Henry Crabb Robinson
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Henry Crabb Robinson (1775–1867) was an English lawyer known as a diarist.
Life
Robinson was born in Bury St. Edmunds, England. He was articled to an attorney in Colchester. Between 1800 and 1805 he studied at various places in Germany, meeting men of letters there, including Goethe, Schiller, Johann Gottfried Herder and Christoph Martin Wieland. He then became correspondent for The Times in Altona in 1807. Later on he was sent to Galicia, in Spain, as a war correspondent in the Peninsular War.
On his return to London in 1809, Robinson decided to quit journalism and studied for the Bar, to which he was called in 1813, and became leader of the Eastern Circuit. Fifteen years later he retired, and by virtue of his conversation and qualities, became a leader in society. He was one of the founders of the London University (now University College London)[1] and travelled several times to Italy, as many of his contemporaries did. He died unmarried, aged 91. He was buried in a vault in Highgate Cemetery alongside his friend Edwin Wilkins Field.[2] A bust of Crabb Robinson was made, and a portrait by Edward Armitage.[3]
Works
Robinson's Diary, Reminiscences and Correspondence was published in 1869.[4] It contains reminiscences of central figures of the English romantic movement: including Coleridge, Charles Lamb, William Blake, William Wordsworth, and others. They are documents on the daily lives of London writers, artists, political figures and socialites. In his essay on Blake, Swinburne says, "Of all the records of these his latter years, the most valuable, perhaps, are those furnished by Mr. Crabb Robinson, whose cautious and vivid transcription of Blake's actual speech is worth more than much vague remark, or than any commentary now possible to give."[5]
In 1829 Robinson was made a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries (F.S.A.), and contributed a paper to Archæologia entitled "The Etymology of the Mass".[3]
His diaries were bequeathed to Dr Williams's Library, because Robinson had been a member of the Essex Street Chapel, the first avowedly Unitarian congregation in England.
References
- ^ "The Four Founders of UCL". University College London. Retrieved 22 November 2015.
- ^ Rigg, James McMullen (1897). . In Lee, Sidney (ed.). Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 49. London: Smith, Elder & Co. pp. 173, 174.
- ^ a b Rae, William Fraser (1897). . In Lee, Sidney (ed.). Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 49. London: Smith, Elder & Co.
sources: Diary, Reminiscences, and Correspondence of Henry Crabb Robinson, by Thomas Sadler; Letters of Charles Lamb, ed. Ainger.]
- ^ Cousin 1910, p. 319.
- ^ Symons, Arthur (1907). "Appendix: Extracts from the Diary, Letters, and Reminiscences of Henry Crabb Robinson". William Blake. New York: E. P. Dutton and Company. pp. 331–335.
- Attribution
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Cousin, John William (1910). "Robinson, Henry Crabb". A Short Biographical Dictionary of English Literature. London: J. M. Dent & Sons – via Wikisource.
Further reading
- Edith Morley. The Life and Times of Henry Crabb Robinson. London: J.M. Dent & Sons, 1935.
- Diana Behler: "Henry Crabb Robinson as a Mediator of Lessing and Herder to England". In: Lessing Yearbook 7 (1975), pp. 105–126.
- Diana Behler: "Henry Crabb Robinson: A British Acquaintance of Wieland and his Advocate in England". In: Christoph Martin Wieland. Nordamerikanische Forschungsbeitrage zur 250. Wiederkehr seines Geburtstages 1983. Ed. Hansjörg Schelle. Tübingen, 1984, pp. 539–571.
- Diana Behler: "Henry Crabb Robinson and Weimar". In: A Reassessment of Weimar Classicism. Ed. Gerhart Hoffmeister. Lewiston (NY), 1996, pp. 157–180.
- Elías Durán de Porras: Galicia, The Times y la Guerra de la Indsependencia. Henry Crabb Robinson y la corresponsalía de The Times en A Coruña. Fundación Pedo Barrié de la Maza, 2008.
- Jean-Marie Carré: "Madame de Staël et Henry Crabb Robinson d’après des documents inédits". In: Revue d’histoire littéraire de la France XIX (1912), pp. 539–546.
- D[avid] G[lass] Large: "Mme de Staël et Henry Crabb Robinson: Fiction et Vérité". In: Revue de littérature comparée 8 (1928), pp. 654–671.
- Hertha Marquardt: Henry Crabb Robinson und seine deutschen Freunde. Brücke zwischen England und Deutschland im Zeitalter der Romantik. Nach Briefen, Tagebüchern und anderen Aufzeichnungen unter Mithilfe v. Kurt Schreinert. 2 vols. Göttingen, 1964.
- Stefanie Stockhorst: "Gelehrte Geselligkeit und europäischer Kulturtransfer. Zur Deutung des produktiven Zu-sammentreffens von Henry Crabb Robinson und Mme. de Staël in Weimar". In: Jörg Drews/Gabi Pahnke (eds): „Weimar ist ja unser Athen.“ Mit Seume in Weimar. Vorträge des Colloquiums zu Johann Gottfried Seume in Oßmannstedt, 2007. Bielefeld, 2010, pp. 119–140.
- Stefanie Stockhorst: "Was leistet ein ‚cultural turn‘ in der komparatistischen Imagologie? Henry Crabb Robinson als Vermittler deutscher Dichter- und Gelehrtenkultur nach England". In: arcadia 40.2 (2005), pp. 354–374.
- Stefanie Stockhorst: "Henry Crabb Robinsons doppeltes Deutschlandbild". In: Weimarer Beiträge 51 (2005), pp. 254–269.
- James Vigus: "Zwischen Kantianismus und Schellingianismus: Henry Crabb Robinsons Privatvorlesungen über Philosophie für Madame de Staël 1804 in Weimar". In: Germaine de Staël und ihr erstes deutsches Publikum. Literaturpolitik und Kulturtransfer um 1800. Gerhard R. Kaiser and Olaf Müller (eds). Heidelberg 2008, pp. 357–393.
- Stefanie Stockhorst: Das klassische Weimar aus englischer Sicht: Zum Funktionswandel des Reisens um 1800 am Beispiel von Charles Gore und Henry Crabb Robinson. In: Helmut Peitsch (ed.): Reisen um 1800. Munich 2012 (Kulturwissenschaft(en) als interdisziplinäres Projekt; vol. 5), pp. 31–51.
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