story is fiiie & to me perfectly new, as it is many years
since I read the old History of Valentine and Orson, on which I presume
it is partly founded.'-' The Birth of St. George, admittedly taken from
the Seven Champions of Christendom and 'for the most part modern',
won from him the praise of being 'most poetically liaudled.'-- And
before the completion of the worli he explicitly approved the inclusion
of specimens of rare poems of later date than the ballads: 'I perceive,
by the proofs, that you give specimens of our elder Poets. This is a
good Improvement of the Scheme. '^^ For this purpose he sent Gas-
coigue's Ode on Ladie Bridges,-* offered a transcript of The King's
Quair,-'^ and traced 'the pretty pastoral song of Fhillida & Cory don' to

Merrie, pleasant, & delectable historic betweene K. Edward IV & a Tanner of
Taitnvorth, etc. 1596 (also in the Bodleian), from which Warton's transcript was
no doubt taken, (fol. 20).

Warton's familiarity with the early poetry enabled him to send a note on the
reference to Robin Hood in Piers Plowman, ' "But I can rimes of Robin Hod,
and Randall of Chester", Fol xxvi b. Crowley's edit. 1550', Mar. 31, 1764 (fol. 26).

'"Upon receipt of at least a partial copy of the ballads Warton wrote to
Percy, 'The old Ballads are extremely curious, & I heartily wish you success in
your intended publication,' (Jun. 19, 1761, fol. 2), and the following year to some
notes on various poems he added, 'How goes on the Collection of ancient Ballads?
I hope we shall have it in the winter.' Winchester, Sept. 4, 1762 (fol. 11).

When the timid Percy sought the approval of 'men of learning and character'
to 'serve as an amulet to guard him from every unfavourable censure, for having
bestowed any attention on a parcel of old ballads', Warton was glad to lend his
name. 'My name will receive houour in being mentioned before your elegant
Work.' Winchester, Jul. 30, 1764 (fol. 27). Six months later he inquired about
its progress: 'I hope your Ballads are near Publication.' Dec. 5, 1764 (fol. 29).

-"Reliques, ed. cit. HI, p. 265.

-'Oxon. Nov. 21, 1762, Harvard MSS., fol. 16.

^-Oxford, Trin. Coll. Octob. 20, 1762, same MSS., fol. 12.

23 Winchester, Jul. 30, 1764, fol. 27.

-*It was promised in the letter of Sept. 4, 1762 (fol. 11), and in that of Nov.
21, he added the comment, 'I think you will like the little ode of Gascoigne.'

2^After a vain search for the 'Ballad of James I of Scotland' (fol. 15) for
which Percy had given inaccurate references, Warton 'discovered the Poem of
James I of Scotland, where you direct me in your last. It consists of near 100
pages in folio, closely written. It is a vision in long verse, in stanzas of seven
Lines. Shall you want a Transcript?' (Nov. 21, 1762, fol. 16). Percy rejected
this poem, however, and printed instead some shorter verses of questionable
authenticity. Reliques, ed. cit. II, p. 300.

66 THOMAS WARTON [66

England's Helicon' and 'the Muses Library, 1738'.='

Percy was unsuccessful, however, in an effort to tempt "Warton to
contribute to the collection a poem of his own in the old style, although
he entreated for a continuation of the Squire's Tale, in the conclusion
of which he knew Warton was interested," and he appealed to Warton 's
often expressed desire to improve English poetry by a revival of its
former imaginative power.=» In reply to Percy's flattering request,
Warton admitted the attractiveness of the subject, but made no promise.
'I thank you for thinking me qualified to complete Chaucer's Squire's
Tale,' he wTote. 'The Subject is so much in my own way, that I do
assure you I should like to try my hand at it. You are certainly right
in thinking that the Public ought to have their attention called to Poetry
in new forms ; to Poetrj' endued with new manners & new Images. '"^

On receipt of a presentation copy'" of the finished work, Warton
wrote enthusiastically to the editor:

.\fter an excursion longer than usual, I returned to Oxford only last Night;
otherwise I should have long since acknowledged the favour of your very valuable
and agreeable Present. I think you have opened a new field of Poetry, and sup-
plied many new and curious Materials for the history and Illustration of ancient
English Literature. I have lately had a Letter from Mr. Walpole, who speaks
in very high terms of your Publication. At Oxford it is a favourite Work; and,
I doubt not, but it is equally popular in Town. I hope you are going on in the
same Walk. I shall be happy to receive your future Commands.'^
Two months later he was urging a second edition : ' I trust, the Taste

^•Nov. 12, 1762, fol. 15.

^'See Observations on the Faerie Queene, ed. cit. L p. 211.

-'In a postscript to a letter of August 26, 1762, requesting various transcripts
for 'our Ancient Songs & Ballads' Percy wrote, 'Tho' I have trespassed on your
patience so monstrously already, I cannot prevail on myself to close up the packet
without mentioning a wish, which had long been uppermost in my heart: it is —
that you would undertake to complete Chaucer's Squire's Tale. It would be a
taske worthy of your genius, and such as it is every way (I am persuaded) equal
to. From some hints in your book, vol. I, p. 153, I conclude that your Imagina-
tion has before now amused itself in inventing expedients to bring those promised
adi'entures to an issue. That pleasing cast of antiquity, which distinguished those
beautiful poems of yours, in ye late Collections of Oxford Verses, & which gave
them so great an advantage over all others, would be finely adapted to such an
undertaking. And let me add, nothing would fix your fame upon a more solid
basis, or be more likely to captivate the attention of the public, which seems to
loath all the common forms of Poetry; & requires some new species to quicken
its pall'd appetite.' Harv. MSS. fols. 10 and io«.

^•Winchester, Sept. 4, 1762, fol. 11.

="Which was among the books catalogued for sale by Payne in 1801.

"'Trin. Coll. Oxon., Apr. 29, 1765, Brit. Mus. Addit. MSS. no. 32329, fol. 28.

67] ACADEMIC LIFE 67

of the Public will call for a second Edition of yonr Ballads. Any
Improvement that shall occur to me, I will gladly communicate. '^-

At the same time that Percy was preparing his edition of the bal-
lads, he evidently contemplated an edition of Spanish romances as an
illustration to Don Quixote, but whether in conjunction with the Reliques
or as a separate work, I cannot determine. At any rate "Warton was
informed of the project and wrote appro\'ingly : 'I rejoyce at your col-
lection of the Romances referred to in Don Quixote. It will be a most
valuable & a most proper Illustration. Your Translation of the Metrical
Pieces of Romances I hope you will likewise continue ; and I thank you
for your admirable specimen. '^^ As soon as he learned of this project he
sent Percy a rare and valuable edition of Septilveda's Cancionero de
Romances^* and lamented that in the dispersal of Collins' librarj' an-
other valuable book, El Vendarero Lucgo [?],'° had been lost. The
most interesting point about "Warton 's connection with this project la
the evidence it gives of his first-hand acquaintance with the Spanish
language and with at least a small portion of its literature.

"Warton was imraediateh' informed of Percj^'s next project, of pub-
lishing The Household Book of the Earl of Northumberland in 1512 at
his Castles of Wressle and Leconfield in Yorkshire,^^ which was under-
taken at the request of his patron, the Duke of Northumberland; and
he at once appreciated its value and encouraged the plan. 'Your

320xon. Jun. IS, 1765, Harv. MSS. fol. 30. Two other letters contain similar
solicitations about the second edition, that of Nov. 29, 1766 (fol. 28), quoted
above, and Apr. 21, 1767, 'When does the new Edition of the Ballads appear?'
(fol. 32).

ssSept. 4, 1762, fol. II.

^*' "Cancionero de Romances sacados de las coronicas de Espana con otros.
compuestos por Lorenzo de Sepulveda. En Sevilla, 1584, l2nio." It is in the short
Romance metre. It contains detached stories of the Feats of several Spanish
Leaders &c. Among the rest, of the Cid, on whom Corneille formed his famous
tragedy. If you have it not. I will find some method of conveying it to you after
my Return to Oxford.' (Ibid.) Four years later he presented the Cancionero to
Percy. (Fol. 28).

The rarity of this edition is attested by the fact that a recent bibliographer
doubts its existence, but without sufficient cause. He says of it, 'Encuentro citada
esta edicion en la Historia de la Literatura espaiiola de Ticknor (I, 39, 4) No
he logrado confirmar esta cita, que no se encuentra en ningun bibliografo . . que
tengo al menos por dudosa.' See Escudero y Perosso: Tipografia HispalenS€,
Madrid. 1894, art. 739.

5=Warton says of this, 'I remember my friend Collins used to look upon "El
Vendarero &c" as the most curious & valuable book in his Collection. I think it
was a thick quarto, in the short measure' (fol. iia). I am unable to find any
work of similar title in any Spanish bibliography.

''Published in 1768.

68 THOJfAS WAKTON [68

Pacqiictt lias given me liigli Entertainment', he wrote. 'It will be a
most eurious and valuable Publication. If you prefix a Preface, it wiU
b«» worth while to introduce Leland's Description of the Castle of Wress-
hill, which seems to have struck him in a particular manner; aud which
he describes more minutely and at length, than almost any thing else
in bis whole Itinerary. See Itin. Vol. 1. fol. 59, 60. I think I saw in
Pend)r()ke-llall Library, at Cambridge, a copy of your manuscript. At
least it was a Book of the same Kind. It was last summer; and Mr.
Gray was consulting it, I suppose, for anecdotes of ancient Manners,
so amusing to the Imagination. . . You may depend on the utmost se-
crecy."" Warton probably made no real contributions to it, for he wrote
the next year on receipt of the proof of the volume, "Your Book never
reached me in the Country (by means of the Carelessness of Bedmakers)
till I had been a long while from Oxford, & at a time when 1 was full
of Engagements, so as not to be able to sit down with a Pen in my Hand.
I am now returned to Oxford, & fear it will be now too late for any
Notes that nuiy occur. Give me a Line on tliis Head.'^'

It was during this period that Warton 's friendship with Dr. John-
son was at its height. Their friendship seems to have begun when the
Observations on the Faerie Queene commanded the admiration of the
great classical critic in spite of the reactionary character of its critical
tenets. During the summer following their appearance, Johnson paid
his first visit to Oxford since he had left the university more than
twenty years before. He lodged on this visit at Kettel-Hall adjoining
Trinity College, and Warton acted as his cicerone. He showed him the
libraries — which Johnson had ostensibly come to Oxford to consult'* —
and the doctor preferred the old Gothic hall at Trinity to the more
commodious modern libraries, saying, 'Sir, if a man has a mind to
prance, he iiuist study at Christ-Church and All-Souls.'*" Together they
took long walks into the country about Oxford, viewed some of the ruins
in the vicinity — the abbies of Oseney and Rewley — discussed Warton 's
favourite hobby, Gothic architecture, and agreed in their indignation at
the havoc wrought by the reformation. They frequently visited Francis
Wise, the Radclivian librarian, at Ellsfield, where Johnson busied him-
self with their host's library of 'books in Northern Literature,' and
Wise read them his History and Chronolotjy of the fabulous Ages which
he was preparing to print.*' Both Warton and Wise were interested

"Trin. Coll. O.xon. Jul. 25, 1767, Harv. :MSS, fol. 33.
''Oxon. Oct. 24, 1768, same, fol. 34.

'"Warton .says that he collected nothing in the libraries for his dictionary
although he stayed at 0.\ford five weeks. Boswell's Johnson, I, p. 270 and note.
^''Ibid. II, pp. 67-8, note.
*'See Warton's account of this visit, ibid. I, p. 271, ff.

69] ACADEMIC LIFE 69

in getting the degree of Master of Arts bestowed upon Johnson that it
might appear on the title page of the dictionary and be as great an
hononr to Oxford as to Jolmson.''- Althongli the lexicographer came to
Oxford at the beginning of the long vacation, he was so charmed with
his visit and his host that he vowed if he came to live at Oxford, he
would take up his abode at Trinity." Besides mutual interest there was
also a warm personal feeling between the two men ; Jolmson valued
highly and eagerly sought the friendship of tlie younger man. Toward
the close of the year, in one of his occasional tits of melancholy, intensi-
fied by a reminder of the loss of his wife, he wrote to Warton, ' I would
endeavour, by the help of you and your brotlier, to supply the want of
closer union, by friendsliip. ''*

Warton, however, although ready enough to serve Johnson in his
work, was a negligent correspondent, and a bus.y, if not a somewhat
offish, friend, and Johnson's letters are full of reproaches and complaints
of his neglect: 'But wliy does my dear Mr. Warton tell me nothing of
himself?'*^ 'Dear Blr. Warton, let me hear from you, and tell me some-
thing, I care not what, so I hear it but from you. . . I have a great mind
to come to Oxford at Easter; but you will not invite me.'" 'You might
write to me now and then, if you were good for any tiling. But honores
mutant mores. Professors forget tlieir fi-iends. '^" Notwithstanding the
less frequent correspondence, their literary friendship eontinueil ; War-
ton contributed three numbers to Johnson's Idler in 1758** and then and
later collected notes for liis edition of Shakespeare,'''* while Johnson
planned to interest Warton in extensive schemes for antiquarian work
which was beyond his own power to execute.''" Their relations were
very cordial in 1764 when Johnson again visited Oxford, and promised
a longer visit 'after Xmas, when Shakespeare is comjjleted,'^' — a visit

«Wooll, Op. cit. p. 228.

^^Boswell's Johnson, I, p. 272.

*'>Ihid. I, p. 277.

<^Feb. 4, I7S5, Boswell's Johnson, I, p. 279.

^''Mar. 20, 1755. Ibid. 1, p. 283.

*'June 21, 1757. Ibid. I, p. 322.

^^Numbers 33, 93, and 96.

^^April 14, 1758, June i, 1758, and June 23, 1770, Boswell's Johnson, I, pp.
335-6, 337, and 11, pp. 114-3.

^"Oct. 27, 1757. This letter was probably never sent to Warton, Johnson's
Letters, ed. Hill, I, pp. 73-4 and note.

^^Warton to Percy, Dec. 5, 1764. 'We have had the Pleasure of Sam John-
son's company at Oxford, and I find he intends spending a long time with us after
Xmas, when Shakespeare is completed.' (Harv. MSS. fol. 29.) Boswell has no
mention of this visit to Oxford, nor have his editors noticed this letter.

70 THOMAS WARTON [70

which was no doubt deferred when the expected work was not ready till
October. The friends probably met, however, at Winchester, for Dr.
Johnson visited Dr. Warton there during the summer of 1765." Wlien
Johnson visited O.xford in 17G9, he was exceedingly busy and far from
well but eager to visit witli Warton," and in 1776 wlien he and Boswell
together returned to Oxford, they spent an evening with Warton at
Trinity.'*

At this time, however, and always, Wartou's principal devotion
was given to his university, and he refused none of her demands. On
the occasions of public celebrations Warton seems to have been called
upon frcfiuently to play a worthy part. For the EnciKnia of 1751 he
contributed an Ode for Music, whieii was performed at the Sheldonian
Tlieatre. He was very bu.sy with tlie Oxford Collection on the Royal
Nuptials in 1761," to which he contributed some verses To her
Majesty,'''' and he superintended the collection on the birth of the Prince
of Wales'' the next year, to which he likewise contributed a poem."'
At the time of the great Encaenia in honour of peace in 1763, he was
extremely busy.'" Tlie celebration lasted several days with eight speak-
ers a day and formal dinners in honour of the distinguished guests at
the various haUs. In addition to preparing his own speech for the
occasion, Warton, as major domo, had charge of the details, — 'the trou-
ble I have had in preparation is infinite,' he wrote his brother, 'but hope
all will be repaid if it goes off well, as I doubt not.'""

Shortly after the Observations appeared, Warton entered with char-
acteristic loyalty to his college into the preparation of a life of its

"'Wooll, Op. cit. p. 309.

''May 31. 1769, Boswell's Johnson, 11, p. 68 and note.

'■*Ibid. II, p. 446.

"^^Letter to Percy, Nov. 23, 1761, Harv. MSS. fol. 6a.

=*Ofi llie Marriage of the King. To her Majesty. See Works, ed. cit. I, p. 38.

"'I am much obliged to you for your good opinion of my poetical talents.
Such as they are, they are at present employed on the Birth of the Prince; but
this is nothing to the trouble and labour I have in overlooking & forming the whole
collection.' Octob. 20, 1762, Harv. MSS. fol. 12.

'^*0n the Birth of the Prince of IVales, (written after the Installation at
Windsor, in the same year, 1762) ; see IVorks, I, p. 46.

^"He was also engaged with the Encaenia of the preceding summer, when
'the hurry of our Encxnia at Oxford,' was one of his excuses for delay in answer-
ing a letter to Percy. London, Dec. 22, 1763, Harv. MSS. fol. 23.

oowooll, Op. cit. p. 293. A good-natured but not very brilliant satire in imita-
tion of earlier Terrce-Fillii, published during the Encjenia, was popularly ascribed
to Warton (see Lit. Anec. VHI, 237), but it is probable that Warton, if he was
connected with it at all, simply aided his friend Coleman, the real editor. See
Diet. Nat. Biog. art. Coleman.

71] ACADEMIC LIFE 71

founder, Sir Thomas Pope, for the Biographia Britannica.'^'^ A second
antiquarian labour of love for the college was the life of Ralph Bathurst,
one of the presidents of Trinity, prefixed to a selection from his works,
published in 1761.*- Both of these biographies were compiled from
manuscript materials, and were enlivened, especially the first, with di-
gressions upon contemporary history. In 1772 Warton published sepa-
rately an enlarged edition of his Life of Sir Thomas Pope,"^ and in 1780
another edition with further additions."*

The value of the life of Pope as an important source of information
for the period which it covers, because of the fresh manuscript material
which was added to the successive editions, has now been seriously im-
pugned by the discovery that some of the documents upon which it is
based are fabrications. President Blakiston has shown"^ that quotations
from MSS. Cotton, Vitellius, F. 5, that is, to Machyn's Diary, to which
"Warton says he gave a 'cursory Inspection '°° — sufficient to show him
that some of the leaves had been burned but not that the manuscript
was so nearly intact that no considerable sections could have been lost
from it — and the few quotations from alleged transcripts from Machyn's
Diary made by the annalist John Strype, are inaccurate. He has also
proved that tlie transcriptions alleged to have been made by Francis Wise
from copies of Machyn made by Strype before the fire and sent to Dr.
Charlett, (designated" by Warton as MSS. Cotton, Vitellius. F. 5 MSS.
Strype,) and from other manuscripts in Charlett 's collections and from
the family papers of Sir Henry Pope-Blo\int (designated as MSS. F.
Wise) were made from no extant manuscripts, are corroborated by no

^'^Or the Lives of the Most Eminent Persons who flourished in Great Britain
and Ireland from the earliest Ages down to the present time, etc. 1747-66. John
Campbell, the largest contributor, to whom Warton sent his life of Pope, replied,
'I see, Sir, you have taken a great deal of pains in that life, of which, I will take
all the care imaginable. ... If you can think of any life that will be acceptable
to yourself, or grateful to the University, I shall take care and hand it to the
press with much satisfaction.' See Wooll, Op. cit. p. 241. Warton submitted a life
of Weever, the .antiquary, but it does not appear in the Biographia. Ibid. p. 263.

"-The Life and Literary Remains of Ralph Bathurst, M.D. . . President of
Trinity College in Oxford. . . . London, 1761.

"^The Life of Sir Thomas Pope, Founder of Trinity College, Oxford. Chiefly
compiled from Original Ezndences. With an appendix of Papers never before
printed. London, 1772. Percy gave slight assistance by examining the will of
Sir Thomas -Dudley in the Prerogative office, London. Warton's letters to Percy,
Feb. 26 and April 21, 1767, Harvard MSS. fols. 31 and 32.

''*The Second Edition, corrected and enlarged. . . London, 1780.

*'H. E. D. Blakiston : Thomas JVarton and Machyn's Diary, English Histor-
ical Review. XI, pp. 282-300.

""Life of Pope, Preface, ed. 1780, p. xii.

72 THOMAS WARTON [72

Other authorities, and are demonstrably false and misleading in some pre-
tended facts. But Dr. Blakiston was not content with thus explaining
the falirications; lie attempted to fix the blame for them upon Warton,
and, as it Sfi-iiis to me, without sufficient justification. All of the positive
facts of the case can be as easily ex])lained npon the theory that the
bioprapiier himself was the victim of a clever but unscrupulous antiquary
as ui)on the supposition that Warton was himself guilty of the fraud, for
it is well known that he was habitually assisted by other antiquarians and
friends whose contributions he accepted without verification. Ur. Blakis-
ton. however, seems to think that when he can exonerate Wise by show-
in? that the fabrications were added to the separate editions both
published after his death, Warton is thereby proved guilty ; the possibility
of a tliird person being involved has not been given by him the con-
sideration it deserves.

Most of Dr. Blakiston 's reasons for fixing upon Warton are easily
disposed of. That Warton 's failure to detect the fabrications when they
were offered him proves his guilt, is reasoning which almost equally con-
victs every author who has accepted these statements in Warton 's his-
tory. That what Dr. Blakiston supposes the only extant material for the
life of Pope among Warton 's voluminous papers — a small note book — con-
of Pope among Warton "s voluminous papers — a small note book — eon-
tains no reference to the disputed passages,"" of course proves nothing.
That the fabrications appeared gradually is, as Dr. Blakiston says,
'highly suspicious', but does not indicate whom one is to suspect. Two
of his reasons"" are more soundly based upon Warton 's known faults
of occasional inaccuracy of statement or quotation in some details of his
extensive works. These faults would be more reprehensible even in an
eighteenth century antiquary were it possible for his critics — from Rit-
son to Blakiston"" — to free themselves from it, — and they show how
easy a victim he would become of a malicious practical joker.

Moreover, in the absence of conclusive evidence for so grave a
charge, great weight must be given to the character of the accused. It
must be shown that such a deception is quite in keeping with his charac-
ter, that it is not only possible but probable that he was guilty of the
forgery attributed to him. And such evidence is altogether wanting

•'Another book of notes upon the life of Pope, at Winchester College, like-
wise does not refer to the fabrications.

"'That he exaggerated the damage to the Machyn manuscript and printed
fabrications of letters supposed to be in Trinity College Library. To the
latter of course Warton had easy access, and he entirely personally consulted
them ; but it is nevertheless possible that transcripts were made by another and less
veracious hand.

""For example the first separate edition of the life of Pope was published in
1772, not 1770, as he says. His most serious blunder is discussed later.

73] ACADEMIC LIFE 73

in this case. It is a striking coincidence that Dr. Blakiston has selected
as a principal reason for accusing Warton, as an alleged motive or sug-
gestion for the deception, a circumstance that, on the contrar}^ fur-
nishes a conspicuous proof of his honesty: namely, his connection with
the Rowley-Chatterton forgeries. Warton, he says, 'was himself engaged
about 1778, when he must have put the finishing touches to [some of the
Pope fabrications], in defending the authenticity of the Rowley poems,'
and he further suggests that Warton was tempted to make a similar
experiment, in whicli, from his knowledge of early English literature,
he was more likely to succeed than Wise, a 'mere antiquarian'.'" As a
matter of fact, in 1778, as well as in 1772 and 1782, Warton was engaged,
not in defending the authenticity of the poems, but in rejecting them
as spurious. Moreover his tiioroughly honest conclusion in this matter
is the more commendable and significant in this connection because it
not only was reached in opposition to popular opinion, but was unwel-
come to himself. In spite of his own inclination to credit Chatterton's
tale, Warton was the first scholar who ventured to put himself on
record as denying the authenticity of the poems. His openminded and
scholarly treatment of the facts in this matter, in which some deference
to personal bias might have been excused, seems to make improbable
to the point of impossibility any deliberate tampering with facts in an
historical treatise. When he gives such conspicuous evidence of open-
mindedness and candour in the treatment of this question, it is scarcely
credible that he could be at the same time engaged in forging so gratu-
itous and useless a deception as the Strype forgeries.

From the time that Warton had taken his first degree in 1747, he
had been a tutor in Trinity College, of which he became a fellow four
years later, and he served his university as faithfully in this capacity
as in more prominent ones. Although he did a remarkably large amount
of literary and antiquarian work, he regarded himself rather as an
Oxford don than as a man of letters. Although no one probably made
better use of his academic leisure, he always put his collegiate duties
first : the work upon Spenser was neglected and finally abandoned while

'"p. 299. Dr. Blakiston's source for this mistake is the Dictionary of Na-
tional Biography article on Chatterton. It is unfortunate that in an attack on the
accuracy of another historian he did not verify and thereby correct that very mis-
leading mention of Warton's connection with the controversy by reference to the
original documents, the second volume of the Hiitory of English Poetry, 1778,
(PP- 139-164, and Emendations to p. 164) and Warton's Enquiry into the Authen-
ticity of the Poems attributed to Rowley, 1782, in which he reviews his connection
with it, pp. 1-6.

74 THOMAS WAKTON [74

he devoted himself to his pupils;" aud at the special request of Lord
North, who had been his contemporary at Trinity, he took his son under
his special eiiarge from 1774 to 1777, relinquishing his other pupils
during that time," and neglecting somewhat his work upon the history
of poetry. As a tutor he was at least popular, forming lasting and
bent-lieiai friendships with some of his pupils, with Topham Beauclerk
and Benuft Langton, who came up to Oxford soon after the interruption
of the Spt-nsL-rian design, and with "William Lisle Bowles, who had
known Warton at Winclu-ster and selected Trinity on his account, and
upon whose poetry Warton exercised some influence.

As a professor Warton was more active in his earlier than in his
later years. Lord Eldon, who was a member of University College from
1766 to 1773, says that 'poor Tom Warton' used to send to his pupils
at the beginning of every term 'to know whether they would wish to
attend lecture that term,"' but Mant lamented that in bis later years
when he was professor of history, he 'suffered the "rostrum to grow
cold" '.'* However, his strongest claim to the regius professorship of
modern history was that he was willing to deliver the lectures which
George III was aroused to demand while liis rival wished to hold the
appointment as a sinecure.

In 1757 Warton was elected by his university to succeed William
Hawkins of Pembroke in the office which his father had formerly held,
the professorship of poetry, aud he was reelected at the expiration of his
first term of office in 1762. As poetry professor Warton devoted his
lectures chiefly to recommending and expounding the beauties of clas-
sical poetry. One of these lectures, a Latin discourse on Greek pastoral
poetry, was afterwards enlarged to serve as a prefatory discourse to his
edition of Theocritus." The Latin translations from Greek poems which
were included in the last edition of his poetry were made and first used
as illustrations of his subject in this course of lectures.'^ The most
substantial outgrowth of his studies as poetry professor, however, was
his editions of classical poetry. The first was a small edition of Inscrip-
tioimm Romanarum Metricarum Delectus,''^ a selection of inscriptions,

'^Sul>ra. A letter from his brother shows that he abandoned an important
business trip to London with his brother during the long vacation in 1754 because
of his duty to a pupil. See Wooll, p. 233, where the letter is misdated 1755.
Joseph's removal to Tunworth, alluded to in the letter as imminent, was made in
I7S4.

'-Mant, Op. cit pp. Ixxiv-Ixxv.

''Boswell's Johnson, I, p. 279, note.

'<Mant, Op. cit. p. Ixxxiv.

"Ibid. p. xli.

'»I758.

75] ACADEMIC LIFE 75

chiefly sepulchral, from various other collections, and including a few
modern epigrams, one by Dr. Jortin and five of his own on the classical
model." This edition, which, with characteristic indifference to fame,
was published anonymously, was quite small and had so slight a popu-
larity that twenty years after its publication it was almost unknown, and
had become so rare that the author himself wanted a copy of it.'*

Contemporary opinion varied as to its merits. Shenstone called it
'rather too simple, even for my taste. "^ George Coleman was more
enthusiastic and wrote to the author, 'You know, I suppose, that the
Inscriptiones Romanae, &e. are your's. They have, I find, been sent to
all the literati. Dr. Markham, Bedingfield, Garriek, &c. They are very
well spoken of; Markham in particular commended them much, and
master Francklin is held mighty cheap for his very unclassical review
of them."" James Harris was no doubt referring to the same work
when he wrote, 'Be pleas 'd to accept my sincerest wishes for your truly
laudable endeavours towards the revival, the preservation, and the en-
crease of good taste ; not that phantom bearing its name, imported by
Petit Maitres from France, but that real and animating form which
guided the geniuses at Athens.'*' A similar work was a collection of
Greek inscriptions, an edition of Cephalas's A^ithology.^-

The great work of Warton 's professorship was, however, the edition
of Theocritus on which he was engaged at the time the Inscriptionum
was published,*' and for which he laid aside all other literary work,**

^'Mant, p. xHi. The Latin epigrams are included in Mant's edition of Warton's
poems, volume II.

'•"See Lit. Anec, VIII, p. 476 and III, p. 427.

^"Shenstone's Works, ed. 1777, III, p. 284.

8OW00II, Op. cit. p. 258.

^^Ibid. pp. 260-1.

*»I766.

*'Cowper to Gough, Nov. 26, 1758. 'You have heard (no doubt) that the
Republic of Letters is in great expectation of a good edition of Theocritus from
Mr. Warton, the Poetry Professor. His plan is, to give us a correct text, with
critical and explanatory notes.' Lit. Anec. VIII, p. 562. In the preface to the
Anthology the Theocritus was definitely promised, p. x.xxvi. See also WooU, p.
267.

'^Nov. 29, 1766 Warton wrote to Percy, 'The History of English Poetry
is at present laid aside for the Publication of Theocritus, which is nearly finished ;'
(Harv. MSS. fol. 28) two years later the Theocritus was still occupying him
although he was eager to be at the History. 'My Theocritus,' he wrote Oct. 24
1768, 'will soon be published; and when I am released [?] from that work, I hope
to be able to make another Excursion into Fairy-Land.' Same MSS. fol. 34.

76 THOMAS WARTON [76

but wliich did not appear until 1770." The fact that Theocritus had
long been a favourite aiitlior with Warton'" no doubt influenced the
selection of that autlior, but the immediate cause was very likely the
large collection of nninuscripts which John St. Amand, a classical anti-
quary, iiad collected in Italy and elsewhere for a proposed edition
of Theocritus and whicli he bequeathed to the Bodleian Library."
Warton also received assistance in the publication of Theocritus
from Jonathan Toup, whom Warburton called the 'first Greek scholar
in Europe'."" His principal contribution was an epistle on some
of the Idyllia,"" but he also sent a number of briefer notes.^" Warton
repaid Toup's kindness not only by contributions to the edition of Lon-
guuis which Toup was even at that time engaged upon,^^ but by seeing
it through the press."- The edition of Theocritus was very highly praised

8=The editor confidently expected it two years earlier. See letter to Jonathan
Toup, May 2, 1768. 'We are now printing the Notes of the XVth Idyllium; and
as no sort of Interruption will intervene, tlie Work will be ready for Publication
by or before Christmas next.' Bodleian Library, MSS. Clar. Pr. C. 13, f. 109.

'"Mant, p. xliv, and preface to Theocritus.

"Mant, p. xliv. St. Amand died in 1754.

^Wict. Nat. Biog. article Toup.

"Printed at the end of Warton's notes.

""Printed with Warton's.
Dear Sir

I have received the Note, which is very curious and ingenious. If you please,
as we arc not yet got to the Dioscuri, I will insert it in its proper place, with due
Acknowledgement as coming from you ; as I have all along done with those
detached Notes you have sent me, not belonging to the Epistola.

I shall be extremely glad to hear from you as often as possible, & am. Dear Sir,

With great Truth, yrs. very sincerely,
Oxon. Mar. 30, 1768. I. Warton.

Bodlein Library, MSS. Clar. Pr. C. 14, fol. 162.

"' 'The World is in great Expectation of your Longinus ; & I should

be glad if you could inform mc, when we are likely to be favoured with so
valuable an accession to Grecian Literature.' May 2, 1768, Clar. Pr. C. 13, f. 109.

"^No slight service, if we may judge from the following letter.
Dear Sir

In placing Rhunhinius's Notes first, we have acted according to your own
Directions in a Letter which I inclose. If you mean to alter your first Design
specified in this Letter, and to place your own Notes after the Text, two or three
Sheets, (now worked off) must be cancelled. I have stopped the Press till I hear
from you on this Particular. The Cancelling will be attended with some little
Expence & Delay; but if you chose to have it done, I will propose it to the Board.
I am, Dear Sir,

Your most affectionate
Trin. Coll. Feb. 4, 1777. humble servt.

P. S. Please to return the Inclosed. T. Warton.

Clar. Pr. 13, fol. 83. See also WooU, pp. 318, 319, 364, and 377.

77] ACADEMIC LIFE 77

by Wartou's friends upon its publication; Toup called it 'the best pub-
lication that evei* came from the Clarendon Press ; ''*■■' but foreign scholars
immediately discovered its defects in precision, and it has now been
entirely superseded."*

Almost immediately upon the expiration of his second term as pro-
fessor of poetry, Wartou began making attempts to secure the Professor-
ship of Modern History, and Bishop Warburton was particularly active
in his behalf. Before Warton's name was proposed,"'' however, tlie office
had been awarded to Mr. Vivian, upon his agreeing to comply with the
King's demand that it should no longer be held as a sinecure. A little
more than a year later Vivian was very ill ; the false rumour of his death
revived the hopes of Warton's friends, and fresh efforts were made.
The uncertainty as to Mhether or not Vivian would give up his preten-
sions to the office*" and refuse to read lectures in conformity with the
King's condition,"' kept them in a continual excitement, in which War-
ton seems to have shared least of all. When finall.v the professorship
was again settled upon Vivian, Warburton wrote in commendation of
the manner in which he accepted tlie disappointment, at the same time
assuring him that Vivian's health was sure to create a vacancy in the
office soon."* Warton's delicacy, or indolence, was, however, greater
than the Bishop of Gloucester's, and he delayed until Vivian was actually
dead before approaching Grafton and North for his office. This, in
the opinion of Warburton at least, cost him the office,"" which went to

"^Mant, p. xliii,

^*Dict. Nat. Biog. Article Warton.

"5Wooll, Op. cit. pp. 337-8.

"«/6irf. p. 355.

"'Warburton to T. Warton, Feb. 15, 1770. . . 'It is as clear as the day that
Vivian hangs on the professorship, in hopes that these distracted times, and a
shifting Ministry, will throw it into his hands, without the burthen. Your only
hope now is the steadiness of the K.'s purpose. . . If Vivian will read lectures as
required, without doubt he will have the professorship. If he will not read, and
declines the condition, and the King insists on the performance, you will have it.
If the report of Vivian's death had been true, I had secured it for you.' Wooll,
pp. 360-1.

"*/6irf. p. 363.

""Warburton to Warton, March 13th, 1771. . . 'I take it for granted you was
grown very indifferent to this professorship, or that you would have seen me on
Sunday (I was only gone to the Chapel) that I might have wrote immediately to
the D. of Grafton, who had actually got the thing for you of the King, in the
supposition of the death of Vivian. That report proved false. So our labour was

78 THOMAS WABTON [78

Thomas Nowell,""" who retained it imtil his death in 1801. This is the
last university honour which Warton sought. In 1785 he w-as, however,
elected Camden Professor of Ancient History in recognition of his
merits and the honours he had conferred upon the university. Warton
was not so active in the prosecution of his course in ancient history as
he had been in that of poetry thirty years earlier, and he probably never
delivered any lectures after his inaugural one.

to begin again. But as I now understand Vivian lay a dying for some time, that
was the time when you should have begun your new application. You sat out,
in every sense, too late. . . I believe I am more vexed and disappointed than you
are: and not a little of my vexation falls upon yourself; or at least, would fall,
if I did not think you must needs be very indifferent about the matter. Perhaps,
all things considered, you may have good reason for being so.' Wooll, pp. 374-5.

'""Nowell seems to have been upon another occasion the successful applicant
for an office sought by Warton. Ibid. p. 268.

CHAPTER V
The History op English Poetky. Volume I, 1774.

The Triumph op Romance.

Before the expiration of his term as professor of poetry, Warton
was again at work in the field of English literature, from which his
interest had been only partly and temporarily distracted by his classical
studies. He now began working seriously upon his magnum opus, the
History of English Poetry. This work had no doubt been more or less
definitelj' projected ever since his studies for the Observations on the
Faerie Queene had shown him the possibilities of the subject and the
large amount of material available for it; he had indeed partly fore-
shadowed it in a brief resume of the subject in his first important work.

Two eighteenth century poets before Warton had undertaken to
supply the need for a history of English poetrj^ and had abandoned
their attempts after doing little more than outline their projects. Dur-
ing the two preceding centuries a number of works dealing more or less
directly with the subject had appeared, — discourses on English poetry
with some account of the lives of the poets, and collections of lives of
the famous men of England including the poets; the small number of
such attempts is not so striking as the poor quality of even the best
results. What passed in the seventeenth century for a history of poetry
was a sort of miscellanj' or compendium of anecdotes of the lives of poets
arranged alphabetically rather than chronologically, without historical
perspective and M'ith no critical value. The tradition of Philips, Win-
stanley and Langbaine was carried on in the eighteenth century by
Jacob, Tanner and Gibber, whose 'dictionaries of Poets' differed scarcely
at all from the catalogues from which they were copied.

Pope and Gray in their plans for a history of poetry, avoided this
error by arranging their subjects into so-called 'schools' of poetry, a
procedure of somewhat questionable wisdom in the absence of any chron-
ological history of the subject. It remained for Warton therefore to
attempt and to bring to an advanced stage of completion the first orderly
history of English poetry, and thereby, in spite of the obvious imper-
fections of his work, to transform the growing curiosity of the eight-
eenth century antiquarian into the historical study of the nineteenth
century scholar.

80 THOMAS WARTON [80

As early as 1765 Warton's plan had proceeded so far that he wrote
to IVrcy, '1 think 1 liave told you that I am writing The History of
English I'oitry, which has never yet been done at large, and in form.
My Materials are almost ready." The following year, however, the work
was laid aside for his edition of Thcocritis- which occupied him longer
than he anticipated. His letters to Percy show his eagerness to be at
the more congenial work, in which Percy's interest and the success of
his licliqucs helped to encourage him: 'My Theocritus will soon be
publisiied ; and when I am released [ ?] from that Work, I hope to be
able to make another Excursion into Fairy-Land. My Encouragement
is having such a Companion as you in my Rambles there. '^

As soon as it became known among Warton's friends that he was
undertaking this important work, they were eager to help with it. Their
assistance was graciously accepted and it considerably facilitated the
stupenilous undertaking. Farmer immediately offered a 'pretty large
Spenserian pacquet' and later asked for a 'job on the History';* Hurd
engaged to get Gray 's plan for comparison with his own and commended
the 'noble design';'' Garrick not only eagerlj' offered the use of his
valuable collection of old plays and romances, but even sent them down
to Oxford to be used" — a favour which Dr. Johnson complained had not
been granted him.' Percy, eager to repay Warton's help with the bal-
lads, became a valuable contributor,^ especially to the second volume ;
and Warton's Oxford friends, Price and Wise, besides many nameless
helpers and emanuenses, helped with the compilations.

Warton spent many years collecting the materials for his history, a
task incomparably more difficult than it now appears because of the
virtual inaccessibilitj' of old books and manuscripts. Manuscripts were

•Oxon. Jun. 15, 1765, Harv. MSS. fol. 30.

=Nov. 29. 1766, Ibid. fol. 28.

»Oct. 24, 1768, Ibid. fol. 34.

'Letters of Nov. 19, 1766 and Feb. 13, 1770. Wooll, Op. cit. pp. 315, 359.

"Letter of Sept. 15, 1769. Ibid. pp. 348-9.

"Letter of June 29, 1769. Ibid. p. 346.

'Preface to Shakespeare, Johnson's Works, Lynam ed. V, p. 138.

"Warton was careful not to hinder Percy's plans for publication by a previous
use of his material, and wrote; 'I shall be much obliged to you if you could send
about 40 Lines, transcribed as a specimen, of Sir Launfall, written by Chester,
temp. Hen. vi. Perhaps you intend that piece for publication : but such a Specimen
would advertise your design ; & I would mention your intention, with due ac-
knowledgement & recommendation. But if this breaks in upon any scheme of
your's, I dont ask it.' (Winchester, Sept. 28, 1769, Harv. MSS. fol. 36). Per-
mission to publish was given, and Warton printed 42 lines from the beginning
and 6 from the conclusion, with acknowledgement to Percy, in the second volume
of his history, p 102, note.

81] HISTORY OP ENGUSH POETKY, VOL. I 81

widely st-attered through eatlicdral and follege libraries, private and
public collections, the Bodleian Library and the then recently founded
British Museum ; moreover all .such collections were very poorly cata-
logued, so that finding a wantetl book or manuscript frequently meant
actually ransacking a wiiole collection, and so little order prevailed among
them that Warton complained that he was unable to find again a book that
he had once consulted.'' Wartou had the added difficulty as a pioneer that
he had no training, little experience, and few examjjles in the use of
manuscripts: he was unskilled in old hands, and liad no exact knowledge
of the early forms of the language. His tremendous energy and bound-
less enthusiasm for the task, however, enabled him to overcome these
difficulties pretty successfully. It was his custom to make his notes as
he could procure the material he needed ; nothing that could be made
to serve his purpose was overlooked ; and he accumulated many volumes
of manuscript copy-books of miscellaneous notes for liis historj-'" before
he began its actual composition. His vacations were partly devoted to
his work. Upon his annual rambles he w'as on the look-out for literary
as well as architectural treasures, and he was sometimes rewarded with
a 'find' that would make a modern bibliophile green with envy. For
example, he 'picked up . . in a petty shop at Salisbury, where books,
bacon, red-herring, and old iron were exposed to sale' a third edition of
Venus Olid Adonis^^ 'bound up with many coeval small poets' into 'a
Dutch-built but dwarfish volume. ''-

He habitually spent his vacations with his brother at Winchester,
and there he settled down to the actual composition of his history. There
he had ample leisure and, if not the most favourable library facilities, at
least the advantage of the sympathetic criticism of his most congenial
friend, his brother.

By 1769 he had amassed nearly all of the material and the edition
of Thfocritits was so far out of the way that he expected to proceed
rapidl}' with the history. '1 am sitting down in good Earnest to write
the History of English Poetry', he wrote to Percy in July from Oxford.

''I have searched in vain for Marlowe's Dido with the Elegy among Tanner's
Books which are squeezed into a most incommodious room, covered with dust,
unclassed, and without a catalogue. Such is the confused and impracticable State
of this Collection, that 1 have often been unable to find a book a second time
which I have seen not half a year before. . . . My friend Mr. Price of the Bod-
leian talks of a Catalogue to Tanner's Books, but I fear it is at a distance.' Letter
to Edmund Malone, Jun. 22d. 1781, Brit. Mus. Addit. MSS. 30375, no. i.

'"Of which many are still to be seen in Trinity College Library, Oxford, and
at Winchester College. The handwriting is very difficult, often really illegible.

''1596. It is called the second by Malone, in the preface to his Shakespeare,
p. Ixii.

'^Letter to Malone, Mar. 19, 1785, B. M. MSS. .\dd. 30375, no. 2.

go THOMAS WARTON [82

' It will be a large work ; but as variety of materials have been long col-
lected, it will be soon completed."' At the close of his summer's work on
it at Winchester he reported 'a very considerable progress in [his]
work.''* Early the following year Gray sent Wartou, at Kurd's re-
quest, tile sketcii of his own plan for a similar work, which he had
readily relinquished on hearing of Warton's project. Either because
of modesty or indolence he sent no materials for the work, but only a
short 'sketch of the division and arrangement of the- subjects.' This
included an introduction 'on the poetry of the Galic' and Gothic nations,
and four principal parts: the School of Provence, Chaucer and his
contemporaries, two later Italian schools and Spenser, and the French
scliool introduced after the Restoration. The design, as he said, was
partly taken from Pope's plan.'^ Although Warton's first volume was
by this time almost ready for the press, having been written according
to his own different plan, he promptly acknowledged the merits of
Gray's plan. At the same time he pointed out that he had followed
a more strictly chronological division of the subject, interspersed with
general views, 'as perliaps of a pnrticular species of poetry &e. . . in-
terwoven into the tenour of the work, without interrupting my historical
series.'"

Warton 's work with the history was now proceeding rapidly, though
it was not, as Gray was told, already in the press at the time he sent
Wharton his plan. During the summer vacation at Winchester Warton
made such progress that he wrote again to Percy, 'My Opus Magnum
goes on swimmingly. We shall go to Press in October.'" Another
distracting interval delayed its progress, however, for four years longer.
The final work was done at Winchester in the summer vacation of 1773.
Immediately after his arrival Warton wrote to his friend Price, 'I am
now recollecting my scattered Thoughts, & sitting down to complete the
first volume of the History of English Poetry, which is to be published
before next Christmas.'^'

In the following year, 1774, the long-expected first volume appeared
with this title: The History of English Poetry, from the Close of
the Eleventh to the Commencement of the Eighteenth Century. To

"Trin. Coll. O.xon., Jul. 4, 1769. Harv. MSS. fol. 35.

