Yorick near-anagram of the Greek word 'Kyrios' and thus a reference to the Catholic martyr Edmund Campion. The name was used by Laurence Sterne in his comic novels "Tristram Shandy" and "A Sentimental Journey" as the surname of one of the characters, a parson who is a humorous portrait of the author. Parson Yorick is supposed to be descended from Shakespeare's Yorick. The earliest printed image of Hamlet holding Yorick's skull is a 1773 engraving by John Hall after a design by Edward Edwards in Bell's edition of Shakespeare's plays. It has since become a common subject. While Yorick normally only
The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman added for the sake of appearances). Slope is also called "Obadiah", a reference to another character in Sterne's novel. Russian writer Alexander Zhitinsky made multiple references to "Tristram Shandy" in his novel "The Flying House, or Conversations with Milord" (the "milord" of the title being Sterne). In "Surprised by Joy", C. S. Lewis refers to "Tristram Shandy" in the context of trying to describe his interactions with his own father: My father — but these words, at the head of a paragraph, will carry the reader's mind inevitably to Tristram Shandy. On second thoughts I am content that they should.