Walter Whiter

Who was Walter Whiter?

The Reverend Walter Whiter was an English philologist and literary critic who is known for his 1794 work A Specimen of a Commentary on Shakspeare. Specimen, which explored As You Like It in terms of John Locke's philosophy of associationism, is believed to have been the first work of literary criticism to use scientific psychology.

In addition to his literary criticism, Whiter published his etymological research, first as Etymologicon Magnum in 1800, then as Etymologicon Universale in 1822 and 1825; August Baron Merian, a correspondent of Samuel Butler, stated that he "pit" Whiter, and described him as " great etymologist—perhaps the greatest that ever lived. A genius certainly; but it seems, like most eminent artists, dissolute."

Whiter's linguistic studies—in particular, his research into the language used by Gypsies—led him to be cited as a role model by George Borrow, to the extent that Whiter appears in Borrow's Lavengro as "Reverend Whiter the philologist". The book includes a song about his character, which goes as follows:

Give me the haunch of a buck to eat

And to drink Madeira old;