CLANDESTINE MARRIAGE 



CLARE 



275 



and occasionally would recognise the chiefship in 

 a brother or an uncle, in preference to the son of a 

 deceased chief. See TKIIIK. 



Clandestine Marriage. See MARRIAGE. 



Claiiwillinill, a division of the Western Pro- 

 vince, N. of Cape Town, South Africa, embraces 

 wit bin its area the rich valley of Olifant Kiver 

 West, with a large stretch of mountain and karroo 

 on each side. Chief village, Clauwilliam on Jan 

 Di&sels River. 



Clapare'de, EDOITARD, a Swiss naturalist and 

 professor of Comparative Anatomy at Geneva, was 

 born in 1832, and died in 1871. He wrote numerous 

 works, including those on the fertilisation of eggs 

 (1858), on the Infusoria and Khi/opoda (1860), and 

 the Annelida of tha Hebrides ( 1861 ). 



Clapliaill is a south-western suburb of London, 



Sing a mile S. of the Thames. Battersea and 

 apnam form since 1885 one of the London parlia- 

 mentary boroughs. Clapham Common is still an 

 open common of 200 acres. Clapham Junction, in 

 Battersea parish, is one of the uusiest and most 

 perplexing railway junctions in the world. Clap- 

 ham Sect was a name given by Sydney Smith to 

 the Evangelical party in the Church of England ; 

 the Rev. Henry Venn was the vicar of Clapham, 

 and some of the most eminent Evangelicals 

 Zachary Macaulay, Wilberforce, and the Rev. W. 

 Romaine lived there. Thackeray's Newcomes 

 has made the phrase familial to a later genera- 

 tion. 



Clapperton, HUGH, African explorer, was 

 born at Annan, Dumfriesshire, in 1788. At the 

 age of thirteen he went to sea ; and having after 

 a youthful peccadillo been constrained to join a 

 man-of-war, he ultimately distinguished himself by 

 his services at Mauritius, and was appointed to 

 the rank of lieutenant. In 1817 he returned to 

 Scotland on half-pay. Government appointed 

 him and Major Denham to accompany Dr 

 Oudney, who was going as British consul to 

 Bornu, in an exploring expedition. By way of 

 Tripoli and Murzuk, they reached Kuka on Lake 

 Tchad in 1822 ; and Clapperton proceeded west- 

 ward, accompanied by Ouctney, wno died by the 

 way. He still pushed on alone as far as Sokoto, 

 but was here compelled to retrace his steps, and, 

 in company with Denham, returned to England in 

 1825. The journey had done much for the know- 

 ledge of Bornu and the Houssa country, but the 

 great geographical problem of the course of the 

 Niger was still much in the same position. To 

 solve it, if possible, Clapperton the rank of com- 

 mander having been conferred upon him started 

 again in August 1825, in company with Captain 

 Pearce, R.N., Mr Dickson, Dr Morrison, and 

 Richard Lander. They commenced their explora- 

 tion into the interior from the Bight of Benin. 

 His other companions died early on the journey, 

 but Clapperton and his faithful attendant Lander 

 reached Sokoto. Here the Sultan detained him, 

 and vexation joined to the hardships of the 

 journey so affected his health, that he died at 

 Changary, near Sokoto, April 13, 1827. See the 

 Narrative of the first journey ( 1826) ; the Journal 

 of the second ( 1 829 ) ; and the Records of Clapper- 

 ton's Lct^t Expedition to Africa, by Richard Lander 

 (1880). 



Claque (from Fr. claquer, 'to clap the hands,' 

 or ' applaud ' ) is the name given to an institution 

 for securing the success of a public performance 

 or production, by bestowing upon it preconcerted 

 applause, and thus giving the public, who are not 

 in the secret, a false notion of the impression it 

 has made. The claque is of great antiquity, its 

 first invention having been attributed to no less 



noted a person than Nero. It* supposed origin in 

 Kmiie gives the name of Jtomain* to tin- rtii<jiteur 

 to this day, who are also named chevaliers du 

 lustre, from their position in the middle of the pit. 

