❝ Citação

the shocking suicide of the Smith family was widely reported in England. Richard Smith and his wife, living in dreadful poverty in London, shot their daughter before hanging themselves. In his extended and carefully reasoned farewell letter, Smith, a bookbinder by trade, makes allusion to Radicati’s pamphlet. He writes that he and his family had decided to take leave of this friendless world rather than live in misery. They made this decision in complete cognizance of the laws prohibiting suicide, adding that it is ‘indifferent to us where our bodies are laid’. The Smiths’ (and one ineluctably thinks of Morrissey – heaven knows I’m miserable now) only wish was for an epitaph, which reads, Without a name, for ever silent, dumb; Dust, Ashes, Nought else is within this Tomb; Where we were born or bred it matters not, Who were our parents, or hath us begot; We were, but now are not; think no more of us, For as we are, so you be turned to Dust.

2 Nov 2026

Passagem de Notes on Suicide, de Simon Critchley.

Histórico

2026-11-02 note: the shocking suicide of the Smith family was widely reported in England. Richard Smith and his wife, living in dreadful poverty in London, shot their daughter before hanging themselves. In his extended and carefully reasoned farewell letter, Smith, a bookbinder by trade, makes allusion to Radicati’s pamphlet. He writes that he and his family had decided to take leave of this friendless world rather than live in misery. They made this decision in complete cognizance of the laws prohibiting suicide, adding that it is ‘indifferent to us where our bodies are laid’. The Smiths’ (and one ineluctably thinks of Morrissey – heaven knows I’m miserable now) only wish was for an epitaph, which reads, Without a name, for ever silent, dumb; Dust, Ashes, Nought else is within this Tomb; Where we were born or bred it matters not, Who were our parents, or hath us begot; We were, but now are not; think no more of us, For as we are, so you be turned to Dust.