! 4

Exclamation mark in: Tristram Shandys levned og meninger 1st. danish ed. (Borgen, 1976). Copy at the Main Library in Copenhagen. 

! 3

Exclamation mark in: Tristram Shandys levned og meninger 1st. danish ed. (Borgen, 1976). Copy at the Main Library in Copenhagen. 

! 2

Exclamation mark in: Tristram Shandys levned og meninger 1st. danish ed. (Borgen, 1976). Copy at the Main Library in Copenhagen. 

!

Exclamation mark in: Tristram Shandys levned og meninger 1st. danish ed. (Borgen, 1976). Copy at the Main Library in Århus. 

Exclamation mark [!] [eks.kləˈmeɪ.ʃənˌmɑːk]:

The modern graphical representation of the exclamation mark is believed to have been born in the Middle Ages. The Medieval copyists used to write at the end of a sentence the Latin word io to indicate joy. The word io meant hurray. Along time, the i moved above the o, and the o became smaller, becoming a point.

The exclamation mark was first introduced into English printing in the 15th century to show emphasis, and was called the "sign of admiration or exclamation" or the "note of admiration" until the mid-17th century; admiration referred to its Latin sense of wonderment.

The exclamation mark did not have its own dedicated key on standard manual typewriters before the 1970s. Instead, one typed a period, backspaced, and typed an apostrophe. In the 1950s, secretarial dictation and typesetting manuals in America referred to the mark as "bang," perhaps from comic books where the ! appeared in dialogue balloons to represent a gun being fired, although the nickname probably emerged from letterpress printing.

The Sentimental Journey

This 1897 edition of A Sentimental Journey, purchased from a Yorkian Antiquarian, announces on the publishers binding, that this is The Sentimental Journey by Laurence Sterne. Though, inside the book the title page states A Sentimental Journey. — "Pox take the fellow!": http://sterneetcetera.blogspot.dk/2015/07/tristam-tristram.html

Alas, poor Yorick!

— "Then everything turns black!" — Black page in The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman. Penguin Classics. London, 2003. Copy at the Main Library in Copenhagen. 

Sternes stones 2

In 1893 a second stone was erected on Sternes assumed grave at St George’s Field Burial Ground, London. The stone corrects some factual errors on the first stone (the date of death) This photo shoving the first and the second stone at St George’s Field Burial Ground is found in Shelly, Henry C.: Untrodden English Ways. Boston, 1908. Shelly writes: "Although the grave of Laurence Sterne is within a stone's throw of one of the most crowded thoroughfares of London, there are few save Americans who turn aside from the stream of life in Bayswater Road to gaze upon his resting-place in the St. George's burial-ground. He had boasted in "Tristram Shandy" that his preference would be to die in an inn, untroubled by the presence and services of his friends; yet when, in his London lodgings, he began to realize that death might be near, he pined for his daughter Lydia to nurse him. Only a hired nurse and a footman stood by Sterne's deathbed. The latter had been sent to inquire after the health of the famous author, and, being told by the landlady of the house to go upstairs and see for himself, he reached the death-chamber just as Sterne was passing away. Putting up his hand as though to ward off a blow, he ejaculated, "Now it is come," and so died. The story goes that even as he was dying, the nurse was busy possessing herself of the gold sleeve-links from his wrists.

Despite the fame he had won, only two mourners followed Sterne to his grave. But other eyes, it seems, watched the burial; for it is affirmed that two days later the body was taken from the grave and sold to a professor of anatomy for dissection. Only an accident revealed the identity of the "subject." Happening to have some friends visiting him at the time, the professor invited them to witness a demonstration, and on their following him to his surgery one of them was horrified to recognize in the partially dissected corpse the features of his friend Laurence Sterne. Such is the story, and most authorities agree in thinking it likely to be true. Perhaps it was not unknown to the two masons who erected the first stone over the grave, for their inscription began with the significant words, "Near to this place lies the body," etc. How near, or how far away, the actual remains of Sterne at length found a resting-place will probably never be known."

Sternes stones

When Sterne died in London of consumption, he was buried at the St George’s Field Burial Ground. Two days after the burial, it is said, Sterne’s body was stolen from the grave, and sold to the anatomist at the Cambridge University for dissection. Someone recognised the corpse as being Sterne, in some versions of the story it was a student, in others a friend of the anatomist, in others a member of the public who was paying to see a public dissection. — Sterne’s corpse was discretely returned to St George’s Field, and two years later two freemasons erected this memorial stone near to his original burial place. The text says that although Sterne wasn't a member of their society, he might have been, if just he has lived a bit longer. The stone also states that Sterne died the 13. sep. 1768 — even that Sterne actual died 6 month earlier on the 18. march that year — The stone was in 1969, along with Sternes scull and the nearby found skeletal bones, moved to Coxwold and reburied. The epitaphstone was hanged in the porch at St. Michaels Church in Coxwold.

