Rev. Joseph Spence

The son of a Hampshire clergyman, Joseph Spence attended Eton before being elected scholar at Winchester (1715); he was admitted to Magdalen College Oxford in 1717 (B.A. from New College Oxford 1724, Fellow 1724, M.A. 1727). Spence was vicar of Great Horwood (1742), Prebendary of Durham (1754-68), Oxford Poetry Professor (1728-38) and Professor of Modern History (1742-68). He was on terms of friendship with Whig and Tory writers alike. A serious bibliophile, Spence was able to retire on the proceeds from his major work, Polymetis.

TEXT RECORDS:

1740 ca.Anecdotes, Observations, and Characters of Books and Men.
1746The Three First Stanza's of the 24th Canto of Dante's Inferna made into a Song.
1747Defects of our Modern Poets, in their Allegories: instanced from Spenser's Fairy Queen.
1747The Picture of Human Life. Translated from the Greek of Cebes, a Disciple of Socrates.
1748Allegory of Art and Nature.
1753The Choice of Hercules: A Lesson of Socrates; recorded by Xenophon.

PUBLICATIONS:

An essay on Pope's Odyssey. 1726, 1727.
A full and authentick account of Stephen Duck. 1731.
Some account of Lord Buckhurst; Gorbuduc. 1736.
Polymetis: or an enquiry concerning the agreement between the works of the Roman poets and the remains of the ancient artists. 1747.
An apology for Mr Pope. 1749.
Crito: or a dialogue on beauty. 1752.
A particular account of the Emperour of China's gardens near Pekin. 1752.
Letter to Revd. Mr. G. R. 1753?
Moralities: or essays, letters, fables, and translations. 1753.
Works of Virgil ... with several new observations by Mr. Spence. 1753.
An account of the life, character, and poems of Mr. Blacklock. 1754.
A parallel, in the manner of Plutarch, between a most celebrated man of Florence, and one, scarce ever heard of, in England. 1758.
The picture of human life [Cebes, trans. Spence?]. 1789.
Observations, anecdotes and characters of books and men, ed. Singer. 1820.
Observations, anecdotes, and characters of books and men, ed. James M. Osborn. 2 vols, 1966.

PROFILE AND
ASSOCIATES:

English
Anglican

Eton College
Winchester College
Magdalen College Oxford
New College Oxford
Bachelor of Arts
Master of Arts
College Fellow

clergyman
professor
Prebendary of Durham
antiquary
editor
poet
essayist

The Museum

Dr. John Armstrong
Rev. Thomas Blacklock
Bubb Dodington
Robert Dodsley
Stephen Duck
Thomas Gray
Samuel Johnson
Bp. Robert Lowth
Lady Mary Wortley Montagu
Edward Moore
Thomas Morrison
Rev. Christopher Pitt
Alexander Pope
Samuel Richardson
Rev. Glocester Ridley
Charles Sackville
William Shenstone
James Thomson
Horace Walpole
Rev. Joseph Warton
Gilbert West
George Woodward
Edward Young

REFERENCE:

DNB; NCBEL.

