CRABBE, GEORGE, was born at Aldborough, iu Suffolk, on the 021th of December 1751. Il is parents were in an humble condition of life, the father being a warehouse-keeper, and collector of the salt duties, ur saltmaster, at Aldborough. The future poet showed, at a very early age, a taste for reading, and a delight in everything that bore the shape of poetry; and his father was thus led to give him an education better than he could well afford. It was determined that ho should follow the profession of a surgeon; and having made some progress in mathematics at school, and also, as his son expresses it, "laid the foundations of a fair classical education," be was in his fourteenth year apprenticed to a surgeon at Wickham Brook near Bury St. Edmunds. lie stayed with this surgeon three years, and, not having been well treated, was, iu 1771, transferred to another at Woodbridge in Suffolk, with whom he finished his apprenticeship. llis father had been in the habit of taking in a periodical, coiled ' Martlis'e Philosophical Magazine,' the last sheet of which was always devoted to "oesasiontil poetry ;" and when, at the end of the year, ho sent the magazines to be bound, these sheets of poetry were con tumeliously cut out, and became the property of George. He read them over and over again, and when yet very young tried to writ) pieces of poetry himself. Neither school nor surgery deprived him of the taste formed thus early. While at Wickham Brook he filled a drawer with verses, and at Woodbridge, having written n poem on Hope for a prize offered in Wheble's Lady's Magazine,' and having been successful, he was induced to go on contributing to the publi cation in which he had gained his first laurels, and before his return home published in a separate form, but anonymously, a poem entitled ' Inebriety.' Ho returned home at the close of 1775, and had now for a time to submit to the drudgery of the warehouse, until his father could afford to send him to London in order to complete his medical education. When at last he went, It was with means too scanty to allow of his gaining any real advantage ; and be returned before a year had expired, but not till his resources, though carefully husbanded, had been exhausted. Shortly after, he was encouraged by his friends to act up as n surgeon and apothecary. lie had never, It appears, liked his profession, though, impelled by a sense of duty, he had made more than one effort to apply himself to it with diligence. His pre paration for the duties which he was now liable to ho called upon to perform had been inadequate; and added therefore to dislike of those duties was uneasiness under the responsibility which attached to him. ile was In love, and the object of his attachnrcat (we quote his son's words) "too prudent to marry, where there seemed to be no chance of a competent livelihood ; and he, instead of being in a position to maintain a family, could hardly, by labour which be abhorred, earn daily bread for himself. He was proud too ; and,
though conscious that he had not deserved success in his profession, ho was also conscious of possessing no ordinary abilities, and brooded with deep mortification on his failure." After it short struggle with himself, he resolved to abandon lila profession, and proceed to London as a literary adventurer. Being without money, he wrote to Mr. Dudley North, whose broth. r, Mr. Charles Long, had been a can didnte for Aldborough, requesting the loan of five pounds. " A very extraordinary letter it was," said Mr. North some years afterwards to Crabbe, when they met on terms of equality; "I did not hesitate for a moment." Thus provided with money he embarked on board a sloop at Aldborough, and, working his way, arrived in London in April 1780.
He took lodgings near the Exchange, and set about authorship with vigour. He projected the publication of a prose work, entitled 'A Plan for the Examination of our Moral and Religious Opinions ; but thought it expedient, before publishing this, to make himself known by a poem. Two poems, prepared with this view, were rejected by the booksellers to whom they were offered. He now published, on his own account, a poem entitled The Candidate ; but almost imme diately after it appeared the publisher failed, and all hopes of profit from this attempt were thus taken away. His stock of money mean while had gradually disappeared, and he was reduced to great distress. He bad been advised at Aldborough to apply for assistance to Lord North : he did so, and received none. He then applied to Lord Shelburne and Lord Thurlow, inclosiog some of his poems to both ; but these applications were equally unsuccessful with the former. At last, and not till after he had been threatened with arrest, he bethought himself of Burke. The letter which he addressed to Burke is a beautiful piece of writing, simple, dignified, nod pathetic. "The night after I delivered my letter at his door," he told Mr. Lockhart some years after, " I was in such a state of agitation, that I walked Westminster bridge backwards and forwards until daylight." Burke immediately appointed a time at which he would see Crabbe ; ho received him with great kindness, and encouraged him to -show him all his compositions. Having seleeted the 'Library' and the ' Village,' nod having suggested in them many alterations which Crabbe assented to, he took these poems himself to Mr. Dodsley. The Library' was in consequence published in 1781. But Burke's attention did not stop here. He assisted him with money, and gave him a room at Beaconsfield, where he was treated iu every way as one of the family ; he introduced him to Fox, Sir Joshua Reynolds, Lord Thurlow, and other distinguished friends ; and having advised Crabbe to think of entering the church, towards which he found him by no means disinclined, he exerted all his influence to get him ordained. His conduct towards Crabbe is indeed a brilliant chapter in the history of Burke.