CLARK 0N DICKENS.

Evening Star, Issue 11188, 13 March 1900, Page 2

CLARK 0N DICKENS.

The Rev. Charles Clark’s second Dickens lecture, given last night' at the Princess’s Tncatro, was attentively listened to by an audience that included a large .number of ladies. Mr Smytho, the popular manager, has on this visit struck the happy idea of- making special arrangements for the proper, reception and the comfortable seating of ladies who lor various reasons are unprovided with escort, and his invitation to this important section of Hie community is gladly availed of by scores who, if they had to wait on the convenience of brother Tom or Cousin Jack, would be left lamenting the luck of opportunity of hearing the groat lecturer. Another tiling noticeable about last night’s audience was the eager way in which the orator was anticipated in his references .to such familiar clmructers us Szun Weller, Cobbs, and' Paul Dombey—Sam Weller in particular. Many of the hearers evidently knew their Dickens, and were prepared for what the Rev. Charles Clark had to say concerning the characters who were marshalled and described or quoted for the purposes of the lecture, this being manifested in the giggle Dial frequently started at the first mention of some of the humorous relations, as, for instance, Weller’s valentine and the episode of the sausagemaker who got lost in his own machine-. The Dickens readers, however, were the quickest to admit that their own study of the great novelist was not half so nice as the interpretation of the trained scholar; and the few amongst tho audience who either have not road Dickens, or, haring tried to do so, have given him up bet ore they reached the point of appreciation, were charmed and edified and constrained to confess that their judgment had been wrong. The lecture took two paths. On ono- of (hose (he icv. speaker gave his own v >ews .of Dickens personally, of what Dickens meant, and of wjiat Dickens did, and side by side with his own eulogy the Rev. Charles Clark quoted from Carlyle and other critics to show the worth of the great writer and his influence as a teacher. This part of the oration may be described as a great literary treat, Mr Clark’s noble yet simple English being irreproachable and the delivery a lesson in elocution. Possibly, however, it was in the dramatic recitals that the lecturer appeared at his best. His delivery of tho passages'dealing with the passing of Paul Dombey-and with the tale told by Cobbs of the runaway' match between the two children were listened to with the closest interest, and when ho came to the humorous narrations, as for example the wooing of Mr Guppy, the audience laughed very heartily. The lecture lasted an hour and a-half. This evening the Rev. C. Clark lectures again, his subject being ‘The Tower of London—fortress, palace, prison.’