Thomas Hawkins (literary editor)

Son of John Hawkins of Oxford, he matriculated at Magdalen College, Oxford in 1746, aged 17. He graduated B.A. in 1750, was ordained priest by Thomas Secker in 1752, and graduated M.A. in 1753. He became chaplain of Magdalen College, Oxford in 1754.s:Alumni Oxonienses: the Members of the University of Oxford, 1715-1886/Hawkins, Thomas (1){{cite web|url=http://db.theclergydatabase.org.uk/jsp/persons/DisplayCcePerson.jsp?PersonID=31060|title=CCED: Person Display Hawkins, Thomas}} In his later years, he became involved in the scholarly projects of Sir John Hawkins. According to Davis, while Thomas Hawkins and Sir John were friends, a family relationship has not been traced.{{cite book|author=Bertram Hylton Davis|title=A Proof of Eminence: the life of Sir John Hawkins|year=1972|publisher=Indiana University Press|isbn=978-0-253-34617-9|pages=[https://archive.org/details/proofofeminencel0000davi/page/108 108–9]|url=https://archive.org/details/proofofeminencel0000davi/page/108}}

The new edition of the Hanmer Shakespeare was launched in 1769 by a letter from Thomas Percy to Thomas Warton.{{cite book|author=Bertram Hylton Davis|title=A Proof of Eminence: the life of Sir John Hawkins|year=1972|publisher=Indiana University Press|isbn=978-0-253-34617-9|page=[https://archive.org/details/proofofeminencel0000davi/page/388 388 note 44]|url=https://archive.org/details/proofofeminencel0000davi/page/388}} Thomas Hawkins was brought by the Oxford University Press, and was paid £250 for his editorial work.{{cite book|author=Allardyce Nicoll|title=Interpretation|year=1951|publisher=Cambridge University Press|page=85}} It was supported by Sir John Hawkins, Percy and Warton in expanding Hanmer's original and much-criticised efforts. The glossary was doubled in size, and the commentary clarified. But it still fell short of the contemporary work in annotating Shakespeare, with Samuel Johnson, Edmond Malone and George Steevens.

As part of his research, Thomas Hawkins published in his Origin the attribution of The Spanish Tragedy, an Elizabethan play, to Thomas Kyd. His theory is now part of standard scholarship.{{cite book|author=Jeremy Lopez|title=Constructing the Canon of Early Modern Drama|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_NZGAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA27|date=16 January 2014|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-1-107-72932-2|page=27}} It was a deduction from a mention of "M. Kid" as the author of the play, in Apologie for Actors, a 1612 work of Thomas Heywood. The Origin of the English Drama itself was a collection of the earlier English dramas, in three volumes, published with a dedication to Sir John Hawkins.{{cite book|author=John Rouse Bloxam|author-link=John Rouse Bloxam|title=A register of the presidents, fellows, demies, instructors in grammar and in music, chaplains, clerks, choristers, and other members of Saint Mary Magdalen College in the university of Oxford, from the foundation of the college to the present time|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=C2pLAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA175|year=1857|page=175}}{{cite ODNB|id=15816|first=J. R.|last=Mulryne|title=Kyd, Thomas}}

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• {{cite book|author=Thomas Hawkins|title=The Origin of the English Drama: Illustrated in Its Various Species ... by Specimens from Our Earliest Writers|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=e0M7AAAAcAAJ|year=1773|volume=I|publisher=Printed at the Clarendon Press}}

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Category:1729 births

Category:1772 deaths

Category:18th-century English Anglican priests

Category:Fellows of Magdalen College, Oxford

Category:British literary editors