''Affecting picture of Constancy and Love' 'Yes! There are real mourners- I have seen /...' [transcription of 'The Church' from l.170 - 'While visions please her, and while woes destroy']
Unknown
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Groom
??And which of the living poets fulfils your ideal standard of excellence??
?Crabbe. He is all nature without pomp or parade and exhibits at times deep pathos and feelings. His characters are certainly homely and his scenes rather unpoethical; but then he invests his object with so much tenderness and sweetness that you care not who are the actors, or in what situations they are placed.??
Century: 1700-1799 / 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Charles Robert Maturin Print: Book
'There was a lending library in town, but with no education or guidance in English literature, [Edwin Muir] wasted valuable reading time. Then there was opposition from his father, who made him return a study of "the Atheist" David Hume. And when his brother gave him 3d to spend, he was almost insulted to learn that the money had gone to purchase Penny Poets editions of "As You Like It", "The Earthly Paradise" and Matthew Arnold. At home there was nothing to read except [various items mentioned in a previous entry and], "Gulliver's Travels", an R.M. Ballantyne tale about Hudson's Bay...a large volume documenting a theological dispute between a Protestant clergyman and a Catholic priest, a novel that was probably "Sense and Sensibility" ("I could make nothing of it, but this did not keep me from reading it")... "I read a complete series of sentimental love tales very popular at the time, called Sunday Stories", as well as a raft of temperance novels. Consequently, when he stumbled across Christopher Marlowe or George Crabbe in that literary junkyard, "it was like an addition to a secret treasure; for no one knew of my passion, and there was none to whom I could speak of it".'
Century: 1850-1899 / 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Edwin Muir Print: Book
'Miss Edg[e]worth must not be run down because she has like most people misunderstood her own powers--she never can pretend to any thing that is the least [particle?] of Genius she has not one single spark of it which time or opportunity could kindle--but in its place I think she has a very reasoning head much Humour, & great discrimination--she paints like the Dutch school true to the life--I only quarrel with her choice--she introduces us to the society of those who are disagreeable & she delineates characters we regret ever to meet with--like Crabbe she delights in drawing mediocrity vulgarity & meanness--this can never please--in her present production--there is more than an ordinary share of it--& no great humour to make up--no interest to carry us through--I for one cannot finish it but those more persevering will'.
Century: 1700-1799 / 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Lady Caroline Lamb Print: Book
[transcribed in Lady Caroline's hand]: ?From Crabbe
Minutely trace Man?s life; year after year,
Through all his days let all his deeds appear
And then though some may in that life be strange,
Yet there appears no vast nor sudden change:
The links that bind those various deeds are seen,
And no mysterious void is left between [?]
Yet none who saw the rapid current flow,
Could the first instant of that danger know.
[line drawn across 12 recto]
'All things prepar[e]d, on he expected day
Was seen the vessel anchor'd in the bay.
From her would seamen in the evening come,
To take the adventurous Allen from his home [...]'
Unknown
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Lady Caroline Lamb
'No; I have never seen the death of Mrs Crabbe. I have only just been making out from one of his prefaces that he probably was married.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Jane Austen Print: Book
Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 9 July 1836:
'I remember daring to say to Sir Uvedale Price that I could not like Crabbe; and I remember --
how well! his taking the "Library" from the table and reading from it a passage to which he
said his own attention had been directed by [Charles James] Fox, and which I could not choose
but acknowledge to be fine poetry. But [...] I annexed to the acknowledgement a clause -- --
that the passage was not written in Crabbe's usual style. And dear Sir Uvedale [...] admitted
at once that I was right.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Uvedale Price Print: Book
'I think the public taste is not in any danger of relapsing into Arcadian pastorals, but I suspect these Caledonian pastorals to be almost as ideal. Crabbe, with his occasional coarseness and propensity to dwell upong hte disgusting "where there is no need of such vanity," is almost the only one who has dared to be correct, and he has given us some beautiful specimens of "lights" as well as "shadows."...'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Eleanor Anne Porden Print: Book
'Pray do you now and then read modern Biography? I have been highly entertained, & even interested by the Memoirs of Mathews, edited & mostly written by his wife. Well, and another lively amusing book of the same class is the Life of Grimaldi, by Dickens. Both Mathews & Grimaldi, though considered as Buffoons, were full of good feeling, & excellent private characters. I arose from the perusal of each work, with respect & love for both men; and since the publication of Crabb's Memoirs, and Campbell's Life of Mrs Siddons, I have read no Biography I like half so well'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Sarah Harriet Burney Print: Book
'In bed I have been fuming over your assumption that my liking for the poet Crabbe is avowed. I assure you I bought a copy out of my own pocket money before you were weaned. What's more, I have read Peter Grimes I daresay 6 times in 10 years; "But he has no compassion in his grave" - That is where that comes from. There is also a magnificent description of wind among bulrushes which I will show you if you will come here.'
