Memoirs Of Joseph Grimaldi

MEMOIRS OJ? JOSEPH GEIMAXDI. 35

• happened to find in the corner of some theretofore undiscovered
pocket, to determine who should present the " sixpence." The
chance falling on himself, he walked up to the bar, and with a
very lofty air, and laying the questionable metal down with a
dignity quite his own, requested the landlord to take the bill
out of that.

" Just right, sir," said the landlord, looking at the strange
face that his customer assumed, and not at the sixpence.

" It's right, sir, is it?" asked Grimaldi, sternly.

"Quite," answered the landlord; "thank ye, gentlemen."
And -with this he slipped the—whatever it was—into his pocket.

Gomery looked at Grimaldi, and Grimaldi, with a look and
air which baffle all description, walked out of the house, followed
by his friend.

" I never knew anything so lucky," he said, as they walked
home to supper—" it was quite a Providence—that sixpence."

" A piece of tin, you mean," said Gomery.

Which of the two it was, is uncertain, but Grimaldi often
patronised the same house afterwards, and as he never heard
anything more about the matter, he felt quite convinced that it
was a real good sixpence.

In the early part of the year 1794, they quitted their lodgings
in Great "Wild-street, and took a six-roomed house, in Penton-
place, Pentonville, with a garden attached; a part of this they
let off to a Mr. and Mrs. Lewis, who then belonged to Sadler's
Wells; and in this manner they lived for three years, during
the whole of which period his salaries steadily rose in amount,
and he began to consider himself quite independent.

At Easter,* Sadler's Wells opened as usual, and making a

* On Easter Monday, 1706, Sadler's Wells opened with Tom Dibdin's Serio-
Comio Entertainment called " The Talisman of Orosmanes; or, Harlequin made
Happy." Grimaldi enacted the part of the Hag Morad; the principal characters
in lie action being Eing, Dibdui, the author, his second season; Dubois, Master
Grimaldi, as he was then designated in the hills, and Mrs. Wybrovr. Having
in such company made a hit in this part, his fame rapidly increased; and iot
D 2wires, passing through a hoop, with a