Thomas Tyrwhitt (1730–86) was an eminent historian of classical texts, an early pioneer in the nascent field of English textual scholarship, the most prominent authority on Chaucer in the eighteenth century, and the first editor of Thomas Chatterton’s (1752-70) Rowley poems. In addition to extensive work on Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, Aesop, and other ancients, Tyrwhitt also contributed a number of emendations and explanatory notes to George Steevens’ (1736-1800) 1778 revision of Samuel Johnson’s (1709-84)

Works of Shakespeare

and the subsequent variorum collections. In his own right he wrote a revisionist

Observations and Conjectures upon some Passages of Shakespeare

(1766) and produced a standard edition of

The Canterbury Tales of Chaucer

in five volumes (1775–8).

The

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Citation: Cook, Daniel. "Thomas Tyrwhitt". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 13 September 2016 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=4497, accessed 19 March 2024.]

4497 Thomas Tyrwhitt 1 Historical context notes are intended to give basic and preliminary information on a topic. In some cases they will be expanded into longer entries as the Literary Encyclopedia evolves.

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