Robert Dodsley, Collection of Poems (1748-58); William Rider, Living Authors of Great Britain (1762); A Catalogue of the Entire Libraries of the Revd. Joseph Spence (1769); John Nichols, Select Collection of Poems (1780-82) [portrait]; Glocester Ridley, "An Invitation to the Country from Dr. Ridley to Joseph Spence" in John Nichols, Select Collection of Poems (1780-82) 8:79-80; "Verses appearing under Spence's Name in Oxford Collections" Gentleman's Magazine 57 (December 1787) 1124; Bell's Fugitive Poetry (1789-97); "Spence on Virgil's Tomb" Gentleman's Magazine 83 (June 1813) 538-39; Poetical Register for 1810-11 (1814); Alexander Chalmers, General Biographical Dictionary (1812-17); John Nichols, Literary Anecdotes (1812-15); "Rev. Joseph Spence" Gentleman's Magazine 89 (November 1819) 412; Samuel Weller Singer, Life in Anecdotes (1820) [portrait]; Isaac D'Israeli, "Spence's Anecdotes of Books and Men" Quarterly Review 23 (July 1820) 400-34; "Spence's Anecdotes" Atheneum [Boston] 7 (April 1820) 64-67; William Hazlitt, "Spence's Anecdotes" Edinburgh Review 33 (1820); Robert Watt, Bibliotheca Britannica (1824); The Georgian Era: Memoirs of the most Eminent Persons (1832-34); Allibone, Critical Dictionary of English Literature (1858-71; 1882); Foster, Alumni Oxon (1887-91); Austin Dobson, "Spence's Anecdotes" in Eighteenth-Century Vignettes (1892-96); Moulton, Library of Literary Criticism (1901-05); Eton College Register, 1698-1752 (1927); Longaker, in English Biography (1931); Austin Wright, Joseph Spence: a Critical Biography (1950); Rayner Unwin, in The Rural Muse (1954); Dobree, OHEL (1959); Observations, ed. James M. Osburn 2 vols (1966); James M. Osburn, "Spence, Natural Genius, and Pope" Philological Quarterly 45 (January 1966) 123-44; Valentine, British Establishment (1970); A. N. L. Munby, Sale Catalogues of Libraries of Eminent Persons (1971-75); Butt, OHEL (1979); Philip Herzbrun, "Joseph Beaumont's Psyche and Joseph Spence as 'Sir Harry Beaumont'" Notes and Queries 30 (February 1983) 43-44; Michael F. Suarez, ed., Dodsley, Collection of Poems (1997) 1:209-10.

COMMENTARY RECORDS
for Rev. Joseph Spence:

1.	1726  Elijah Fenton to William Broome, 10 June 1726; Works of Pope, ed. Elwin and Courthope (1871-1889) 8:120.
2.	1726  Christopher Pitt to Joseph Spence, 18 July 1726; St. James's Chronicle (1 July 1774).
3.	1728  Christopher Pitt to William Duncombe, 6 July 1728; Duncombe, Letters of Eminent Persons (1772; 1773) 2:12-13.
4.	1728  William Somervile, in "To Mr. Ramsay, upon his publishing his second Volume of Poems" 1728 ca.; London Magazine 25 (December 1756) 605.
5.	1730  George Woodward, in "Session of the Oxford Poets" in Poems (1730) 212-13.
6.	1733  Anonymous, "On An Essay on Pope's Odyssey" Weekly Miscellany (7 April 1733).
7.	1738  James De La Cour, in "On Poesy, or the Fine Arts," 1738 ca.; Poems (1778) 104.
8.	1747  Thomas Gray to Horace Walpole, February 1747; Poems of Mr. Gray, ed. Mason (1775) 183.
9.	1748  Robert Dodsley to Joseph Spence, 22 October 1748; Spence, Anecdotes, ed. Singer (1820) 426-27.
10.	1750  Horace Walpole to Horace Mann, 20 September 1750; Letters, ed. Cunningham (1906) 2:228.
11.	1750 ca.  Glocester Ridley, "An Invitation into the Country, in imitation of Horace, B. IV. Ode XII" 1750 ca.; Nichols, Select Collection of Poems (1780-82) 8:79-80.
12.	1752  Anonymous, "To Sir Harry Beaumont; on publishing his Dialogue on Beauty" General Advertiser (11 March 1752).
13.	1758  William Shenstone to Richard Graves, 22 July 1758; Works (1769) 3:316.
14.	1759  Thomas Blacklock, "To the Rev. Mr. Spence" 1759; Poems (1793) 188-89.
15.	1760  Joseph Highmore to his daughter [Mrs. John Duncombe?], 21 October 1760; Gentleman's Magazine 86 (Supplement 1816) 577.
16.	1764  James Woodhouse, in "The Lessowes, a Poem" Poems on Sundry Occasions (1764) 66-67.
17.	1768  W. S. T., "On the Death of the Rev. Joseph Spence, Professor of History in the University of Oxford" Oxford Magazine 1 (September 1768) 115.
18.	1768  Robert Lowth, Inscription for Spence in Byfleet Church, 1768; Moulton, Library of Literary Criticism (1901-05) 3:519.
19.	1772  John Duncombe, in Letters of Eminent Persons (1772; 1773) 3:139n.
20.	1772  Anonymous, in "Catalogue of the most celebrated Writers" Letters concerning the present State of England (1772) 397-98.
21.	1773  Samuel Johnson, 1773; Boswell, Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides (1786); Life of Johnson, ed. G. B. Hill (1891) 5:360-61.
22.	1779  Vicesimus Knox, in Essays Moral and Literary (1779) 1:179.
23.	1780  Horace Walpole to William Cole, 19 May 1780; Letters, ed. Cunningham (1906) 7:366.
24.	1790 ca.  Edmond Malone, circa 1790; Maloniana, in Sir James Prior, Life of Edmond Malone (1860) 430.
25.	1790  Anonymous, in European Magazine 17 (March 1790) 175.
26.	1797  Joseph Warton, in Life of Pope; Works of Alexander Pope, ed. Warton 1:xxxv-vi.
27.	1800 ca.  Robert Southey, 1800 ca.; Common-Place Book (1849-51) 4:351.
28.	1818  Lord Byron to John Murray, 8 January 1818; Letters and Journals, ed. Rowland E. Prothero (1898-1901) 4:192.
29.	1819  Viator, "Rev. Joseph Spence" Gentleman's Magazine 89 (November 1819) 412.
30.	1820  Isaac D'Israeli, in Review of Spence's Anecdotes, Quarterly Review 23 (July 1820) 402-07.
31.	1820  Luke Booker, "William Shenstone's Copy of Fugitive Pieces" Gentleman's Magazine 90 (January 1820) 29-30.
32.	1820  Anonymous, "Advertisement" Spence, Observations, Anecdotes, and Characters, of Books and Men, ed. Malone (1820) iii-vii.
33.	1820  William Hazlitt, Review of Spence, Anecdotes; Edinburgh Review 33 (May 1820) 302-30.
34.	1828  Leigh Hunt, in Lord Byron and some of his Contemporaries (1828) 372.
35.	1834  John Wilson, in "Spenser" Blackwood's Magazine 36 (1834) 418-19.
36.	1842  C. H. Timperley, in Encyclopaedia of Literary and Typographical Anecdote (1842) 2:713n.
37.	1892  Austin Dobson, in "Spence's Anecdotes" Eighteenth-Century Vignettes 1 (1892; 1937) 25-27.
38.	1910  Ralph Straus, in Robert Dodsley, Poet, Publisher, and Playwright (1910) 43-44.

