Wayne C. Booth - Did Sterne Complete Tristram Shandy

Did Sterne Complete "Tristram Shandy?
"
Author(s): Wayne Booth
Source: Modern Philology, Vol. 48, No. 3 (Feb., 1951), pp. 172-183
Published by: The University of Chicago Press
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/435387
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DID STERNE COMPLETE TRISTRAM SHANDY?
WAYNE BOOTH
he never revises,
UNTIL recently, nearly everyone has that he has no control
assumed that Tristram Shandy is that whatever pops into his
over his pen,
a careless, haphazard book, head with
goes into his book; and the book
little or no deliberate structure. Sterne's reads, from page to page, as if his state-
contemporaries established the tradition ments about it were certainly true. Di-
by praising or blaming the book in terms gression upon digression, afterthoughts,
of its oddity and the eccentricity of delays,
its apologies-if, with all this, the
author. Goldsmith, for example, said that reader is bombarded with claims that all is
the book "had no other merit upon earth chaos, he can hardly believe otherwise.
than nine hundred and ninety-five breaks, Perhaps even more responsible for the
seventy-two ha ha's, three good things, traditional criticism of the work is the his-
and a garter," and, speaking indirectly tory of of its composition and publication,
Sterne himself, whom he clearly confused coupled with Sterne's statements about
with Tristram, he said: "in one page the his writing methods and future intentions.
author [makes] . . . them [the readers]It awas published in five parts over a period
low bow, and in the next [pulls] ... them of more than seven years. Some of the
by the nose; he must talk in riddles, and later volumes contain materials that
then send them to bed to dream of the Sterne could not have known when he be-
solution."' gan to write, and thus could not have
In the nineteenth century, even those planned to put into his book. What is
critics who liked Sterne's works perpetu- more, the narrator repeatedly tells us that
ated the standard opinion about the book he intends to go on publishing two vol-
as a whole; as Bagehot said, Tristram umes a year until death overtakes him, or
Shandy is "a book without plan or order,""for the next forty years," and Sterne re-
whose greatest defect is "the fantastic dis- peated this claim in letters and conversa-
order of the form."2 And even today it is tions outside the work. Yet his fifth in-
fairly common to read fresh statements of stalment consisted of only one volume,
the old judgment.3 There are, of course, the ninth, and within a few months after
many seemingly valid reasons for this be- its publication Sterne died. If, as he said,
lief that Sterne produced a "salmagundi of he really saw the possibility of eighty
odds and ends recklessly compounded."4volumes or more and if he wrote every-
Tristram Shandy, the narrator, says thatthing into his book that came to mind, it
1 The citizen of the world, Letter LIII (Public ledger, would be foolish to claim that the result
June 30, 1760).
is anything other than a hodge-podge.
2 Walter Bagehot, Literary studies (4th ed.; Lon-
don, 1891), II, 104. Some recent critics have discovered,
3 Arthur Calder-Marshall, "Laurence Sterne," however, that Sterne planned at least
The English novelists (London, 1936), p. 90: "Tristram
Shandy is technically a hotch-potch, without even large parts of the book with more care
the unity of mood in Burton's Anatomy of Melan- than his public attitude would suggest.
choly."
4 Ernest A. Baker, The history of the English novel,
Perhaps the best summary of this tend-
IV (London, 1930), 244. ency to discover method in Sterne's mad-
[MODERN PHILOLOGY, February, 1951] 172
DID STERNE COMPLETE "TRISTRAM SHANDY"? 173
tionably
ness is that of James Aiken Work, inlogical
his sequence--by association--of
edition of Tristram Shandy: ideas in Tristram Shandy.5
The book was planned and written, That

