Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 59.djvu/435

 the duke's second nuptials, with the result that he lost the chances of preferment that the duke had destined for the parson who performed the ceremony. On settling again in England he worked hard at a new edition of Virgil's works in both Latin and English (4 vols. 1753, 8vo). He himself translated the ‘Eclogues’ and ‘Georgics,’ and he reprinted Christopher Pitt's rendering of the ‘Æneid.’ Warton employed Dryden's heroic metre, and directly challenged comparison with that robust translator. He proved more accurate, but was less vivacious, and his scholarship was far from perfect. Of higher interest were Warton's appended essays on pastoral, didactic, and epic poetry, his life of Virgil, and his notes. The publication greatly extended Warton's reputation in literary circles. On 8 March 1753 Dr. Johnson wrote to invite him to contribute to the ‘Adventurer,’ with the result that Warton sent in the course of the three following years twenty-four essays to that periodical. They dealt chiefly with literary criticism. Five treat with no little insight of Shakespeare's ‘Tempest’ and ‘Lear’ (Nos. 93, 97, 113, 116, and 122). In 1753 he also wrote on ‘Simplicity of Taste’ in the ‘World’ (No. 26). In 1754 he became rector of Tunworth, but next year, despairing of substantial preferment in the church, he entered on a new career, that of schoolmaster.

In 1755 Warton was appointed usher, or second master, at his old school, Winchester College. On 23 June 1759 the university of Oxford conferred on him by diploma the degree of M.A. In 1766 he was promoted to the headmastership of Winchester, and on 15 Jan. 1768 he proceeded at Oxford to the degrees of B.D. and D.D. He remained a schoolmaster for thirty-eight years. As a teacher Warton achieved little success. He was neither an exact scholar nor a disciplinarian. Thrice in his headmastership the boys openly mutinied against him, and inflicted on him ludicrous humiliations. The third insurrection took place in the summer of 1793, and, after ingloriously suppressing it, Warton prudently resigned his post. His easy good nature secured for him the warm affection of many of his pupils, among whom his favourites were William Lisle Bowles [q. v.] and Richard Mant [q. v.] Although the educational fame of the school did not grow during his régime, his social and literary reputation gave his office increased dignity and importance. In 1778 George III visited the college, and Warton's private guests on the occasion included Sir Joshua Reynolds and Garrick (, Wykehamica, pp. 134–153;, Annals of Winchester, pp. 404 seq.; Winchester College, 1393–1893, by Old Wykehamists, 1893, 8vo).

While at Winchester he found little time for literary pursuits. In 1756 he brought out the first volume—dedicated to Dr. Young—of his notable ‘Essay on the Genius and Writings of Pope,’ in which he adversely criticised the classical or ‘correct’ tendencies of contemporary poetry as opposed to the romantic and imaginative tendency of Elizabethan poetry. The volume was favourably noticed by Johnson in the ‘Literary Magazine,’ reached a third edition in 1763, and was translated into German. It had been begun before Warton went to Winchester, and the long interval of twenty-five years elapsed before the second volume of the ‘Essay’ appeared in 1782. Meanwhile Warton had meditated without result a history of the revival of letters in the fifteenth century, based on the correspondence of Politian, Erasmus, Grotius, and others, and in 1784, emulating the example of his brother Thomas, the historian of English poetry, he announced that two quarto volumes of a history of Grecian, Roman, Italian, and French poetry were in the press, but nothing further was heard of that design.

In middle life and old age Warton was a familiar figure in the literary society of the metropolis. For many years he was on terms of more or less intimacy with Dr. Johnson, Burke, Garrick, Reynolds, Lowth, Bishop Percy, and John Nichols. In 1761 he recommended ‘Single-speech’ Hamilton to make Burke his secretary. When Burke and Hamilton parted in 1765, Warton advised Hamilton to let Robert Chambers fill Burke's place. Chambers declined Hamilton's invitation, and Warton seems to have suggested Johnson, who did some literary work for Hamilton in 1765 (, i. 519). Warton was, according to Madame D'Arblay, a voluble and ecstatic talker on all subjects in general society, often hugging his auditors in the heat of his argument (Diary, ii. 236). His rapturous gesticulations were not to the taste of Dr. Johnson, who ‘would take’ them ‘off’ among his closer friends ‘with the strongest humour’ (, Memoirs of Dr. Burney, ii. 82). There was never complete sympathy between Johnson and Warton. About 1766 a quarrel took place between them at Sir Joshua Reynolds's house. Johnson told Warton that he was not used to contradiction, and Warton retorted that it would be better if he were. But although they caused each other frequent irritation, there was no permanent breach in the relations of the two men. In 1773 Warton was elected a member of the Literary Club. In 1776 he