Elijah Fenton

Elijah Fenton, the eleventh child of a Staffordshire attorney, entered Cambridge as a sizar in 1700 (B.A. from Jesus, 1705; M.A. from Trinity, 1726). He was secretary to the Earl of Orrery in Flanders and master of Seven Oaks grammar school. Fenton edited the volume in which Philips's and Pope's pastorals were jointly published, and later translated several books Pope's Odyssey. A notable Tory, he was a friend of William Broome, Walter Harte, and the elder Thomas Warton, who had once been his student.

TEXT RECORDS:

1703 ca.Florelio. A Pastoral. Lamenting the Death of the late Marquis of Blandford. By Mr. Fenton.
1707An Ode to the Sun, for the New-Year.
1711An Epistle to Mr. Southerne.
1729Observations on some of Mr. Waller's Poems.

PUBLICATIONS:

Cerealia: an imitation of Milton. 1706.
On the first-fit of the gout. By a person of honour. 1706.
An ode to the sun, for the New-Year. 1707.
Oxford and Cambridge miscellany poems. Editor and contributor, 1708.
An epistle to Mr. Southern. 1711.
M. Manlius Capitolinus. 1712.
To the Queen, on her Majesty's birthday. 1712.
A letter to the knight of the sable shield. 1716.
Poems on several occasions. 1717.
Marianne: a tragedy. 1723.
Life of John Milton [prefixed to Paradise Lost]. 1725.
Two early lives of John Milton, ed. W. H. Hulme. 1924.

PROFILE AND
ASSOCIATES:

English
Anglican

Jesus College Cambridge
Bachelor of Arts
Trinity College Cambridge
Master of Arts

secretary
schoolmaster
poet
translator
editor

Rev. William Broome
Rev. Walter Harte
Alexander Pope
Thomas Southerne
Rev. Thomas Warton the Elder

REFERENCE:

DNB; NCBEL.

Giles Jacob, An Historical Account of ... English Poets (1720); "Fenton's Milton" British Journal (6 February 1731); Biographia Britannica (1747-66) 7:50-52; Cibber-Shiels, Lives of the Poets (1753); David Erskine Baker, Companion to the Play-House (1764); Bell's Poets of Great Britain (1776-82); Samuel Johnson, Life in Works of the English Poets (1779-81); John Nichols, Select Collection of Poems (1780-82); Biographia Dramatica (1782; 1812); "Elijah Fenton" Gentleman's Magazine 61 (August 1791) 703-04; Robert Anderson, British Poets (1795); Bell's Fugitive Poetry (1789-97); Robert Southey, Specimens of Later English Poets (1807); Samuel Jackson Pratt, Cabinet of Poetry (1808); Alexander Chalmers, English Poets (1810); Alexander Chalmers, General Biographical Dictionary (1812-17); John Nichols, Literary Anecdotes (1812-15); Thomas Campbell, Specimens of the British Poets (1819); Ezekiel Sanford, British Poets (1819); Joseph Spence, Anecdotes (1820); Rowland Freeman, Kentish Poets (1821); 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); Chambers's Cyclopaedia of English Literature 3rd ed. (1876); W. W. Lloyd, Elijah Fenton, his Poetry and his Friends, ed. G. L. Fenton (1894); Moulton, Library of Literary Criticism (1901-05); Venn and Venn, Alum. Cant. (1922-27); Longaker, English Biography (1931) 484-86; George Sherburn, The Early Career of Alexander Pope (1934); Earl Harlan, Elijah Fenton (1937); Fairchild, in Religious Trends in English Poetry (1939); Dobree, OHEL (1959); A. N. L. Munby, Sale Catalogues of Libraries of Eminent Persons (1971-75); Chadwyck-Healey English Poetry Database (1995).

COMMENTARY RECORDS
for Elijah Fenton:

