Abstract

The poet George Crabbe (1754-1832) began his medical apprenticeship at the age of fourteen, serving as an apothecary and surgeon at a poorhouse in Aldeburgh. He later pursued specialised training in obstetrics in London, before returning to Aldeburgh to assist a local surgeon and apothecary. While establishing himself as a physician, Crabbe ventured into publishing some of his verses and developed a passion for botany. His fascination with plant anatomy and characteristics enriched his understanding of the medicinal or curative properties of local flora. This awareness of the close connection between botany and medicine is reflected in his poetic references to plants. The numerous species he mentions in The Parish Register and The Borough – ‘Belladonna’ (618), ‘Rhus’ (621), ‘Allium’ (622), ‘Dandelion’ (625), ‘Nightshade’ (XVIII. 293), and ‘Henbane’ (XVIII. 294) – for example, are sources of remedies for ailments such as gastrointestinal disorder and blood clotting.

Crabbe’s poetics of medicinal botany has received little critical interest, and whilst Alfred Ainger perceptively labelled him as a ‘hedge apothecary’ in his biography, the subject has only been partially addressed in an unpublished dissertation by historian and cardiac surgeon, Lawrence Zaroff over two decades ago. Scholars have noted Crabbe’s role as a poet-botanist, but there has rarely been any consideration on how he uses his botanical knowledge for literary and medical purposes, or how his sensitivity to the therapeutic value of plants relates to his poetic theory and practice. This study of Crabbe’s poetic engagement with medicinal plants and herbalism aims to unite his three identities—poet, surgeon, and botanist—by tracing, in his own words, the natural ‘links that bind those various deeds’(II. 5), such that ‘no mysterious void is left’ (II. 6).

Examining how botanical details in Crabbe’s poetry reflect the history of eighteenth-century medical advances in drugs and herbal remedies, this article explores the ways his work harnesses the healing and harmful potential of plants as natural stimulants and anaesthetics. It evaluates how his familiarity with gathering and appropriating common resources native to the habitat for medical purposes lends authenticity to his social critique of the poor and their resourcefulness. Crabbe’s emphasis on the practical rather than pastoral value of the geographical locale manifests in his realist and unsentimental style of writing, as well as his commitment to turning people and landscapes on the margins of social life into subjects of poetic significance. My study advances current understanding of Crabbe’s concept of place and locality, and his reliance on the wealth of nature (decades before the term ‘ecology’ was coined) and the community.