ENGLISH MEN OF LETTERS CRABBE ENGLISH MEN OF LETTERS CRABBE BY ALFRED AINGER NINETEEN HUNDRED AND THREE PREFATORY NOTE The chief, and almost sole, source of information concerning Crabbe is the Memoir by his son prefixed to the collected edition of his poems in 1834. Comparatively few letters of Crabbe's have been preserved, but a small and interesting series will be found in the "Leadbeater Papers" (1862), consisting of letters addressed to Mary Leadbeater, the daughter of Burke's friend, Richard Shackleton. I am indebted to Mr. John Murray for kindly lending me many manuscript sermons and letters of Crabbe's and a set of commonplace books in which the poet had entered fragments of cancelled poems, botanical memoranda, and other miscellaneous matter. Of especial service to me has been a copy of Crabbe's _Memoir_ by his son with abundant annotations by Edward FitzGerald, whose long intimacy with Crabbe's son and grandson had enabled him to illustrate the text with many anecdotes and comments of interest chiefly derived from those relatives. This volume has been most kindly placed at my disposal by Mr. W. Aldis Wright, FitzGerald's literary executor. Finally, I have once again to thank my old friend the Master of Peterhouse for his careful reading of my proof sheets. A.A. _July 1903_ CONTENTS CHAPTER I EARLY LIFE IN ALDEBURGH CHAPTER II POVERTY IN LONDON CHAPTER III FRIENDSHIP WITH BURKE CHAPTER IV LIFE AT BELVOIR CASTLE CHAPTER V IN SUFFOLK AGAIN CHAPTER VI "THE PARISH REGISTER" CHAPTER VII "THE BOROUGH" CHAPTER VIII "TALES" CHAPTER IX VISITING IN LONDON CHAPTER X "TALES OF THE HALL" CHAPTER XI LAST YEARS AT TROWBRIDGE INDEX CRABBE CHAPTER I EARLY LIFE IN ALDEBURGH (1754-1780) Two eminent English poets who must be reckoned moderns though each produced characteristic verse before the end of the eighteenth century, George Crabbe and William Wordsworth, have shared the common fate of those writers who, possessing a very moderate power of self-criticism, are apparently unable to discriminate between their good work and their bad. Both have suffered, and still suffer, in public estimation from this cause. The average reader of poetry does not care to have to search and select for himself, and is prone summarily to dismiss a writer (especially a poet) on the evidence of his inferior productions. Wordsworth, by far the greater of the two poets, has survived the effects of his first offence, and has grown in popularity and influence for half a century past. Crabbe, for many other reasons that I shall have to trace, has declined in public favour during a yet longer period, and the combined bulk and inequality of his poetry have permanently injured him, even as they injured his younger contemporary.