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:
BIOGRAPHY RECORDS
for Elijah Fenton:
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. |