Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Carkesse, James

by Thompson Cooper

CARKESSE, JAMES (fl. 1679), verse writer, was educated at Westminster School, whence in 1652 he was elected to a scholarship at Christ Church, Oxford. It seems probable that he joined the Roman catholic church before 1679, in which year he published a curious volume of doggerel rhymes, entitled 'Lucida Intervalla: containing divers miscellaneous Poems written at Finsbury and Bethlem, by the Doctor's Patient Extraordinary,' London, 4to. The doctors name was Thomas Allen. It is clear that the writer was a very fit subject for a lunatic asylum.

[Welch's Alumni Westmon. 139; Notes and Queries, 1st series, ii. 87; Lowndes's Bibl. Man. (Bohn); Cat. of Printed Books in Brit. Mus.]

T. C.