Friday, 17 January 1862
My dearest Ann’s birthday: she would have been 71 today.
Alas.
A fine gray sunless day, like an English Autumn.
Worked principally at S. Dionysio.
I wonder what comes after death.
Worked till 5 ― when Luard & Le Mesurier came. ― & stayed till 6.
6.30 dined.
Penned out from 7.15 ― to 10.30.
(a Syra drawing.)
[Transcribed by Marco Graziosi from Houghton Library, Harvard University, MS Eng. 797.3.]
“I wonder what comes after death.” But doesn’t Lear follow all the Christian rituals to the letter? (He only objects to a boring sermon.) As a conformist Victorian believer he would know what to expect in the afterlife, a pleasant time to the sound of a harp or a prolonged, very tropical season. Musings like his make us suspect that he’s a more complex personality than we thought.