Poetic and Wisdom Literature of the Old Testament
REL 310
Crabbe
George Crabbe (1754-1832) wrote "The Elder Brother's Tale" as one of the "Tales of the Hall", hoping to write poetry which would be as famous as Chaucer's "Canterbury Tales"
It tells a tragic tale of a man who falls in love with a girl, loses her, and meets her again when she is the kept woman of a rich lawyer (Clutterbuck). Later in the poem she dies, and the man retires to live alone in the family Hall in the country.
His meeting with his lost love is introduced by the following lines :
Something one day occurred about a bill
That was not drawn with true mercantile skill,
And I was asked and authorised to go
To seek the firm of Clutterbuck and Co.
Their hour was past - but when I urg'd the case,
There was a youth who named a second place,
Where, on occasions of important kind,
I might the man of occupation find,
In his retirement, where he found repose
From the vexations that in Business rose.
The house was good, but not so good and clean
As I had houses of retirement seen,
Yet men, I knew, of meditation deep,
Love not their maidens should their studies sweep.
His room I saw, and must acknowledge, there
Were not the signs of cleanliness or care:
A female servant, void of female grace,
Loose in attire, proceeded to the place;
She stared intrusive on my slender frame,
And boldly ask'd my business and my name.
I gave them both; and, left to be amused,
Well as I might, the parlour I perused . . .
There were strange sights and scents about the room,
Of food high-season'd, and of strong perfume; . . .
A large mirror, with once-gilded frame,
Reflected prints that I forbear to name -
Such as a youth might purchase - but, of truth,
Not a sedate or sober-minded youth.
The chairs in haste seem'd whirl'd about the room,
As when the sons of riot hurry home
And leave the troubled place to solitude and gloom.
Copyright © 1999 Shirley J. Rollinson, all Rights Reserved
