78. Micah Clarke (1889), Part 1

H.M. Brock's illustration of Micah and Reuben encountering Decimus Saxon for the Newnes 6d Edition (1903)

Hello and welcome to episode 78. This month we start our multi-part discussion of one Conan Doyle’s most important works, his historical romance Micah Clarke, first published in 1889.

You can read the story here.

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Synopsis

Following the accession of Charles II in 1660, England has been at peace for a quarter of a century, but with Charles’s death, and the succession of his brother as James II, the storm clouds are gathering once more. In a sign of the times, a strange messenger, the mercenary soldier Decimus Saxon, arrives at the Hampshire home of former Cromwellian trooper Joseph Clarke, calling for his help in the Protestant Duke of Monmouth’s planned uprising against the Catholic King James. Joseph is too old for such a venture, so instead he volunteers the services of his son Micah… 

Writing and Publication History

ACD wrote Micah Clarke in Portsmouth between July 1887 and February 1888, although he spent many months, potentially years, researching the subject in advance. He offered the novel to Cornhill but James Payn was disparaging. He then sent it to Blackwood’s, who were interested, but eventually rejected the novel in April. ACD then sent Micah to four more publishers before it was accepted by Longmans. Andrew Lang, the writer, folklorist and historian, was a reader for Longman and Micah very much appealed to him. They signed a contract on 29 October 1888. Longman also had the attracted that it had published Macaulay, who is a major influence on the novel.

Longman felt the book was too long, and ACD made a number of cuts amounting to 60 of his 670 manuscript pages. The final amendments were made in December 1888, when ACD added an appendix of 10 or 12 pages. The book was published by Longmans on 25 February 1889, the first 1,000 copies quickly sold out and a second 1,000 were printed that same month. 

The book was exceptionally well received, and marked ACD’s arrival as a serious literary talent. Perhaps the greatest accolade was the kind compliment of Oscar Wilde who told ACD he enjoyed the novel.

Historical romances and the influence of Macaulay

Thomas Babbington Macaulay

ACD chose to test his talents with historical fiction as it combined ‘literary dignity’ with ‘action and adventure’. Partly, it was a reflection of his own love of historical fiction, especially Charles Reade’s The Cloister and the Hearth and Walter Scott’s Ivanhoe. ACD’s feeling was that the historical novel should hold ‘history quite subservient to the Romance’ (Life in Letters, p.259), although it is debatable how far he achieved this in Micah. His own Preface to the 1903 Author’s Edition implies he became somewhat dissatisfied with the result.

ACD probably chose to write about the Monmouth Rebellion of 1685 because it was a tightly constrained historical event and he was familiar with the topography, being on his doorstep. 1885 also marked the bicentennial, and seems to have inspired a number of Sedgmoor novels, including one by his acquaintance Walter Besant. But he was also inspired by Thomas Babbington Macaulay’s account of the Rebellion, which he felt brought to life the Puritans in particular.

Macaulay’s influence – and the Whig interpretation of history - is writ large in Micah. ACD felt Macaulay and Scott were as one, writing of their connection in Through the Magic Door. That ACD sided with a Protestant historian of Macaulay’s bent is a strong indication of how far he had drifted from his Catholic upbringing. And while ACD was less sectarian than Macaulay in his historical treatment, he suggested Micah should not be shared with some of his Catholic relatives.

Another source was most likely George Roberts’ The Life, Progresses, and Rebellion of James, Duke of Monmouth (1844, 2 vols.), the standard 19thC work on the Rebellion, which worked from local sources such as parish registers, depositions, and Dorset/Somerset archives. This level of local colour and detail is reflected throughout the novel.

Chapters 1-3: Introducing Micah and setting the historical context

Cover of the 1912 Thomas Nelson edition

The gloriously long title is a pastiche of a particular type of historical romance. It’s funny that Joseph Clarke cites A. Conan Doyle as his literary agent, a conceit ACD first adopted with A Study in Scarlet. 

Micah Clarke, narrating to his grandchildren in 1734, reflects on the religious strife that led ultimately to the Glorious Revolution of 1688 and the Hanoverians settlement. His aim is to educate his grandchildren with a sense of continuity and debt to those who fought for their freedoms, as befits classic Whig history.

Micah’s father, ‘Ironside Joe’, is a carefully drawn character, with marked similarities to Richard Rumbold. A former officer in the New Model Army, he was cashiered for killing a man in a quarrel. His fanaticism is in marked contrast to Micah’s broadhearted equanimity. Joe’s wife. Mary, while distrustful of Catholics, is nevertheless more accepting. In Micah’s parents, we have mirrors of Charles and Mary Doyle.

There are three other formative influences on Micah, his friend Reuben Lockarby, the learned village blacksmith Zachary Palmer, and the swearing sailor Solomon Sprent, who is seeking a wife as he may once had pursued a prize. 

