Fame waned & left me like a fallen star
Because I told the evil what they are
Better than an almanac?
"This curiosity often made him forget the corns which he was constantly troubled with & which he considered better than an almanack to tell the changes of the weather"
Pet MS A45 R14
In 'The Vicar's Sermon' from Clare's aborted novel "Memoirs of Uncle Barnaby" (Arbour Editions, 2017)
Avarice...
Image "Ignorance is bliss" by George Cruikshank
"Avarice is never without cunning & that cunning that is never at a loss to invent a plausibility for every trick she causes to make trumps so that she can pocket the money"
Pet MS A53 p17r
Our rulers...
A timely warning..."To live by one mans will would be the cause of many mens misery"
Pet MS A45 p38
"Mount such on horseback & theyll ride to hell"
(The Parish, line 1295)
Slavery...
Clare wrote this passage as part of his novel "Memoirs of Uncle Barnaby" in the mid-1820s. The Slave-Trade was of course, abolished in 1807, but it was 1833 when slavery itself was abolished in the UK and Colonies. Clare, of course, was ahead of his time. Written, as is always our practice, exactly as Clare wrote in his manuscript.
"Talk
not of distinction – look at the poor affrican does the color of his skin forbid us to treat
him with mercy is his complextion the
liscence for our inhumanity – is it a discontinuance of that link that enacts
us to be humane to our fellow creatures in what ever grade or station we find
them is color & complextion any
insult to our feelings no"
"Memoirs of Uncle Barnaby" is planned to be published in the Spring of 2017 by Arbour Editions
Politics...
A message from Clare for politicians of all colour... image, Cruikshank's 'Freeborn Englishman'
"Tyranny may make obedient slaves but liberty & kindness only make willing subjects"
Pet MS A45 p9
The joys of song...
from "I feel the rapture..."
Hidden Treasures (2016)
Happiness...
"As we grow into life we leave our better life behind us like the image of a beauty seen in a looking glass happiness only disseminates happiness while she is present & when she is gone we retain no impression of her enjoyments but a blank of cold imaginings & real dissapointments unless we are determined to shape our conduct by her approval & then she is ever with us [no]t her picture but her perfection not in shadow but reality -- read this over & profit by it"
The picture is a little known portrait of Clare from 1855.
Life...
Pet MS A18 p274
Of poetry... and childhood"
Pet MS A49 p1
Poacher's song
Pet MS B4 p80R
I do not think this poem - a song of four verses each with eight lines - has ever been published, but still lots of work to do on it. Transcribed by Bridget & Roger on the 9th September 2016.
Sabbath Bells
Upon a sabbath day"
'Sabbath Bells', lines 11-12
MP III 573
[Image: Glinton Church at dusk]
Hiding from the rain....
from "Though still at first"
'Hidden Treasures' (2016)
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