The Cambridge History of English and American Literature in 18 Volumes (1907–21). Volume XI. The Period of the French Revolution. VII. George Crabbe. § 4. The Newspaper. To The Annual Register for 1783, Crabbe contributed an obituary notice of his patron’s brother, Lord Robert Manners, whose death in a sea fight, while in command of The Resolution, he had sung in some fine lines feebly tacked on to the end of The Village; but he did not publish any more poetry for nearly two years. And, then, he did not give the public anything worthy of him. It is difficult to believe that The Newspaper, a satire published March, 1785, was not an early work, written, perhaps, just after Burke had given his approval to The Library which it closely resembles. In fact, after The Village, Crabbe did not publish any important poetry for more than twenty-two years. During most of these years he was writing verse and destroying it; during some of them, no doubt, he was living it rather than writing it, for, on 15 December, 1783, he was married to Sarah Elmy. During the years that followed, Crabbe wrote three prose romances and on his wife’s advice, destroyed them; withdrew, before publication, on the advice of a friend, a projected volume of poems; and worked hard at various branches of science and at reading in several languages.   10