Fly

"—being determined as long as I live or write (which in my case means the same thing) never to give the honest gentleman a worse word or a worse wish than my uncle Toby gave the fly which buzz’d about his nose all dinner-time,———"Go,—go, poor devil," quoth he,—"get thee gone,—why should I hurt thee? This world is surely wide enough to hold both thee and me.""
A dried wing from a musca domestica in Tristram Shandys levned og meninger 1st. danish ed. (Borgen, 1976). Copy sold from Åby Library. (10 kr.)

Nose-picking

A precedent readers mucus. In Tristram Shandys levned og meninger 1st. danish ed. (Borgen, 1976). Copy at the Main Library in Copenhagen.

Ak, stakkels Yorick!

Readers marginalia in Tristram Shandys levned og meninger 1st. danish ed. (Borgen, 1976). Copy at the Main Library in Copenhagen. "Så går alt i sort!" (Then everything turns black!)

Ark in York

Recognisable yes, but quite different; our friends ARK back home in Århus has somehow managed to 'gestalt' themself here in York. And there are 50% off. Even. 

http://arkmappen.dk/

* in York

We spend some days in York on our expedition to Coxwold, taking a stroll on the old defensing wall, that surrounds the city of York, we found a very nice and recognisable engraving in the pavement: *

http://forlagetasterisk.blogspot.dk/

Bookstore for rent

On our way to Coxwold the expedition also lead us to York. In Stonegate we found the bookshop where J. Hinxmann —"Successor to the late mr. Hildyard" — in 1759 sold the first copies of The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gent. — "Printed on Superfine Writing Paper and a new Letter, In Two Volumes. Five Shillings, neatly bound."
Above the entrance hangs a wooden book "Holy Bible 1682." Otherwise the store looked quite empty, and there will probably open some kind of fashion shop or haberdasher here within so soon.

Coffee or tea

If this copy was seen in York — or for this sake in the whole Britain — we would — after our recent expedition to Coxwold — surely say that this stain would be a stain of tea (Earl Grey). But since it appears in the danish edition Tristram Shandys levned og meninger (Borgen, 1976) sold from Holbæk Library — we more believe it is coffee. Though — since the Borgen 1976 edition was printed by The Whitefriars Press in London — we are not absolutely sure. 

Dedication

Dedication "to Bente from Paul" in a 2001 Penguin edition of A Sentimental Journey. The book was found in a second-hand shop in Århus among several other Sterne related titles, all with the inscription "BAM" at the halftitle-page. Bente Ahlers Møller translated the very first complete danish edition of Tristram Shandy in 1976. Paul Goring edited the 2001 Penguin edition of A Sentimental Journey.

Reading Sterne

Reading: "Alas, poor YORICK!" in Tristram Shandys levned og meninger 1. danish ed. (Borgen, 1976) at Sternes grave at the churchyard in Coxwold. Actually, it is not the whole corpse of Sterne that is resting here; in 1969 was here reburied, what "as sure as it could be" is Sternes scull and some assorted bones.

Bleached by the sun

A nice copy of Laurence Sterne A Political Romance facsimile edition by Scolar Press, 1971,

with sun bleached backcover. The initials BAM and Shandy Hall 75 written in pencil on the halftitle page. 

Errata #2

Readers errata in Tristram Shandys levned og meninger 1st. danish ed. (Borgen, 1976). Copy sold from Århus Kommunes Biblioteker.

Who is Jenny?

Hvem er Jenny? (Who is Jenny?) Marginalia in the copy of Tristram Shandys levned og meninger (Borgen, 1976) at the Main Library in Århus (Hovedbiblioteket).

Wartime reading

Tristram Shandy condensed for wartime reading, published in 1942 by Editions for the Armed Services, Inc. as no. K-31 in a whole series of pre-paperback literature which during the WWII was shipped to the US-troops overseas, for their amusement and education. There is no black page, no marbled page and nor plot-lines either in this edition. But the flourish line from corporal Trim's stick, and all the "[…] prodigious armies we had in Flanders", are indeed present.