myself by the collection of these alphabetical hymns from manuscripts in those public libraries of England which possess Coptic material. I have copied 207 in all, of which only about thirty have been printed. It is very difficult to estimate the date of their composition. One manuscript, which contains some of them, dates from the middle of the fifteenth century, and I should imagine that they went on being composed for the next two hundred years. The authors occasionally introduced their names into the last verse of the hymns. I have noticed those of Abraham, Joseph, Jeremias the son of the Hegoumenos or Arch-Priest of a church, Sergius, and a very prolific writer named Nicodemus. It is regrettable that Nicodemus, who is responsible for fifty or sixty hymns, was of little merit as a versifier. The sense of his compositions is bald, and he often repeats himself. Except the names, I know nothing of the authors, their date, or place.

I quote a few stanzas from a hymn* written for the festival of the flight of the Holy Family into Egypt-a commemoration naturally beloved by the Copts:

"He was in Bethlehem, in the cave, He, the deliverer, the king of the ages. Verily He fled before the face of Herod, He, who is Himself the place whither we must flee, Himself the judge. He, the right hand of the Lord, the Word of the Father, endless power from His Father's side. On this day He came to the people of Egypt, and dwelt among them like a man: thus was fulfilled the word

* John Rylands Library, Manchester, Coptic MS. 434 (in Mr. Crum's Catalogue,” f. 49 verso).

of the prophet which he spoke concerning the Master. Mary, the pure, the wringing fleece,* to-day brought the Holy One to Egypt; the idols fell, the devils fled before the face of the true God, the Son of the Father.

Saviour of the world, God, lover of men, have mercy on Thy people and heal all their ills; have mercy upon me, weakling that I am, and show pity upon me in the day of judgment."

Hymns such as this, though supplanted for purposes of private devotion by similar compositions in Arabic, are still in use in church services in Egypt. Two editions of the "Theotokia" have been printed in Cairo within the last five years by Claudius Labib Bey, who is one of the modern Copts most learned in his country's literature. But the number now used is a very small proportion of all that exist.

Here my rapid conspectus of the native literature of Christian Egypt must end. I am fully aware that it is not an exciting subject. It is not merely that I have run through the productions of a thousand years in half-an-hour, but it must be at once admitted that their literary merit is either of the very smallest or else altogether non-existent. I only claim your interest on the ground that the preservation by the Copts of their language and literature (incomplete as that preservation has been) is worthy of sympathy, seeing that it has been carried out in circumstances of great difficulty—a steady pressure, sometimes amounting to serious persecution, to force them to adopt Islam and Arabic; and that these remains, however poor, are actual and living relics of the oldest and most venerable language of the world.

* Gideon's fleece, a constant type of the Virgin.

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GEORGE CRABBE.

BY THE REV. CANON F. J. FOAKES-JACKSON, D.D., F.R.S.L.

[Read May 27th, 1914.]

I HAVE chosen the subject of George Crabbe, the Suffolk poet, partly out of attachment to the county

of my birth, but also because I have certain faint, though undoubted family links in connection with him. In addition to this, his character as a man as well as a poet has a certain attraction to me; and even though there has been a revival of interest in him, comparatively few have studied him, or are acquainted with the facts of his life. Crabbe, however, was singularly fortunate in having a son possessed of many valuable qualities as a biographer, for not only was he affectionate and extraordinarily proud of his father, but at the same time he was blind to his defects neither as a man nor as a writer. And it must be remembered that Crabbe at his death occupied a place in public estimation, together with Scott and Byron; that the latter had described him as Nature's sternest painter and the best, and had written of him, "Crabbe, the first of living poets." A son, therefore, who under such circumstances could refrain from indiscriminating eulogy of a beloved father just dead must be a man to be trusted.

George Crabbe was born in 1754 at Aldeburgh, a somewhat squalid little fishing town on the coast of

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Suffolk, rejoicing, however, in the dignity of a corporation returning two members to Parliament. His father was saltmaster and a sort of general factotum of the borough, a man, to all appearances, of rough manners, not improved by unfortunate circumstances; but not unintelligent and able to recognise that in George he had a son who would repay a good education.* Not that with his narrow means he could do much; but he certainly did his best, and more than could be expected. George was intended for the medical profession; and it may be of interest to hear how a boy was educated to be a doctor in the eighteenth century. Young Crabbe was sent to school at Bungay, where he remained till his eleventh or twelfth year. He was next sent to a Mr. Richard Haddon, at Stowmarket, and showed considerable aptitude for mathematics, in which his father was also proficient. His master, to quote the biography, "though neither a Porson nor a Parr, laid the foundations of a fair classical education also." But he soon had to return home and had to work in the warehouse of Slaughden Quay, piling up butter and cheese, duties which the poor boy-he was but thirteen, and was of a dreamy, meditative temperament-bitterly resented. But his father had not forgotten that George was to be a doctor, and seeing an advertisement, "Apprentice Wanted," he sent him to Wickham Brook, near Bury St. Edmunds. There he was treated as a mere drudge, slept with the ploughboy, worked on the

* One cannot fail to recall Horace's generous acknowledgment of the liberality of his father, "macro pauper agello," in sending him to Rome to be educated. Sat. Ivi, 71.