Bemerton by the earl of Pembroke. It was the good fortune of Mr. Coxe to have access to rare manuscripts at home, as well as in foreign countries. The Hardwicke, Grantham, Waldegrave, and Poynts collection were laid open to his inspection, as well as the Stanhope, Melcombe, and Egremont papers; from which he collected an uninterrupted narrative of the "Life and Administration of Sir Robert Walpole." In 1802 the "Memoirs of Horatio Walpole" appeared, which may be regarded as a continuation to those of his brother. In the following year Mr. Coxe was elected one of the canons residentiary of the cathedral of Salisbury; and in 1805 appointed archdeacon of Wilts by Bishop Douglas. In the same year he espoused Eleonora, daughter of W. Shairp, Esq., consul-general of Russia. Four years after his marriage the "History of the House of Austria" was published. The only works of importance which remain to be noticed are—"The Historical Memoirs of the Kings of Spain of the House of Bourbon" and "The Memoirs of the Duke of Marlborough." For these, and several other works of humbler ambition, Archdeacon Coxe was admitted to several learned societies in England, the Learned Society of St. Petersburg, and the Royal Society of Sciences at Copenhagen. He expired at Bemerton rectory, at the ripe age of eighty-one. Among the minor works of Mr. Coxe we may notice "The Literary Life and Select Works of Benjamin Stillingfleet," 3 vols.; "The Lives of Handel and Smith;" "A Vindication of the Celts;" an edition of Gay's Fables, with notes; "Sketches of the Lives of Corregio and Parmegiano," &c.—G. H. P.
COYPEL, Noël, a French painter, born in 1628. He studied first under Poucet at Orleans, then under Quillerier. He was employed by Charles Errard on the works of the Louvre. He was received into the academy in 1659. In 1672 he was appointed by the king director of the French Academy at Rome. He returned to Paris after three years' absence, and painted several frescos in the Tuileries. He seems to have aimed at a combination of Poussin and Le Sueur. He died in 1707.—Antoine, his son, was born in 1661. He was a wilfully bad painter. Sent to study at Rome, he preferred Bernini to Raphael! He was much employed, however, in decorating royal palaces, and was made principal painter to the king in 1715. He died in 1722. He executed several etchings in a very finished style.—Noël Nicholas, was another son of Noël Coypel, but by another marriage. In his time he was highly esteemed as a painter, but posterity has not seen fit to endorse that estimation. He was received into the academy, however, at the early age of twenty-eight. He died in 1735.—W. T.
COYSEVOX, Antoine, a French sculptor of Spanish family, born at Lyons in 1640. He was elected a member of the French Academy in 1676. He executed some of the finest Sepulchral monuments in Paris, and several admired statues for the gardens of Marly and Versailles. He died in 1720, chancellor of the academy.—W. T.
CRABBE, George, was born on the 24th December, 1754, at Aldborough in Suffolk, where his father was collector of the salt duties. He was in a great measure self-educated, and at a very early age displayed a taste for reading, and a fondness for poetry. His father observing this "bookish turn," resolved that he should be trained for the medical profession, and he was accordingly, in his fourteenth year, apprenticed to a surgeon, near Bury St. Edmund's. He remained three years in this place, and in 1771 was transferred to another practitioner at Woodbridge in Suffolk, with whom he completed his apprenticeship. Meanwhile he devoted many of his leisure hours to writing poetry, and published anonymously at Ipswich a short piece entitled "Inebriety, a Poem." About 1776 he was sent to London to complete his medical education. He returned in less than a year, and was encouraged by his friends to set up for himself as a surgeon and apothecary in his native place, but meeting with very little success, he resolved, about the close of 1779, to repair to London and apply himself to literature. The first poetical pieces which he offered for publication were rejected, and his first poem that was printed, entitled "The Candidate," yielded him no profit, in consequence of the bankruptcy of the publisher. During the whole of his first year's residence in the metropolis, he experienced nothing but disappointments and repulses. He applied for assistance to Lord North, Lord Shelburne, and Lord Thurlow, but without success. Absolute want stared him in the face, and his landlady threatened him with a gaol. In these critical circumstances the despairing poet wrote a touching