fell into unemployment and was incarcerated in a debtors' prison for a time; his alcoholism also further worsened. In 1832, Grimaldi, Mary and their son moved to Woolwich, but JS often abused his parents' hospitality by bringing home prostitutes and fighting in the house with his alcoholic friends. He moved out later that year and died at his lodgings on 11 December 1832, aged 30. With Grimaldi almost crippled, and Mary having suffered a stroke days before JS's death, they made a suicide pact. They took some poison, but the only result was a long bout of stomach cramps. Dismayed at their failure, they abandoned the idea of suicide. Mary died in 1834, and Grimaldi moved to 33 Southampton Street, Islington, where he spent the last few years of his life alone as a depressed alcoholic. On 31 May 1837 he complained of a tightening of the chest but recuperated enough to attend his local public house, The Marquis of Cornwallis, where he spent a convivial evening entertaining fellow patrons and drinking to excess. He returned home that evening and was found dead in bed by his housekeeper the following morning. The coroner recorded that he had "died by the visitation of God". Grimaldi was buried in St. James's Churchyard, Pentonville, on 5 June 1837. The burial site and the area around it was later named Joseph Grimaldi Park. Legacy and reputation After Grimaldi's death, Charles Dickens was invited by Richard Bentley to edit and improve Thomas Egerton Wilks's clumsily written life of Grimaldi, which had been based on the clown's own notes, which Dickens did under his regular , "Boz". As a child, Dickens saw Grimaldi perform at the Star Theatre, Rochester, in 1820. The Memoirs of Joseph Grimaldi, illustrated by George Cruikshank, sold well, to Dickens's surprise. Grimaldi's fame was established primarily by his numerous successes as Clown in pantomimes. His Clown satirised many aspects of contemporary British life, and made comic mockery of absurdities in fashion. Grimaldi quickly became the most famous Clown in London, gradually transforming the Clown character from a pratfalling country bumpkin into the most important character in the harlequinade, more important even than Harlequin. He expanded the role of Clown to include a range of comic impersonations, from the rival suitor, to household cook or nurse. Grimaldi's popularity changed the balance of the evening's entertainment, so that the first, relatively serious, section of