n his various
poems were drawn from life, he replied:--"Yes, I will tell you readily
about my ventures, whom I endeavour to paint as nearly as I could, and
_dare_--for in some cases I dared not.... Thus far you are correct:
there is not one of whom I had not in my mind the original, but I was
obliged in most cases to take them from their real situations, and in
one or two instances even to change their sex, and in many, the
circumstances.... Indeed I do not know that I could paint merely from my
own fancy, and there is no cause why I should. Is there not diversity
enough in society?"

CHAPTER VIII

_TALES_

(1812)

Crabbe's new volume--"Tales. By the Rev. George Crabbe, LL.B."--was
published by Mr. Hatchard of Piccadilly in the summer of 1812. It
received a warm welcome from the poet's admirers, and was reviewed, most
appreciatively, by Jeffrey in the _Edinburgh_ for November. The _Tales_
were twenty-one in number, and to each was prefixed a series, often four
or five, of quotations from Shakespeare, illustrating the incidents in
the Tales, or the character there depicted. Crabbe's knowledge of
Shakespeare must have been in those days, when concordances were not,
very remarkable, for he quotes by no means always from the best known
plays, and he was not a frequenter of the theatre. Crabbe had of late
studied human nature in books as well as in life.

As already remarked, the Tales are often built upon events in his own
family, or else occurring within their knowledge. The second in order of
publication, _The Parting Hour_, arose out of an incident in the life of
the poet's own brother, which is thus related in the notes to the
edition of 1834:

"Mr. Crabbe's fourth brother, William, taking to a sea-faring
life, was made prisoner by the Spaniards. He was
carried to Mexico, where he became a silversmith, married,
and prospered, until his increasing riches attracted a charge
of Protestantism; the consequence of which was much persecution.
He at last was obliged to abandon Mexico, his
property, and his family; and was discovered in the year
1803 by an Aldeburgh sailor on the coast of Honduras,
where again he seems to have found some success in business.
This sailor was the only person he had seen for many a year
who could tell him anything about Aldeburgh and his family,
and great was his perplexity when he was informed that his
eldest brother, George, was a clergyman. 'This canno