CHARA 
reasous which induced the poet to 
adapt his plan to the extravagance of 
romance, rather than to the correét 
model of the classics; and its exposi- 
tion and examination of that attach- 
ment to allegoric poetry which pre- 
vailed at and before the time of 
Spenser. 
-Eeclesiastical architeéture consti- 
tuted a favourite study of our au- 
thor, on which subject he intended 
to have published*. In 1757 he 
was elected professor of poetry, and, 
about the same time, contributed 
Nos. 83, 93, and 96 to the Idler; 
of the former number part has been 
quoted as the work of Johnson, by 
Dr. Parr. At that period a degree 
of friendship subsisted between 
Johnson and Warton, which lasted 
but a short time. Warton, it seems, 
esteemed his friend as a lexicogra- 
pher and philosopher, but doubted 
his taste and classical knowledge ; 
Johnson, in return, said that “Tom 
Warton was the only man of genius 
whom he knew without a heart,” and 
spoke contemptuously of his poe- 
try. About that time, Colman and 
Thornton invited Warton to engage 
in a periodical publication. He de- 
clined being a principal, but occa- 
sionally favoured their work, as he 
did the Adventurer and World, with 
gratuitous assistance. He after- 
wards wrote the inscription for 
Bonnel Thornton’s monument in 
Westminster abbey. At that period 
also he published two small anony- 
mous tracts ; the first, “* A Descrip- 
tion of the City, College, and Ca- 
thedral of Winchester ;” the other, 
*¢ A Companion to the Guide, and 
a Guide to the Companion,” being 
a complete supplement to all the ac- 
"TT S-P &; 769 
counts of Oxford hitherto published ; 
a burlesque of infinite jest and hu- 
mour on Oxford guides aud compa- 
nions; it passed through severaf 
editions, and is now, as well as the 
former, extremely scarce. 
During the time of Mr. Warton’s 
holding the poetry professorship, he 
fulfilled the duties of his office by a 
constant recommendation of the ele- 
gance and simplicity of the classic 
poets. This was the grand object 
of his leétures, into which he intro- 
duced translations from the Greek 
Anthologies ; a specimen of their 
merit is before the public, under the 
title ** De Poesi Bucolica Graeco- 
rum Dissertatio,” which was after- 
wards enlarged, and préfixed to his 
edition of Theocritus. In 1758 he 
published, anonymously, ‘* Inscrip- 
tionum Romanarum Metricarum 
Deleétus.” ‘This seleéiion of Latin 
metrical inscriptions, principally se- 
pulchral, are taken from Mazochius, 
Smetius, Gruter, &c. to which are 
added a few modern epigrams, 
namely, one by Dr. Jortin, and five 
by himself, on the model of the an- 
tique. The work deserves great 
credit, not only as the plan is, in 
some degree, original, and the epi- 
grams are selected by himself froma 
farrago of uninteresting materials, 
but also on account of the judgment 
with which he discriminates between 
the flippancy and point of the mo- 
dern epigrammatists of Martial’s 
school, and the chastised and simple 
grace of the Greek, and earlier La- 
tin, models. This work was, . in 
1766, followed by one of Greek 
inscriptions, being an edition of 
Cephalas’s Anthology ; the preface 
is written by our author, which, 
though 
AG was in the second edition of his “ Observations on the Faerie Queene,” 
at he introduced his celebrated note on the ecclesiastical architeewre of Eng- 
land ;—till that time it had been almost entirely neglected, 
‘Vor, XLV. 
3D 
