Thomas Warton was born on 9th January 1728 into a family of writers. His father was Professor of Poetry at Oxford University (1718-28); his brother, Joseph, published poetry, but was better known as a critic and author of An Essay on the Writings and Genius of Pope (1756, 1782), and his sister, Jane, published essays and poems.
Warton was initially tutored by his father until, at the age of sixteen, he entered Trinity College, Oxford. It was at Oxford that Warton embarked on a poetic career that would span the next forty-five years. In 1745, the year after Warton matriculated, he produced Five Pastoral Eclogues, focusing on “the opposing interests of a peaceful and rural life, and the …
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