"THE RURAL MUSE"
In 1832 Clare projected a new volume of poems, and with the
assistance of his friends obtained in a few months two hundred
subscribers. Mr. Taylor having represented that as publisher to the
London University poetry was no longer in his line of business, Mr.
Emmerson undertook the task of finding another publisher, and opened
a correspondence with Mr. How, a gentleman connected with the house
of Whittaker & Co. A large number of manuscript poems and of fugitive
pieces from the annuals were submitted to Mr. How, who was requested
by Mr. Emmerson to make the poet an offer. The negotiation was
successful, for on the 8th of March, 1834, Mr. Emmerson was enabled
to write to Clare as follows:--
"My very dear Clare,--
At length with great pleasure, although after great anxiety and
trouble, I have brought your affair with Mr. How to a conclusion. I
have enclosed a receipt for your signature, and if you will write
your name at the bottom of it and return it enclosed in a letter to
me, I shall have the L40 in ready money for you immediately. You will
perceive by the receipt that I have sold only the copyright of the
first edition, and that Mr. How stipulates shall consist of only 750
copies, or at the utmost 1000. And now, with the license of a friend,
I am about to talk to you about your affairs. This money has been
hardly earned by your mental labour, and with difficulty obtained by
me for you, only by great perseverance. We are therefore most anxious
it should be the means of freeing you from all debt or incumbrance,
in order that your mind may be once more at ease, and that you may
revel with your muse at will, regardless of all hauntings save hers,
and when she troubles you can pay her off in her own coin. The sum
you stated some time since I think was L35 as sufficient to clear all
your debts, and thus you will be able to start fairly with the world
again."
While the "Rural Muse" was in the press, Mr. How, one of the very few
of Clare's earlier friends who are still living, suggested to him the
advisableness of his applying to the committee of the Literary Fund
for a grant, and promising to exert himself to the utmost to secure
the success of the application. Clare applied for L50, and obtained
it, whereupon Mrs. Emmerson, to whose heart there was no readier way
than that of showing kindness to poor Clare, writes:--
"In my last, I told you I had written to Mr. How on the subject of
the Literary Fund, &c. Yesterday morning the good little man came to
communicate to me the favourable result of the application. The
committee have nobly presented you with fifty pounds. Blessings on
them! for giving you the means to do honour to every engagement, and
leave you, I hope, a surplus to fly to when needed. Mr. How is just
the sort of man for my own nature. He is willing to do his best for
Clare. He has shown himself in the recent event as one of the few who
perform what they promise. God bless him for his kindly exertions to
emancipate you from your thraldom!"
"The Rural Muse" was published in July, and was cordially received by
the "Athenaeum," "Blackwood's Magazine," the "Literary Gazette," and
other leading periodicals. It was well printed and embellished with
engravings of Northborough Church and the poet's cottage. It has been
already intimated that the poems included within this volume, while
retaining all the freshness and simplicity of Clare's earlier works,
exhibit traces of the mental cultivation to which for years so large
a portion of his time had been devoted. The circle of subjects is
greatly expanded, the passages to which exception may be taken on the
score of carelessness or obscurity are few, and the diction is often
refined and elevated to a degree of which the poet had not before
shown himself capable. The following extracts are made almost at
random:--