"Winchester, Sep. 28, 1769. Same MSS. fol. 36. He added, 'your generous
offer of any thing you have, gives me great Encouragement, & will be gratefully
remembered.'

"Gray's letter of April 15, 1770 is given almost in full in Chalmers' English
Poets, XVIII, pp. 79-80.

"Winchester College, Apr. 20, 1770, Ibid. p. 81.

"Winton. Sept. 13, 1770, Harv. MSS. fol. 38.

"Winton. Aug. 16, 1773, Bodleian MSS. Auto. d. 4, fol. 5.

83] HISTORY OP ENGLISH POETRY, VOL. I 83

which are prefixed Two Dissertations. I On the Origin of Romantic
Fiction in Europe; II On the Introduction of Learning into England.
An undated manuscript copy-book among the Warton papers in Trinity
College Library contains a preliminary draft of Warton 's plan for his
history as far as the reign of Elizabeth, probably the first volume as
originally planned. Subsequently he enlarged the plan, but without
altering its chronological character; so that the inclusion of much more
material lengthened his work considerably.

Plan of the History of English Poetry.

1. The Poetry subsisting among the Druids lost: The Saxons introduc'd it,
of whom Hickes produces many Hymns : The old British Bards not yet lost :
Robert of Gloster's Cronicle the Remains of them.

2. Pierce Plowman the first Allegorical Poem in our Tongue ; which is half-
Saxon as to Language ; next Gower & Chaucer who went abroad & brought back
with them the Learning of France & Italy (which consisted chiefly of Provencall
Fictions) to enrich our tongue ; so that the old British (or rather mixt Saxon)
made way for foreign Terms : But Poetry received a considerable Improvement
from Lydgate, who is the first English Poet we can read without hesitation.

3. The -Allegoric & inventive Vein seem'd in a little time to be lost, & John
Harding, a Cronicler in Rhyme brought back, as it were the Rudeness of Robert
of Glocester : But that bad Taste did not reign long; for S. Hawes soon restor'd
Invention, & improved our Versification to a surprising Degree. .-Kfter him ap-
pear'd Alex. Barclay, whom Hawes is yet superior to, in Language &c.

4. But, now Henry 8. being King, Learning appear'd with new Lustre & his
may be called the first classical age of this country. Notwithstanding which, Skel-
ton is nothing considerable. Yet soon after this Poetry took a new Turn, in the
writings of Wyat & Surrey ; who travelled into Italy : & these are the very first
that give us the sketch or shadow of any polish'd Verse.

5. A fine Harvest of Poesy now shew'd itself in Q. Elizabeth's reign.

In preferring a more nearly chronological arrangement to an arbi-
trary classification of poets, Warton believed that he sacrificed only
artificial arrangement for 'clearness and fulness of information.' He
objected that 'the constraint imposed by a mechanical attention to this
distribution, appeared ... to destroy that free exertion of research
with which such a history ought to be executed, and not easily recon-
cileable with that complication, variety, and extent of materials, which
it ought to comprehend.'^' In fact his eagerness to acquaint his readers
with the little-known periods of early English literature by means of
frequent citations and full details was at the same time his strength and
his weakness. The value and importance of his copious selections from
long-neglected poems are not immediately apparent to readers of the

^^Hist. Eng. Poetry. Preface, p. v. References are to the second edition of
vol. I, 1775-

84 THOMAS WARTON [84

present uffo, to whom practically all of English literature is readily
accessible in editions adapted to every degree of scholarship or the lack
of it. It is a eonnnonplace of literary history that the early eighteenth
century was hopelessly ignorant of even of the most obvious facts in the
history of poetry, so that the greatest poets were almost grotesquely
represented upon a dismal background of ignorance and barbarism,
wliile refined jioetry was conceived as beginning with Mr. Waller. By
his wealtli of lietail and by his liistorical method therefore Warton com-
pleted in his history of poetry the revolution of criticism that he had
begun in his Observations on the Faerie Queene; what he had done for
Spenser, he enabled other critics to do for other poets by putting the
wealth of England's poetical past within their reach.

However, although Warton planned his liistory excellently, his lit-
erary antiquariauism, his love for the details of his subject, at times
betrayed him. The historian permitted himself to be enticed from the
logical development of his subject into all sorts of digressions and paren-
thetical discussions, sometimes of great length. These aberrations, inter-
esting as many of them are in themselves, do indeed destroy the pro-
portions of the work and obscure the outlines of what was really a well-
plaiuied history. Classical scholar though he was, Warton lacked the
Greek sense of proportion and form, and his great work has far less of
the simplicity of the classics than of the rich bewilderment of his favour-
ite romances. In nothing is his 'romanticism' more evident than in his
nistory of English Poetry. He is like a traveller exploring a new and
delightful country, bewildered by enchanting by-ways diverging in all
directions, so that however constant the pointing of his compass, his
progress is delayed by innumerable excursions. Although his explora-
tion is neither quite thorough nor quite complete, his guide book is both
fascinating in itself and invaluable in pointing out the way for future
travellers through the same land.

Warton was unable to begin his history at an earlier point than
Pope or Gray had proposed, a faidt of which he was conscious. His
excuse was his ignorance of Anglo-Saxon, — of which all b>it a very few
antiquarians of liis day were also ignorant — so that even the slightest
stuily of the subject would have almost doubled a labour that was at
best little short of Herculean. To atone in some degree for the omission
of the earlier periods, and to clear the way for the liistory proper,
Warton thought it necessary to preface his first volume with two disser-
tations in which he considered in some detail materials which, while
important for the development of his subject, would have marred the
unity of Ins design. The second of these dissertations, On thr Introduc-
tion of Learning into England, is crammed witli valuable facts concern-
ing the period before the history itself begins; facts which, presented as

85] mSTORT OF ENGLISH POETEY, VOL. I 85

Warton presented them, were more interesting to the antiquarian than
to the man of taste, but which had at kast the charm of novelty. And
the author's satisfaction tliat the barrenness of scholastic learning
yielded place to the 'beautiful extravagancies of romantic"" fabling' is
an interesting expression of his sound belief that imagination is a more
important factor than reason in the production of great poetry.

In the first ilissertation, On the Origin of Ronwntic Fiction in
Europe, Warton was dealing with a subject which had always fascinated
him, and to which he first gave the importance it deserved in the history
of English literature. His theory of the origin of romance in I'']urope,
however, is marred by the absurd and fanciful etlinologies advanced
by the seventeenth and eighteenth century scholars upon which it was
necessarily based. Without the solid foundation supplied by the re-
cently developed sciences of comparative philology and anthropology,
earlier scholars had recourse to vague tlieories based upon sujx'rfieial
resemblances that now seem unworthy of serious attention. Tlusc prev-
alent misconceptions Warton naturally accepted, so that much of his
theory of romance is now antiquated, though, as usual, many details are
singidarly correct and illuminating.

Warton 's manner of arriving at his tlieorj- that the ir.aterial of
romantic fiction was largely of ultimately oi-iental origin is far more
questionable than the conclusion itself, and his happy discovery of at
least a half-truth when reasoned certainty was — and perhaps still is —
impossible, is remarkably like genius. His perfectly clear recognition
of the importance of oral poetry as a source of written poetry,-^ his
happily conjectured theory of the gradual building up of long romances
by the artistic combination of previously existing sliorter narratives,-*
his acceptance of Bretagne as an ancient centre of romantic story where
Celtic influence combined with British, Scandinavian, and Frencli,-'' and
his conclusion that various as were their sources, the earliest metrical
romances were written in I'^rench,-* are theories whicli, thougli still in
dispute, a modern scholar need not fear to avow, and even one of which
he would be proud to father. They show also an ability to deal with
comparative literature and an intimate knowledge of middle English
literature far in advance of his age, and illustrate his positive genius for

^oWarton used the term romantic here as a derivative of romance, that kind
of fictitious tale characteristic of mediaeval literature. In this sense he said it
was 'entirely unknown to the writers of Greece and Rome.'

-^Hist. Eng. Poetry, Diss. I, pp. (i), (31-2). The pages in the dissertations are
not numbered in the first editions ; this numbering is, therefore, my own.

--Ibid. p. (9), and vol. I, p. 38.

-^Ibid. Diss. I, pp. (3-9), (48).

"*Ibid. vol. I, p. 145.

86 THOMAS WARTON [86

pointing out ways by wliich subsequent scholars were to obtain valuable
results.

As ill his Observations on the Faerie Queen, Warton's study of
romances involved also the social and religious life of an age which was
as riclily inuiffinative in its romantic chivalry and its deep-seated faith
in the miraculous as iu its literature. Not the least valuable part of the
discussion of the earlier periods was the copious extracts from the old
romances. — Richard Cwur de Leon, Sir Guy, the Squire of Low Degree,
and others tliat hail long lain neglected in dusty old manuscript collec-
tions. Unseholarly as the texts of those excerpts are, they stimulated
interest in tlie originals and were no doubt partly responsible for the
series of modernizations and editions of romances which followed.-' His
study of tlie romances and other early poetry-" indicates his attempt to
taite into account the elusive but none the less potent influences upon
Englisli poetry even before the time of Chaucer and the generally recog-
nized poets, and distinguishes him from an age of critics who, whatever
thej' may have thought of the poetic genius of the first English poets,
denied them their due place in the development of English poetry and
entirely disregarded any influences upon them.-' Warton differs from
every other critic of his age in constantlj' regarding literature as a
whole, as a continual stream of progress — with eddies and whirlpools
and backwaters — but also with a steady and deep current, and with
numberless tributaries.

Although Warton properly excluded dramatic poetry from his de-
sign, he was luiable to resist the temptation to discuss its origin and
early development, and his two long digressions-* constitute the first
valuable study of that subject and complete his interpretation of me-
dia?val life. On the basis of his reading of French memoirs on the
subject,-' and his first hand acquaintance with the 'originals' in 'books

^'Tlic early editors of romances, Ritson, Ellis, and Weber, constantly refer to
Warton's History.

'-'"Warton has e.\tracts from many favourite medixval lyrics, Alison, Lenten
is come with love to town, Sumer is icumen, etc., as well as from many such longer
poems as Hule and Nightengale, Manuel de Peche, and Land of Cokayue.

=''1 cannot .... help observing, that English literature and English poetry
sufTcr, while so many pieces of this kind still remain concealed and forgotten in our
manuscript libraries. They contain in common with the prose romances ....
amusing instances of antient customs and institutions . . . and they preserve pure
and unmixed, those fables of chivalry which formed the taste and awakened the
imagination of our elder English classics.' I, pp. 208-9.

-»Ibid. I. pp. 233-251; II, 366-406; III, 321-328.

=»Du Tilliofs Memoirs four servir a I'histoire de la Fete de Faux, 1741, and
Voltaire's Essais siir /iV Moeiirs et I'Esprit des Nations, 1756, and otiiers; see
bibliography of sources.

87] HISTORY OP ENGUSH POEimY, VOL. I 87

and manuscripts not easily found nor often examined,'^" he discussed
the religious, secular and scholastic beginnings of the drama in a way
that was not only valuable for its originality at the time it appeared,
but authoritative as late as the second quarter of the next century when
Collier quoted it as the most valuable source of information on the
subject.^'

Chaucer is of course the chief figure in the first volume of the
historj^ and it is by the adequacy and soundness of the criticism of his
work that Warton's ability is best tested. Professor Lounsbury"s esti-
mate of its value is juster than his explanation of its faults. The 'work
... is one', he says, 'which it will perhaps be always necessary to con-
sult for its facts, its references, and its inferences ; and though in many
points it needs to be corrected, a long time will certainly elapse before
it will be superseded. . . . But while the substantial merits of the
chapters on Chaucer need not be denied, they are very far from being
perfectly satisfactory.' Its defects are however due rather to Warton's
inevitably imperfect knowledge of middle English and of Chaucer's
sources — though his knowledge at this point was approached by none
of his generation save Tyrwhitt — than, as Professor Lounsbury sup-
poses, to his desire 'to parade his own knowledge' rather than to throw
light upon his author, or to an apologetic air that gives the 'impression
that he admired Chaucer greatly, and was ashamed of himself for having
been caught in the act.^-' In this Professor Lounsbury seems to have
fallen somewhat into the common habit of condemning eighteenth century
critics en masse without making sufficient distinctions among them.
Warton's learning is never ostentatious although he is often unwise in
not making a more rigid selection of material ; and he conspicuously
lacks the apologetic attitude adopted by some of his contemporaries.
Nothing is more certain than tliat he had more than the eighteenth cen-
tury antiquary's boundless curiosity — although he had that too; he was
animated by genuine love of learning and real interest in making acces-
sible to others the dark places in literary and social history, and, since
he would entirely fail of his purpose if he antagonized his public, he
used every means to arouse in them the same enthusiasm that he himself

^"Hist. Eng. Poetry. I. p. 250.

''Collier's History of English Dramatic Poetry to the time of Shakespeare,
1831. Preface. IMalone's essay, an Historical Account of the . . English Stage,
prefi.xed to his edition of Shakespeare in 1790 quotes Warton's history freely and
was probably further indebted to Warton's later private study. See Warton's let-
ters to Malone, printed in full with notes, in The Journal of English and Germanic
Philology, vol. XIV, no. I, pp. 107-118.

^^Studies in Chaucer, 3 vols. 1892. Ill, pp. 246-7.

THOMAS WARTON

[88

felt for those splendid periods of English poetry before tlieir own ele-
gant iiikI polished age.

The historical method which had been Warton's great contribution
to criticism in his Observations on the Faerie Queen he applied more
extensively in the History of Poetry. The first step in the study of
Chauei-r was an attempt to represent his social and literary environ-
ment anil antecedents in order tliat lie miglit be riphtly understood. The
eigliteentii century gentleman of taste despised Chaucer because, by an
anachronism that passed over four centuries of literary activity and
progress as if they were nothing, they insisted upon judging him by the
same standards which they applied to Pope and Waller. Warton, first
realizing the fallacy of this method, studied the wide diversity in man-
ners, customs, and literary ideals of the two periods and made the neces-
sary allowance for the difference. It seemed to him worth while to
consider Chaucer as the brilliant student, the popular and favoured
courtier and diplomat, the extensive traveller, and the polished man of
the world as well as the 'first English versifier who wrote poetically,'^'*
since his familiarity with splendid processions and gallant carousals,
with the practices and diversions of polite life, his connections with the
great at home and his personal acquaintance with the vernacular poetry
of foreign countries, helped to mould his poetry quite as much as his
knowledge of the classical writers, and enabled him to give in the
Canterbury Tales 'such an accurate picture of antient manners, as no
cotemporary has transmitted to posterity."'*

Warton 's study of . Chaucer 's literary antecedents shows a more
thorough knowledge of the comparative field of literature during the
Middle Ages than he is sometimes credited with.'''^ His discussion of
Provencal literature, based largely \ipon the study of the French and
Italian antiqiiaries and historians,"" and of its influence upon English
poetry, especially vipon Chaucer, is much abler and fuller than any
previous discussions of the subject"' and may still be read with profit.
He treats briefly but suggestively such important points for the study
of Cliaucer as the moral and allegorical tendency of Provencal poetry,
its relation to classical poetry on the side of allegory,''* its mystical and
conventional conception of love, and the nice distinction between the
metaphysical delicacy of the Provencal ideal of love represented in

^■■'Johnson : Dictionary, Pref. p. i., and Hist. Eiig. Poetry. I. p. 341 ff.
^*Hist. Eng. Poetry, I, p. 435.

^'^e.g. Saintsbiiry: The Flourishing of Romance, New York, 1907. p. 139.
'"See bibliography of sources.

•■"Rymer: A Short View of Tragedy, 1693, pp. 67-83. Pope and Gray, plans
for a history of poetry.

^"Hist. Eng. Poetry, I, p. 457.

89] HISTORY OP ENGLISH POETRY, VOL. I 89

Guillaume de Lorris and the conventional formality of the later method
of reducing the passion of love to a system, based upon Ovid's Art of
Love.^^

"Wart on also made a detailed study of Chaucer's relations to his
sources that anticipated modern investigation of the subject. His dis-
covery of Le Teseide as the source of the Knight's Tale was an impor-
tant contribution that probably owed nothing to Thynne's similar
assertion.'"' Botli Dryden and Urry had recognized Chaucer's general
indebtedness to Boccaccio on his own statements, but the nature and
extent of the indebtedness had not been discussed before.*' In his study
of Chaucer's sources Warton was, however, even more concerned to show
his originality than his mere borrowings, his heighteuings of the original
fictions, tlie additions and contractions wliicli help to make his poems
'strike us with an air of originality,'*- a charin further increased b.y his
'considerable talents for the artificial construction of a story '*^ and his
'nervous' and 'flowing numbers'. His enthusiasm was keenest for his
most original work, the Canterbury Tales, 'specimens of Chaucer's nar-
rative genius, unassisted and unalloyed,' in which 'the figures are all
British, and bear no suspicious signatures of classical, Italian, or French
imitation.'** And he justified his method by showing that this great

^^Jbid. I, p. 383.

^^Francis Thynne's Animadversions, etc., 1598 (Chaucer Society, 1876, p. 43).
Warton would certainly have referred to this had he known of it. A note to
Tyrwhitt's Essay on the Language and Versification of Chaucer, 'It is so little a
while since the world has been informed that the Palamon and Arcite of Chaucer
was taken form the Theseida of Boccace,' seems to point to Warton as the author
of the discovery.

Joseph Warton, in his Essay on the Genius and il'ritings of Pope expressed
surprise that Chaucer's borrowing from Boccaccio should have been so long
unobserved, since Xiceron, in his Memoirs, published in 1736 — a book which he
says was well-known, had given an abstract of the story of Palamon and Arcite.
He added. 'G. Chaucer, I'Homere de son pays, a mis I'ouvrage de Boccace en vers
Anglois.' (I. p. 335, ed. 1806.) Neither Thomas Warton nor Tyrwhitt mentions
this work however. This passage in J. Warton's essay was first inserted in an
appendi.x to the third edition (1772-1782) and in the body of the fourth edition in
1782. The recent discovery of the source of Palamon and Arcite to which he
refers was therefore certainly his brother's. (Mr. David H. Bishop, of Columbia
University, has looked up this passage for me in the various editions of J. War-
ton's essay.)

*'The authority and adequacy of Warton's discussion are shown by the fact that
Skeat refers his readers to this section of Warton's history 'for further remarks
on this Tale.' Ed. Chaucer, 1894, III, 394.

*-Ibid. I, p. 357-

*^Hist. Eng. Poetr\, III, p. 367.

**Ihid. I, p. 435.

90 THOMAS WARTOK [90

«cl»j<>voniont w«s the rcsiilt of Chaucer's 'knowledge of the world' and
'ohs«>rvatiou on life" eombined with his literary artistrj- and his grenius.

Althongh AVarton st't out to Iv the historian rather tlian the critic
of Enplish i>ootry. his history is shot through with flashes of his enthu-
siasm for natural and imaginative ratJier than conventional and reasoned
beauties. He adminnl the Knight's Talc not for thost^ partial conformi-
ties to the rules for epic pix^try that commended it to Drydeu and Urry.
but in spite of its violation of the rules and because of its direct appeal
to the imagination and feelings. 'It alwunds', he says, 'in those inci-
dents which are calculated to strike the fancy by opening resources to
sublime description, or inten^st the heart by pathetic situations. On
this account, even without considering the poetical and exterior orna-
ments of the piece, we an^ hardly disg\isted with tlie mixture of manners,
the imnfusion of times, and the like violations of propriety-, which this
IHvm. in common with jxll others of its age. presents in almost every
pagyv*" His study of the House of Fame shows a similar appreciation
of the essential Wauties of romantic poetry: he praised it for its 'great
strvikes of Gothic imagination, yet bordering often on the most ideal
and capricious extravagance.'"' and condemned Pope's mistaken attempt
to 'correct it's extravagancies, by new retiuements and additions of
another cast.' in the famous comparison: "An attempt to unite order
and exactness of imagery witli a subject formed on principles so pro-
fessedly rom.antic and anomalous, is like giving Corinthian pillars to a
Gothic palace. When I read Pope's elegant imitation of this piece. I
think 1 am walking among the modern raon\iments unsxiitably placed
in Westminster Abbey.'**

Warton's real taste for imaginative poetry as represented in the
romamvs and Chaucer's poetry, made him dwell lovingly and long on
that ivriod. on Chaucer as at once the flower of romance and the renais-
sance and as an independent and original genius superior to his age,
and lament the inevitability of tlie decay of imaginative pot^try after
his death. Although he had intended to complete the history of seven
centuries of English poetry in two volumes, he devoted, perhaps not
altogether unwisely, the whole first vohime to the least known and least
proline perioii and txirned with reluctance from that period to one in
which the decay of romance was followed by a revival of learning. He
recognized that the new age would have its compensations: 'As know-
ledge and learning encrease. poetry begins to deal less in imagination:

"/Sd. I. p. 367.
**!l^. I, p. 589.
*'!SJ I o J06.

91] HISTOBT OF EXGLISH POETBT, VOL. I

and these fantastic beings give way to real manners and living charac-
ters;' vet he kne-w too that a revival of imagination must precede
another great poetic age.

CHAPTER VI

The History of English Poetry. Volume II, 1778
The Reviv^vl op Learning

At tlie time the first volume of the History of Poetry was published,
Wartou had in hand much of the material for the second, and expected
it to follow very soon. In September following the appearance of the
first volume he wrote to his friend Price, 'I have the pleasure to tell you
that great part of the second volume of my History is ready for press'.'
The work, however, did not go on so well as was expected, and the
second volume was delayed for four years. It was just at this time that
Lord North, who had been a contemporary of "Warton at Trinity, sent
his son up to Oxford to be under Warton 's special charge from 1774
to 1777, during which time he relinquished his other pupils.^ The
preparation of a collected edition of his poems, which appeared in 1777,
must also have hindered the history somewhat.

Probably the principal reason for the delay of the second volume
however was the necessity the author felt of including in it a discussion
of the Rowley-Chatterton poems which were then almost universally
believed to be genuine fifteenth century poems. Warton had called
them spurious when they were submitted to him by the Chancellor of
Oxford, the Earl of Lichfield, in 1772, but they were so generally
accepted as genuine, even \>y Tyrwhitt, who later helped to expose the
forgery, that he reluctantly admitted them to a place in his history,
at the same time denying their authenticity. Warton 's first step in this
matter had been to send to William Barrett, the Bristol antiquary-
surgeon, for conclusive evidence. Altliough Barrett furnished him with
plenty of information,^ he was a complete victim of Chatterton's hoax,
and Warton was naturally dissatisfied with his verdict. He then ap-
pealed to Percy for a less biased opinion, in the following letter : —

Dear Sir

I should esteem it a particular favour if you could conveniently communicate to
me what you know about Rowlie's poems at Bristol. I have a correspondence with

'Winton. Sept. 30, 1774. Mant, Op. cit. p. Ixxiv.
-Ibid., pp. Ixxiv-lxxv.

HIist. Eiig. Poetry. II, p. 142, note. References to the second and third volumes
are to the first edition.

93] HISTORY OF ENGLISH POETRY, VOL. II 93

Mr. Barret of that place, but he rather embarrasses than clears the subject. He
has sent me a fragment of Parchment ; on it a piece of a poem on a Mayor's feast,
the ink & the Parchment seemingly antient. It is necessary that I should consider
him whether spurious or not, as there has been so much noise about the Discovery,
& as so many are convinced of the poems being genuine. If possible, I request the
favour of your answer immediately ; & am, Dear Sir,

Your very affectionate

friend & servt
Jul. 29, 1774 T. Warton.

Winchester
P. S. Please to direct at Winton.*

Percy's reply is not to be found, but cannot have been convincing, for
a year and a half later Warton was still trying vainly to bring himself
to the popular opinion, and hurried by the demands of his printer.

Dear Sir

I have received the favour of yours, which is quite satisfactory.

As to Chatterton, I have considered that subject pro and con, not professing
to enter ininiitely into the controversy, but just as much as the general nature of
my work properly required. I own I lean to the side-of the forgery: but if you
could send me only one capital argument in favor of the genuineness of Rowlie's
poems, I should accept it most thankfully. I would willingly come to town on
purpose, but it is impossible : and at the same time I am ashamed to interrupt your
Engagements. The Press is drawing near to this period. I will send you speedily
the E.xtract you mention from the Selden Manuscript : and am. Dear Sir, your
most affectionate

humble servt.

T. Warton
Trin. Coll. —

Jan 23 1776
To

Reverend Dr. Percy

at Northumberland-house
London'

Another letter to Percy written a month later shows the volume
going on through the press and Warton busy with the rest of the volume.

Dear Sir

Since I wrote last, the sheet in which is a Note* about James the first, is gone
to Press. I send a proof of the Note, which perhaps will give you as much
Information as you want on the Subject. Otherwise, I will make a further search,
& gett the poem transcribed if necessary. I throw in, Currente Prcelo, the notice

<Brit. Mus. Add. MSS. 32329 f. 76.

'^Same, f. 83.

^Hist. Eng. Poetry, II, 125-6.

94 THOMAS WARTON [94

at the end about a song being in your possession. My work, (I mean the Second
Volume,) which is much indebted to you, goes on very briskly.

I am, Dear Sir,

Your most affectionate
humble servant

T. Warton.

Trin Coll. Oxon.

Feb. 22, 1776.'

The progress of the second volume though steady was slow. In
November, 1776, "Warton was hopeful that it would soon appear,' but
he spent the following summer at Winchester liard at work upon it,
and in September Avrote to Price, 'My second volume goes on swim-
mingly. I have already written almost the whole ; but I intend a third
volume, of which more when we meet.'" The next year the second vol-
ume was publislied.

Warton had closed his first volume with a note of regret that the
flowering of romance was inevitably followed by a period of greater
learning but of poetic decadence ; the second volume was taken up with
the struggle between learning and imagination which was to result in
their fusion in the great poetic age. For this period Warton had less
genuine enthusiasm and interest than for the more imaginative and
productive periods, and this volume is therefore less satisfactory; it is
a more miscellaneous mass of minute discussions of details and of gen-
eral views of important large subjects into which at times flash the
genius and enthusiasm of the critic. In his first volume he had shown
how Chaucer was influenced by his age; in the second he showed how
certain of the influences upon him becoming dominant had suppressed
pootry, how Chaucer's genius could combine romance and learning while
his contemporaries with less genius and more ambition to be thought
scholars'" sacrificed romance to learning, imagination to reason and were
the worse poets. 'On this account,' he said, 'the minstrels of these
times, who were totally uneducated, and poured forth spontaneous
rhymes in obedience to the workings of nature, often exhibit more genu-
ine strokes of passion and imagination, than the professed poets.'"
Warton 's revolt against the classical age is nowhere more apparent than
in the stand he took for imagination and spontaneity as the essential
qualities of poetry, and against reason and artificiality as its corrupters.
In his discussion of the poetic decadence of the fifteenth century he

'Same, {. 85.

'Letter to Gough, Nov. li, 1776. Lit. Anec. VI, p. 178.

"Mant, Op. cit. Ixxv.

^"Hist. Eng. Poetry, II, p. 31.

95] HISTORY OP ENGLISH POETRY, VOL. II 95

was, of course, crying out against the over-empliasis of reason in his
own age, and looking forward to a similar revival of imagination and
poetry.

Warton"s liigh valuation of imagination anil originality did not,
however, blind him to lesser merits. It is a credit to his historical sense
that with only a general survey of the political, social, and literary con-
ditions of the period and with no accurate knowledge of philology,'^ he
was able to recognize the importance of tlie transition period for the
development and enrichment of the language, and to point out that
Chaucer, Gower, and Occleve had not, as was generally thought,'- 'cor-
rupted the purity of the English language, by affecting to introduce so
many foreign words and phrases,'" but that they had used the language
of their age, a language that was then undergoing important changes
particularly under French influence, and that was gaining in 'copious-
ness, elegance, and harmony' by these innovations.^''

His appreciation of Chaucer's contemporaries too was remarkably
just ; in discussing them he fell neither into the error of absurdly exag-
gerating their merits, nor, by too close comparison with Chaucer, of
equally absurdly underrating their importance. He found in Gower
an almost perfect example of a poet whose erudition overtopped his
invention, who was 'serious and didactic on all occasions' and possessed
'the tone of the scholar and the moralist on the most lively topics;'"
who 'supplied from his common-place book' what he 'wanted in inven-
tion."* Yet he realized that Gower was not only important for the
historical study of the progress of English poetr.y during the fifteenth
century but of such intrinsic value that 'if Chaucer had not existed,'
his poetry 'would alone have been sufficient to rescue the reigns of
Edward the third and Richard the second from the imputation of bar-
barism. '^^ Warton's analysis of the influence of the mediaeval story-
books, those 'commodious abridgements' of all sacred and profane stories
in which both classical and mediaeval stories were adapted to the taste
of the times, upon which Gower 's Confessio Amantis was modelled, and
from which it drew quite as much as from Jean de Meun's part of the

^^Even such as Tyrwhitt possessed. Ed. Chaucer, Essay on the Language and
Versification of Chaucer.

'-Both Dr. Johnson and Tyrwhitt likewise remonstrated against this belief . .
The History of the English Language, prefaced to Johnson's Dictionary, 1755, and
Tyrwhitt's Essay.

^^Hist. Eng. Poetry. II, p. 50.

"/61V.

^"Ibid. II, p. 2.

i»/6irf. II, p. 4.

"/6irf. II, p. I.

96 THOMAS WARTON [96

Roman de la Rose, shows an extensive knowledge of the literary tradi-
tions of the period and of their development in the next age into an
eager interest in the original anthors from which the compilations had
been made." In addition to tliis just criticism, he made an original
contribution to the study of Gower by tlie discovery of tlie Cinquantes
Balades and the publication of four of them with appropriate recogni-
tion of their merit and discussion of their relation to French and Eng-
lish love poems."

Lydgate's treatment of romantic material concerned the historian
quite as much as the versatility and ease of versification which he was
inclined to think placed him next to Chaucer in those respects at least.
He did not, however, neglect his poetry, though he did not attempt, as
Riteon did, to enumerate the long list of poems attributed to him.-" He
evidently desired to do justice to him as a poet who 'moved with equal
ease in every mode of composition,' who was clear and fluent in phrase
but often 'tedious and languid.'-' With true poetic taste he man-
aged to cull from the Lyfc of our Lady a number of the best lines, which
probably improved the poet's reputation. --

It has been said that Warton considered it necessary to discuss the
Rowley poems in that period of the history to which their pretended
author belonged. While we cannot altogether approve his judgment in so
doing, his defense, that, since they were generally accredited,-' though

"/fc.U II, 11, ff.

•'Emendations to volume II. Warton found these French poems in a manu-
script lent him by Lord Trentham.

^''Warton was well aware of their great number ; 'To enumerate Lydgate's
pieces, would be to write the catalogue of a little library.' He realized that to
catalogue them was then less worth while than to present a just estimate of the
poet and his best work. Ritson's list, in his Bibliographia Poetica, was a valuable
achievement for its time. Ed. 1802, pp. 66-87.

^^Hist. Eng. Poetry, II, pp. 52, 58.

'=Gray's praise of Lydgate was somewhat extravagant; he quoted some lines
which he declared entitled him to a place among the greatest poets, but mentioned
the Life of our Lady only in a note, making no quotation from it. His Remarks
on the Poems of Lydgate are among the few manuscript notes which he had made
for his history of poetry, published from his commonplace book in 1814 by T. J.
Mathias. Works II, pp. S5-8o.

-^There was some disagreement among scholars as to their authenticity. War-
ton had been sceptical when he first saw them in 1772, and Johnson had satisfied
himself of the imposture in 1776. Walpole seems to have considered them genuine
until Mason and Gray, to whom he sent the manuscripts sent him by Chatterton,

97] HISTORY OP ENGLISH POETRY, VOL. U 97

uot generally accessible,-* it was his duty to give them a place if only
that a more just estimate of their authenticity might be formed," has
some weight, and he was the first to attempt an adequate discussion of
the question.

Wartou's impartial presentation of the question affords an illustra-
tion of his openmindedness that is the more interesting and creditable
to him because the conclusion at which he had arrived seems to have
been unwelcome. Apparently he would have been glad to find that these
remarkable poems were really the work of a monk of the fifteenth cen-
tury. 'It is with regret that I find myself obliged to pronounce Kowlie's
poems to be spurious. Antient remains of English poetry, unexpectedly
discovered, and fortunately rescued from a long oblivion, are contem-
plated with a degree of fond enthusiasm : exclusive of any real or intrin-
sic excellence, they afford those pleasures, arising from the idea of
antiquity, which deeply interest the imagination. With these pleasures
we are unwilling to part. But there is a more solid satisfaction, result-
ing from the detection of artifice and imposture.'-" His romantic imagi-
nation was kindled at the thought of poems hidden away for three
hundred years in Cannynge's chest in Radcliffe Church, and accidentally
discovered and rescued from wanton sacrifice to the utilitarian end of
making writing-book covers. His love of antiquarian treasures was out-
raged at the thought of what might have been in this way lost to
literary and social history. He rejoiced that the schoolmaster of Bristol

declared them forgeries. Warton : Enquiry into the Authenticity of the Poems
attributed to Thomas Rowley, London, 1782, p. i. Boswell's Life, Hill Ed. Ill, p. 50,
and Letters, I, pp. 398 and 404. Walpole : Letters, Toynbee Ed. X, p. 246. Cf . also
Die. Nat. Biog. art. Chalterton. Goldsmith believed firmly in them. Walpole:
Works, ed. 1798, IV, p. 224. Tyrwhitt had not given up the authenticity of the poems
at the time Warton's discussion was written. Emendations to the Hist. Eng.
Poetry, vol. II, p. 164. His appendix to prove that they were written wholly by
Chatterton was added to the third edition of the poems which appeared simul-
taneously with Warton's second volume, 1778.

=*Only two of the poems were printed before Tyrwhitt's anonymous edition of
Poems supposed to have been written at Bristol, by Thomas Roivley and others,
in the Fifteenth Century, . . . 1777, by which time this part of Warton's history
was written. Emendations, II, 164. Letters to Percy, supra. The unknown
author of An Examination of the poems attributed to Thomas Rowley, and William
Cannynge. With a defense of the opinion of Mr. Warton, (?I782), said, 'at the
time Mr. Warton published his history, these Poems were not published ; only few
were in possession of copies of them ; the world at large was totally ignorant of
their contents. . . . Even the industry of Mr. Warton could procure but few
specimens of them when in manuscript.' p. 7.

^^Hist. Eng. Poetry, II, p. 139.

'^Hist. Eng. Poetry, II, p. 164.

98 THOMAS WARTON [98

was not without a taste for poetry and that his extraordinarily gifted
son recognized the merits of the poems and offered them to the world.
The possibilities of this promising situation almost carried Warton to a
belief in the story, — but when he turned to the poems themselves, the
illusion vanished.' Kowley miglit have been a scholar, an historian, an
antiquary, a poet, but he could hardly have been the author of the poems
ascribed to him.-'

Although as a scholar Warton condemned the poems as forgeries,
as a poet he could not but be struck by their poetic excellence, — no less
remarkable as the work of a boy of sixteen than as that of a monk of
the fifteenth century. With an extravagant enthusiasm, more like that
of the later 'romantic' admirers of Chatterton than his own usual mod-
eration, he exclaimed, 'This youth, who died at eighteen, was a prodigy
of genius: and would have proved the first of English poets, had he
reached a maturer age.'-'

Warton 's discussion of the Chatterton forgeries, although the first,^*
was by no means the last ; the controversy was kept up with a stubborn-
ness that was made possible only by the ignorance and gullibility of the
Rowley supporters.'"' And it may be quite as well to anticipate some-
what and finish here the discussion of Warton 's connection with it.
While the question of authenticity was virtually settled from the start
by every scholar of any competence, — Gray, Malone, Johnson, Warton,
Tyrwhitt, — there were a number of scholarly clergjaneu so tenacious of
a belief very scantily based upon external evidence onl,y, that it became
necessary for final and decisive proof to be furnished by some compe-
tent authority. Two of the most learned men of the age, Warton and
Tyrwhitt, offered to say this last word in 1782 f^ and the efforts of both
\fere of nearly equal effect at the time of their publication; they con-
vinced all who were open to conviction.

The merit of Warton 's conclusion in the Chatterton controversy can be

■''Ibid., p. 156.

-^Hist. Eng. Poetry, II, p. 157. Chas. Kent, in the Diet. Nat. Biog. erroneously
ascribed this remark to Joseph Warton.

soWalpole's Letter to the Editor of the Miscellanies of Chatterton, Strawberry-
Hill; 1779, is rather a discussion of Walpole's relations with Chatterton than of the
forgeries themselves Walpole's Works, IV, p. 207 ff.

'"For bibliography of the Chatterton controversy, see Chattertoniana, by F. A.
Hyett and W. Bazeley. Gloucester, 1914.

^'Warton: An Enquiry into the Authenticity of the Poems attributed to
Thomas Rowley. In which the arguments of the Dean of Exeter, and Mr. Bryant
are c.ramined. London, 1782. Two editions in the same year.

Tyrwhitt: A Vindication of the Appendix to the Poems, called Rowley's, in
teply to the Answers of the Dean of Exeter, etc., London, 1782.

99] HISTORY OF ENGLISH POETRY, VOL. 11 99

adequatel}^ appreciated only by a recognition of the fact that he reached
it not only in opposition to his inclination, but without the help of any
thorough knowledge of the language of the fifteenth century such as
Tyrwhitt possessed, and its importance only by the fact just mentioned
that it contributed quite as much to settle the controversy in the eight-
eenth century as even Tyrwhitt 's more seholarlj' essay. It is a striking
fact that although Warton's criticism of Chatterton's affected obsolete
words could be based only upon superficial observation, he not only
objected to their genuineness on this ground, but was able to cite some
of the very books from which the young poet must actually have derived
his remarkable voeabulary.'-

Moreover, the conclusiveness of a purely scholarl.y argument based
entirely upon accurate knowledge of the philological side of the problem
was not so promptly recognized in an age of general ignorance of phil-
ology as it would be today. A proof that would convince the dilettante sup-
porters of Rowley must be based upon the more obvious qualities of the
poems which they could recognize. This was the sort of argument that
"Warton's pamphlet furnished. Therefore whatever superiority Tyrwhitt
showed as a philologist was equalled by Warton's superiority as a critic
and student of literature, — a fact that has not always received due
credit. He was able to compare the literary traditions and conditions
of the fifteenth and eighteenth centuries and decide even without refer-
ence to specific language tests, to which period a group of poems be-
longed. By this metliod he easily demonstrated that the affiliations of
the Rowley poems were altogether with the eighteenth century. He
concluded the discussion thus, 'Upon the whole, ... if there are such
things as principles of analogy, if the rules which criticism has estab-
lished for judging of the age of a poem, are beyond the caprice of con-
jecture, then are the Tragedy op Ella and the Battle op Hastings,
modern compositions: if they are antieut, then are the elegancies of
Gibbon's style coeval with the deplorable prose of Caxton.'^'

Returning to the proper subjects of the history of poetry in the
fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, the Chaucerian imitators, Warton
found less interesting material than the Chatterton forgeries; imagina-
tion was more and more oppressed by conscious effort. Yet he creditably
performed the duty of an historian, considering carefully the relations
between Hawes^* and Lydgate, between Barclay's Ship of Fools and

^-Hist. Eng. Poetry, II, p. 157. See also Skeat's ed. Chatterton, London, 1901,
2 vols. II, pp. xxv-xxvii, and xli.

^^Enquiry, p. 90.

^*Warton was cited as an authority on Hawes by Thomas Wright in the only
modern edition of the Pastime of Pleasure, for the Percy Society, vol. 18, 1845.

100 THOMAS WABTON [100

Brandt's Narrenschiffe through Latin and French translations, and the
growing modernity of the language of these poets. He aceomi)anied the
whole with numerous quotations from these then almost inaccessible
fifteenth century poems^' of almost unknown poets. He also found it
necessary, as has every other historian of English poetry, to give an
account of the Scottish poets'" who preserved the traditions of Chaucer
as none of his English successors was able to preserve it, and who
'adorned the .... period, with a degree of sentiment and spirit, a
command of phraseology', and a fertility of imagination, not to be found
in any English poet since Chaucer and Lydgate.'"

Two significant points stand out in the discussion of the poems of
Dunbar, Douglas and Lindsay :'* the theory of poetic diction implied in
the experiment of turning Douglas's Prologue to May^^ into prose to
show that its high poetic quality did not depend altogether upon the
form, and the recognition of the influence of racial characteristics in
national poetry. Warton's experiment of placing a prose paraphrase
in juxt^ipositiou with the poem to show the originality of the poet's
genius and the beauty of its poetical matter independent of its form —
a test to whicli it would have been dangerous to subject much of Queen
Anne poetry — was a great stride in the direction of the new romantic
conception of poetry ; it suggests Wordsworth 's theory of poetic diction
without its absurdities. For although Warton intended a deliberate
revolt against the too prevalent tendency to regard poetry as largely a
more or less skillful combination of poetic diction and metrical compo-
sition, he did not go to the opposite extreme of regarding these things
as non-essentials, of considering the prose form as quite as poetical as
the verse form. Of the characteristic beauties of Douglas's poem he

ssWarton's quotations from Barclay's eclogues were particularly valuable, for
those poems were reprinted from the exceedingly rare black letter folio of 1570,
from which he quoted them only in 1885, for the Spenser Society, vol. 39. See also
T. H. Jamieson's edition of the Ship of Fools, 2 vols. 1874. Prefatory note.

'"Warton's not very valuable sources, besides the universal histories, were the
collection of biographies amassed by the over-patriotic Dempster, Historia Ecclesi-
aslica Gentis Scoiorum, Bologna, 1627, and MacKenzie's 'shapeless mass of inert
matter,' The Lives and Characters of the Most Eminent Writers of the Scotch-
Nation. 1708-22.

^''Hist. Eng. Poetry, II, p. 257.

''Warton had mentioned James I's King's Complaint, as he called it, in his
second volume (note p. 125) where the poem was first mentioned and quoted
from.

"The poem was not unknown. Two English versions had appeared in 1752,
one in the Scot's Magazine, by Jerome Stone, the other by Francis Fawkes. The
latter was also included in Original Poems and Translations, 1761. Fawkes's
translation was reprinted for the Aungerville Society, 1884-6, vol. III.

101] HISTORY OP ENGLISH POETRY, VOL. H 101

said, 'Divested of poetic numbers and expression, they still retain their
poetry; and .... appear like Ulysses, still a king and conqueror, al-
though disguised like a peasant.'*" This experiment is part of Warton's
general revolt, both in poetry and in criticism, against the artificial
poetry written by the Augustan poets and upheld by the Augustan
critics,*' and his attempt to re-establish a higher kind of poetry which
combines poetic substance and poetic form in an inseparable whole.

It was the jironiinence of satire in the Scotch allegorical poetry,
especially the satire of church abuses, that led Warton to remark the
influeuce upon Scotch literature of the characteristic Scotch temper, a
kind of remark more common in the next century than in his own. The
modernity of Warton's attitude becomes more apparent when one com-
pares it with Dr. Johnson's contempt for the Scotch temper which he
never attempted to understand. Warton however pointed out that in
the peculiarly pliilosophieal or rationalistic temper of the Scotch, a
disposition almost without imagination and responsive not to an imagi-
native and sensuous appeal but to reason alone, was to be found the
explanation of the ready adoption in Scotland of the severe reformed
religion and of the greater violence and abundance of satirical attacks
upon the Roman Catholic faith. *-

The originality of Skelton, as it seemed not to have its source in
more lively imagination, did not atone, in the mind of the historian,
for the deliberate roughness of his verse, and his satirical power, rein-
forced though it was with humour and the gift of personification, he
did not think adequate to excuse his coarseness. Warton had much
of the eighteenth century insistence upon sound moral standards
in criticism. As an historian of the progress of literature, he did
not fail to consider in his discussion of Skelton the importance of his
moralities in the history of the drama; in this connection is the mention
of the moral interlude of Nigramansir,*^ since lost.

*'>Hist. Eng. Poetry, TI, p. 289.

*'See Johnson's Life of Dryden, Works, ed. cit. Ill, p. 439. Even Gray recog-
nized a well-established poetic diction. See letter to West, Works, Ed. Gosse, 1884,
II, p. 108.

*-Hist. Eng. Poetry, II, p. 321.