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Virginia Woolf Print: Book
'I have done all my [italics] composition [end italics] of Ld B -, & done Crabbe outright since you left & got up Dryden & Pope - so now I'm all clear & straight before me.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell Print: Book
'I am desired by the Duchess of Rutland to Print a Discourse which I read at Belvoir-Chapel at the Funeral of the late Duke'.
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: George Crabbe Manuscript: Unknown
'Having been upon a tour in Scotland I did not receive your book till my arrival at York & was unwilling to answer your very obliging letter till I had read the Parish register in print. I can assure you that its appearance in this dress has increased my opinion of its beauty & as you have done me very undeservedly the honour of calling me a judge of such matters I will venture to say that it seems to me calculated to advance the reputation of the Author of the Library & the Village which to any one acquainted with those two excellent poems is saying a great deal'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Henry Vassal Fox, Lord Holland Print: Book
'Having been upon a tour in Scotland I did not receive your book till my arrival at York & was unwilling to answer your very obliging letter till I had read the Parish register in print. I can assure you that its appearance in this dress has increased my opinion of its beauty & as you have done me very undeservedly the honour of calling me a judge of such matters I will venture to say that it seems to me calculated to advance the reputation of the Author of the Library & the Village which to any one acquainted with those two excellent poems is saying a great deal'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Henry Vassal Fox, Lord Holland Print: Book
'Having been upon a tour in Scotland I did not receive your book till my arrival at York & was unwilling to answer your very obliging letter till I had read the Parish register in print. I can assure you that its appearance in this dress has increased my opinion of its beauty & as you have done me very undeservedly the honour of calling me a judge of such matters I will venture to say that it seems to me calculated to advance the reputation of the Author of the Library & the Village which to any one acquainted with those two excellent poems is saying a great deal'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Henry Vassal Fox, Lord Holland Print: Book
'[your letter] has gratified a wish of more than twenty years standing. It is I think fully that time since I was for a great part of a very snowy winter the inhabitant of an old house in the country in a course of poetical study so very like that of your very admirably painted young poet that I could hardly help saying "thats me" when I was reading the tale to my family. Among the very few books which fell under my hands was a volume or two of Dodsley's Register one of which contained copious extracts from the "Village" & the "Library" particularly the conclusion of Book I of the former and an extract from the latter beginning with the desription of the old Romancers.
[Scott describes how he memorised these but could not afford to buy the books themselves]
You may therefore guess my sincere delight when I saw your poems at a later period assume the rank in the public estimation which they so well deserve'.
Century: 1700-1799 / 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Walter Scott Print: Book
'[your letter] has gratified a wish of more than twenty years standing. It is I think fully that time since I was for a great part of a very snowy winter the inhabitant of an old house in the country in a course of poetical study so very like that of your very admirably painted young poet that I could hardly help saying "thats me" when I was reading the tale to my family. Among the very few books which fell under my hands was a volume or two of Dodsley's Register one of which contained copious extracts from the "Village" & the "Library" particularly the conclusion of Book I of the former and an extract from the latter beginning with the desription of the old Romancers.
[Scott describes how he memorised these but could not afford to buy the books themselves]
You may therefore guess my sincere delight when I saw your poems at a later period assume the rank in the public estimation which they so well deserve'.
Century: 1700-1799 / 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Walter Scott Print: Book
'[your letter] has gratified a wish of more than twenty years standing. It is I think fully that time since I was for a great part of a very snowy winter the inhabitant of an old house in the country in a course of poetical study so very like that of your very admirably painted young poet that I could hardly help saying "thats me" when I was reading the tale to my family. Among the very few books which fell under my hands was a volume or two of Dodsley's Register one of which contained copious extracts from the "Village" & the "Library" particularly the conclusion of Book I of the former and an extract from the latter beginning with the desription of the old Romancers.
