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Thomas Warton (9 January 1728 – 21 May 1790) was an English literary historian, critic, and poet. From 1785 to 1790 he was the Poet Laureate of England. He is sometimes called ''Thomas Warton the younger'' to distinguish him from his father ''Thomas Warton the elder''. His most famous poem remains ''The Pleasures of Melancholy'', a representative work of the Graveyard poets. ==Life== Warton was born in Basingstoke, Hampshire, the son of poet Thomas Warton, the Elder, and younger brother of Joseph Warton. As a youngster, Warton demonstrated a strong predilection toward writing poetry, a skill he would continue to develop all of his life.〔(Life of Thomas Warton, the Younger ) 〕 In fact, Warton translated one of Martial's epigrams at nine, and wrote ''The Pleasures of Melancholy'' at seventeen. His early education was given to him by his father. At sixteen years of age he enrolled at Winchester College, later moving to Trinity College, Oxford. He graduated from Oxford in 1747, where he subsequently became a Fellow. Warton was selected as Poet Laureate of Oxford in 1747 and again in 1748. His duty in this post was to write a poem about a selected patroness of the University, which would be read to her on a specially appointed day.〔 Warton was appointed Professor of Poetry at the university in 1757, a post that he held for ten years.〔"He was ordained and eventually served as professor of poetry at Oxford from 1757 to 1767." (Warton, Thomas, 1728–90, English poet and literary historian )〕 In 1771 he was appointed rector of Kiddington in Oxfordshire, a post he held until his death. In 1785, he was appointed Camden Professor of History, as well as poet laureate. He was a friend and rival of Samuel Johnson, and his poetry was greatly influenced by earlier English poets such as Chaucer, Drayton, Fairfax, and Spenser. Among other important contributions, Warton, along with his brother, was among the first to argue that ''Sir Thopas'', by Geoffrey Chaucer, was a parody. Warton contributed to the general project of the ballad revival. He was a general supporter of the poetry of Thomas Gray—a fact that Johnson satirized in his parody "Hermit hoar, in solemn cell." Among his minor works were an edition of Theocritus, a selection of Latin and Greek inscriptions, the humorous ''Oxford Companion to the Guide and Guide to the Companion'' (1762); lives of Sir Thomas Pope and Ralph Bathurst; and an ''Inquiry into the Authenticity of the Poems attributed to Thomas Rowley'' (1782). 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Thomas Warton」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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