*'There has been no record of Xigramaiisir since Warton saw it in the library
of William Collins, at Chichester, not long before the latter's death in 1759. When
the valuable collection that he had made for his intended History of the Restora-
tion of Learning under Leo the Tenth was dispersed, this unique voKinic seems to
have wholly disappeared. Hist. Eng. Poetry, II, p. 361. But there is not, I think,
any just reason for doubting Warton's honesty in this matter on this account. The
perfectly simple and straightforward account of the book which he gives, exactly
of a piece with many others that are unquestionable, is, per se, more probable than

102 THOMAS WARTON [102

To repeat wliat cannot perhaps be overemphasized, the great theme
of Warton's first volume was the rise and influence of mediaeval ro-
mances upon English poetry; the corresponding subject of the second
volume was the revival of learning and its counter influence. His
attitu<lf toward the renaissance combines genuine appreciation of clas-
sical literature, of the 'faultless models of Greece and Rome,' and of
the immense gain in depth and breadth they brought to p]nglish learning,
with enthusiasm for the marvelous and delightful creations of the dark
ages whose disappearance he regarded with regret. But much as he
realized the poetical value of niedia'val life, its variety and richness,
the very savagery and irregularity of the incidents and adventures of
chivalry, he regarded the revival of learning as a necessary corrective
of its faults, as a 'mighty deliverance after many imperfect and inter-
rupted efforts in which the mouldering Gothic fabrics of false religion
and false philosophy fell together;' and he pointed out that it was event-
ually followed by a period of high attainment, that 'soon after the
reign of Elizabeth, men attained that state of general improvement, and
those situations with respect to literature and life, in which they have
ever since persevered.'"

The historian's careful balance of these two important elements in
the early renaissance, the waning influence of medieval poetry and the
growing power of classical learning, has an added significance since their
heirs — the decadent classicism of the Augustan age and that fresh infu-
sion of imagination from a variety of sources which is commonly called
the romantic revival — were disputing the supremacy of poetry in his own
day, and he had a remarkably clear perception of the growing chauge

Ritson's ill-natiircd accusation that he invented the whole account. Ritson : Bib-
liograp!\ia Pocticu, p. lo6. .Absence of motive for the deceit, Warton's general
honesty, his effort to secure accuracy of detail, and the certainty that many volumes
must have disappeared, incline us to accept Warton's statement for the existence
in 1759 of the morality he described. Bliss defended Warton with the statement
that he had 'so frequently seen and handled volumes mentioned by Warton and
denied to exist by Ritson,' that he had no doubt of the authenticity of the account.
^Itlirn. Oxoii. ed. :8i3-20, I, p. 53.

The incompatibility of the accounts of the date, size, and printers of the Mag-
nificcncc text scarcely affects this matter. While such confusion is certainly rep-
rehensible, it is not a question of honesty but of care. It is very easy to see how
such mistakes could have been made. Probably the last reference was the only
one made from Warton's own observation; the others may have been made from
memory, or from an inaccurate communication. Emendations to II, 363. See also
the edition of Magnificence for the Early Eng. Text Soc, vol. 36-38, by R. L.
Ramsay, liitrod. pp. xviii-xix and note 2.

**Hist. Eng. Poetry, II, p. 462.

103] HISTORY OP ENGLISH POETRY, VOL. H 103

and of its significance. He looked back to this earlier period both as one
of important progress and as the source of the sterile classical imitation
prevalent in his time, and he hailed with enthusiasm the revival of imagi-
nation as a sign of a new birth in poetry.

Therefore in an age wliicli perpetuated more of the defects than
the virtues of the revival of classical learning in England, "Warton was
disposed to emphasize the charms of the more imaginative past, showing
in this respect a close sympathy with some of the more extreme 'roman-
ticists'. With Rousseau,*^ who however lacked Warton 's steadying sense
of the danger attending upon unrestrained indulgence in the pleasures
of imagination, he hailed 'ignorance and superstition, so opposite to
the real interests of human society, (as) the parents of imagination.'*'
W^ith Heine*' he perceived the romantic quality of the mediaeval reli-
gion and the tremendous stimulus given to literature by the picturesque
and poetical appendages of the Catholic worship, which 'disposed the
mind to a state of deception;' whose 'visions, miracles, and legends,
propagated a general propensity to the Marvellous, and strengthened
the belief of spectres, demons, witches, and incantations.'**

Without really underestimating the immense gain in 'good sense,
good taste, and good criticism' which had followed the revival of learn-
ing, he lamented the loss to pure poetry that had been consequent upon
it, and he closed his second volume somewhat as he had closed the first,
with regret for the vanished beauties of the middle ages: 'We have
parted with extravagancies that are above propriety, with incredibilities
that are more acceptable than truth, and with fictions that are more
valuable than realitv.'**

*'Discours sur les Sciences et Ics Arts, 1750.
*'Hist. Eng. Poetry, II, p. 462.
*''Die Roinantischc Schule, 1833.
*^Hist. Eng. Poetrx, II, p. 462.
*nbid. II, 463.

CHAPTER YII
TnK History of English Poetry. Volume 111, 1781

The Dawn of the Great Poetic Age

The third volume of the history followed the second after an inter-
val of three years; it was published in 1781; probably, considering the
author's inevitable hindrances, as soon as it could be i)ropared for the
printer. Again the historian permitted himself an even more detailed
treatment of his material, so that the third volume only introduced the
Elizabethan age and a fourth had to be promised to complete the work.
As Warton drew nearer to that great poetic age. he became more and
more keenly aware of its relation to the two great influences he had
been tracing through his earlier volumes, mediffival poetrj- and the
revival of learning. He had shown how well adapted to poetry were
the unrestrained imaginings of the mediffival romances and how the
commencement of the revival of learning had blighted this first poetical
blossoming ; he was now to show that this blight was but temporary, or
rather, that the conjunction of learning and romance was really a period
of fertilization, of which the English renaissance was the fruit. The
English renaissance was not however so simple a matter as this, and
Warton did not fail to see its complexity. His discussion of this impor-
tant, but then little understood, movement shows a conception of its
remoter causes, its larger outlines, and its minute details that. is remark-
ably accurate and was more illuminating than can now well be imagined,
for the period was then one of the most neglected ; even its greatest
poets were only beginning to come into their ovm, and the minor ones
were all but wholly unknown. It shows also the knowledge of other
literatures, the ability to use the comparative method, that has been
often mentioned as one of the author's chief claims to originality and
permanent value as a critic and historian.

"Warton at once connected the revival of classical learning and the
renewed interest in Italian literature as factoi's in the English renais-
sance, yet he recognized the characteristic influence of each. Since he
had discussed the revival of learning in the second volume, he began
the third with the study of the influence of Italian literature in Eng-
land. This influence he did not regard as wholly new, since he had
previously recognized Chaucer's pupilage to Italian masters. The imi-
tation of Petrarch by the English sonneteers was, of course, the first

105] HISTORY OF ENGLISH POETRY, VOL. HI 105

Italian influeuce to be considered. But closely as Wartou connected
the influence of Italian literature in England with the revival of learn-
ing, his familiarity with mediaeval literature showed him that this
outburst of sonneteering had roots there also ; that while ' intercourse with
Italy . . . gave a new turn to our vernacular poetry ',' the popularity of
the new models was partly due to the fact that their English advocates,
notably Surrey," were educated in a court where ideas of chivalry still
prevailed, and were inspired by as romantic passions as were the
mediaeval heroes of romance. Tlie story of Surrey 's life loses none of its
romantic charm in Warton's telling and serves to introduce and partly
to explain Surrey's difference from Wyatt, — his greater spontaneity, sim-
plicity and naturalness.

Warton did not, of course, attempt the impossible task of trying
to separate wholly the indirect influence of the revival of the classics
which the study of Italian literature introduced into England, from
the direct influence of the classics themselves, especiall}- when both were
combined in the work of one poet. In the case of Surrey he was able
to make a slight distinction and to ascribe his translation of the Acneid
to classical influence as definitely as he did the sonnets to Italian. His
insistence upon the at least equal importance of the Aeneid was par-
ticularity valuable at a time when that poem had been almost entirely
overlooked.^ The importance of the translation he based upon the two-
fold contribution of the classical renaissance to English poetr.v. As
'the first composition in blank verse, extant in the English language,'
he hailed it as 'a noble attempt to break the bondage of rhyme''' — the
result of a similar revolt in Italy under the influence of the study and
imitation of the classics — and to improve the English versification by
the introduction of new models and 'new elegancies of composition.'
As a vernacular version of a classical poem he assigned it to the inun-
dation of classical translations that had been steadily enriching the stock
of poetical material and acting as a stimulus to creative poetry, that
had been making 'the divinities and heroes of pagan antiquity' so
familiar that they not only 'decorated every composition' but were

^Hist. Eng. Poetry, III, p. i.

^Ibid. p. 27. Perhaps because Tottel gave Surrey greater prominence, Warton
seems to have considered him the pioneer, and thereby lost the opportunity of cor-
rectly explaining the difference between him and Wyatt.

''I know of no English critic besides [Ascham], who has mentioned Surrey's
Virgil, except Bolton, a great reader of old English books.' Hist. Eng. Poetry,
III, p. 24, note p.

*Ibid., p. 21.

^Ibid., p. 24.

106 THOM.VS WiVRTON [106

upon the lips even of the Merry Wives of Windsor.' It is not surpris-
ing to SCO Warton fiiul the secret of the tremendous vogue of classical
stories in tlie attractions of their unusual fictions for the romance-loving
English poet, so that the 'extravagancies' of these 'fabulous inventions'
were imitated before 'their natural beauties,' 'regularity of design and
justness of sentiment,'' were perceived.

In the Mirror for Magistrates Warton found all the important
influences upon the sixteenth century combined in a work that had the
added significance of forming a link connecting this tradition with
Spenser. Singling out the description of hell in Sackville's Induction
as the most striking part of the whole, he made a comparative study of
its relation to its sources which included Homer, Virgil and Dante, and
was a conspicuous example of the comparative method of criticism which
he alone of his contemporaries adequately valued' or was able to achieve.'
Tliat tlie Inferno was inehuled in the comparison shows too the extent
of the historian's scholarship in an age when wide knowledge of Italian
was rare, and Dante was held in much less respect than Tasso or
Aristo.'" Here again Warton 's taste for mediaeval poetry enabled him
to appreciate a poet whose predominating characteristics were mediffival,

"Ibid., p. 494.

■Ibid.

sRitson is perhaps an extreme example. He showed his complete inability
even to appreciate the comparative method when, in his Observations on the three
first volumes of the History of English Poetry, he asked, 'What possible connection
is there between the Divina Comedia, and the History of English Poetry?' p. 38.

"Professor Saintsbury, who never does full justice to Warton, credits Gray
alone of English critics of this century with the ability to use the comparative
method ; but certainly Gray has left less evidence of it than has Warton. History
of Criticism, HI, p. 462.

'"Paget Toynbee's valuable assemblage of references to Dante in the eight-
eenth century shows at a glance the meagerness of eighteenth century knowledge
of Dante, so that Warton appears as the largest contributor to general acquaintance
with the Divine Comedy before the translation in 1782. Dante in English Litera-
ture from Chaucer to Cary, 2 vols. New York, 1909.

But Mr. Toynbee is not quite fair to Warton, and does not recognize the
qualitative as well as quantitative difference in his criticism.

.•\n anonymous contributor to the Edinburgh Rez'ieu' for July, 1833, in a
review of Wright's translation of the Inferno, appreciated the relation of Warton's
work to the prevailing ignorance of Dante. He said: 'The Divine Comedy was
still a sealed volume in scholastic libraries, when the two Wartons, who had some
life in them during one of the deadest periods of our literature, distinguished
themselves by their endeavours to attract to it the attention of the English public.
So little was it known, that Thomas Warton introduced an analysis of it in his
history of English Poetry.' Vol. 57, p. +20.

■MMI

107] HISTORY OF ENGLISH POETRY, VOL. Ill 107

and helped liim to discover that the Divine Comedy had 'sublimity' even
in its 'absurdities', and 'originality of invention' in its 'grossest impro-
prieties'." He declared that the poem had a classical groundwork deco-
rated with 'many Gothic and extravagant innovations', and pointed out
that 'the charms which we so much admire in Dante, do not belong to
the Greeks and Romans. They are derived from another origin, and
must be traced back to a different stock. ''=

Wartou's method of comparing the ideas of various poets and
studying their influence upon one another is altogether different from
the 'parallel-passage-aud-plagiarism mania"^ which seized his contem-
poraries when they undertook comparisons. In comparing the Inferno
and Saekville's Induction, he sharpened the distinction by a clear expo-
sition of the characteristic merits of each. The power of vivid descrip-
tion of allegorical, or at least of abstract, characters, so that they appear
laore like real than imaginary personages, he justh' considered Sack-
dlle's peculiar gift, a gift he passed on to Spenser,** and thereby 'greatly
enlarged the former narrow bounds of our ideal imagery.'"

Aji historian with a marked and indulged curiosity about every
field of literature could not, of course, leave Sackville without discussing
the classical tragedj' in which he had a share, especially when he recog-
nized it as 'perhaps the first specimen in our language of an heroic tale,
written in blank verse, divided into acts and scenes, and cloathed in all
the formalities of a regular t^aged}^'*'' And since by the third volume
the reader has lost any desire he may once have cherished to hold War-
ton strictly to his subject, he welcomes each valuable digression. The
discussion of Gorboduc is justified by its close connection with the revival
of classical learning and with the history of the drama."^' Moreover the
comment upon Gorboduc as a tragedy is a sound piece of criticism,
indicating a theory of tragedy based upon a judicious combination of
classical and romantic practice, which one wishes had been more fully
developed. When Warton upheld the moral purpose of tragedy, he
wished not 'the intermixture of moral sentences,' but 'pathetic and
critical situations,' 'force of example,' and 'the effect of the story'; and
he insisted that 'sentiment and argument will never supply the place

^^Hist. Eng. Poetry, III, p. 241.
"/6id., p. 2SS.

i^Saintsbury, Hist. Crit. Ill, p. 70. Warton censured this abuse in his Obs. on
the F. Q. ed. cit. II, p. i.

^*See also Obs. F. Q. II, pp. 101-3.
^^Hist. Eng. Poetry, III, p. 233.
"/6irf. Ill, p. 355.
"Ibid. p. 372, ff.

108 THOMAS WARTON [108

of action upon tin- stage.'" He required that classical restraint of
language be coiiil)ineil with vivid and consistent cliaracterization and
importance and complexity of plot, and that all should contribute to
dramatic action. Occasional references to Shakespeare show that "War-
ton recognized his 'eternal dominion over the hearts of mankind'," and
that he condemned his violations of the unities of time and place, defects
which the critic says "he covers by the magic of his poetry.'-" Wartou
further declared that 'Shakespeare's genius alone' was able 'to triumph
and to predominate' over the 'extravagancies' and 'barbarous ideas of
[his] times.'-'

It has been said that Warton explained the popularity and the
power of the Italian and classical translations and imitations by the initial
appeal of their fictions to the English fondness for stories, which had sur-
vived from the mediaeval age. But he would not have it thought that
the romantic tradition survived onlj' as a taste for extravagant fictions;
numerous printed editions of old romances in modernized versions"
proved the vitality of the romances themselves, and the Nut hrowne
Maide, considered as a sixteenth century poem, showed him that creative
power had not wholly declined. This error in date,-* which is easily
explained by "Warton 's arguments for its modernity, is of less signifi-
cance than his genuine and un-Augustan enthusiasm for the poem. The
wide interval that separates Warton from the old school is clearly shown
by the contrast between his estimate of the poem and Prior's conven-
tional imitation of it, and Dr. Johnson's opinion of them. Dr. Johnson
had sternly condemned the story for its low morality, and said that it
'deserves no imitation', and, finding no merit in the theme, he dismissed
Prior's poem as a 'dull and tedious dialogue.'-^ "Warton, on the other
hand, with a far more catholic taste, admired the simplicity, warm sen-
timent, and skilful construction of the older poem, and deplored the fact
that Prior "s garbled version had 'misconceived and essentially marred
his poet's design.'-*

^"Ibid. pp. 362-3.

"/fcirf. p. 362.

^oibid. p. 358.

^'Ibid. p. 435.

'-Ibid. pp. 58, 142.

^'Fairly familiar to eighteenth century readers from Prior's version, Henry
and Emilia, in Poems on Several Occasions, 1709, and its inclusion in Capel's
Prolusions, 1760, and Percy's Reliques, 1765.

=*He could not have made the mistake had he known the first edition of
Arnold's Chronicle, (1502?) instead of only the second, 1525.

"Li/f of Prior, Johnson's Works, Ed. cit. Ill, p. 619.

=»//«/. Eng. Poetry, III, p. 140.

109] HISTORY OF ENGLISH POETRY, VOL. ni 109

In considering the Italian, classical and romantic traditions as the
dominant influences upon the great poetical revival in Elizabeth's reign,
"Warton did not by any means overlook such other important influences
not primarily literary as the protestant reformation and the new nation-
alism, nor did he pass over such related subjects as the development of
English prose and the rise of criticism; for he was always quick to see
the close relation of literature to the environment in which it was pro-
duced, and to study the effect of political and religious movements upon
it. His historical sense caught the immediate effect of the reformation
upon poetry at the same time that his religious instincts and poetical
taste were offended by the atrocious verse of the 'mob of religious
rhymers, who, from principles of the most unfeigned piety, devoutly
laboured to darken the lustre, and enervate the force, of the divine
pages. '-^ His frequently expressed disgust with many practices of the
protestant reformers did not, however, prevent his making a reaUy
thorough study of the origins of reformation poetry, — the popular
adaptations of psalms of the French free-thinker, Clement Marot, the
popularizing of religion, and the need of a substitute for the religious
forms abolished by the rigid Cahinists.-* Yet he would have been no
true critic if he had not seen that this 'new mode of universal psalmody'
was unworthy of the name of poetry, and no true son of the established
church if he had not resented the substitution of a bare 'mental inter-
course with the deity' for the impressive beauty of church ceremonies.
Nor could his keen sense of humour miss the opportunity to expose the
absurdity of more than one 'dignified fanatic's divine poetry' by putting
it in juxtaposition with an 'ungodlie ballad' in the same doggerel metre,
— from which inevitable comparison the rollicking Back and side go hare
suffered least. -^

While Warton realized that the religious and political ferment of
the middle of the sixteenth century was on the whole unfavourable at
first to poetry, he found one important new poetic interest growing out
of it. The first indication of the awakening of interest in the national
history as a subject for poetry he found in Saekville's Mirror for Magis-
trates and its numerous continuations. And it was only by the judicious
application of the historical method that the importance of a poem of
relatively slight intrinsic value could have been discovered. Warton
fuUy appreciated the added richness that was given to English poetry
through the opening up of the field of English history; he realized the
value of the mass of material that had long been 'shut up in the Latin

"/6iV. Ill, p. 194.
'^Ibid. Ill, pp. 161-205.

29/W(/. Ill, pp. 206-8.

110 THOMAS WAKTON [HO

narratives of the moukish annalists,' and placed the Mirror for Magis-
trates near the beginning of that literary movement whieh produced
Drayton's Hvrokal Episths and Warner's Albion's England and culmi-
nated in Shakespeare's historical plays. He did not consider the Mirror
for Magistrates tlie source of the others, but simply the first 'poetical
use of tile P^nglish chronicles.'^"

Warton could not leave the discussion of the English renaissance
without at least mentioiung that it was not wholly poetical, but that the
'cultivation of an English [prose] style began to be now regarded,'"
and that the inevitable result was the rise of conscious and deliberate
literary criticism. And it is characteristic that he should have traced
the development of English prose to Ascham's desire to show 'how a
subject might be treated with grace and propriety in English as well as
in Latin, '^' and that he should have compared the rise of criticism in
England with its earlier development in France and Italy, with which he
was really familiar. It is at the same time indicative of his estimation
of the function of criticism that he should have feared that, in the
absence of critical treatises, while writers were entirely unhampered
hy canons of taste or rules of correct composition and 'every man
indulged his own capriciousuess of invention', although poetry gained
in variety and flexibility, there was danger that 'selection and discrimi-
nation' be 'often overlooked,' that sublimity be mingled with triviality,
and that liberty become license."-

Iii concluding the third volume with a recapitulation of the tenden-
cies that dominated 'the golden age of English poetry,' Warton showed
his just estimation of the contribution from each source, and the modifi-
cation each underwent in becoming part of the complex whole. This
summary is the more significant because it shows distinctly what he
considered the essentials of such an age, and therefore implies his
explanation of the lack of poetry in his own day. Having always
recognized imagination as a first reqiiisite of pure poetry, and realizing,
as his pseudo-classical contemporaries did not, that the romantic fictions
of the middle ages made as powerful an appeal to the imagination and
feelings as the traditions of classical antiquity, and perceiving too that
they are not necessarily incompatibly, he could show that it was an
inestimable gain to the Elizabethan age that it combined the beauties
of both, that poetry reached its highest development in England before
reason and science had so far advanced upon art that intellectual quali-
ties prevailed over imaginative. The nice balance between two intoler-

•■"'/fiirf. Ill, pp. 259-282.
^'Ibid. Ill, pp. 329-354.
^-IbiJ. Ill, p. 499.

Ill] HISTORY OP ENGLISH POETRY, VOL. Ill HI

able extremes — undisciplined imagination and cold reason — which has
been but rarely readied, has seldom been more clearly conceived than
by Warton, and is aptly described in the closing words of his description
of the great poetic age, 'when genius was rather directed than governed
by judgement, and when taste and learning had so far only disciplined
imagination, as to suffer its excesses to pass without censure or controul,
for the sake of the beauties to which they were allied. '^^

The fourth volume, which was to have completed the history,
although repeatedly promised,''^ was never finished. Yet it was never
wholly abandoned, and at the time of Warton 's death it was supposed
that it could be completed by his brother Joseph from the materials
that Thomas had collected. The printer, Daniel Prince, sent the eleven
sheets, eighty-eight pages, which he had already printed of the fourth
volume, to Dr. Warton, who had collected all his brother's papers and
taken them to Winchester with the expectation of putting them in order
and finishing the volume. Unfortunately, however, the historian had
never made very careful notes, as a result of his habit of writing directly
for the press after he had assembled all his material, trusting much, no
doubt, to his memory. There was therefore probably little manuscript
that could be used by another. And his brother increased the confusion
of the material by cramming the papers all together in disorder.''^
Joseph made efforts to complete the work,^* but, not being imbued with
equal enthusiasm for the subject nor endowed with equal ability — he
complained that the ground left for him to go over was 'so beaten'! —
the task proved too much for him.

The reasons why Warton never finished the history are not hard
to find. About the time the third volume was finished, he must have

33/fr,-rf. Ill, p. 501.

^*Letter to Price, Oct. 13, 1781. 'I have lately been working hard; have made
some progress in my fourth volume.' Mant, I, p. Ixxviii.

Prince to Gough, Aug. 4, 1783. 'Mr. Warton's 'History of English Poetry'
will be at press again at Michaelmass next.' Nichols : Lit. Anec. Ill, p. 696.

In the edition of Milton's Minor Poems, 1785, the speedy publication of the
fourth volume was announced.

"^Ibid. p. 702.

^'Joseph Warton to Hayley, March 12, 1792. 'At any leisure I get busied in
finishing the last volume of Mr. Warton's History of English Poetry, which I have
engaged to do — for the booksellers are clamorous to have the book finished (tho'
the ground I am to go over is so beaten) that it may be a complete work.' WooU,
p. 404.

Prince insinuates that Joseph had the greater incentive to finish the work
since a large part of the copy-money had been withheld until it should be finished,
and he was already disappointed that his brother had left him no money. Nichols :
Lit. Anec. Ill, pp. 702-3.

112 THOMAS W.VBTON [112

begun his edition of Milton's Minor Poems, the final expression of a life-
long attaehinciit to ]Milton, and in the same year that it was published,
he was made poet laureate and Camden Professor of History at Oxford,
which honours, though they exacted no arduous duties, helped to dis-
tract his energy from the history. Very likely too the fact that in an
earlier work he had already discussed Spenser, who would have made a
large part in the fourth volume, made him the more willing to
turn to a, for him, new field. Therefore, just as he had failed to
carry every other of his works to the point of completion originally
planned, without ever quite abandoning the history, he probably never
took it up with any resolute intention of completing it, after the publi-
cation of the third volume.

Some of his contemporaries seem, however, to have found a more
specific and less worthy reason for its virtual abandonment. Dr. Percy
and his friend Thomas Caldecott, a fellow of New College who knew
Warton personally, seem to have entertained the notion that he was
influenced by the scurrilous attack of the antiquary Ritson'^ to relin-
quish his plan. Warton 's biographer, however, asserts on the authority
of 'an intimate friend of Mr. Warton' that he 'neither allowed the
justne.ss, nor felt, though he might lament, the keenness of the censure.'^'
The following letter to George Steevens shows that he was disposed to
treat the attack with contemptuous silence, although he felt he could
answer most of the objections.

Dear Sir

I am greatly obliged to you for your Information about the Author of the
quarto Pamphlet'' written against me in two Letters, the first dated at Emmanuel
College, the second at Hampstead. What a universal Caviller and Corrector ! But
surely, whatever may be done with a previous and separate piece of criticism, no
bookseller will be found absurd enough to contract for a new edition of Shakespeare

"■Percy to Caldecott, Aug. 17, 1803. 'I certainly think with you, that the per-
sonal abuse of poor mad Ritson was the highest honour he could do me, and can
only regret that it deprived us of the ingenious labours of "honest Tom Warton."
I assure you it would have had no such influence on me.' Nichols : Lit. Illus.
VIII, pp. 372-3.

A similar notion seems to have inspired a curious and somewhat obscure
caricature printed in London in 1805, which is thus described by Andrew Caldwell
in a letter to Percy : Ritson 'is surrounded with carrots and cabbages, and on the
ground lies the Rcliques. A print of poor Warton, with a knife and fork stuck
in his belly; the meaning of this I do not understand.' Ibid. VIII, p. 62.

''Mant, p. Ixviii. See also Thomas Park's Advertisement of his edition of
Ritson's English Songs. London, 1813.

"Ritson: Observations on the three first volumes of the History of English
Poetry in a familiar tetter to the author, 1782.

113] HISTORY OF ENGLISH POETRY, VOL. UI 113

after your's.*" I could disprove most of his objections were it a matter of any
Consequence. To speak to one here, Dr. Farmer suggested to me the Calcula-
tion concerning the Gesta Alexandri printed by Corsellis, showing that the (MS.
burnt) was completed at Priss on a Sunday.''! j (MS. burnt) told the Pamphlef^
makes some way a C(MS. burnt)ge, under the Auspices of Dr. Glyn(-)e. But it
(MS. burnt) is too heavy to move much. Wh(MS. burnt) ay, Dean Milles*^ was
here in (MS. burnt), for a week, I found on my Table on my Return hither, a
present of Ritson's Quarto 'with Compliments from the .Author.' We will have
your new Rowley .Anecdotes when we meet in town after Xmas.

I am, Dear Sir, your most faithful humble servant,
T. Warton.
Oxon. Nov. 8, 1782."

Later he was drawn into the controversy that was waged in the Gentle-
man's Magazine, and probably even contributed a letter himself.*'

^'In April, 1783, Steevens wrote to Warton, 'No less than six editions of
Shakespear (including Capell's Notes, with Collins' prolegomena) are now in the
mash-tub.' WooU, p. 398. Ritson projected an edition, but printed only a few
sheets in 1787. See Appendix to Remarks Critical and Illustrative, 1783.

■•iRitson : Observations, etc., p. 15, and Hist. Eng. Poetry, II, p. 8, note h.

*-An Essay ,on the Evidence . . . relating to the Poems attributed to Rowley.
... by Matthias, 1783.

*^Editor of the Rowley poems, 1782, and defender of their antiquity.

"Bodleian MSS. Montagu D. 2 fol. 48.

*=Nov. 3, 1782. Lit. Illus. IV, p. 739. See also Lit. Anec. VI, p. 182.

CHAPTER VIII

Critical Reception op the History of English Poetry

It is interesting to see how a work, addressed to two classes of
readers, the man of taste and the antiquary, and written by a man who
belonged strictly to neither, was received by typical members of each.
Both classes of contemporary readers, as wiU be expected, were out of
sj-mpathy with Warton 's enthusiasm for his subject and failed to appre-
ciate las valuable new methods. Horace Walpole, who posed as an
antiquary, but whose bits of information on ancient matters were de-
cidedly amateurish compared with the strict studies and exact knowledge
of the serious antiquarians, hailed the first volume of Warton 's history
with delight: 'It seems delightfully full of things I love;'^ but his
enthusiasm M-as scarcely sufficient to survive the reading of it. He
granted that the particulars were entertaining, but maintained that the
amassing of 'all the parts and learning of four centuries' simply pro-
duced tlie impression 'that those four ages had no parts or learning at
all. There is not a gleam of poetry in their compositions between the
Scalds and Chaucer.'^ The result, so unsatisfactory to a man with
Walpole 's Augustan taste in poetry, he was inclined to blame, quite
unjustly, upon the author's plan rather than upon his own lack of
interest in the earlier history of poetrj'. 'In short,' he wrote to Mason,
'it may be the genealogy of versification with all its intermarriages and
anecdotes of the family; but Gray's and your plan might stiU be
executed. I am sorry Mr. Warton has contracted such an affection for
his materials, that he seems almost to think that not only Pope but
Drj^den himself have added few beauties to Chaucer."'

The second volume wearied him still more. 'I have very near
finished Warton,' he wrote, 'but, antiquary as I am, it was a tough
achievement. He has dipped into an incredible ocean of dry and obso-
lete authors of the dark ages, and has brought up more rubbish than
riches, but the latter chapters, especially on the progress and revival
of the theatre, are more entertaining; however it is very fatiguing to
wade through the muddy poetry of three or four centuries that had
never a poet.'* With the third volume Walpole 's antiquarian pose
dropped away completely. If Mr. Warton was going to consider the

^Letter to Mason, March 23, 1774. Walpole's Letters, Ed. cit., VIII, p. 432.
^Letter to Mason, April 7, 1774. Ibid., p. 440,
^Ibid.

^Letter to Mason, April 18, 1778. Ibid. X, pp. 222-23.

114

115] CRITICAL RECEPTION 115

Nut Brown Maid better than Prior's imitation, he must feel alarmed at
the drift of criticism. He expressed his contempt for Warton's taste
in admiring such verse and his judgment in devoting so much attention
to those barren centuries in English literary liistory in no mild terms.
But his criticism is a boomerang which returns upon his own inability
to appreciate the merits of Warton's history without having discovered
the faults which undoubtedly do exist. 'This,' he said, 'is the third
immense history of the life of poetry, and still poetry is not yet born,
for Spenser will not appear till the fourth tome. I perceive it is the
certain fate of an antiquary to become an old fool.'° Mason, in the
same spirit, deplored Warton's 'antiquarian mud,' and thought that the
best that was to be hoped for the history was that a selection of anec-
dotes might be made from it.'

From the other class of readers came the savage attacks of the anti-
quarian Ritson, who, approaching Warton's work from the opposite direc-
tion, failed as completely as tlie men of taste to point out its chief faults
and to appreciate its timely as well as enduring value. Ritson was
'merelj' an antiquarian' and a very bad-tempered one: he had no taste
for poetry, no interest in literary criticism; he combined, however, a
genuine passion for exact research with an unscholarly acerbity of
temper and virulence of abuse. His Observations on the three first
volumes of the IHstor;/ of English Poetry. In a familiar letter to the'
author, published anonjTnously in 1782, with characteristic affrontery
was printed 'in the size of Mr. Wartons History' as a 'useful
Appendix' to 'that celebrated work.' After an introduction full of
mock deference and covert contempt, Ritson indicated tlie line of his
attack. 'Whether you have gratifyed "the reader of taste," by your
exertions on this subject, I know not ; but of this I am confident, that
"the anti(iuarian" wiU have greater reason to be dissatisfyed with
being perplexed or misled, than to thank you for having engaged in a
task for which it will appear you have been so little qualifyed."

Ritson 's accurate antiquarian knowledge, though inspired by the
most execrable of bad tempers, was able to collect only one hundred
charges of varj'ing degrees of seriousness and importance against War-
ton's historj', certainly a very small number to be gleaned from three
quarto volumes, 1761 pages in all. The specific points criticized range
from an attack on Warton's excuse for neglecting the Anglo-Saxon
period — tliat it was not connected with the nature and purpose of his

^Letter to Mason, March 9, 1781. Ibid, XI, p. 412.

'Letter to Walpole, March 20, 1781. Quoted from Moulton's Library of Liter-
ery Criticism, 1910, IV, p. 73.
''Observations, etc., p. (3).

116 THOMAS WARTON [116

undertaking (a fault that Warton obviously felt and that Ritson un-
fairy exaggerated by lifting from its context) — to inaccuracy in dates
of manuscripts, inexact quotations, incorrect glosses, and, most serious
of all, the charge of plagiarism. The accusation that Warton was not
always accurate may be admitted, though ^vith the qualification that
his inaccuracy is generally greatly overestimated and was mueli more
frequently due to the inevitable impossibility of ascertaining exactly
every date and meaning and manuscript reading in so huge a work and
in the infancy of the study of those subjects than to any culpable lack of
care on the hitsorian's part.

The charge of plagiarizing is more serious, and, since greater heed
is usually given to such an accusation than to the ill-nature that inspired
it or to the possibility of oversight in transcribing a large number of
references, "Warton seems to need a more extended defense at this point.
Ritson made two explicit charges of this sort and indulged in a good
deal of innuendo. It must be admitted that three notes to Warton 'a
text of Douglas's Description of May^ correspond to those of Fawkes's
edition, published in 1752, and the conclusion that Fawkes was the
source of Warton 's notes is pretty obvious, but that scarcely justifies
Ritson 's acrimonious 'each of These notes, as you [Warton] well
know, is Stolen verbatum from the late Mr. Fawkeses Imitation
of Douglas.'" And again, when Warton had apparentlj- taken an expla-
nation of the Hundred Merry Tales, the supposed source of Beatrice's
wit in Much Ado about Nothing, as the Cent Nouvclles Nouvelles, from
Steevens's edition of Shakespeare, Ritson 's 'I found that, according to
your usual and laudable custom, you had been pecking and pilfering
from ilr. Steevenses notes upon it,' goes beyond the deserts of the case.
It is easily conceivable that references should have been omitted by
oversight or accidental loss. The wonder is that there are not many
more such accidental omissions. And Warton 's evident care to quote
the exact references to his sources in his foot-notes makes deliberate
dishonesty extremely unlikely.

Ritson 's temper is even uglier when he charges Warton with copy-
ing a poem from Percy's ballads and then asserting in the notes that
he had transcribed it from the original in the British Museum and
written the explanations before he knew that it was printed in Percy's
collection, giving colour to the accusation by the fact that the same
mistakes — including the omission of a stanza — occur in both transcripts.^"
We have here a question of Warton 's word against Ritson "s, with a

'^Hist. Eng. Poetry, II, pp. 284, 285, and 286, notes.
^Observations, p. (24).
^"Ibid. p. (5-6).

117] CRITICAL RECEPTION 117

considerable weight of bad temper on one side and a simple and
common explanation, such as is usually accepted at its face value, on
the other, and with the possibility of a perfectly plausible explanation
that both Percy and Warton received their transcripts from a common
copyist."

After his assembly of one hundred and sixteen mostly petty errors
in Warton 's history, Ritson concluded with an insulting attack upon the
whole, unworthy of a scholar of Ritsou's ability and, it would seem, so
far overshooting the mark as to destroy its intended effect. 'If your
collections had been authentic, though of theirselves no history, nor
capable, in your hands, of becoming one, they might at least have been
useful to some subsequent writer better qualifyed for the purpose. But
we see (as has been here sufficiently proved) you are not to be relyed
on in a single instance [a generalization for which he at least had given
slight basis] ; the work being a continued tissue of falsehood from begin-
ning to end. Suffer me, as a friend, — to your subject, at least, — to
recommend' that you revise the whole, 'That the work may not remain
a monument of disgrace to yourself and your country. "-

Although Mant insisted upon Warton 's contempt of this attack,"
his friends resented it and engaged in a fierce war of words with Ritson
in which they showed abilitj- equal to Ritson 's without his spleen.
Ritson seems never to have abated his abuse of Warton,'* although after
his death he expressed an intention to 'treat his ashes with the rever-
ence I ought possibl}- to have bestowed on his person ; ' and a regret that
he had been 'introduced, not always in the most serious or respectful
manner,' in a recently written work."

^'It is. of course, too much to suppose that Warton personally made all the
research necessary for so huge a work unassisted and in the comparatively short
time he must have given to the work, and that not wholly free from other inter-
ests. His letters indicate that he received much assistance from obliging friends,
e.g. letter to Price, .'\ugust i8, 1780 (Mant, p. Ixxviii) and to Percy, February 22,
1776, supra.

^-Observations, p. (48).

•■^Op. cit. I, p. Ixviii.

'^Mant supposed his strictures somewhat softened in the preface to Minot's
Poems (.-Vnon. 1795) but the references to Warton there seem to me no less hostile,
though perhaps somewhat thinly veiled by irony. 'Its author,' he says of the
historian, 'confident in great and splendid abilities, would seem to have disdained
the too servile task of cultivating the acquaintance of ancient dialect or phraseology,
and to have contented himself with publishing, and occasionally attempting to ex-
plain, what, it must be evident, he did not himself understand.' Pref. ed. cit., p. ix.

'^Letter to Walker, June 25, 1790. Ritson's Letters, ed. Nicolas, London,
1833. I, p. 169. See also Thomas Park's Advertisement to his edition of Ritson's
Englisli Songs, London, 1813.

118 THOMAS WARTON [118

Although it may appear from the opinions just quoted that Warton
faih'd to i)h'a.s(> both classes of readers to wlioni he had appealed in his
preface, — that he was not entertaining enough for the man of taste nor
accurate enough for the antiquary, — it must not be assumed that the
work faili-d to have evi-n an innnediate sueeess.'" Besides the caution
that WaIi)ole was too much an Augustan in his taste for poetry and
Sitson too ill-tempered in his hostility toward every other antiquary to
be a very competent judge of Warton 's liistory, it is even more impor-
tant to recognize that Warton had a higher ideal than simply to please
either the man of taste, or the antiquary, or both. He aspired to write
the history of English poetry, and he took a broader and more compre-
hensive and at the same time more single view of his subject than either
type of i-eader was able to comprehend. That he aspired to be, and
was, something more than the mere man of taste is obvious ; that he
was something more than a mere antiquary has not always been so
fully recognized. The distinction is one he recognized clearly himself,'^
and there were some of his contemporaries who realized that in this
work he combined the entluisiasm of a poet, the discrimination of a
critic, the research of an antiquar_y, the broad view of an historian, and
the genuine human interest of a teacher, and that it was this rich blend-
ing of qualities that made his history transcend its faults and become
a 'classic'" upon its first appearance. 'This elegant writer,' said the
reviewer for the Gentleman's Magazine, 'already well known to the
learned world as a poet, a critic, and an antiquarian, opposite as those
characters seem to be, has here in some measure united them all.'"* The
Monthly Review not only described the history as a 'capital work, ....
replete with entertainment and erudition,'-" but even showed some
appreciation of its less obvious merits: 'It is not Mr. Warton 's prin-
cipal merit, that he investigates his subject with the patience of an
antiquary and the acuteness of a critic ; from his accurate delineation of
character, it is evident, that he has inspected the manners of mankind
with the penetrating eye of a philosopher.'-' Gibbon appre-
ciated the value of his study of 'the progress of romance, and the state

'"Mam said that he had heard that the copyright was sold for 35o£, and that
'such was the confidence of the proprietors in the sale of it, that tlie impression
consisted of 1250 copies.' Op. cit., p. hii.

"He dismissed Harding's Chronicle as "ahnost beneath criticism, and lit only
for the attention of an antiquary.' Hist. Eng. Poetry, II, p. 127.

'"C. K. Adams: A Manual of Historical Literature, 1882, p. 501.

■"17-4. Vol. XLIV, p. 370.

-■"1774. Vol. 50, p. 297.

='1782, Vol. 66, p. 162.

119] CRITICAL RECEPTION 119

of learning, in the middle ages,' which he said were illustrated 'with
the taste of a poet, and the minute diligence of an antiquarian. '--

Sir Walter Scott, who combined some qualities of both the man of
taste and the antiquary with a creative imagination that both they and
Warton lacked, showed in his appreciation of the spirit of the past for
the sake of its share in the reality of the present,-'' — a departure from
the earlier study of the past for its own sake which marked the anti-
quary, — a romanticism that seems to emanate from Warton 's History
of English Poetry and its vitalizatiou of the life of the middle ages.-''
Scott's criticism of Warton 's history is pretty just, except that he could
not, of course, quite appreciate Warton 's contribution in the way of
inaugurating modern methods of criticism. After regretting the neg-
lect of system which he said resulted from the writer's too great interest
in the fascinating details of his subject, he concluded, 'Accordingly,
Warton "s "'History of English Poetry" has remained, and will always
remain, an immense common-place book of memoirs to serve for such
an history. No antiquary can open it, without drawing information
from a mine which, though dark, is inexhaustible in its treasures ; nor
will he who reads merely for amusement ever shut it for lack of attain-
ing his end ; while both may probably regret the desultory excursions
of an author, who wanted only system, and a more rigid attention to
minute accuracy, to have perfected the great task he has left incom-
plete.'-'^

"History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Philadelphia 1871,
6 vols. Ill, p. 624.

-^C. H. Herford, in The Age of Wordsworth, London, 1909, distinguishes two
types of romantic mediaevalism, 'the one pursuing the image of the past as a
refuge from reality, the other as portion of it; the mediaevalism of Tieck and the
mediaevalism of Scott.' (Introd. x.xiv, note.) He might have added the mediae-
valism from which they both sprang, which pursued the past for its own sake
(and was not properly romantic), the mediaevalism of the antiquary, of Thomas
Hearne.

-■'There were of course other large factors in Scott's romanticism and there
was little conscious debt to Warton. But there is unquestionably a close resem-
blance between the two men and in other respects than the one just mentioned,
the similarity of their approach to the past, their enthusiastic love of the middle
ages, combined with and even depending upon a firm grasp on reality. Their
qualities differ more in degree than in kind. Warton and Scott have similar
antiquarian interests — more human than scholarly perhaps — similar love for the
architectural art of the past, as well as for the life whose monument it is. They
had also common unromantic qualities : strong common sense, geniality of temper
and love of sociability, tremendous energy, and conservatism in politics, religion
and morality.

-'Scott: Critical and Miscellaneous Essays, 1804. I, p. 11. Quoted from
Moulton's Library of Literary Criticism, IV, p. 73.

120 THOMAS WARTON [120

More adequate realization of the value of Warton's history came
only as modern scholarly research pursued the path which he had first
pointed out, and attained thereby results which over-topped his only
because built upon them. But many of his successors have shown the
common disposition to 'scorn the base degrees by which they did ascend',
and have looked upon but one side of the matter, comparing Warton's
achievement in any particular brancli of his large subject with their
own in a much smaller one. They forget the difficiUties that he encoun-
tered, — that he had not the inspiration of general interest, that authentic
sources were almost inaccessibli', that scholarly methods were undefined,
that even the mechanical aids of book and manuscript catalogues,
bibliographies, and dictionaries were lacking. There is an unfortunate
tendency to blame Warton for the defects of his age, for not having
accomplished tlie impossible — not only in his own day, but, as yet, in
ours. Two short quotations will show the improved yet still incomplete
appreciation of the merits of the history. 'He saw, by anticipation,
some of the fruits which the comparative method might be made to
yield ; and, as a consequence, although he essayed a task too large for
any man,-" and achieved what is doubtless an ill-arranged and ill-pro-
portioned fragment, yet he left the impress of his independent thought
and of his vigorous grasp upon our literature, and traced the lines upon
which its history must be written.'-' 'But Warton's learning was wide,
if not exact; and it was not dry learning, but quickened by the spirit
of a genuine man of letters. Therefore, in spite of its obsoleteness in
matters of fact, his history remains readable, as a body of descriptive
criticism, or a continuous literary essay.'"*

The tendency just mentioned of many modern critics to find fault
W'ith Warton 's history on the score of lack of system and inaccuracies in
detail is criticism beside the point. Even granting that their charges
be true, — they are certainly exaggerated, — they detract little from the
value of the history in its own day, or its importance in ours. Ilazlitt
reached the height of folly in this sort of criticism when he said, 'It
was his rare good fortune to be enabled to take possession of the field
at a period when there was absolutely no competitor in sight,'-' and
charged him with indolence, carelessness and ignorance, — criticism
which reflects more upon the critic than upon his subject. Its author
failed to take any account of Warton's milieu. Looked at with the

=°For which he had examples enough in the encyclopedic works of his century.
='Craik : English Prose, 1906. Introduction, IV, p. 8.