[Scott describes how he memorised these but could not afford to buy the books themselves]
You may therefore guess my sincere delight when I saw your poems at a later period assume the rank in the public estimation which they so well deserve'.
Century: 1700-1799 / 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Walter Scott Print: Book
'My eldest girl begins to read well and enters as well into the humour as into the sentiment of your admirable descriptions of human life'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Sophia Scott Print: Book
'[Crabbe had sent Scott, who already had one, a set of his works - he explained later that he'd intended it for Mrs Scott. Scott responded to the present,] to say the truth the auxiliary copy arrived in good time for my original copy suffers as much by its general popularity among my young people as a popular candidate from the hugs and embraces of his democratical admirers. The cleanness and accuracy of your painting whether natural or moral renders I have often remarked your poetry generally delightful to those whose youth might render them insensible to the other poetical beauties with which they abound. There are a sort of pictures (surely the most valuable were it but for that reason) which strike the uninitiated as much as they do the connoisseur though the last alone can render the reasons for his admiration'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Walter Scott Print: Book
'[Crabbe had sent Scott, who already had one, a set of his works - he explained later that he'd intended it for Mrs Scott. Scott responded to the present,] to say the truth the auxiliary copy arrived in good time for my original copy suffers as much by its general popularity among my young people as a popular candidate from the hugs and embraces of his democratical admirers. The cleanness and accuracy of your painting whether natural or moral renders I have often remarked your poetry generally delightful to those whose youth might render them insensible to the other poetical beauties with which they abound. There are a sort of pictures (surely the most valuable were it but for that reason) which strike the uninitiated as much as they do the connoisseur though the last alone can render the reasons for his admiration'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Walter Scott's children Print: Book
'Our lord of the "cairn & the scaur" waste wilderness and hundred hills for many a league around is the Duke of Buccleuch the head of my clan a kind & benevolent landlord a warm and zealous friend and the husband of a lady comme il y'en a peu. They are both great admirers of Mr Crabbes poetry and would be happy to know him should he ever come to Scotland and venture into the Gothic halls of a Border Chief.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Charles William Montagu Scott and Harriet Katherine Townshend, Duke and Duchess of Buccleuch Print: Book
[Crabbe relates how he had fallen in love with Charlotte Williams and written her various letters, before she revealed she loved another] 'there was all this Time a Friend, who read every Letter & every Verse, for I took every Method that was allowed me, & Strange Creatures are Men & Women! While I was thus attentive to raise some partial feelings in the Mind of the Gipsy who wrote to me, this other who only read what was written, became interested & engaged & at length You must give me Credit strange as it is! She caught my Disease: it did not Signify to her that I was as old as her father! I could write in just that Style which she had fancied to be that of genuine Affection & Truth'. [Crabbe and Charlotte Ridout became engaged, but it was broken off for financial reasons]
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Charlotte Ridout Manuscript: Letter
'my dear father told thee that Goldsmith's would now be the [italics] deserted village [end italics]; perhaps thou dost not remember this compliment, but I remember the ingenuous modesty which disclamed it. He admired the Village, the Library, & the Newspaper exceedingly, & the delight with which he read them to his family could not but be acceptable to the Author, had he known the sound judgment & the exquisite taste which that excellent man possessed.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Richard Shackleton Print: Book
'my dear father told thee that Goldsmith's would now be the [italics] deserted village [end italics]; perhaps thou dost not remember this compliment, but I remember the ingenuous modesty which disclamed it. He admired the Village, the Library, & the Newspaper exceedingly, & the delight with which he read them to his family could not but be acceptable to the Author, had he known the sound judgment & the exquisite taste which that excellent man possessed.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Richard Shackleton Print: Book
'my dear father told thee that Goldsmith's would now be the [italics] deserted village [end italics]; perhaps thou dost not remember this compliment, but I remember the ingenuous modesty which disclamed it. He admired the Village, the Library, & the Newspaper exceedingly, & the delight with which he read them to his family could not but be acceptable to the Author, had he known the sound judgment & the exquisite taste which that excellent man possessed.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Richard Shackleton Print: Book
'A spendid constellation of Poets arose in the literary horizon - I looked around for Crabbe - Why does not he, who shines as brightly as any of these, add his lustre? - I had not long thought thus when, in an Edinburgh Review, I met with reflections similar to my own, which introduced the Parish Register - Oh, it was like the sweet voice of a long-lost friend! - and glad was I to hear that voice again in the Burrough! - still more in the tales, which appear to me excelling all that preceded them - Every work is so much in unison with our own feelings, that a wish [underlined twice] for information [end underlining] concerning them & their author, received into our hearts, is strongly excited'.
