1. Introduction George Crabbe,1754 - 1832.

 

George Crabbe - engraving by E. Findon from the portrait by T. Phillips R.A.

George Crabbe became one of the most admired and respected poets of the late Georgian period. Today he is best remembered for that section of his poem The Borough on which Britten’s opera Peter Grimes is based. During his lifetime, however, he was praised by Byron as ‘nature’s sternest painter yet the best'(1) and was so much a favourite of Jane Austen that she jokingly declared her determination to marry him.(2) He came to know many of the eminent writers and artists of the day, including Samuel Johnson, Joshua Reynolds and Walter Scott and was acclaimed by contemporary critics as a major poet.

Crabbe in the Vale of Belvoir.
This account of Crabbe’s life takes as its focus the years from 1782 to 1814 when he was connected to the Vale of Belvoir, first as Chaplain to the Duke (1782 – 1785), then as curate at Stathern (1785 – 1789) and finally as rector of Muston.(1789 – 1814) Editors and biographers tend to concentrate on  Crabbe’s early years in Suffolk and London  and his years of literary celebrity in Trowbridge and pay comparatively little attention to the less eventful Vale years, although these saw the publication of his most successful work. Crabbe has additional importance in this part of Leicestershire, since he wrote or made substantial contributions to that part of Nichols’ famous History and Antiquities of Leicester which describes the Vale.

A Note on Sources
Crabbe’s biographers and editors naturally leave out of publications those sections of his life or letters which are only of limited local interest. There are a few tantalizing hints in the published letters that material exists which might well be of significance to those investigating in the life of this area and the activities of the parish and its parson. Unfortunately Crabbe’s papers are dispersed between over sixty archives in several countries. This account, therefore, relies entirely on published sources. References for these are to be found at the foot of each page.

Bibliography

Crabbe, G. (1834) Life and Poems of the Rev. George Crabbe, London, John Murray.
Faulkner, T.C. ed. Selected Letters and Journals of George Crabbe, Oxford, Clarendon Books.

Ainger, A.(1903) English Men of Letters: Crabbe, London, Macmillan
Bareham, T.(1977) George Crabbe, London, Vision Press.
Bate, Jonathan (2003) John Clare A Biography, London, Picador.
Crabbe, G. (1834) Life of the Rev. George Crabbe, LL.B. by his son, London, (1933) World’s Classics,O.U.P.
Evans, J. H. (1933) The Poems of George Crabbe A Literary and Historical Study, London, The Sheldon Press.
Honeybone, Michael (1989) The Book of Bottesford (Second Edition) Buckingham, Baron.
Huchon, R. (1907) George Crabbe and his Times 1754-1832 A Critical and Biographical Study(New Impression 1968) London, Frank Cass.
Keane, J. (1995) Tom Paine – A Political Life, London, Bloomsbury.
Le Faye, Deidre,ed. (!995) Jane Austen’s Letters, Oxford, O.U.P.
New, P. (1976)  George Crabbe’s Poetry, Macmillan.
Noakes, D. ((1997) Jane Austen A Life, London, Fourth Estate
Pevsner, Nikolaus (1960) The Buildings of England, Leicestershire and Rutland, Harmondsworth, Penguin.
Powell, N. (2004) George Crabbe An English Life 1754-1832, London, Pimlico.
Pryor, F ed. (1995) The Voluntary Insane by George Crabbe, London, Richard Cohen Books.
Thorne,R. (2004) Manners, Charles, fourth duke of Rutland (1754-1787), Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford,Oxford University Press, Sept 2004; online edn, May 2006 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/17950]

References.
(1)Byron, George Gordon, 6th Baron (1809) English Bards and Scotch Reviewers, The Poetical Works of Lord Byron (Eighteenth Edition 1957) London, O.U.P.
(2)Austen, Jane  Letters: Jane Austen to Cassandra Austen 21 October 1813