Warton, Joseph, 1722-1800

Joseph Warton was an influential author and critic, a literary radical who encouraged the use of imagination and eschewed traditional verse forms in his criticism and his own writing. Warton was born in Surrey, and educated at Oxford University, where he developed an interest in poetry and imagination; he began publishing verse soon after, and literary essays on figures such as Milton, Shakespeare, and Pope. He taught at Winchester College, eventually becoming master and later headmaster, forcing a hiatus in his literary efforts for some twenty-five years. He was widely admired as a writer and educator, and respected by literary figures of the day such as his friend Samuel Johnson. Warton is often associated with his brother Thomas, with whom he often worked.

English critic.