Jeremiah Clarke was originally bred to music, and had his education
in the Chapel Royal, under the celebrated Dr. Blow, who seems to
have had a paternal affection for him. Early in life, Clarke was so
unfortunate as to conceive a violent and hopeless passion for a very
beautiful and accomplished lady, of a rank far superior to his own;
and his sufferings, on this account, became so intolerable to him,
that he resolved to put an end to his existence. He was at the house
of a friend, in the country, where he took up this fatal resolution,
and suddenly set off for London. His friend, observing his dejection,
without knowing the cause, furnished him with a horse, and a servant to
attend him.
In his way to town, a fit of despair suddenly seized him, he alighted,
and, giving his horse to the servant, went into an adjoining field, in
the corner of which was a pond, surrounded with trees, which pointed
out to his choice two ways of getting rid of life. Hesitating for some
time, which to take, he at last determined to leave it to chance, and
taking a piece of money out of his pocket, tossed it up in the air to
decide it. The money, however, falling on its edge in the clay, seemed
to forbid both ways of destruction; and it had such an effect upon him,
that he declined it for that time, and, regaining his horse, rode to
town.
His mind, however, was too much disordered to receive comfort, or take
any advantage from the above omen: and, after a few months, worn out in
the utmost dejection of spirits, he shot himself, in his own house, in
St. Paul’s Church-yard.
The late Mr. John Reading, organist of St. Dunstan’s Church, a scholar
of Dr. Blow, and master to the late Mr. Stanley, the well-known blind
organist, who was intimately acquainted with Clarke, happened to be
passing by the door as the pistol went off; and, upon entering the
house, found his friend and fellow-student in the agonies of death.
This unfortunate man was the original composer of that beautiful air,
“’Tis woman that seduces all mankind.”
and many other, _then_, popular pieces; among them was Dryden’s
celebrated Ode on St. Cecilia’s Day, which was afterwards recomposed by
Handel, in 1736.