Joseph Ritson

Joseph Ritson (2 October 1752 - ) was an English literary critic.

Overview
Ritson, born at Stockton-on-Tees, settled in London as a conveyancer, at the same time devoting himself to the study of ancient English poetry. By his diligence as a collector and acuteness as a critic he rendered essential service to the preservation and appreciation of our ancient poetry. His chief works are A Collection of English Songs (1783), Ancient Songs from Henry III to the Revolution (1790), A Collection of Scottish Songs (1794), and A Collection of all the Ancient Poems, etc., relating to Robin Hood (1795). Of a jealous and quarrelsome temper, Ritson was continually in controversy with his fellow-collectors and critics, including Johnson, Warton, and Percy. His acuteness enabled him to detect the Ireland forgeries. He died insane.

Youth
Ritson was born at Stockton-on-Tees, of a Westmorland yeoman family, on the 2nd of October 1752. He was educated for the law.

Career
Ritson settled in London as a conveyancer when 22. He devoted his spare time to literature.

In 1782 he published au attack on Warton's History of English Poetry. The fierce and insulting tone of his Observations, in which Warton was treated as a showy pretender, and charged with cheating and lying to cover his ignorance, made a great sensation in literary circles. In nearly all the small points with which he dealt Ritson was in the right, and his corrections have since been adopted, but the unjustly bitter language of his criticisms roused great anger at the time, much, it would appear, to Ritson's delight.

In 1783 Johnson and Steevens were assailed in the same bitter fashion as Warton for their text of Shakespeare. Bishop Percy was next subjected to a furious onslaught in the preface to a collection of Ancient Songs (printed 1787, dated 1790, published 1792).

The only thing that can be said in extenuation of Ritson's unmatchable acrimony is that he spared no pains himself to ensure accuracy in the texts of old songs, ballads and metrical romances which he edited. His collection of the Robin Hood ballads is perhaps his greatest single achievement.

Scott, who admired Ritson's industry and accuracy in spite of his temper, was almost the only man who could get on with him. On one occasion, when he called in Scott's absence, he spoke so rudely to Mrs Scott that Leyden, who was present, threatened to “thraw his neck” and throw him out of the window.

Spelling was one of his eccentricities, his own name being an example: Ritson is short pronunciation for Richardson. As early as 1796 Ritson showed signs of mental collapse, and on 10 September 1803 he became completely insane, barricaded himself in his chambers at Gray's Inn, made a bonfire of manuscripts, and was finally forcibly removed to Hoxton, where he died on 23 September.