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Joseph Warton (April 1722 – 23 February 1800) was an English clergyman, academic, and literary critic.

Early life and education

Warton was born in Dunsfold, Surrey, England. His family later moved to Hampshire, where his father, the Reverend Thomas Warton, became vicar of Basingstoke. A few years later in Basingstoke, Joseph's sister Jane, also a writer, and his younger brother, Thomas Warton, were born. Their father later became a professor at the University of Oxford.

Joseph was educated at Winchester College and at Oriel College, Oxford.

Career

In 1748, Warton followed his father into the church, becoming curate of Winslade. In 1754, he was instituted as rector at The Church of All Saints, Tunworth. In his early days Joseph wrote poetry, of which the most notable piece is The Enthusiast (1744), an early precursor of Romanticism.

In 1755, he returned to his old school to teach, and from 1766 to 1793 was its headmaster, presiding over a period of bad discipline and idleness, provoking three mutinies by the boys. His career as a critic was always more illustrious, and he produced editions of classical poets such as Virgil as well as English poets including John Dryden.

Like his brother, Warton was a friend of Samuel Johnson, and was part of the literary coterie centered around publisher Robert Dodsley.

A monument to Joseph Warton by the neoclassical sculptor John Flaxman is in Winchester Cathedral.

Works

• The Enthusiast, or The Lover of Nature (1744)
• Odes on Various Subjects (1746)
• Essay on the Genius and Writings of Pope (volume 1: 1756; volume 2: 1782)

References

1. William Page (editor) Tunworth 'Parishes: Tunworth', A History of the County of Hampshire: Volume 4 (1911), pp. 174–176. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=56773 Date accessed: 8 July 2010.
2. Partington, Wilfred (1932). Sir Walter's Post-Bag. London: John Murray, p. 120.
3. Sitter, John, editor, The Cambridge Companion to Eighteenth-Century Poetry, "Chronology", p xvii, (2001) Cambridge University Press, ISBN 978-0-521-65885-0

Further reading

• Noyes, Russell (Ed.) (1956). English Romantic Poetry and Prose. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-501007-8

External links

• Joseph Warton at the Eighteenth-Century Poetry Archive (ECPA)
• Works by Joseph Warton at Project Gutenberg
• Works by or about Joseph Warton at the Internet Archive
• Works by Joseph Warton at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks)
• "Archival material relating to Joseph Warton". UK National Archives.
• Portraits of Joseph Warton at the National Portrait Gallery, London

v t e Headmasters of Winchester College
Richard Herton John Melton Thomas Romsey John Pole Thomas Romsey Richard Darcy Thomas Alwyn William Waynflete Thomas Alwyn William Yve John Barnard John Grene Clement Smyth Richard Dene John Rede Robert Festham William Horman John Farlyngton Edward More Thomas Erlisman John Twychener Richard Twychener John White Thomas Bayly William Everard Thomas Hyde Christopher Johnson Thomas Bilson Hugh Lloyd John Harmar Benjamin Heyden Nicholas Love Hugh Robinson Edward Stanley John Pottinger William Burt Henry Beeston William Harris Thomas Cheyney John Burton Joseph Warton William Stanley Goddard Henry Dyson Gabell David Williams George Moberly George Ridding William Andrewes Fearon Hubert Murray Burge Montague John Rendall Alwyn Terrell Petre Williams Spencer Leeson Walter Fraser Oakeshott Henry Desmond Pritchard Lee John Leonard Thorn James Paley Sabben-Clare Nicholas Tate Thomas Richard Cookson Ralph Douglas Townsend Timothy Roderick Hands Elizabeth Stone

• 1722 births
• 1800 deaths
• 18th-century English male writers
• 18th-century English non-fiction writers
• 18th-century English poets
• Alumni of Oriel College, Oxford
• English literary critics
• English male non-fiction writers
• English male poets
• Headmasters of Winchester College
• People from the Borough of Waverley
• People educated at Winchester College
• People from Winslade
• Schoolteachers from Surrey