Who is Clown from London Labour and the London Poor and what is their importance?

One of the saddest characters that Mayhew portrays is the clown. In makeup and costume very smilar to today's clowns, he put on skits and performed antics in parks, trying to earn tips. Mayhew makes it clear that this clown's jokes and tricks were not very funny. Instead, the thin, moody man spent the whole time thinking about his wife and children back at home without any food. After his mother died when he was two years old, he worked as a stable boy for the man who employed his father, for several years. Now he has worked as a clown for 16 years, although he would have preferred almost any other job. He was ashamed to be a street entertainer and hid his costume from the neighbors. He worked from 8 am to dark every day for about 6 shillings per week.