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GEORGE CRABBE (1754-1832)

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Originally appearing in Volume V07, Page 359 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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GEORGE See also:CRABBE (1754-1832)  , See also:English poet, was See also:born at See also:Aldeburgh in See also:Suffolk on the 24th of See also:December 1754 . His See also:family was partly of See also:Norfolk, partly of Suffolk origin, and the name was doubtless originally derived from " crab." His grandfather, See also:Robert See also:Crabbe, was the first of the family to See also:settle at Aldeburgh, where he held the See also:appointment of See also:collector of customs . He died in 1734, leaving one son, See also:George,who practised many occupations, including that of a schoolmaster, in the adjoining See also:village of See also:Orford . Finally the poet's See also:father obtained a small See also:post in the customs of Aldeburgh, married See also:Mary Lodwick, the widow of a publican, and had six See also:children, of whom George was the eldest . The See also:sea has swept away the small cottage that was George Crabbe's birthplace,but one may still visit the See also:quay at Slaughden, some See also:half-mile from the See also:town, where the father worked and the son was at a later date to See also:work with him . At first attending a See also:dame's school in Aldeburgh, when nine or ten years of See also:age he was sent to a boarding-school at See also:Bungay, and at twelve to a school at See also:Stowmarket, where he remained two years . His father dreamt of the medical profession for his See also:clever boy, and so in 1768 he went to Wickham See also:Brook near See also:Newmarket as an See also:apothecary's assistant . In 1771 we find him assisting a surgeon at See also:Woodbridge, and it was while here that he met Sarah Elmy . Crabbe was now only eighteen years of age, but he became " engaged " to this See also:lady in 1772 . It was not until 1783 that the pair were married . The intervening years were made up of painful struggle, in which, however, not only the See also:affection but the See also:purse of his betrothed assisted him . About the See also:time of Crabbe's return from See also:Wood-See also:bridge to Aldeburgh he published at See also:Ipswich his first work, a poem entitled See also:Inebriety (1775) .

He found his father fallen on evil days . There was no See also:

money to assist him to a See also:partnership, and See also:surgery for the moment seemed out of the question . For a few See also:weeks Crabbe worked as a See also:common labourer, See also:rolling See also:butter casks on Slaughden quay . Before the See also:year was out, however, the See also:young See also:man bought on See also:credit " the shattered See also:furniture of an apothecary's See also:shop and the drugs that stocked it." This was at Aldeburgh . A year later Crabbe installed a See also:deputy in the surgery and paid his first visit to See also:London . He lodged in See also:White-See also:chapel, took lessons in midwifery and walked the hospitals . Returning to Aldeburgh after nine months—in 1777—he found his practice gone . Even as a See also:doctor for the poor he was an utter failure, See also:poetry having probably taken too See also:firm a hold upon his mind . At times he suffered See also:hunger, so utterly unable was he to See also:earn a livelihood . After three years of this, in 178o Crabbe paid his second visit to London, enabled thereto by the See also:loan of five pounds from See also:Dudley See also:Lang, a See also:local See also:magnate . This visit to London, which was undertaken by sea on See also:board the " Unity " See also:smack, made for Crabbe a successful career . His poem The See also:Candidate, issued soon after his arrival, helped not at all .

For a time he almost starved, and was only saved, it is clear, by gifts of money from his sweetheart Sarah Elmy . He importuned the See also:

great, and the publishers also . Everywhere he was refused, but at length a See also:letter which reached See also:Edmund See also:Burke in See also:March 1781 led to the careful See also:consideration on the See also:part of that great man of Crabbe's many See also:manuscripts . Burke advised the publication of The Library, which appeared in 1781 . He invited him to See also:Beaconsfield, and made See also:interest in the right quarters to secure Crabbe's entry into the See also:church . He was ordained in December 1781 and was appointed See also:curate to the See also:rector of Aldeburgh . Crabbe was not happy in his new post . The Aldeburgh folk could not reverence as See also:priest a man they had known as a See also:day labourer . Crabbe again appealed to Burke, who persuaded the See also:duke of See also:Rutland to make him his See also:chaplain (1782), and Crabbe took up his See also:residence in Belvoir See also:Castle, accompanying his new See also:patron to London, when See also:Lord See also:Chancellor See also:Thurlow (who told him he was " as like See also:Parson See also:Adams as twelve to the dozen ") gave him the two livings of See also:Frome St Quentin and Evershot in See also:Dorsetshire, See also:worth together about £200 a year . In May 1783 Crabbe's poem The Village was published by See also:Dodsley, and in December of this year he married Sarah Elmy . Crabbe continued his duties as ducal chaplain, being in the See also:main a non-See also:resident priest so far as his Dorsetshire parishes were concerned . In 1785 he published The Newspaper .

