Clowns -- Great Britain -- Biography; Grimaldi, Joseph, 1779-1837
We have lost that clown now;--he is still alive, though, for we saw
him only the day before last Bartholomew Fair, eating a real saveloy,
and we are sorry to say he had deserted to the illegitimate drama, for
he was seated on one of "Clark's Circus" waggons:--we have lost that
Clown and that pantomime, but our relish for the entertainment still
remains unimpaired. Each successive Boxing-day finds us in the same
state of high excitement and expectation. On that eventful day, when
new pantomimes are played for the first time at the two great theatres,
and at twenty or thirty of the little ones, we still gloat as formerly
upon the bills which set forth tempting descriptions of the scenery
in staring red and black letters, and still fall down upon our knees,
with other men and boys, upon the pavement by shop-doors, to read them
down to the very last line. Nay, we still peruse with all eagerness and
avidity the exclusive accounts of the coming wonders in the theatrical
newspapers of the Sunday before, and still believe them as devoutly
as we did before twenty years' experience had shown us that they are
always wrong.
With these feelings upon the subject of pantomimes, it is no matter
of surprise that when we first heard that Grimaldi had left some
memoirs of his life behind him, we were in a perfect fever until we had
perused the manuscript. It was no sooner placed in our hands by "the
adventurous and spirited publisher,"--(if our recollection serve us,
this is the customary style of the complimentary little paragraphs
regarding new books which usually precede advertisements about Savory's
clocks in the newspapers,)--than we sat down at once and read it every
word.
See how pleasantly things come about, if you let them take their own
course! This mention of the manuscript brings us at once to the very
point we are anxious to reach, and which we should have gained long
ago, if we had not travelled into those irrelevant remarks concerning
pantomimic representations.
For about a year before his death, Grimaldi was employed in writing a
full account of his life and adventures. It was his chief occupation
and amusement; and as people who write their own lives, even in the
midst of very many occupations, often find time to extend them to a
most inordinate length, it is no wonder that his account of himself was
exceedingly voluminous.
This manuscript was confided to Mr. Thomas Egerton Wilks: to alter
and revise, with a view to its publication. Mr. Wilks, who was well
acquainted with Grimaldi and his connexions, applied himself to the
task of condensing it throughout, and wholly expunging considerable
portions, which, so far as the public were concerned, possessed neither
interest nor amusement, he likewise interspersed here and there the
substance of such personal anecdotes as he had gleaned from the writer
in desultory conversation. While he was thus engaged, Grimaldi died.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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