 The first regular use of the claque as an organised 

 and paid body seems to have been during tfie time 

 of the great Najx>leon, in the famous struggle 

 between Mademoiselle Georges and Mademoiselle 

 Duchesnois, at the Theatre Francais ; and from 

 that time it- use became almost universal in 

 Paris. The chief of the claque, who is named 

 entrepreneur de nieces dramatique, is an official 

 of importance. His business is to attend the 

 last two or three rehearsals of a new play ; to 

 arrange the points at which applause, laughter, 

 or tears are tin be forthcoming ; and to communi- 

 cate his directions to his corps. This is divided 

 into several classes. The main body, whose busi- 

 ness it is to applaud, form a soliu mass in the 

 centre of the pit ; and in various parts of the 

 theatre are placed n'eurs ( ' laughers ' ), pleureurs, or 

 rather plewreuses ( ' weepers ' ), and bisseurs ( whose 

 business it is to call bis or encore!). More artistic 

 developments of the claqueur are the sangloteure, 

 a female who sobs hysterically ; the pameuse, who 

 faints ; and the moucneur, a well-dressed gentleman 

 who blows his nose with tact at affecting passages. 



The members of the claque are generally men 

 who are glad to earn a small sum in any way, but 

 it is also recruited from the ranks of poor amateurs, 

 who in return pay a smaller price for their tickets. 

 M. Perrin, the late director of the Theatre Francais, 

 succeeded in 1878 in abolishing the claque in his 

 theatre ; and the Grand Opera followed the example 

 of the house of Moliere. 



In London there is no regularly organised claque, 

 but in certain theatres precautions are taken on 

 first nights which have precisely the same effect as 

 the claque. 



Clare* a maritime county in the province of 

 Munster, Ireland, lying between Galway Bay and 

 the Shannon. It is seventh in size of the Irish 

 counties ; length, 67 miles ; greatest breadth, 43 ; 

 average, 21 ; area, 1294 sq. m. The surface is 

 mostly hilly, with some mountains, bog, marsh, 

 and rugged pasture. There is an undulating plain 

 in the centre, from north to south. In the east 

 the hills reach a height of 1758 feet. The sea-line 

 is high and rocky, in parts precipitous, and occa- 

 sionally from 400 to 680 feet nigh, with many isles 

 and fantastic detached rocks. The chief rivers are 

 the Shannon (q.v.) and the Fergus, running south 

 27 miles through the middle plain, and by an 

 estuary 5 miles broad. The county has about 100 

 small lakes. Carboniferous limestone is a prevail- 

 ing formation ; the south-west third of the county 

 forms part of the Munster coal-field. There are 

 lead-mines, slate and marble quarries, and many 

 chalybeate springs. The chief crops are oats and 

 potatoes. The chief towns are Ennis (the county 

 town), Kilrush, Etinistimon, and Killaloe. Pop. 

 (1841) 286,394; (1851) 212,428; (1871) 147 

 ( 1891 ) 124,483, of whom nearly 9S per cent, v.-re 

 Roman Catholics. The county returns two members 

 to parliament. There are niany cromlechs, rath-. 

 remains of abbeys, and old castles or towers, and 

 several round towers, one at Kilrush being 120 feet 

 high. Till the time of Elizabeth the county was 

 called Thomond ; its present name comes from 

 Thomas de Clare, who received part of all the land 

 he might conquer. See books by J. Frost (1893) 

 ami Father White (1893). 



Clare* one of the most interesting of the smaller 

 towns of Suffolk, 68 miles NE. of London by rail, 

 and 19 SSW. of Bury. Pop. ( 1891 ) 1657. It has 

 a fine old castle, ana gives an earls title to the 

 British sovereign. See CLARENCE. 