[Mary Leabeter later says that wishing to confirm her belief that 'the pictures are drawn from life' motivated her to write]
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Leadbeter Print: Book
'A spendid constellation of Poets arose in the literary horizon - I looked around for Crabbe - Why does not he, who shines as brightly as any of these, add his lustre? - I had not long thought thus when, in an Edinburgh Review, I met with reflections similar to my own, which introduced the Parish Register - Oh, it was like the sweet voice of a long-lost friend! - and glad was I to hear that voice again in the Burrough! - still more in the tales, which appear to me excelling all that preceded them - Every work is so much in unison with our own feelings, that a wish [underlined twice] for information [end underlining] concerning them & their author, received into our hearts, is strongly excited'.
[Mary Leabeter later says that wishing to confirm her belief that 'the pictures are drawn from life' motivated her to write]
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Leadbeter Print: Book
'A spendid constellation of Poets arose in the literary horizon - I looked around for Crabbe - Why does not he, who shines as brightly as any of these, add his lustre? - I had not long thought thus when, in an Edinburgh Review, I met with reflections similar to my own, which introduced the Parish Register - Oh, it was like the sweet voice of a long-lost friend! - and glad was I to hear that voice again in the Burrough! - still more in the tales, which appear to me excelling all that preceded them - Every work is so much in unison with our own feelings, that a wish [underlined twice] for information [end underlining] concerning them & their author, received into our hearts, is strongly excited'.
[Mary Leabeter later says that wishing to confirm her belief that 'the pictures are drawn from life' motivated her to write]
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Leadbeter Print: Book
'I assure you she [Mrs Murray] was a Shield to me on the Night when I read my Verses.' [to Murray and others, prior to agreeing on their publication]
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: George Crabbe Manuscript: Unknown
'I received yours this Morning as I was reading pages 85-113 in the M.S.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: George Crabbe Manuscript: Unknown
'So you have been reading my almost forgotten stories - Lady Barbara and Ellen! I protest to you their origin is lost to me, and I must read them myself before I can apply your remarks.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: George Crabbe Print: Book
'So you have been reading my almost forgotten stories - Lady Barbara and Ellen! I protest to you their origin is lost to me, and I must read them myself before I can apply your remarks.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: George Crabbe Print: Book
'I have not done much with the Sermons you sent me nor after the Bristol Huricanes Would you expect it, still I have not been altogether idle, for vamping old Sermons is to me no unpleasant kind of Employment.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: George Crabbe Manuscript: Unknown
'She comments, with discrimination, on Shakespeare and Ben Jonson, Rousseau and Cervantes, "Tom Jones", "Emma", "A Man of Feeling", Coleridge, Mrs Shelley, and Crabbe'.
Century: 1700-1799 / 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Louisa, Lady Stuart Print: Book
'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 authours, 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 rustick happiness and rustick 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'.
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Johnson Manuscript: Unknown
'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 authours, 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 rustick happiness and rustick 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'.
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: James Boswell Manuscript: Unknown
From the 1806-1840 Commonplace book of an unknown reader. Transcription of '"Crabbe's Paris Register" - Burials', beginning '"True, I'm a sinner", feebly he begins/ "But trust in Mercy to forgive my sins..."'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: anon Print: Book
From the 1806-1840 Commonplace book of an unknown reader. 'Then died lamented in the strength of life 1827 "Called not away, when time had loosed each hold/ On the fond heart, and each desire grew cold; / But when to all that knit us to our kind,/ He felt fast-bound, as Charity can bind..." Crabbe.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: C.M.G. [anon] Print: Book
