JOSEPH, an elegant poet and critic, was born in the year 1722, in the house of his maternal grandfather, Joseph Richardson, rector of Dunsford in Surrey. His father, Thomas Warton, B.D., fellow of Magdalene College, and professor of poetry at Oxford, and afterwards vicar of Basingstoke in Hampshire, and of Cobham in Surrey, was descended from an ancient and honourable family of Beverley in Yorkshire. The son was for a short time sent to New College school, but was chiefly educated by his father till he reached the age of fourteen, when he was admitted on the foundation of Winchester College. He was at this early period distinguished by his love of poetry, and one of his schoolfellows was William Collins. In September 1740, being superannuated, he was removed from Winchester; and as no vacancy occurred in New College, he was entered at Oriel, when he prosecuted his studies with diligence and success. In 1744 he took the degree of A.B., and was ordained to his father's curacy at Basingstoke, and officiated in that church till February 1746. He next removed to Chelsea, and afterwards to Cobham.

His father died in the year 1746, leaving two sons and a daughter in circumstances far from affluent. Joseph, his elder son, published by subscription a volume of Poems on several occasions by the Rev. Mr Thomas Warton, Lond. 1748, 8vo. This volume is closed by two poems on the death of the author, one by his daughter Jane, the other by the editor. He had previously published a small collection of his own, entitled Odes on various subjects, Lond. 1746, 4to. In 1748 the Duke of Bolton presented him to the rectory of Winslade; and although this provision was but scanty, he immediately married Miss Daman, a young lady to whom he had for some time been enthusiastically attached. In 1751 he accompanied the same nobleman on a tour to the south of France. For this arrangement, as Dr Wooll very coolly informs us, the duke had two motives, "the society of a man of learning and taste, and the accommodation of a protestant clergyman, who immediately on the death of the duchess, then in a confirmed dropsy, could marry him to the lady with whom he lived, and who was universally known and distinguished by the name of Polly Peachum." (Wooll's Biographical Memoirs of the late Rev. Joseph Warton, D.D., p. 15, Lond. 1806, 4to.) This, it must be admitted, was a very miserable commission for any protestant clergyman to undertake, nor did Warton earn the wages of his iniquity; for some unexplained reason induced or compelled him to revisit England before the duchess died; and when, on her demise, he solicited the duke's permission to return, he had the mortification to learn that the worthy pair had been joined in wedlock by the chaplain to the embassy at Turin.

Before this period he had undertaken a translation of the Eclogues and Georgics of Virgil; and having associated with it Pitt's translation of the Aeneid, he added the original text, and accompanied the whole with his own notes, Lond. 1753, 4 vols. 8vo. The book is elegantly printed; but Dr Harwood remarks that the Latin text, especially in the Georgics, is extremely incorrect. A second edition followed in 1778. Warton added three essays, on pastoral, didactic, and epic poetry. This publication laid the foundation of his literary celebrity. Soon after its appearance, he was requested to assist Dr Hawkesworth in the Adventurer, which was commenced in 1752. The invitation was conveyed to him by Dr Johnson, who stated that the department destined for him was that of criticism. To this periodical work he contributed twenty-four papers, of which the greater part relate to critical subjects, and all of them are creditable to his talents and taste.

In 1754 he was instituted to the rectory of Tunworth; and in the following year he was elected second master of Winchester school. In 1756 Lord Lyttelton presented him with a chaplain's scarf. He now published the first volume of An Essay on the Writings and Genius of Pope, Lond. 1756, 8vo. This is a very elegant and interesting piece of criticism. The work, which appeared without the author's name, is dedicated to Dr Young. In 1759 the university of Oxford conferred upon him by diploma the degree of A.M. In May 1766 he became head-master of Winchester school. For this situation he possessed several qualifications. He was a man of polished manners; nor could his pupils fail to imbibe some portion of his refined Warton, taste and love of literature. He was not, however, without defects. Though an elegant scholar, he was not sufficiently able as a philologist. "He held verbal criticism cheap, and, as a natural consequence, frequently encountered insurmountable difficulties in Greek authors; while the expedients to which he resorted in order to conceal the fact were easy of detection, and excited much amusement among the elder boys. . . . But Warton wanted other qualities essential to the head-master of a public school. He was inconsistent in his plans, and deficient in moral courage; often conceding with respect to points of discipline upon which he ought to have been inflexible. These defects paved the way for what was afterwards called the Row, when the school was in such a state of rebellion that the interference of the magistrates was required, and upwards of thirty of the boys were expelled. Burgess had left the school before this catastrophe occurred; but he used to tell, among other proofs of the insubordination which prevailed even in his time, that a riotous boy had the audacity, on one occasion, to hurl a Latin dictionary at Warton's head." (Harford's Life of Thomas Burgess, D.D., late Lord Bishop of Salisbury, p. 5, Lond. 1840, 8vo.)

On being placed at the head of this great school, Warton repaired to Oxford, and accumulated the degrees of B.D. and D.D. In 1772 he lost his wife, by whom he had six children. Such a loss was severely felt; but he found himself helpless without the superintending care of a domestic companion; and in the course of the following year he married the daughter of Robert Nicholas, Esq., a descendant of Dr. Nicholas, formerly warden of Winchester. From his scholastic toils he was accustomed to seek a relaxation in fashionable as well as literary society. His vacations were frequently spent in London. Like his brother, he became a member of the famous Literary Club; and being conspicuous for the vivacity and pleasantry of his conversation, the circle of his acquaintance was at once brilliant and extensive. His dignified friends did not, however, advance him to any eminent preferment. In 1782 Bishop Lowth conferred upon him a prebend of St. Paul's, and the living of Thorley in Hertfordshire, which he was permitted to exchange for Wickham. In the course of the same year he published the second volume of his Essay on Pope. In 1788 the interest of Lord Shannon procured him a prebend at Winchester; and to Lord Malmsbury he was indebted for the rectory of Easton, which, before the close of the year, he exchanged for Upham. The amount of these preferments was not inconsiderable, but they came too late to be of much avail to his family. He was sixty years of age before he had any benefice except the small livings of Winslade and Tunworth, and nearly seventy before he obtained those which afterwards fell to his share.

On the 23d of July 1793 he resigned his office of head-master, and afterwards retired to his rectory at Wickham. His literary ardour was not yet extinguished, and a liberal offer from the London booksellers encouraged him to undertake a new edition of the works of Pope, which was published in the year 1797 in nine volumes 8vo. For such a task he possessed many qualifications, but his edition did not escape the sharpness of critical reprehension. It was assailed with sufficient virulence by Mathias in his Pursuits of Literature. He next undertook an edition of Dryden, and about the year 1799 he had completed two volumes, which were afterwards published. At a much earlier period of his life he had projected a history of the revival of learning; and about the year 1784 he issued proposals for publishing The History of Grecian, Roman, Italian, and French Poetry, in four parts. In this work, which was to occupy two quarto volumes, he however appears to have made little or no progress. All his labours and projects were terminated by an incurable disease in his kidneys, and he died on the 23d of February 1800, in the seventy-eighth year of his age. His widow survived till 1806. Besides three daughters, of whom the youngest was by his second wife, he left a son, John Warton, D.D., who published a work entitled Deathbed Scenes.

Dr. Warton was a very elegant rather than a very profound scholar; and with his classical learning he united much knowledge of modern literature, Italian and French as well as English. On subjects of criticism he was an agreeable and instructive writer. His poems, which are but few in number, appear in the collection of Chalmers. He is a skilful versifier, and is not destitute of poetical fancy.

(W. L.)