Crabbe's first London publication, "The Candidate,” a poetical epistle addressed "To the Authors of the Monthly Review," brought him little fame and no money; the critics treated it coldly, and the publisher failed. His next idea-a prose work entitled "A Plan for the Examination of our Moral and Religious Opinions "-was never published, and the poet's position became very precarious, as the following extract from his diary will show: "It's the vilest thing in the world to have but one coat. My only one has happened with a mischance, and how to manage it is some difficulty. A confounded stove's modish ornament caught its elbow, and rent it half away. Pinioned to the side it came home, and I ran deploring to my loft. In the dilemma, it occurred to me to turn tailor myself; but how to get materials to work with puzzled me. At last I went running down in a hurry, with three or four sheets of paper in my hand, and begged for a needle, etc., to sew them together. This finished my job, and, but that it is somewhat thicker, the elbow is a good one yet." Crabbe applied to Lord North, Lord Thurlow, and Lord Shelburne, without success; and at last, threatened with the debtor's prison, in sheer desperation, wrote the now celebrated letter to Edmund Burke, enclosing with it the manuscripts of "The Library," and "The Village." Crabbe's letter to Burke was the turning point in his career. The statesman read the manuscripts, invited the poet to call upon him, and pleased with his manner, offered him a home in his own house, an offer which the all but homeless poet gladly accepted. Burke introduced Crabbe to Dodsley, the publisher, and, it is thought, took upon himself the risk of publishing "The Library," which appeared in 1781. "The Library" was a complete success, bringing the poet under the notice of Dr. Johnson, Joshua Reynolds, Fox, and other notable men of the time. It consists of a description of literature in its various departments, and contains the following oft-quoted lines descriptive of the poet's regrets at the loss of youthful illusions:— "But lost, for ever lost, to me these joys, Which Reason scatters, and which Time destroys; And all my Knights, blue, green, and yellow, dead; Lord Thurlow, who had taken no notice of Crabbe's appeal before, now invited him to breakfast, and presented him with £100, promising him more substantial help later on. The poet now determined to enter the Church, was ordained deacon December 21st, 1781, and priest in August 1782, when he was also licensed as curate to Mr. Bennett, the Rector of Aldeburgh. After a brief stay in his native town, Crabbe received, through the influence of Burke, the appointment of Chaplain to the Duke of Rutland, and, in November 1782, took up his residence at Belvoir Castle. In the May of 1783, the poet published "The Village;" after submitting it to the judgment of Dr. Johnson, who made a number of suggestions which were carried out, and who pronounced it to be "original, vigorous, and elegant." "The Village" was a thorough success, and, though eclipsed by other works which followed from the same pen, is most important in estimating the part the poet played in the poetic reformation of his time. Crabbe was the first to give the lie to the false ideals of rustic happiness and virtue that pervaded the poetry of his predecessors; the first with iconoclastic hand to destroy the images of rural felicity and peace which had for so long deluded the ignorant and mocked the poor; the first with earnest purpose to sound the note which has since become the keynote of the poetry of the nineteenth century, and which has found expression in the perfected cadence of a later singer: "'Tis first the true and then the beautiful, not first the beautiful and then the true." The poet's purpose is admirably set forth in the following lines quoted from the first edition : "Fled are those times, if e'er such times were seen, On Mincio's banks, in Cæsar's bounteous reign, From truth and nature shall we widely stray, # L "No, cast by Fortune on a frowning coast, As truth will paint it, and as bards will not: Of the part Johnson played as critic to the MS. of "The Village," Boswell gives some account in his life of the stern old moralist; he says:-- -"Soon after this time I had an opportunity of seeing, by means of one of his friends, a proof that his talents, as well as his obliging service to authors, were ready as ever. He had revised 'The Village,' an admirable poem, by the Reverend Mr. Crabbe. Its sentiments as to the false notions of rustic happiness and rustic virtue, were quite congenial with his own; and he had taken the trouble not only to suggest slight corrections and variations, but to furnish some lines, when he thought he could give the writer's meaning better than in the words of the manuscript. I shall give an instance, marking the original by Roman, and Johnson's substitution in Italic characters : "In fairer scenes, where peaceful pleasures spring, ""On Mincio's banks, in Cæsar's bounteous reign, From Truth and Nature shall we widely stray, "Here," says Boswell, "we find Johnson's poetical observe that the aid he gave to this poem, as to 'The Traveller,' and 'Deserted Village' of Goldsmith, were so small as by no means to impair the distinguishing merit of the author." How far Johnson's alterations were improvements may perhaps be open to discussion, for doubtless many will prefer Crabbe's simple lines, mean though they sometimes are, to the sonorous phrases which the critic substituted for them. In the last lines of the foregoing quotation given by Boswell, the poet's meaning seems to be clearer than that of the critic. It is due to Johnson to add that he disclaimed superiority for his alterations, and made them purely by way of suggestion. Crabbe's position as a poet was now secured. "The Village" became popular, and the literary world recognised the advent of a new power. Lord Thurlow presented the poet with the two small livings of Frome St. Quintin, and Evershot in Dorsetshire; and Dr. Moore, the Archbishop of Canterbury, conferred upon him an honorary degree to enable him to accept them. As these appointments did not involve residence, Crabbe continued for a time to live at Belvoir Castle. In the December of this year (1783), after an engagement which had lasted for eleven years the poet married Miss Elmy, the "Mira" of his verse, at Beccles. A year or so later he accepted the curacy of Stathern, about four miles from Belvoir. Here he remained some four years, the happiest years of his life, during which time he produced "The Newspaper" (1785), a clever satire upon newspapers of a certain class. The next twenty-two years were occupied with parochial and domestic duties. Lord Thurlow ap |