The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman - Laurence Sterne [325]
CHAP. XXXVI
1. Heaven! earth! sea! fire!: the four elements.
2. Pança: Don Quixote (1.3.9; 1:222). Sterne alludes to this passage in Sentimental Journey (6:53).
CHAP. XXXVII
1. chaise-vamper: renovator of chaises.
2. *** **** **: “God damn it” or “God damn me” would be the most likely oaths.
3. Dodsley, or Becket: Sterne’s own publishers. James Dodsley succeeded his brother Robert (d. 1764) before Sterne began publishing with the firm, and Thomas Becket along with P. A. Dehont became his publishers in December 1761.
CHAP. XXXVIII
1. Tantarra - ra - tan - tivi: conventional imitation of a trumpet fanfare.
2. philosophating: reasoning as a philosopher.
3. papilliotes: curl papers.
4. a la folie: literally, to madness: excessively (French).
5. J’en suis bien mortifiée: I am indeed mortified (French).
6. Tenez: Take them (French).
CHAP. XXXIX
1. JESUITS … cholic: Portugal banned the Jesuits from 1759 to 1761, and France between 1762 and 1764.
CHAP. XLI
1. nothing to see … duke of Ormond: Pointedly ignoring the famous papal palace, Tristram notices the house of the Jacobite duke of Ormond, James Butler (cf. II, v, n. 6).
2. windyness of Avignion: The mistral, cold and dry, can reach sixty miles an hour for several days at a time in the Rhône valley.
CHAP. XLIII
1. Baucaira and Tarascone: towns (Beaucaire and Tarascon) south of Avignon. Sterne remarked the popularity of the fair in the former on 14 August 1762 (Letters, 182).
2. traces of it … set o’ vibrating: Sterne uses similar language on a number of occasions. He may be influenced by the relation of vibration to ideas of sympathy, but the most probable source of such language is the “Doctrines of Association and Vibrations” in David Hartley’s Observations on Man (London, 1749). In a tradition that goes back to Newton on the vibrations of the “animal spirits,” Hartley defines “traces” as “miniature Vibrations” (1:70).
3. seizing every handle: In 1768, Sterne responded to a gift from Dr. John Eustace by replying: “Your walking stick is in no sense more shandaic than in that of its having more handles than one——The parallel breaks only in this, that in using the stick, every one will take the handle which suits his convenience. In Tristram Shandy, the handle is taken which suits their passions, their ignorance or sensibility” (Letters, 411).
4. plain into a city: Cf. Sentimental Journey (6:36–37) for the important use of a similar metaphor.
5. Lunel … Muscatto … MONTPELLIER: The town of Lunel, known for its Muscat, is located northeast of the large city of Montpellier, where Sterne stayed five months in 1763 and 1764.
6. carousal … running at the ring of pleasure: Carousal (noisy, drunken merrymaking) leads to bawdy sexual metaphors as well as the pun on “carousel” or tournament. The mule’s “dead point” or charge is part of the latter, along with the attempt to put a lance through the metaphorical “ring.” Sterne reworks this last metaphor in Sentimental Journey (6:65).
7. saint Boogar: i.e., bougre, or bugger. Needless to say, there is no such saint.
8. cursed slit in thy petticoat: New notes that the phrase may be drawn from Samuel Butler’s Genuine Remains (1759).
9. Gascoigne roundelay: “a short simple song with a refrain” (OED) of Gascony.
10. VIVA … TRISTESSA: Long live Joy! Fie upon Sadness. Work notes that “fidon” (fi donc) is probably the way Sterne heard the Provençal accent.
11. nut brown maid: The old folk ballad of that name was given renewed popularity by Matthew Prior’s recasting of it in Henry and Emma (1708).
12. Perdrillo’s: Sterne’s error (or the typesetter’s) for Pringello’s. The itinerary is similar to Sterne’s in 1762.
VOL. VIII
CHAP. I
1. cabbage planter: The sexual meaning of the term is clearer here than on its first appearance in the passage to which Tristram directs the reader.
2. Freeze-land, Fog-land: As in the case of his use of “foutre-land” for France (Letters, 214), Sterne may have actual countries in mind. Iceland would be likely for the former.
CHAP. II
1. I begin … second: Cf. Montaigne,