Chapter 4-6: Decimus Saxon and the letter

Rumbold's Rye House

Decimus Saxon is one of ACD’s greatest creations, a craggy, experienced soldier of fortune of dubious morals who is funny, charismatic and dangerous. Saxon is a fan of Samuel Butler’s ‘Hudibras’, a satire of the Interregnum, which he often quotes. Hudibras is inspired by Cervantes’s Don Quixote, which also finds its echoes in Micah. Andrew Lang feared ACD would be accused of plagiarism as Saxon bears a strong similarity with Dugald Dalgetty in Walter Scott’s A Legend of Montrose (1819). ACD had certainly read it, and remembered the Dalgetty sequences in particular. 

Saxon’s letter for Joe Clarke is written by the aforementioned Richard Rumbold. ACD would no doubt have liked to include Rumbold, a very interesting character, in the book, but Rumbold served with Scottish wing of the Monmouth Rebellion and so was not present in the south-west of England where Micah takes place. Rumbold was an agitator in the Rye House Plot (1683), in which he planned to assassinate Charles II and the future James II. Micah has doubts over the legitimacy of the plot, and of Monmouth’s claim, but is persuaded to take his father’s place with Saxon in support of Monmouth and the Protestant succession.

Chapter 7-12: The quest begins

Illustration by Henry C. Pitz for Harpers 1929

Micah and Saxon set off to rendezvous with Monmouth’s forces, during which we see the stark moral differences between the priggish Micah and the pragmatic Saxon. While Micah is a classically insipid narrator, his exchanges with Saxon give the character more depth.

In Salisbury, they stay at the Blue Boar where they encounter members of the King’s forces. These were troops that had evolved from the New Model Army and were disciplined and uniformed, a stark contrast to the soldiering of the early part of the century. Saxon quickly realises that Monmouth has a hard task. Monmouth had trained Oxford’s regiment and would have known their strengths. Chapter 9 features an altercation with the King’s men which does much to cleverly convey the changes in military practice, the tensions between young and old officers, and lays a few breadcrumbs for the rest of the novel.

The party encounter an alchemist, Sir Jacob Clancing of Snellaby Hall, a former royalist who was disappointed by Charles II when he was not granted compensation for loss of his lands during the Interregnum. Clancing is an example of a ‘lottery cavalier’ and his story is emblematic of a cadre of disgruntled royalists who turned to Monmouth’s cause. 

At the end of Chapter 12, the party encounter a macabre gibbet, a rare sight in England, but one that will become more familiar in the coming months…

Next time on Doings of Doyle…

We interrupt our discussion of Micah Clarke to bring you an interview with Lindsey Fitzharris, author of Sleuth-Hound, about Joseph Bell and the Edinburgh circle that inspired Sherlock Holmes.

Acknowledgements 

Thanks to our sponsor, Belanger Books (www.belangerbooks.com), and our supporters on Patreon and Paypal.

Image credits: Thanks to Alexis Barquin at The Arthur Conan Doyle Encyclopaedia for permission to reproduce these images. Please support the encyclopaedia at www.arthur-conan-doyle.com.

Music credit: Sneaky Snitch Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com). Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ 

YouTube video created by @headlinerapp. 

Micah Clarke (1889) – Synopsis

Chapter I. Of Cornet Joseph Clarke of the Ironsides — Micah sets out to tell his story to his grandchildren, intent on imbuing them with a sense of history and that the freedoms they enjoy are owed to an earlier generation. Introduces his father, Joseph "Ironside Joe" Clarke, who served under Cromwell, but was cashiered after killing a fellow trooper in a fight over doctrine. Joe settled in Havant as a tanner and leather merchant, marrying Mary Shepstone, of Anglican church stock. The chapter recounts Joseph's fierce Puritan temperament through anecdotes: striking naval officers who swore in his tanning yard, and one night rousing the household in expectation of the Second Coming. Micah's mother Mary is a moderating figure, skilled in home remedies and widely respected in the village. 

Chapter II. Of my going to school and of my coming thence — Micah muses on his religious upbringing: though Mary and Joe had diverging religious opinions, they were both distrustful of Catholicism, and this carried through his early years. His father discouraged book learning, but Micah borrowed volumes from friends. At fourteen, Micah was sent to a small private school in Petersfield run by Thomas Chillingfoot, who lends him books beyond the standard curriculum. Petersfield is dominated by the pompous Vicar Pinfold, a high Churchman who resents Nonconformists. A mock feud between Chillingfoot's pupils and a rival day-school leads to Micah planning to ambush the rival boys by cutting through a footbridge, but it is Pinfold who ends up in the water. Micah is expelled to protect the school, though his father is secretly delighted by the prank. Micah, meanwhile, grows tired of the village and longs for adventure of his own.

Chapter III. Of Two Friends of my Youth — Micah describes two formative influences in Havant besides his parents. Zachary Palmer, the elderly village carpenter, is self-taught in philosophy from Plato to Hobbes, and dispenses calm wisdom to Micah and Reuben Lockarby, the innkeeper's son. A different sort of teacher is Solomon Sprent, a sweary, retired, one-legged sailor, tattooed in Bible stories, who entertains the boys with vivid tales of his service under Rupert of the Rhine, Admiral Blake, and Sir Christopher Mings, feeding Micah's appetite for adventure beyond the village. ‘Some day you will find your wings and fly,’ says Solomon.

