Social life in England, 1750-1850Foakes-Jackson, F. J. (Frederick John)
History
Social life in England, 1750-1850
Foakes-Jackson, F. J. (Frederick John)
England -- Social life and customs -- 18th century; England -- Social life and customs -- 19th century
In 1807 Crabbe appeared once more as a poet with “The Parish Register,”
and from this time his fame was unquestioned. “The Borough” followed
and then “The Tales.” But I need not weary you with dates and details.
A new generation arose to encourage Crabbe. His first poems had been
hailed by Burke, Sir Joshua Reynolds, Johnson, and Fox; his later
by Scott, Byron, Lord Holland, and Rogers. His last days were spent
in comfort and comparative affluence at Trowbridge, to which he had
been appointed by a later Duke of Rutland. In 1817 he was lionised in
London, and in 1822 he paid his famous visit to Edinburgh and found Sir
Walter Scott in the midst of that preposterous pageant in which the
King and Sir William Curtis, Alderman of the City of London, delighted
the Scottish nation by appearing at Holyrood, tremendous in Stewart
tartan, with claymore, philabeg, and other accessories of the garb of
old Gaul. Scott, unwearied by his efforts to organise the King’s visit,
had time to welcome a brother poet, and it will be remembered that so
delighted was he to greet one whose writings had so often occupied
his attention that he sat down on the sacred glass out of which George
IV had deigned to drink, with the natural result.[9] Crabbe lived on
till February, 1832, passing away, full of years and honours, in the
seventy-eighth year of his age.
Crabbe’s works are sufficient to fill seven volumes, and it is not
possible to do more than endeavour to form an estimate of him by
limiting oneself to a few topics. I must content myself with three, and
I fear that even then I cannot do justice to these. Those I propose are:
I. Crabbe as reflecting the manners of his age.
II. As a delineator of character.
III. His place as a poet.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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