BEAUTIES OF CRABBE.

BEAUTIES

OF THE

REV. GEORGE CRABBE.

With a Biographical Sketch.

There be who say in these enlighten'd days,
That splendid lies are all the poet's praise;
That strange invention, ever on the wing,
Alone impels the modern bard to sing.

'Tis true that all who rhyme, nay, all who write,
Shrink from that fatal word to genius-trite;
Yet Truth sometimes will lend her noblest fire
And decorate the verse herself inspires:
This fact in Virtue's name let Crabbe attest,
Though nature's sternest painter, yet the best.

BYRON.

LONDON:
PUBLISHED BY EFFINGHAM WILSON,

ROYAL EXCHANGE.

1832.

LONDON:

J. Rickerby, Printer, Sherbourn Lane.

COULEIN

21 SEP1932

LIBRIS

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH.

THE REV. GEORGE CRABBE was born in 1754, at Aldborough, in Suffolk, where his father had an appointment in the customs. He came to London at the age of twenty-four, where he enjoyed the friendship of Burke, by whose recommendation he published one or two of his early poems. He had, during this period, entered himself at Cambridge; and having taken orders, accompanied the duke of Rutland to Ireland as his chaplain, through whose patronage he afterwards obtained some church preferment.

To Burke he submitted a large quantity of miscellaneous compositions, on a variety of subjects, which he was soon taught to appreciate at their proper value; yet such was the feeling and tenderness of his judge, that, in the very act of condemnation, something was found to praise. Mr. Crabbe had the satisfaction of hearing, when the verses