antomime actors--clowns and others "either die early
or, by unnaturally taxing their bodily energies, lose prematurely their
physical powers." This was what occurred to Grimaldi, the father, whose
curious decay he was to describe later in the memoirs. It may be added
that there is an Alderman Harmer, Hatton Garden, mentioned in the
memoirs, with whom Grimaldi _pere_ had some dealings; and, long after,
this name was introduced by Boz into "Our Mutual Friend."

CHAPTER XI. MR. PICKWICK'S PROTOTYPE

We had a narrow escape of losing our Pickwick and his familiar type. The
original notion was to have "a tall, long, thin man," and only for the
late Edward Chapman, who providentially thought of the Richmond
gentleman, Foster, we should have lost for ever the short, rotund
Pickwick that we so love and cherish. A long, thin Pickwick! He could
not be amiable, or benevolent, or mild, or genial. But what _could_ such
a selection mean? Why, that Boz saw an opening for humorous treatment in
introducing a purblind, foolish Professor, or scientist--one with
spectacles--prying into this and that, taking notes &c. As Winkle was
the sportsman, Tupman, the lover, Snodgrass, the poet, so Mr. Pickwick
was to be a sort of Pangloss or Dominie Sampson. His curiosity and love
of enquiry were to get him into scrapes, just as Mr. Winkle's sham
sportsmanship was to get him into embarrassments. In fact, the first
appearance in Seymour's plate--the scene with the cabman--shows him as
quite a different Pickwick; with a sour, cantankerous face; not in
"tights," but in a great coat; he is scarcely recognisable. Seymour was
then determined to show him after his own ideal. But when the poor
artist destroyed himself the great man was brought up to the fitting
type. So undecided were the parties about that type that the author had
to leave it altogether an open question--a _tabula rasa_--not announcing
that his hero was either tall or short, fat or lean, pale or rosy; all he
commits himself to in his opening chapter is that he was bald, that he
wore tights and gaiters, and, what is rather singular, _circular
spectacles_. I suppose, in contrast to the more elongated glasses.

It might be an interesting question for the "paper of questions," "Why
did Mr. Pickwick wear circular spectacles?" Was there any local
weakness? The artist never forgot this direction. In the author of the
Tittlebatian system, &c., the "circular spectacles" wo