Joseph Ritson

Joseph Ritson (engraving by James Sayers, 1803)

Joseph Ritson (born October 2, 1752 in Stockton-on-Tees , County Durham , † September 23, 1803 in Hoxton , London ) was an English antiquarian and legal scholar. He made a name for himself as a collector of old national songs.

Life

Joseph Ritson was born into a Westmorland family of Yeomen . He studied law primarily with notary Ralph Bradley, who specializes in property transfers, and then worked in the same legal branch when he settled in London in 1775 at the age of 22.

In his spare time, Ritson devoted himself to literature and in 1782 published a harsh criticism of Thomas Warton's work The History of English Poetry, which caused a sensation in literary circles . The tone of the observation was very offensive; Warton was portrayed as a boastful hypocrite who tried to hide his ignorance by lying. On most of the points he examined and criticized, which were often only minor details, Ritson was right, and his corrections were subsequently adopted; but the rough formulation of his criticism caused great annoyance at the time. Just as violently he attacked in 1783 the edition of Shakespeare's works published by Samuel Johnson and George Steevens in 1778 . He next attacked Bishop Percy in the preface to a collection of Ancient Songs (printed 1787, dated 1790, published 1792).

After all, Ritson spared no effort in editing even texts of old English songs, ballads and verse novels with the greatest possible care. His most important achievement is probably his collection of Robin Hood ballads. Sir Walter Scott , who appreciated Ritson's diligence and love of accuracy, was one of the few who got along with him. But when he spoke extremely rude to Scott's wife once in his absence, he received the threat that he would be thrown out the window.

As early as 1796, Ritson was showing signs of a nervous breakdown . On September 10, 1803, he fell into mental illness, barricaded himself in the rooms of Gray's Inn , burned manuscripts and was finally forcibly taken to Hoxton, where he died on September 23, 1783 at the age of almost 51.

Works (selection)

• Select Collection of English Songs , 3 vols., London 1783
• Robin Hood, a Collection of all the Ancient Poems, Songs, and Ballads now extant relating to that celebrated English Outlaw , 2 vols., London 1795
• Bibliographia Poetica: a Catalog of English Poets of the Twelfth, Thirteenth, Fourteenth, Fifteenth, and Sixteenth Centurys, with a Short Account of their Works , London 1802

literature

• Ritson, Joseph , in: Encyclopædia Britannica , 11th Edition, Vol. 23, p. 369.
• Sidney Lee : Ritson, Joseph , in: Dictionary of National Biography , Vol. 48 (1896), pp. 327-331.