MEMOIRS OF MRS. CLARKE, FROM HER INFANCY TO THE PRESENT TIME. LIKEWISE, A BRIEF ACCOUNT OF MR. WARDLE'S CHARGES, RELATIVE TO HIS ROYAL HIGHNESS THE DUKE OF YORK : TOGETHER WITH THE MINUTES OF EVIDENCE, AS TAKEN IN THE HOUSE OF COMMONS. FROM AUTHENTIC DOCUMENTS. ILLUSTRATED WITH A BEAUTIFUL PORTRAIT OF MRS. CLARKE NEW-YORK: PUBLISHED BY DAVID LONGWORTH. J. BELCHER, PRINTER, BOSTON, 1809. の TO THE ACTORS' FUND: BY Ive 19026 DA 506 A%2 A2 OF. MRS. CLARKE. VARIOUS and opposite are the means by which obscure persons, of both virtuous and vicious habits, become the objects either of public admiration, curiosity, or disdain. The accidental causes which sometimes lift the unknown individual into notoriety are frequently as unforeseen as they are remarkable; and among the number who exert their best endeavours to obtain publicity, but few become eminently conspicuous. A combination of unexpected events, however, sometimes throws a person out of the common path of life, and gives him a distinguished niche in the temple of Fame, which creates a general enthusiasm to learn by what steps he ascended the high station of his repose, and the claims he had to it. It has been observed by Plutarch, that a jest or an apophthegm often shows a man more than a battle; and it may be seen with what curiosity the biographers of old sought after the most trifling incidents of those characters whose actions or works handed their names 4 3 X 5 6 4 down to posterity. Little, therefore, can it be made a matter of surprise that the mistress of a PRINCE, who by her great powers of intrigue has agitated, and I may say almost suspended, the tranquility of the kingdom, should be a subject of biographical delineation. Cleopatra, Livia, and a number of other beauties, who by their personal and mental qualifications enslaved some of the brightest characters that ever shed lustre on the Roman name, now enliven the historic page, and fill with delight the amorous periods of voluptuous romance. The name of Clarke, like that of Cleopatra, will, from her relative situation with an illustrious branch of the house of Brunswick, and the circumstances that have occurred from her connexion with royal blood, not only оссиру the pen of the historian, the biographer, and the poet, but the pencil of the painter will be employed to gratify public curiosity with a variety of descriptions of her mind, character, and connexions. The present portrait will, as far as authentic materials have furnished us, contain an impartial delineation of her character in all its various features, without descending to party views of either flattery or detraction. The subject of this Memoir is the daughter of a Mr. Thompson, who lived in Bowl-and-Pin Alley, near White's Alley, Chancery-Lane, where Miss Thompson was born, and where she continued to reside with her mother some time after her father's death. Her mother entered into the marriage state a second time with Mr. Farquhar, a compositor in the printing-office of Mr. Hughs, who procured her employment to read copy to the corrector of the press. In this situation she attracted the notice of a Mr. Day, the eldest son of the over |