2'Beers: A History of English Romatiticisin in the Eighteenth Century, T910,
p. 205.

^'Hazlitt's edition of Warton's History, 4 vols. London, i8;i. Preface, p. viii.

121] CRITICAL RECEPTION 121

proper perspective his indolence becomes tremendous energy, his care-
lessness, scrupulous regard for detail, and his ignorance, astonishing
breadth and accuracy of information and surprising felicity of con-
jecture. The task that Warton undertook was beyond the accomplish-
ment of any other man in that age, and one that few men since have
ventured upon, and the emendations that many of the best scholars (of
this particular sort) of the last century and a half have been accumu-
lating about Warton 's text ai'e far less numerous and important than
some of them would have us believe.

Warton may be best defended against the most persistent charges of
his critics, those of inaccuracy and indolence, by a brief survey of the
sources from which he drew the materials of his history as lie indicated
them in his foot-notes, showing their great number, their wide range,
their authority, and the way he used them. Misleading as figures may
be, a few will, I think, be illuminating with respect to the work before
me. There are in the notes nearly four thousand references to authori-
ties consulted in the preparation of the history, exclusive of glossarial
notes, illustrative passages and cross-references to other poets, and
bibliographical notes upon the works under discussion, all of which are
very numerous and of course entailed a tremendous amount of work.
Of the references thus considered approximately seven hundred are to
manuscript sources of information, nearly a thousand to historical or
critical works,'" — more than fifteen hundred different authorities
consulted.

It is impossible to give an adequate idea of the variety of books
included in Warton 's citations, 'all such reading as never was read'
and much of it now not only superseded but forgotten. I can mention
here onlj- a few of those most freq\iently referred to and most repre-
sentative of the range of authorities cited, but anyone who will give even
a few minutes to the study of the foot-notes in the first editions of the
history will have a clearer idea of the difficulties of the task and the
merit of the accomplishment. The historical sources include the anti-
quarians, literary, historical and ecclesiastical, that abounded in the
preceding centuries, from Bale and Lelaud to Tanner and Hearne, from
Holinshed and Stowe to Lyttleton and Hume, and from Fox and Spel-
man to Strype and Oudin ; they include glossaries of many languages,
those of Herbelot, DuCange and Carpentier, and Hickes; they include
histories of foreign as well as English literature, Fauchett, Pasquier,
Fontenelle and St. Palaye, among many others for France, Muratori

^"See bibliography of sources. A summer spent poring over the venerable
tomes that Warton used has increased the writer's respect for his thoroughness.

122 THOMAS WARTON [122

and Crescerabeni for Italy, Bartholin, Pontoppidan, and Mallet for Den-
mark, and hosts of others that defy classification."

Very naturally it is tlie historical compilations that are most fre-
quently cited, but always with a discriminating sense of their value;
Warton dependeil on tliom usually for historical facts merely; his con-
clusions and interpretations were his own. In the case of many writers
whom he has quoted frequently he has left an opinion of the author's
work which shows the dependence he placed upon him. The author
from whose very numerous editions of old texts he quoted most fre-
(juently is Tliomas Hearne, 'to whose diligence,' he said, 'even the
poetical antiquarian is much obliged, but whose conjectures are generally
\vrong. '■■'-' Leland he recognized as 'one of the most classical scholars
of [his] age.'-^' Of "Wood, though he is frequently quoted, I find no
further characterization than a reference to 'his usual acrimony.'"
'Bale's narrow prejudices,' he said, 'are well known."*'' "Warton recog-
nized the limitations of Bale's principal work while drawing upon it
for facts not elsewhere obtainable: 'This work .... is not only full
of misrepresentations and partialities, arising from his religious preju-
dices, but of general inaccuracies, proceeding from negligence or mis-
information. Even those more antient Lives which he transcribes from
Leland 's commentary on the same subject, are often interpolated \^'ith
false facts, and impertinently marked with a misapplied zeal for refor-
mation."'"' The 'circumstantial Hollingshed' he characterized as 'an
liistorian not often remarkable for penetration,'^" though his 'formidable

31 It will be easier to enumerate the authors whom Warton apparently did not
consult, and who, it now appears, might have been valuable, but whom we cannot
be certain he did not consult, since he may have found nothing to his purpose.
Literary sources that we might expect to find cited but do not, are Reynolds :
Mythomestes, 1632; Walton: Lives, 1740-70; Lloyd: Dictionarium. 1670; Win-
stanley: Lives, 1687 (its chief source, Philips's Theatriiin, is quoted): Blount:
Censura, 1690, and De Re Poetica, 1694; [Jacob]: Poetical Register, 1719; and.
most curious of all, Dryden's critical essays. .-Mthough there are many references
to Dryden's plays and poems, there are only two minor citations from the prose,
the Preface of the Fables (Hist. Eng. Poetry, \, p. 416), and Prefctce to the Spanish
Fryer (IH, p. 448), and one general reference without exact citation (III, p. 443).

^'-Hist. Eng. Poetry, I, p. 87. Hearne is cited 113 times, from different editions
of old texts.

'^/fci'rf. Ill, p. 160. Leland's five principal works are cited 104 times.

■'■■"/ftirf. Ill, p. 96. Woods two works are cited 77 times.

■"•Ibid. HI, p. 316. 'The Puritans never suspected that they were greater bigots
than the papists.' Bale is cited 44 times.

""Ibid. Ill, p. 79.

"Ibid. I, p. 232. Holinshed's history is quoted 34 times.

123] CRITICAL RECEPTION 123

columns '^^ were full of minute details. He expressed his appreciation of
the work of 'the indefatigablj- inquisitive bishop Tanner,'-^ and of tlie
'manuscript papers of a diligent collector of these fugacious anecdotes,'*"
Coxeter. Warton was extremely gracious iu acknowledging debts to
his contemporaries: — 'the late ingenious critic,' Percy,*^ 'Monsieur Mal-
let, a very able and elegant inquirer into the genius and antiquities of
the northern nations,'*- Tyrwhitt, 'an exact and ingenious critic,'*^ 'my
late very learned, ingenious, and respected friend, Dr. Borlase,'** 'the
reverend and learned doctor Farmer,'*^ and 'Mr. Price, the Bodleian
Librarian, to whose friendship this work is much indebted.'*'

Wliile Warton availed himself of every accessible source of infor-
mation, he did not lean unduly upon later and more easily accessible
sources. 'I chuse,' he said, passing over a recent memoir, 'to refer to
original authorities.'*" Again, he blamed himself for depending upon
later authorities, feeling that he had thereby fallen into error: 'I take
this opportunity of insinuating my suspicions, that I have too closely
followed the testimony of Philips, "Wood, and Tanner.'** The large
number of manuscripts and of early printed books which he quoted
with great concern for dates and careful citations of various other
editions which he had seen or had found described — he usually dis-
criminates carefully between those he had seen and those he had not,
frankly admitting at times that he must quote only at second hand —
bear out his statement that he preferred to refer to original sources.
His letters to his friends, too, are fuU of echoes of his quest for copies
of rare books, and of his researches in book and manuscript collections
in private and public libraries.

This practice of going to original manuscript sources is usually
considered today a characteristic of modem scholarship and especially
as the method by which modern scholars have surpassed the superficial
studies of the eighteenth century.*" And the belief is in general correct.

^«Ibid. Ill, p. 47.

^^Ibid. Ill, p. 429. Tanner is cited 21 times.
*'>/6;d. p. 433.

*^Ibtd. I, Dissertation, I, p. (22). Percy is cited 21 times.
"Ibid.

*^Ibid. Ill, Dis. Ill, p. xcii. Tyrwhitt is quoted 11 times.
**Ibid. I, Diss. I, p. (36) note.
*=/6irf. Ill, Diss. Ill, p. iv.
lo/fcirf. I, Diss. I, p. (8).
"Ibid. I, Diss. I, p. (24), note q.
*^Ibid. Ill, p. 293, note c.

*"Bisliop Percy's carelessness to preserve the integrity of his ballad MSS. is
the stock example of eighteenth century methods.

124 THO?JAS WARTOK [124

But it is uot often considered how much Wartoii contributed to intro-
duce and popularize that method in liis History of English Poetry. Not
only the new facts and the possibilities of absolute exactness which he
revealed in this way, but his very inaccuracies and misquotations have
been a powerful stimulus — to others than Ritson — to the study of old
manuscripts. And his calling attention to the wealth of material that
lay beyond the reaeli of the ordinary reader, and even, as in the case
of the Gowcr Balades, outside the knowledge of the literary antiquarian,
must have been extremely important at a time when general attention
was turning toward the treasures of the past.

It cannot be claimed that the result that Warton achieved with all
his knowledge, industry, taste, genius, is a perfect history even for the
period which it covers. A history of English poetry which will satisfy
the scholar's demand for just appreciation of poetical achievement, the
historian's demand that the progressive development of poetry shall
be portrayed, and which shall, withal, be eminentlj' readable, combining
accurate scholarship with literary qualities and popular interest in the
best sense, — such a history of English poetry remains to be written.
But of the attempts that have been made, the first was not the least
effective. It combines in a remarkable degree scholarliness and general
vnterest; a scholarliness remarkably exact for its time, and so accurate
in method and general results that errors in detail have been corrected
by following its own leading; a general interest that has been wonder-
fully stimulating to research in special divisions of its field or in related
subjects, again in the direction Warton suggested.

The principal contribution made by Warton 's history, aside from
the facts of literary liistory which have been discussed in many pre-
ceding pages, is in the way of method. He first described the pro-
gressive development of poetry, the essential unity of the whole, the
relation of part to part and to the whole. It must be admitted of course
that in the disproportionate discussion that is given to some aspects of
the subject, the relation of part to whole seems to have been lost sight
of. It is true that Warton was unable to keep strictly to his subject;
he was led aside by his endeavour to treat every aspect fully and then
suddeidy recalled by a sense of the extent of his plan ; he was torn by
conflicting desires to treat his subject exliaustivelj' and at the same
time broadly and he never succeeded in reconciling that conflict. Ro-
mantic love of detail over-mastered classical sense of form but could
not obliterate completely his conception of the unity of his whole
subject and the continuity of its history. Warton 's history was at least
and for the first time sufficiently full of the life of poetry to vitalize
subsequent study of the subject.

125] CRITICAL RECEPTION 125

It is only necessary, I thiuk, to recall the fact that "Warton was the
first to use to any extent not only the historical but also the comparative
method. He had shown his clear perception of the close relation between
national literatures in his Observations on the Faerie Queen twenty
years before the first volume of his history appeared. That perception
as well as his acquaintance with other literatures had grown during
that interval, so that he was able to study mediaeval literature with
some knowledge and understanding of its essential spirit and of its
various modifications and developments in France and Italy, at least,
as well as in England, and of the interrelations between them, and to
discuss the renaissance in England with an insight such as none of his
contemporaries possessed. He did not, to be sure, cover any very
considerable portion of his field comparatively ; but to have recognized
the possibilities of the method, to have shown how it might be used,
and to have perceived that only by its use could the history of a national
literature be adequately written, — this was of incalculable value in his
day, and ours.

The great achievement of Warton 's Observations on the Faerie
Queen was that it established Spenser's reputation on a firm foundation
in criticism as well as in poetrj' and inaugurated a new kind of literary
criticism. The History of English Poetry contains a number of such
achievements. As they have been discussed in detail in the preceding
pages, it will be necessary here only to review them. First, of course,
should be mentioned the study of medieval romances, of which, though
Warton 's theory of origins be inadequate, his understanding of their
essential qualities and of their influence upon later literature, is un-
questionably penetrating. The studies in the beginning of the drama
are almost equally valuable. The discussion of Chaucer is comparable
to that of Spenser in the earlier work, and must be considered as con-
tributing greatly to the establishment of that poet's reputation. Warton
is certainly as useful and valuable a source for interpretation of
Chaucer as the more accurate Tyrwhitt for elucidation of textual diflS-
culties, and here again his work has not been superseded but only
continued. The studies of Gower, of Lydgate, of Surrey, of SackviUe,
and of numberless minors are remarkably illuminating in respect to the
quality of the poet's work, his relation to his age, and his contribution
to the progress of the whole subject. The digressions on Dante and on
the history of criticism in France and Italy have been spoken of as
conspicuous examples of comparative study, and as contributing largely
to the study of Italian literature. They and the discussion of Scotch
poetry and the causes of its difference from English poetry illustrate
Warton 's growing recognition of the part plaj'ed by racial characteris-
tics and national temperament in the formation of a national literature.

126 THOMAS W.VRTON [126

That Warton's knowledge of literature was not simply an accumu-
latiou of 'cuinl)rous and aniorphous learning,"" is shown not oidy in
his comprehension of the relations of part to whole and of the continu-
ous progress of poetry, and his arrangement of his material in general
to show that unity and continuity, but it is even more strikingly proved
by his ability to turn liis knowledge to practical use in determining the
period to which a questionable work belonged by the consideration of
the literary characteristics of that period and without any technical
knowledge of its language. Warton's prompt disposal of the Rowley
question meets a practical scholarly test of the best sort in a way that
reveals a real mastery of the field.

Judged by the same standards that Warton helped to teach us to
apply to literary history, with reference to his inheritance from the
past, the influence of the age in which he lived, and the inspiration
of his own genius, Warton stands out as easily one of the most important
figures of the eighteenth century. He was at the same time the product
of his age and of his own genius. From the study of the past he had
gained a quickening of the imagination and a sense of that which is
enduring and constant in human history as well as a perception of that
which changes from age to age ; as he belonged to the eighteenth century,
he had a strong fund of common sense, clear reasoning powers, an
insatiable thirst for knowledge, a wholesome respect for authority; to
these, genius enabled him to add poetical insight, rare sympathy, and
fresh enthusiasm. These qualities were not always perfectly blended.
In particular, the extent of his knowledge often exceeded his ability
to reduce it to order; his enthusiasm for a theory sometimes betrayed
him into too quick an acceptance or too extended an application ; rapid-
ity of composition frequently marred the finished style of which he
showed himself at times capable and too often precluded due selection
of material. Although Warton was unable to free himself from many
of the faults of his age, which he inherited together with its virtues, he
added to tliem many of the conspicuous merits of the next century,
which he was able in a remarkable way to anticipate.

""Craik : English Prose, Introduction, IV, p. 8.

CHAPTER IX

The Poetry of an AntiqujVRY. 1777-1790

Although Warton had apparentlj^ abandoned poetry to devote the
best years of his life to critical and historical work, the poet was never
whoUy lost in the scholar; his poetry, though slight, was always his
dearest literarj- offspring. In 1777 he took advantage of his reputation
as critic of Spenser and historian of English poetry to collect and
publish a small volume of his best verse' made up largely of new poems
written during the course of more laborious work and showing the
influence of his scholarly interests. In this volume of eighty-three pages
were published for the first time all of the sonnets but two, most of the
odes, including the best ones, The Grave of King Arthur and The
Crusade, and two short pieces, the Inscription written at a Hermitage,
in Anstey Hall, in Warwickshire, and a Monody, Written near Strat-
ford on Avon. Although Dr. Johnson, who disapproved of Warton 's
poetry even more heartily than he admired his historical work, said of
this first edition of his poems, 'This frost has struck them in again, '^
the poems were so much admired that another edition^ was published
two years later with the addition of a single poem, The Triumph of
Isis.*

^Poeins A Nezc Edition, with Additions, by Thomas U'arton, London. 1777.
The table of contents contains this note, 'The pieces marked with an asterisc
were never before printed,' and all but seven of the twenty-five poems are so
marked. I am therefore inclined to believe that this was the first edition of the
poems and that the so-called third edition is really the second, the New in the
title of the first being the cause of the confusion. Nathan Drake however, thought,
as I once did, that there were two editions in 1777 of which the copy in the
British Museum, just described, is the second. Essays on the Contributors to the
Rambler, Adventurer, and Idler, London 1810, II, p. 174.

-Boswell's Johnson, III, p. 158, note.

^Poems. By Thomas IVarton. The Third Edition, corrected. London, 1779.
97 pages. The volume contained the following advertisement : 'These Poems were
collected and published together in 1777. Some of them had before been separately
printed, to which other unprinted Pieces were then added. This is the third and a
revised Edition of that Collection, with the Addition of one Piece more. March 1,

1779.'

<Which Mason had regretted was omitted from the first edition, in a letter
to Warton, April 24, 1777. Mant Op. cit. p. xviii.

127

128 THOMAS WABTON [128

In 1782 Warton published, but without his name, au eight page
paini)hK't containing his Verses on Sir Joshua Rcy)wlds's Painted M'in-
dow at New College, Oxford, witli this advertisement: 'The following
piece was never originally designed for the press, and would not have
appeared in public, if it had not been incorrectly circulated in manu-
script.' Tlie artist'^ was delighted with the verses, but with mingled
flattery and vanity complained that his own name 'was not hitched in,
iu the body of the poem. If the titlepage should be lost, it will appear
to be addressed to Mr. Jervais.'* His request was of course granted,
and for 'artist' the poet substituted the name.

In recognition of his merits as a poet and his distinguished abilities
as a man of letters in general, Warton was appointed poet laureate on
the death of Whitehead in 1785. Contemporary opinion differed as to
whether the honour was conferred on the king's own initiative or on
the recommendation of Sir Joshua Reynolds." The appointment was
at least unsougiit, for Warton, although he did not share Gray's con-
tempt for the office,* had deplored the undignified necessity the laureate
was under of writing upon occasion and the inevitable triteness of per-
petual repetition." When the office was bestowed upon him, however,
he accepted it, and expressed the required conventional flattery as best
he could, with much emphasis upon the traditional glories of the i)ast."'
As might be expected, Warton 's laureate odes are the least valuable of
his poems ; they are the most commonplace and show least of his peculiar
poetic gift.

The laureate odes,'' a short inscription,'- one humorous poem," and

'According to Mant we owe the portrait of Warton painted by Reynolds and
now in the Common Room at Trinity College, to his strong friendship for the
artist. Op. cit. p. Ixxxii.

«See letter to Warton, May 13, 1782, B. M. Add. MSS. no. 36526, f. 14, printed
in Mant's Memoirs, p. Ixxxi.

'Nichols; Lit. Illus. VII, p. 468.

'Gray had declined the appointment on the death of Cibber, in 1757, and wrote
contemptuously to Mason of the office, adding, 'Nevertheless I interest myself a
little in the history of it, and rather wish somebody may accept it that will retrieve
the credit of the thing, if it be retrievable, or ever had any credit.' Gray's Works.
ed. cit. II, p. 345.

^Hist. Eng. Poetry, II, p. 133.

'"For Southey's praise of Warton's success in giving the laureate odes 'an
historical character' see The Life and Literary Correspondence of Robert Southey,
6 vols. London, 1850. V, p. 63.

"The Odes for the New Year, 1786, 1787, 1788 and the Odes on his Majesty's

129] POETRY OF AN ANTIQUARY 129

a considerable number of Latin poems were added to the fourth edi-
tion, published in 1789," and Warton"s humorous pieces were here
included for the first time in a collection of liis poems. The poems
that had been published separately were also added, so that the edition
was for the first time practically complete. A reprint of this edition
appeared after Wartou's death, in 1791.'^

The poems that belong to Warton's later period, that is, those that
appeared for the first time in the collected edition of 1777 and were
presumably written after the publication of the Oxford Sausage, the
laureate odes, and other occasional later poetry, show, as would be ex-
pected, a considerable advance over his earlier work in the direction

Birthday for the same years. The Ode on the birthday of 1785 was omitted from
the 1789 and 1791 editions, but included in Mant's, 1802.

^-The Inscription over a calm and clear spring in Blenheim gardcnf^ which
was ascribed to Dr. Phanuel Bacon in Gent. Mag., 1792 although the fact that
Warton included it in this edition shows it to be his.

'^The Prologue on the old Winchester Playhouse, over the Butcher's Sham-
bles seems not to have been published before.

^*Poenis by Thomas If'arton, Fcllozv of Trinity College, Oxford. The fourth
edition, corrected and enlarged. eEOKPITOT TA POAA AP020ENTA KAI H
KATAnTKN02 EKEINH EPHTAAO^ KEITAI TAir EAIKfiMASI TAI AE MEAAM-
*TAAOI AA*NAI TIN HTGIE HAIAN. London . . 1789. xi, 292 pp. This edi-
tion is very rare ; there is no copy in either the British Museum or Bodleian
Library, and the one in the Yale University Library lacks pp. (iii)-iv.

'^''The Poems on various Subjects of Thomas Warton, B.D. Late Felloiv of
Trinity College, Professor of Poetry, and Camden Professor of History, at Ox-
ford, and Poet Laureate. Now first collected. London, 1791. 292 pp. It con-
tains the following Advertisement. 'A reader of taste will easily perceive, that the
ingenious .\uthor of the following Poems was of the School of Spenser and
Milton, rather than of Pope.

'In Order to make this Collection of his poetical Works the more complete,
to the Poems of a more serious cast, are now first added, several pieces of pleas-
antry and humour ; and also some Latin Poems, written with a true classical
Purity, Elegance and Simplicity.'

The standard edition is that published by Mant in two volumes in 1802, The
Poetical Works of the late Thomas Warton, B.D. Fellow of Trinity College,
Oxford; and Poet Laureate. Fifth edition, corrected and enlarged. To which
are now added Inscriptionum Romanarum Delectus, and an Inaugural Speech as
Camden Professor of History, never before published. Together zmth Memoirs
of his Life and Writings; and Notes Critical and Explanatory. Oxford, 1802.
This edition contains six English poems not previously published, and reprints the
Ode from Horace, Book III, Ode 13, which had been published with Joseph
Warton's Odes in 1746. The new poems were the ode to Solitude, at an Inn,
(written in 1769), the Epitaph on Mr. Head, the Ode from Horace, Book III,
Ode '8, and three laureate odes.

130 THOMAS WARTON [130

of the new movemeut. They are far less imitative; not only are Pope
and Swift largely ignored, but even Milton and the early romanticists,
Thomson, Parneil, Young, exert less influence. They begin to show,
too, some influence of contemporary romanticists, especially of Gray.
They are also more markedly characterized by those peculiar qualities
which liad appeared in "Warton's early work, the love of the past and
the love of nature.

Four poems in the volume are significant of "Warton's poetical taste;
three show that his allegiance to the older English poets was unchanged,
and one helps to account for Gray's influence. The Ode sent to Mr. Up-
ton, on his Edition of the Faerie Quecne expresses his early fondness for
'romantic Spenser's moral page' and his joy in reviving his ancient
pageantry, and the sonnet On King Arthur's Bound Table, at Winches-
ter rejoices that

Spenser's page, that chants in verse sublime
Those Chiefs, shall live, unconscious of decay.

In the Monody, written near Stratford upon Avon the thought of the
'bard divine' who made here his 'infant offering' of 'daisies pied'
transforms, 'as at the waving of some magic wand', a vision of natural
loveliness to a fanciful %nsion of tragedy. The sonnet To Mr. Gray^^
expresses the poet's gratitude

For many a care beguil'd
By the sweet magic of thy soothing lay,
For many a raptur'd thought, and vision wild.

The influence of Gray is strong in one of the most interesting and
significant of "Warton's later poems, the Ode Written at Vale-Royal
Abiey in Cheshire. It is apparent throughout the poem, from the form,
the elegiac quatrain, to the atmosphere of pensive melancholy which
pervades it. The poem begins

As evening slowly spreads his mantle hoar.
No ruder sounds the bounded valley fill,
Than the faint din, from yonder sedgy shore.
Of rushing waters, and the murmuring mill,

and continues with a scene not unlike that with which the elegy opens.
But there is an important difference between Gray's poem and "War-
ton's. The former is classical and universal in its application and
appeal; the scene might be any village church-yard; the conventional
moralizing is exactly the sort which dignified the eighteenth century,

>'In the Observations on the Faerie Queene Warton had described Gray as
a 'real poet,' 'one who has shewn us that all true genius did not expire with
Spenser.' II, p. 113.

131] POETRY OF AN ANTIQUARY 131

and which makes an almost constant appeal hoth because of its truth
and because of the perfect form which Gray gave to it. Warton, how-
ever, was describing a particular ruined abbey, and it called up in his
mind visions of the past in which he was deeply interested. He de-
lighted to reconstruct the ruined abbey, to recall its departed glories,
to dwell on the themes dear to him, its architecture, its learning, its
minstrelsy, and its romance.

Here ancient Art her daedal fancies play'd
In the quaint mazes of the crisped roof ;
In mellow glooms the speaking pane array'd,
And rang'd the cluster'd column, massy proof.

Here Learning, guarded from a barbarous age,
Hover'd awhile, nor dar'd attempt the day;
But patient trac'd upon the pictured page
The holy legend, or heroic lay.

Hither the solitary minstrel came
An honour'd guest, while the grim evening sky
Hung lowering, and around the social flame
Tun'd his bold harp to tales of chivalry.

Both poets portray the transitoriness of human life ; Gray advances
from the description of an evening scene to contemplation of the dignity
and worth of rustic life; Warton to the celebration of vanished glories
prized even in an ampler age.

This love of the past, this revival of mediaeval glories especially,
which occasionally showed in the earlier poems and appeared more
strongly in manj' of his later ones, connects Warton most closely with
the romantic movement and constitutes his most original contribution
to it. His medieeval poems have also a close relation to his other liter-
ary work; they give expression to the same master passion that urged
him, as critic and historian, to exploit the beauties of Spenser and the
forgotten poets of early English literature. In two of Warton 's best
and most characteristic odes, he concerned himself wholly with the past.
These very romantic poems are The Crusade and the Grave of King
Arthur. The first purports to be the song that Richard Coeur de Leon
and Blondel de Nesle composed together, by which the minstrel was
able to discover his master in prison. The poem has a fine swing, from
the beginning of the song

"Syrian virgins, wail and weep,
English Richard ploughs the deep!"

to the defiant close, —

"We bid those spectre-shapes avaunt,
Ashtaroth, and Termagaunt !

132 THOMAS WABTON [132

With many a demon, pale of hue,

Dooni'd to drink the bitter dew

That drops from Macon's sooty tree.

Mid the dread grove of ebony.

Nor magic charms, nor fiends of hell,

The christian's holy courage quell.

Salem, in ancient majestj-

Arise, and lift thee to the sky!

Soon on thy battlements divine

Shall wave the badge of Constantinc.

Ye Barons, to the sun unfold

Our Cross with crimson wove and gold!"

The favourite ode, however, will always be The Grave of King
Arthur, in which a story of the national British hero of romance is
skilfuUy set into a brilliant framework of mediaeval splendour. Warton
explained in a short preface that the storj' was adapted from the
Chronicle of Glastonbury and dealt with a Welsh tradition that Arthur
was not carried away to Avalon after the battle of Camlan but was
received by monks and buried before the high altar in Glastonbury
Abbey. This story, told to Henry II by Welsh bards at Cilgarran
Castle, induced him to go to the abbey, find the grave, and, as the ode
has it, establish a chantry at its shrine. The description of the feast
with which the poem opens is gorgeously romantic, and splendidly sug-
gests the great mediffivalist of the next century, Sir Walter Scott.
Warton 's richness and harmony of diction, his stirring and vigorous
appeal to the imagination were continued, but scarcely eclipsed, in the
poems of his great successor.

Stately the feast, and high the cheer :
Girt with many an armed peer,
And canopied with golden pall,
Amid Cii^arran's castle hall,
Sublime in formidable state,
And warlike splendour, Henry sate;
Prepar'd to stain the briny flood
Of Shannon's lakes with rebel blood.

Illumining the vaulted roof,
A thousand torches flam'd aloof :
From massy cups, with golden gleam
Sparkled the red metheglin's stream :
To grace the gorgeous festival,
Along the lofty-window'd hall.
The storied tapestry was hung:
With minstrelsy the rafters rung
Of harps, that with reflected light

133] POETRY OF AN ANTIQUARY 133

From the proud gallery glitter'd bright :
While gifted bards, a rival throng,
(From distant Mona, nurse of song,
From Teivi, fring'd with umbrage brown,
From Elvy's vale, and Cader's crown,
From many a shaggy precipice
That shade lerne's hoarse abyss,
And many a sunless solitude
Of Radnor's inmost mountains rude,)
To crown the banquet's solemn close.
Themes of British glory chose.

Equally romantic, and with the mystic charm of an earlier ago is the
minstrel's song of the death of Artluir,

"O'er Coriiwall's cliffs the tempest roar'd,
High the screaming sea-mew soar'd ;
On Tintaggel's topmost tower
Darksome fell the sleety shower ;
Round the rough castle shrilly sung
The whirling blast, and wildly flung
On each tall rampart's thundering side

The surges of the tumbling tide : '

When Arthur rang'd his red-cross ranks
On conscious Camlan's crimson'd banks :
By Mordred's faithless guile decreed
Benath a Saxon spear to bleed !
Yet in vain a paynim foe
Arm'd with fate the mighty blow ;
For when he fell, an elfin queen.
All in secret, and unseen,
O'er the fainting hero threw
Her mantle of ambrosial blue ;
And bade her spirits bear him far.
In Merlin's agate-axled car,
To her green isle's enamell'd steep,
Far in the navel of the deep.

Warton's love of the past was the inspiration also of three of his
sonnets. Two were suggested by relics of the early history of England:
one by King Artlnir's Round Table, hanging in the old Norman castle
at Winchester, and the other by the mysterious monument of 'wondrous
origine' unknown at Stonehenge on Salisbury Plain.

The third of the mediseval group, the most interesting of Warton's
sonnets, if not the most interesting of all his poems because it affords a
characteristic glimpse of the poet-scholar, is the one Written in a Blank
Leaf of Dugdale's Monasticon. It has for its subject the delightful, tb€

134 TfiOMAS WARTON [134

aesthetic, side of antiquarian study. That aspect made to Warton an
appeal quite as strong as the scholarly one ; it was to him an influence
as potent in poetry and art as the other was in history and scholarship.
The antiquary has never had a better defense and justification than the
following lines: —

Deem not, devoid of elegance, the Sage,

By Fancy's genuine feelings unbeguil'd,

Of painful pedantry the poring child;

Who turns, of these proud domes, th' historic page,

Now sunk by Time, and Henry's fiercer rage.

Think'st thou the warbling Muses never smil'd

On his lone hours? Ingenuous views engage

His thoughts, on themes, unclassic falsely stil'd.

Intent. While cloister'd Piety displays

Her mouldering roll, the piercing eye explores

New manners, and the pomp of elder days,

Whence culls the pensive bard his pictur'd stores.

Nor rough, nor barren, are the winding ways

Of hoar Antiquity, but strown with flowers.

The same note of interest in the past is struck rather frequently,
but never so forcibly, in his last poems, the laureate odes. Aside from
this element, the odes have very little merit indeed. They are dignified,
conventional, and often perfunctory. Warton was not interested in
contemporary events, and George III made no great imaginative appeal ;
therefore Warton, like many another laureate, took refuge in singing
the glories of English heroes of the past, of Alfred and the British
legacy of liberty ; of William Conqueror and the barons who obtained
Magna Charta ; of Edward and the victories in France ; and in lauding
his great predecessors, the laureates of England.

The.se celebrations of ancient days, together with Warton 's neglect
of the ostensible subjects of his odes, were cleverly ridiculed by 'Peter
Pindar','' a poet whose coarse but frequently humorous satires were
more successful than his serious verse. In Ode upon Ode he parodied
Warton 's celebration of the past; in An Expostulary Epistle from

'"The pseudonym of John Wolcott. 'Peter Pindar' was not, however, tlie only
satirist of the laureate odes. Edward Forster, a merchant with considerable
interest in literature, sent the following parody, or 'abridgment', of the New
Year's Ode for i;88 to Gough,

Old Windsor still stands on a hill.

And smiles amid her martial airs.

May Fnglishmen still cock their hats.

And Frenchmen humbly pull off theirs.
Nichols: Lit. lUus. V, p. 289.

135] POETRY OF AN ANTIQUARY 135

Brother Peter to Brother Tom, derided his neglect of the present, and in
his Advice to the Future Laureat, written after the death of Warton,
he pointed with some cleverness to his learning as the cause of his ill
success as a laureate.

Tom prov'd unequal to the Laureat's place;
Luckless, he warbled with an Attic Grace :
The language was not understood at Court,
Where bow and curt'sy, grin and shrug, resort;
Sorrow for sickness, joy for health, so civil;
And love, that wish'd each other to the devil!

Tom was a scholar — luckless wight!

Lodg'd with old manners in a musty college;

He knew not that a Palace hated knowledge.
And deem'd it pedantry to spell and write.

Tom heard of royal libraries, indeed,

And, weakly, fancied that the books were rcad}^

The second important characteristic of Warton 's poetry, the inter-
est in natural scenes as the subject of poetrj', which had been in his
early period largelj' coloured by the influence of Milton and Spenser,
was equally conspicuous in his later work. In the later poems, however,
although he justified his selection of such subjects from the practice of
these favourite poets, it is pretty evident that he was painting directly
from nature. The following short passage from the ode on The First of
April illustrates the closeness of Warton 's observation of simple details
which the pseudo-classicist would have thought beneath the notice of a
poet, —

Scant along the ridgy land

The beans their new-born ranks expand :

The fresh-turn'd soil with tender blades

Thinly the sprouting barley shades :

Fringing the forest's devious edge,
. Half rob'd appears the hawthorn hedge;

Or to the distant eye displays

Weakly green its budding sprays.

The modernity of Warton "s poetry in which the rustic delights of simple
life are celebrated was attested by the fact that his Hamlet, an Ode
written in ^Yhichu'ood Forest, was I'epublished in 1859 with fourteen
etchings by Birket Foster, a popular engraver, who made illustrations
for editions of Milton, Goldsmith, Scott and Wordsworth, and that a
second edition was called for in 1876. Yet for all its 'softness' and
'sweetness', the poem is not one of Warton 's best efforts.

^'Wolcott's Jl'orks, I, p. 382; n, pp. 61, and 451 ff.

136 THOMAS WARTON [136

In two sonnets Warton shows an ability to nsc the sonnet for that
fonibination of observation of nature and personal i-eflection'-' which
prevailed in the poetry of the next century ; they are as reactionary in
the direction of the return to nature as the mediaeval sonnets were in
that of tlie return to the past. One of these is a study of nature and
inooil, in the furtherance of which the poet assumed the contrast between
the hopeful and the disappointed lover. It is apparent that at least
the changeful Surrey landscape was real, whatever the state of feelings
iu which it was viewed.

While summer-suns o'er the gay prospect play'd,
Through Surry's verdant scenes, where Epsom spreads
Mid intermingling elms her flowery meads.
And Hascombe's hill, in towering groves array 'd,
Rear'd its romantic steep, with mind serene,
I journey'd blithe. Full pensive I return'd ;
For now my breast with hopeless passion burn'd.
Wet with hoar mists appear'd the gaudy scene,
Which late in careless indolence I pass'd ;
And Autumn all around those hues had cast
Where past delight my recent grief might trace.
Sad change, that Nature a congenial gloom
Should wear, when most, my cheerless mood to cliase,
I wish'd her green attire, and wonted bloom !

The second nature sonnet, To the River Lodon, is even more inter-
esting intrinsically as well as historically. Although one is seldom
justified in interpreting poetry biographically, and though Warton was
extremely reticent, I cannot but find in this .sonnet something of that
personal note which was characteristic of the new poetry. It is in the
mood of melancholy reflection upon a natural scene that was so con-
genial a vein to Warton 's pupil, William Lisle Bowles.

Ah ! what a weary race my feet have run,
Since first I trod thy banks with alders crown'd.
And thought my way was all thro' fairy ground,

i^Professor Saintsbury has overlooked Warton in considering Bowles as 'the
first, for more than a century, to perceive its (the sonnet's) double fitness for
introspection and for outlook ; to combine description with sentiment in the new
poetical way,' where he is accurately describing Warton's power. Prof. Saints-
bury's omission of Warton among the Lesser Poets of the Later Eighteenth
Century in the latest volume of the Cambridge History of English Literature
(vol. XI, 1914) is one of the most conspicuous omissions in that history; and it
is the more singular and deplorable since he has included such less important
poets as Anstey, Bellamy, Boyse, Cambridge, Croxall. Fawkes, Mendez, Tliompson
and Woty.

137] POETRY OF AN ANTIQUARY 137

Beneath thy azure sky, and golden sun :

Where first my Muse to lisp her notes begun !

While pensive Memory traces back the round,

Which fills the varied interval between ;

Much pleasure, more of sorrow, marks the scene.

Sweet native stream ! those skies and suns so pure

No more return, to cheer my evening road !

Yet still one joy remains, that not obscure,

Nor useless, all my vacant days have flow'd,

From youth's gay dawn to manhood's prime mature ;

Nor with the Muse's laurel unbestow'd.

Closely akin to these nature poems are those that celebrate the joys
of rustic life, poems that, still echoing Milton, stand between T/ie De-
serted Village and The Task. Of these the Inscription in a Hermitage
is the most Miltonic in its praise of studious solitude, but the poet's
joy in the blackbird's 'artless trill', the wren's 'mossy nest', his concern
to count 'every opening primrose', to guide 'fantastic ivy's gadding
spray' show the close observer and real lover of nature. In the Ode to
Solitude, at an InHy-" the genial poet shows a keen enjoyment of a
solitude shared with nature, —

Then was loneliness to me
Best and true society, —

but an equal impatience with the unrelieved solitude of an inn, —

Here all inelegant and rude
Thy presence is, sweet Solitude.

The Sonnet Writte^i after seeing Wilton-House perhaps belongs in this
group; it affords an imaginative variation of Johnson's and Goldsmith's
theme that

Our own felicity we make or find.-'

Warton celebrates the 'pleasure of imagination,' the power of Fancy' to

Bid the green landskip's vernal beauty bloom
.\nd in bright trophies clothe tlie twilight wall,

a sentiment as characteristic of the author as it is remote from the moral-
izing of those sturdy classicists.

Retlection and sentiment have got the better of nature in two odes
that, although popular with Warton 's contemporaries, fail to move the

-"Written May 15, 1769, between Thetford and Ely, see Warton's manuscript
copy-books belonging to Miss Catherine Lee.

-'From the lines added by Johnson to Goldsmith's Traveller.

138 THOMAS WARTON [138

modoni reader. The ode To Sleep is reminiscent of Young; it invokes
sleep to assuage grief, to 'calm this tempest of my boiling blood.' The
Suicide, the favourite ode of many contemporary readers,'-'- has fallen
into obscurity in spite of, or perhaps because of, its representation of
austere virtue triumphing over weak sentimentality. The most inter-
esting feature of tlie poem now, at least, is the vi\'id portrayal of nature
in a forbidding mood as the background for the sombre theme.

Beneath the beech, whose branches bare,
Smit with the lightning's livid glare,

O'erhang the craggy road,
And whistle hollow as they wave;
Within a solitary grave,
A Slayer of himself holds his accurs'd abode.

Lower'd the grim morn, in murky dies
Damp mists involv'd the scowling skies,

And dimm'd the struggling day ;
As by the brook, that ling'ring laves
Yon rush-grown moor with sable waves,
Full of the dark resolve he took his sullen way.

Classical characteristics are not so obvious in Warton's poetry as
love of the past and of nature. Although it is difficult to point out
particular instances of classical influence in his poetry, the careful
reader gains from the whole a definite impression that the ^vriter was
thoroughly familiar with the best classical poetry and alive to its char-
acteristic beauties. Mant, the editor of Warton's poems, painstakingly
pointed out a number of parallels to passages from such classical poets
as Theocritus and Pindar, Virgil, Horace, Ovid and Lucretius. Some
few of the poems were, indeed, frank imitations from Horace and The-
ocritus. But Warton's classicism is not so clearly manifested in
imitations from classical poetry or allusions to it as in his recognition
of the fact that there is no inevitable antipathy between the classical
spirit and 'Gothic' poetry; that they have in common that imaginative
quality which is a distinguishing characteristic of the mediaeval
romances and which the poets of a pseudo-classical age lost by too close
an adherence to the form instead of an independent recognition of the
spirit of classical poetry. Much of Warton's own poetry, therefore,
dealth with mediasval subjects with the deliberate purpose of restoring
by that means this essential quality of great poetry which had disap-
peared in an age of reason.

==See Mant, Op. cit. p. clii ; Recollections of the Table-Talk of Samuel Rogers,
New York, 1856, p. 134; Drake's Essays, V. p. 186; Brydges's Cei'sura Literaria,
London, 1807, IV, p. 274; Critical Review, XLIV, p. in.

139] POETRY OF AN ANTIQU.^Y 139

Because he recognized the close relation between the mediaeval and
the classical spirit, Warton distinctly resented, in the sonnet on Dugdale 's
Monasticon, the designation of antiquarian studies as 'unclassic'. And
in the Verses on Sir Joshua Reynolds's Painted Window he pointed out
the possibility of a relation between the spirit of the middle ages and that
of classical antiquity, as illustrated, in this instance, by their application
to ecclesiastical architecture. Rej-nolds, as a typical representative of
the eighteenth century school of art, saw an incompatibility between the
'softer touch', the 'chaste design', the 'just proportion', and the 'fault-
less forms of elegance and grace' of classical art; and the 'vaulted dome'
and 'fretted shrines', the 'hues romantic' that 'ting'd the gorgeous
pane', — the 'Gothic art' of ancient magnificence; the acceptance of one
meant for him the denial of the other. Not so with Warton, whose feel-
ing was all for their essential unity.

The common suggestion that Warton 's profession of conversion to
the classical school of art, his profession that he had been

For long, enamour'd of a barbarous age,
A faithless truant to the classic page,

was probably not quite whole-hearted and did not even deceive the friend
to whom it was addressed, does not reveal the full significance of the
poem. Its importance in this connection is neither its generous recogni-
tion of the beauties of Attic art, nor even the more extended and sympa-
thetic description of the magic of Gothic art, but the suggestion of the
possibility of combining classical and mediaeval ideals to the advantage
of both. With a just sense of their characteristic beauties, the greater
naturalness and universality of one, the stronger appeal to the imagina-
tion of the other, Warton realized that in art, as in poetry, perfection
lay in their union, and therefore he proposed that the great classical
artist should ^

. . add new lustre to religious light: '

Not of its pomp to strip this ancient shrine.
But bid that pomp with purer radiance shine:
With arts unknown before, to reconcile
The willing Graces to the Gothic pile.

The immediate and later reception of Warton 's poetry indicates that
it belongs much more to the new than to the old school. Johnson and
Hazlitt may fairly be taken as typical critics of the two schools: the
former could see no merit in the performance of his friend; the latter
could not praise it too highly. Dr. Johnson was repelled by Warton 's
enthusiasm for the past; he could appreciate the benefits to be derived
from the study of antiquities in illuminating the history and progress

140 THOMAS WARTOX [140

of mankind,-'" but he liad no sympathy with Warton's enthusiasm for the
intrinsic beautifs of old literature and art, nor with his attempt to
reenibody something of their spirit aud cliarm in modern poetry ; he saw
in his poetry only strangeness of language and form, or at best, revival
of what was not wortli reviving. Although he protested that he still
loved the fellow dearly for all he laughed at him, he wrecked his friend-
ship with Warton by ridiculing his verse thus, —

Wheresoe'er I turn my view,
All is strange, yet nothing new;
Endless labour all along,
Endless labour to be wrong ;
Phrase that time has flung away;
Uncouth words in disarray,
Trick'd in antique rufF and bonnet.
Ode, and elegy, and sonnet.-^

Ilazlitt, on the other hand, although disposed to blame Warton for
the defects of his age in scholarly method, repeatedly acclaimed liim a
'man of taste and genius',-' 'a poet and a scholar, studious with ease,
learned without affectation',-^ and 'the author of some of the finest
sonnets in the language',"^ — praise which accords well with Warton's
vogue among the poets who were Hazlitt's contemporaries.

Interesting as Warton's poetry is in showing his own development
from nearly pseudo-classical to pretty romantic ideals, and valuable as
much of it is intrinsically, its greatest importance is to the student of
literary history as a factor in the development of the new movement.
The influence of the romantic poetry of this laureate poet can scarcely
be, and certainlj' has not been, overestimated, though it has not been
altogether overlooked. 'If any man may be called tlie father of the
present race', wrote Southey in the Quarterly in 1824, 'it is Thomas
Warton, a scholar by profession, an antiquary and a poet by choice'.-'
Southey mentioned Bampfylde and Russell as belonging to the school of

'"Sec Ramblers 83 and 154, Johnson's Works, ed. cit. I, p. 386 and II, p. 155,
and Idler 85, ibid. II, p. 633.