forno
the
one has cared to go beyond this
most part, slowly and with care. statement to discover more evidence of
It actually employs several structural devices
planning or structure is not in the least
of importance (aside from the "continuity
surprising,of since it has been universally
characters" which Coleridge has noted), and"Sterne did not live to con-
assumed that
in the development of its matter is frequently
tinue the book."6 If it is unfinished, the
quite.. . logical.
basic judgment of the book's form must
The most obvious structural device in
always remain about as Work leaves it.
Shandy is the simple one of veritable chronol-
Sterne's work was not so haphazard as
ogy.... Anyone who chooses may search out
a complete time-scheme extending with but
has been believed, but questions of form
and unity of the kind one asks about more
one or two negligible inconsistencies from
1680... to 1766. conventional works are not relevant. The
book's chief element of cohesion is the
And the leading overt actions of the story,
"association of the author's ideas"; and
developed through two overlapping sequences,
even if, as is unlikely, Sterne planned the
are arranged within each sequence in perfectly
pattern of associations far in advance of
chronological order. In the first sequence,
which deals with my father and his household,
his actual writing, the pattern remained
Tristram is begot, born, and baptized.incomplete
... The at his death. Tristram Shandy
scene then [in the middle of Vol. VI] changes
couldtohave ended with any volume just as
the bowling-green, whence... we follow wellto
as with Volume IX or could have
the end of the book the fortunes of my Uncle
Toby. gone on after Volume IX to an indefinite
number of volumes. Thus from this point
There is. . . evidence of his foresighted
of view the critical problem of the book
planning of many of the incidents of his story.
My father's theory of geniture, for example, can, with justification, be reduced, as it
was clearly in his mind when he wrote the invariably has been reduced, to praising
opening chapter of the book. My father's the "good" parts and condemning the
theory of names, developed in the first volume, "bad" parts or to showing that what
demands the complementary incident of Tris- others have taken for bad parts are really
tram's unfortunate christening in the fourth; good parts, and so on.
and his theory of noses, first hinted in volume Fortunately, however, there is no need
two, makes imperative the catastrophe in to be satisfied with this kind of criticism
volume three and the exposition of the theory
of the book, because in all probability the
which follows in volume four. My uncle Toby's
hobby horse is ridden a well-planned course assumption on which it is based is not
throughout the whole of the book; and his un- true. If one forgets about the traditional
fortunate amours, with which the unfinished attacks, one finds every reason to believe
work closes, are frequently alluded to in earlier not only that Sterne worked with some
volumes and were clear in Sterne's mind at thecare to tie his major episodes together but
outset of his work. that, with his ninth volume, he completed
But the most important structural device is the book as he had originally conceived it.
the principle of the association of ideas uponAlthough there is no way of knowing how
which the whole progression of the book ismany volumes he originally intended to
based.
8 James Aiken Work, Tristram Shandy (New York,
Amusing but precarious.., is the reader's 1940), pp. xlvi-li.
pursuit of the devious but almost unexcep- 6 Ibid., p. 647, n. 5.
174 WAYNE BOOTH
write, there can

becamebe little
rather close question
friends.1' Griffith, who
even as he wrote the first volume he had a later was to write the Koran in imitation
fairly clear idea of what his final volume-- of Sterne, wrote to a friend on September
whatever its eventual number--would 10, 1767-that is, nine months after Vol-
contain. ume IX was completed: "Tristram and
There is, one must begin by admitting, Triglyph [Griffith's narrator's name] have
ample external evidence in his letters that entered into a League offensive and defen-
Sterne originally intended to use more sive, against all opponents in Literature.
than nine volumes in the narration of his
We have, at the same time, agreed never
to write any more Tristrams or Triglyphs.
materials. Even as late as July 23, 1766--
that is, a little more than five months be-I am to stick to Andrews and he to
Yoric.""
fore he actually completed the ninth vol-
ume-he wrote to a friend: "At present I All this certainly suggests the possi-
am in my peaceful retreat, writing the bility of such a change of intention before
ninth volume of Tristram-I shall pub-completion of the ninth volume: Sterne
lish but one this year, and the next I shallsaid in July, 1766, that he would write one
begin a new work of four volumes, whichmore volume, then write four of A senti-
when finished, I shall continue Tristram mental journey, then go back to Tristram
with fresh spirit."7 One month later, on Shandy; in August he said he would write
August 30, he wrote to his publisher, two "I more volumes first; in September of
shall publish the 9th and 10 of Shandy thethe following year he swore to write no
next winter."s And, finally, a laconic
more Tristrams. It is also perhaps signifi-
statement to "***" on the sixth of Janu- cant that between August 30 and his
ary, 1767: "I miscarried of my tenth vol-death he never mentions any possibilities
ume by the violence of a fever I just gotof continuation, although he mentions A
through."' sentimental journey frequently. There is
It would be impossible to argue, in the no comparable period of silence about
light of these statements, that Sterne in- future plans at any time between 1759
tended only nine volumes, unless he and 1767.
changed his plans after the letter of Au- The fact that Sterne showed signs of
gust 30. The statement made on January growing tired of Tristram and that he was
6, after completion, is, of course, equivo- repeatedly advised to drop his comic vein
cal. It could mean, "I miscarried perma- and do more with his pathetic line cor-
nently" or "temporarily." If we had no roborates this possibility. In reviewing
other evidence, we should have to con- Volumes VII and VIII, the Monthly re-
clude that he meant temporarily. view (February, 1765) said, "The public,
But there is one bit of external evidence if I guess right, will have had enough, by
which argues the possibility of a change of the time they get to the end of your eighth
plan between August 30 and the comple- volume"; and the reviewer went on to
tion of the ninth volume sometime late in urge a return to the pathetic and moral
December (publication date, January 30, vein. Curtis interprets this12 as a possible
1767). In September, 1767, Sterne met incentive for a temporary shift, but it
Richard Griffith at Scarborough, and they might just as well have made him decide
Letters of Laurence Sterne, ed. Lewis P. Curtis 10 See J. M. S. Tomkins, "Triglyph and Tristram,"
(Oxford, 1935), p. 284. TLS, July 11, 1929.
s Ibid., p. 288. 11 Curtis, p. 398.
9 Ibid., p. 294. 12 Ibid., p. 285.
to complete Tristram Shandy and further