1.	1707  Elijah Fenton to Thomas Warton the elder, 24 January 1707; in Wooll, Biographical Memoirs of Joseph Warton (1806) 203.
2.	1722  William Broome to Elijah Fenton, 29 May 1722; Works of Pope, ed. Elwin and Courthope (1871-1889) 8:53-55.
3.	1725  William Broome to Elijah Fenton, 1 December 1725; Works of Pope, ed. Elwin and Courthope (1871-1889) 8:105-07.
4.	1726  William Broome, "An Epistle to my Friend, Mr. Elisha Fenton, 1726" London Journal (7 January 1727).
5.	1726  Anonymous, "To Mr. Fenton, on his Tragedy of Mariamne" D. Lewis, Miscellaneous Poems by Several Hands (1726) 124-26.
6.	1727  Walter Harte, "To a young Lady with Mr. Fenton's Miscellany" in Harte, Poems on Several Occasions (1727) 94-98.
7.	1730  Alexander Pope to John Gay, 21 July 1730; Works of Pope, ed. Elwin and Courthope (1871-1889) 7:436-37.
8.	1730  Alexander Pope, "Epitaph on Mr. Fenton" London Evening Post (22 October 1730).
9.	1730  William Broome to Alexander Pope, 17 August 1730; Works of Pope, ed. Elwin and Courthope (1871-1889) 8:163.
10.	1730  William Broome, "On the Death of my dear Friend, Mr. Elijah Fenton, 1730" in Broome, Poems (1739) 206-14.
11.	1738  William Warburton to Thomas Birch, 27 May 1738; Nichols, Illustrations of the Literary History of the XVIII Century (1817-58) 2:87-88.
12.	1751  Thomas Birch, in "Life of Spenser" Faerie Queene (1751) 1:xxiii-xxiv.
13.	1756  Earl of Orrery to William Duncombe, 1756; Duncombe, Letters of Eminent Persons (1772; 1773) 2:39n.
14.	1756  Joseph Warton, in Essay on the Genius and Writings of Pope (1756; 1782) 1:306-08.
15.	1778 ca.  Samuel Pegge, 1778 ca; in Anonymiana, or Ten Centuries of Observations on various Authors and Subjects (1809) 344-45.
16.	1780  John Nichols, in Select Collection of Poems (1780-84) 8:296.
17.	1795  Robert Anderson, in Works of the British Poets (1795) 7:648.
18.	1797  Joseph Warton, Note in Works of Alexander Pope, ed. Warton (1797) 7:327-28n.
19.	1805  Henry John Todd, in Works of Spenser (1805) 1:cxvi.
20.	1807  Robert Southey, in Specimens of the Later English Poets (1807) 3:284.
21.	1814  George Dyer, in History of the University and Colleges of Cambridge (1814) 2:78.
22.	1823  Leigh Hunt, in "Among my Books" 1823; in The Indicator (1845) 2:147.
23.	1824  Bryan Waller Procter, in Effigies Poeticae, or, the Portraits of the British Poets (1824) 74.
24.	1860  George Gilfillan, in Specimens with Memoirs of the less-known British Poets (1860) 3:24-25.
25.	1889  W. J. Courthope, Life of Pope in Works, ed. Elwin and Courthope (1871-1889) 5:196.

BIOGRAPHY RECORDS
for Elijah Fenton:

1.	1720  Giles Jacob, in Historical Account of the Lives and Writings of our most considerable English Poets (1720) 55.
2.	1753  Anonymous, in Cibber-Shiels, Lives of the Poets of Great Britain and Ireland (1753) 3:164-65.
3.	1766  Anonymous, in Biographia Britannica (1747-66) 7:50-52
4.	1779  Samuel Johnson, Lives of the English Poets (1779-81); ed. Hill (1905) 2:257-66.
5.	1791  T. F., "Elijah Fenton" Gentleman's Magazine 61 (August 1791) 703-04.
6.	1808  Samuel Jackson Pratt, in Cabinet of Poetry (1808) 2:383-84.
7.	1812  Alexander Chalmers, in General Biographical Dictionary (1812-17) 14:201-04.
8.	1819  Thomas Campbell, in Specimens of the British Poets (1819; 1845) 349.
9.	1832  William Clarke and Robert Shelton Mackenzie, in The Georgian Era: Memoirs of the most eminent Persons who have flourished in Great Britain (1832-34) 3:520-21.
10.	1876  Robert Carruthers, in Chambers's Cyclopaedia of English Literature, 3rd ed. (1876; 1879) 3:197.

AUTHOR AS CRITIC:
(commentary records)

1.	1707  Elijah Fenton:   Elijah Fenton to Thomas Warton the elder, 24 January 1707; in Wooll, Biographical Memoirs of Joseph Warton (1806) 203.
2.	1707  Rev. Thomas Warton the Elder:   Elijah Fenton to Thomas Warton, 24 January 1707; Joseph Warton, Essay on the Genius and Writings of Pope (1782) 2:278.
3.	1711  Ben Jonson:   Elijah Fenton, in "Epistle to Thomas Southerne" 1711; Poems (1717) 70.
4.	1717  Alexander Pope:   Elijah Fenton, "To Mr. Pope, in imitation of a Greek Epigram on Homer" in Pope, Works (1717) Sig. C2.
5.	1725  Rev. William Broome:   Elijah Fenton to William Broome, 20 November 1725; Works of Pope, ed. Elwin and Courthope (1871-1889) 8:103-04.
6.	1726  Rev. Joseph Spence:   Elijah Fenton to William Broome, 10 June 1726; Works of Pope, ed. Elwin and Courthope (1871-1889) 8:120.
7.	1729  Henry Lawes:   Elijah Fenton, in "Observations on some of Mr. Waller's Poems" (1729) lvi-lvii.