View source for Charles Cowden Clarke

{{Short description|English author (1787–1877)}}
{{distinguish|text=his wife, the English author [[Mary Cowden Clarke]]}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=September 2020}}
{{Use British English|date=May 2012}}
{{Infobox person
|name = Charles Cowden Clarke
|image = Charles Cowden Clarke.jpg
|caption = Portrait of Charles Cowden Clarke, {{circa|1840}}
|birth_name = Charles Cowden Clarke
|birth_date = {{Birth date|1787|12|15|df=y}}
|birth_place = [[Enfield,_London|Enfield]], England
|death_date = {{death date and age|1877|03|13|1787|12|15|df=y}}
|death_place = [[Genoa]], Italy
|occupation = Author
|spouse = {{marriage|[[Mary Cowden Clarke]]|1828}}
}}
'''Charles Cowden Clarke''' (15 December 1787 – 13 March 1877) was an English author who was best known for his books on [[William Shakespeare|Shakespeare]]. He was also known for his compilation of poems as well as his edition of ''[[The Canterbury Tales]]'', which was rendered into prose and widely used.

==Early life and education==
Clarke's father, John Clarke, was a schoolmaster in Clarke's Academy in [[Enfield Town]], among whose pupils was [[John Keats]]. Charles Clarke taught Keats his letters and encouraged his love of poetry. He knew [[Charles Lamb (writer)|Charles]] and [[Mary Lamb]], and afterwards became acquainted with [[Percy Bysshe Shelley|Shelley]], [[James Henry Leigh Hunt|Leigh Hunt]], [[Samuel Taylor Coleridge|Coleridge]], [[William Hazlitt|Hazlitt]], [[Felix Mendelssohn]], [[William Macready]], [[Charles Dickens]],<ref name="DNBCowdenClarke">Timmins, Samuel (1887). "[[wikisource:Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Clarke, Charles Cowden|Clarke, Charles Cowden]]". In ''Dictionary of National Biography''. '''10'''. London. p. 418.</ref> [[Douglas William Jerrold|Douglas Jerrold]], and [[William Godwin]].<ref>{{cite journal|title=MARY COWDEN CLARKE.; Her "Letters to an Enthusiast" in New York Written Fifty Years Ago.|date=7 June 1902|journal=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1902/06/07/archives/mary-cowden-clarke-her-letters-to-an-enthusiast-in-new-york-written.html}}</ref> Clarke became a music publisher in partnership with [[Alfred Novello]], and married in 1828 his partner's sister, [[Mary Cowden Clarke|Mary Victoria]] (1809–1898), the eldest daughter of [[Vincent Novello]], who was to become known for her Concordance to Shakespeare, a work that she began in the year following their marriage.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911|pp=443–444}}

==Career==
Cowden Clarke published many useful books, and edited the text for [[John Nichol (biographer)|John Nichol's]] edition of the British poets.  His most important work consisted of lectures delivered between 1834 and 1856 on Shakespeare and other literary subjects. Some of the more notable series were published, among them being ''Shakespeare's Characters'', chiefly those subordinate (1863), and ''[[Molière]]'s Characters'' (1865). In 1859 he published a volume of original poems, ''Carmina Minima''.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911|p=444}}

In 1832, the cricketer [[John Nyren]] began a collaboration with Clarke, who recorded Nyren's reminiscences of the [[Hambledon Club|Hambledon]] era and published them serially in a periodical called ''The Town''. The following year, the series of articles appeared as ''[[The Cricketers of My Time]]'' as part of an instructional book entitled ''The Young Cricketer's Tutor''. It became a major source for the history and personalities of Georgian cricket and also came to be regarded as the first classic in cricket's now rich literary history.<ref name="M140">Mote, pp. 140–142.</ref><ref name="A39">Altham, p. 39–40.</ref>

For some years after their marriage the Cowden Clarkes lived with the Novellos in London. In 1849 Vincent Novello with his wife moved to [[Nice]], where he was joined by the Cowden Clarkes in 1856. After his death they lived at [[Genoa]] at the "Villa Novello." They collaborated in ''The Shakespeare Key, unlocking the Treasures of his Style ...'' (1879), and in an edition of Shakespeare for Messrs [[Orion Publishing Group|Cassell]], which was issued in weekly parts, and completed in 1868. It was reissued in 1886 as ''Cassell's Illustrated Shakespeare''. Charles Clarke died at [[Genoa]], and his wife survived him until 12 January 1898. Among Mrs. Cowden Clarke's other works may be mentioned ''The Girlhood of Shakespeare's Heroines'' (3 vols., 1850–1852), and a translation of [[Hector Berlioz]]'s ''Treatise upon Modern Instrumentation and Orchestration'' (1856).{{sfn|Chisholm|1911|p=444}}

See ''Recollections of Writers'' (1878), a joint work by the Clarkes containing letters and reminiscences of their many literary friends; and Mary Cowden Clarke's autobiography, ''My Long Life'' (1896). A charming series of letters (1850–1861), addressed by her to an American admirer of her work, Robert Balmanno, was edited by Anne Upton Nettleton as ''Letters to an Enthusiast'' (Chicago, 1902).{{sfn|Chisholm|1911|p=444}}

==Selected works==
*''Tales from Chaucer'' (1833)
*''Adam, the Gardener'' (1834)
*''Carmina Minima'' (1859)
*''"Many Happy Returns of the Day!" A Birth-Day Book'' (co-written, 1860)
*''Shakespeare-Characters, Chiefly Those Subordinate'' (1863)
*''Molière-Characters'' (1865)
*''Recollections of Writers'' (co-written, 1878)
*''The Shakespeare Key'' (co-written, 1879)

==References==
{{reflist}}

===Attribution===
* {{EB1911|wstitle=Clarke, Charles Cowden|volume=6|pages=443–444}}

===Bibliography===
*[[Richard Altick]] (1948) ''The Cowden Clarkes''

==External links==
*{{wikisource author-inline}}
* Archival Material at {{wikidata|qualifier|property|P485|Q24568958|P856|format=\[%q %p\]}} 
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Clarke, Charles Cowden}}
[[Category:1787 births]]
[[Category:1877 deaths]]
[[Category:Cricket writers]]
[[Category:People from Enfield, London]]
[[Category:Shakespearean scholars]]