Tyrwhitt, Thomas

Tyrwhitt, Thomas tĭrˈĭt [key], 1730–86, English scholar. He was noted for his studies of Shakespeare (1766) and for his edition of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales (5 vol., 1775–78). Tyrwhitt revealed in 1777 that the “Rowley Poems” were not actually Middle English poems, but a fabrication by young Thomas Chatterton.

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