Chapter IV. Of the Strange Fish that we Caught at Spithead — In the first week of May 1685, Micah (nearly twenty-one) and Reuben go fishing in Langston Bay. They witness gunfire from a brig and pull a man from the water: Decimus Saxon, a lanky, sharp-eyed soldier of fortune who claims his own brothers shot at him during a dispute over a trading venture. Saxon is comical to look at but cool and dangerous, and boasts of his military exploits across Europe. On learning Micah's surname, he reveals he is carrying secret letters, including one addressed to Micah's father, from Protestant exiles plotting in the Low Countries. With a mixture of charm and threat, Saxon has the boys take him to Havant.

Chapter V. Of the Man with the Drooping Lids — Saxon is taken to Micah's home, given dry clothes, and gives Joseph Clarke one of the letters in his possession. Saxon impresses Joseph Clarke with an account of his continental soldiering and his claimed sincere devotion to the Protestant cause. He was shipping to the Guinea coast with his brothers when they disagreed and he was forced overboard. Joseph is stirred by old soldierly instincts and is moved by the contents of the letter, gives Saxon his unequivocal support to deliver his other letters – but defers reading his own to Micah until the next morning.

Chapter VI. Of the Letter that came from the Lowlands — The next morning, Joseph gives Micah the letter from Richard Rumbold, an old comrade who attempted the assassination of Charles II and James, Duke of York (now James II) at Rye House. The Protestants have found their figurehead in James, Duke of Monmouth, who is preparing to invade England to challenge James II, while a parallel uprising takes place in Scotland under Argyll. Joseph is too old to fight and urges Micah to go in his place. Micah is tirn over the rebellion's legitimacy, and seeks advice from villagers: the innkeeper urges him toward adventure, Zachary Palmer, after reasoned argument based on Locke, endorses the uprising as a matter of conscience and liberty, while Solomon Sprent seeks Micah’s help in a ‘close quarters’ action to capture a bride, which puts Micah’s mind to his duty to help others. He returns to his father and says he will go in his place.

Chapter VII. Of the Horseman who rode from the West — Micah is kitted out in his father’s armour and acquires a horse he names Covenant. A rider arrives bringing news that Monmouth has landed at Lyme and raised his standard. But he has only brought leaders, not rank-and-file, and will need to recruit as he proceeds. Micah and Saxon depart to rendezvous with Monmouth’s forces Taunton.

Chapter VIII. Of our Start for the Wars — Micah and Saxon set out from Havant, Micah carrying a letter of maternal advice. As they journey, Micah learns more of Decimus Saxon’s life and of his philosophy, which is rather more pragmatic and less virtuous than his own. They head towards Salisbury and hear news that Monmouth's forces were held back by the Dorset militia. They find lodgings at an inn, the Blue Boar.

Chapter IX. Of a Passage of Arms at the Blue Boar — Micah is woken by a loud altercation from downstairs. Saxon has been playing cards with members of the King’s Royal Guard, en route to Churchill, and become embroiled in a fight, apparently prompted by Saxon talking disparagingly of the training of British cavalry in comparison to that of the French. They make peace, and Saxon, pretending he and Micah are Duke of Beaufort’s men (loyalists from Bristol), slyly discovers something of the strength of James II’s forces (800 men and 3,000 to follow), but notes that Monmouth lacks any cavalry to stand up to the Royal Guard. After touring Salisbury, Micah and Saxon head on their way, Micah readings his mother’s note, which entreats him to stay safe and return to her.

Chapter X. Of our Perilous Adventure on the Plain — Riding at night across Salisbury Plain to avoid the main roads and royal patrols, Micah and Saxon hear a horse approaching from behind; it proves to be Reuben Lockarby, who has resolved to follow his friend without any other political or religious motive of his own, and joins their party.  But he brings news that the King’s men are in pursuit. Soon they hear bloodhounds released, following the scent from Saxon’s handkerchief lost at the inn. After a fraught few minutes, they fend off the hounds, rescuing Saxon from atop standing stones, then make their way to a lonely house on Salisbury plain in hope of shelter.

Chapter XI. Of the Lonely Man and the Gold Chest — Crossing the moor by night, the travellers are drawn toward strange coloured lights and a noxious smell from an isolated cottage. Investigating, they find a reclusive figure engaged in alchemical or chemical work, guarding a chest of gold. Sir Jacob Clancing, formerly of Snellaby Hall, was a proud Royalist who fought for Charles I, but did not see his estates restored under Charles II and now curses the Stuarts. Saxon wants to steal gold from Sir Jacob, but Micah will not hear of it, and the party camp down for the night.

Chapter XII. Of certain Passages upon the Moor — The party skirts the village of Mere, where Charles II once hid after the Battle of Worcester. Saxon entertains his companions with a colourful, self-deprecating account of an episode from his own family history. They encounter an old crone, under a gibbet containing the man who killed her son. They travel on to Bruton, observing the King’s horse in the distance.