Sunday, 12 May 1861
X
O bother. Dark & damp. What a horrible climate is this of England!
I was beginning breakfast ― when C. Fortescue came, it is very nice & good of him.
Just as he was going, at 1 ― who should come but Majr. Shakespear!!! ―― I agreed to dine at the Sayers ― so at 2 ― I went in a cab to Woodberry, where were W.N. Willie, & Ralph, Professor or Dr. Kranz of Bonn, & a Mr. Tennant. I lunched there, & at 3.30 walked to the [Angel] (by Highbury,) & omnibus home by 6.
At 7 to the Sayers. Only Major & Mrs. S. besides Mr. & Mrs. S. There is always something not quite comfortable in the house. J.S. is too fussy & braggy about his Φωτόγραφy.1 Mr. S. too bothery about the “conduct of the nation to Prince A.” ― Mrs. Sayer ― though really sharp & shrewd, is too tactical. Mrs. J.S. is not to be found fault with, & I wish J.S. were more attentive to her, tho’ he don’t mean to be otherwise.
Mrs. S.’s discourse διὰ τὴν βασιλεύσην2 is pretty true. Ὁ Πρίνγεψ3 is doubtless the main stay of the affair. Most probably he knew what she could & what she could not bear, & prevented her seeing the Dss. ― rightly enough; because to have done otherwise would have had a worse effect than the sorrows which really did take place produced. ―
――― had said that the scene on the Q.’s visit to the Dss. & finding her unable to recognize her was, frightful: ― imploring her to speak &c. ― “Bad” said Mrs. S. “she has no mind ― & to a child beyond her particular trade ― royalty: only P.A. has kept her right ―” ―― What a pother!
[Transcribed by Marco Graziosi from Houghton Library, Harvard University, MS Eng. 797.3.]
Oh dear! Lear really doesn’t like my 3 x great grandparents, the Sayers! I wonder why he keeps accepting invitations to dine with them – is it because he is fond of my great great grandmother Louisa Shakespear, for whom he has nothing but praise? His observation that her husband Major Shakespear could be more attentive to her was prescient; they were later divorced. And what do the three exclamation marks at Majr Shakespear’s arrival signify?
[…] I forgot to post about his birthday this year, but Lear himself did not mention it in his diary for 12 May, he was probably still too depressed after Ann’s death. He had referred to his 48th birthday […]