8 Joseph Warton (1722–1800), one-time headmaster of Winchester College, published poems and odes. But he is best known as a critic of wide knowledge and good judgement. His Essay on the Writings and Genius of Pope (1756, 1782), distinguishes between the poets of ‘the sublime and pathetic’ and the ‘men of wit and sense’ such as Shakespeare, Spenser and Milton. His brother Thomas Warton (1728–90) was Professor of Poetry at Oxford 1757–67 and became Poet Laureate in 1785. He edited the works of Milton, but is best known for his celebrated History of English Poetry, 3 vols. (1774–81).