The Grimaldian Clown in the Work of Charles Dickens Jonathan
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1 “Clowns that beat Grimaldi all to nothing turn up every day!”: The Grimaldian clown in the work of Charles Dickens Jonathan James Buckmaster PhD thesis Royal Holloway, University of London September 2012 2 Contents Contents ................................................................................................................................... 2 Table of Figures ........................................................................................................................ 3 Thesis Abstract ......................................................................................................................... 5 Acknowledgements .................................................................................................................. 6 Declaration ............................................................................................................................... 7 CHAPTER 1 - Introduction ........................................................................................................ 8 CHAPTER 2 - Literature Review .............................................................................................. 18 CHAPTER 3 - The Memoirs of Joseph Grimaldi – A Reassessment ......................................... 57 CHAPTER 4 - The Gluttonous Clown .................................................................................... 134 CHAPTER 5 - The Clothed Clown .......................................................................................... 192 CHAPTER 6 - The Slapstick Clown......................................................................................... 268 CHAPTER 7 - Conclusion ....................................................................................................... 349 Bibliography ......................................................................................................................... 360 3 Table of Figures Figure 1: George Cruikshank, 'Master Joey going to visit his Godpapa' (1838), Memoirs .... 84 Figure 2: George Cruikshank, 'Oliver claimed by his affectionate friends' (1838), Twist ...... 86 Figure 3: J. Stuart Blackton, Oliver Twist (1909) .................................................................... 87 Figure 4: George Cruikshank, 'Appearing in Public' (1838), Memoirs ................................... 90 Figure 5: George Cruikshank, 'The Barber Shop' (1838), Memoirs ........................................ 93 Figure 6: George Cruikshank, 'The Last Song' (1838), Memoirs ............................................ 94 Figure 7: T. Turner, [Grimaldi singing 'Tippetywitchet'] (Date Unknown), Grimaldi ........... 144 Figure 8: Hablot K. Browne ('Phiz'), 'Mr Bob Sawyer's Mode of Travelling' (1837), Pickwick ............................................................................................................................................. 154 Figure 9: Dyer, 'Mr Grimaldi as Clown' (ca. 1820), Victoria and Albert Museum ................ 155 Figure 10: George Cruikshank, 'Harlequin and Friar Bacon' (1820), Victoria and Albert Museum ............................................................................................................................... 157 Figure 11: George Cruikshank, 'Mr Claypole as he appeared when his master is out' (1838), Twist ..................................................................................................................................... 160 Figure 12: Hablot K. Browne ('Phiz'), 'Quilp in a smoking humour' (1840), Curiosity Shop . 164 Figure 13: James Gillray, 'French Liberty British Slavery' (1792), The British Museum ....... 170 Figure 14: Brian Henson, A Muppet Christmas Carol (1992) ............................................... 178 Figure 15: James Gillray, 'A Voluptuary under the horrors of Digestion' (1792), The British Museum ............................................................................................................................... 182 Figure 16: George Cruikshank, 'King George IV as the Prince of Wales' (1820), The Queen's Matrimonial Ladder, by William Hone ................................................................................. 183 Figure 17: William Heath, 'Grimaldi's Bold Dragoon in the Popular Pantomime of Red Dwarf' (1812), Victoria and Albert Museum ................................................................................... 231 Figure 18: Rudolph Ackermann, 'Mr Grimaldi as Clown in the Popular Pantomime of Harlequin and Asmodeus' (1811), Victoria and Albert Museum ......................................... 234 Figure 19: George Cruikshank, 'Monmouth Street' (1836), 'Mediations on Monmouth Street' ................................................................................................................................... 236 Figure 20: George Cruikshank, 'J Grimaldi, Sung in Character - "All the world's in Paris"' (1815), Museum of London ................................................................................................. 252 4 Figure 21: Richard Dighton, 'Lacing a Dandy' (1819), Museum of London .......................... 253 Figure 22: George Cruikshank, 'Monstrosities of 1816, or London Dandies' (1816), Brooklyn Museum, New York .............................................................................................................. 254 Figure 23: Hablot K. Browne ('Phiz'), 'Mr Toots becomes particular - Diogenes also' (1848), Dombey ................................................................................................................................ 255 Figure 24: [Unknown artist], [Punch played by a live actor in a popular fairground theatre] (ca. 1835), The Punch and Judy Show .................................................................................. 277 Figure 25: [Unknown artist], 'Mr Merryman, alias Joey the Clown, from Aunt Mavor's Everlasting Toy Books' (ca. 1880), The Punch and Judy Show ............................................. 279 Figure 26: Hablot K. Browne (‘Phiz’), ‘Kit in Jail’ (1840), Curiosity Shop .............................. 290 Figure 27: George Cruikshank, ‘Automaton Police Office and the Real Offenders’, ‘The Full Report of the Second Meeting of the Mudfog Association For the Advancement of Everything’ (1837), Bentley’s Miscellany (October 1837) .................................................... 305 Figure 28: Hablot K. Browne (‘Phiz’), ‘The End of Quilp’ (1840), Curiosity Shop ................. 306 Figure 29: Hablot K. Browne (‘Phiz’), ‘Mr Pecksniff renounces the deceiver’ (1843), Martin Chuzzlewit ............................................................................................................................ 311 Figure 30: George Cattermole, ‘The Balcony audience at Astley's Amphitheatre’ (1840), Curiosity Shop ....................................................................................................................... 340 5 Thesis Abstract My thesis focuses on the figure of the pantomime clown in the work of Charles Dickens. While a number of scholars have described Dickens’s professional and imaginative relationship to the theatre and popular entertainment, few of these studies have attended to Dickens’s ideas on pantomime. Moreover, the importance of the pantomime clown to the formation of Dickens’s comic characters is also an under-studied field. The first half of my thesis focuses on two early works that determined Dickens’s attitude to the form and ideas of pantomime. The Memoirs of Joseph Grimaldi (1838), the biography of a Regency actor who popularised the role of the pantomime clown, is a largely forgotten text, creatively inferior to much of Dickens’s work, but I shall argue that it can be read as a working through of the ideas he had raised in his earlier essay ‘The Pantomime of Life’ (published in March 1837) around the theme of life as a theatrical performance. Moreover, through a close comparison of the Memoirs with the two novels of the same period, The Pickwick Papers and Oliver Twist, it is possible to identify a clear line of thematic and stylistic continuity. In the second half of my thesis I demonstrate how these ideas persist and develop in Dickens’s subsequent fiction. I examine a number of Dickens’s comic figures in relation to three tropes from Grimaldi’s repertoire - excessive consumption of food and drink, transformative clothing and slapstick violence. These tropes are part of Deborah Vlock’s ‘imaginary text’ of Victorian readers and theatre-goers, which carries its meaning beyond the playhouse to the novel. 6 Acknowledgements I would like to acknowledge a number of important people who have enabled me to complete this doctoral thesis. Above all, I would like to thank my partner Sarah for her personal support and great patience at all times, offering both her proof-reading expertise and unfailing encouragement when I have needed it the most. This thesis would not have been possible without the help, support and patience of my principal supervisor, Dr Anne Varty, not to mention her advice and invaluable knowledge of pantomime during the Regency and Victorian periods. I am also extremely grateful for the good advice and support of my second supervisor, Professor Adam Roberts, particularly his understanding and appreciation of the true essence of Dickens. I would also like to acknowledge the financial, academic and technical support of Royal Holloway and its staff, particularly in the award of a Postgraduate Research Studentship that provided invaluable financial support. This thesis