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Grimaldi's kindness to the Giants
George Cruikshank, 1792-1878
1838
Etching on copper
11 x 8 cm, vignetted
Facing page 221 in Memoirs of Joseph Grimaldi. Edited by "Boz." With ten illustrations by George Cruikshank.
Scanned image and text by Philip V. Allingham.
Grimaldi's travelling companions were Ellar and his son, all three being engaged by Mr. Harris to act at his theatre in Dublin, and receiving permission to absent themselves from Covent Garden for that express purpose. Since his last journey to the Irish capital in 1805, roads and coaches had improved, and steam-packets had supplied the place of the old sailing-boats, so that they reached their destination in half the time which the same journey had occupied before.
The theatre in which they were to act was called the Pavilion, and had formerly been an assembly-room. It was perfectly round, and very ill adapted for dramatic representations; the stage room, too, was so inconvenient, and they were so pressed for want of space, that when "Harlequin Gulliver" was in preparation, they were at a loss where to put the Brobdignagians. These figures were so very cumbersome and so much in the way, that the men who sustained the parts were at last obliged to be dressed and put away in an obscure corner before the curtain was raised, whence they were brought forward when wantedupon the stage, and into which they were obliged to retreat when they had no more to do, and to remain there as quietly as they could, until the pantomime was over, there being actually no room to get them out of their cases. The dresses and makings-up were very cumbrous and inconvenient; but as no other mode of proceeding presented itself, the unfortunate giants were obliged to make the best of a bad bargain, and to remain in a great state of perspiration and fatigue until they could be reduced to the level of ordinary men. Grimaldi pitied the poor fellows so much, that after the first night's performance was over, he thought right to represent to them that no relief could be afforded, and to ask whether they could make up their minds to endure so much labour for the future.
"Well, then," said the spokesman of the party, "we have talked it over together, and we have agreed to do it every night, if your honour— long life to you! —will only promise to do one thing for us; and that is, just to let us have a leetle noggin of whisky after the green rag comes down."
This moderate request was readily complied with, and the giants behaved themselves exceedingly well, and never got drunk.
The party stayed seven weeks at Dublin. Grimaldi made a great deal of money by the trip, and realized by his benefit alone, two hundred pounds.— Chapter XXII. "1818 to 1823.Profit and Loss — Appearance of his Son at Covent Garden— His last engagement at Sadler's Wells — Accommodation of the Giants in the Dublin Pavilion — Alarming state of his health — His engagement at the Coburg — The liberality of Mr. Harris — Rapid decay of Grimaldi's constitution, his great sufferings, and last performance at Covent Garden — He visits Cheltenham and Birmingham with great success — Colonel Berkeley, Mr. Charles Kemble, and Mr. Bunn," pp. 220-21.
Dickens also speaks of giving the book a 'colouring' throughout to bring out the kind-heartedness of Grimaldi. We can already see in his recension of this manuscript the brilliant future editor of Household Words and All the Year Round 'diffusing himself', as he was later to express it, throughout every issue, improvising, sharpening and 'brightening' his contributors' offerings. — Michael Slater, p. 112.
The caption is informative in that it shows Grimaldi intervening in an administrative capacity technically beyond his purview as a visiting celebrity to ensure that the actors encased in the Brobdingnagian suits are comfortable standing around through most of the performance of Harlequin Gulliver; or, The Flying Island, a production of a pantomime in which one sees "the romantic and spectacular elements gradually gained the upper hand" (Rowell, 70) in the Harlequinade during Grimaldi's tenure as the chief pantomime entertainer in the United Kingdom. The pantomime in question was first performed at the Theatre-Royal, Covent-Garden Friday, on December 26, 1817, so that this was undoubtedly one of the first provincial performances of the new Charles Farley panto which began to appear elsewhere on 26 January 1818. Posters for the inaugural performance emphasize the visual and spectacular scenic elements, promoting the scene designs by John Henderson Grieve: the Isle and Palace of Laputa, The Astrologer's Cave, etc.
The other interesting feature of the episode (aside from Grimaldi's "kindness," an aspect of Grimaldi's character that Dickens emphasized in editing the Wilks manuscript) is the allusion to the nineteenth-century theatrical practice of devoting the revenues from a performance to a single person (whether a playwright, an actor, an actor's family, or other derving person) in a "benefit," as opposed to a "bespeak."
Benefit, a special performance, common in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, of which the financial proceeds, after deduction of expenses, were given to a member of the company, who was allowed to choose the play for the evening. Before the introduction of the royalty system (q. v.), a performance was sometimes given for the benefit of an author, or it could be for a player who as ill and in need of money, or for his widow or other needy dependents. . . . . There is an interesting account of the way it worked in Dickens's Nicholas Nickleby (1838). . . . . A slightly more dignified method of making money was the Bespeak Performance, whereby a wealthy patron or local authority would buy most of the tickets for one evening and sell or give them away, choosing the play to be performed from the company's current repertory. But in that case the proceeds were divided among the members of the company and not given to an individual. — Hartnoll, 50.
As is consistent with the Harlequinade, no matter the specific plot of the play, Grimaldi is wearing whiteface and his signature red-and-white clown-suit, ending at the knee as breeches. The meeting between the three Irishmen playing the giants and Grimaldi occurs behind a flat as the performance is in progress, to the left. With his fascination with clowning and pantomime, it is not unlikely that Dickens, although only five or six years old at the time, would have seen a production of this particular pantomime at the Theatre Royal, Rochester.
Left: George Cruikshank's depiction of a childhood scare, as Joey's father throws the lad (dressed as a monkey) towards the audience and the tether breaks, in Joe's debut into the Pit at Sadler's Wells in Chapter 1. Centre: Cruikshank's depiction of Joey working with animals, always a tricky practice on stage: Live Properties, Chapter 15. Right: Joey's final rendition of "Hot Codlins" as his farewell to the stage, in The last Song (Chapter 25, 1828-1836). [Click on the images to enlarge them.]
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Last modified 13 June 2017