The son of a prebendary of Winchester, Robert Lowth was educated at New College (B.A. 1733, Fellow 1737, M.A. 1737, Professor of Poetry at Oxford 1741-51, D.D. by diploma, 1754). Lowth held a number of clerical positions before becoming archdeacon of Winchester (1750), prebendary of Durham (1755), Bishop of St. David's (1766), Bishop of Oxford (1766-77), and Bishop of London (1777); he declined the offer of the primacy. Lowth was a fellow classmate at Winchester and Oxford of Christopher Pitt, Glocester Ridley and Joseph Spence; he assisted John Nichols in choosing poems for the Select Collection of Poems (1780-84).
TEXT RECORDS:
1743The Judgment of Hercules, a Poem.
1746An Ode to the People of Great Britain. In imitation of the Sixth Ode of the Third Book of Horace.
1761[Untitled, "At length the gallant Navy from afar."]
1761[Untitled, "In blooming Majesty, and graceful State."]
PUBLICATIONS:
De sacre poesi Hebraeorum. 1753, trans. G. Gregory, 2 vols, 1787.
The genealogy of Christ ... A poem. 1729.
De sacra poesi Hebraeorum. 1753.
A sermon preached ... before the governors of the infirmary. 1757.
Life of William of Wykham. 1758.
A sermon preached at the visitation ... at Durham. 1758.
A letter to the Right Reverend Dr. Warburton. 1760.
A short introduction to English grammar. 1762.
A sermon preached at the assizes holden at Durham. 1764.
Letter to the Right Reverend author of the Divine legation [W. Warburton]. 1765.
A larger confutation of Bishop Hare's system of Hebrew meter. 1766.
The second part of a literary correspondence [between Lowth and Warburton]. 1766?
A sermon preached before the Lords. 1767.
A sermon preached before the governors of the Radcliffe infirmary. 1771.
A sermon preached before the Society for the propagation of the Gospels in foreign parts. 1771.
A sermon preached before the society... for promoting English Protestant working-schools in Ireland. 1773.
A sermon preached at the Chapel Royal of St. James Palace. 1779.
Isaiah. 1779.
A letter from the bishop of London to the clergy of his diocese. 1784.
Sermons, and other remains. 1834.
Twelve anniversary sermons. 1845.
PROFILE AND
ASSOCIATES:
English
Anglican
Winchester College
New College Oxford
Bachelor of Arts
Master of Arts
Doctor of Divinity
College Fellow
Dean of Winchester
Prebendary of Durham
Bishop of St. David's
Bishop of Oxford
Bishop of London
Fellow of the Royal Society
clergyman
professor
tutor
poet
essayist
The Museum
Gentleman's Magazine
Robert Dodsley
Rev. John Duncombe
Rev. Alexander Geddes
William Hayley
William Jackson of Exeter
Rev. James Merrick
William Julius Mickle
John Nichols
Rev. Charles Parrott
Rev. Christopher Pitt
Rev. Glocester Ridley
Christopher Smart
Rev. Joseph Spence
Rev. Joseph Warton
Rev. Thomas Warton
William Whitehead
REFERENCE:
DNB; NCBEL.
Robert Dodsley, Collection of Poems (1748-58); Pearch, Supplement to Dodsley's Collection (1768-83); "Biographical and Literary Anecdotes of Dr. Lowth" Westminster Magazine 7 (June 1779) 286-88; obituary in Gentleman's Magazine 57 (November 1787) 1028-30; "Lowth's Writings" Gentleman's Magazine 57 (December 1787) 1123-24; "Account of the Life and Writings of Dr. Robert Lowth" European Magazine 12 (November 1787) 359-65 [portrait]; "Memoirs of William Lowth" Universal Magazine 81 (November 1787) 225-32 [portrait]; "Memoirs of Dr. Lowth" New Lady's Magazine 2 (November 1787) 595-96; "Memoirs of Dr. Robert Lowth" New London Magazine 3 (November 1787) 596-98; Memoirs of the Life and Writings of ... Richard Lowth (1787); "Life of Dr. Robert Lowth" Walker's Hibernian Magazine (January 1788) 34-38; obituary in Annual Register for 1788 (1788) 1-4; Gentleman's Magazine 61 (1791) 981; L. L. "Lowth and Warburton" in Gentleman's Magazine 63 (December 1793) 1078-80; Michael Wodhull on Lowth and Warburton, Gentleman's Magazine 63 (December 1793) 1078-80, 64 (March 1794) 205-06; Bell's Fugitive Poetry (1789-97); Roach's Beauties of the Poets (1794); Robert Southey, Specimens of Later English Poets (1807); "Life of Bishop Lowth" Churchman's Magazine [New Haven] 6 (March-April 1809) 81-83; Alexander Chalmers, General Biographical Dictionary (1812-17); John Nichols, Literary Anecdotes (1812-15) 2:419-22n; Nichols, Illustrations of the Literary History of the XVIII Century (1817-58); Joseph Spence, Anecdotes (1820); Robert Watt, Bibliotheca Britannica (1824); George Barrell Cheever, "Lowth's Hebrew Poetry" North American Review [Boston] 31 (1830) 337-79; The Georgian Era: Memoirs of the most Eminent Persons (1832-34); Mr. Lowth, "Defence of Bishop Lowth" Gentleman's Magazine NS 2 (1834) 143-45; Peter Hall, "Bishop Lowth's Memoirs and Remains" Gentleman's Magazine NS 2 (1834) 254-56; Robert Chambers, Cyclopaedia of English Literature (1844); Allibone, Critical Dictionary of English Literature (1858-71; 1882); Charles J. Abbey, The English Church and its Bishops (1887) 2:211-13; Foster, Alumni Oxon (1887-91); Kirby, Westminster Scholars (1888); Moulton, Library of Literary Criticism (1901-05); Valentine, British Establishment (1970); Butt, OHEL (1979); Michael F. Suarez, ed., Dodsley, Collection of Poems (1997) 1:177-78.
COMMENTARY RECORDS
for Bp. Robert Lowth:
BIOGRAPHY RECORDS
for Bp. Robert Lowth:
AUTHOR AS CRITIC:
(commentary records)
AUTHOR AS CRITIC:
(biography records)
1. | 1780 Rev. Glocester Ridley: Robert Lowth, in John Nichols, Select Collection of Poems with Notes Biographical and Historical (1780-82) 8:74-78. |
2. | 1780 Rev. Joseph Spence: Robert Lowth, in Nichols, Select Collection of Poems with Notes Biographical and Historical (1780-82) 8: 1-6n. |