Graduated at Queen’s College, Oxford (of which he became Fellow), 1738; succeeded to the livings of South Westen and Hampton Poyle, Oxfordshire; became Dean of Raphoe, Ireland, and died there about 1766. In 1734 and 1736 he wrote “Stella, sive Amores, Tres Libri, and Six Pastorals,” none of which he included in his collective edition of his “Poems.” He afterwards published: 1. “Sickness; a Poem,” London, 1745. 2. “Gondibert and Birtha; a Tragedy,” 1751. 3. “Gratitude; a Poem,” Oxford, 1756. See No. 4. 4. “Poems on several Occasions; to which is added Gondibert and Birtha, a Tragedy,” 1758, 2 vols. Of more than ordinary merit. His “Hymn to May,” and his “Nativity,” (in which he is thought to approach Spenser), and his poem on “Sickness,” were once highly valued…. He superintended an edition of Bishop Joseph Hall’s “Virgidemarium,” Oxford, 1753, and left MS. “Notes and Observations on William Browne’s Works,” which appeared in the edition of 1772, London, 3 vols., edited, when published, by T. Davies, the publisher.

Personal

  Concerning William Thompson, we may add to the short notices collected by Mr. Chalmers, that he was educated at Appleby school, under Yates, a man who obtained the appellation of the Northern Busby. Yates would always insist upon his spelling his name without the p, saying, you could thomp, thomp, upon one’s ear with your Thompson. The poet, however, persisted in retaining a letter which serves at least the purpose of distinguishing his written name from that of the author of the Seasons.

General

  Among those who have written in the style of Spenser, I do not hesitate to name Thompson as being one of the most successful. His three poems, the “Epithalamium,” the “Nativity,” and the “Hymn to May,” especially the last two, have many of the qualities which distinguish the captivating poet whose manner he adopted. In his “Hymn to May” he displays such an exuberance of rich imagery, such a felicity of fanciful description, and he pours forth his feelings in so joyous a spirit, and in strains so flowing, that the charms and praises of the delightful season which inspires him, were never sung with more elegance, or more animation. Of the minor poems it is necessary to say little more than that, with a few exceptions, they do not discredit the talent of the writer. The panegyric on Pope is rather overcharged; and it is curious that the poet should have chosen to celebrate Pope in blank verse, and Glover in rhyme.

  William Thompson is a poet almost completely forgotten to-day, but he was one of the best of the Spenserians. Little is known of his life; the dates of his birth and death are uncertain; but he was born in the early part of the century, and died before 1767. He was a careful and enthusiastic student of the old English poets. From early youth he admired Spenser and imitated him in three poems. Although Thompson was really filled with the Romantic spirit, it is worthy of note that he was also extravagantly fond of Pope—another instance of the unconsciousness of English Romanticism. Besides Thompson’s Spenserian imitations, he wrote a number of graceful songs, and his “Ode Brumalis” shows him to have been an intense lover of Shakespere. He might also have been classed among the blank-verse school, for he wrote a long poem in that measure, with the not particularly attractive title of “Sickness.” He wrote in the stanza of the “Fairy Queen” not for his idle amusement, or to exercise his poetic ingenuity, but because his mind was richly stored with the treasures of old English poetry.

  Thompson was a close imitator of Spenser, and marred his work by the needless use of archaic words and phrases. His “Hymn to May,” his “Nativity,” and his poem on “Sickness” were once highly esteemed.