CRABBE, GEORGE, a late English popular poet, was b. at Aldborough, in Suffolk, on the 24th Dec., 1754. His father was a warehouse keeper, and collector of the salt-duties at Aldborough, and exerted himself to secure for his son a superior education. C. early exhibited a passion for all kinds of book-learning, with a decided bias towards poetry. After being tolerably grounded at school in mathematics and classics, lie was, in his 14th year, apprenticed to a surgeon at Wickham Brook, near Bury St. Edmunds; but he had no liking for the profession, and ultimately proceeded to London, where he arrived in 1780, with £3 in his pocket, to make a trial of literature. For a while lie was very unfortunate. At last when threatened with arrest for debt, he resolved to make his case known to Burke. He told Mr. Lockhart, years after, "the night after I delivered the letter at the door, I was in such a state of agitation that I walked West minster bridge backwards and forwards until daylight." The great orator at onco appointed an interview, looked over C.'s poetical compositions, suggested several altera tions which were adopted, and finally took The Ltbarry and The Village to Mr. Dodsley, by whom the first-named poem was published in 1781. C. went to reside at Beacons field with his generous and brilliant acquaintance, and while there met Fox, sir Joshua Reynolds, and lord Thurlow; the last of these invited the new celebrity to breakfast, and presented him with a bank-note for £100 at parting.
By the advice of Burke C. entered into holy orders, and was ordained curate of his native place in 1782. Shortly after, he was appointed domestic chaplain to the duke of Rutland, and took up his residence at Belvoir castle. The Village appeared in 1783, and established the reputation of its author. Shortly after lord Thurlow presented him
with two small livings in Dorsetshire; and now, finding himself above all fear of want, he married Miss SaraliElmy, and entered into the enjoyment of the purest domestic happi ness. In 1785, he left the castle, and took up his residence in the parsonage of Strathern. thereafter for many years he botanized, studied geology, wrote poems, saw—in hurried visits to London—the distinguished men of his time, and was courted by them, enjoy ing an uninterrupted course/of happiness and honor.
The Newspaper appeared in 1785; in 1807, C. published The Parish Register; in 1810, The Borough; two years after lie produced his Tales in Verse; and in 1819, he gave to the world his Tales of the Hall. In 1813 his wife died, and shortly after he procured the living of Trowbridge, where for the remainder of his life he resided. In the autumn of 1822, lie visited Edinburgh, and was the guest of sir Walter Scott. His health began to fail in 1828; he died on the 3d of Feb., 1832, aged 78.
C. disdained all the luxuries of his art. He has no heroes with a Hyperion' front, and no heroines radiant as Aurora. He worked with the cielf, not with the porcelain of human clay. He concerns himself with wild smugglers, denizens of villages by the sea, full of ancient and fish-like smells; gypsies on the heath cooking the fowl pur loined from the neighboring barnyard; with tramps, vagabonds, and vagrants, and the inmates of the workhouse. On his page these unsavory individuals live, carouse, curse, brawl, and die. He has pages stern as anything in The Inferno; many droll as Hogarth's pictures; and one or two so sweet, and tender, and pathetic, that no man possessed of any sensibility can read them unmoved.