Thomas James Mathias
(1754-1835)
WORKS
PROFILE
COMMENTARY BIOGRAPHIES REFERENCE
AUTHOR AS CRITIC 
The son of a Sub-Treasurer of the Queen's Household, Mathias studied at Kingston, Surrey and Trinity College Cambridge (B.A. 1774, Fellow, 1776, M.A. 1777). He held his father's position at court and was librarian at Buckingham Palace (1812); he was F.S.A. and F.R.S. (1795). Mathias's anonymously published satire on men of letters, Pursuits of Literature (1794) went through sixteen editions. He retired to Italy in 1817 and published a number of works in Italian, including translations of Spenser. George IV awarded Mathias a pension.
TEXT RECORDS:
1826Il Cavaliero della Croce Rossa: Preface.
1826[The Faerie Queene in Italian.]
1827La Mutabilita. Poema in due canti dell'Inglese recato in verso Italiano.
PUBLICATIONS:
Qua quis ratione seipsum citra invidiam laudare possit. 1775.
Utrum imperium atque artes humaniores occidentali cursue nationibus sese deterant. 1776.
An heroic address in prose to the Rev. R. Watson. 1780.
An heroic epistle to the Rev. Richard Watson. 1780.
Runic odes imitated from the Norse tongue in the manner of Mr Gray. 1781.
An essay on the evidence relating to the poems attributed to Rowley. 1783.
Odes English and Latin. 1790.
Honoratissimo viro, T. Orde. 1791.
The imperial epistle from Kien Long to George the Third. 1795?
The pursuits of literature: a satirical poem in dialogue. 1794, etc.
The political dramatist of the House of Commons. 1795.
Villae Formianae, oden. 1795.
An epistle in verse to the Earl of Jersey. 1796.
An equestrian epistle in verse to the Earl of Jersey. 1796.
An appendix to the two epistles in verse containing the whole of the correspondence. 1796.
A letter to Buckingham on the emigrant French priests. 1796.
An address to William Pitt. 1797.
The grove: a satire. 1798.
A letter to the author of Remarks on the Pursuits of literature. 1798.
The shade of Pope on the banks of the Thames. 1798.
A translation of the passages quoted in the Pursuits of literature. 1798.
Works of the author of The pursuits of literature. 1799.
Pandolphe attonito!: or Lord Galloway's poetical lamentation. 1800.
Poems on various occasions collected from the newspapers. 1801.
Componimenti lirici de pia illustri poeti d'Italia [ed. Mathias]. 3 vols, 1803.
A letter occasioned by the death of Nicholls with an Italian ode. 1809.
Odae latinae. 1810.
The works of Gray. 2 vols, 1814.
Observations on the writings and character of Mr. Gray. 1815.
Lyrica sacra. 1818.
Il cavaliero della croce rossa ... recato in verso italiano. 1826.
La mutabilita ... recato in verso italiano. 1827.
Poemata latina. 1832.
PROFILE AND
ASSOCIATES:
English
Anglican
Surrey School
Trinity College Cambridge
Bachelor of Arts
Master of Arts
College Fellow
Fellow of the Royal Society
Fellow of Society of Antiquaries
courtier
poet
translator
editor
essayist
Gentleman's Magazine
William Boscawen
Rev. Henry Boyd
Sir Samuel Egerton Brydges
Bp. Thomas Percy
Samuel Rogers
William Roscoe
John Taylor Esq.
Joseph Cooper Walker
REFERENCE:
DNB; NCBEL.
"The Author of the Pursuits of Literature" Gentleman's Magazine 67 (1797) 1005-07; "Remarks on the Pursuits of Literature" Monthly Magazine 6 (November 1798) 325-26; Bell's Fugitive Poetry (1789-97); David Rivers, Literary Memoirs of Living Authors (1798); "The Author of the Pursuits of Literature" Gentleman's Magazine 68 (March, April, May 1798) 199-206, 286-88, 282-83; "Conjectures on the Author of Pursuits of Literature" Gentleman's Magazine 69 (June, November 1799) 475-76, 946-48; Thomas James Mathias (?), "On the Authorship of Pursuits of Literature" Gentleman's Magazine 69 (September 1799) 731-33; "James Thomas Mathias, Esq." Weekly Magazine [Philadelphia] 4 (27 April 1799) 80-81 [from Rivers]; George Chalmers, "Postscript to T. J. Mathias" in Supplemental Apology (1799) 495-654; "On the Authorship of Pursuits of Literature" Gentleman's Magazine 70 (April, May, July 1800) 309-11, 404-05, 629-32; John Nichols, Literary Anecdotes (1812-15); Biographical Dictionary of Living Authors (1816); Robert Watt, Bibliotheca Britannica (1824); Charles MacFarlane, "Mathias's Italian Translation of Spenser" London Magazine NS 5 (July 1826) 344-50; obituary in Gentleman's Magazine NS 4 (November 1835) 550-52; Robert Chambers, Cyclopaedia of English Literature (1844); John Wilson, in Essays Critical and Imaginative (1856); Allibone, Critical Dictionary of English Literature (1858-71; 1882); Moulton, Library of Literary Criticism (1901-05); Venn and Venn, Alum. Cant. (1940-54) 2.4.360; K. Hopkins, in Portraits in Satire (1958); O. M. Brack, "Mathias' Pursuits of Literature" PBSA 62 (1968); Chadwyck-Healey English Poetry Database (1995).
COMMENTARY RECORDS
for Thomas James Mathias:
BIOGRAPHY RECORDS
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AUTHOR AS CRITIC:
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