MERELY PLAYERS
John Clare – the celebrity bard, the ‘peasant
poet’;’drunkard’; ‘madman’; as famous
in his time as Keats – acquired many loyal
and enthusiastic patrons, among them
Bishop Marsh of Peterborough and his wife.
He sometimes stayed in the medieval palace.
On one occasion, Mrs Marsh took Clare
to see a performance by a touring
theatre company, whose repertoire
comprised French melodramas and Shakespeare’s plays.
The production that night was THE MERCHANT
OF VENICE. Clare sat through the first three acts –
in the box reserved for the Lord Bishop’s wife –
totally engrossed in the words and the actions,
oblivious of Mrs Marsh’s asking him
if he were enjoying the play. At the start
of the fourth act – set in a Venetian court –
he became agitated, and, at the point
where Shylock does not give the ‘gentle answer’
hoped for, Clare stood, shouting, “You villain,
you murderous villain!” – and leaped from the box
onto the stage. A couple of the more burly
actors prevented his reaching Shylock,
and strong armed him, with difficulty,
back into the box. As Mrs Marsh
tried to soothe the distracted poet,
the play was abandoned.
Jeff Teasdale
May 29, 2025Fantastic David… what a cliff-hanger. It nearly happened to me at the recent staging of Hamlet at Aviva Studios/Factory International (a splendid recent Manchester arts venue by the way). Having read the part of Hamlet in our class for Alevel in 1965, and seen it at least five times since, I feel I am an honorary ‘member of the play’! It’s hard to keep quiet in the tense bits!
Alex Cox
May 30, 2025What a great story. When I was an undergraduate, a fellow student, Doug Lucie, wrote a very entertaining play called ‘John Clare’s Mad, Nuncle’ about the poet. I don’t remember if this incident was in it, but it should have been!