"Boswell's Johnson, III, p. 158.

■-Critical List of Authors, from Select British Poets, London 1824, p. xii.

"^Lectures on the English Poets, Lecture VI, Hazlitt's Works, ed. Waller and
Glover, London 1904, V, p. 120.

^*Ibid. See also his essay on Coleridge's Literary Life from Edinburgh
Review, XXVIII, Works, ed. cit. X, p. 138 where he says he prefers them "to
Wordsworth's, and indeed to any Sonnets in the language'; On Milton's Sonnets,
Table Talk, Essay XVIII, Works, VI, 175, and Critical List of Authors as above.

"XXXI, p. 289.

HI] POETRY OF AN .VNTIQUART 141

Warton,-'" the 'true English st'lioor;-^ to them he should have added also
Headlej- and Bowles. This little group of young poets who, il' they
were not drawn into poetry by the 'magnetism of Tom Warton'-" were
at least strongly influenced by him to write nature poetry of the new
type, and to become also sonneteers. They form the slender thread that
connects him with the major romantic poets, especially with Coleridge
and Wordsworth.

There is no evidence of direct connection between Bampfylde and
Warton. Bampfylde was a Cambridge man who published his first
volume of verse, Sixteen Sonnets, the year after Warton 's first collection
of poems appeared.-* However, his somewhat Miltonic diction, his power
of realistic description, and his sincerity of feeling-" suggest Warton 's
verse and justify assigning him to that school. The other three poets were
personally attached to Warton ; Russell and Bowles were students at
Winchester, wliere they were under the influence of both the Wartons
and whence Russell proceeded to New College in 1782, while Bowles and
Headley chose Warton 's college. All of them published sonnets and
other verse of the new sort during Warton 's lifetime, and Russell's
postliumous volume'" was dedicated to Warton. Of the group Headley
was perhaps most obviously influenced by Warton, but Bowles's debt, if
possibly slighter, is at the same time historically most important because
he, more directlj' at least than they, influenced later poets. Headley has
not only his master's appreciation of nature and his love of describing it
and reflecting upon it, but also his interest in the past, in Gothic ruins,

-'Two minor poets of Warton's group were John Bennet. a young journey-
man shoemaker, son of the parish clerk at Woodstock, who, with Warton's encour-
agement attained such proficiency that his volume of Poems on Several Occasions,
1774, was favourably noticed in the Critical Revietu (XXXVII, p. 473) ; and Wil-
liam Benwell, a friend and contemporary of Headley's at Trinity, where he, too,
was encouraged by Warton. His Poems, Odes, Prologues, and Epilogues etc. was
published eight years after his death, in 1804.

^'Herbert Croft complained to Nichols, May 15, 1786. (Lit Illus. V, p. 210)
that 'The magnetism of Tom Warton draws many a youth into rhymes and loose
stockings, who had better be thinking of prose and propriety ; and so it is with his
brother Joe. At school I remember we thought we must necessarily be fine
fellows if we were but as absent and as dirty as the Adelphi of poetry.'

-'S. E. Brydges: Autobiography, Times, Opinions and Contemporaries. 2
vols. London 1834, II, p. 257; Diet Nat. Biog. art. Bampfylde; and Southey's
Specimens of the Later English Poets. 3 vols. London 1807, III, p. 434, where
are also some of his poems. Three of his sonnets are included in Main's A
Treasury of English Sonnets, Manchester, 1880, p. 393 fif.

29There is more pathos in Bampfylde's poems than in Warton's.

^"Sonnets and Miscellaneous Poems, Oxford, 1789.

142 THOMAS WARTON [142

and in ancient poetry." Bowles's pensive love of nature and his tender
anil often melancholy sentinifnt are the qualities in Mhich he most
resembles his master and which were most admired by his contempo-
raries. The most striking example of Warton's influence upon the later
romantic poets is through Bowles's Sonnet to the River Itchin, which
obviously imitates Warton's To the River Lodon, and as obviously sug-
gested Coleridge's To the River Otter, while Wordsworth's sequence on
the River Duddon comes at once to mind as kindred in feeling. In
general, of course, the admiration of these two poets for their less gifted
friend and his influence upon them are well recognized facts of literary
history.^^

Warton's influence upon the later poets was not confined however
to poems of nature and reflection ; his chief contribution to the romantic
movement was the revival of the spirit of the past, a spirit which found
its fullest poetical expression in the poetry of Walter Scott. Even
Bowles and Wordsworth, who are most nearly in the other line of
romantic development that passed through Warton, had also an interest
in mediffival subjects that must be attributed, at least indirectly, to his
influence."^ Scott's poetry, of course, represents the flowering of the
Gothic and mediffival qualities which were present in a less perfect form
in one group of Warton 's poems. The similarity of temper and interests
in the two men, and Scott's familiaritj- with Warton's work show the

siThe title, at least, of Headley's Sotmct . . Written in a blank leaf of Sir
William Davenant's Gondibert is obviously suggested by Warton's similar sonnet
in Dugdale's Monaslicon. His Verses Written on a Winter's Night, which begins, —

Who heeds it when the lightning's forked gleam

The rifted towers of old Cilgarran strikes,

the lines Written amidst ruins of Broomholm Priory, in Norfolk, and the Ode to
Chatterton, all have mediseval touches that inevitably suggest Warton. The origin
of Imitations of Old IVelsh Poetry in Ossianic prose is evident. . . The closing
lines of On a fragment of some verses written by a Lady in praise of solitude,
beautifully develop the theme of Warton's seventh sonnet, (quoted above p. 136)
and a slight verbal resemblance further indicates this source. In Headley's principal
work, the Select Beauties of Ancient English Poetry, (ist ed. 1787) the influence
of his master's interest in early literature is apparent enough.

^^See Coleridge's Biographia Literaria, ed. Shawcross, Oxford 1907, 2 vols. I,
p. 7 ff. ; J. D. Campbell: Samuel Taylor Coleridge, London, 1896, p. 17 ff.

^^Among Bowles's poems of mediaeval interest are his sonnets on Woodspring
Abbey, 1836, and on Lacock Nunnery, The Last Song of Camoens, The Harp of
Hoel and The Grave of the Last Saxon. Wordsworth's mediaeval poems include
sonnets on Canute and Alfred, the Monastery of Old Bangor, Crusades, Richard I,
Danish Conquests, At Furness Abbey, lona, and the 5"o«<7 at the Feast of Brougham
Castle, The Horn of Egremont Castle, and one that inevitably recalls Warton,
lines Written in a Blank Leaf of Macpherson's Ossian.

143] POETRY OF AN ANTIQUARY 143

influence of Warton upon the younger poet as certainly as such things
can be shown. Quotations from Warton appear in the chapter headings
of his works and upon the title-page of his Scottish Minstrelsy, —

The songs, to savage virtue dear,
That won of yore the public ear!
Ere Polity, sedate and sage,
Had quench'd the fires of feudal rage.

Therefore, whUe it would doubtless be too much to claim for Warton
the whole credit for inspiring in Scott the enthusiasm for the past which
characterizes his stirring mediseval poems; for beginning and passing
on to Wordsworth by way of Bowles the meditative description of simple
natural objects; or for beginning the sonnet revival,^* it is only jixst to
say that he both represented and furthered to an important extent these
tendencies incipient in eighteenth century poetry and dominant in the
poetry of the next century, in the romantic triumph.

=*T. H. Ward does make exactly this claim for Warton in his introduction to

his poetry in English Poets, III, p. 383.

CHAPTER X.
The Antiquary.

Interest in the past may well be called Warton's master passion; by-
turns it dominated, inspired, enriched his literary work. It prompted
him to attempt a history of English poetry; it was at least partly the
source of the historical method of literary criticism which he introduced
into the Observations on the Faerie Queene and the History; and it gave
to liis poetry a new theme and a new interest. It produced also some
work of a strictly antiquarian character and filled the notes of his his-
tory of poetrj' with comments on all sorts of antiquities — numismatics,
topography, diplomatics, and above all, architecture. Upon these dis-
tinctly antiquarian subjects, as well as on literature, he was an authority
of no mean importance, one apt to be consulted in important disputes
among antiquarians.^ One of his earliest publications was strictly anti-
quarian in character, A Description of the City, College & Cathedral of
Winchester. The whole illustrated with . . particulars, collected from
a manuscript of A. Wood, etc. The title is a sufficient description of its
character. The work was published without date in 1750. It was re-
printed in 1857 when Sir Thomas Phillips printed privately at Middle

^See correspondence with Gough anent the so-called Winchester coin. Lit.
Artec. VI, p. 177 flf. notes.

An unpublished letter to Philip Morant, the author of The History and the
Antiquities of the County of Essex (1760-80) shows that he was always glad to put
the result of his incidental studies at the service of his avowedly antiquarian
friends.
Rev. Sir,

If the Particulars in the enclosed Paper, relating to Navestock in Ongar
Hundred, Co. Essex, have not come to your knowledge, I flatter myself you will
excuse this trouble. They are intended for the next Part of your Antiquities of
Essex. You may be satisfied that the Account is authentic ; but if you should be
pleased to make use of it, I will beg you not to mention my Name, but only to
note at the bottom of the Page, that the Information was received from Trinity
College Oxford. I heartily wish you Success in your very useful Researches, & am,
Sir,

Your most obedient Servant,
Tho. Warton,

Fellow of Trin. Coll. Oxon.
Oxon. Jun. 8, 1763.

British Museum Additional MSS. 37222, f. 174.

144

145] THE ANTIQUARY 145

Hill from Wartou's 'own printed copy' in his possession. Thomas
Warton's Notes and Corrections to his History of ^Yinchester College,
and Cathedral printed in 1750.

For all of Warton's antiquarian enthusiasm and reputation he was
never witliout a sense of humour ; he saw the absurdities as well as the
value of delving in the past, and was always willing to poke sly fun at a
'mere antiquarian', even at himself in that role. Of such a character,
but additionally interesting for its humorous ridicule of guide books and
of university customs, is a book published without date in 1760 and
called A Companion to the Guide, and a Guide to the Companion: being
a Complete Supplement to all the Accounts of Oxford hitherto pub-
lished. Containing, An accurate Description of several Halls, Libraries,
Schools, Public Edifices, Busts, Statues, Antiquities, Hieroglyphics,
Seats, Gardens, and other Curiosities, omitted or misrepresented, by
Wood, Hearn, Salmon, Prince, Pointer, and other eminent Topographers,
Chronologers, Antiquarians, and Historians. The Whole interspersed
with Original Anecdotes, and interesting Discoveries, occasionally result-
ing from the Subject. And embellished ivith perspective Vietvs and
Elevations, neatly engraved. This ridiculous pamphlet, in which War-
ton with apparent seriousness tells all sorts of nonsense about his
collegiate city, was extremely popular and went through many editions,
all uno^vned by the author.- The mock-serious continuation of the
antiquarian dispute over the derivation and meaning of the name
Oxford, which Warton affected to settle by emending the reputed Roman
name, Bellositum, to Bullositum, and by citing many similar names in
the vicinity as evidence of its correctness, is a good example of his way
of burlesquing antiquarian pedantry.

The favourite antiquarian subject of local antiquities and parochial
history at one time claimed his attention and led him to write a history
of his parish of Kiddington, which he hoped might some day be included
in a complete history of Oxfordshire, but which should at least serve to
illustrate his idea of how such a history- should be written. Twenty copies
only of this Specimen of a Parocivial History of Oxfordshire were printed
in the winter of 1781-2 for presents to his antiquarian friends.^ A sec-

='The Second Edition, Corrected and Enlarged,' London (1762). A fourth
edition was published before 1765 (See Lit. Illus. VIII, p. 396). It was also edited
by Cooke, Oxford, 1806.

^See Mant, Op. cit. p. Ixxviii. Copies are therefore rare ; neither the British
Museum nor Bodleian Library has one, but there is one in the library of Winchester
College. The book has no title-page, but the name, 'T. Warton', is signed to the
postscript, and the date, January 1782, is written in it. On page 11 the note of

146 THOMAS WARTON [146

ond enlarged and corrected edition* of two hundred and fifty copies was
printed the following year at Oxford by Daniel Prince.'' A new preface
explained tlie author's theory of the value of minute antiquarian studies
as contributions to a general history of manners, arts, and customs. It
declared his purpose of supplying a detailed study of the locality he
knew best and sliowed how the history of national antiquities might be
dra\ra from similar descriptions of every county. That is to say,
Warton's antiquarian research was directed toward a definite and usefiil
end : it was not an end in itself.

"Warton's principal interest of a strictly antiquarian character was,
however, in mediroval architecture. Yet his study of this subject, to
which he devoted most of his vacations for thirty years, produced no
results comparable to those of his studies of mediaeval literature. Indeed
liis only published contribution to the subject is almost his first indica-
tion of interest in it. One of the digressions in the second edition of the
Observations on the Faerie Queene is a brief review of the history of
architecture in England with examples of the various periods."

Of all the work that Warton left unfinished at his death, none is so
tantalizing as the one he more than once described as Observations,
Critical and Historical, on Churches, Monasteries, Castles and Other
Monuments of Antiquity, and which was repeatedly announced as ready

Warton's presentation to the living at Kiddington, concludes, 'He is now Rector,
Jul. ID, 1 781'.

The postscript, the substance of which was more fully developed in the preface
to later editions, is as follows. 'If ever a History of Oxfordshire should be under-
taken, I wish to contribute this account of a parish, with which I am most nearly
connected, and consequently best acquainted. Other places might have been
selected, more fertile of curious information ; but my choice was determined by my
situation. As this account now stands detached, some notes, which in an intire
history of the county would have been otherwise disposed of, were thought neces-
sary. In its present state, I mean if it never should have the good fortune to be
incorporated into a larger work, it may serve as a specimen of the writer's general
idea of a parochial history. T. Warton.'

This copy belonged to Cayley lUingworth, Archdeacon of Stowe, whose Top-
ographical Account of the Parish of Scampton, etc, London, 1808, may have been
modelled upon Warton's suggestions.

*The History and Antiquities of Kiddington : First published as a Specimen of
a History of Oxfordshire. It reached a third edition in 1815.

^Lit. Anec. Ill, p. 695, and VI, p. 180.

'Warton not very accurately described them as 'Saxon', 'Gothic Saxon', 'Saxon
Gothic,' and 'Absolute,' 'Ornamental,' and 'Florid Gothic'. By Saxon Warton meant,
however, Norman, and later substituted that term. See note in Phillips's edition
of the History of Winchester, which reads, 'pro Saxon lege Norman.'

147] THE ANTIQUABY 147

for publication/ but which never appeared. John Price, the Bodleian
Librarian and Warton's close friend, was authority for the statement
that he purposed contributing a paper on the History of Ecclesiastical
Architecture in England to the Antiquarian Societ.y, of which he had
long been a member,' but to which he had not contributed any papers.
He also reported to Mant that among Warton's papers which came into
his hands at his death and which he communicated to Dr. Warton there
was a manuscript written out read}' for the press with directions to the
printer, which contained a History of Saxon and Gothic Architecture.^
Such a manuscript — and there is less reason to question Price's state-
ment than to deplore the carelessness with which Warton's papers were
evidently handled immediately after his death — has never been found.
After Joseph Warton's papers passed into the hands of his son John,
they seem to have been well taken care of, and the latter made a thorough,
but vain, search for the manuscript. He did find, however, what still
remains in the possession of his heirs, some manuscripts which are of
value to his biographer because they show that he spent his holidays in
untiring devotion to this hobby.

These manuscripts'" are the property of Miss Catherine H. Lee, the
great granddaughter of Joseph Warton. They consist of four copy-
books of architectural notes made by Warton on the course of his vaca-
tion rambles. There are also eight transcripts or enlarged versions of
the first notes, and eight books of copies of these transcripts, copied out
faithfidly and much more legibly bj' the laureate's sister, Miss Jane
Warton. These copy-books were not the only records of the antiquarian
journeys, for one finds in them references, 'see Tom Warton's Journal',
or 'N. B. Examine Pockett-Book'. Of these additional records I have
been able to find only three journals, in the library of Winchester College.
They consist for the most part of very meagre personal detail of the
number of miles travelled per day, the inns visited, the state of the
weather, the expense of the journey, etc. There are also at Winchester
and in tlie library of Trinity College, Oxford, several more books of
architectural notes similar to those in Miss Lee's possession though rather
less full and if possible more untidy and illegible. There are no enlarged

'See letter to Gough, June ii, 1781, 'Warton's Observations etc. . are ready for
the press : but the History of .Architecture is not yet finished. How soon he will
publish them, I cannot say.' Lit. lllus. V, p. 528. It was referred to in the History
of English Poetry as a work soon to appear, Vol. I, Diss. I, p. (113), note a and
Vol. HI, p. xxii.

^Warton was elected in 1771.

*Mant, Op. cit. I, p. xxxii.

•"They are mentioned by Sir Sidney Lee in his life of Warton in the Die.
Nat. Biog.

148 THOMAS WARTON [148

versions of them. The very unordered and incomplete condition of both
the copy-books and transcripts shows that they are not tlie 'copy fairly
written out for the press' which Price described to Mant, but only a
collection of material for it."

So far as we can judge from the notebooks, the summer tours upon
which this material was collected began in 1760, though there is some
reason to think that his habit of taking careful notes of architectural
antiquities personally observed had been formed earlier.'^ Perhaps it
was an inheritance or the result of youthful visits to historic places.
The idea of utilizing the descriptions of places visited for the definite
purpose of a liistory of architecture was a later thought. As soon after
the close of the Trinitj- term as it was possible for Warton to get away
from Oxford, he would set out alone or with a companion^" to make a
leisurel}' peregrination or 'ramble' of perhaps two weeks. In his later
years the journeys were often made later in the summer and probably
by chaise,'* and if Dr. Warton and his family did not sometimes accom-
pany liim, they at least joined him occasionally, for they are mentioned
as his companions in the Winchester Journals of 1775, 1779 and 1788.

Sometimes the route lay southwestward, through Kent, Sussex and
Essex, with visits at Lewes, Croydon, Canterbury, etc.", and admitting

i^The following is the titlepage of the manuscript :

Critical and Historical Observations. On Churches, Castles, etc., in various
Counties of England. Taken from an actual Survey. Improved from the Author's
collection printed and pub.

(only so much added from books as might illustrate and contirm what I said)

Persons on the spot will find fault with ivhy I have added 'certain'.*

A work of Taste & history of manners.

This work is the result of various journies & the examination of various MS.
evidences.

"On the second page the title reads 'On certain Churches' etc.

•-For example, the History of Winchester is based largely on personal
observation.

'•■•That he sometimes traveled alone is shown by his Ode to Solitude at an Inn,
written May 15, 1769, at a village inn between Thetford and Ely. (See Warton's
Poems, ed. 1802, I, p. 140, and Lee MSS.) 'Y'et he often uses the pronoun 'we' in
his journals, although he seldom names his companion. Under the date of Aug.
19, 1788, he says, 'Ride to Brockley-Comb with Dr. Warton' and under the date of
Aug. 8, 1789, his last tour, he writes, 'met J. Price at Wilect (?)' Winchester
MSS. See also Trinity MSS. Sept. 18, 1767.

i<For example, Sunday, Aug. 10, 1788, he writes, 'Drove from Beeston through
Wroxair. Winchester MSS.

"May, 1763 and June, 1764. Lee MSS.

149] THE ANTIQUARY 149

of a brief stay in London ;'* sometimes northward, through Norfolk and
Suffolk, to visit Newark and Lincoln, Norwich,^', Thetford, and Ely;^'
again westward into Wales, where romantic landscapes furnished a fine
setting for ruined castles. Frequently the journey began at Winchester,
when Joseph Wartou very likely accompanied his brother. Sometimes
they proceeded by easy stages southward to Christ Church, where
Thomas made observations on the fine old 'Saxon' (Normaii) building
with its Gothic casing, and indignantly lamented the damage it suffered
during the grand rebellion when the horses of the Presbyterians were
stabled in the Lady Chapel, to the serious injury of the fine ornamental
work over the altar.^" Thence they journied westward into picturesque
Devonshire and to Exeter, where he found the cathedral 'very heavy
and far from magnificent';-' then northward to Taunton and to Glaston-
bury,^- where the portcuUis and sprig-rose of Henry VII were con-
spicuous decorative features not only of the abbey but in various parts
of the town — ornaments which Warton shrewdly suspected were taken
from the abbey itself. From there they might go on to Oxford by way
of Cirencester.-^ One of the Winchester journals describes a 'Tour
from Winton into Sussex, and round to Oxford' including stops at
Tewkesbury Abbey, Worchester Cathedral, Westham Church, and a visit
at 'General Oglethorpe's, a most sequestered romantic situation, with
some pictures of Sir Peter Lely &c.'-* In 1788, although he had twinges
of gout and spent several days of his vacation at Bath, he made a long
journey from Sonning to Southampton and one day drove fifteen miles
to Cheddar Cliff where he was impressed with the view. He described
it as ' a most stupendous aperture on the South side of Mendip a winding
chasm of vast breadth with immense cliffs, gigantic scale mass( ?) of
various shapes & sizes most lofty & often perpendicular with Caverns
here and there, bearing away to Rocky (V) Hole, 4 miles off.'-'

Warton 's journals show that he had a fondness for wild and strik-

'"Warton was at Rochester May 25, 1763, and London lay on his route to both
Oxford and Winchester. He was at Dover June 7, and Waltham June 14, 1764;
the journey from Dover to Waltham, of which no account is given, could not have
occupied a week's time, and the route again lay through London. He was at
Hampton Court, just outside London, May 7, 1769. Lee MSS.

"1765- Ibid.

"1769. Ibid.

"May, 1762. Ibid.

20May 5, 1761. Ibid.

=iMay 8, 1761. Ibid.

=2May 14-IS, 1761. Ibid.

23May 19, 1761. Ibid.

"June 4, 1775. Winchester MSS.

"Aug. 4 to 28, 1788. Ibid.

150 THOMAS WARTON [150

ing scenes like those just described, and it is interesting to note that he
often applii's the term 'romantic' to them. For examph', in his journal
for 1767 occurs this description: "On the side of a romantic Valley,
very steep and rocky, among woods and vallies( ?) stands Bury Castle. .
The position is most romantic & solitary.'-" Another romantic situation
was that of the old dormitory at Brecknock, 'on a Declivity cover'd with
oaks falling down to the irregular windings of the River Usk'."

In the pages of these notebooks we catch many interesting glimpses
of Warton and his companion; now they are amid the ruins of Goodrich
Castle in Herefordshire, — a castle Warton described as picturesquely
situated 'on the edge of a woody and rockj' declivity, rising from a
romantic and winding valley, water 'd by the river Wye,'-' spending the
long May afternoon wandering about its scanty ruins, tracing the lines
of the old walls, examining the square Norman tower, and the Chapel
indicated by the remains of the great east window and the 'perishing
outline' of a saint in red at the entrance,-" and in the late evening linger-
ing over an inscription whose antique characters were scarcely legible
in the last rays of the sun setting bcliiiid the castle.^" Again we see
them at Hereford Cathedral, bewailing the disfigurement of the nave,
when it was turned into a parish church, 'by a most shabby set of pews
for hearing the sermons', and of the arches opening into tiie choir by a
'very clumsy and tawdrey organ gallery '.^^ Frequently we find Warton
among the ruins of an old church looking over the old sexton's trumpery
collection of 'relics,' — 'old keys, spurs, bits of pavements, etc. dug up
from the Ruins'^- — in hope of making a real 'find'; or in a less dilapi-
dated church leading on the sexton or chorister to tell of the old days
when the vaulted arches reechoed at matins and evensong the tones of
the now disused organ and the voices of the choir long since disbanded."'
On all these journeys Warton "s enthusiasm never flagged ; with scrupu-
lous care he noted down the various styles of architecture, the general
state of preservation or decay, the subjects of storied windows, the fine
oM brasses and tombs which had escaped the ravages of time and the
Presbyterians, and the names of antiquarian works with which his obser-
vations were to be compared. The brief journal of his last vacation
tour, in the vicinity of Southampton, shows him as eager as ever, and

=8Sept. 3, 1767. Trinity Coll. MSS.
"May 18, 1-71. Lee MSS.
='May 12, 1 77 1. Ibid.
-"Now wholly disappeared.
'"May 12, 1771. Ibid.
'•May 13, 1771. Ibid.
'=St. Alban's, Dec. 30, 1759. Ibid.
'"LlandafT, May 30, 1760. Ibid.

151] THE ANTIQUARY 151

contains antiquarian notes on the Roman road from Porchester to
Chichester."

Very naturally Warton's purpose soon came to be more than sim-
ply investigation. His enthusiastic love for these fine old treasures was
roused to indignation when he saw their dilapidation hastened by the
vandalism of rural communities who pillaged the ruins of noble abbeys
and castles to build their own houses or roads, ^^ and he did what he
could to stop their ravages. According to the late Henry Boyle Lee,
the grandmother of the present owner of Warton's notebooks used to
tell of "her uncle's self-congratulations on the subject of his efforts in
that direction. He would relate with glee how often he had stopped
some pursy vicar riding with his wife stuck behind him on a pillion
into Oxford, or Winchester, or about any neighborliood in which he
had sojourned, and how he had scolded, aud argued, and almost shed
tears, ratlier than fail to enlist their sympathies in favour of some
tomb or niche which he had heard of as being doomed to destruction,'
or how he had lingered 'over ale and tobacco in out-of-the-way roadside
inns' to convert 'from the error of his ways some stupid farmer, who
had designs on the recumbent eflSgy of doughty knight or stately dame,
and was about to have it mutilated and maimed for the purpose of
making moi-e pewroom for the hoops and petticoats of his buxom
daughters'.^" Not the least valuable result of Warton's antiquarian
jaunts, therefore, was that he stayed the hands of many such destroyers
throughout the country, while he was planning at the same time to
arouse in the polite reading-public a renewed interest in the treasures
of their glorious past which would ensure their future preservation.

To appreciate the importance and value of Warton's interest in
Gothic architecture, one has but to consider the depth of contempt and
neglect into which that style of architecture had sunk in the eighteenth
century in the wake of the revival of the Renaissance style introduced
from Italy by Inigo Jones and popularized by Sir Christopher Wren.
The beauties of Westminster Abbey and the Tower were quite overlooked
by eighteenth century admirers of St. Paul's, who were not to be easily
won back to an appreciation of the beauties of mediseval architecture.

The revival of interest in medieval architecture has been closely
associated by students of the romantic movement with that of mediae-
val literature," and the name which has always occupied the most

3*Aug. 8, 1789. Winchester MSS.

3-Bury, 1769. Lee MSS.

'^Henry Boyle Lee: Thomas ll'arton, Cornliill Magazine, June, 1865, vol. XI,

P- 737 ff.

3'For example, H. A. Beers : History of English Romanticism in the Eighteenth
Century, 1910. Chapter VII, The Gothic Revival.

152 THOMAS WAKTON [152

prominent place among those who contributed to this revival is that of
the dilettante and virtuoso, Horace Walpole. The manuscript notes
on architecture of Thomas Warton, however, help to establish his claim
to be considered with Walpole in this respect and show that his interest
was deeper and his influence equally great.

Warton 's study of Gothic architecture is the more important be-
cause it was not a pose nor a fad, like Walpole 's, but the natural
complement of his other mediaeval interests. In neither did love of
the subject arise from any thorough knowledge of mediaeval building.
Both were distressingly ignorant (from a modern point of view) of the
details of tlie subject, so that even Warton, who studied the technical
side much more thoroughly than Walpole,^* gave only a confused de-
scription of the periods and styles of architecture. Warton 's interest,
however, had much deeper root than Walpole 's. Although Walpole
was, as Leslie Stephen said, 'almost the first modern Englishman who
found out that our old cathedrals were really beautiful','" mediaeval
art was after all only a toy for him, and his absurd imitations of old
architecture — his parodies of altars and tombs for his chimney pieces
and of cathedral pillars for his garden gate posts — resemble the 'whi-
lom' and 'ywis' of the first eighteenth century imitators of Spenser.
His service in setting a Gothic fashion in architecture is quite compara-
ble to that of those poets whose half-amused fondness for Spenserian
verse gave it a certain popularity even before genuine appreciation
and intelligent study had produced a justification of its beauties on
firm grounds of critical theory such as Warton 's Observations on the
Faerie Queene. On the other hand Warton 's more genuine admiration
for the architectural beauties of the past urged him to attempt a simi-
lar service for medieval architecture; his Observations of the Churches,
Castles, etc. of England, with its pendent History of Gothic Architect-
ure, would have been a companion piece to his observations on Spenser
in all that enthusiastic love of the subject and careful observation could
do. But, unfortunately for the historj' of Gothic architecture in Eng-
land, Warton was a scholar, not a builder; poetic insight covdd not
fathom the mysteries of architecture ; and Warton 's historj-, had it
been published, though valuable in its daj', would have had far less
revolutionary and permanent value than his critical work in a sister art.

5*In those fields where their interests touched, Walpole always recognized
Warton's superior scholarship and mastery of the subject. When Warton sent him
the second edition of the Observations on the Faerie Queene with a complimentary
note, Walpole replied with sincerity, 'compare your account of Gothic architecture
with mine; I have scarce skimmed the subject; you have ascertained all its periods.'
Walpole's Letters, Ed. cit. V, p. 237.

^^11 ours in a Library, ed. 1907, vol. II, p. 139.

153] THE ANTIQUARY 153

Warton's interest in mediaeval architecture not only was more genu-
ine than Walpole 's but probably even preceded it in point of time ; he was
certainly equally influential in revi^•ing general interest in the subject
even though the work that was to set forth its history never appeared.
Walpole first showed his interest in 1750 when he declared in his pri-
vate correspondence his purpose of building a 'little Gothic castle at
Strawberry Hill ' ;^" by that time Warton had showai in three publica-
tions his admiration for Gothic architecture. His Pleasures of Melmi-
choly, written in 1745 and published in 1747, contained many references
to it; his Triumph of IsLi, 1749, has a eulogy of the Gothic beauties of
Oxford, and his Description of Winchester, 1750, is full of admiring
descriptions of media?val architecture. If Walpole "s tastes were more
talked of among gentlemen of fashion, and his influence is, for that
reason, more apparent to the student of the period, Warton 's had a wider
circulation among a substantial class of growing importance, and his
influence therefore deserves greater recognition than it has yet received.
His ser'S'ices in arresting the destruction of the crumbling remains of
feudal castles and mediaeval abbeys under the combined depredations
of time and ruthless neighbours, though quite unostentatious, were more
persistent and probably far more effective than Walpole 's, especially
since his landlessness saved him from that temptation to add a few
genuine old Gothic pieces to a miscellaneous collection of imitations to
which both Walpole and Scott yielded.

Therefore, for his genuine and deep-rooted admiration for Gothic
architecture, as shown in his poetry and in his critical work, for his
persistent efforts to comprehend its forms and development, for his
attempt to write its history illustrated with descriptions of many of its
best examples throughout England, and for his quiet but earnest efforts
to preserve these examples, Warton 's name deserves to stand high on
the list of those who contributed to the revival of interest in medieval
architecture as part of the wliole mediaeval revival. Yet, however
valuable was his strictly antiquarian work, his perception of the relative
unimportance of such studies, which distinguished him from the 'mere
antiquarian', led him to reserve it for his holidays, while he devoted
his best energies to works of whose immediate and lasting value there
is no question.

*'>Letters, ed. cit. II, p. 423.

CHAPTER XI
Last Years. 1780-1790.

One of the most important among the varied interests that dis-
tracted Warton from his purpose of completing the History of English
Pocirif was the final expression of his lifo-long devotion to Milton. The
constancy of this interest had been repeatedly shown,— by digressions
on Milton's poetry in his first critical work, by the obvious influence
of Milton on his own poetry, and by frequent references to him in the
history of poetry. The result of this long study was that in 1785
"Warton published one of his best works, an edition of Milton's shorter
poems.- Like his father,'* the editor was eager to establish the great
poet's reputation. On the basis of his own sound scholarship he com-
pelled recognition of Milton's importance in the eighteenth century by
describing the rise of a 'school of Milton . . in emulation of the school
of Pope',* and secured a fuller appreciation of his poetry by a modern
interpretation of it, especially by applying to its study the new historical
method.

Warton had previously recognized the need for the historical study
of Milton when he pointed out in the Observations that an acquaintance
with that very mediaeval literature which had been mistakenly over-
looked even in the study of Spenser was also important for the study
of IMilton. He realized that since Milton was at least partly 'an old
Englisli poet', he required 'that illustration, without which no old
English poet can be well illustrated',' which is to be found in 'Gothic'
literature. Tlie great merits, therefore, of Warton 's edition of Milton
arise from his ripe scholarship and his excellent poetical taste. His
acquaintance with many of the poets with whom Milton must have been
familiar enabled him correctly to interpret his poet; his taste and

'Yet the plan was never wholly abandoned. See Mant, Op. cit. p. Ixxviii;
Lit. Altec. Ill, p. 696, and preface to the edition of Milton, 1785.

-Poems upon Several Occasions, English, Italian, and Latin, . by John Mil-
ton . with notes critical and explanatory, and other illustrations, by Thomas
Warton, London 1785. Second edition, 'witli many alterations, and large additions',
London 1791.

^For whom he claimed the merit of having introdnceil the shorter poems to
Pope. Ed. Milton, 1791, Pref. p. x.

*Ibid. p. xii.

^Ibid. p. xxiv.

154

155] LAST TEARS 155

sympathy helped him to point out Milton's chief beauties. The notes
to the edition are a rich collection of comment upon the work of other
editors, of corrections of textual emendations by comparison with the
Milton autograph manuscript* as well as with early editions, of expla-
nations of obscure words and figures by the study of modern and
classical parallels, and of critical appreciation of poetical excellences.

Besides contributions to the literary study of Milton, Warton made
an important discover}' of biographical material when he prepared for
inclusion in the second edition a copy of Milton's nuncupative will,
together with the evidence taken at the hearing of the case on its being
contested.' Another important addition was his account of the origin
and history of Comus.^

The result of a lifetime of study was an edition of Milton that is
not only one of Warton 's best works, but one that has been described
by a modern editor of Milton as 'one of the best books of comment in
the English language." It is generally recognized as an important
source for the study of Milton." And on the whole its merits were
pretty well recognized even when it first appeared. In the thirty years
that had elapsed since his commentarj- on Spenser was published, his-
torical criticism had made such progress that some readers could
appreciate the work of a critic who was 'not less conversant with
Gothic than with classical knowledge.'" This attitude of appreciative
approval was not, however, universal ; an anonymous letter to the editor'^
attacked the work not only on this very ground that it quoted too
extensively from the 'English Black Letter Classics' and fostered the

'At Trinity College, Cambridge. A description of it with variant readings
forms an appendix to Warton's second edition, pp. 578-590.

'After a long and fruitless search Warton was obliged to confess in the first
edition that he was unable to find the will, and he concluded that it was no longer
in existence. With the aid of Sir Wm. Scott, however, he was able to add it to
the second edition. See Pref. p. xlii.

'Reprinted in Conius, a mask: presented at Ludlow Castle 1634 etc. London,
1799, and in Brydges's ed. of the Poetical Works of Milton, 6 vols. 1835, vol. V,
P- 173. ff-

'David Masson : The Poetical Works of John Milton, 3 vols. London, 1874,
III, p. 341.

'"Warton's notes were transferred almost bodily to Todd's 'Variorum' edition
1801, to Hawkins's ed., 1824, and they have been drawn upon ever since. See also
Brydges's ed. 1835, and the Aldine ed. 1845.

''■^Critical Review, May 1785. LIX, p. 321. See also Gent. Mag. 1785,
LV^ pp. 290 ff., 374 ff., 457 ff. ; Monthly Rev. LXXIX, p. 97 ff. and Hawkins's
preface.

^^A Letter to the Rev. Mr. Thomas Warton on his late edition of Milton's
Juvenile Poems, London, 1785.

156 THOMAS WARTON [156

growing 'Relish for all such Reading as was never read,''^ but, more
justly, for its tendency to over-long and tedious explanations of trifling
points and for the unnecessary severity of the criticism of Milton's
Puritanism. The latter are undoubtedly the defects of the work; the
former is, however, one of its chief merits and the principal source of
its sympatlietic interpretation of the poet. An exchange of mild hos-
tilities on the subject of the edition of Milton between Warton's critics
and his admirers, which appeared in the Gentleman's Magazine during
1785 and 1786," has no critical value.

The success of the edition of Milton's shorter poems encouraged
Warton to continue and complete it with a second volume containing
a similar study of Samson Agonistes and Paradise Regained}'^ He
therefore removed from the first volume such notes as related particu-
larly to those poems and prepared others. But this plan, like other of
his projects, was never completed. It was, however, carried to such
an advanced state of completion that in the summer of 1789 "Warton
expected it to appear the following April.'" The second edition of the
minor poems, which was to be the first volume of the intended whole,"
was in the hands of the printer at the time of his death,'* and was
issued without alteration the following year. It is probable that most
of the notes for the second volume were lost, as Mant says,''' in that
removal of "Warton's papers from Oxford to "Winchester which was so
disastrous to the notes for the fourth volume of the history of poetry.

"/bicf. p. 40.

"LV pp. 416 and 435, LV= p. 513, and LVI^ pp. 211-214.

>=Mant reported an unsubstantiated rumour to the effect that the king had
suggested the enlargement of the plan. Op. cit. p. xc.

'"He wrote to Steevens from Southampton July 27, 1789, 'My first volume,
with many considerable alterations and accessions, is quite ready for Press ; and
the Copy of the second is in great forwardness, so that I believe I shall be out
by next April.' Bodl. MSS. Eng. Misc. C. i, fol. 86.

''The signatures of this volume are numbered Vol. I in anticipation of the
second volume.

'^Toward the close of the long vacation at Winchester he wrote to Malone,
'I am deep in my Milton, and go to press with that work the 7th. of November'
(Winton, Sept. 30th, 1789, Brit. Mus. Addit. MSS. 30375, no. 11), and to Price, 'I
return with my new edition of Milton ready for press at the Clarendon.' (Oct.
12, 1789, Mant, Op. cit. p. Ixxxix. See also Mant, p. xc and the preface to the
second edition of Milton, p. xxvi). A little later he wrote again to Malone, 'We
are at press most rapidly with Milton' (B. M. MSS. as above no. 12), and, 'I have
lately been so much hurried by . . . Milton's Proofs . . . that I have not been able
to find the Transcript as I promised.' (i6th Dec. 1789, same, no. 14).

'"Op. cit. p. xci.

157] LAST TEARS 157

Joseph Wartou long inteuded to publish in completion of the edition,-"
the few notes that remained, but he never did so. After his death,
his son, John Warton, sent them to Todd to be used in his second edition
of Milton.='

In the preparation of his edition of Milton, Warton, as usual, en-
gaged the help of his friends in the search for wanted books and
manuscripts. I cull from his letters evidence of a few such borrowings.
From Isaac Reed he begged the favour of 'T. Randolph's Poems,
printed at Oxford in 1637,-= not 1640, which is the second edition, '^^
which he thought might be the edition containing Comus-* described
by Sir Henry Wotton.-'' Being unable to find such an edition, he came
to a conclusion which was borne out by his own experience of old Eng-
lish books, that the combination was made by the binder. He consulted
Steevens, to whom he sent notes on Shakespeare, about the Milton
manuscript at Trinity College, Cambridge, =" and arranged to make
transcripts from it when he should visit Cambridge. =' He twice ac-
knowledges 'hints for Milton' from Malone, but does not indicate their
character.^'

The preparation of the two editions of Milton and of the enlarged
edition of his poetry — and he had not wholly abandoned the history of
poetry — was not so engrossing that Warton did not find time to take a
lively interest in the literary labours of his friends. During his whole
life he had been as eager to help them as he was glad to acknowledge
their contributions to his own work. He was at this time particularly

-"See letter to Hayley, 1792, Wooll. Op. cit. p. 404.

-^y vols, London, 1809, vol. I, pref. p. vi.

2=Warton corrected this date to 1638 in his second ed. Milton, p. 119.

-'Letter to Isaac Reed, April 13th, 1873. Montague d. 2, fol. 51. This letter and
those preceding and following, to Malone and Steevens, are printed in full with
notes in the Journal of English and Germanic Philology, XIV, no. I, pp. 96-I18.

=*'You were properly right in guessing why I wished to see this Book. I have
been (with you) long searching for Comus at the end of this volume of Ran-
dolph, . . I think Mr. Bowie (Wilts) told me he saw a Randolph, with Comus
annexed.' Letter to Reed, April I9tli, 1783. Bodl. MSS. Montague d. 2, fol. 54.

=^See Warton"s Milton, second edition, pp. 118 ff.

=8Western MSS. no. 583. See also Milton, ed. cit., pp. 578-590.

-'The Trinity manuscript will not be wanted until we arrive at the end of the
present volume; I think with you, that I must [be] the Transcriber; and I will
endeavour to arrange the matter so as to visit Cambridge at Christmas next, and
to do the Business.' Letter to Steevens, Southampton, July 27th, 1789. Bodl.
MSS. Eng. Misc. C. i, fol. 86.

-8'Many thanks for the hints for Milton', Purbrook, Aug. 17th, 1787, and, 'I
avail myself, with many thanks, for your hints to my Milton.' Oxon. Dec. 6, 1789,
Brit. Mus. MSS. Addit. 30375, nos. 8 and 13.

158 THOMAS WARTON [158

interested in Maloue's plan for an edition of Shakespeare, and was
able to be of considerable lielp in its preparation, contributing to it
from his collections for the later and unfinished portion of his history
of poetry. For this purpose he called Malone's attention to 'a thin
folio of manuscript miscellaneous poems, in which I believe are the
pieces you wish [Mr. Downes] to transcribe,'-" which contained Basse's
'Epitaph on Shakespeare',^" among other pieces.-'^ He also pointed out
Spenser's sonnet in the life of Scanderbeg,^- and 'A Description of
the Queens (Elizabeth) Entertainment in Progress at Lord Hartford's
at Elmtham in Ilantshire, 1591',^^ which he found 'at a friend's house
in Hampshire. ''* He transcribed portions from the manuscripts of
Wood and Aubrey with reference to Speuser,^^ Jonson,^" and Shake-
speare.^^ He sent Wright's Ilistoria Histrionica, 1699,'* which had been
reprinted as the preface to the eleventh volume of Dodsley's Plays, his
own copy of the third edition of Venus and Adonis,'^ and Chettle's
Kind Hart Drcamc from Winchester.^" He also arranged for the copy-

=°Jun. 22d, 1781, same MSS. no. I.

^oWarton at first ascribed this poem to Donne because it was included in the
first edition of his poems in 1633.

s'The Rawlinson MSS. 14652 (now Rawl. poet. 161) written about 1640, con-
tains 'Shakespeare's epitaph' (fol. 13) and 'one or two pieces (a Sonnet & an
Epitaph), signed W. Shakespeare. This Manuscript is about the times of Charles
the First.' Letter to Malone, .Tun. 22d, 1781, as above.

•■'-The sonnet beginning 'Wherefore doth vaine Antiquity so vaunt' which
appears as a dedicatory poem to The Historie of George Castriot, etc. London,
1596.

^^The honourable Entertainement gieven to the Queenes Mojestie in Progresse,
at Elvetham in Hampshire, by the right Honorable the Earle of Hertford, 1591,
London, 1591.

^^Odiham. Hants. Jul. 29, 1787 [9?] MS. as above, no. 5.

''"Sept. 30th. 1789 and 21st Nov. 1789, same MS. nos. 11 and 12.

'"Dec. 6, 16, 20, 1789, same MS. nos. 13, 14 and 15.

3'i6th Dec. same MS.

38'Wright's Preface shall also be sent with Shakespeare's Poem.' Trin. Coll.
0.\on. Mar. 19, 1785, same MS. no. 2.

39'By a coach of next Thursday you will receive the Venus and Adonis. It
is bound up with many coeval small poets, the whole making a Dutch-built but
dwarfish volume.' (Same letter).

The volume was apparently wanted again two years later, for Warton then
wrote to Malone, 'I am exceedingly sorry to be so far from Oxford, as to be
hindered from accommodating you immediately with the Venus and Adonis. If
I should be at Oxford within three weeks, I will send it. Upon Recollection, Dr.
Farmer has a Copy, who will undoubtedly lend it with pleasure.' Purbrook-Park,
Kear Portsmouth, Jul. 29th, 1787. Same MS. no. 7.

^'Oxon. March 30th., 1785, same, no. 3.

