THE REV CHARLES CLARK.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 7055, 6 January 1891, Page 4

THE REV CHARLES CLARK.

Another very large audience assembled at the Oddfellowa' Hall last evening to listen to the lecture delivered by the Eev Charles Clark on Thackeray. With a brief allusion to some of the "old masters" of English literature, the lecturer prepared the audience for his delightful talk about one of those "who charm the world by their visions of beauty, and the pursuit of whose works may help the head from crazing and the heart from breaking." He told how the Thackerays were a good old Yorkshire family, and how ono of the novelist's immediate ancestors was headmaster of Harrow school ; of the birth of William Makepeace Thackeray in Calcutta in 1911, hiß education at Charterhouse school and Cambridge ; how he waa launched into the struggling tide of the world, plus a young wife but minus a fortune. The pathetic story of his devoted attachment to that wife, who, though recovering from a fever, remained with clouded brain, formed a vivid picture of the character of the man. The inevitable comparison with Dickens showed the wide difference of the work of the two men ; the work of the author of " Pickwick " appealing at his firßt appearance to all his readers, while Thackeray, though flowering late, by his exquisite bloom and fragrance, made up for his lateness. A masterly summary of the characters of '•' Vanity Fair," touching on the contrast between the schoolgirl, Amelia Sedley, and that supremely clever little woman of ! the world Becky Sharp, gave a deep insight into the genius of the novelist. Mr Clark's recital of the break-up of Eawdon Crawley's household was aptly followed by a scholarly rendering of Byron's " Waterloo." A critical diagnosis of Thackeray's pathos and humour led up to a description of the novelist himself. A shy man, Bix feet four inches in height, a "knight of the rueful countenance," depicting in his work Nature itself, rather than pictures of it. That introduced the audience to the "Book of Snobs," the pungent humour of which is always so delightful. Specimens of 6nobocracy were paraded. Lady Susan Scraper, the host, hostess, and visitors at Major Ponto's party, with the inimitable pianoforte solo " Sich a gittin' up Stairs," as played by Miss Wirt. "The Newcomes," a work which the rev lecturer rightly thinks placed the writer in the front rank of poetic humourists, also passed in review. Ethel was alluded to befittingly as a noble picture, while the death of Colonel Newcome was recited aa only a perfect elocutionist could possibly do it.

To-night the Eev Charles Clark will give his lecture on "Oliver Cromwell."