The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman - Laurence Sterne [292]
27. HALL … gown: Westminster Hall housed the courts of law; lawyers are called the “gown” for their courtroom attire, though the term is also used for scholars.
28. John o’Nokes … Tom o’Stiles: like John and Jane Doe, legal fictions.
29. centumvirate: one hundred men.
30. contrist: sadden. OED notes Rabelais’s use (Urquhart).
31. “for what hinderance … cane chair”: quoted from Rabelais (3.16; 3:109), except the last phrase.
32. fame or feeding: In a letter of January 1760, Sterne claimed that he “wrote not [to] be fed, but to be famous,” a reversal of Colley Cibber’s “I wrote more to be Fed, than to be Famous” (A Letter from Mr. Cibber to Mr. Pope [London 1742], 9).
33. hue and cry: an outcry (as in pursuit of a thief).
34. Locke: Sterne is again suggesting that Locke’s belief that “men who have a great deal of wit, and prompt memories, have not always the clearest judgment or deepest reason” (Essay, 2.11.2) is wrong.
35. Magna Charta: the Great Charter of English liberty.
CHAP. XXI
1. handy-cuffs: fisticuffs.
2. Inconsistent soul … for ever: a mini-sermon which has a good deal in common with some of Sterne’s actual sermons, for example, 22 “The History of Jacob” (4:212–13), instanced by New, and 3 “Philanthropy Recommended” (4:29), instanced by Florida. The metaphor of “pouring in oyl” comes from the parable of the good Samaritan (Luke 10:33–37), which is the subject of Sermon 3 (4:21–30). New finds John Norris of Bemerton (1657–1711) an important influence on Sterne’s sermons, behind this passage, and there are some verbatim and closely paraphrased sentences.
CHAP. XXII
1. government … hinges: George II died October 25, 1760.
2. cut off the entail … perpetuities … father: An estate “in tail” cannot be alienated, or transferred to another party. “Tail” is land held in possession (NLD). A “perpetuity” is an estate that can never be alienated from the heirs. It was widely thought to be inimical to the interests of the country as limiting the circulation of property. The figurative cutting off of the entail (actually, Walter’s boots) is one of many castration images.
3. Sir Roger Shandy … Marston-Moor: Sterne’s father, Roger, was a soldier. At Marston Moor, seven miles west of York, on July 2, 1644, Oliver Cromwell won the first major victory over the Royalists in the English Civil War.
CHAP. XXIII
1. retrograde planet … house of mine: Cf. I, xxi, n. 13 above. Astronomers following the Ptolemaic system of the universe had to account for the apparent backward motion of planets, and astrologers considered birth under the sign of a retrograde planet unlucky. Tristram plays on “house,” a sign of the zodiac which has influence over a particular planet.
CHAP. XXIV
1. Bridget: often a suggestion of Irish nationality. Brigid is the patron saint of Ireland.
2. tagging of points: attaching tags to laces, for use as buttons are now used (see, for example, the brothers in Swift’s A Tale of a Tub, 90).
3. Garrick … esteem and honour: This coy reference to Sterne’s friendship with Garrick was the result of Sterne’s successful epistolary campaign to turn him into a champion of Tristram Shandy. See above ch. xii, n. 2 and Letters, 85–87.
4. opificers: An “opificer” is “one that performs any work; artist. A word not received” (Johnson). The OED lists Sterne as the last to use it.
5. Aristotle … Ricaboni: Tristram’s preference for multiple plots is very English as opposed to the critics mentioned. Aristotle specifically attacks multiple plots in the Poetics. Pacuvius was a tragic poet of Brundisium (now Brindisi, Italy), according to Moreri, but nothing remains among his fragments that would explain Sterne’s mention of him. For Bossu, see above ch. xii, n. 3. Luigi Ricaboni’s major work was translated into English as An Historical and Critical Account of the Theatres of Europe (1741).
6. single-horse chair … Pompadour’s vis a vis: from the light, simple vehicle (Sterne was the first to use this adjective rather than “one-horse”) to the elegant face-to-face carriage (vis