OF GEORGE CRABBE

(SELECTED), WITH PREFATORY NOTICE, BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL, BY EDWARD

LAMPLOUGH.

LONDON

WALTER SCOTT, 24 WARWICK LANE

NEW YORK: THOMAS WHITTAKER

TORONTO: W. J. GAGE AND CO.

1888

GEORGE CRABBE.

THE

HE Christmas-eve of 1754 is all but forgotten in the swift flow of time; yet we stand subtly

linked to that dim old winter's day by the power of one poet's life; for on that Christmaseve George Crabbe, the future poet, was born, and therefore we mark it in the register of our memory as a very special Christmas-eve, and one that brought to us a messenger of tidings of worth-a man who saw the poverty of life, its toil and sorrow, and drew strong, vivid pictures of society, and bequeathed them, a true art-legacy, to succeeding generations. His was true art, the art of his own time and age, and it is not, perhaps, too much to say that he who would know what the life of the century was, must perfect his knowledge over the pages of the poet.