Journal to Eliza

The most overtly gushing, self-indulgent, pathetic section of the Journal can be read in the entries for July 6th - 11th (inc.). One particular passage reads:

"eating my fowl, and my trouts & my cream & my strawberries, as meloncholly as a Cat; for want of you - by the by I have got one which sits quietly besides me, purring all day to my sorrows – & looking up gravely from time to time in my face, as if she knew my Situation. – how soothable my heart is Eliza, when such little things sooth it! for in some pathetic sinkings I feel even some support from this poor Cat – I attend to her purrings – & think they harmonize me - they are pianissimo at least, & do not disturb me. - poor Yorick! to be driven, wth all his sensibilities, to these resources - all powerful Eliza, that has had this Magic authority over him; to bend him thus to the dust - But I'll have my revenge, Hussy!

Download extract
http://www.ev2.co.uk/vear/sentimental/pp131-138new.pdf

cv - There may some mileage in including Sterne's Journal to Eliza (or his letters) in the Sentimental digital opera. It seems they complement each other, given that they were written during the some period. I am thinking of inviting an old voice to record them, perhaps in Shandy Hall. This would work well to have the pre-recorded "voice of Sterne" and his frailties working in polyphony with the vivacity of the live Yorick.