erformance of one of his plays, he distributed them
gratuitously to those who promised publicly to express their
approbation. It was not, however, till 1820 that a M. Sauton seriously
undertook the systematization of the claque, and opened an office in
Paris for the supply of _claqueurs_. By 1830 the claque had become a
regular institution. The manager of a theatre sends an order for any
number of _claqueurs_. These people are usually under a _chef de
claque_, whose duty it is to judge where their efforts are needed and to
start the demonstration of approval. This takes several forms. Thus
there are _commissaires_, those who learn the piece by heart, and call
the attention of their neighbours to its good points between the acts.
The _rieurs_ are those who laugh loudly at the jokes. The _pleureurs_,
generally women, feign tears, by holding their handkerchiefs to their
eyes. The _chatouilleurs_ keep the audience in a good humour, while the
_bisseurs_ simply clap their hands and cry _bis! bis!_ to secure
encores.

CLARA, SAINT (1194-1253), foundress of the Franciscan nuns, was born of
a knightly family in Assisi in 1194. At eighteen she was so impressed by
a sermon of St Francis that she was filled with the desire to devote
herself to the kind of life he was leading. She obtained an interview
with him, and to test her resolution he told her to dress in penitential
sackcloth and beg alms for the poor in the streets of Assisi. Clara
readily did this, and Francis, satisfied as to her vocation, told her to
come to the Portiuncula arrayed as a bride. The friars met her with
lighted candles, and at the foot of the altar Francis shore off her
hair, received her vows of poverty, chastity and obedience, and invested
her with the Franciscan habit, 1212. He placed her for a couple of years
in a Benedictine convent in Assisi, until the convent at St Damian's,
close to the town, was ready. Her two younger sisters, and, after her
father's death, her mother and many others joined her, and the
Franciscan nuns spread widely and rapidly (see CLARES, POOR). The
relations of friendship and sympathy between St Clara and St Francis
were very close, and there can be no doubt that she was one of the
truest heirs of Francis's inmost spirit. After his death Clara threw
herself wholly on the side of those who opposed mitigations in the rule
and manner of life, and she was one of the chief upholders of St
Francis's primitive idea of poverty (se