159] LAST YEARS 159

ing of a portrait of the actor Lowin, in the Ashmolean Museum.''' 'A
good engraving' of it, he thought, woukl be 'a most proper and inter-
esting ornament of your new Edition. ... I am sure it will make an
excellent head."^- Notes on the description and history of Beauliexi
and Tichfield for the ^ Soxdhampton Memoirs''"^ were quite in Warton's
line, and promptly supplied.**

Although his literary achievement is his only claim upon poster-
ity, Warton did not regard himself as primarily a man of letters.
During the whole of his busy and fruitful literary career he did not
neglect what lie always considered his first duties, as fellow and tutor
of Trinity College, as professor of the University of Oxford, and as
clergyman of the Church of England. It is in the last capacity that he
is most overlooked, and justly. Yet, although Warton's career as a
clergyman is not important in his history, it is not discreditable judged
by the standards of his day, nor is it wholly without interest. Neither
his talents nor his ambitions lay in the direction of clerical work ; he
sought no preferments, and his abilities as a divine were not such as to
command substantial rewards. Intended by his father for the church
as the most honourable calling open to a man of his family and parts
and as the one calculated to make least exacting demands upon his time
or abilities, yet one which ensured at tlie worst a comfortable living
and at the best almost unlimited opportunities for preferments and
distinction should he prove ambitious, Thomas Warton accepted this
most natural view of his career. Immediately upon taking his first
degree he entered holy orders and proceeded in due time to the divinity
degree.*'' His only preferments were obscure village churches in the
neighborliood of Oxford, which had at least the merit of not interrupt-
ing his residence there nor interfering much with his scholarly pursuits.
His first appointment was to the curacy of Woodstock, Oxfordshire,
which he served for nearly twenty years.*" In October, 1771, he was

^'In the leUer of Mar. 19, 1785, he says, 'I have seen Lowin's picture,' and
describes it. He was afraid, however, that the Custos of the Aslr.iwlcan could
not permit the picture to be sent to Town, and two year's later he arranged for
Malone's artist to 'work in some of the Apartments of the Museum.' 27th Oct.
1787.

«20xon. Mar. 30th, 1785.

*3See Boswell's edition of Malone's Shakespeare, XX, pp. 433-5 for another
letter on the same subject.

■•■•Purbrook, .'\ug. 17th, 1787.

^''A.B. 1747, B.D. 1767. Foster: Alumni Oxonienses, 1745-1886, IV, p. 1505.

^^2/ April, 1755 to 3 April, 1774. Wartoniana, in The Literary Journal: a
Review of Literature, Science, Manners, Politics for the year 1803, vol. I. London
1803, p. 601.

160 THOMAS WARTON [160

presenteil to the small living of Kiddington,*' near Woodstock, which
he retained until his deatli. Two other small livings are also assigned to
him, the vicarage of Shalfield, Wiltshire/' and Hill Farranee, Somerset,
the gift of his college."

In the pulpit Warton was jjrobably not very effective. His indis-
tinct and hurried manner of speaking made him very difficult to under-
stand."" In accord with a practice in better repute in the eighteenth
century than now, he did not always take pains to write his own sermons,
and he preached the same ones repeatetlly.'' Wlien, as a young man
who had not yet taken liis degree, he had a sermon to prepare and
deliver before the university and the bishop, its preparation filled him
with .some dismay, and he sent his plan in great anxiety to his brother,
who replied reassuringly, praising the subject, making suggestions and
predicting a successful outcome.^- Warton 's biographer reports that
one university sermon Mon him much praise, and he praised a Latin
sermon of his which he had seen as clear, well-arranged and in good
Latin style. '^^ The two sermons among his papers at Winchester
College are entirely mediocre.

If Warton was not distinguished as a preacher, he seems at least
to have been satisfactory to the members of his charge in those days of
fox-hunting, port-drinking and even more negligent parsons. The
people of Woodstock long remembered him with affectionate regard as
one of the best curates who ever officiated there. ^^ Certainly he was not

^'Modern Kidlington. This living was given him by George Henry, Earl of
Lichfield, the Chancellor of the University, Oct. 22, 1771. See Hist. Kid. ist ed.
p. II.

*'i768, see Anderson's British Poets, 13 vols. London, 1795, XI, p. 1054.

■*'i782. Mant, Op. cit. p. Ixxxii.

""One of his hearers at Woodstock said, 'though not one in ten could under-
stand half he said, everybody loved him.' Literary Journal, p. 601.

''•Chalmers had two sermons that he often preached, but neither was written
by him ; one was a printed sermon ; the other, in an old hand, was thought to be
his father's. Op. cit. p. 85, note.

°^ See letters of Joseph to Thomas Warton, May 16 and 20, 1754, Wooll, Op.
cit. pp. 221 & 233. The second letter is there dated 1755, obviously an error, for
it was evidently written just after the other, and both refer to Joseph's removal
from Tynesdale to Tunworth, in 1754.

"^Mant, Op. cit. p. cvii.

'■'■''Ilis easy wit and good humour rendered him universally acceptable; and
though his pulpit oratory does not appear ever to have entitled him to particular no-
tice, many are still alive who speak of him with more regard and affection than of
any person who ever officiated there. The rector, Mr. Halloway, though certainly not
a man of genius, was a man after his own heart, as far as convivial and social
habits were concerned ; and Saturday, Sunday, and part of Monday were gener-
ally spent at Woodstock, in the most agreeable manner.' Lit. Jour. p. 280.

161] LAST YEARS 161

inaccessible to the members of his flock,^^ and, if not over-curious as to
their spiritual welfare, was not indifferent to their temporal interests,
especially of such as were poeticallly inclined. For example, he took a
lively interest in the poetizing of young John Bennet, the son of the
parish clerk at Woodstock.'"

In his later years Warton found his pastoral duties more and more
a burden. He never attempted to sen'e his charges during the long
vacations, which he habitually spent with his brother at Winchester;
and, as other duties and interests became more absorbing, he came to
depend entirely upon an auxiliary. In 1787 he abandoned his charge
altogether and made William Mavor, a young Scotch schoolmaster at
Woodstock, who had been his curate at Kiddingtou for some time, his
'perpetual Curate' there. ^'

Warton 's curate tells a story of his connection with the parish at
Kiddington that shows his generosity. He says that 'after dining with
him one Christmas day at the hospitable mansion of the late Edward
Gore, Esq. of Kiddington, Warton beckoned him into the hall, and
pulling out his purse, thus addressed him; "I expected to have received
more money today. Sir — I shall want ten pounds myself to defray the
expenses of a journey to London. — You are welcome to all the rest. Sir —
All the rest Sir — I ^^■isll it had been more" '.'** Probably this story

'"'No man knew better how to unbend than Warton. . . He seemed to delight
in the society of women and children with whom he could talk nonsense, or to
associate with men in general who were . . 6011 vivanis, wags, or punsters." Ibid.

^'See supra.

^'Two letters to Mavor record this transaction : 'I beg the favour of you to
continue your services for me at Kiddington till the second Sunday of February
next, inclusive, .\fter that time, if I should want a perpetual Curate at Kidding-
ton (which I believe will be the case, and of which I will give you due Notice)
I should wish to appoint you above all others. But I beg you to say nothing (at
present) to the Family at Kiddington of my thoughts of a perpetual Curate. I
shall see Mr. Gore very soon, which you may tell him ; and that I have engaged
you to attend the Church to the 2d Sunday in February, as above. If Bennet
could call next Saturday, with j'our Account up to last Sunday, I will return the
money by Him. Oxon. Nov. 26, 1787.'

'The Curacy of Kiddington is your's for the next twelve-months, and most
probably will be so for a much longer time, as I have no thought at present of
ever serving it myself. I presume you have no objection to the old Terms of
Half a Guinea a Sunday. In case of a Burial on week days (a very rare Case)
you will please to charge me a [cro (MS. torn)]wn each time. Fees for a Marriage
&c., are to be your own. You will please to begin on next Sunday. Whenever
you wish to settle, that business shall immediately be done. O.xon, Jan. 28th,
1788.' Bodl. MSS. Montague d. 18, fols. 136 and 135.

^^Literary Journal^ p. 601.

162 THOMAS WARTON [162

can be dated at Christmas 1789, just before Warton 's death, for he wrote
to Maloiic from Oxford, Dceembfr 20th of tliat year, ' I leave this place
on Tuesday, and return 27th Instant. A letter, during that time, will
find me at Edward Gore's Esq at Kiddington near Enstone Oxfordshire.
I hope to be ill Town about the 10th of January.""

The reliiKiuishmeiit of liis pastoral work is the only sign Warton
gave of decreasing vigor, if, indeed, this is to be regarded as a concession
to waning strength rather than to increasing interests. At any rate he
was still full of projects and surrounded with uncompleted work at the
time of his tleath. Daniel Prince described his rooms at Oxford as
literally strewn with manuscripts in small semblance of order, — ^the
tables, chairs, window seats and shelves being covered with papers — in
such a fashion as to show that the occupant was interrupted in the midst
of his labours."" Until his sixty-first year Warton 's health had always
been extremely vigorous. He w-as then, however, attacked by gout. In
his journal for 1788 appears this brief note, 'Saturday, Aug. 23. To
Bath to Dr. Wilder 's Crescent, Gout!"" He did not stay long at Bath,
however, and was as busy as ever the next year"- and more sanguine of
liis complete recovery than were his friends."* Two or three weeks before
his death he went down to Woodstock to buy a horse, and rode him one
morning in the best of spirits, entertaining his companion meanwhile
with anecdotes about Woodstock and its early history. Here at Wood-
stock, wliile at a gentleman's table, he had a slight paralytic stroke which
affected one of his hands."'' The second and fatal stroke came suddenly.
He spent the evening with a few companions in the Common Room in
livelier spirits than usual. Suddenly, however, between ten and eleven
o'clock he was seized with a paralytic stroke. He made but one attempt
to speak, when he was thought to utter the name of his friend Price, and
relapsed into uneouscioiisness, dying the next afternoon before his
brother could arrive at his bedside. He died May 21, 1790, and was
buried in the ante chapel of his college on the twenty-seventh with the
highest academical honours. The esteem in which Warton was held by
the whole university as well as by the members of Trinity College was
shown by the unusual honour that the funeral ceremony w-as attended,
at their own request, by the Viee-Chancellor of the University, the heads

6»Oxon. Decemb. 20th, 1789. Brit. Mus. MSS. Ad. 30375, no. 15.

""LiV. Anec. Ill, p. 702.

"'Winchester Journals.

"-See his letters to Malone, just quoted.

"sMant, Op. cit. p. xcii.

"*LiV. Jour. p. 603.

163] LAST TEARS 163

of houses, and the proctors. His grave is marked by a plain marble
slab with a simple Latin inscription.*"

«■■ THOMAS W.-XHTON,

S. T. B. & S. A. S.

Hujus Collegii Socius,

Ecclesise de Cuddington

In Com. Oxon. Rector.

Poetices iteruni Praslector.

Historices Prelector Camden,

Poeta Laureatus,

Obiit 2t. Die Maii,

Anno Domini 1790,

>^tat. 63.

CHAPTER XII
* Conclusion.

The influence of Warton's master passion, enthusiastic love of the
past, is apparent in all his work. One of his most important contribu-
tions to romantic poetry- was the revival of interest in mediaeval life
and poetry. The re-editing of classical authors and the freshening of
interest in classical literature were the object of his labours as professor
of poetry. The history and illustration of early English literature were
the great work of his ripest powers. The study of mediaeval architect-
ure was the pursuit of his leisure. Even his politics, his religion, had
a backward look ; to both he gave the loyalty that he conceived was due
to institutions upon which was set the seal of a noble past.

In literature Warton's close study of the past and its relation to
the present had given him a clearer vision into the future, so that both
his poetry and his criticism have a forward as well as a backward reach.
They pointed the direction of progress by showing the beauties of the
neglected past, the artificialities of the vaunted present, and the way
poetry was to be reclaimed by a return to the earlier traditions. The
same love of the past applied in other fields was productive of quite
different results; the line of progress in religion and politics did not lie
in the direction of a return to mediaevalism. Neither Warton's politi-
cal adherence nor his religious beliefs, therefore, although both were
the result of the same love of the past, shows the romantic spirit of revolt
and of progress that makes his critical theories significant ; they looked
backward only, and had no prophetic vision of the future.

And the limits of his interest were singularly narrow. So great
was his versatility within his own limited field, so thorough his com-
mand of all its divisions, that one is at first inclined to lose sight of the
extent of eighteenth century thought and interest in which Warton had
no share. His field of interest was almost entirely literary, confined
to poetry, criticism, history. In an age of theological unrest, of des-
perate attempts to reclaim wavering faiths from the abyss of scepticism,
of pietistic efforts to save the church from within by an access of
spiritual grace, Warton maintained a calm, unreflecting allegiance to
the established church of England, without any indication that he was
aware of the theological problems of his day. He was even more negli-
gent of philosophical thought. The idealism of Berkele.y, the scepticism
of Hume, were equally outside his ken ; philosophy for him was appar-
ently comprised in Plato and Aristotle. To the great political move-

164

165] CONCLUSION 165

ments of the day, in both their theoretical and practical aspects, he
was likewise indifferent. Neither Eousseau's Social Contract nor the
thundering of the French Revolution, neither Paine 's pampldets and
Burke's speeches, nor the progress of the war in America aroused in
him any interest in contemporary events. The Oxford don kept him-
self secure in his ivory tower from the encroachments of political affairs.

In his relations with the church Warton showed the same ardent
entluisiasm and loyalty that he felt for the poets, the literature, of the
past. He gloried in its long and honourable history as an institution ;
he admired the dignity and solemnity of its forms of worship ; he
enjoyed the beauty of its ritual, its prayers, its music. Tlie established
church satisfied the loiigings of his soul and delighted his aesthetic
sense. Warton was essentially a high-eliurehman ; he would have re-
jected both the barrenness of tlie Metliodist form of worship and its
personal emotionalism for much tlie same reason that he objected to the
popular psalmody used in many cliurches,' and for reasons partly
ffisthetic. His violent antipathy to the Puritans and Calvinists is more
readily explained on aesthetic than on doctrinal grounds. He coidd
never forgive the Puritans the ruinous havoc they wrought in the
beautiful Gothic churches nor the check given to the progress of poetry
by their narrow opposition to all literature not definitely religious.^
All his works aliound in bitter references to 'Oliver's people,'-' 'Crom-
well's intruders',* 'Calvin's system of reformation',^ while his too freely
expressed religious prejudice against Puritanism makes a real blemish
in his study of Milton.

Warton 's aesthetic enjoyment of the forms of worship of the Eng-
lish church and the beauty of its elioral service was very closely
akin to his appreciation of Gothic art. There seems to have been a vein
of aesthetic sensibility in this modest Oxford don who, without being
melancholy, delighted in 'cloyster's pale', the 'ruined abbey's moss-
grown piles', and ' sequester 'd isles of the deep dome'; who was overcome
with emotion when the Gothic sculptures of New College altar, which
had been walled up early in Elizabeth's reign, were displaj'ed to the
public f and whose I'emark that ' taste and imagination make more anti-
quarians than the world is willing to allow' applies well to himself.

^See Hist. Eng. Poetry, III, p. 168, 172-3, 194.

-Obscn'atioiis on the Faerie Queene, II, p. 279, and Hist. Eng. Poetry, III, 461.

3Lee MSS.

*Spec. Hist. Oxford. 2nd ed. p. 12.

=^Lee MSS.

'Daniel Prince, who sat near Warton on that occasion, said, 'Poor Thomas
fetched such sighs as I could not have thought he could breathe'. Lit. Aiiec. Ill,
p. 699.

166 THOMAS WARTON [166

In politics Warton was a Tory, like that other great medisevalist

wlioiri lie in many ways resi'mblud, an ardent atllierent of institu-
tions whose history was long and glorious. His political interest, such
as it was, was determined by his absorbing interest in the past. By
natural bent and by inheritance his sympathies were Jacobite, though
h(! took no part in the Jacobite cause, and, as laureate, acquiesced in
honouring tlie unromantie Georges as the modern heirs of Alfred and
the Edwards. Modern political problems, like tliose of religion, did not
come near him.

The second great pa.ssion of Warton 's life, and almost a corollary
of the first, was his loyalty to Oxford. And Oxford set the limits of
his practical interest as the love of the past determined his literary
pursuits. Its little round of term-time and vacation, with the occa-
sional diversion of an encaniia, was varied only by the long vacations
spent at Wincliester — where most of his writing was done, the sum-
mer tours to architectural ruins, and occasional very brief visits to
London to arrange for the publication of his books, and to look in on
his literary friends. As a result of this narrowing of interest most of
Warton 's work, even his poetry, has a decidedly academic flavour.
While it never exactly reeks of the lamp, it is impregnated with the
atmosphere in which it was produced. Warton 's early poetry, both
serious and humorous, is strikingly academic, from the Triumph of Isis
to tiie Progress of Discontent and the Panegyric on Oxford Ale. In his
later verse this quality is less apparent and shows itself only in the
general determination of thought and interest.

Although Warton 's love of the past, his appreciation of nature, and
his critical method show that he belonged at least as much to the early
nineteenth as to the eighteenth century, he was without the uncontrolled
emotionalism and the spirit of revolt that marked nianj' writers of the
next century ; he had the characteristic temper of his own time, — its
comi)osure, its restraint, its sound common sense. Ilis mind was nor-
mal, healthy, well poised, free from self-searching and introspection; he
was disturbed by no perplexing problems of his relation to the universe,
no conflict between mind and heart; he seems to have passed through
no 'Sturm und Drang' period. He felt no imperative neeil of self-
revelation ; he kept no personal diary, nor poured out his soul in
voluminous correspondence, — his letters, which were probably never
very numerous, are brief and self-contained ; his poetry, too, is re-
strained rather than fidl of feeling. Warton 's very emotions were
objective : they centered in his enthusiastic love for the past, his college,
his friends, and his family. He w-as not, however, cold nor unrespon-
sive; on the contrary he frequently gave evidence of deep feelings, of
violent prejudices, of warm attachments, but he had alwavs the control

167] CONCLUSION 167

of them. He seems to have differed much in this respect from his
brother, who was demonstrative and emotional. He frequently revealed
the penscroso mood in his poetry-, but it was always serene and con-
templative, as in Milton, rather than subjective and gloomy, as in many
of his imitators. He was susceptible to beauty in nature, but it evoked
from him no gushes of sentiment. He felt strongly the wonderful, the
mystical, beauties of Gothic art, but the emotions they aroused were
manly and composed.

Wart on was said by an acquaintance to have been 'eminently hand-
some' in his youth, and even later, when sedentary habits, port, and
good living had made his features heavy and his frame unwieldy, he
was still 'remarkably well-looking'." But the editor of the Probationary
Odes described him as a 'little, tliick, squat, red-faced man.'' The truth
probably lies between the opinion of an admiring friend and the carica-
ture of a satirist. His portrait by Sir Joshua Reynolds^ in his best
manner hangs in the Common Room at Trinity College, and reveals
a countenance somewhat heavy and inert ; the forehead wide and full ;
small, clear blue eyes, deep set under straight heavy brows that some-
how hide their quiet force from the casual observer ; a thin-lipped mouth
redeemed from coldness by expressive curves, the downward droop of
one corner balanced by a humorous upward turn at the other; and the
bright healthy colour of the well-fed Englishman. The face and figure
are more suggestive of the 'bon vivant' than the poet; the stolid, idle
clergyman than the enthusiastic antiquary ; the indolent Oxford don
than the industrious scholar. A comparison of his rugged features with
his brother's almost feminine smoothness suggests the contrast between
the two men. Joseph was painted in a full-bottomed wig and academic
gown and band ; Thomas in a bob and his ordinary work jacket, none
too tidily arranged. Urbanity and sensibility characterize one counte-
nance ; reserve and seriousness, the other.

Equal differences distinguished the two brothers in their social
intercourse. Joseph was fond of society, affable, communicative, an
addition to any society ; Tliomas was awkward, shy, silent, except in the
company of his intimates. In his earlier daj'S Thomas Warton seems
to have been much fonder of society than later when his friendships
and habits were formed. His natural shyness was increased by studious
habits and years of pretty close application to work, and he came to
limit his social intercourse more and more to those friends whose tastes
were quite congenial with his own. He was particularly averse to the
society of strangers, especially those of a literary turn.^ Within his

"Mant, Op. cit. p. cv-cvi.

'Exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1784.

168 THOMAS WARTON [168

own coUfgc gates he was always sociable, gracious in entertaining his
friends, fond of lingering with the other Fellows over their evening
eako-s and ale in the Common Room, but he could seldom be prevailed
upon to dine with his friends in other colleges. The unanimous testi-
mony of those who knew him well was that his conversation was singu-
larly fascinating, easy, and lively, 'enriched with anecdote, and pointed
witii wit', so that he was the life of those social gatherings in which
he found himself thoroughly at home."

Socially, however, Thomas Warton fell on evil days. Although
naturally genial and fond of congenial society, he was repelled by the
formality and artificiality of the polite society of his day. When Fanny
Burney at the height of her pojiularity was invited to dine with the
Wartons and some other distinguished men, she gave in her journal this
unfavourable account of Thomas Warton: 'Mr. Tom Warton, the poetry
hi.storiographer, looks unformed in liis manners, and awkward in his
gestures. He joined not one word in the general talk, and, but for my
father, who was his neighbour at dinner, and entered into a tete-a-tete
conversatiou with him, he would never have opened his mouth after the
removal of the second course."" It is certain that Thomas Warton was
not so fond of the society of young ladies as was his more susceptible
brother; he probably had not read Miss Burney 's lively but artificial
novels, was unable to indulge her in the compliments and deference to
wliieh she was accustomed, and felt that he could do little else than fall
silent in a company of which she was the presiding genius.

Yet Warton was not without social intercourse among literary men
like himself, scholars and poets. He became a member of the Literary
Club in 1782, and numbered among his friends some of the most distin-
guished men of his day both at Oxford and London. Judging from
the letters of his London friends and their complaints of his neglect,
he might have spent considerable time in a round of pleasant visits.
Spence, who had succeeded Warton 's father as professor of poetry at
Oxford, besouglit the charity of a visit in the course of his rambles ;"
Shenstone entertained him and Lord Dounegal at the Leasowes, and
received as a souvenir of the visit a copy of the Inscriptionum;^- Wal-
pole was flattered by notice of his work, and begged the favour of a
visit at Strawberry Hill with every antiquarian inducement he could
offer,'^ and a literary friendship and exchange of favours continued for

°Mant, Op. cit. p. xcix.

■"d'.^rblay: Diary and Letters, ed. 1891, I. p. 505.

"See Wooll, Op. cit. p. 227.

•^Shenstone's Works, 3 vols. Loondon, 1777, III, p. 284.

i-nVooll, Op. cit. pp. 281-3.

169] CONCLUSION 169

some time. Warton's opinion and criticism were sought by many: Julius
Miekle begged his approval of a play as the means of securing its
acceptance by Garrick," who confirmed Miekle 's estimate of the weight
of Warton's opinion ;'° Lord Lyttelton aspired to his approbation;'*
and Gerard Hamilton consulted him in regard to a secretary to succeed
Burke. ^' In the prosecution of his literary labours, as has been men-
tioned, he received generous and ready aid from Gai-rick, Gray, Percy,
Bowie, Steevens, Farmer, and many others; and the Bishop of Glouces-
ter and Dr. Balguy were more active in behalf of his candidacy for the
professorship of history than he was himself. Warton was easily
among the 'lions' of Oxford. Hannah More was delighted at the pros-
pect of dining with him and Johnson and 'whatever else is most learned
and famous in this uuiversitj''.^* Two Cambridge gentlemen, intending
to come to Oxford to have a look at 'the Lions', wrote beseechingly to
Gough for letters — 'alas! we fear Tom Warton is at Winchester'.'-'

Many of Warton's friends were scholars and antiquarians, men to
whom he was attracted by their interest in some of the literary subjects
in which he delighted. Among them were Toup, the classical scholar,
who helped with Theocritus; Bowie, the translator of Don Quixote;
Gough, who consulted him on antiquarian matters ;-" Wise, the archeolo-
gist at EUsfield and Radclivian librarian, whose valuable books and
personal suggestions were always at Warton's service; Malone, whose
careful scholarship made him a congenial spirit, and whom Warton
assisted in the preparation of his edition of Shakespeare ; and Price, the
Bodleian librarian, whom he induced to remove from Jesus to Trinity
College, -"^ and who became perhaps his most intimate friend. This
industrious and capable but not very original man apparently enjoyed
nothing more than performing little tasks of research for his friends,
looking up manuscripts and books in the library, having copies of draw-
ings made, etc. He was vastly flattered by Mr. Warton's friendship,
and so grieved at his death that he could not be prevailed upon to speak
of him nor to contribute to his memoirs.^-

Warton's most distinguished friend was, of course. Dr. Johnson,
the great representative of the eighteenth century classicism and com-

"/6i(/., p. 379.

^'^Ibid., p. 380.

^^Ibid., p. 322.

^''Ibid., pp. 299 and 305.

^^Mcmoirs, 4 vols. London 1834, I, p. 262.

^^Lit. Altec. VIII, pp. 596-7.

-oibid., VI. p. 180.

-^Lit. lUus. VI. p. 474.

^-Lit. Alice. Ill, p. 703.

170 THOMAS WARTON [1"0

monsi'iise in wliicK Warton shared largely. Their early friendship was
rajiid and elosi' wliile tlicy cxohaiigred lit<'rary favours and plans.-' And
Dr. Johnson's tastes oceasioiially jumped with Warton 's more revolu-
tionary ones, as when he condemned the 'cant of those who judge by
principles rather than perception',-'* and when he indulged a youth-
ful fondness for old romances by choosing an old Spanish romance for
his regular reading iluring a visit to Bishop Percy.-'' But however
well they agreed in details, their ideals were wide apart. Between their
theories of criticism and poetry there was almost the whole gulf that
separates the eigliteenth and inneteenth centuries, that separates Addi-
son and Steele from llazlitt, and The Shepherd's Week from Michael;
and it was scarcely to be bridged by an exchange of visits and notes
upon Shakespeare. Their principal interests, too, were quite different.
Joluisoii had no taste for accurate scholarship, and having won a secure
reputation with his dictionary, was disposed to yield somewhat to natu-
ral indolence, to consume much of his time in the literary conversations
for which he is justly famous, and in literary work which is rather the
fruit of general reading, of philosophical reflection, and of personal
opinion than of exact and laborious research. Warton, on the other
hand, was primarily a scholar, and although he admired Johnson as a
'lexicographer, a philosopher and an essayist',-" he could not but dis-
agree with him in important matters of taste and critical judgment, and
scorn tlie superficiality of liis scholarship. The real break in their
friendship, however, probably came when Johnson touched his friend's
most sensitive point bj' ridiculing his poetry for its laborious and use-
less resurrection of the obsolete.'-' Johnson's protest that he still loved
'the fellow dearly' for all lie laughed at him, was in vain; their friend-
ship never recovered its former warmth. Afterwards Johnson is said
to have lamented 'with tears in his eyes, that the Wartons had not
called upon him for the last four years' and to have declared that
'Tom Warton was tlie oidy man of genius, whom he knew, without a
heart."-"

There were few contemporary poets who were altogether congenial
with Warton and his romantic tastes. Although his relations with ila-

-'See supra p. 68ff.

-*Life of Pope, Johnson's Lives, Hill ed. Ill, p. 248.

'-•■'Boswell's Life of Johnson, Hill ed. I, p. 49.

="Mant, Op. cit. I, p. xx.xix.

='Warton's poetry was his dearest literary offspring, and he could not bear
ridicule of it. See Lit. Aiiec. Ill, p. 703. For Johnson's criticism, see supra p. —
and Boswell's Johnson, III, p. 158, note 3.

-*Mant, Op. cit. I, p. xxxix.

171] CONCLUSION 171

sou were cordial enough after their first poetical passage-at-arms,-®
Warton never held him in much esteem, and described his facile but
uninspired style as 'buckram'.^" While Warton greatly admired
Gray, with whom he had many tastes in common, their relations
were formally, rather than warmly, friendly. In Collins, Joseph War-
ton's school-fellow at Winchester, the Wartons had a friend of long
standing and dear, whose poetical tastes also were congenial.'^ In Col-
lins 's poetry they recognized those poetical qualities they so much
admired, which they could exalt in criticism if they could not emulate
in their own verse. Thomas Warton frequentlj- visited CoUius at Chi-
chester where they talked over literary plans, — Collins 's history of the
revival of learning and Warton 's Spenser, and turned over the pages
of old authors they both loved in Collins 's valuable library, where
Warton was already collecting material for his history. A few years
later, when Collins 's health failed completely, he was visited and ten-
derly cared for by Warton both at Oxford and at Chichester, after he
had become too feeble for conversation and was but the wreck of the
once admired friend.

On his holidays Warton indulged himself somewhat in society not
altogether literarj- and formal, and delighted in it. He enjoyed the
hospitality of quondam Oxford friends, now country parsons, who must
have been delighted to welcome a college fellow of such

'discerning
Both in good liquor and good learning,'

and to share with him the best cheer that their comfortable country
livings afforded. On these vacations, too, he may have had an oppor-
tiinity to indulge that fondness for low society, for drinking ale in
common taverns, that distressed his dignified fellow dons, who had no
hankering for society less formally polite than their college intercourse
offered. His geniality and friendliness on these occasions no doubt
aroused an interest in his architectural researches, facilitated his access
to the village church, the ruined castle or abbey of the neighborhood,
brought to light any relics of antiquity that might be treasured in the
village, and even disposed the vicar, parish boards, or country squires
to look ^vith more favour on his suggestions to preserve their ancient
treasures from further dilapidation.

Warton 's visits to Winchester, also, seem to have been attended

^^Warton's Triumph of Isis was a reply to Mason's Isis.

^"Mant, Op. cit. p. x.\ii and Boswell's Johnson, IV, 315.

^'Collins and Joseph Warton published their first odes in the same year, 1746,
and the latter's were more successful at the time. Collins's Ode on Popular Super-
stitions was published anonymously in 1788 with a dedication to the Wartons.

172 THOMAS WARTON [172

witli some social pleasure. The neighborhood was regularly used for
rt'triinciital camps, wliieh both the Wartons were very fond of visiting.
Military siglits, tlie music of fife and drum had a singidar charm for
both of them, and martial music was always sure to set Thomas's blood
a-tiiigliiig.'= Consequently Warton's letters to Price during his vaca-
tions at Winchester have often some echo of militar>' affairs: — he has
been inspecting the regiments in camp at Portsmoutli and Plymouth
in the course of a 'long camping tour';" he has dined so often with
Lord Berkeley, head of the South-Gloucester, that, while he declared
he had no 'presentiments' of gout, he hopes he may escape it and 'have
a few gallops with the Duke of Beaufort's dogs' at his return to Ox-
ford;" he complains of tlie dullness of his study at Winchester 'without
drumming and fifing' ;" or he is going to dine and drink champagne
with Hans Stanley, which he fears will 'throw him out a little'.""

Besides these martial delights that attended the long annual visits
at Winchester, Warton enjoyed with undignified freedom the society of
his brother's pupils. More than one amusing tale is told of his partici-
pation in their tasks and frolics. One one occasion, it is said, he over-
reached himself in preparing a lad 's exercise for him, or the boy, in order
to escape the flogging he was as apt to get for the poet laureate's
verses as for his own, gave a wrong report of the number of 'faults'
he was in the habit of making; the Doctor suspected the deception and
administered p\inishment to the real author of the verses. Summoning
the boy into his studj' after school, he sent also for Mr. Warton and had
the exercise read for his approval. 'Don't you think it worth half a
crown?' asked the Doctor. Mr. Warton assented. 'Well then, you
shall give the boy one.'" On another occasion when he was joining the
boys in a raid upon the buttery, the sharp-nosed Doctor descended upon
them in wrath hurrying his brother with the rest to the refuge of the
nearest dark corner, whence he was drawn forth in his turn by the
dumbfounded Doctor.

Even at Oxford Warton seems to have indulged his fondness
for low society, for public sights and spectacles, though with some little
circumspection, owing to the dignity of his position. His fellow dons
were sufficiently shocked when he appeared on the river enjoying his

'^Warton's journals show the same weakness for military life. In 1775 he
records a visit to Gen. Oglethorpe, and in 1779 a stop 'at the Duke of Beaufort's
at Jennings, two Miles from Camp.' Winchester MSS.

^^Letter to Price, quoted in Mant, Op. cit. p. Ixxviii.

3*Mant, Op. cit. p. Ixxvii.

^"Ibid., p. Ixxvi.
^^Ibid., p. cv.

173] CONCLUSION 173

pipe with the water-men, and it was related by his biographer as a great
scandal that he attended an execution disguised in the dress of a carter.^'
A storj' is told of him that, though probably not quite true, at least
indicates that a taste for unconventional amusements was generally
ascribed to him. He once could not be found when he should have
been pi'epariug a Latin speech for a public occasion, and his friends,
knowing that he never could resist following martial music, hit upon
the scheme of calling him forth b}^ sending along the streets of Oxford
a drum and fife. Before long the professor issued from a favourite
tavern 'with cutty pipe in mouth, greasy gown, and dirty band, and
began strutting after the martial music, to the tune of "Give the King
his own again ".'^' A similar taste is indicated by Daniel Prince's
fragmentary account of the Jelly-bag Society; the meeting-place was
announced by the irresistible beating of a drum, and Warton was sure
to attend 'with his jelly -bag cap on."*" But although the society existed
for eight or ten j-ears, no letter-writing gossip has seen fit to tell more
of its meetings, who its members were, nor the object and nature of the
society. These anecdotes of personal eccentricities — whether true or
false — are just what we should expect of the author of the Companion
to the Guide, and editor — and chief contributor — to the Oxford Sau-
sage, and they make the author of the Observations on the Faerie
Quecnc and the History of English Poetry more likable and human.

But such amusements cannot have wasted much time in so busy
and productive a life as Warton 's. The stocky, red-cheeked Oxford
don gave a life-time of 'academic leisure' to scholarly pursuits. The
intervals of lectures and pupils, of pastoral duties and college exercises,
Warton devoted to his private M'ork, writing and reading in his own
studj- at Trinity or in the congenial Gothic atmosphere of Duke
Humplirey's Ward overlooking Exeter Gardens. His days, though
busy, must have been somewhat monotonous; j^et in their well-ordered
monotony grew slowly and steadily his contributions to the knowledge
of his day and ours. It was his custom, said Huntingford, who knew
him well both at Oxford and at Winchester, to rise moderately early;*'
this enabled him to do a half day's work before the sleepy college awoke
to life, and give him leisure to stroll about and chat with his friends
with every appearance of indolence and ease. He regularly spent some
time each day in his favourite walks along the Cherwell in meditation

^^Ibid. p. ciii.

^^Hartley Coleridge : Lives of Northern Worthies, 3 vols. London, 1852, II,
p. 264.

^''Lit. Anec. Ill, p. 702.
*iMant, Op. cit. p. xcvii.

174 THOMAS WARTON [174

anil in enjoyment of the lovely scene. 'Under the mask of indolence',
says tl>e Bkxjraphkal Dictionary, 'no man was more busy: his mind
was ever on tlie wing in search of some literary prey.'''-'

Warton's success in ]iroducing critical ami historical work greatly
in advance of his age is thus partly accounted for by his persistent and
intelligent devotion to his work and the constant enthusiasm which
inspired and guided its operations. If, as Johnson said, Thomson saw
everything in a poetical light through the medium of his favourite
pursuit, so "Warton saw all things in the light of his enthusiasm for the
past; he subjected all things to a careful scrutiny to determine their
relation to his consuming interest in antiquities chiefly literary. He )|

seems to have been impressed very early by the enormous field open '

to the research of the scholar, and though at times confused by the
very multiplicity of matter and unable to distinguish unerringly the
gold from the dross, he never abandoned this pursuit nor abated his
interest. Modern scholars, whose origijial research is now necessarily |

somewhat limited in extent because Warton and his successors can- |

vassed the large field so widely, have frequently spoken with scorn and
condescension of Warton 's superficiality and inaccuracy in his treat-
ment of a field too large for any ou(! man ; but let them conceive, if
they will, the ever-growing delight and fascination of advancing into
the almost unexplored wilderness of English literature from the eleventh
to the seventeenth centuries, with no restrictions and no limitations
save those of time and strength and the accessibility of material — rare
black-letter texts, first editions, and unedited, even unread, manu-
scripts; in this scholars' paradise — and, it must be added, with no
guide, and in the face of eighteenth century prejudice and disap-
proval — what modern scholar could have produced anything more val-
uable than the Observations on the Faerie Queene and the History of
English Poetry; and how many would be (and are) proud to have done <

much less!

The vigorous personality of this eighteenth century poet-scholar is
not without a strong appeal to the modern imagination. One seems at
times to catch glimpses of him about his favourite haunts. In his study
at Trinity he sits before a plain oak desk piled with rare and curious old
folios — the dusty tomes he loved to peruse — and littered with many lit-
tle notebooks of heavy rough paper in gay marbled pasteboard covers.
There is a bottle of port and a glass upon the mantel-piece, and upon a
small table, whereon too are many books, the tea-things that the bed-
maker has not yet removed. The room is untidily strewn with coats and
caps, riding-boots and spurs, old coins, keys, and pipes, and everywhere

*-lbid., p. xcix.

175] CONCLUSION 175

more and more books. The scholar himself is not quite clearly discern-
ible through the blue haze of tobacco smoke ; but ho has a heavy awkward
figure and looks as untidy as his surroundings in his shiny, wrinkled
jacket, his rumpled neck-cloth, and his wig too mueli over one ear. When
the eager dreamer woidd peer into the thoughtful eyes,the figure vanishes
and. still pursued in fancy, reappears, a solitary traveler jogging along
the tortuous windings of tlie River Wye upon a steady roadster as
stur.ly as himself. Alternately enjoying the Welsh scene and losing him-
self in meditation, the rider turns from the river road and winds his way
along the hillside to the castle ruins that crown it. Here he stops to
admire the fine view of wooded cliffs and peaceful valley before he
crosses the half-filled moat and passes under the rusty old port-cullis to
survey the Norman tower rising stoutly strong above the scanty ruins of
the later castle which surrounds it. And here we leave him at the close
of day trying to decipher an almost oblit<?rated inscription upon the
cliapel wall — oblivious of the flight of time in his devotion to his own
dream of a vanished past.

APPENDIX A.

The possible connection of Thomas Warton with the Wartons of
Beverley is shown by an excerpt from the AVharton MSS. in the Bod-
leian Library, 14 f. 12 b. There is no direct proof tliat the Francis
Warton who was born at Redness is the Francis Warton of Breamore
who was Thomas Warton 's great grandfather.

Michael Warton of Beverley Park

Sir Michael Warton of Edward

Laurence of Redness

Laurence of

Francis

3 other

Wellingley d.

sons and

1691

3 daus.

Beverley, kn. d. 1655
Michael Warton of Beverley

F'rancis Warton Breamore, Hants.

Anthony Warton of Godalming, Surrey, 1650-1715

Thomas Warton of Basingstoke, Hants. 1690-1745

— Elizabeth, 2d dau. of John Richardson, of Dunsfield, Surrey.

J I I

Joseph Jane Thomas

See Joseph Foster: Alutnni Oxonienses, 1500-1714, vol. IV, 1577.

176

APPENDIX B.

A Bibliography of the Printed Sources op Warton's
History of English Poetry.

In compiling this list of references from the History, and especially
from the foot-notes, I have tried to select only those from which his-
torical information is taken. I have omitted mention of works either
discussed or cited bj- waj- of illustration or comparison ; to include these
would have nearly doubled the length of the list. I have omitted also
the very large number of manuscript sources.

Titles are usuall.y given by Warton in a greatly abbreviated form.
I have completed them by diligent search and the examination of many
books, carefully comparing hundreds of "Warton's references with the
originals. Wlien Warton gives no dates and when he probably had
access to several editions, I have usually been able to discover the one
he used by looking up his references in the various editions. Letters
after the titles in my list are used with the following significance :

a. Warton's references correspond with this edition.

b. Only edition before Warton's history.

c. Warton's references are not to page ; edition cannot be determined.

d. Warton's references cannot be found in this edition.

e. Warton's references do not correspond to any edition in the British Museum
or Bodleian Library.

f. This edition is not to be found in either the British Museum or Bodleian
Library.

No letter is used when Warton's date for an edition is correct, and also
in a few instances when I have not verified his references in the edition
or editions given in my list.

The references to Warton's Histor3^ are to the first edition of vol-
umes two and three, to the second edition of volume one. Since the
pages of dissertations I and II are not numbered in that edition, I have
made the pagination consecutive through both dissertations, including
the numbers in parentheses.

My method of completing Warton's titles may be illustrated by
the following titles in which I have preserved the original citation in
bold face type :

Eccardus, Johannus Georgius : Corpus Historicum Medii ^vi ... 2 voll. Lips.

1723, fol.
11:20.
Edmonds, Alexander: The Trew Report of the Dysputacyon had, and begone

in the Conuocacyo Hours at London, London, 1583. f

111:355.

177

178 THOMAS WARTON [178

Eginhart; Vita et Gesta Caroli magni, 1565. f

ibid, acccsscrunt . . Vcltonis Goldasti Animadversiones. . . 1711.
I: (54,58,91,98,101,102,108).
Engelbert of Trevoux: Engelberti Abbatis Admontensis Liber plane philosoph-
icus De Ortu & Fine Romani Imperij. in La Eigne: Maxima Bibliotheca
Veterum Patrum, etc. Lugduni, 1677, vol. XXV, p. 363 ff. a

I:(ii9).
Engelhusen, Theodoricus : Chronicon a Erfordensis civitatis T. Englehusii
continens res Ecclesiae, i)i Leipnitz, G. W. von, Scriptores rerum Bruns-
vicensiuni. . . Helmst. 1671, 4to.

I: (55): 11:13.

Erasmus, Dcsidcrius Roterolamus : Enarratio in primum Psalmum Davidium ; una
cum Dorpii Epistola ad Erasmum de Moriae Encomio. Basil, 1538. a

II : 387,433.438,439.440,441.446.

: Opera Omni.i, Lugduni Batavorum, 1703-6, 10 voll. a

11:54, emend.; 438.
Erdeswicke, Sampson: A Survey of Staffordshire . . with a description of
Beeston Castle in Cheshire, etc. London, 1717. b

II:2i6.
Erythraeus, lanus Nicius : Pinacotheca Imaginum lUustrium, doctrins vel in-
genii laude, virorum, qui, Auctore superstite. diem suum obierunt, ed. nov.
Lipsiae, 1692. a

11:357-
Eusebius, Pamphilus : Praeparatio Euangelica. Paris, 1544 and 1628. c

11:371.

179] SOURCES OP THE HISTORY OP POETRY 179

SOURCES OF THE HISTORY OF POETRY

Abselardus, Petrus : Theologia Christiana. Sec Thesaurus Novus Anecdotorum,
per E. Martene et U. Durand, torn. 5. Paris, 1717 fol.
II: 168.
Abbott, George: A Sermon . . preached at the Funerall Solemnities of Thomas,
Earl of Dorset. London, 1608. 4°. b

111:210.
Abulgazi, Bayadur-Chan : Histoire Genealogique des Tatars traduite du manu-
script Tartare et enrichie de remarques sur I'estat present de I'Asie Septentrion-
ale, par D . . . . (Bentinck) Leyde, 1726, i3mo.

I:(i4).
Abulfaragii, see Gregorius Abul Farajius.

d'Acherius Lucas: Veterum aliquot scriptorum spicilegium, 13 voU. 4°. Paris,
1665-7.

I -.73, emend.

Adam de Domerham : Historia de rebus gestis Glastoniensibus, ed. T. Hearnius
Oxon. 1727. c

II:(n8).
Aelian Claudius : Varia Historia Gronov. Many editions. c

I: (54);
Agrippa, Henricus Cornelius : De incertitudine et vanitate scientiarum, or Of the
vanitie and uncertgintie of artes and sciences; Englished by la. San (ford)
London, 1569, 4°.
III:xxi.
Aimoinus, Monachus Floriacensis : Libri quinque de gestis Francorum . . Omnia
studio et opera J. du Breul. Paris, 1603, fol. a

II :i03, emend.

Akominatos, Nicetas : Historia, in Corpus Byzantinse Historic. Paris, 1648, fol.

1 :348. c

Alciatus, Andreas : Epistola contra vitam Monasticam. c.

11:413-
The Alcoran, newly translated from the Arabic with . . a Preliminary Discourse,
by Geo. Sale. London, 1734, 4to and 1764, 8°.

I: (86) ; 208, emend.
Alcuinus, Albinus Flaccus : Opera, Paris, 1617, fol.

I:(i02).
• De Septem Artibus, in the foregoing, pp. 1246-1257.

11:75.
Allard, Guy : La Bibliotheque de Dauphine, contenant las noms de ceux qui se
sont distinguez par leur s(;avoir dans cette province, et le denombrement de
leurs ouvrages depuis XII siecles. Grenoble, 1680, i2mo. b

I: (20).

