Abstract

The poet George Crabbe (1754-1832) began his medical apprenticeship at the age of fourteen, serving as apothecary and surgeon at a poorhouse in Aldeburgh in 1775, followed by pursuing a specialised education in obstetrics in London, before returning to Aldeburgh to assist a local surgeon and apothecary. While establishing himself as a physician, Crabbe also ventured into publishingsome of his verses, including his first major work, ‘Inebriety’. Crabbe’s biographers and critics have often overlooked the influence of his early medical training on his poetry and philosophy. Although the ‘coalition of physician and poet’ has been a subject of interest among scholars of the long eighteenth century, as Edmund Blunden notes in his ‘Introduction’ to The Life of George Crabbe, Crabbe was ‘seldom investigated with depth of thought except in the case of John Keats’. Blunden’s observation not only points to the lack of scholarly attention to the connection between Crabbe’s medical knowledge and his poetry, but also anticipates the significance of such a study in advancing our current understanding of Crabbe’s poetic theory and practice.

Attending to the medical and scientific resonances in Crabbe’s works, this book contributes an original reading of Crabbe’s medical poetics by addressing the following questions: [1] In what ways does Crabbe’s medical expertise inform the themes and subjects associated with disease and remedy in his poetry? [2] How do the ultimate aims and achievements of Crabbe’s poetry intersect with those of medicine in providing humanitarian healing? [3] How can we enhance our understanding of Crabbe’s realist and unsentimental style of writing by analysing his use of medical metaphors and references?

This book presents a comprehensive study of Crabbe’s poetics of medicine by examining his assessment of social problems, his understanding of the role of a poet, as well as his views on education and religion. In addressing the connection between literature and medicine in the long eighteenth century, my book achieves three main objectives: [1] To introduce scholars and students of literary studies and related fields to Crabbe’s medical poetics with respect to his key poetic practice, theory, and philosophy. [2] To advance critical understanding of the intellectual and philosophical influence of medical concepts and attitudes in Crabbe’s poetry. [3] To encourage further interdisciplinary research that draws on the perceptive and analytical framework of medicine for the study of poetry and poetics.

Table of Contents

Introduction
I Dissecting Poverty, Old Age, and the Economies of Health
II Surgeon of the Soul
III Indulgence, Addiction, and Intoxication
IV Portraits of Madness      
Coda