Robert Lowth (1710–87), born at Winchester, was educated there and at New College, Oxford. In 1741 he became professor of Poetry, in 1750 Archdeacon of Winchester, in 1753 rector of East Woodhay, in 1755 a prebendary of Durham and rector of Sedgefield, in 1765 F.R.S., in 1766 Bishop of St. Davids and of Oxford, and in 1777 of London. He published De Sacra Poesi Hebræorum (1753), a Life of William of Wykeham, and a new translation of Isaiah. He was one of the first to treat the Bible poetry as literature.

Personal

  For myself, on the contrary, it is well if I can acquit myself of the burden of being responsible for the great advantages which I enjoyed. For, my lord, I was educated in the University of Oxford; I enjoyed all the advantages, both public and private, which that famous seat of learning so largely affords. I spent many happy years in that illustrious society, in a well-regulated course of useful discipline and studies, and in the agreeable and improving commerce of gentlemen and scholars; in a society where emulation without envy, ambition without jealousy, contention without animosity, incited industry and awakened genius; where a liberal pursuit of knowledge, and a generous freedom of thought, was raised, encouraged, and put forward by example, by commendation, and by authority. I breathed the same atmosphere that the Hookers, the Chillingworths, and the Lockes had breathed before…. And do you reproach me with my education in this place, and this most respectable body, which I shall always esteem my greatest advantage and my highest honour?

  Lowth is said to have been well and stoutly built, with a florid countenance and animated expression. His conversation was easy and refined, and his manners were courtly. Of a sympathetic disposition, he was more inclined to melancholy than mirth. His temper was hasty but kept under control. His taste was fine, and he was an industrious student. He was an accomplished and elegant scholar, well versed in Hebrew, and with a keen appreciation of the poetic beauty of the Old Testament scriptures. Hebrew was, he believed, the language spoken in Paradise; he studied it critically, and his knowledge of it gained him a European reputation. He wrote both Latin and English verse with some success. In controversy he was a dangerous antagonist, with great power of polished sarcasm which he employed against his opponents personally, as well as against their arguments.

De Sacra Poesi Hebræorum, 1753

  Bishop Lowth prepared the way for a more accurate knowledge of this important part of divine revelation [the Prophetical Books] by his admirable “Prelections,” and by his amended translations of the prophecies of Isaiah.

  It is an elegant and interesting book, though somewhat calculated to lead the mind to admire the poetical beauties of Scripture rather than their spiritual tendency and design. It is not distinguished so much for its philological criticisms as for the felicity of its illustrations…. Lowth was himself a poet, and deeply versant in the poetry of the Hebrews, as well as in the poetical writers of Greece and Rome.

  Before the appearance of his volume, scarcely any thing had been accomplished in the whole wide range of sacred literature which it occupies…. Lowth was fortunate indeed in being the first adventurer to investigate a region so delightful…. He has displayed in the execution of his task much sound judgment and research. All the notes he has selected are of sterling value; and those which are the results of his own investigations exhibit originality and learning.

  If you have not read Bishop Lowth’s “Prælections on Hebrew Poetry,” let me commend its perusal to you. It opened to me, some years ago, quite a new view of the beauties of the prophetical and poetical part of the Old Testament.

  In the year 1753 the Clarendon Press at Oxford brought out, in a splendid quarto with all the honours of typography, the series of Lectures which Lowth had delivered during his ten years’ occupancy of the chair of poetry in that University. It was not the externals only of the volume of which the University was proud. It was no less remarkable for its matter. It was the first sign of the awakening of Oxford from that torpor under which two generations had now lain, under the besotting influence of Jacobite and high-church politics. The Lectures “De Sacra Poesi Hebræorum” seemed to combine the polish of a past generation, long gone, with the learning of a new period to come. The lore of Michaelis was here dressed not in Latin as classical as, and more vigorous than, that of Addison. Kocher has indeed shown that Lowth’s Hebrew skill was not equal to his pretensions; and Parr has pointed out that the professor was capable of writing poterit after ut. Still the effect of the Lectures was great. The Jacobite University had at last produced a work which might vie in solidity with anything that proceeded from Hanoverian Göttingen, and with the finished style of which Göttingen had nothing to compare. The “classic elegance of Lowth” became a standard phrase, and continued to be so till into the present century; and German Hebraists occupied themselves in refuting the temerity of his numerous emendations of the Hebrew text.

  Lowth’s lectures on the Sacred Poetry of the Hebrews (1753) encouraged the study of the Old Testament from the purely literary point of view, and opened up anew all the grandeur and imagery of Hebrew poetry. The critical side of his work helped also in forming true ideas on the nature of poetry. His chapter on “Poetic Imagery from the Objects of Nature” must have been especially suggestive in those days.

General

  A sublime and admirably-executed version [“Isaiah”].

  No former translator [“Isaiah”] has expressed the meaning and spirit of the evangelical prophet so felicitously as Lowth…. Lowth is, perhaps, too partial to conjectural criticism, and the version is too highly wrought for common use; but it is a valuable specimen of sacred criticism, and indispensable to the interpretation of Isaiah.

  The reflections are sparing [“Life of William of Wykeham”] and the style is languid. Even in antiquarian lore there is a dearth of intelligence; but the subject was not suited to the taste, habits, and learning, of Lowth.

  He gave to England the first regular grammar of his native tongue [?]. We are somewhat surprised that Murray’s grammar, which is but an enlarged copy of Lowth’s, should so generally have occupied its place; and that, too, with little acknowledgment to the individual, from whom were derived its plan and most of its materials. Although Lowth’s treatise was written so early as the year 1758, yet we doubt whether there is at the present day a single work of equal excellence in the same compass.

  The writings by which Bishop Lowth is most known are, “A Short Introduction to English Grammar,” for many years a text-book in the schools and colleges in England and in this country; his “Translation of the Prophet Isaiah,” with a large body of valuable notes; and his “Lectures on the Poetry of the Hebrews.” The latter is a work which unites a depth of learning to a discriminating criticism and a refined taste, in a very unusual degree; and while it is of inestimable value to the professed Biblical student, it affords equal pleasure and instruction to the general reader.

  In polished dexterity of argument, tinged, and not more than tinged, with the raillery of one who knows exactly what is due both to himself and his antagonists, this short piece has perhaps never been surpassed in literary warfare. At that period of paper ruffianism, when the courtesies of legitimate warfare were unpractised and unknown, such moderate language, combined with such superiority of demeanour, was wholly new. Even the mere English composition of the “Letter” was an event which opened a new era in writing, and made the public wonder that it could ever have admired the lame sentences and clumsy English of Warburton and his followers.

  Although an excellent critic of poetry, had no creative gift.