Memoirs of Grimaldi: 5/13 The Wager; The Wager

This etching depicts a wager between Grimaldi and his friend both in the carriage, in which the latter bet Grimaldi that the countryman on the horse would not overtake the carriage. Grimaldi thought he would but he lost the bet because the friend threatened the rider with a pistol everytime he approached the carriage so he had to remain behind until they arrived in Dartford.

The Memoirs of Grimaldi is the autobiography of the celebrated nineteenth-century clown, Joseph Grimaldi published in 1838.

It was edited by Charles Dickens who took on the job reluctantly despite the fact that he was a young relatively unknown author at this point.
He said to the publisher 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 without any reference to the sale.'