George Crabbe

George Crabbe (24 December 1754 - 3 February 1832) was an English poet and naturalist.

Life
Crabbe was born in Aldeburgh, Suffolk, the son of a tax collector, and developed his love of poetry as a child. In 1768, he was apprenticed to a local doctor, who taught him little, and in 1771 he changed masters and moved to Woodbridge. There he met his future wife, Sarah Elmy, who accepted his proposal and had the faith and patience not only to wait for Crabbe but to encourage his verse writing. His first major work, a poem entitled "Inebriety", was self-published in 1775. By this time he had completed his medical training, and had decided to take up writing seriously. In 1780, he went to London, where he had little success, but eventually made an impression on Edmund Burke , who helped him have his poem, The Library , published in 1781. In the meantime, Crabbe's religious nature had made itself felt, and he was ordained a clergyman and became chaplain to the Duke of Rutland at Belvoir Castle in Leicestershire.

The two works for which Crabbe became best known were The Village (1783) and The Borough (1810), both lengthy poems dealing with the way of life he had experienced. In 1783, he also married Sarah. In 1814, he became Rector of Trowbridge in Wiltshire, where he remained. By the time of his death, he was well regarded and a friend of William Wordsworth, Sir Walter Scott and other major literary figures of the time.

Writing
Crabbe's poetry was predominantly in the form of heroic couplets. His poetry has also been described as unsentimental in its depiction of provincial life and society.

He was also an active and notable coleopterist and recorder of beetles, and is credited for taking the first specimen of Calosoma sycophanta L. to be recorded from Suffolk. He published an essay on the Natural History of the Vale of Belvoir in John Nichols's, Bibliotheca Topographia Britannica, VIII, Antiquities in Leicestershire, 1790. It includes a very extensive list of local coleopterans, and references more than 70 species. This text was later reviewed by the renowned entomologist Horace Donisthorpe (Leics. lit. phil. Soc., 4, 1896, 198-200), who concluded that George Crabbe had both a broad knowledge of national species and was well acquainted with contemporary scientific literature, including works by Linnaeus and Fabricius.

Recognition
An ornate monument was placed over his tomb in August 1833. The inscription reads: "SACRED to the memory of THE REVd G. CRABBE L.L.B. / who died on the 3rd of February 1832 in the 78th year of his age / and the 18th year of his services as rector of this parish. / Born in humble life, he made himself what he was; breaking through the obscurity of his birth by the force of his genius; yet he never ceased to feel for the less fortunate; entering, as his works can testify, into the sorrows and wants of the poorest of his parishioners, and so discharging the duties of a pastor and a magistrate as to endear himself to all around him, as a writer he cannot be better described than in the words of a great poet, his contemporary, "tho' nature's sternest painter, yet her best". / This monument was erected by some of his affectionate friends and parishioners."

Lord Byron, an avowed admirer of Crabbe's poetry, called him "Nature's sternest painter, yet the best".

Three of his poems ("Meeting," "Late Wisdom," and "A Marriage Ring") were included in the Oxford Book of English Verse 1250-1900.

Benjamin Britten's opera Peter Grimes is based on The Borough.

Publications

 * Inebriety. Ipswich, UK: C. Punchard, 1775,
 * The Candidate: A political epistle to the editors of the 'Monthly Review. London: H. Payne, 1780.
 * The Library. London: J. Dodsley, 1783.
 * The Village. London: J. Dodsley, 1783.
 * The News-paper. London: J. Dodsley, 1785.
 * Poems. London: J. Hatchard, 1807.
 * The Borough. London: J. Hatchard, 1810.
 * Tales. London: J. Hatchard, 1812.
 * Menston, UK: Scolar Press, 1973.
 * Tales of the Hall. London: John Murray, 1819.
 * Posthumous Tales (published 1834)
 * Posthumous Poems of the Rev. George Crabbe (edited by John Crabbe). Philadelphia: Carey, Lee & Blanchard, 1835.
 * New Poems by George Crabbe (edited by Arthur Pollard). Liverpool, UK: Liverpool University Press, 1960.

Non-fiction

 * A discourse, read in the chapel at Belvoir Castle : after the funeral of His Grace the Duke of Rutland. London: J. Dodsley, 1788.
 * The Life of George Crabbe (introduction by E.M. Forster). London: Oxford University Press, 1932.

Collected editions

 * The Works of the Rev. George Crabbe, LL.B. London: J. Hatchard, 1816.
 * The Works of the Rev. George Crabbe. (5 volumes), London: John Murray, 1823.
 * The Poetical Works of George Crabbe, complete in one volume. Paris: A. & W. Galignani, 1829.
 * The Poetical Works of the Rev. George Crabbe, with his letters and journals, and his life. London: John Murray, 1834. Philadelphia: Carey, Lea & Blanchard, 1835.
 * The Life and Poetical Works of George Crabbe. London: John Murray, 1901.
 * The Poetical Works of George Crabbe (selected by Edward Lamplough). London: Walter Scott / New York: T. Whittaker, 1888.
 * Poems (edited by Adolphus William Ward). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1905-1907.
 * The Poetical Works of George Crabbe (edited by A.J. Carlyle & R.M. Carlyle). London: Humphrey Milford / Oxford University Press, 1932.
 * George Crabbe: An anthology (edited by F.L. Lucas). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1933.
 * A Selection from George Crabbe (edited by William John Lucas). London: Longmans, 1967.
 * A Crabbe Selection (edited by Geoffrey Newbold). London: Macmillan / New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1967.
 * Crabbe (edited by Cecil Day-Lewis). Harmondsworth, UK: Penguin Books, 1973.

Letters and journals

 * Selected Journals and Letters of George Crabbe (edited by Thomas C. Faulkner & Rhonda L. Bair). Oxford, UK: Clarendon Press / London & New York: Oxford University Press, 1985.

Except where noted, bibliographical information courtesy WorldCat.