ABSTRACT
Warton (1722-1800) was a critic, poct, clergyman, and sometime headmaster of Winchester. He and his brother Thomas are sometimes said to initiate that turning away from the ideas of the 'correct' school of writing, which led to the revival of interest in 'Gothic' poetry. In the Dedication of his critical essay on Pope's writings, 1756, Warton set out a critical classification of the English poets; but it appeared drastically revised in the new edition of 1762, perhaps in response to hostile reviews of the earlier version (see No. 93). The long-promised second volume of the essay appeared in 1782 and has a section on Pope's version of Donne's Satyre ii and Satyre iv; by then, Warton seems to have hardened in an adverse opinion of Donne's poetry. The extracts given here are identified by the date of their first appearance in the essay on Pope in the form as quoted (An Essay on the Writings and Genius oj Pope, 1756, i, pp. iv and xi-xii; 1762, i, pp. iv and xi-xii; 1782, ii, pp. 353-4. In the volume published separately in 1782 as the second part of the 1772 edition the fourth extract appears on ii, pp. 421-3). In Warton's edition of Pope' s writings many of the notes to Pope's version of Donne's Satyres ii and iv compare Pope's lines with Donne's. Some of these notes simply reproduce Warburton's comments (see No. 85) or repeat opinions Warton had already expressed inAn Essay on the Writings and Genius ~fPope. But there are some observations on lines in Satyre iv and I give the chief examples in the fifth extract (The Works oj Alexander Pope, Esq., l797, iv, pp. 266, 274, 282, 286, 290, 293).
