The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman - Laurence Sterne [335]
gorge: the neck or entrance of a bastion or other outwork.
half-moon: “an outwork resembling a bastion with a crescent-shaped gorge, constructed to protect a bastion or curtain” (OED). Toby discusses its meaning in II, xii.
horn-work: an outwork consisting of two demi-bastions joined by a curtin;also, ouvrage à cornes. The term lends itself to puns on cuckoldry.
lodgement: defensive trench near or within the enemy position with cast-up earth protecting the position.
mantelet: a blind; a movable shelter used to cover the approach of men-at-arms when besieging a fortified place.
mattock: a soldier’s digging tool with a spade at one end and an axlike adze at the other.
mine: an underground tunnel dug beneath the enemy fortifications.
mole: a massive stonework protecting a port from the sea or from invasion.
orgues: “thick long pieces of wood pointed and shod with iron … ready on any … attempt of the enemy to be let down to stop up the gate” (Chambers). They were on separate ropes and considered more modern than the portcullis.
outworks: defensive works built, dug, or placed beyond the moat or ditch of a fortification.
paderero: “a small piece of ordnance, used on board ships for the discharging of nails [etc.] on an enemy attempting to board” (Chambers).
palisado: palisade; stockade; a defensive wall or barrier consisting of sharpened stakes set upright and close together for defense.
parallels: trenches dug by the besieging army parallel to the enemy’s ramparts in an attempt to get progressively closer to the fortification.
parapet: the earth or stone wall of a fortification that protects and conceals troops.
petard: an explosive charge used by attackers to cause a breach in a wall or blow in a gate or door.
place: a fortified place, a fortress.
polygon: typical shape of a fortification.
portcullis: “a sort of machine like a harrow, hung over the gates of a city, to be let down to keep out an enemy” (Johnson’s Dictionary); serves the same purpose as the orgues.
rampart: the main outer wall of a fortress.
ravelin: a small earthwork with only two faces. Toby discusses its meaning in II, xii.
redans: an earthwork, generally smaller than a ravelin and saw-toothed for use in defending others.
redoubt: a small fortification at some distance from the main one.
returning angle: angle with the point turned toward the rear.
salient angle: angle with the point toward the enemy.
sally port: a gate, smaller than the main gate, through which soldiers suddenly exit in a counterattack.
sap: a tunnel dug to undermine fortifications, such as a curtin.
scarp: the inner wall or steep slope of the ditch surrounding a fort below the rampart.
talus (of the glacis): angle of slope to support the weight of a rampart or bastion. tenaille: see double tenaille.
terras: terrace; in military usage, thrown up by a besieger.
traverse: a trench with a parapet or two.
APPENDIX
The Sorbonne Memoir
Several eighteenth-century translations of this excerpt exist, and the translation here follows for the most part Jeremiah Kunastrokius [pseud.], Explanatory Remarks upon the Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy (London, 1760), 14–21. In a few cases I have substituted a word from John Astruc’s The Art of Midwifery (London, 1767), 216–20, which translates the original rather than Sterne’s version. I have occasionally changed words or punctuation to make the meaning clearer, to avoid an inaccurate translation, or to correct errors. Both translations use the term syringe for petite canulle. The translation reverses the use of italics and roman in the original. The Latin of St. Thomas has not been translated because the Sorbonne professors largely accomplish that. The use of memorial for memorandum is typical of the eighteenth century.
A MEMORIAL Presented to the Doctors of the SORBONNE
A surgeon and man-midwife represents to the gentlemen of the Sorbonne, that there are some cases, though very uncommon, wherein a mother cannot be delivered, and even when the child is so