Memoirs of Grimaldi: 12/13 The Barber's Shop; The Barber's Shop

In this etching Grimaldi is shown in a barber's shop. The barber's daughter had attempted to shave him but Grimaldi found it so funny that he could not stop laughing making everyone around him laugh as well.

The Memoirs of Joseph Grimaldi were published in 1838 as the autobiography of the celebrated clown.

Charles Dickens was employed to edit the Memoirs and he did so reluctantly despite the fact that he was relatively unknown at his time. He said to the publisher, Richard Bentley, 'It is very badly done, and is so redolent of twaddle that I fear I cannot take it up on any conditions to which you would be disposed to accede. I should require to be assured three hundred pounds in the first instance '.