and manly appeal to Edmund Burke. The great statesman, though he was at that period (1781) engaged in the hottest turmoils of parliamentary warfare, immediately relieved Crabbe's necessities, and having examined the compositions he had on hand, and selecting the "Library," took the poem himself to Dodsley, and induced that bookseller to publish it on favourable terms. But Burke's kindness did not stop here, he invited Crabbe to Beaconsfield, where he resided for some time, was treated in every way as one of the family, and was introduced to Fox, Reynolds, Thurlow, and other distinguished friends, who took a deep interest in his welfare: By the advice of his patron, the poet resolved to enter the church. He was ordained a deacon in December, 1781, and took priest's orders in the following year. After serving a short time as curate in his native town, through the influence of Burke he obtained the situation of domestic chaplain to the duke of Rutland, and took up his residence at Belvoir castle. Through the unwearied exertions of the same generous friend. Lord Thurlow was induced in 1783 to present Crabbe with two small livings in Dorsetshire, telling him as he did so, that "he was as like Parson Adams as twelve to the dozen." Meanwhile the poem entitled "The Village," the greater part of which was written at Beaconsfield, and revised by Dr. Johnson, was published in 1783, and met with great success; and two years later the "Newspaper" appeared. The poet had for several years cherished a strong and somewhat romantic attachment to a Miss Sarah Elmy, the niece and heiress of a wealthy yeoman at Parham in Suffolk. He married this lady in 1783, and settled quietly down to the regular and faithful discharge of his clerical duties. In 1789 Lord Thurlow was induced by the duchess of Rutland, to exchange Crabbe's Dorsetshire livings for those of Muston and Allington in the vale of Belvoir. For upwards of twenty years he resided successively at Parham, to which his wife had succeeded, at Great Glenham Hall, and at Muston. In 1813 the duke of Rutland gave him the rectory of Trowbridge, Wilts, together with the smaller living of Croxton, near Belvoir, both of which he held to the time of his death.
After an interval of twenty-two years Crabbe again came forward as an author in 1807, when he published the "Parish Register," which was read in manuscript, and highly relished by Fox, who was then on his death-bed. "The Borough" appeared three years after. His last publication, "The Tales of the Hall," was published in 1819, and for these, and the remaining copyright of his previous poems, Mr. Murray gave him £3000. In 1822 he paid a visit to Sir Walter Scott at Edinburgh, of which an interesting account is given in Lockhart's Life of Scott. The latter years of Crabbe's protracted life were spent in quiet and comfort at Trowbridge, where his amiable disposition and faithful discharge of his duties gained him the esteem and affection of his parishioners. He died there after a short illness, 8th Feb., 1832, in his seventy-eighth year, and was buried in the chancel of the church.
Crabbe is entitled to a place in the foremost rank of descriptive poets. The distinguishing characteristics of his poetry are originality, vigour, and truth in description, and especially in the delineation of character. His writings abound in profound and sagacious remarks, which have all the weight and terseness of proverbs, and he exhibits great skill in inculcating the most impressive moral lessons. His graphic powers, however, were frequently wasted on unworthy objects, and his taste was by no means equal to his other qualities. His style is neither pure nor graceful, and is often not only homely and prosaic, but vulgar and clumsy. In spite of these defects, however, it may be safely predicted that Crabbe will permanently retain a high place in the roll of English poets.—(Life of Crabbe, by his son; Lord Jeffrey's Essays, vol. iii.)—J. T.
CRAIG, Adam, a Scotch musician of some eminence at the end of the seventeenth century. He was one of the leading performers at the concert on St. Cecilia's day, in 1695, at Edinburgh. Mr. Tytler, in the Transactions of the Antiquarian Society (vol. i., 1792), says, "Adam Craig was reckoned a good orchestra player on the violin, and teacher of music. I remember him as the second violin to M'Gibbon in the gentleman's concert." He published "A collection of the choicest Scots Tunes, adapted for the harpsichord or spinnet," Edinburgh, 1730. According to Professor Mackie's MS. Obituary, he died in October, 1741.—E. F. R.
CRAIG, Sir James Gibson, Bart., was one of the most
