Tyrwhitt, Thomas

Tyrwhitt, Thomas

▪ English scholar
born March 27, 1730, London
died Aug. 15, 1786, London
 English scholar especially notable for his work on the medieval English poet Geoffrey Chaucer. In classical and English scholarship alike, Tyrwhitt showed the same qualities of balance, wide knowledge, and critical acumen. (He was the one man able, on linguistic grounds alone, to denounce as a forgery the poems by Thomas Chatterton purporting to be by one “Thomas Rowley.”)

      After leaving Oxford University, he was called to the bar but never practiced. Deputy secretary of war (1756), then clerk of the House of Commons (1762), he retired in 1768. He edited Aristotle's Poetics (1794), but his fame rests chiefly upon an edition of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, 5 vol. (1775–78). Chaucer's reputation had suffered because the principles on which his verse depends were no longer understood; it was Tyrwhitt who pointed out that final e's (by his time mute) ought to be pronounced as separate syllables and that the accent of a word was often placed in the French manner (e.g., virtúe, not vírtue). Tyrwhitt's scholarship is still held in great respect.

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Universalium. 2010.

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  • TYRWHITT, THOMAS —    English scholar, the son of an English Church canon, born in London; was a Fellow of Merton in 1755, and in 1762 became clerk to the House of Commons, a post, however, which proved too arduous for him, and in 1768 he resigned; the remainder of …   The Nuttall Encyclopaedia

  • Thomas Tyrwhitt — (March 27, 1730 ndash;August 15, 1786) was an English classical scholar and critic.He was born in London, where he also died. He was educated at Eton and Queen s College, Oxford (fellow of Merton, 1755). In 1756 he was appointed under secretary… …   Wikipedia

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  • Tyrwhitt — (Thyrwhitt), Thomas, geb. 1721 in London, war 1757 Untersecretär des Kriegsdepartements, 1761–67 Secretär im Unterhaus, 1784 mit Crocherode Inspector des Britischen Museums u. st. 19. Aug. 1786; er schr.: De Babrio, Lond. 1776, Auctar. dazu 1781 …   Pierer's Universal-Lexikon

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