Wednesday, 5 January 1859
Bad headache. Ever cold & clear. Wrote to Mcbean that I would not come to the Dogana, resolving, if I could not get those boxes out without trouble, I would send them all away again. Drew at Barnes’s Jerusalem. S.W.C. came in then ― a most delightful letter from C. Fortescue, which I wrote a long reply to. At 1 ― came Gibbs ― (P.W. Gibbs)1 & sate some time, ― & at 2.30 I walked with him to Mount Testaccio. ― At 5 ― to my great surprise I found all the boxes arrived! ― Dined at the Belle Arti, where was old Modetti. ― Returned & unpacked till 9 ― when I sate with S.W.C. to tea ― & then unpacked again & arranged till 12.
[Transcribed by Marco Graziosi from Houghton Library, Harvard University, MS Eng. 797.3.]
- This may be a mistake for F.W. Gibbs, or a reference to a relative of F.W.’s. [↩]
Has anyone else noted the frequency with which Lear complains of a “bad headache”? Although long distance diagnosis is dangerously speculative, one is–I am–tempted to ask if an underlying medical cause was responsible, or whether any single factor might be. A symptom of Lear’s chronic bronchitis? Of a mental problem? He was but 46 when he wrote the above entry.
Noakes reports Lear’s asthma. His epilepsy, considered in those times shameful and to be kept secret, is today well known. Moreover, like many Victorians, Lear had syphilis, a disease whose etiology is problematic. Against this background, his pluckiness and bursts into melancholic nonsense are more moving.