Chapter Clare to Cleveland of C by Biographical Dictionary of English Literature

Clare to Cleveland

Clare, John (1793-1864).—Poet, son of a cripple pauper, was born at Helpstone near Peterborough. His youth is the record of a noble struggle against adverse circumstances. With great difficulty he managed to save one pound, with which he was able to have a prospectus of his first book of poems printed, which led to an acquaintance with Mr. Drury, a bookseller in Stamford, by whose help the poems were published , and brought him £20. The book, Poems descriptive of Rural Life (1820), immediately attracted attention. Various noblemen befriended him and stocked a farm for him. But unfortunately Clare had no turn for practical affairs, and got into difficulties. He, however, continued to produce poetry, and in addition to The Village Minstrel, which had appeared in 1821, published The Shepherd’s Calendar (1827), and Rural Muse (1835). Things, however, went on from bad to worse; his mind gave way, and he died in an asylum. Clare excels in description of rural scenes and the feelings and ideas of humble country life.

Clarendon, Edward Hyde, Earl of (1608-1674).—Lawyer, statesman, and historian, son of a country gentleman of good estate in Wiltshire, was born at Dinton in that county, and educated at Oxford Destined originally for the Church, circumstances led to his being sent to London to study law, which he did under his uncle, Sir Nicholas Hyde, Chief Justice of the King’s Bench. In early life he was the friend of all the leading men of the day. Entering Parliament in 1640 he at first supported popular measures, but, on the outbreak of the Civil War, attached himself to the King, and was the author of many of his state papers. From 1648 until the Restoration Clarendon was engaged in various embassies and as a counsellor of Charles II., who made him in 1658 his Lord Chancellor, an office in which he was confirmed at the Restoration, when he also became Chancellor of the University of Oxford, and was likewise raised to the peerage. His power and influence came to an end, however, in 1667, when he was dismissed from all his offices, was impeached, and had to fly to France. The causes of his fall were partly the miscarriage of the war with Holland, and the sale of Dunkirk, and partly the jealousy of rivals and the intrigues of place hunters, whose claims he had withstood. In his enforced retirement he engaged himself in completing his great historic work, The History of the Rebellion and Civil Wars in England, which he had begun in 1641, and which was not published until 1702-4. Clarendon’s style is easy, flowing, diffuse, and remarkably modern, with an occasional want of clearness owing to his long and involved sentences. His great strength is in character-painting, in which he is almost unrivalled. The History was followed by a supplementary History of the Civil War in Ireland (1721). Clarendon also wrote an autobiography, The Life of Edward Earl of Clarendon (1759), a reply to the Leviathan of Hobbes, and An Essay on the Active and Contemplative Life, in which the superiority of the former is maintained. Clarendon died at Rouen. He was a man of high personal character, and great intellect and sagacity, but lacking in the firmness and energy necessary for the troublous times in which he lived. His daughter Anne married the Duke of York, afterwards James II., a connection which involved him in much trouble and humiliation.

Clarke, Charles Cowden (1787-1877).—w riter on Shakespeare, etc., friend of Keats, and a publisher in London. Latterly he lived in France and Italy. His wife, MARY C.-C. (1809-1898), daughter of V. Novello, musician, compiled a complete Concordance to Shakespeare (1844-45), and wrote The Shakespeare Key (1879) and, with her husband, Recollections of Writers (1878).

Clarke, Marcus (1846-1881).—Novelist, born in London, went to Australia, where he took to journalism. He wrote two novels, Long Odds and For the Term of his Natural Life (1874), the latter dealing in a powerful and realistic manner with transportation and convict labour. He also wrote Lower Bohemia in Melbourne, The Humbug Papers, The Future Australian Race.

Clarke, Samuel (1675-1729).—Divine and metaphysician, born at Norwich, was educated at Cambridge, where he became the friend and disciple of Newton, whose System of the Universe he afterwards defended against Leibnitz. In 1704-5 he delivered the Boyle lectures, The Being and Attributes of God, assuming an intermediate position between orthodoxy and Deism. In 1712 he published views on the doctrine of the Trinity which involved him in trouble, from which he escaped by a somewhat unsatisfactory explanation. He was, however, a powerful opponent of the freethinkers of the time. Clarke also published an edition of the Iliad, a Latin translation of the Optics of Newton, on whose death he was offered the Mastership of the Mint, which, however, he declined.