Clowns

A young man goes to see his doctor. He is overcome by a terrible sadness and doesn't think anything will make him feel better. The doctor says, "Why not do something happy, like going to see Grimaldi the clown?". The young man answers, with a knowing look, "Ah, but Doctor", he says, "I am Grimaldi."

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(Photo taken at the Münchener Stadtmuseum)

Karl Valentin

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From Angela Carter's Magic Toyshop:

[A group of clowns dances in honor of a fellow clown, George Buffins, who had gone mad during a performance and was taken away to an asylum as the audience laughed, thinking it was part of the act.]

Didn't clowns always summon to your mind disintegration, disaster, chaos?
This dance was the dance of death, and they danced it for George Buffins, that they might be as him. They danced it for the wretched of the earth, that they might witness their own wretchedness. They danced the dance for the outcasts who watched them.