Institution. His lectures were most carefully prepared and clearly written in the old-style ‘round hand’ which Lamb admired, and described as ‘the clear, firm, impossible-to-be-mistaken schoolmaster text-hand.’ The lecturer had a pleasant, cheery, ruddy face, a charming humour of expression, a clear, pleasant voice, and a heartiness and drollness of manner which won the audience as soon as he appeared. His lectures were the results of long and patient study, and full of acute and subtle criticism. He attracted audiences who never entered a theatre, and stimulated the popular interest in the study of Shakespeare. Without attempted dramatic personation, be was as accomplished a reader as Dickens, and especially skillful in bringing out the comic force of Shakespeare and Molière.
Many of Clarke’s lectures were published,and are very readable, even when deprived of the personal charm of delivery. Among these were ‘Shakespeare Characters, chiefly those Subordinate’ (1863), a storehouse of minute and curious criticism; ‘Moliere Characters’ (1865), a popular sketch for English readers; and also a long series of lectures on ‘Shakespeare’s Contrasted Characters,’ one on ‘Shakespeare Numskulls,’ four on the ‘British Poets,’ three on the ‘Poets of the Elizabethan Era,’ three on the ‘Poets of Charles II to Queen Anne,’ four on the ‘Poets of the Guelphic Era,’ three on the ‘Poetry by the Prose Writers,’ four on the ‘ Four Great European Novelists: Boccaccio, Cervantes, Le Sage, and Richardson,' four on ‘Schools of Painting in Italy,’ and others on ‘Ancient Ballads and on ‘Sonnet Writers,’ In 1859 Clarke published a little volume of original poems called ‘Carmina Minima.’ In 1863 he edited the poems of George Herbert, and between that ear and the date of his death saw through the press new editions of nearly all the English poets. He contributed a series of papers on the English comic poets to the ‘Gentleman’s Magazine’ for 1871.
The joint productions of Charles and Mary Cowden Clarke have been remarkable and important, one of the most valuable being the ‘Shakespeare Key: Unlocking the treasures of his Style, elucidating the peculiarities of his Construction, and displaying the beauties of his Expression’ (1879), forming a valuable supplement to the ‘Concordance, as a sort of index to Shakespeare’s works. The editions of Shakespeare’s works, with annotations and story of life (1869), and with glossary and chronological table (1864), were reissued in 1875, and under the title of ‘Cassell’s Illustrated Shakespeare’ in 1886. ‘Recollections of Writers’ 1878) was also a joint work, with many pleasant letters and memoirs of Keats, Leigh Hunt, the Lambs, and other famous men and women. Husband and wife also prepared an illustrated volume, ‘Many Happy turns of the Day; a Birthday Book’ (1847; other eds. 1860 and 1869).
In the autumn of 1856 the Novello family (Mr. Alfred and Miss Sabilla) and Mr. and Mrs. Cowden Clarke retired to Nice, where they remained till 1861, and then removed to Genoa, where, after sixteen years of quiet life, enjoying his garden and his books, Clarke died on 13 March 1877. His grave is in the cemetery of Staglieno, near Genoa, with his own charming lines, ‘Hic jacet,’ inscribed on the stone.
From his youth Clarke had been a great lover of music. In his early days he had a sweet tenor voice, and used to sing Moore’s ‘Irish Melodies’ to his own accompaniment on the pianoforte. Even in later life he would sometimes delight his friends by Canning’s ‘University of Gottingen,’ or some of Hood’s verses, and every year a family chorus sang his own song, ‘Old May Morning.' At the Villa Novello, near Genoa, a ‘Grace,’ in strict canon, and a ‘Thanksgiving’ were daily sung for many years.
[Personal knowledge; Recollections of Writers, by Charles and Mary Cowden Clarke (1878); Athenæum, 24 March 1877; Brit. Mus. Cat.]
CLARKE, Sir CHARLES MANSFIELD (1782–1857), accoucheur, son of John Clarke, surgeon, of Chancery Lane, London, and brother of Dr. John Clarke (1758-1815) [q. v.], was born on 28 May 1782, and was educated at St. Paul’s School (admitted as ‘Charles Clarke,’ 22 June 1790), at St. George’s Hospital, and the Hunterian School of Medicine. After obtaining the College of Surgeons’ diploma and spending two ‘years as assistant surgeon in the army, he a opted midwifery as his speciality in 1804 by his brother’s advice, and took part of his brother’s practice. He also gave lectures on midwifery, in co-operation with his brother, from 1804 to 1821. For many ears he was surgeon to Queen Charlotte’s Lying-in Hospital. He received a Lambeth M.D. in 1827, and was admitted M.A. at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, in 1842. When his brother died Clarke became a leading practitioner in midwifery, and in 1830 was appointed physician to Queen Adelaide, receiving a baronetcy in 1831. He was elected F.R.S. in 1825, an F.R.C.P. in 1836, and became D.C.L. at Oxford in 1845. His only work, of considerable value, was entitled ‘Observations on those Diseases of Females which are attended by Discharges,' London, 1814-21, in two parts, second edition 1831-6;
