Memoirs Of Joseph Grimaldi

112 MEMOIRS OP JOSEPH GBIMAIDI.

afterwards to down. He was so exceedingly successful in the
first-mentioned part, that Mr. Sheridan wished him to preserve
the character throughout,—a suggestion which he was compelled
resolutely to oppose. His reason for doing so will not be con-
sidered extraordinary, when we inform the present generation
that his personal decorations consisted of a large and heavy
hump on his chest, and a ditto, ditto, on his back; a high sugar-
loaf cap, a long-nosed mask, and heavy wooden shoes;—the
weight of the whole dress, and of the humps, nose, and shoes
especially, being exceedingly great. Having to exercise all his
strength in this costume, and to perform a vast quantity of what
in professional language is termed " comic business," he was
compelled by fatigue, at the end of the sixth scene, to assume
the Clown's dress, and so relieve himself from the immense
weight which he had previously endured. "The part of
Columbine," he tells us, "was supported -byMiss Menage;*
and admirably she sustained it. I thought at the time that,
taking them together, I never saw so good a Harlequin and
Columbine; and I still entertain the same opinion."

"HarlequinAmulet" being played every night until Easter, he
had plenty to do; but although his body was fatigued, his mind
was relieved by constant employment, and he had little time,
in the short intervals between exertion and repose, to brood over
the heavy misfortune which had befallen him. Immediately
after his wife's death, he had removed from the scene of his loss
to a house in JBaynes' Bow, and he gradually became.mprfe. cheer-
ful and composed.

la this new habitation he devoted his leisure hours to the
breeding of pigeons, and for this purpose had a room, which
fanciers termed a dormer, constructed at the top of his house,
where he used to sit for hours together, watching the birds as
they disported in the air above him. At one time he had up-

•Miss Bella Menage, in September, 1804, became the wife of Mr. M. W.
Sharp, the artistany may yet remember at Covent Garden Theatre,