Dictionary of National Biography, 1912 supplement/Clarke, Henry Butler
CLARKE, HENRY BUTLER (1863–1904), historian of Spain, born on 9 Nov. 1863 at Marchington, Staffordshire, of which parish his father was incumbent, was elder son of Henry Clarke by his wife Helen, daughter of John Leech of Etwall, near Derby. In 1867 his father became rector of Rokeby. Henry was educated successively at a small school at Whorlton, near Rokeby, at a preparatory school at Richmond, Yorkshire, and finally (1879–83), owing to delicate health, at Jean-de-Luz, where he read with the Basque scholar Wentworth Webster [q. v. Suppl. II], and where his father was British chaplain in 1882–3. Spanish history and literature thus came to attract him, and during early visits to Spain he became intimate with many social and political leaders, including Cánovas de Castillo. In 1883 he went for a time to Germany with a pupil. Improved health enabled him to matriculate at Wadham College, Oxford, in October 1885, and although with little or no previous knowledge of Greek, he obtained a good second class in honour moderations in 1887. In 1888 he won the Taylorian scholarship for Spanish. An attack of neurasthenia obliged him to content himself with a pass degree next year. From 1890 to 1892 he was Taylorian teacher of Spanish at Oxford, and in 1894 was elected, after examination in the subjects of the literæ humaniores school, to a Fereday fellowship (open to natives of Staffordshire) at St. John's College. Thenceforth till his death he usually resided for a term every year in college. An annual tour, chiefly on the Continent in company with his father or Oxford friends, extended on one occasion to Syria and in 1900–1 to India. A keen fisherman and a fair shot, he was a collector of ancient brass work, tiles and MSS., became keenly interested in art, and painted very happily in water-colours. But his main interest for the last twenty years of his life was in Spain, her history and literature. In 1891 he built for himself a house at St. Jean-de-Luz, just across the Spanish border, and there the greater part of his time was spent reading and writing on Spanish themes. After completing some smaller studies he resolved to concentrate himself for twenty years on the early history of Spanish civilisation. He acquired a thorough knowledge of Arabic and collected a fine library for the purpose. But in 1904, when ready to set to work seriously, he suffered a severe return of illness, and while he was recruiting at Torquay his brain gave way, and he shot himself on 10 Sept. 1904. He was buried in Torquay cemetery. He was unmarried.
Clarke was author of:
- ‘A Spanish Reader,’ 1891.
- ‘A Spanish Grammar,’ 1892.
- ‘History of Spanish Literature,’ 1893, a valuable critical work.
- ‘The Cid Campeador’ (‘Heroes of the Nations’ series), 1897, an historical study based on an intimate knowledge of the sources, Arabic, Latin and Spanish.
- ‘Modern Spain, 1815–1898,’ a history, published posthumously with a memoir in 1906, which has established itself as by far the best work on the subject.
He also published two interesting papers on Andorra in the (London) ‘Guardian,’ July 1902, a chapter on the Catholic Kings in the ‘Cambridge Modern History’ (vol. i. 1902); and his Lecture on the Spanish Rogue-Story in ‘Taylorian Lectures, Oxford’ (1900). A careful edition of the ‘Spanish Gypsy,’ by the Elizabethan dramatist, Thomas Middleton, is still unpublished.
The greater part of Clarke's fine library was presented by his family to St. John's College and a catalogue of it was printed. A portrait in water-colour by his friend Mrs. Lilburn and Henri de Meurville is in the possession of the writer of this notice. Strikingly handsome, Clarke had remarkable personal charm. His stimulating talk was both humorous and profound.
[Memoir prefixed to his Modern Spain, Cambridge, 1906; Revue Hispanique, 1904, pp. 575–6; private information.]