Cowden Clarke published many useful books, and edited the text for
John Nichol's edition of the British poets. His most important work consisted of lectures delivered between 1834 and 1856 on Shakespeare and other literary subjects. Some of the more notable series were published, among them being ''Shakespeare's Characters
, chiefly those subordinate (1863), and Molière's Characters
(1865). In 1859 he published a volume of original poems, Carmina Minima''. In 1832, the cricketer
John Nyren began a collaboration with Clarke, who recorded Nyren's reminiscences of the
Hambledon era and published them serially in a periodical called
The Town. The following year, the series of articles appeared as
The Cricketers of My Time as part of an instructional book entitled ''The Young Cricketer's Tutor''. It became a major source for the history and personalities of Georgian cricket and also came to be regarded as the first classic in cricket's now rich literary history. For some years after their marriage the Cowden Clarkes lived with the Novellos in London. In 1849 Vincent Novello with his wife moved to
Nice, where he was joined by the Cowden Clarkes in 1856. After his death they lived at
Genoa at the "Villa Novello." They collaborated in
The Shakespeare Key, unlocking the Treasures of his Style ... (1879), and in an edition of Shakespeare for Messrs
Cassell, which was issued in weekly parts, and completed in 1868. It was reissued in 1886 as ''Cassell's Illustrated Shakespeare''. Charles Clarke died at
Genoa, and his wife survived him until 12 January 1898. Among Mrs. Cowden Clarke's other works may be mentioned ''The Girlhood of Shakespeare's Heroines'' (3 vols., 1850–1852), and a translation of
Hector Berlioz's
Treatise upon Modern Instrumentation and Orchestration (1856). See
Recollections of Writers (1878), a joint work by the Clarkes containing letters and reminiscences of their many literary friends; and Mary Cowden Clarke's autobiography,
My Long Life (1896). A charming series of letters (1850–1861), addressed by her to an American admirer of her work, Robert Balmanno, was edited by Anne Upton Nettleton as
Letters to an Enthusiast (Chicago, 1902). ==Selected works==