Blogging 1665
I know that I periodically go on about this, but I have to once again recommend the blog version of Samuel Pepys' 17th century diary, just because today's entry is - as they often are - so wonderful.
(You'll notice that I say "today" - reading the diary an entry a day does give a sense that the events are happening in real-time...)
At this point in the diary the plague is sweeping through London, well on its way to killing about a fifth of London's population, and indeed Pepys reports finding "a dead corps of the plague" on the street on his way home. However, it's his description of his recent dream - "the best that ever was dreamt" - that I loved so much:
"...and then dreamt that this could not be awake, but that it was only a dream; but that since it was a dream, and that I took so much real pleasure in it, what a happy thing it would be if when we are in our graves (as Shakespeere resembles it) we could dream, and dream but such dreams as this, that then we should not need to be so fearful of death, as we are this plague time."
While I'm getting all historical, I might also mention that today is the anniversary of the Peterloo massacre here in Manchester. Worth remembering the price paid for freedoms and rights that we're too often blasé about today.
(Back to things at least tangentially related to photography soon.)
(You'll notice that I say "today" - reading the diary an entry a day does give a sense that the events are happening in real-time...)
At this point in the diary the plague is sweeping through London, well on its way to killing about a fifth of London's population, and indeed Pepys reports finding "a dead corps of the plague" on the street on his way home. However, it's his description of his recent dream - "the best that ever was dreamt" - that I loved so much:
"...and then dreamt that this could not be awake, but that it was only a dream; but that since it was a dream, and that I took so much real pleasure in it, what a happy thing it would be if when we are in our graves (as Shakespeere resembles it) we could dream, and dream but such dreams as this, that then we should not need to be so fearful of death, as we are this plague time."
While I'm getting all historical, I might also mention that today is the anniversary of the Peterloo massacre here in Manchester. Worth remembering the price paid for freedoms and rights that we're too often blasé about today.
(Back to things at least tangentially related to photography soon.)
posted by David Bennett at 6:34 pm
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