Phoenix-squares

Shortly after this he moved with his wife from Belvoir Castle to the parsonage of Stathern, where he took the duties of the non-resident See also:

vicar See also:Thomas Parke, See also:archdeacon of See also:Stamford . Crabbe was at Stathern for four years . In 1789, through the persuasion of the duchess of Rutland (now. a widow, the duke having died in See also:Dublin as lord-See also:lieutenant of See also:Ireland in 1787), Thurlow gave Crabbe the two livings of Muston in See also:Leicestershire and See also:West Allington in See also:Lincolnshire . At Muston parsonage Crabbe resided for twelve years, divided by a See also:long See also:interval . He had been four years at Muston when his wife inherited certain interests in a See also:property of her See also:uncle's that placed her and her See also:husband in See also:possession of See also:Ducking See also:Hall, Parham, Suffolk . Here he took up his residence from 1793 to 1796, leaving curates in See also:charge of his two livings . In 1796 the loss of their son Edmund led the Crabbes to remove from Parham to Great Glemham Hall, Suffolk, where they lived until 18o1 . In that year Crabbe went to live at Rendham, a village in the same neighbourhood . In 18o5 he returned to Muston . In 1807 he See also:broke a silence of more than twenty years by the publication of The See also:Parish See also:Register, in 18ro of The See also:Borough, and in 1812 of Tales in See also:Verse . In 1813 Crabbe's wife died, and in 1814 he was given the living of See also:Trowbridge, See also:Wiltshire, by the duke of Rutland, a son of his See also:early patron, who, it is interesting to recall, wanted the living of Muston for a See also:cousin of Lord See also:Byron . From 1814 to his See also:death in 1832 Crabbe resided at Trowbridge .

These last years were the most prosperous of his See also:

life . He was a See also:constant visitor to London, and in friendship with all the See also:literary celebrities of the time . " Crabbe seemed to grow young again," remarks his biographer, M . Rene Huchon . He certainly carried on a See also:succession of mild flirtations, and one of his parishioners, See also:Charlotte Ridout, wculd have married him . The elderly widower had proposed to her and had been accepted in 1814, but he See also:drew out of the engagement in 1816 . He proposed to yet another friend, See also:Elizabeth See also:Charter, somewhat later . In his visits to London Crabbe was the See also:guest of See also:Samuel See also:Rogers, in St See also:James's See also:Place, and was a frequent visitor to See also:Holland See also:House, where he met his See also:brother poets See also:Moore and See also:Campbell . In 1817 his Tales of the Hall were completed, and See also:John See also:Murray offered £3000 for the See also:copyright, Crabbe's previous See also:works being included . The offer after much negotiation was accepted, but Crabbe's popularity was now on the wane . In 1822 Crabbe went to See also:Edinburgh on a visit to See also:Sir See also:Walter See also:Scott . The See also:adventure, complicated as it was by the visit of George IV. about the same time, is most amusingly described in See also:Lockhart's See also:biography of Scott, although one See also:episode—that of the broken See also:wine-See also:glass—is discredited by Crabbe's biographer, M .

Huchon . Crabbe died at Trowbridge on the 3rd of See also:

February 1832, and" was buried in Trowbridge church, where an ornate See also:monument was placed over his See also:tomb in See also:August 1833 . Never was any poet at the same time so great and continuous a favourite with the critics, and yet so conspicuously allowed to fall into oblivion by the public . All the poets of his earlier and his later years, See also:Cowper, Scott, Byron, See also:Shelley in particular, have been reprinted again and again . With Crabbe it was long quite otherwise . His works were collected into eight volumes, the first containing his life by his son, in 1832 . The edition was intended to continue with some of his See also:prose writings, but the reception of the eight volumes was not sufficiently encouraging . A reprint, however, in one See also:volume was made in 1847, and it has been reproduced since in 1854, 1867 and 1901 . The exhaustion of the copyright, however, did no See also:good for Crabbe's reputation, and it was not until the end of the See also:century that sundry volumes of " selections " from his poems appeared; See also:Edward See also:FitzGerald, of See also:Omar Khayyam fame, always a loyal admirer, made a " Selection," privately printed by See also:Quaritch, in 1879 . A " Selection " by See also:Bernard Holland appeared in 1899, another by C . H . See also:Herford in 1902 and a third by See also:Deane in 1903 .

The See also:

Complete Works were published by the See also:Cambridge University See also:Press in three volumes, edited by A . W . See also:Ward, in 1906 . Crabbe's poems have been praised by many competent pens, by Edward FitzGerald in his Letters, by See also:Cardinal See also:Newman in his Apologia, and by Sir See also:Leslie See also:Stephen in his See also:Hours in a Library, most notably . His verses comforted the last hours of See also:Charles James See also:Fox and of Sir Walter Scott, while Thomas See also:Hardy has acknowledged their See also:influence on the See also:realism of his novels . But his works have ceased to command a wide public interest . He just failed of being the artist in words who is able to make the same See also:appeal in all ages . Yet to-day his poems will well repay perusal . His stories are profoundly poignant and when once read are never forgotten . He is one of the great realists of English fiction, for even considered as a novelist he makes fascinating See also:reading . He is more than this: for there is true poetry in Crabbe, although his most distinctively lyric See also:note was attained when he wrote under the influence of See also:opium, to which he became much addicted in his later years .

End of Article: GEORGE CRABBE (1754-1832)
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