180 THOMAS WARTON [180

Allatius, Leo : De Libris et Rebus Ecclesiasticis Grsecorum dissertationes et ob-
servationes varire. 2 voll. Paris 1646, 4°.

II:2o8.
: De Symeonuni scriptis diatriba, etc. Paris, 1664, 4°. a

I :i29.
Aluredi Beverlacensis Annales, ed. T. Hearne, Oxon, 1716. b

I:(9).
Ames, Joseph : Typographical Antiquities : being an Historical Account of Print-
ing in England, etc., London, 1749, 4°. a

I .-267,440 ; II :i3,i2i,l67,227,24i ; III :77,i82,279,394,423,440,484.
Anastasius, the Sinaite : OANTOS, seu dux viae, adversus Acephalos . . Ingoldst.
1606, 4°.
11:176.
Anderson, Adam: An Historical and Chronological Deduction of the Origin of
Commerce from the earliest accounts to the present time. 2 voll. London
1764, fol. a.

I:(i2i,i47). 255,280,426.
Andreas, Valerius: Fasti Academici Studii generalis Lovaniensis. Editio iter-
ata, etc. Lovanii, 1650, 4°. a.

11:436.
Anna Comnena : Alexiados, libri quindecim, cum interpretatione, glossario ac
notis Pet-Possini; ace. prajfationes ac notK D. Hoeschel, Paris, 1651, fol. a

I ■■34S.
Annales monasterii Burtonensis, in Rerum Anglicarum Scriptorum Veterum.
Anstis, John : Register of the Most NoMe Order of the Garter. 2 vols. London,
1724, fol. a

I :i2,i 16,172,225,248,252,253,332,335; II : 134.
Antonio Nicolas: Bibliotheca Hispana, 2 voll. Romae, 1672, fol. a

11:416,417.

: Bibliotheca Hispana Vetus, Romse 1696 fol. a

1:149.
Apianus, Petrus and Amantius, Bartholomseus : Inscriptiones sacro-sanctx vetus-
tatis. Ingoldstadii, 1534 fol. c

11:411.

Warton has 1634.
Archaeologia ; or miscellaneous tracts relating to antiquity, London, 1773.

I: (36,44).
Arceus, Fransiscus : A most excellent and compendious metlind of curing
woundes . . written by Fransiscus Arceus . . and translated into English by
John Read . . (with various additions). London, 1588, 4°. a

III:i8i.
Aretinus, see Brunus, Leonard Aretinus.
Argentre, Bcrtrnndus, de : L'Histoire de Bretagne, Paris. 1618. a

I: (4).
Arnold, Richard : Begins, In this boke is conteined ye names of the baylyfs cus-
tose, mayers and sherefs of ye cyte of london from the tyme of king richard
the furst. Knotvn as 'Arnold's Chronicle.' B. L. (London, 1521 ?) a

III: 139-

181] SOURCES OF THE HISTORY OF POETRY 181

Artis auriferje, quam chemiam vocant . . 3 voll. Basil, 1193-1610. 8°. a

11:8.
Ascham, Roger: Familiarum Epistolarum, libri tres. London, 1581. 8°. a

II :38o,424,447,45l.453 ; III -.24.
: The Schole Master ; or plaine and pertite way of teach-
ing children to understand, write and speake the Latin tong. etc. London,
1589, 8°. a

II 1461 ; III :24,33I,4IS,464,49I.

To.xophilus, the schole of shoolinge, etc. London, 1545, 4°.

and 157', 4°- a

III :3O0.33i.
Ashmole, Elias : The Institution, Laws & Ceremonies of the . . Order of the
Garter, London, 1662. a

1:14,252,253; 11:336.

: Theatrum Chemicum Britannicum, etc. London, 1652. 4° a

II :5.9.i35.i36,i3",i38,224 ; III :85.
Asser: Annales Rerum Gestarum Aelfredi Magni. aiictore Asserio Meneveiisi. Ed.
F. Wise, Oxford, 1722. b

I: (98).
Atkyns, Sir Robert: The Ancient and Present State of Gloucestershire. London,
1712, fol. a

11:140,159.
Aubrey, John: Miscellanies, collected by J. .-X. London 1696 and 1721, 8°. c

II :S, emend.

: The Natural History and Antiquities of Surrey. 5 voll, London

1719,18,19.

III :26,2i6.

Augustinus, D. Aurelius : De Civitate Dei. . cum conimentt. Ludovicis Vivis,
London, 1596. c.
Ill :326.
: Opera . . accurante Erasmo. 10 voll. Froben, 1529 fol.

11:371
Aungerville, Richard, see Bury, Richard de.
Aventinus, see Thurnmaier, Johannus Aventinus.

Ayloffe, Sir Joseph: Calendars of the Antient Charters . . and of the Welsh and
Scottish Rolls now remaining in the Tower. London, 1774. 4°.
1 :6, emend.
Bacon, Francis: The Life of King Henry VII, in A Complete History of England
etc. 3 voll. 2nd ed. London, 17 19, fol. a

II :203,2ro.
Bacon, Roger : Opus Majus ad Clementem Quartum Pontificem Romanum . . Ed.
Jebb, London, 1733, fol. c

1:101,408,439: (89,147).
Baillet, Adrian : Jugemens des Savans sur les principaux ouvrages des Auteurs,
8 torn. Paris, 1722-30 4°. a

I:(i3i).

182 THOMAS WARTON [182

Bale, John: Scriptonim Illustrium Majoris Brytannia Catalogus a lapheto per
3618 aiinos, usque ad annum Ininc Domini 1557. (Including Scriptores Nostril
Temporis) Basil 1559 fol. a

I: (7,12,96,104,109,122,126.134,148) : 47,85,87,126,232,287,439,

11:41,53,125,132,134,135,137,189,210,212,281,321,364,387,422,

111:61,43.58,79,83,85.194.206,212,213,216,316,317-

Ballard, George : Memoirs of Several Ladies of Great Britain, who have been
celebrated for their writings or skill in the learned languages arts and
sciences, Oxford, 1752 4°. a

III :56.
Baluze, Etienne : Miscellaneorum liber primus-quartus, hoc est, CoUectio veterum
monumentorum, etc. Paris 1678-83, 4 tom. a

1:294; 11:411.*

*Warton's reference here is to tO)n VI, no doubt a mistake for tom IV.
Banier, Aiitoinc: La Mythologie et les Fables Expliquces par I'liistoire. 3 tom.
Paris, 1738-40, 4°. a

I:(26).
Barnes, Joshua: The History of . . . Edward III and his Son Edward . . . the
Black Prince, etc. Cambridge, 1688, fol. a

1 :2S2.
Baron, Caesar: Annales Ecclesiastici . . 10 voll. Antwerp, 1594-1603, fol,

11:370; 111:325.
(Barrington, Daines) : Observations upon the Statutes chiefly the more Ancient.
Oxford, 1766.

1 :46,4S3-
Barthius, Caspar : Adversariorum commcntariorum libri LX quibus ex univcrsa
antiquitatis serie omnis generis, auctorum etc. Francofurti, 1624 fol.
1:131,350; II:2i8.

: sec also Claudianus, Claudius.

: see also Gulielmus, Brito-amoricus.

Bartholinus, Thomas : Antiquitates Danicas de Causis Contemptae a Danis adhoc
gentilibus Mortis ex Vetustis Codicibus & Monumentis hactenus ineditis conges-
tas. Hafniae, i6go, 4°. a

I : (35.42,43,44,46,53,54.59,69) .

: Antiquitatum Danicarum de Causis Contemptae a Danis

adhuc gentilibus Mortis libri tres. Hafniae. 1689 4°. a

I: (24,31,32) ; 50,127,213.
Bartoloccius, Julius : Bibliotheca magna Rabbinica de Scriptoribus et Scriptis
Hebrxis, etc. 4 voll. Rom. 1675-94. fol. b

II :9.
Batteley, Nicholas: The Antiquities of Canterbury, or a Survey of that ancient
City with its Suburbs, Cathedral, &c, sought out and published by the good
will and industry of William Somner; the second edition revised and en-
larged by Nicholas Battelev, M. A., etc. London 1703. a
III :386.

183] SOURCES OP THE HISTORY OF POETRY 183

Bayeux, Jean de : Joannis Abrincensis episcopi, liber de Officiis Ecclesiasticis ad
Mauriliuni . . primum ex codice ms. coenobii Salicosani in lucem editus, etc.
Rotomagi, etc. 1679. b

I -.293.

Bayle, Pierre: Dictionnaire Historique et Critique. 3 torn. Rott. 1702 and 1734 c

1:339; 11:62; 111:164.
Beard, Thomas: Theatre of God's Judgments. London 1631, 410.

Ill :289,43--
de Beauchamps, see Godart de Beauchamps, Pierre Frangois.

Becket, S. Thomas a: Epistolse et Vita Divi Thomx Martyris et Archi-Episcopi
Cantuariensis. Manv editions. c

11:431.
Beda, the Venerable : Historire Ecclesiasticae Gentis Anglorum Libri Quinque,
Auctore Sancto & Venerabili Baeda. . Una cum reliquis ejus Operibus Histo-
ricis in unum Volumen Collectis .... cura et studio Johannis Smith. Canta-
brigias, 1722, fol. a

I:(5S,93.94.95.96,98,ioi.iO2,iO3,iO4,i0S,lio,ii2,i24),8.
Bedwell, Wilialm : The Turnament of Tottenham, or, The wooing, winning and
wedding, of Tibbe, the reev's daughter there. Written long since in verse,
by Mr. Gilbert Pilkington. . . Taken out of an ancient Manuscript, and pub-
lished for the delight of others by Wilialm Bedwell. . . London, 1631. a
111:103.
Belethus, J. see Durandus, Gulielmus.

Belius, Matthias : Apparatus ad Historiam Hungarise, sive, CoUectio Miscella Mon-
umentorum. . . Posonii, 1735-46 fol. c

11:418.
Belleforest, Frangois de : Histoires Tragiques, 1580. f.

Ill :xxv.
Bembo, Pietro : Historiae Venetise libri XII. Many editions. e

11:413.
Benedictus Abbas : De Vita & gestis Henrici II et Ricardi I, E. codice, MS. in
Bibliotheca Harleiana descripsit et . . edidit T. Hearnius, Oxon. 1735.
1:121,157,432,441,442; 11:317; 111:72; I:ii3,449,emend.
Benedictus, Alexander : De Bello Venetorum cum Carolo VIII Gallorum Rege
.'\nno 1497, Gesto Lib. II. see Justinianus, P. Rerum Venetarum. . . Histo-
ria, et etc. Argentorati, 1610. c

1:133.
Bentham, James: History and Antiquities of the Conventual and Cathedral
Church of Ely from the foundation of the Monastery A. D. 675-1771. Camb.
1771. b

III :384.
Berchorius, Petrus : Reductorium Morale etc. . . . Libri Quatuordecim. . Venet
1583, fol. a

III :lxxxvii,io8.
Bergomensis. see Forestus, Jacobus Philipus, Bergomas.

Beveregius, Gulielmus: Synodicon, sive pandectas canonum SS. Apostolorum et
Conciliorum ab Ecclesia Grasca receptorum. Oxon. 1672, fol.

II :370.

184 THOMAS WARTON [184

Maxima BiL/liotheca Veterum Patrum, sec La Bigne, Margarinus.
Bibliothcca Sirithiana, seu Catalogus Libroruni D. Josephi Smithii Angli . . .
Addenda ct Corrigenda in superior! Catalogo etc. Venetiis 1755. a

1 :3S2.
Binius, Severinus : Concilia Gcneralia et provincialia quotquot reperiri potuerunt.
etc. 4 toni. Colon. Agrip. 1618.
Ill:
Biorner, Eric Julius: Volunien Ilistoricuni, contincns \«iriorum in orbo Hyper-
boreo antique reguni, heroum et pugilum etc. Stockholm, 1737 fol.
I:(68).
Blackstone, Sir William : Commentaries on the Laws of England. Many editions.
c

1 :298, emend.
(Blackwel!, Thomas C.) : Enquiry into the Life and Writings of Homer. London,
1735. 1736. c

in :497.
Blair, Hugh: A Critical Dissertation on the Poems of Ossian, 3rd ed. 1765.

I:(30).
Blesensis, Petrus, see Peter of Blois.

Blomefield, Francis : An Essay towards a Topographical History of the Country
of Norfolk, s voll. Fersfield, Norwich and Lynn, 1739-75, fol. b

1:282,430,453; 11:461; 111:308.
Blondus, Flavius : Italia illustrata. .l/o»v editions. e

I:(l2o).
Blount. Thomas: Fragmenta Antiquitatis. Ancient Tenures of Land and Jocular
Customs of some Manors, London 1679. b.

II :2o6.
Boccacio, Giovanni: Genealogia deorum gentilium, fol. Basil, 1532. a

III:lx.x.xix.

Warton says 1552, but that is surely a mistake, since his reference
corresponds with the edition given.
Boerhaave, Herman : A New Method of Chemistry . . to which is prefixed, .A
Critical History of Chemistry and Chemists . . London 7727 4°. a

I:(87).
Boethius, Hector: Heir beginnis the hystory and croniklis of Scotland tran?latit
laitlv be maister J. Bellenden. . . T. Davidson, Edinburgh [1536] fo!.
I: (47); n:32i.
Boileau-Despreaux, Nicholas: L'Art Poetique. c

1 :382.
Bolton, Edmund: Hypercritica : or a Rule of Judgement, for writing or reading
our History's. . Now first published by Ant[hony] Hall, at the end of Nicolai
Triveti .'\nnalium Continuatio et .^danii Murimuthensis Chronicon. Oxford,
1722. 8°. a

HI :24,27S-6.278,279,446.
Bona, John: Rerum Liturgicani. j1/a»v editions. c

I:(55).

185] SOURCES OF THE HISTORY OF POETRY 185

Boniface, Saint: Epistolse, Mogunt, 1629. Also in Bibl. Patr. torn. XIII. see La
Eigne. a

II :22l.

Horde, Andrew : The fyrst boke of the Introduction to Knowledge. . London
1542. c

III 70.

Borel, Pierre ; Tresor de Recherches et Antiquitez Gauloises et Francoises reduits
en ordre alphabetique et enrichies de beaucoup d'origines, epitaphes, etc. Paris,

165s, 4°-

I :iiS, emend.

Borlase, William: The Xatural History of Cornwall . . Oxford, 1758.
1 :237.

: Observations on the Antiquities historical and monumental of

Cornwall, London, 1769.
I: (4.6,7,35,48).
Borrichius, Olaus : Dissertationes Academicx de Poetis. . . Francofurtii, 16S3,
4°. a

1:132,378.
Bosch, Andrew : Summari, Inde.x o Epitome dels admirables y nobilissimo Titolos
de Honor de Catalunya, Rosello, y Cerdanya, y de la grades, etc. Perpinya,
1628, fol. b

II :i03, emend.
Bostonus, Joannes, see Bale, John.

Scriptoruni illuslrium majoris Britannire . . Catalogus . . ex . . , Bostono
Buriensi . . collectus, etc. Basil 1559. a

I: (147).
Boulay, Cesar-figasse du : Histoire de Patronis quatuor Nationum Universitates,
ed. 1662, S°.
11:375.

: Historia Universitatis Parisiensis, 6 torn. Paris 1665-1673, fol.

H :347.3rS-
: see also Histoire de I'Academie Royale des Inscriptiones et

Belles Lettres.
Bourdeilles, Pierre de : Memoires.
n:4i4.

Bourdeilles wrote many memoirs, but I can find Warton's reference
in none of them.
Bradwardinus, Thomas : de Causa Dei, contra Pelagium, et de virtute Causarum,
ad suos Mertonenses, libri tres, opera et studio H. Savilii, nunc primum editi,
London, 1618, fol.
1:388: n :7,11s.

Warton has 161/. 1 :388.
Brantome, Peter de, see Bourdeilles, Pierre de.

Brassicanus, Johannes .Alexander : De Bibliothecis, cum primis regia Budensi,
epistola, in Maderus, JJ. D Bibliothecis atque .'\rchivis virorum clarissimo-
rum etc. Helmstadii, 1666. a

11:417.

186 THOMAS WARTON [186
: D. Salviani. . . de vero Judicio et Providentia Dei . . . Litfri

VIII cum J. A. B. cditi etc. Basil 1530 fol. a

11:417.
Brillon, Pierre Jacques: Dictionaire des Arrets, ou Jurisprudence Universelle des
Parlcnicns de France, et autres tribunaux. 6 torn, Paris, 1727, fol.

11:389.
Brompton, Jolin : Chronicon ab anno Domini xlxxxviii ac mcxcviii, see Historiae
Anglicana: Scriptores Decern, ed. Twysden, Sir Roger. a

I: (97) -3.
Brovorius de Niedek, Mattheus : De Populorum Vcterum et Recentiorun; Adorat-
ionibus dissertatio, . . Amstelaedami, 1713, 8°. a

I:(SS).
Brown, Edward, see Fasciculus.
Brunus, Leonardus, Aretinus : Epistolarum. Many editions. e

I: (78); 11:411.
Buchanan, George: Opera omnia, including Rerum Scoticarum Historia. 2 torn.
Edinburgh 1715, fol. c

11:125,318.
Buo!c, Sir Gei>rge: The Third Universitie of England: or A Treatise of the foun-
dations of all the colledges . . within and about the most famous Cittie of
London. . . London, 1615. a

II :38.
Bulengerus, Julius Caesar: de Circo Romano Circensibus Ludisque, etc. Lugd.
1619. e

1:129.
BuUart, Isaac : Academic des Sciences et des Arts, contenant les Vies, & les
Eloges des Hommes Illustres. Paris, 1682, fol. a

11:423.
de Bure, Guillaume Frangois : Bibliographie Instructive ; ou Traite de la connois-
saiice dts livres raros et singuliers. . . 7 torn. Paris, 1763-61}. d

II :54, emend.

Burman, Charles: Lives of those eminent antiquaries Elias Ashmole, Esq. and
Mr. William Lilly, written by themselves, containing, first, Mr. Lilly's History
of his Life and times; with notes by Mr. Ashmole. . . London, 1717 and

1774.

III :496.

Burnet, Gilbert: History of the Reformation of the Church of England. Many
editions.

1:241 ; 11:452; 111:197,205.
Burton, Robert: Anatomy of Melancholy. Oxon. 1624.

1:62; 111:296,425,434.
Bury, Richard de : Philobiblon, or de Amore Librorum, Oxford, 1599.

I : (84, 1 21), 291.
Cabaret d'Orronville, Jean : Histoire de la vie . . de Louys, Due de Bourbon,
etc. . Paris, 1612, 8°. a

1:167.

187] SOURCES OP THE HISTORY OP POETRY 187

Calderwood, David: The true History of the Church of Scotland, . . Edin-
burgh, 1678, fol.

11:315.
Camden, William : Britannia, sive Florentissimorum Regnorum Anglic, Sco-
tiae, Hiberniae, et Insularum adiacentium ex intima antiquitate Chorographica
Descriptio. London 1602 and 1723, a

I:(S.99),4o6; 11:426; III:40i.

: Reges. Reginse, Nobiles et Alij in Ecclesia Collegiata B. Petri!

Westmonasterij sepulti vsque ad annum 1600, London, 1600, 4°.
11:336; 111:384.

Remaines, concerning Britaine, etc. London, 1674.

I:(ii5>i3S,i36,i39.i4o),7o; II :,36.

Anglia, Hibernica, Normanica, Cambria a veteribus scripta ; ex

quibus Asser Menevensis, Anonymus de vita Gulielmi Conquestoris, Thomas

Walsingham, Thomas de la More, Gulielmus Gemiticensis, Giraldus Cambren-

sis : etc. Francofurti, 1602. a

1:128,254,312,103.
Campion, Edmund : Roberti Turneri Devonii Posthuma . . Accesserunt E. Cam-

piani. Orationes, Epistolae, Tractatus de Imitatione Rhetorica etc. Ingold-

stadii, 1602, 8°.
Ill :40i.
Canisius, Henry : Lectiones Antiquae, sive Thesaurus monumentorum ecclesias-

ticorum et historicorum. Ingoldstadt, 1601-4 and Amst. 1725. fol.

I : (92,145).
Cantacuzenus, John : Ex Imperatoris Historiarum Libri IV. ... 3 tom. Paris,
1645. a

1:348.
Capell, Edward : Prolusions, or select pieces of antient Poetry, London, 1760.

11:138; 111:136.
Caradoc of Llancarvan, see Powel, David.
Carew, Richard: Survey of Cornwall. . . London, 1602, 8°.

1:47,87.
Carpentier, Pierre : Novum ad scriptores medii aevi . . Supplementum, ad auc-
tiorem glossarii Cangfiani editionem . . 4 voll. Paris 1766, fol.
I:(49,l43),98,i39,i58,i77,i89,2io,244,245,247,303,332,388;
11:231,317,345,346,349.368,381,375,387-
I :i6i,i70, emend.
Casley, David: A Catalogue of the Manuscripts of the King's Library . .Lon-
don, 1734. b.

I:(37).
Cassiodorus, Magnus Aurelius: Opera Omnia. 2 tom. Rotomagi, 1679.

II:ii.

: Variarum Epistolarum, Libri, xii. Many editions. c

Cassiodorus, Marcus Aurelius: Variarum Epistolarum, Libri xii. Many edi-
tions, c

I: (74).

188 THOMAS WARTON [188

Catalogus Codicum MSS. Bibliothecae rcgiac Parisiensis . . Paris, 1739-44- b

II :2i,ii7.
Catel, Guillaume : Memoires de I'Histoire de Langue-doc. Tolose, 1633, fol. b

I:(i8).
Cato, Dionysiiis: Disticha de moribiis. Edited by Christian Daumius, Cygneae,
1672, 8°.

I:(ii9).
Cave, Henry: Narration of the Fall of Paris Gardens. London, 1588. f

111:289.
Cave, William: Scriptorum Ecclesiasticorum Historia Literaria. . 2 voll. Lon-
donii, 1688, fol. a

I : (74.91.93.96,99.102,104,106,127,135,122,146) ,256,343 ;
11:40,136.
Cavendish, George: The Memoirs of Cardinal Woolsey; etc. London, 1706, 8°.
a

II :330,439-

Warton says 1708, but I find no such edition, and his references corre-
spond with the edition given.
Caxton, William: The Recule of the historyes of Troye from the French of Ra-
nal le Fevre, n.d. fol.
II:8i.

— •: The Booke of Eneydos, compyled by Uyrgryle, cute of Frenche;

reduced into Englyshe. J490, fol.
11:130,337.
: The Golden Legende, 1493.

Ill :xi,xxii,xxv.

Cedrinus, George : Compendium Historiarum, ex versione Guil. Xylandri, cum
ejusdem annotationibus . . Paris, 1647, 2 voll.
I: (88); II :370.
Celsius, Olaf: BibliothecEe Upsaliensis Historia, Upsal.i, 1745.

I:(58).
Celtes, Conrad: de origine Situ, Moribus, et Institutis Norimbergje . . in Opera,
Norimb, 1502, 4°.

II :376,4i6.

Cervantes, Miguel de Saavedra : The Life and Exploits of Don Quixote de la
Mancha, translated from the Original Spanish . . by Cliarles Jarvis, Esq. with
A Supplement to the Translator's Preface, Communicated by a learned writer,
well known in the literary world, [Bishop Warburton]. London, 1608.
I:ii2.
Challoner, Sir Thomas: De Republica Anglorum instauranda libri decem . .
Lond. 1579.
111:9.
Chambre. Gulielmus : Historia de Episcopis Dunelmensibus, see Wharton, Henry :
Anglia Sacra, vol. I. 1691. a

I:(i2:).
Chapman, George: May-Day. London, 161 1, 4°.

III :iii ;279.

189] SOURCES OF THE HISTORY OF POETRY 189

Chardin, Jean: Voyages en Perse, et autres lieux de I'Orient . . Amst. 1711 and
■735-

I:(i4).
Chaucer. Geoffrey: Works, ed. Urry, London, 1721. a

I:(ii8,i3i,i45).

: The Canterbury Tales of Chaucer, with an essay upon

his language and Versification, an Introductory Discourse and Notes. Ed. by
Thomas Tyrwhitt. anon. a

1:86,458,466, emend. 11:273; 103, emend. Ill :vi,lxvii,lxxxi,76,90,i3i.
Cherubinus, Laertius : Magnum Bullarium Romanum etc. Luxemburg!, 1727,
fol. b.

11:428.
Du Chesne, Andre : Historix Francorum Scriptores Coxtanei . . Paris, 1636-
49 fol. and with Barthius's notes, Cj'gne, 1657, 4°.
I: (21.41) ;s,25».

Warton says Paris, 1694, probably a mistake for 1649.

; Historic Normannorum Scriptores antiqui, etc. Lut. Paris.

1619. a

1:455; 11:236.
Christine de Pisan : Vie de Charles V. . . Rov de France. c

II:ii5.
The Chronicles of England. Here beg^'nnys a schort & breve tabull on thes Cron-
icles. . . Here ende the Croniclis of Englode with the frute of tiniis B. L.
Sanctus Albanus [1483] fol.
II:ii.

Warton has Fructus iemporis.
Chrysoloras, Emanuel : Epistolae tres de comparatione veteris et novje Romas,
etc. c

11:217.
Chytraeus, David: Historici Clarissimi Saxonia, ab Anno Christi 1500 usque
ad Annum MDC, etc. Lipsiae, i6ii, fol. a

II :4I5.
Gibber, Colley : An Apology for the Life of C. G. Comedian, with an account of
the Rise and Progress of the English Stage. London, 1750, 1756.
11 :39i.402.
Cinnamus. Joannus : Historiarum Libri Sex, in Corpus Byzantinae Historiae,
Venetiis, 1729. c.

1 :348.
Clarke, William : The Connexion of the Roman, Saxon, and English Coins.
London, 1767, and 1771.
I:(24).
Claudianus, Claudius : Opera cum animadvers. Casp. Barthius. Hanov. 1612, and
Francof. 1650.

1:133; 11:75.
Clemens, Titus Flavius Alexandrinus : dementis Stromatx liber, Quis Dives sa-
lutem consequi possit? In Combefis : Bibliotheca Grscorum Patrum aucta-
rium, etc. Pt. I, 1672, fol. f

11:371.

190

THOMAS WARTON

[190

Clerk, John: A Trctise of Xobilitie, London. 15^3, i2mo. f

111:26.
Cluverius, Philip: Gcrmania; Antiqu.x libri tres, Lugd. Bat. 1631, fol.

I:(66).
Colet, John : Johannis Coleti Theologi olim Decani Divi Pauli seditio una cum
quibusdam G. Lillii Grammatices rudimentia published with VVoIsey's Rudi-
nicnta Grammatices, 1529 and 1536. c.

1 :28r.
Collier, Jeremy: An Ecclesiastical History of Great Britain, chiefly of England
from the first planting of Christianity, to the end of the reign of King Charles
the Second, etc. London, 1708-14. 2 voll. fol. b

11 :450>452.
Comines, Philippe de : Les Memoires dc P. de C. . . augmentee par M. Lenglet
du Fresnoy . . Addition a I'histoire du Roy Louis XI . . par G. Naude, 4 tom.
Londres et Paris, 1747, 4°.
I:(86).
A Complete History of England: with the Lives of all the Kings and Queens
thereof ; From the Earliest Account of Time, to the Death of His late Majesty
King William HL . . 3 voll. 2nd ed. London, 1719. a

II :203.
Conciliorum Collectio Regia Maxima, edita a studio Joan. Harduini, 1 1 tom.
Paris, 171S, fol.
II :3C)0.

Warton has 1714.
Conon, Grammaticus : Narrationes quinquaginta, in Historic Poetica; Scriptores
antiqui, ed. by Thomas Gale, Paris, 1675, 8°.
I: (24).
Conringius, Hermannus : De Scriptoribus XVI post Christum natum sasculorum
commentarius, etc. Wroteslavioe, 1727.
I: (89,99) ; 404,440,441,443.
Constantius, Africanus: Opera, Basil, 1536, fol. a

1:441-
Cooper, Mrs. Elizabeth : Muses Library, London, 1738.

1: 107; III: 12.
Corbet, Richard : Certain elegant Poems. London, 1647.

111:170,171.
Cotgrave, Randle: A dictionarie of the French and English tongues, London,
161 1, etc. Mait\ editions. c.

1 :68,28i.
Croix du Maine, Frangois Grude, sieur de la : Bibliotheques Fran<;oises de la
Croix du Maine et de du Verdier, 6 voll. Paris, 1722 and 1772, 4°. c

III:xx.
Crescimbeni, Giovanni Mario : L'Istoria della volgar poesia, 6 voll. Venezia,
1 730- 1.

1:66,139,217,338.345,463; 11:222,418; 111:477-
Crusius, Martin : Turco-Graecise libri octo, etc. 1594. f

1:348,349,350,351-

191] SOURCES OF THE HISTORY OP POETRY 191

Cuspinianus, Johannus : De Cassaribus atque Imperatoribus Ronianoruni opus
insigne. Many editions.
I:(8g).
Dalrymple, Sir David: Ancient Scottish Poems, Edinburgh, 1770.

: Annals of Scotland, from the Accession of Malcohii III to the

Accession of the House of Stewart. 2 vols. Edinbrugh 1776, 4°.
1:76; 11,266,278,316,319,325,326,359,361; 111:94.
Danois, see Aulnoy, (or Aunoy) Marie Catherine le Jumel de Barneville de la Motte,
Baronne d' : Relation du voyage d'Espagne, La Haj'e, 1691, 12°. f

I: (20).
Dart, John: Westmonasterium ; or the History and Antiquities of the Abbey
Church of St. Peter's, Westminster. 2 voll. London, 1742, fol. a

1 :392, emend.
Davies, Miles : Icon Libellorum ; or A Critical History of Pamphlets. Lond.
1751- b

II -.337.

Davison, Francis: Poems; or, A Poeticall Rhapsody; containing divers sonnets,
odes, elegies, madrigals, and other poesies, both in rime and measured verse.
The fourth impression. . London, 1621. 8°.
HI .32.

Dee, John: Compendious Rehearsall. . . 1592. f.

11 :379-

Dekker, Thomas: The Gul's Horne-booke, London, 1609, 4°.

ni -.425,426.

: Satiromastix, or the Untrussing of the Humorous Poet.

London, 1602, 4°,

11:393-
Delrius, Martin Antliony. Disquisitionum Magicarum libri sex, etc. Many edi-
tions.

1 :40i.
Dempster, Thomas: Apparatus ad historiani Scoticam libri duo; . . accessere
martyrologium Scoticum sanctorum, scriptorum Scotorum nomenclatura et
catalogus in fine operum auctoris. Bonon, 1622, 4°.
I:(I02,I47); 77,321,322; H :I25,3I9,32I,334.335.
Dictys Cretensis : de Bello Trojano. et Dares Phrygius : de excidio Trojae. . in
usuni Delphini cum interpretatione Annx Dacerice. Amstelod. 1702, 8°.
I:(i36): n:83.9i.
Diodorus, Siculus : Historiarum libri aliquot qui extant. Basil 1539. 4° and
iiianv oilier editions.
I: (54.66):
Ditmarus Siculus : Chronici libri septem nunc primum in lucem editi. Franc, ad
Msen. 1580, fol.

III :xlvii.

Dodsley. Robert: A Select Collection of Old Plays. London, 1744.

1 :2ro.
Dodsworth. Roger, see Dugdale, William.
Dolmeriiis, ad Hird-skraan, see Resen, Peder.

192 THOMAS WARTON [192

Drake, Francis: Eboracum : or, the History and Antiquities of the City of York,
etc. London, 1736, fol. b.

I: (36).
Drayton, Michael: England's Heroicall Epistles, newly enlarged, London, 1598.

8°.

I :i 17,409; III :7.
: To Henry Reynolds. . . of Poets and Poesie, i)i Works,

1759- i
ni :4i,446.
: Poly-olbion, [with the Illustrations of John Selden], London,

1631, fol.

I:(5o) ; 406.
Du Breul, Jacques: Le Theatre des Antiquitez de Paris, Augmentee en cette edi-
tion d'un supplement. 2 pts. Paris, 1639, 4°.

11:413.
Ducarel. Andrew Coltee : Anglo-Norman .\ntiquities considered, in a tour
through part of Normandy. London, 1767, fol. b

I: (36): 64.
Du Chesne, Andre: Historise, Francorum Scriptores Coxtanei. . Paris, 1636-49,
fol. and with Bartliius's notes. Cygne, 1657, 4°. a

I: (21,141) ; 5,254.

Warton says Paris l6g.!, probably an error for 1649.

— ■ ; Historic Normannorum Scriptores antiqui, etc. Lut. Paris.

1619. a

1 :45s; 11:236.
Du Fresne, Charles, signeur du Cange : Glossarium ad scriptores niedise et in-
fimse Graecitatis. . Accedit appendix. . una cum brevi etyniologico linguae Galli-
cx ex utroque glossario. Lugduni, 1688, fol. a

1:62,129,131,178.347.349,378: 463, emend.

: Glossarium ad scriptores mediae et infimK Latinitatis ed.

nova. . . opera et studio Monachorum Ordinis S. Bencdicti e Congregatione S. !

Mauri. . . [P. Carpentier] . . 6 torn. Paris, 1733-36, fol. a

I : (2), (117) ;I57,I59,I78,12I, 136,146,154,158,167,217,248,303,365,384.
11:168.169,272,345,346,
HI :xliii,liii,lxxix ; 127,152.
: De Tmperatorum Constantinopolitanorum, etc. Rom. 1755, 4°.

I :I29.
Dugdale, Sir William. Tlie Antiquities of Warwickshire, Illustrated, etc. 2nd
edition, 2 voU. London, 1730, fol. a

11:140,159,362.

: The Baronage of England, London, 1675-6, fol. a

1 :3,l 16.145,212,377; III :8, 10,42,43.46,58.

-: History of St. Paul's Cathedral in London, London, 1658 fol.

and 1716. fol.
1 :2io,248.

193] SOURCES OP THE HISTORY OF POETRY 193
and Dodsworth, Roger: Monasticon Anglicanum, sive Pandec-

ta; Coenobroruni Benedictorum, Cluniacensiuni Cisterciensium, Carthusianorum
a primordiis ad eoriim usque dissolutionem, etc. 3 voll. London, 1693. a

I :(96,ioi, 114,11V, 118,121) ; 58,88,1,16,177,247,248,281,282,298,302,303,430;

II ;2o8,22i, 374,429,430,447.
111:153. 1 :376.403,emend.

Origines Juridiciales : English laws. Courts of Justice, etc.

London, 1666, fol. a

I:(28) ; 11:363.398,399,405.
Durandus. Gulielmus : Rationale divinorum officiorum. Adjectum fuit prsetera
aliud divinorum Officiorum Rationale ab J. Beletlio . . conscriptuni ; etc.; many
editions. c

1 :247.
Du Tilliot, sec Lucotte, J. B. du Tilliot.

Du Verdier : Bibliotheques Francoises de la Croix du Maine et de du Verdier, 6
voll. Paris, 1772, 4°. c

1:338; 11:62; 111:349.
Eccardus, Johannus Georgius : Corpus Historicum Medii Mvi ... 2 voll. Lips.
1723, fol.
11:20.
Edmonds, .Me.xander : The Trew Report of the Dysputacyon had, and begone in
tlie Conuocacvo Hours at London, London, 1583. f.

ni;3SS. "
Eginhart or Einhardus : Vita et Gesta Caroli magni, 1516. f.

ibid, accesserunt . . Veltonis Goldasti Animadversiones. . . 1565, f and Trajecti
ad Rhenum. 171 1.

I :(54,58,9l,98,ioi, 102.108).

Engelbert of Trevou.x : Engell)erti Abbatis Admontensis Liber plane philosophicus

De Ortu & Fine Romani Impcrij. in La Eigne: Maxima Bibliotheca Veterum

Patrum, etc. Lugduni, 1677, vol. XXV, p. 363 ff. a

I:(ii9).
Engelhusen, Theodoricus : Chronicon a Erfordensis civitatis T. Englehusii con-

tinens res Ecclesix, in Leipnitz, G. W. von : Scriptores rerum Brunsvicensium

. . Helmst. 1671, 4°.

1(55); 11:13.

Erasmus, Desiderius Roterodamus : Enarratio in primum Psalmum Davidium : vma
cum Dorpii Epistola ad Erasmum de Morise Encomio. Basil, 1538. a
11 :387.433.438,439,440,44i,446.
: Opera Omnia, Lugduni, Batavorum, 1703-6. 10 voll. a

II :54. emend. ; 438.

Erdeswicke, Sampson : A Survey of Staffordshire. . with a description of Bees-
ton Castle in Cheshire, etc. London, 1717. b
11:216.
Erigena, see Scotus, Johannes Erigena.

Erythraeus, lanus Nicius : Pinacotheca Imaginum Illustrium, doctrin^e vel ingenii
laude, virorum, qui, .\uctore superstite, diem suum obierunt, ed. nov. Lipsiae,
1692. a

11:357.

194 THOMAS WARTON [194

Eusebius, Pamphilus: Praparatio Euangelica. Paris. 1544 and 1628. c

11:371
Evans, Evan: Some specimens of the Poetry of the Ancient Welsh Bards, U ith
de Bardiis Disscrtatio, etc. London, 1764. b

I: (7,50,62,64) ; 92.
Eyston, Charles: A little Monument to the once famous Abbey and Borough of
Glastonbury, or a short specimen of the History of that ancient Monastery &
Town, etc. />r. by Hearne in History and Antiquities of Glastonbury, Oxon.
1722. b

1 :437 ; 11 :44S.
Fabliaux at Contes des poets fran<;ois des XII, XIII, XIV, et XVes siecles, tires des
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1:431, emend.
Fabricius, Joannes Albertus : Bibliotlieca Grasca, 14, veil. Haniburgi 1705-7, 4°-

I :(5i,86,87,90,93,ni, 143,147) ; i30,i40,35o,35i,378.393,394,42i,442,444,463 ; 463
• emend.
n:8

: Bibliotheca Latina Mediae et Infimje statis, 6 torn. . Hamburgi,

1734-46. a

I :(99,n9,i20,i26,i27) ; II:i9.
: Codex Apocryphus Novi Testamenti . . Hamburg, 1703.

II : 1 76,306.
: Codex pseudepigraphus veteris Testamenti, etc. Hamb. 1713-33.

8°.

III:Ixvi.

see Miraeus, Aubertus : Bibliotheca ecclesiastica. . 2 partt : multo

auctior additis tum alliis scriptoribus ejusdem argumenti tuni variorum an-
notationibus, curante Jo. Alb. Fabricio . .Hamb. 1718, fol.
II:ii8.
Fabyan, Robert : Fabyans cronycle, newly prynted wyth the cronycle, actes, and
dedcs done in the tyme of the rcygne of the moste excellent pryiice kynge
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Falcandus, Hugo Siculus : Historia de rebus gestis in Siciliae regno, cum pra.'fa-
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Farmer. Richard : An Essay on the Learning of Shakespeare, Cambridge, 1767, 8°.

ll:8i.
Farnaby, Thomas : see Martial, M. Valerius : Epigrammata animadversa, emendata
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II :2S6.
Fasciculus rcrum expetendarum ac fugiendarum, in quo primum continetur concil-
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1 :29i ; II ;368.

195] SOURCES OF THE HISTORY OF POETRY 195

Fauchet, Claude : Recueil de I'origine de la langue et poesie frangoise, etc. Paris,
1581, 4°- a

I: (123) ; 37.64,74,109,112,134,135,139,190,212,368,317,463;
II:no.
Favyn, Andre: Le Theatre d'Honnevr et de Chevalerie, etc. Paris, 1620, 4°. a

1 :332-
Felibien, Michel: Histoire de la ville de Paris . . reveue, augmentee et mise au
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1 :246.
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11:357.
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11:424.
Fiddes, Richard : The Life of Cardinal Wolsey, London, 1726, fol. a

II :425,+2S,434,435-
Field, John: .\ godly exhortation, by occasion of the late judgement of God,
shewed at Parris-garden, the thirteenth day of Januarie; etc. London, 1583,
8°

111:288.
FigHucci, Felice: de la Filosofia Morale X libri sopra li dieci libri d: I'ethica
d'Aristotile. Roma, 1551, 4°.
Ill :24.
Finett, Sir John : Finetti Philoxcnis : some choice Observations, tou ;hing the
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1656, 8°.

II :399.40i.

Finnaeus, Johannus : Dissertatio historico-Iitteraria de Speculo Regali. prefixed

to Kongs Skugg-Lio . . Sor^e, 1768, 4°. b

111:263.
Fischerus, Johannus : Hereafter foloweth a mornynge remembrance had at the

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London, 1708.

III :322.

Fitz-Stephen. William : Description of the City of London, newly translated, etc.
[by S. Pegge.] London, 1772, 4°.

I:(i45).
Flacius, Matthias lUyricus : Catalogus Testium Veritatis etc. Basil. 1556, 8°.

II:206.
Flahert}-. Mauritius, O' : Og>gia ; seu, Rerum Hibernicarum Chronologia. Lond.
1685. 4°.

I:(33).

196 THOMAS WARTON [196

Flamina. Gualvaneus ilc la: Manipulus Floriim, sci- Rcruin Italicarum Scriptores

Muratori, tom. XII.

I:(58)-
[Fleetwood, William] : The Life and Miracles of St. Winifred, etc. London, 1713,

8°.

1:13.
Fleury, Claude .-\l)l)e : Histoire Ecclcsiastique depuis le commencement dii Chris-
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I: (78).
Flodoardus of Rheims : Chronicon ab anno 919 ab 966 ex bibliotlicca P. Pithiei.
Paris, 1588, 8°. c

I:(i9).
Fontanini, Gjiisto: Delia eloquenza Italiana, libri due, Roma, 1726, 4°. other edi-
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111:407.

: Vindiciae Antiquorum Diplomatum adversus Bartli. Germonii,

Rom. 1705, 4°. b

I:(ii9)-
Fontenelle. Bernard le Bovier de: Histoire du theatre fran<;ais jusqu'a Corneille,
1742.

1 :37, 148,235,236,240,460.
Forestus, Jacobus Philipus, Bergomas: Supplementum Chronicorum, niany
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Ill :xci.
Fortescue, Sir John : De Laudibus Legum Angli;e, many editions. c

1:6.
Fountaine, Andrew: Numismata [Anglo-] Saxonica ct Anglo-Danica breviter il-
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T:(36).

Warton says Saxon Money.
Fox, John : The first volume of the Ecclesiastical history, conteyning the actes &
monumentes of thinges passed in every kinges time in this realme. especially
in the Church of England . . . London, 1576, fol.

: Actes and monuments of matters most especiall and memoralile,

happenyng in the Church, with an universall history of the same, etc. London,
1583, fol.

II :436 ; III :42,46,8s,i44,284,3i3,320.

Warton also refers to an edition, i^g;; which is in neither the British
Museum nor the Bodleian Library.
Freherus, Marquardus : Germanicarum Rerum Scriptores aliquot insignes, etc. ed.
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Freind, John: The History of Physick ; from the time of Galen to the beginning
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1 :443, emend.

197] ■ SOURCES OF THE HlSTOnY OP POETRY 197

Froissart, Jenii : IIEre begynneth the first volum of Sir Johan Froyssart ; of the
cronycles of Englandc, France, Spayne, Forty ugale, Scotlande, Bretayne, Flan-
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nall englysshe tonge by J. Rourchier, etc. 2 voU. London, 1523-25, fol.

Histoire et Croniqve memorable de Messire lehan Froissart reveu et corrige
sus divers exemplaires . . par Denis Saumage de Fontenailles en Brie, etc., 2
voll. Paris, 1574, fol. a

1 :252.253,254.332.334,336,337,449 ; 68 emend ;
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Illilxxvi, 123,147,148.
Fulgentius, Fabius Planciades : Opera, ed J. Molana, Ant. 1574, 8°, other cds.

II 76. c

Fuller, Thomas: Church History of Britain from the birth of Christ to 1648, Lon-
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II :38i ; HI ; 198,200,205.

: History of the Worthies of England. London, 1662.

1:287: 11:81,128; 111:83,194,299,481.
Funccius, Jolin Nicholas: De inerti ac decrepita Latinre linguae senectute commen-
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I:(74).
Gale, Thomas (editor) : Historise Anglicanx Scriptores Quinque ex vetustis Codi-
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Contaiiiing .^nnales Margancnses; Chronicon Thonia: Wikes ; Annales Wa-
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I :io8,iii,4is emend; III:i46.
Galfridus, Monumetensis : Britanie utriusque regu & principu origo et gcsta insig-
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T :{4,i3.i5.i7.i9.35.4i.57.i28,i3i,i43') : 51,124. 115 emend.

