CRABBE, GEORGE An English poet. He was born December 24, 1754, at Aldeburgh, Suffolk, where his father was col lector of salt duties. Crabbe showed early a love for books, with a bias toward poetry. After some schooling, lie was apprentieed first to a village doctor and then to a surgeon. By 1772 lie was contributing verses to Wheble's Maga zine, and two years later he published at Ipswich a moral poem entitled Inebriety. At this time lie was in love with Sarah Elmy, whom he ad dressed in his poems as 'Mira,' and whom lie afterwards married. Continuing his studies in London, he began the practice of medicine in the place of his birth. Disliking a profession in which he was not succeeding, he went to Lon don in 1780 to begin a literary career. In that year appeared a poem called The Candidate, which was received coldly. Much distressed, he called upon Burke, who after reading some of Crabbe's verses took him under his protection, getting Dodsley to publish The Library (1781). Mille staying with Burke at Beaconsfield, he began his best-blown poem, The Village (pub lished 1783). At Burke's suggestion, Crabbe took orders. After a short period as rector of Aldeburgh, he was appointed chaplain to the Duke of Rutland (1782), and thus made BeI voir, Leicestershire. his home. After occupying several other church livings, he was given that of Trowbridge. Wiltshire (1814), where he re mained till his death (February 3, 1832). Be
sides the poems already cited, Crabbe wrote The Newspaper (1785) ; The Parish Register (1807); The Borough (1S10): Tales in Verse (1812) ; and Tales of the Hell (1819). Crabbe was a popular poet in his own time. numbering' friends among the greatest. He was lavishly praised by Dr. Johnson, Scott, Wordsworth, and Byron. Jane Austen, charmed with humor akin to her own, declared that, were she ever to marry. she could fancy herself Mrs. Crabbe. Though his reputation has declined, lie nevertheless occu pies an important place in the progress of English poetry. Crahhe's stern descriptions of English life in old East -Anglia were in marked contrast to Goldsmith's idyllic scenes, and led the way to the realism of Wordsworth. What he lacked was the imagination necessary to give lasting interest to his subject. llis great ex cellence is the directness with which he portrays the tragic life of men and women whom he knew and the scenes in which they lived. Consult: Works, with memoir, by his son G. Crabbe (S vols., London, 1834-35); selections from poems, by Lamplough (London. 1888), and by Holland (London; I899) ; Stephen's essay in Hours in a Library (London. I87t3) ; Courthope's essay in Ward, Ingnixll Poets (London, 1884) ; the Life, by Kebbet (London, 1888) ; and Ainger, Crobbc, in "English Men of Letters" Series (New York. 1902).