rtunate son of the great Grimaldi. The story is related by "Dismal
Jemmy," the actor, who, in the tale itself, is called Hutley, and it
corresponds in all its details with Grimaldi's history. He died in
September, 1832, nearly four years before Pickwick was thought of, but
Boz had learned the incident long before the Grimaldi MSS. were given him
to edit, and I am inclined to think he must have learned them from his
friend Harley who was intimate with the Grimaldis. In the memoirs it is
stated that Gledinning, a Printer, was sent by the father to his son's
dying bed, and he was probably the Hutley of the Stroller's Tale, and,
perhaps, the person who brought old Grimaldi the news of his death. We
are told in the "Tale" that he had an engagement "at one of the Theatres
on the Surrey side of the water," and in the memoirs we find that he was
offered "an engagement for the Christmas at the Coburg." There his death
is described:--"He rose in bed, drew up his withered limbs--he was
acting--he was at the Theatre. He then sang some roaring song. The
walls were alive with reptiles, frightful figures flitted to and fro . . .
His eyes shone with a lustre frightful to behold, the lips were
parched and cracked, the dry, hard skin glowed with a burning heat, and
there was an almost unearthly air of wild anxiety in the man's face."
Hutley also describes how he had to hold him down in his bed. Compare
with this the account in the memoirs--"his body was covered with a
fearful inflammation--he died in a state of wild and furious madness,
rising from his bed, dressing himself in stage costume to act snatches of
the parts, and requiring to be held down to die by strong manual force."
This dreadful scene took place at a public house in Pitt Street, out of
Tottenham Court Road.

"The man I speak of," says Boz in the story, "was a low, pantomime actor
and an habitual drunkard. In his better days he had been in the receipt
of a good salary. His besetting sin gained so fast on him that it was
found impossible to employ him in the situations in which he really was
useful." In the "memoirs" this is more than supported: "The man who
might have earned with ease and comfort from six to seven hundred a year,
was reduced to such a dreadful state of destitution and filth . . . In
fact, at one time, it was thought he might have succeeded his father."

It is quite plain, therefore, that Boz was recalling this tragic episode.
Boz remarks that p