29 Facts About John Clare

1.

John Clare's work underwent major re-evaluation in the late 20th century; he is often seen as a major 19th-century poet.

2.

John Clare became an agricultural labourer while still a child, but attended school in Glinton church until he was 12.

3.

John Clare enlisted in the militia, tried camp life with Gypsies, and worked in Pickworth, Rutland as a lime burner in 1817.

4.

John Clare had bought a copy of James Thomson's The Seasons and began to write poems and sonnets.

5.

On 16 March 1820 John Clare married Martha Turner, a milkmaid, in the Church of St Peter and St Paul in Great Casterton.

6.

John Clare was constantly torn between the two worlds of literary London and his often illiterate neighbours, between a need to write poetry and a need for money to feed and clothe his children.

7.

John Clare's health began to suffer and he had bouts of depression, which worsened after his sixth child was born in 1830 and as his poetry sold less well.

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8.

John Clare was becoming a burden to Patty and his family, and in July 1837, on the recommendation of his publishing friend, John Taylor, Clare went of his own volition to Dr Matthew Allen's private asylum High Beach near Loughton, in Epping Forest.

9.

John Clare was reported as being "full of many strange delusions".

10.

John Clare believed himself to be a prize fighter and that he had two wives, Patty and Mary.

11.

John Clare dodged services in his youth and dawdled in the fields during the hours of worship, but he derived much help in later years from members of the clergy.

12.

John Clare took credit for Shakespeare's plays, claiming to be him.

13.

In July 1841, John Clare absconded from the asylum in Essex and walked some 80 miles home, believing he was to meet his first love Mary Joyce, to whom he was convinced he was married.

14.

John Clare did not believe her family when they told him she had died accidentally three years earlier in a house fire.

15.

John Clare remained free, mostly at home in Northborough, for the five months following, but eventually Patty called the doctors.

16.

Between Christmas and New Year, 1841, John Clare was committed to Northampton General Lunatic Asylum.

17.

John Clare remained there for the rest of his life under the humane regime of Thomas Octavius Prichard, who encouraged and helped him to write.

18.

John Clare died of a stroke on 20 May 1864 in his 71st year.

19.

John Clare's remains were returned to Helpston for burial in St Botolph's churchyard, where he had expressed a wish to be buried.

20.

John Clare felt that he did not belong with other peasants.

21.

John Clare argued with his editors about how it should be presented to the public.

22.

John Clare grew up in a time of massive changes in town and countryside as the Industrial Revolution swept Europe.

23.

John Clare was the most influential poet, apart from Wordsworth, to prefer an older style.

24.

The largest collection of original John Clare manuscripts is held at Peterborough Museum and Art Gallery, where items are available to view by appointment.

25.

In 2003 the scholar Jonathan Bate published the first major critical biography of John Clare, which helped to keep up the revival in popular and academic interest.

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26.

In 2013 the John Clare Trust received a further grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund to help preserve the building and provide educational activities for youngsters visiting it.

27.

However, at least one of John Clare's poems was set to music in his lifetime, although John Clare arrived in London too late to attend the performance.

28.

John Clare just missed the show, arriving in London for his first visit to the capital a short while after.

29.

John Clare wrote that 'on the night we got into London it was announcd in the Play Bills that a song of mine was to be sung at Covent Garden by Madam Vestris and we was to have gone but it was too late.