Vladimir Nabokov in Look at the Harlequins! (1974)
I’ll example you with thievery:
The sun’s a thief, and with his great attraction
Robs the vast sea; the moon’s an arrant thief,
And her pale fire she snatches from the sun;
The sea’s a thief, whose liquid surge resolves
The moon into salt tears; the earth’s a thief,
That feeds and breeds by a composture stolen
From general excrement: each thing’s a thief:
The laws, your curb and whip, in their rough power
Have uncheck'd theft.
The procession was to be in costume! There were to be Pierrots and Pierettes, Harlequins and English clowns, aristocrats and goddesses!
Baroness Emma Orczy, author of The Scarlet Pimpernel in The Elusive Pimpernel (1908), Ch. 29.
I am a harbinger of freedom, fun, and friendship, the clown's way of life.
I am a rebel clown.
"The Clown's Creed" of the Clandestine Insurgent Rebel Clown Army