catalogue of the more perfect plants growing spontaneously about Woodford in Essex," Lond. 1771, 8vo. As none of the graminaceous or cryptogamous tribes are introduced, the list does not exceed 518 species. The order is alphabetical, by the names from Ray's Synopsis; after which follow the specific character at length, from Hudson's "Flora Anglica," the Linnæan class and order, and the English name, place, and time of flowering. In Mr. Warner was also distinguished for polite learning, and eminently so for his critical knowledge in the writings of Shakspeare. He published "A Letter to David Garrick, esq. concerning a glossary to the Plays of Shakspeare," &c. 1768, 8vo. He had been long making collections for a new edition of that author; but on Mr. Steevens's advertisement of his design to engage in the same task on a different plan, he desisted from the pursuit of his own. his youth he had been remarkably fond of dancing; nor till his rage for that diversion subsided, did he convert the largest room in his house into a library. To the last hour of his life, however, he was employed on the "Glossary" already mentioned, although it never was completed. At his death, which happened April 11, 1775, he bequeathed all his valuable books to Wadham college, Oxford, where he received his education; and to the same society a small annual stipend to maintain a botanical lecture. He also translated the comedies of Plautus left untranslated by Thornton, which were published in 1772 and 1774. The books he left to Wadham college form a good, although not a complete collection of the old English poets, with many editions of Shakspeare, some of which are interleaved with writing paper, obviously intended for annotations, &c. had he pursued his design of a new edition. ' WARNER (WILLIAM), an old English poet, is called by Phillips, "a good honest plain writer of moral rules and precepts, in that old-fashioned kind of seven-footed verse, which yet sometimes is in use, though in different manner, that is to say, divided into two. He may be reckoned with several other writers of the same time, i. e. Queen Elizabeth's reign: who, though inferior to Sidney, Spenser, Drayton, and Daniel, yet have been thought by some not unworthy to be remembered and quoted: namely George Gascoigne, Thomas Hudson, John Markham, Thomas 1 Pulteney's Botany.-Nichols's Bowyer.-Lysons's Environs. Achely, John Weever, Charles Middleton, George Turberville, Henry Constable, sir Edward Dyer, Thomas Churchyard, Charles Fitzgeoffry." William Warner was a native of Oxfordshire, and born,` as Mr. Ellis is inclined to think, about 1558, which supposes him to have published his first work at the age of twenty-five. He was educated at Oxford, but spent his time in the flowery paths of poetry, history, and romanee, in preference to the dry pursuits of logic and philosophy, and departed without a degree to the metropolis, where he soon became distinguished among the minor poets. It is said, that in the latter part of his life, he was retained in the service of Henry Carey, lord Hunsdon, to whom he dedicates his poem. Mr. Ritson adds to this account, that by his dedications to Henry and George, successive barons of Hunsdon, he appears to have been patronized by, or in some manner connected with, that family. In the fourth edition of Percy's Ballads, we find the following extract from the parish register of Amwell, in Hertfordshire, communicated by Mr. Hoole, although first given by Scott, in his poem of "Ainwell," edit. 1776. 16081609-Master William Warner, a man of good yeares and of honest reputation; by his profession an atturnye of the Common Pleas; author of Albion's England, diynge suddenly in the night in his bedde, without any former complaynt or sicknesse, on Thursday-night beeinge the ninth day of March, was buried the Saturday following, and lyeth in the church at the corner, under the stone of Walter Ffader." His "Albion's England" was his principal work; and was not only a favourite with his own age, but has received very high praise from the critics of our own time. It is an epitome of the British history, and, according to the editor of the "Muses Library," Mrs. Cooper, is written with great learning, sense, and spirit; in some places fine to an extraordinary degree, of which an instance is given in the story of Argentill and Curan, a tale which, Mrs. Cooper adds, is full of beautiful incidents, in the romantic taste, extremely affecting, rich in ornament, wonderfully various in style, and in short one of the most beautiful pastorals she ever met with. To this opinion, high as it is, Dr. Percy thinks nothing can be objected, unless perhaps an affected quaintness in some of his expressions, and an indelicacy in some of his pastoral images. Warner's con temporaries ranked him on a level with Spenser, and called him the Homer and Virgil of their age. But Dr. Percy remarks, that he rather resembled Ovid, whose Metamor phosis he seems to have taken for a model, having deduced a perpetual poem from the deluge down to the reign of queen Elizabeth, full of lively digressions and entertaining episodes. And though he is sometimes harsh, affected, and indelicate, he often displays a most charming and pathetic simplicity. He was numbered in his own time among the refiners of the English tongue, which "by his pen was much enriched and gorgeously invested in rare ornaments, and resplendent habiliments." Such is the opinion of Meres, in his "Wit's Treasury;" but the progress Warner made in refining the English tongue was certainly very in considerable. He owed his simplicity to his taste; but he had not the courage to abandon the uncouth and quaint expressions so peculiar to his time, and to shew that iwit and point might exist without them. His style, however, was then thought elegant, and such was his power of please ing, that "Albion's England" superseded that very popu lar work "the Mirror of Magistrates." Warner was a writer of prose. His work was entitled "Syrinx, or a seauenfold Historie, handled with varietie of pleasant and profitable, both comical and tragical argument," printed in 1597. Warton calls it a novel, or rather a suite of stories, much in the style of the adventures of Heliodorus's Ethiopic romance. He appears also to have translated Plautus's "Menæchmi," published in 1595. Ritson informs us, that by an entry in the Stationers'book, on the 17th of October, 1586, "The Wardens, upon serche of Roger Ward's house, dyd find there in printing, a book in verse, intytled "England's Albion, beinge in English, and not aucthorised to be printed, which he had been forbidden to prynte, aswell by the L. archb. of Canterburye, as also by the said wardens at his own house;" and forasmuch as he had done this "contrary to the late decrees of the hon, court of Starre-chamber, the said wardens seised three heaps of the said England's Adbion'." Why this work was prohibited, except for the indelicacies already noticed, is not very apparent. We know that bishop Hall's satires incurred the displeasure of the guardians of the press at no long distance from this time. Mr. Headley, who has extracted many beauties from Warner, says, that his tales, though often tedious, and not unfrequently indelicate, abound with all the unaffected incident and artless ease of the best old ballads, without their cant and puerility. The pastoral pieces that occur are superior to all the eclogues in our language, those of Collins only excepted. He also quotes Drayton's lines on Warner, which the reader will find in his piece of " Poets and Poesy." WARTON (THOMAS), the historian of English poetry, was descended from an ancient and honourable family of Beverley in Yorkshire. His father was fellow of Magdalen-college, Oxford, poetry professor in that university, and afterwards vicar of Basingstoke, Hampshire, and Cobham, Surrey. He married Elizabeth daughter of the rev. Joseph Richardson, rector of Dunsford, Surrey, and had by her three children; Joseph, the subject of the next article, Thomas, and Jane a daughter, who survived both her brothers. He died in 1746, and is buried under the rails of the altar of his church at Basingstoke, with an inscription on a tablet near it, written by his sons, who afterwards published a volume of his poems, by subscription, chiefly with a view to pay the few debts he left behind, and supply his children with some assistance in the progress of their education. Whether the success of this volume was equal to their hopes, is uncertain, but the poems acquired no reputation. Thomas was born at Basingstoke in 1728, and from his earliest years discovered a fondness for reading, and a taste for poetry. In his ninth year he sent to his sister the following translation from the Latin of Martial: "When bold Leander sought his distant fair This curiosity is authenticated by the letter in which he sent it, lately in the possession of his sister. It bears date" from the school, Nov. 7, 1737.". His biographer, Mr. Mant, says, that he continued under the care of his father until his removal to Oxford; but we have been in 1 Phillips's Theatrum by Sir E. Brydges.-Ath. Ox. vol. I.—Ellis's Specimens. -Ritson's Bibl. Poetica.-English Poets, 21 vols. 1810.-Warton's Hist. of Poetry.-Headley's Beauties. formed that he was placed for some time at Basingstokeschool. In March 1743, in his sixteenth year, he was admitted a commoner of Trinity-college, and soon after was elected a scholar. How much he was ever attached to that college, his writings, and a residence of forty-seven years, with very few intervals, sufficiently shew. In 1745, he is said to have published "four Pastoral Eclogues;" but this appears to be a mistake. About this time, however, he sent one or two articles to Dodsley's Museum *; to which his brother was likewise a contributor; but his first detached publication was "The Pleasures of Melancholy," of which the first copy differs considerably, particularly in the introductory part, from that published in his collection of poems. On the appearance of Mason's "Isis," reflecting on the loyalty of Oxford, which a foolish riot among some students had brought into question, Mr. Warton, encouraged by Dr. Huddesford, the president of Trinity, published in 1749, "The Triumph of Isis," in which he retaliated on the sons of Cam in no very courtly strains. The poem, however, discovered certain beauties, which pointed him out as a youth of great promise. It is remarkable, that although he omitted this piece in an edition of his poems printed in 1777, he restored it in that of 1779. This is said to have been done at Mason's suggestion, who was candid enough to own that it greatly excelled his own elegy, both in poetical imagery and correct flow of versification; but Mason appears to have forgot that his personal share in the contest was but trifling, and that it contained a libel on the university of Cambridge. In 1750, our author contributed a few small pieces to the "Student, or Oxford and Cambridge Miscellany," then published by Newbery. Among these was the "Progress of Discontent," which had been written in 1746, and was founded on a copy of Latin verses, a weekly exercise much applauded by Dr. Huddesford, and, at his desire, paraphrased into English verse: In this state his brother, Dr. Warton, preferred it to any imitation of Swift he had ever seen. His talents were now generally acknowledged, and in 1747 and 1748, he held the office of * These were, a Song imitated from the Midsummer Night's Dream, and a prose Essay on Snugness, written partly by him and partly by Dr. Vansittart. They are authenticated by Dr. Warton's Autograph, in his copy of the Museum, in the possession of the editor of this dictionary. |