Memoirs of Joseph Grimaldi

In 1837 Charles Dickens, then twenty-five years old, was asked to 'tidy up' Joseph Grimaldi's autobiography – he ended up re-writing most of it. Joseph Grimaldi (1778-1837), one of the greatest English clowns and pantomimes of all time, was born in London to an Italian ballet-master and a dancer in the theatre's corps-de-ballet. The death of Grimaldi's father when he was nine plunged the family in...