Joseph Grimaldi
Joseph Grimaldi was an English actor, comedian and dancer, who became the most popular English entertainer of the Regency era. In the early 19th century, he expanded the role of Clown in the harlequinade that formed part of British pantomimes, notably at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane and the Sadler's Wells and Covent Garden theatres. He became so dominant on the London comic stage that the harlequinade role of Clown became known as "Joey", and both the nickname and Grimaldi's whiteface make-up design were, and still are, used by other types of clowns. Grimaldi originated catchphrases such as "Here we are again!", which continue to feature in modern pantomimes.
Born in London to an entertainer father, Grimaldi began to perform as a child, making his stage debut at Drury Lane in 1780. He became successful at the Sadler's Wells Theatre the following year; his first major role was as Little Clown in the pantomime The Triumph of Mirth; or, Harlequin's Wedding in 1781, in which he starred alongside his father. After a brief schooling, he appeared in various low-budget productions and became a sought-after child performer. He took leading parts in Valentine and Orson and The Talisman; or, Harlequin Made Happy, the latter of which brought him wider recognition.
Towards the end of the 1790s, Grimaldi starred in a pantomime version of Robinson Crusoe, which confirmed his credentials as a key pantomime performer. Many productions followed, but his career at Drury Lane was becoming turbulent, and he left the theatre in 1806. In his new association with the Covent Garden theatre, he appeared at the end of the same year in Thomas John Dibdin's Harlequin and Mother Goose; or, The Golden Egg, which included perhaps his best known portrayal of Clown. Grimaldi's residencies at Covent Garden and Sadler's Wells ran simultaneously, and he became known as London's leading Clown and comic entertainer, enjoying many successes at both theatres. His popularity in London led to a demand for him to appear in provincial theatres throughout England, where he commanded large fees.
Grimaldi's association with Sadler's Wells came to an end in 1820, chiefly as a result of his deteriorating relationship with the theatre's management. After numerous injuries over the years from his energetic clowning, his health was also declining rapidly, and he retired in 1823. He appeared occasionally on stage for a few years thereafter, but his performances were restricted by his worsening physical disabilities. In his last years, Grimaldi lived in relative obscurity and became a depressed, impoverished alcoholic. He outlived both his wife and his actor son, Joseph Samuel, dying at home in Islington in 1837, aged 58.
Biography
Family background and early years
Grimaldi was born in Clare Market, in Westminster, London, into a family of dancers and comic performers. His great-grandfather, John Baptist Grimaldi, was a dentist by trade and an amateur performer, who in the 1730s moved from Italy to England. There he performed the role of Pantaloon opposite John Rich's Harlequin. John Baptist's son, Grimaldi's paternal grandfather, Giovanni Battista Grimaldi, began performing at an early age and spent much of his career in Italy and France. According to Grimaldi's biographer Andrew McConnell Stott, Giovanni was held in the Paris Bastille as the result of a scandalous performance. After his release, Giovanni moved to London in 1742, where John Baptist introduced him to John Rich; Giovanni then defrauded Rich and fled to the continent, where he later died.Grimaldi's father, Joseph Giuseppe Grimaldi, an actor and dancer, also made his way to London in around 1760. His first London appearance was at the King's Theatre. He was later engaged by David Garrick to play Pantaloon in pantomimes at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, earning high praise, and eventually became the ballet master there. Grimaldi's mother, Rebecca Brooker, was born in Holborn in 1764. She was apprenticed to Giuseppe Grimaldi in 1773 as a dancer and public speaker, and she became his mistress shortly afterwards, even though she was under 14 and he was about 60.
Grimaldi's father was a serial philanderer who had at least ten children with three different women. In 1778, he divided his time between two London addresses occupied by his mistresses, Brooker and Anne Perry. Both women gave birth that year, Perry to a daughter named Henrietta and Brooker to Joseph. Although jubilant at the birth of his first son, Giuseppe Grimaldi spent little time with Brooker, living mostly with Perry, and probably maintaining other mistresses as well. Brooker raised her son alone for the first few years in Clare Market, a slum area of west London. In about 1780, Brooker gave birth to a second son, John Baptiste. Keen to set up an acting dynasty, Giuseppe left Perry and his daughter and moved with Brooker and his two sons to Little Russell Street, High Holborn. Giuseppe, who often displayed eccentric and obsessive behaviour, was a strict disciplinarian and often beat his children for disobeying his orders. A fascination with death consumed his later life; he would feign death in front of his children, so as to gauge their reactions, and he insisted on his eldest daughter, Mary, decapitating him after his death because of his fear of being buried alive, a task which earned her £5 extra in her inheritance.