BIOGRAPHY RECORDS
for Rev. Joseph Spence:

1.	1762  William Rider, in Living Authors of Great Britain (1762) 33.
2.	1780  Robert Lowth, in Nichols, Select Collection of Poems with Notes Biographical and Historical (1780-82) 8: 1-6n.
3.	1782  Isaac Reed, in Dodsley, Collection of Poems (1782) 3:60-61.
4.	1812  Alexander Chalmers, in General Biographical Dictionary (1812-17) 28:276-80.
5.	1820  Samuel Weller Singer, life of the Author, in Spence, Anecdotes (1820) xvii-xxxix.

AUTHOR AS CRITIC:
(commentary records)

1.	1728  Rev. Christopher Pitt:   Joseph Spence to Christopher Pitt, 2 August 1728; Works of Pope, ed. Warton (1797) 7:383.
2.	1744 ca.  John Hughes:   Joseph Spence, 1744 ca.; in Anecdotes, ed. Osburne (1966) 1:211-12.
3.	1748  Samuel Richardson:   Joseph Spence to Samuel Richardson, 21 January 1748; Correspondence of Samuel Richardson, ed. Barbauld (1804) 2:319-27.
4.	1754  Rev. Thomas Warton:   Joseph Spence to Thomas Warton, 2 November 1754; Wooll, Biographical Memoirs of Joseph Warton (1806) 226-27.
5.	1755  Rev. Thomas Blacklock:   Joseph Spence to Dr. Conybeare, Bishop of Bristol, 11 January 1755; Edinburgh Annual Register for 1809 (1811) 2:554-55.