The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman - Laurence Sterne [329]
2. period: sentence (of Tristram’s); often, as here, rhetorically elaborate.
3. milk of human nature: cf. Macbeth, “the milk of human kindness” (1.5.17).
CHAP. XXVI
1. heart … better for it: This may be a tenet of Sterne’s own sentimentalism. See Letters, 256, and Yorick in Sentimental Journey (6:44).
2. A Devil … Turk: from Burton, who quotes it from R[obert] T[ofte] (3.2.4, 538), as Ferriar had noted (1:116).
3. poor in spirit: Matthew 5:3. Cash suggests that this wry account may be based upon an actual event (Early and Middle Years, 255).
4. battle of Wynendale: in Flanders, September 28, 1708 (Tindal, 4:84–85).
CHAP. XXVII
1. gap’d: serrated or notched (OED).
CHAP. XXVIII
1. te Deum: a prayer of thanksgiving for victory.
2. steep: The OED cites Sterne alone for this jocular figurative use of a drink (soaking with liquor) to mean “initiate or celebrate.”
3. pipes: small pipes of clay used to produce curls (see OED, which gives Sterne as first illustration).
4. scarlet breeches turn’d … red plush ones: In William Wycherley’s The Plain Dealer, the Widow Blackacre complains that every man “with a pair of turn’d red Breeches, and a broad Back, thinks to carry away any Widow” (2.1), and in the same scene Novel takes “red Breeches” as a sign of “courage.”
CHAP. XXIX
1. chalk: to make the sword shine.
CHAP. XXXI
1. Hilarion the hermit: Burton (3.2.5.1, 542) quotes St. Jerome on St. Hilarion (c. 291–c. 371), an anchorite of Palestine.
CHAP. XXXIII
1. the Brain or Liver: Cf. VI, xxix, n. 2; xxxvi above, both of which concern Toby. Sterne revisits the passage of Burton on which he draws heavily in the latter (3.1.1.2, 409; see also 413).
2. milk of human nature: See xxv, n. 3, above.
3. Asiatick monarch: one with absolute control over his subjects.
4. gymnicks: gymnastics. Florida notes that Burton uses this term for sexual activity (2.2.2, 240).
5. nolens, volens: unwilling or willing (Latin).
6. Plato: What follows comes from discussions of Plato by Ficino (1433–99), Valesius (Francisco de Vallés, 1524–92), clearly not a subject of the former’s commentaries, and others in Burton, as above (3.1.1.2, 409). Cf. VI, xxxvi, n. 1. The distinction between the “rational” and the “natural” is attributed by Burton to Leon Hebræus, who was also known as Jehuda Leone and Leone Ebreo (411). Pausanias is quoted on Venus, Jupiter, and Dione.
7. golden chain: Burton quotes Lucian on the golden chain from heaven as a source of love (3.1.1.2, 410), but the image goes back to Homer.
8. procreation of children: Ficino in Burton (3.1.1.2, 410) considers this “as necessary as that finding out of truth,” though not specifically the problem of the longitude at sea. Cf. III, xxix, n. 1.
9. replenishes … paradise: Mrs. Shandy and Slop’s opposition comes from Burton, partly quoting Catullus: “marriage replenisheth the earth, but virginity Paradise” (3.2.5.3, 566).
CHAP. XXXIV
1. affects: an obsolete usage (Sterne’s is the last illustration in the OED): “to have a liking for,” “to show a preference for,” “to love.”
2. fourth general division: of his sermon.
3. baldness: The association of baldness and impotence or effeminacy was very ancient.
4. tongs and poker: with a pun on “poker.”
5. Rabelais, or Scarron, or Don Quixote: Sterne’s own tradition of writers. Paul Scarron’s (1610–60) Le Roman Comique (1651) provided the basis for Sterne’s understanding of the “comic romance.”
6. Stick a pin … shirt: The shirt is pinned at the top so that skin does not show. Walter wishes to avoid arousal.
7. thou must eat … them: Sterne recurs to one passage in Burton used before (3.2.5.1, 543) for the vegetables and another (1.2.2.1) for the meat and fowl.
VOL. IX
EPIGRAPH
1. Si quid … capias: A shortened version of Burton