Early years at Sadler's Wells and Drury Lane
From the age of two, Grimaldi was taught to act the characters in the harlequinade by his father. Although he and his younger brother John Baptiste both displayed acting talent, Joseph was groomed for the London stage. He made his stage debut at the Sadler's Wells Theatre in late 1780, when Giuseppe took him on stage for his "first bow and first tumble". On 16 April 1781, Richard Brinsley Sheridan, the manager of Drury Lane, cast both Giuseppe and Grimaldi in the pantomime The Wizard of the Silver Rocks; or, Harlequin's Release. Sheridan employed dozens of children, including Grimaldi, as extras at Drury Lane.On Boxing Day 1781, Grimaldi took the part of Little Clown in the pantomime The Triumph of Mirth; or, Harlequin's Wedding at Drury Lane. It was a success for him personally, and the pantomime enjoyed an extended run until March 1782. As a result of his performance, he received further work offers from the management and became an established juvenile performer at Drury Lane. At the same time, he was a prolific performer at Sadler's Wells where he played a host of minor roles, including monkeys, imps, fairies and demons. The Drury Lane season ran every year from September to late spring, with Sadler's Wells playing from 15 April to the second week in October. Though the two theatres staged similar productions, they appealed to different audiences: Drury Lane to the wealthy classes of society and Sadler's Wells to the boisterous working class. Although Grimaldi's stage career was flourishing, Giuseppe enrolled him at Mr Ford's Academy, a boarding school in Putney, which educated the children of theatrical performers. Although Grimaldi struggled with reading and writing, he showed a talent for art, as evidenced by some of his drawings that survive in the Harvard Theatre Collection.
File:Joe's debut into the pit at Sadlers Wells.jpg|thumb|upright|left|Joe's debut into the pit at Sadler's Wells, illustration by George Cruikshank for Dickens's memoirs of Grimaldi
Their success on the London stage allowed the Grimaldis to enjoy an affluent lifestyle in contrast to other working-class families living in Clare Market and Holborn. By the age of six, Grimaldi was considered a prominent stage performer by the press, with one critic from the Gazetteer commenting that "the infant son of Grimaldi performs in an astonishing manner". One evening, Grimaldi was playing the part of a monkey and was led onto the stage by his father, who had attached a chain to Grimaldi's waist. Giuseppe swung his young son around his head "with the utmost velocity", when the chain snapped, causing young Grimaldi to land in the orchestra pit. From 1789 Grimaldi would appear alongside his siblings in an act entitled "The Three Young Grimaldis".
Grimaldi's father suffered ill health for many years and died of dropsy in 1788. As a result, at age 9, Grimaldi became the family's principal breadwinner. Sheridan paid him an above-average wage of £1 a week at Drury Lane, and allowed his mother to work at Drury Lane as a dancer. However, the proprietors of Sadler's Wells were less supportive, cutting Grimaldi's pay from 15 shillings to 3 shillings a week, at which level it remained for the next three years. The loss of Giuseppe's income and Joseph's reduced summertime earnings meant the Grimaldis could no longer afford to keep the house in Holborn. They moved to the slum district of St. Giles, where they took lodgings with a furrier in Great Wild Street. Grimaldi's brother, John Baptiste, illegally signed on as a cabin boy aboard a frigate in 1788, when he was nine, using a false identity. Grimaldi saw him only once more in his life.
John Philip Kemble took over the producer's duties at Drury Lane later in 1788 when Sheridan was promoted to chief treasurer. Sheridan often employed Grimaldi in minor roles in Kemble's productions and continued to allow him to work concurrently at Sadler's Wells. Grimaldi took an interest in the design and construction of stage scenery and would often help to design sets. His stage performances over the next two years did not garner him the kind of success he had experienced under the management of his father, and the role of pre-eminent Clown in London productions soon fell to Jean-Baptiste Dubois, a versatile French acrobat, horseman, singer and strongman, with a formidable repertoire of comic tricks. Grimaldi worked as Dubois' assistant, although in later life he denied that he had been the Frenchman's student.
In 1791 the Drury Lane Theatre was demolished, and Grimaldi was loaned to the Haymarket Theatre, where he appeared, briefly, in the opera Cymon, which starred the tenor Michael Kelly. On 21 April 1794, the new Drury Lane theatre opened, and Grimaldi, now 15 years old, resumed his place as one of the principal juvenile performers. The same year, he played his first major part since his father's death; as the dwarf in Valentine and Orson. Two years later, at Sadler's Wells, he played the role of Hag Morad in the Thomas John Dibdin Christmas pantomime The Talisman; or, Harlequin Made Happy. The pantomime was a success, and Grimaldi received rave reviews. The Drury Lane management were eager to capitalise on his success, and later that year he was cast in Lodoiska, a Parisian hit adapted for the London stage by Kemble. Grimaldi played Camasin, a role that required the acrobatic and sword-fighting skills that he had learned as a child. He won wider admiration as Pierrot in the 1796 Christmas pantomime of Robinson Crusoe at Drury Lane.
Grimaldi met his future wife, Maria Hughes in 1796. The eldest daughter of the proprietor of the Sadler's Wells theatre, Richard Hughes, Maria was introduced to Grimaldi by his mother, Rebecca Brooker, and a romance soon blossomed. They married on 11 May 1799 and moved to 37 Penton Street, Pentonville. Later that year, Grimaldi appeared in a succession of shows including A Trip to Scarborough and Rule a Wife and Have a Wife. The roles he took in these productions were eccentric and usually reserved for low comedians. Despite this, he was praised for his characterisations and was deemed a player of legitimate adult roles at Drury Lane, which qualified him to become a member of the prestigious Drury Lane Theatrical Fund.