mock duel between the two Clowns, with the audience deciding who could pull the most hideous face. Grimaldi consistently won. In the next piece, Harlequin Benedick; or, The Ghost of Mother Shipton. Dubois was relegated to the role of Pierrot, while Grimaldi played Clown. Grimaldi's mother was in the cast, appearing as the Butcher's Wife. He then appeared in another Dibdin play, The Great Devil. During the run, he accidentally injured himself on stage by shooting himself in the foot and was confined to bed for five weeks. His mother became so concerned at her son's fragile and still grief-stricken state that she employed a dancer at Drury Lane, Mary Bristow, to care for him full-time during those weeks. They formed a close friendship, which resulted in a loving relationship, and they married on 24 December 1801. After a falling-out with Kemble at Drury Lane, Grimaldi was dismissed and began appearing at the nearby Theatre Royal, Covent Garden. He also took up an engagement at his father-in-law's theatre in Exeter. There was no Christmas 1801 or Easter 1802 pantomime at Drury Lane, and Kemble noticed a reduction in his theatre's audiences. Grimaldi began to appear in provincial theatres, with the first appearance being in Rochester, Kent, in 1801. In March 1802, he returned to Kent where he performed in pantomime, earning £300 for two days work. His dismissal from Drury Lane was short-lived, and he was reinstated within a few months in a revival of Harlequin Amulet. Sadler's Wells closed for refurbishment at the end of its 1801 season and re-opened on 19 April 1802; Grimaldi returned to take a major role in the Easter pantomime, for which he designed the look of his recurring Clown character "Joey". He began by painting a white base over his face, neck and chest before adding red triangles on the cheeks, thick eyebrows and large red lips set in a mischievous grin. Grimaldi's design is used by many modern clowns. According to Grimaldi's biographer Andrew McConnell Stott, it was one of the most important theatrical designs of the 1800s. Later in 1802, Dubois left the Sadler's Wells company, making Grimaldi the sole resident Clown. Grimaldi starred in St. George, Champion of England opposite his friend Jack Bologna. This was followed by Ko and Zoa; or, the Belle Savage. A critic from The Times remarked that the pair's death scene together was "truely affecting".