111:133,146.
The British History, translated into English from the Latin of Jeffrey of Mon-
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I:(7,8).
Gandavus. Henricus : Liber . . de scriptoribus ecclesiasticis, in Le Mire's B'iblioth-
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I:(I43); 11:347.
Gascoigne, George : Epistle to all Young Gentlemen, in The Pleasauntest Workes
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The posies of George Gascoigne, London [1575]. 4°.

111:45.

— ■ : The Princelye pleasures at the Courte at Kenelwoorth, in both

the aboz'e. a

III :293,346.

Geoffrey, de Vinsauf : Itinerarium regis .Anglorum Richardi, et aliorum in terram
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245- a

I :i 1 1,415 emend.

198 THOMAS WARTON [198

Geographia Nubiensis, id est accuratissima totius orbis in septeni climata divisi de-
scriptio, continens praesertim exactam iiniversse Asiae, et Africse . . . explicatio-
nem, etc. Paris, 1619, 4°. c

I:(I4).
Gerard, Jolin : The Hcrball, or general! historic of plantes, ed. enlarged and
amended by T. Johnson, London, 1633, fol.
111:308.
Gesner, Conrad: Bibliotheca Universalis, sive Catalogus Scriptorum, Tigur. 1555,
fol.

11:68; III :xc.
Giannone, Pietro : Dell' istoria civile del regno di Napoli libri XL, 4 torn. Napoli,
1723, and many other editions. c

I : (74.75) ; 177,290,442.

Gibson, Edmund : Chronicon Saxonicum, ex. MSS. Codicibus nunc Prinum inte-
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I: (36).

: Codes Juris Ecclesiastici .\nglicani, Oxon. 1761.

Ill :20o.
Giorgi, Domenico : Vita Kicolai quinti Pont. Max. ad fidem veteruui inonumento-
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et litteratos viros patrocinio. Romae, 1742, 4°.
11:410.
Giornale dc Letterati d'ltalia, 40 torn. Venezia, 1710-40.

I:(78,i3i); 11:411-
Giraldus de Barri, called Cambrensis : Descriptis Cambriae in .'\nglia scripta Cam-
deni, p. 879, ed. 1603. a

1 :3i2.

: Topographia Hibernica and Expugnatio Hibernis. i)i .Xnglia

scripta Camdeni, pp. 692 and 755. Frankfort, 1602. a

1: 103
Glassius, Solomon: Philologiae, Sacrae, libri quinque. Franc. 1653, 4°.

Ill :Ixxxvi.
Godart de Beauchamps, Pierre Francois : Recherches sur les Theatres de France.
3 torn. Paris, I73S-

1 :88, 1 18,190,217,235,246,463,465.
Godefroy, Denis : Auctores Latinae Lingua? in unum redact! corpus, etc. including
Isidori Originum Libri XX,; etc. [Geneva] 1585 and 1602.
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Godwin, Francis: Catalogue of the Bishops of England. London. 1601. 1615.

11:159.

: De Praesulibus Anglix Comnientarius &c. London, 1616. 4°.

I: (118,147).
Ibid, with a continuation bv Dr. Richardson, 1743, fol.
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Goldbach, Christianus : CoUectio .\ctorum .A.ccademiae Petropolitanae, Bonon,
1740-46.
I:(4).

199] SOURCES OF THE HISTORY OP POETRY 199

Golding, Arthur, translator of Brunus, Leonardus Aretiniis :

The historic concerning the warres betwene the imperiales and the Gothes for
the possession of Italy. London, 1563.
111:413.
Gomesius, Alvarus : De rebus gestis a Fransisco Ximenio, Cisnerio, Archiepiscopo
Toletano, libri octo, Compluti, 1569, fol. a

11 :4i-.
Gordon, Alexander : Itinerarium, Septentrionale ; or, A Journey, thro' most of the
Counties in Scotland, and those in the north of England. London 1726, fol. d
I: (36).
Gosson, Stephen: Playes Confuted in five Actions, &, proving that they are not to
be suffred in a Christian Common weale, &c. London n. d.
111:288.

: The Schoole of Abuse, conteining a plesaunt inuectiue against

Poets, Pipers, Plaiers, Jesters, and such like Catterpillers of a Cofhonvvelth,
etc. London, 1579, 8°.
Ill :288.
[Gough. Richard] : Anecdotes of British Topography : or an historical accoimt of
what has been done, for illustrating the topographical antiquities of Great Brit-
ain and Ireland. London, 1768, 4°.
1 :239.
Goujet, Claude Pierre : Bibliotheque Frangoise, ou histoire de la litterature Fran-
?oise. Paris, 1741-56, 8° 18 voll.
1 :344 ; S4,363,emend ; III ;3S0.
Gower, John : De Confessione Aniantis, ed. Berthelette, London, 1554.
1 :73,223,342.350,393,407,448 ;
III :x.\ii,xlix,lv,l.\i,l.\\'.
Grafton, Richard : An abridgement of the chronicles of England, R. Tottyl, Lon-
don, 1570, 8°.
II : 1 26,267.
G[reen], J[ohn] : A Refutation of the Apology for Actors, London, 1615, 4°.

Ill :289.
Gregoras, Nicephorus : Historias Byzantinas Scriptores tres Grsco-Latini uno tomo
simul nunc editi. Colon. Allah. 1615, fol.
1 :348.

Warton has Gciiev. 1615, fol.
Gregorius, Abulfaragius : Historia compendiosa Dynastiarum authore Gregorio
Abul-Pharajio . . . Oxen. 1663, 4°. a

I: (14.86).

Warton has i6ys, but his references correspond with ed. given.
Gregorius Turonensis : Historiarum precipue gallicaru Lib. X . . . [Paris] 1522 fol.
a and

Historia Gallicarum sen Francorum in Opera Omnia . . Necnon Fredegarii
epitome et chronicum cum suis continuatoribus, &c. notis illustrata, opera Theo-
derici Ruinart. Par. 1699, fol. a

I :(■ 48,49,1 10).

II :2i,76,ii8,i76,362.

III :lx.Kvi.

200 THOMAS WARTON [200

Grotius, Hugo: Historia Gothicaruin, Vaiidalorum, et Langobardorum, etc. Amst.
1655. 8°.
II:ii
Gruterus, Jacobus: Inscriptionum Romanaruni corpus, etc. Cum Prsfat . . per Fr.
B'urmani, 4 veil. .Amst. 1707, fol.
11:411.
Grynxus. Simon: Platonis Omnia Opera, etc. (witli a prefatory epistle [to Sir
Thomas More]) Basil, 1534. fol-
11:449.
Guicciardinus, Ludovico : Descrittione . . . di tutti Poesi Bassi, altrimenti detti Ger-
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Ill :xxii.
Gulielmi Newbrigiensis Historia Rerum Anglicaruni, cum notas et spicilegium . . ed.
T. Hearne, 3 voU. Oxon. 1719. 8°.
1 :300 emend ; H :36o ; HI :73.278.
Guliclmus, Brito-Armoricus: Philippidos libri duodecim. C. Barthius recensuit, et
animadvcrsionum commentario illustravit etc. 2 pt. Cygneas 1657, 4°.
I:(i4i); n:7S.
Gunton, Symon: History of the Church of Peterburgh, wherein the most reiTiark-
able things of that place from the first foundation . . . are presented. Lon-
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I:(II9) ; 88,441.
Gyraldus, Lilius Gregorius : Opervm tomvs secvndvs . . . containing De Poetarum
Historia Dialogi. Decem cum animadversionibus Pauli Comesii. Lug. Bat.
1696, fol.
I: (78).
Hake, Edward: The Touch-stone of Wittes. 1588. f.
111:275.

: A Touchestone for this Time Present . . London, 1574. 8°.

HI :275.426.
Hakluyt, Richard : The principal Navigations, Voiages, Traffiques and Discoueries
of the English Nation. . 3 voll. London, 1598-1600, fol. a

1:426.450:. H:i23.
Halde, John Baptiste Du : The general history of China, translated from the French
by R. Brookes. 4 voll. London, 1736, 8°. c.

1 :404.
Hall, Edward: The L'nion of tlie two noble and illustre famelies of Lancastre and
Yorke . . (called Hall's Chronicle) London, 1550, fol. c

111:156,158.
Hall, Joseph : Virgidemiarium, Sixe Bookes, the three first and three last Bookes
of By ting satyres . . London, 1597. c

1 :4io: ni:3i5,3i6.
Harduin, John : Conciliorum Collectio Regia Maxitna, studio a Joan. Harduini,
Paris, 1715, fol.
11:390.

Warton has 77/./.

201] SOURCES OP THE HISTORY OP POETRY 201

Harpsfield, Nicholas: Historia Anglicana Ecclesiastica . . . Duaci 1622, fol

II:i78,-P5; 111:325.
Harrington, Sir John : The most elegant and witty Epigrams of Sir John Harring-
ton, Knt. ; digested into foure bookes. Three whereof never before published.
London, 1618, 8°. a

HI:389.
Harris, Walter: Hibernica, or, some anticnt pieces relating to Ireland, Dublin, 1747-
50 fol. and other cds. c

1 :85.
Harrison, William: Historical Description of the Island of Britain, published in
Holingshed's Chronicle, 158", icliich see.
11:94; ni:74.95-
Harvey Gabriel : Foure Letters, and certaine Sonnets . . London, 1592, 4°.
HI :4O0.

: Gratulationuni Valdinensium libri quatuor, etc. 4 pt. H. Binne-

mani. London, 1578, 4°
111:382,426.
: Sniithus; vel Musarum Lachrymie; pro obitu . . . Thonise

Smithi . . . H. Binnemannus, Londini, 1578, 4°.
HI :334.
Hawkins, Sir John : .\ general history of the science and practice of Music. S voll.
London, 1776. 4°.

11:363; 111:46.58,59.171.
Hawkins, Thomas: Six Old Plays. London, 1779.

HI :200,294,436.
Haym, Nicolas Francis : Biblioteca Italiana, o sia Notizia de' Libri Rari nella Lin-
gua, Italiana. V'enezia, 1741. 4°.
11:13,21,33.
Hayward, Thomas: The British Muse, or, a Collection of Thoughts. Moral, Nat-
ural, and Sublime, of our English Poets, who flourished in the Sixteenth and
Seventeenth Centuries. 3 vols. London, 1738.
111:281.
Heale, William: An apologie for women. Oxford. 1609.

11:384; 111:320.
Hemingi Chartularium Ecclesiae. Wigorniensis . . ed. T. Hearnius. Oxonii,
1723, b

I: (118) 93,127.
Henault, Charles John Francis : Nouvel abrege chronologique de I'Histoire de
France. Haye. 1752, 4°.
I:I90; II :il3.
Hendreich, Christoph : Pandectas Brandenburgicse, seu Bibliotheca Maxima Autho-
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11:241.
Henricus Huntingdonensis : Historiarum libri VIII, in Rerum Anglicarum Scrip-
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I: (38,45).

202 THOMAS WARTON [202

Hentzner, Paul: Iiincrariiini Geriiiani.-c, Gallia, Angliae, Itnliae; etc. Norimb.
1629, 8°

II :448.

Ilerbclot. Bnrthclemy tie Molainville: Bibliotheque orientale ou dictionnaire uni-
verscl contcnant tout ce qui faite connaitre Ics peuples de I'Orient. Completed
by A. Galland. Paris, 1697, fo'- ^

I :( 12,14,56,62,88,90,1 11) ; 130,132,378,400,402,404,413,414,426,440; II:i75.
Heroldus, Basilius Johannes : Orbis amori, Regi Maxmiliano Regum Max. Cae-
sarii Nobilissimo, etc. [Basle? 1560?] fol.
III:xc.

Warton has Oporin, cd. Basil, 1559. n.d. fol. I

Heuterus Pontus : Rcruni Burgundicarum libri sex .... Antverpiae ex offic. C.
Plantin. 1684, fol. a

III :29s.

Heylin, Peter : Cosmography, tiiany cds. c.

III:xxv; 168.
Heywood, Jasper: [Seneca, Lucius Annaeus] ; Thyestes, faithfully cnglished
by Jasper Heywood. London, 1560, 8°
111:273.
Hickes, George: Institutiones grammaticx Anglo-SaxonicK et Moeeso-Gothicae,
Oxon, 1689, 4°
I: (37,40,100).

: Linguarum veterum septentrionalium thesaurus grammatico-

criticus et archaeologicus, conspectus per G. Wottonum. London, 1708, 8°
I: (28,35,36,37,38,40,46,53,54,56,67) ; 2,3,4,7,11,13,23,63,127; II:i8g.
Hieronymus, Eusebius : Opera, cum argumentis et scholiis Erasmi. 9 voU. Basil,
1516, fol. Other eds.
Ill :3i8.
Higden, Ranulph : Polychronicon usque ad conquestum . . translated into English
by J. Trevisa, to the year 1357, and continued to the year 1460 by W. Caxton.
1482, fol. c

1 :343-
Hildebertus, Opera Omnia ; access. Marbodi opuscula ; studio .\nt. Beaugendre,
Paris, 1708, fol.
1:378; 11:170.
Hincmarus : De prjedestinatione Dei et libero arbitrio. in Opera, curante Jac.
Sirmondo, 2 voll. Lat. Par. 1645, fol. b

11:33.
Histoire de I'.'Xcadcmie Royale dcs Inscriptions et Belles Lettres, depuis son Estab-
lissement jusqu' a present, contiit. as Les Memoires de Litterature tirez etc.
Paris, 1717- a

T :(i8,ii2,ii5) ; 64,244,247,290,439,461,464: 466 emend. 11:54 emend. Ill:
237-
Histoire Literaire de la France . . par des Religieux Benedictins de la Congrega-
tion de S. Maur . . Paris, 1733 etc.
I: (78); III:xlvii.

203] SOURCES OP THE HISTORY OP POETRY 203

Historise Anglicanae Scriptores Decern: Simeon Monachus Diinelmensis, Johannes
Prior Hagustaldensis, Ricardus Prior Hagustaldensis, Ailredus Abbas Rieval-
lensis, Radulphus de Diceto Londoniensis, Johannes Brompton Jornallensis,
Gervasius Monachus Dorobornensis, Thomas Stubbs Dominicanus, Guilielmus
Thorn Cantuariensis, Henricus Knighton Leicestrensis, ex vetustis nianuscriptis
nunc primum in lucem editi [by Sir Roger Twysden] zvith a preface ad
Lectorem, lannes Seldenus, etc. London, 1652-3. a

I: (97,98); 3,210,253,303.
HistoriEe Anglicanse Scriptores Quinque . . [ed. T. Gale] Oxon. 1687, vol. II of
Rerum Anglicarum Scriptorum Veterum [ed. J. Fulman] Oxon. 1684, con-
taining Annales Marganenses ; Chronicon Thomas Wikes ; Annales Waverleien-
ses; Historia Galfredi Vinesalvi; Historia Walteri de Hemingford. a

I:io8; 111.415 emend; III:i46.
The History of the Works of the Learned, or, an Impartial Account of Books
lately printed in all parts of Europe, etc. London, 1699-1703-1711. a

II :82.
An History Universal, from the Earliest Account of Time to the present, compiled
from Original Authors, and illustrated with Maps, Cuts, Notes, Chronological
and other Tables. New Ed. 64 veil. London, 1747-66, fol.
I:(I4,57,89); 68,213.
Hooker, Johann Ludwig: Hailsbronnischer Antiquitaten Schatz, enthaltend derer
uralten Burggrafen von Xurnberg . . 3pt. Nurnberg, 1731-39, fol. Pt. II. has
title Bibliotheca Heilsbronnensis, sive Catalogus . . . with date 1739.
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Hody, Humphrey : De Grsecis lUustribus Linguae Grzecae Literarumque Humanio-
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214

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215] SOURCES OF THE HISTORY OF POETRY 215

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217] SOURCES OP THE HISTORY OP POETRY 217

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223] SOURCES OP THE HISTORY OF POETRY 223

Schardius, Simon : Germanicarum Rerum quatuor celebriores vetustioresque Chrc-
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■ : Historicum opus, in quatuor tomos divisum : quorum tomos I

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IT: 176.

224 THOMAS WARTON [224

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225] SOURCES OP THE HISTORY OP POETRY 225

Stephen of Byzantium: 2TE*AN0T BTZANTIOT EBNIKA KAT' EIIITOIIHN
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The same, continued by A[nthony] M[unday] London, 1618, 4°.
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226 THOMAS WARTON [226
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I -.126 emend; 241 ; II :459.46i I HI :i6i,385,464-
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11:446; 111:355.
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230 THOMAS WARTON [230

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Warton has 1634, but his references correspond to ed. 1643.
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: A Short View of Hickes's Thesaurus. London, 1708. 8°.

I:(3S).
Wykes, Thomas: Chronicle, in Gale's Historix .Anglicanae Scriptorcs Quinque.
TIT: 146.

BIBLIOGRAPHY.

1 Editions of Warton's Works.

1746 Ode to a Fountain. Imitated from Horace, Ode XIII, Book III, in Odes on

Various subjects by Joseph Warton . . London, 1746, 4°.

1747 The Pleasures of Melancholy. A Poem. London, 1747. 4°. 24 pp.

1749 The Triumph of Isis, a poem. [1749] 4°.

Second edition, corrected. 1750. 4°.

Third edition, 1750. 4°.

Reprinted in A Collection of Poems by Several Hands, vol. I, p. 194,

London, 1768, 8°.

1750 A Description of the city, college and cathedra! of Winchester . . . The

whole illustrated with . . particulars, collected from a manuscript of A.

Wood, etc. London [1750], 12°.

another edition, 1760.

The Winchester guide ; or a description of the antiquities and curiosities

of that ancient city. [Anon] Winton, 1796, 8°.
T. Warton's Notes, and corrections to his History of Winchester

College, and Cathedral printed in 1750 etc. Privately printed from

his own private copy in the possession of Sir Thomas Phillips, Bart.

Middle Hill, [1857.?] fol.

another edition, [1857?] 8°.

1751 Newmarket, a Satire. London, 1751, 4°.

Ode for Music as performed at the theatre in Oxford on the second of
July, 1751, being the anniversary . . for the Commemoration of the bene-
factions to the University. Oxford, [1751] 4°.

1/53 The Union : or Select Scots & English Poems. [Edited by T. Warton]
Edinburgh, 1753. 8°.
Second edition, London, 1759, 8°.
New edition, Oxford, 1796, 8°.

1754 Observations on the Faerie Queene of Spenser. London, 1754. 8°.

Second edition, corrected and enlarged. 2 vols. London, 1762, 8°.
A new edition. 2 vols. London, 1807. 8°.

1758 Inscriptionum Romanarum Metricarum Delectus [Edited by T. Warton]
London, 1758.

1760 Mons Catharine prope Wintoniam : poema. London, 1760, 4°.

ed. bettia. Oxon. 1774, 4°.
A Companion to the Guide and Guide to the Companion, etc. London
[1760?].

Second edition, corrected and enlarged. London, [1762?]. 8°.
Fourth edition, n. d.

I have not been able to find a copy of this edition which Edward
Jones says he purchased at Oxford in 1765. See Nichols : Lit
Illus. VIII, p. 396.
Another ed. by Cooke, Oxford, 1806. 12°.

1761 The Life and Literary Remains of Ralph Bathurst, M. D. Dean of Wells, and

President of Trinity College in Oxford. 2 vols. London, 1761, 8°.

233

234 THOM.VS WARTON [234

1764 Tlie Oxford Sausage; or Select Poetical Pieces written by the most cele-
brated Wits of the University of Oxford. [Edited by T. Warton]
London, 1764, 8°.

Another edition, London, 1772, 8°.
Another edition, London, 1814, 8°.

A new edition, with cuts . . by Thomas Bewick, London, 1815, 12°.
Another edition, Oxford, 1821, 8°.
Another edition, London, 1822, 8°.
1766 Anthologize Grwcje a Constantino Cephala condits libri tres, ad editionem
Lipsienseni J. J. Reiske ex pressi. Accedunt intcrpretatio Latina, poeta-
rum anthologicorum notitia, indices necessarii. [Edited by T. Warton]
Oxonii, 1766, 8°.
1770 Theocriti Syracusii quse supersunt. Cum scholiis Graecis auctioriUus, emenda-
tionibus ct animadvcrsionibus in scholia Editoris et Joannis Toupii . .
Prjemittuntur Editoris Dissertatio de B'ucolicis Graecorum . . Oxonii,
1770, 2 vol. 4°.
1772 The Life of sir Tho. Pope, founder of Trinity College, Oxford. Chiefly
compiled from original evidences. With an appendix of papers, never
before printed. London, 1772, 8°.

Second edition, corrected and enlarged. London, 1780, 8°.
1774 The History of English Poetry from the close of the Eleventh Century to
the Commencement of the Eighteenth Century, to which are prefixed
Two Dissertations: i. On the Origin of Romantic Fiction in Europe;
2. On the Introduction of Learning Into England. 3 vols. London, 1774.
'""8. 1781. 4°. Vol. Ill contains an additional dissertation on the Gesta
Romanorum.

88 pages of a fourth volume were printed in 1789.
Second edition of volume I, London, 1775, 4°.
New edition carefully revised, with . . . notes . . .by Mr. Ritson. . . . Dr.

Ashby, Mr. Douce, Mr. Park and other eminent antiquaries, and

by the editor. [R. Price] 4 vols. London, 1824, 8°.
Another edition, from the edition of 1824, superintended by . . . R. Price,

including notes of Mr. Ritson, Dr. Ashby, Mr. Douce, and Mr. Park.

Now further improved by the corrections and additions of several

eminent antiquaries. [Edited by R. Taylor] 3 vols. London, 1840, 8°.
A full reprint — text and notes — of edition London 1778-81. London, 1870,

8°. [One of Murray's Reprints].
Another issue with a new title page, London, [1872]. 8°.
Another edition with a preface by Richard Price, and notes variorum

edited by W. C. Hazlitt. 4 vols, London, 1871, 8°.
Another edition, a full reprint . . of ed. London, 1778 and 1781. London.

[1875]. 8°. [Part of the World Library of Standard Books].
[Fillingham, William] : An Index to the History of English Poetry by

Thomas Warton, D.D. etc. London, 1806, 4°.

Uniform with the history, with a separate index for each volume, the

fragment of vol. IV, and the dissertations.

235] BIBLIOGRAPHY 235

1/77 Poems. A New Edition, with Additions. By Thomas Warton. London,

1777, 8°. 1-83 pp.

Poems, by Thomas Warton. The Third Edition, corrected, London,
i7"9, 8°. 1-97 pp.

Advertisement. These Poems were collected and published together
in 1777. Some of them had before been separately printed, to which
other unprinted Pieces were then added. This is the third and re-
vised Edition of that collection, with the .\ddition of one Piece more.
The Triumph of Isis is the addition.

Poems by Thomas Warton, Fellow of Trinity College, O.xford. The
fourth edition, corrected and enlarged. London, 1789. 8°. 1-292 pp.
The only copy of this edition that I know of is in Yale Univer-
sity Library. In this copy pp. [iii] iv are omitted; there are
two leaves numbered [v]-vi, of which one was evidently inserted
from another edition.

The Poems on Various Subjects of Thomas Warton, B.D. Late Fellow
of Trinity College, Professor of Poetry, and Camden Professor of
History, at Oxford, and Poet Laureate. Now first collected. Lon-
don, 1791, 8°.

Poetical Works . . in The Works of the British Poets, with Prefaces,
Biographical and Critical. By Robert Anderson. Edinburgh, 1793,
etc. vol II, 1795, pp. 1061-1102.

The Poetical Works of the late Thomas Warton, B.D. Fellow of Trinity
College, Oxford; and Poet Laureate. Fifth edition, corrected and
enlarged. To which are added Inscriptionum Romanarum delectus,
and an inaugural speech as Camden Professor of History, never be-
fore published . . Together with Memoirs of his Life and Writings ;
and notes, critical and explantory. By Richard Mant . . 2 vols. Ox-
ford, 1802. 8°.

Poetical Works . . collated with the best editions by Thomas Park. In
Works of the British Poets, etc. vol. 39, London, 1805, 8°.

Another edition of the same, 1808.

Additions to the poems of T. W. in the same. vol. 6, 1808. 16°.

Selections in The Cabinet of Poetry, edited by S. J. Pratt, vol. 6. 1808,
12°.

Poems in A. Chalmers. The Works of the English Poets from Chaucer
to Cowper ; etc. 21 vols. London, 1810, vol. 18.

Selections in T. Campbell: Specimens of the British Poets; with Bio-
graphical and Critical Notices, etc. 7 vols. London, 1819, 8° vol. 7.

Selections in E. Sanford: The Works of the British Poets, vol. 34, 1819,
12°.

Select Poems in The British Poets [edited by S. W. Singer and others]
100 vols. Chiswick, 1822, 12°. vol. 68.

Selections in The Cabinet of British Poetry, etc., 1830, 12°.

The Poetical Works of Goldsmith, Collins and T. Warton. With Lives,
Critical Dissertations, and Explanatory Notes, by tlie Rev. George
Gilfillan. Edinburgh, 1854, 8°. pp. I5S-303-

236 THOMAS WARTOX [236

Another edition, tlic text edited bv Charles Cowden Clarke. London,
['874I.

The Poetical Works of T. Gray, T. Parnell, W. Collins, M. Green, and
T. Warton. Ed. by R. A. Wilmott . . Illustrated by Birket Foster &
E. Corbould. in Routlcdge's British Poets, 29 vols. London, 1853-
58, 8'.

Another edition, [1883].

Selections in T. H. Ward: The English Poets . . 4 vol. New York. 1907,
vol. 3.

Tlie Hamlet; an ode written in Whichwood Forest . . Illustrated with
14 etchings by Birket Foster. London, 1859, 4°.

.Another edition, 1876, 4°.
1782 Specimen of a History of O.xfordshire. [Being and account of Kiddington]

20 copies privately printed. 1782, 4°.

The second edition, corrected and enlarged, London, 1783, 4°.

Third edition. The History and Antiquities of Kiddington ; first pub-
lished as a Specimen of a History of Oxfordshire. London, 1815, 4°.
Verses on Sir J. Reynold's Painted Window at New College, etc. Lon-
don, [1782]. 4°. 1-8 pp.
An Enquiry into the authenticity of the Poems attributed to T. Rowley,
in which the arguments of the Dean of Exeter and Mr. Bryant are
examined. London, 1782.

Second edition, corrected, [with author's name] 1782.
1785 Milton's Poems upon Several Occasions, English, Italian and Latin . . . with

notes critical, explanatory and other illustration by Thomas Warton . .

London, 1785, 8°.

Second edition, London, 1791. 8°.

Comus, a mask : . . to which are added . . . Mr. Warton's account of the
origin of Comus. London, 1799, 8°.

The Poetical Works of John Milton, with notes of various authors, prin- „

cipally from the editions of T. Newton . . T. Warton, etc. by E. J

Hawkins. 4 vols. London, 1824, 8°. Tj

Hall, John: Satires . . with illustrations of . . T. Warton, etc. [Part of a |^

series called 'Early English Poets,' ed. by S. W. Singer, Chiswick, 1824].
Spenser's Works, with Remarks on the Plan and Conduct of the Faerie

Queene. Remarks on Spenser's Imitation from old romances. Remarks i.

on Spenser's allegorical character. Remarks on Spenser's stanza, versi- r

fication and language, [by T. Warton], vol. 2. 1805, 8°. »

Spenser, Edmund : The Fairie Queen ; the Shepheard's Calendar ; etc. *

[with copious MS. notes by Thos. Warton] 161 7, 4°.
Contributions to

Dodsley's Museum, March 1746- Sept. 1747.

The Student, or the Oxford and Cambridge Monthly Miscellany, 2 vol.
Oxford, 1750-1, 8°.

Johnson's Idler, Nos. 33, 93, 96.

Life of Sir Thomas Pope, in Biographia Britannica, vol. V. 1760. 4°.

237] BIBLIOGRAPHY 237

Epicedia Oxoniensia in obitum Frederici, principis Walliae, Oxon. 1751,
fol.

Pietas Universitatis Oxoniensis, in Obitum Serenissimi Regis Georgii II,
et Gratulatio in Augnstissimi Regis Georgii III. Inaugurationem,
Oxon, 1761, fol.

Epithalamia Oxoniensia ; sive gratulationes in regis Georgii III et prin-

cipissre Sophis Charlottae nuptias, Oxon. 1761, fol.

Gratulatio solennis univ. Oxon. ab Georgium, Wallije principem, natum.
Oxon, 1762, fol.

Essays on Gothic Architecture, by the Rev. T. Warton, Rev. J. Bentham,
Captain Grose, and the Rev. J. Milner. Illustrated with 10 plates,
etc. London. 1800, 8°.

Second edition, to which is added, a list of the Cathedrals of England,
etc. London. 1802, 8°.

Third edition. London, 1808, 8°.
II. Biographical and Critical Works.

[Huggins, W. ?] : The Observer observ'd — Or remarks on a certain cu-
rious Tract, intitled. Observations on the Faierie Queene of Spen-
cer, by Thos. Warton, A.M., London, 1756, 8°.

Mason, William : Mirth, a poem in answer to Warton's Pleasures of
Melancholy, etc. London, 1774, 4°.

[Dampier, H. ? or Woodward. Dr. of Bath?] : Remarks upon the eighth
section of the second volume of IMr. Warton's History of English
Poetry, London [1779], 8°.

Greene, Edward Burnaby: Strictures upon a Pamphlet entitled 'Cur-
sory observations on the poems attributed to Rowley' . . . with a
postscript on Mr. Thomas Warton's enquiry into the same subject.
London, 1782, 8°.

[Anon] : An Examination of the Poems attributed to Thos. Rowley and
William Canynge, With a defense of the opinion of Mr. Warton.
Sherborne [1782?], 8°.

[Ritson, Joseph] : Observations on the three first volumes of the history
of English Poetry in a letter to the author. London, 1782, 4°.

[Darby, S ?] : A letter to . . Thos. Warton on his late edition of Mil-
ton's Juvenile Poems. London, 1785, 8°.

[.Amhurst, Nicholas] : Terrae Filius ; or the secret history of the Uni-
versity of Oxford in several essays, to which are added remarks,
etc. London, 1726.

B'oswell, James: The Life of Samuel Johnson, ed, by G. B. Hill, 6 vols.
Oxford, 1887.

Cory, H. E. : The Critics of Edmund Spenser. Univ. of California
Publications in Modern Philology. Berkeley, 191 1.

Foster, Joseph: Alumni Oxoniensis, 1500-1714, 4 vols. Oxford, 1891.

^ ■ — : Alumni Oxoniensis. 1715-1886, 4 vols. Oxford, 1891.

Ker, W. P. : Warton Lecture on English Poetry. I. Thomas Warton.
Proceedings of the British Academy, 1909-10, London, 191 1.

238 THOMAS WARTON [238

Nichols, John : Illustrations of Literary History, consisting of authentic
Memoirs and Original Letters of Eminent Persons. 8 vols. London,
1817.

: Literary Anecdotes of the Eighteenth Century. 9 vols.

London, 1812.

Payne, Thomas: A Catalogue of Books (being the libraries of Dr. Jo-
seph Warton, Thomas Warton . . and others) to be sold by T. P.
London, 1801.

Pope, Alexander : Works, with notes and ilhtstrations l^y Joseph War-
ton, and others, g vols. London, 1797.

Warton, Joseph : An Essay on the Genius and Writings of Pope. 5th ed.
2 vols. London, 1806.

Wool!, John : Biographical Memoirs of the late Rev'd Joseph Warton,
. . London, 1806.

Cornhill Magazine, XI, 733-42. Lee, H. B. : Thomas Warton.

English Historical Review, XI, 282 ff. Blakiston, H. E. D. : Thomas War-
ton and Machyn's Diary.

Literary Journal; a Review of Literature, etc. for the year 1803. 1,280,
601 ff. [.'\non.l. Wartoniana.

London Magazine, IV, 121 ff. Continuation of Dr. Johnson's Lives of
the Poets. No. 1. Thomas Warton.

St. James Evening Post, 31 August, 1782. Sonnet to Mr. Warton.

A MS. copy is in Warton's Life of Pope, ed. 1772, in tlie British
Museum.

Blackwood's Magazine, XXXVI,4lo.

Critical Review, XI,i6i ; XIII,27; XXXIII,369; XXXVII,275,340,435,473;
XLIV.iog; XLV,32i,4i7; LI,32i ; Ln,i5.io8; LIII,98; LV,78; LIX,
321,401,421: LXX,i59; 2nd Sen X,20.

Edinburgh Review, XXVII,7; LVII,4i3.

Gentleman's Magazine, XLIV,370,42S,466 ; XLVIII, 201,225.269: Ll.iSr,
299,608: LII,i29,i95,244.527,57i,574; LIII,42,44.45,62,ioo,i26.28i,4i6;
LV,267,290,374,457,si3; LVI,64,2i!; LX48o,648,649,ii98; LXTI,i072;
LXIII,4,n9,740; LXVI,236; LXXIII,396.

Monthly Review, XXIV,i63,4o6; LXIII, 1,81,230; XLVI,54o; L.266,
418; LI,4I9; LVI,33i; LIX,i32,2ii,32i; LXI,8i,i62; LXVII,i6i,3o6;
LXVIII,398; LXXIV,228; LXXIX,4,97,3-12; 2nd Ser. X,24,i7i,l22,
271,380.

Quarterly Review, XXXI,l82S.

INDEX

Addison, Joseph 38 41 4411 170

Akenside, Mark 25 4011

Amhurst, Nicholas 10

Anglo-Saxon literature 19 85 115

Anthology 75

Antiquities of Oxford 19

Apollonius Rhodius 37 60

Ariosto, Lodovico 38 44 45-6 47 48 49

51 55
Aristotle 52 164
Aubrey, John 19 158

Bachelors' Conimon-Room Club 21-2

Bag-Wig and Tobacco-Pipe, The 34

Bale, John 122

Ballads 49 59-6/

Bampfylde, John Codrington 140 14I

Barclay, Alexander 99 I00»

Barreti William 92

Bathurst. Life of 19 71

Beauclerk, Topham 74

Bennet. John 141 » 161

Benwell, William 14IH

Blakiston, Herbert E. D. 20<i 71-3

Boccaccio, Giovanni 89

Boileau-Despreaux, Nicholas 43 46

Bowie, John 169

Bowles, William Lisle 33'i 74 136 141

142 143
Burney, Fanny 168

Chaucer, Geoffrey 39 50-1 82 86 87-91
94 95 100 IQ4 114 125

Assembly of Fowls So

Canterbury Tales, The 88 89

House of Fame, The 90

Knighfs Tale, The 89 90

Romance of Ike Rose 50

Squire's Tale, The 50 66
Church, Ralph 55
Cinquantes Balades 96 124
Coleman, George 75
Coleridge, Samuel Taylor 33n 4511 141

142
Collins, William 24 30 33n (>7 ioi« I7i
Companion to the Guide, The 18 34 145

173
Com us 155 157
Confessio Amantis 95
Coxeter, Thomas 19 123

Dante Alighieri 106-7 125
Description of Winchester 37 144-5 I53
Deserted Village, The 137
Dodsley, Robert 2511 32 158
Douglas, Gavin 100- 1 116

Dryden, John 38 441! 48)1 50 57)1 89 90

114 I22n
Dyer, John 26

Edwards, Thomas 32
Elegy in a Country Church-yard 27-8 30
Epistle from Thomas Hearne, An 34
Essay on Pope 57

Faerie Queene, The 27 41 58 59. See

Observations.
Farmer, Richard 80 113 123

Garrick, David 62n 75 80 169

Gentleman's Magazine Il8 156

Gibbon, Edward 15 118-9

Goldsmith, Oliver 9711 137

Gorboduc 107

Gothic revival 20 24 27n 31 32 35 56-7

131-5 138-9 141 142 151-3
Gower, John 95 124 125

Confessio Amantis 95

Cinquantes Balades 96 124
'Grave-yard' school 24 25 26
Gray, Thomas II 15 24 27 28 35 68 79
80 82 84 96n 98 ri4 128 130-1 171

Hanover Turnip, The 10

Harris, James 75

Hawes, Stephen 99

Hazlitt, William 139 140 170

Headley, Henry 141 I42»

Hearne, Thomas 122

Heine, Heinrich 103

Holinshed, Raphael 122

Hickes, George 19 121

History of English Poetry, The 19 119
124 125 144 173 177 ff. ; vol. I, 79-91;
vol. n, 92-103; vol. ni, i04-ill;vol.
IV, 112

Homer 37 44 52

Household Book of the Earl of North-
umberland, The 67-8

Howard, Henry, Earl of Surrey 61-2 105

125
Huddesford, George 28
Hughes, John 3911 41-2 44 51
Hurd, Richard 56-7 80 82

Idler. The 17 69

// Pcnseroso 25 27

Inscription Written at a Hermitage, 127

137
Inscriptionum Romanarum Metncarum

Delectus, 74 75 168
Introduction a I'Histoire dc la Danne-

inarc 11

239

240

THO.MAS VV.VRTON

.'40

Isis: an Elegy 28

Italian literature 104-5 106 125

Jelly-bag Society, The 173
Johnson, Dr. Samuel 15« 22 35 46 51
54 55" 56" 59 60 6870 80 96« 98 loi

108 12; 137 139-140 169-170
Jonson, Ben 39 46 48 49 158
Jortin, John 42-3 So 75

Journal of a Senior Fellow, 'ihc 17

King's Quair, The 65 icon

Langton, Bennet 74

Lee, Catherine 11. 147

Lee, Henry Boyle 151

Leland, John 122

Letters on Chivalry and Romance 56

Literary Club, The 168

Lounsbiiry, Thomas R. 87

Lowth, Robert 19

Lydgatc, John 96 99 100 125

Lyfe of Our Lady 96

Machyn's Diary 71-2

Malonc, Edmund 35« 81 h 87» 98 157

158-9 169
Mant, Richard 2S« 34 74 117
Mason, William 28 32 96)1 115 127H 171
Mavor, William 161
Medixval drama 51-2 86-7
Michael 170

Milton, John 11 12 14 24 25 29 30 31
32 34 39 48« SO 53 57 "2 130 137 141
154 167

Warton's edition 154-7

Coiiius 155 157

// Penseroso 25 27

Paradise Lost 38 44*1

Paradise Regained 156

Samson Agonistes 156
Mirror for Magistrates, The $2n 106-7

109 no

Monody, Written near Stratford, 127 130
Monthly Review, The 34 55 118

Newmarket, A Satire 30

Nigramansir loi

Nut-Browne Maide, The 108 115

Observations, Critical and Historical,
Churches, etc. 146-150 152

Ohscn'ations on the Faerie Queene
S/ycnser, 37-58 59 60 61 6311 68
.79 84 86 I2S 144 146 152 173

Observations on the . . . History
English Poetry US

Odes on I'arious Subjects 25

of
70

Ode to Evening 30
Odes, Warton's —

Approach of Summer, The 30-3

Crusade, The 3^ 127 131-2

First of April, The 135

Grave of King Arthur, The 32 127
131 132-3

Hamlet, The 135

Morning, The Author confined to Col-
lege 29

Music, for 30 70

Sent to Mr. Upton 130

Sleep, to 138

Solitude, at an Inn, to 137

Suicide, The 138

To a Griszle Wig 20n

Written at Vale-Royal Abbey 130-1
On Leander's Siviinming over the Hel-
lespont to Hero 13
Orlando Furioso Si
Oxford, the University of 15-23 166
Oxford Newsman's Verses, The 2ln 34
Oxford Sausage, The 33 34 129 I73

Panegyric on Oxford Ale 18 21 29 166

Paradise Lost 38 44

Paradise Regained 156

Parnell, Thomas 26

Pastoral in the Manner of Spenser 30

Percy, Thomas 1 1 59-68 7Sn 80 81 82 92

112 116 117 123 170
Peter Pindar, i.e. Wolcott, John 134-5
Phaeton and the One-Horse Chair, The

Philander, an Imitation of Spenser II
Phillips, John 18 29
Pleasures of Imagination 25
Pleasures of Melancholy,^ The 25-28 153
Poems on Several Occasions 12
Pope, Alexander 10 27 30 35 39 40» 46

47« 50 57 S8 79 82 84 88 90 114 130
Pope, Sir Thomas 19 71-3
Price, John 80 92 123 147 148 162 169
Prince, Daniel 28 ill 146 162 173
Prior, Matthew 39*1 40 55 108 115
Progress of Discontent, The 16 29 166
Prologue to May loo-i 116
Pseudo-classical poetry 24 25 28 29;

criticism 38 41

Puritans 165. See also reformation

poetry.

Rape of the Lock, The 27

Reformation poetry 109

Rcliques of Ancient English Poetry 59-

68 80
Reynolds, Sir Joshua 128 139 167
fxichardson, Elizabeth 11 12
Richardson, Joseph 11

.•^'

241]

INDEX

241

Ritson. Joseph 10211 112 115-7 1-24
Romances 48-50 53 56 85 86 108 125 170
Rousseau, Jean-Jaques 103
Rowley-Chatterton controversy 73 92-3

96-7 113 126
Ruins of Rome 26
Russell, Thomas 140 141
Rymer, Thomas 38

Sackville, Thomas S2n 106-7 lOO 125
Samson Agonistes 156
Scaliger, J. C. 52 53
Schoolmistress, The 40n 41
Scotch literature loo-i 125
Scott, John, Lord Eldon 74
Scott, Sir Walter 119 142-3 153
Shakespeare, William 39 47 57 69 108

no 157 158
Shenstone, William 40 75 168
Shepherd's Calendar, The 30
Shepherd's Week, The 170
Ship of Fools, The 99
Skelton, John loi
Smart, Christopher 34
Sonnet to the River Itchin 142
Sonnet to the River Otter 142
Sonnet, Italian 105 ; revival of 32-3
143; Warton's 133-4 136-7 142 143

on Bathing 33

on King Arthur's Round Table 130

To Mr. Gray 130

To the River Lodon 136 142

Written after seeing Wilton House 137

Written at Winslade 33

JVritten in a Blank Leaf of Dugdale's
Monasticon 133-4 I39
Southey, Robert 128 140
Spanish literature 67
Specimen of a Parochial History of Ox-
fordshire 145-6
Spectator. The 38m 41 62
Spenser, Edmund 11 12 24 26 27 30 31
z:i 37-58 59 60 73 82 84 106 107 112
115 125 127 158
Splendid. Shilling. The 29
Steele, Richard 38 41 170
Steevens, George 112 113 157
Stillingfleet, Edvifard 32
Student, or the etc. 28
Swift, Jonathan 29 130
Tanner, Thomas 123
Task, The 137
Temple, Sir William 11
Terra-Filius 10

Theocritus 30 74 75-7 80 81 138 160
Thomson, James 26 40 41 130
Toup, Jonathan 76-7 169
Triumph of I sis. The 20 28 127 153 166

Tyrwhitt, Thomas 87 92 9S>i 97*1 98-9

123 125
Union, The 30 33
Upton, John 49n 51 55 130

Venus and Adonis 81 158

Verses on Sir Joshua Reynolds's Painted

Windozv 128 139
Villiers, George, Duke of Buckingham

Walpole, Horace 55 96-7 114-5 118 152-
3 168

Warburton, William 54 76 77

Warton, Anthony g 176

, Francis 9 176

, Jane 12 2S» 147 176

, John 147 157

, Joseph II 12 13 25 27n

29" 34 35 56/1 57 62H 74n S^n III
I4ln 147 148 149 157 167 172 176

, Michael 9 176

Thomas, the elder 10 11

12 13 30 176

Warton, Thomas, the younger; see
also titles of separate works.

academic career 22 28 59 70-1 73-4
77-8 166 173

antiquarian tours 148-151

birth 12

classical influence on 13 25 37 52 124
138

clergyman, career as 159-162 165

comparative method, use of 43 58 85

125
criticism of 54-5 71-3 87 112-3 114-121

127 155-6
death 162
education 12-23

friends 68-70 80 141 157-9 167-172;
see also Collins, Johnson, Malone,
Percy, Price, Wise, etc.
historical method, use of 43 47-8 54

58 88-9 109 124-5
humorous works 29 30 33-4 129 145
laureateship 128 129 134-5
nature, interest in 24 26 135-7
personal appearance 167
poetry 24-36 127-143
romantic criticism 44-5 58 lOO-i
West, Richard 15

Wilson, John (Christopher North) 24
Wise, Francis 19 68-9 71 y:^ 80 169
Wood, Anthony a 19 63n 122 123 158
Wordsworth, William 100 14OH 141 142

143
Wyatt, Thomas 105
Young, Edward 26 130

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