history, and saying that he would be in a debtor's prison unless within a week he could pay a debt of 14l. He had vainly applied to all his friends, including Lord Rochford, of whose late brother he had some knowledge. Burke, though a complete stranger, came to the rescue. He read Crabbe's poems, and persuaded Dodsley to publish the ‘Library,’ the whole profits of which were liberally given by Dodsley to the author. Burke took Crabbe to stay with him at Beaconsfield, where the poet worked upon his next publication, the ‘Village.’ Through Burke he also became acquainted with Reynolds and Johnson. Thurlow soon afterwards asked him to breakfast and gave him a bank-note for 100l., while apologising frankly for former neglect.
The success of the ‘Library,’ hastened by Burke's warm advocacy, at once gave Crabbe a position in literature. Burke meanwhile advised him to take orders, as offering the most suitable career, and at the request of Burke, backed by Dudley North and Mr. Charles Long, Bishop Yonge of Norwich admitted Crabbe to deacon's orders 21 Dec. 1781. He was licensed as curate to Mr. Bennet, the rector of Aldeburgh, and took priest's orders the following August. Crabbe was well received in his native town, where his father took pride in his success. His mother had died during his absence. We are told that Crabbe had not altogether escaped some youthful temptations, and was too well known in the Aldeburgh tavern; but his conduct had been habitually pure, and he practised henceforth an exemplary morality.
Burke soon obtained for Crabbe the offer of a chaplaincy to the Duke of Rutland; and he accordingly went to reside at Belvoir in 1782. The duke and duchess, a celebrated beauty, were leaders of society and lived in a style of splendour little congenial to Crabbe's homely manners. They treated him kindly, however; and he finished the ‘Village,’ which Johnson read, applauded, and, after suggesting some trifling corrections, returned with a prophecy of success. It appeared in May 1783, and succeeded as it deserved. Thurlow again asked him to dinner, and, telling him with an oath that ‘he was as like Parson Adams as twelve to a dozen,’ presented him to the small livings of Frome St. Quentin and Evershot in Dorsetshire. The Archbishop of Canterbury gave him the degree of LL.B. to qualify him for the preferment. At the beginning of 1784 the Duke of Rutland went to Ireland as lord-lieutenant. Crabbe preferred to remain at Belvoir, which the duke asked him to consider as a home till something could be found for him. He was now able to marry without imprudence; Miss Elmy became his wife in December 1783; the first child was born at Belvoir; but in 1785 Crabbe took the curacy of Stathern, and settled in the village parsonage. In 1784 he published a brief memoir of Lord Robert Manners, his patron's brother (killed in Rodney's victory, 12 April 1782), in the ‘Annual Register,’ and in 1785 he published the ‘Newspaper.’ Twenty-two years of silence followed.
Crabbe was intellectually active during all this period, and also wrote voluminously. But he had a system (less common than might be wished) of periodical ‘incremations.’ His children helped him at intervals to burn masses of manuscript too vast to be safely consumed in the chimney. Among the destroyed papers was an ‘Essay on Botany,’ so nearly ready that he had already proposed the publication to Dodsley. Davies, vice-master of Trinity College, Cambridge, protested against an English publication upon such a subject, and it was therefore burnt.
The death of the Duke of Rutland in October 1787 deprived Crabbe of a patron; but the duchess persuaded Thurlow to allow of the exchange of the Dorsetshire livings for two better livings near Belvoir. Crabbe thus became rector of Muston and Allington, and settled at the Muston parsonage 25 Feb. 1789. In October 1792 his wife's uncle, Tovell, died, leaving Crabbe as his executor. Tovell's fortune also came ultimately to Crabbe. Upon Tovell's death he removed to Parham, leaving a curate in his own parish and becoming himself curate of Sweffling and Great Glemham. In 1796 he became the tenant of Dudley North at Great Glemham Hall. Here he led a retired life. His frugal habits made him an unpopular successor to the convivial Tovell; he was wanting in political zeal and therefore unjustly suspected of Jacobinism. Domestic troubles strengthened his habits of retirement. Five out of seven children died, and on the death of the last Mrs. Crabbe fell into a nervous disorder, which produced extreme depression, relieved by occasional intervals. Crabbe found consolation in botanical and literary work, three novels being ‘incremated’ at this time as well as the botanical treatise. His health was greatly improved by recourse to opium for digestive weakness. His preaching attracted large congregations. He was a clergyman of the old-fashioned school, a good friend to the poor, for whose benefit he still practised medicine, and a preacher of good homespun morality. But he was indifferent to theological speculations, suspicious of excessive zeal, contemptuous towards ‘enthusiasts,’ and heartily opposed to