drop itevents of his own life or of Uncle
Toby's
permanently. And the only statements weamours. Then he wrote an instal-
have from Sterne about the writing mentof and concluded it with no promise,
Volume IX indicate that it went very
either general or particular. So that the
hard and that he was growing tired last chapter-the one which, if the book
of the
book.'3 was really unfinished, should conclude
Finally, it should be noted that for nothing and leave us waiting for another
seven years Sterne produced no real lit- instalment-contains nothing but Oba-
erary work other than his instalments of diah's interruption of Walter's tirade
Tristram Shandy. Although there was one against lust, leading to my mother's
period of three years in which no volumesquestion:
were published, during a large part of L--d! said my mother, what is all this story
that time we know he was trying to writeabout?-
Volumes VII and VIII and not succeed- A COCK and a BULL, said Yorick- A
ing. His entire creative effort for seven
of the best of its kind, I ever heard.
years, then, went into this book. Yet withThere is no indication whatever
the publication of the last volume we further possibility for the story,
have, he stopped completely any effort to upon expectations of the kind to b
write further, began another novel some in all the conclusions of the other instal-
time within the next five months, and ments. What is more, in the entire last in-
published two out of the intended four stalment there are absolutely none of the
volumes just before his death. There arepromises that fill the rest of the book. If
no remains or fragments of further vol- Sterne intended to write further volumes,
umes of Tristram Shandy, as there would it seems rather curious that, having shown
have been had he died a few months afterthrough eight volumes his knowledge of
publishing any one of the preceding instal-
how to titillate his readers' curiosity, he
ments. With all this in mind, one is cer-
should suddenly lose that knowledge or
tainly justified in looking rather closely decide
at not to apply it.
the nine volumes for internal evidence of There are many other features about
Sterne's intentions. this last volume which suggest that it was
We may consider first Sterne's instal-intended to be the last. For instance, in
ment conclusions. Even unskilful writersthe last chapter, for the first time in the
who publish serially usually concentrate whole work, all the major characters are
at the end of each instalment whatever brought together in one room, to listen to
suspense may lead the reader to buy andthe final statement about a cock-and-bull
read further instalments. It seems initiallystory: Mother, Father, Uncle Toby, Dr.
significant, then, though certainly notSlop, Obadiah, Trim, and Yorick-all ex-
conclusive, that, of Sterne's five instal-cept the Widow Wadman, who is by now
ments, all but the last conclude with chap-doubly an outsider, and Tristram, who is
ters concerned primarily with promises not born yet. The whole scene is thus
for future material. Sterne thus concludedstrikingly like a parody of the conven-
each of four instalments with chapterstional conclusion with a comic eclaircisse-
containing general promises of difficultiesment. Again, the dedication of Volume IX
and hazards, beauties and blemishes, and,begins:
more important, particular promises for Having, a priori, intended to dedicate The
13 Ibid., p. 290. Amours of my uncle Toby to Mr. *** [Pitt]-
176 WAYNE BOOTH
I see more Tristram's

reasons, misadventures, hefor
a posteriori, takes up
doing
Lord *******
[Chatham].
with Uncle Toby. Thus Cross, speaking of
the beginning
The same good-will that of Volume
made V, says:
me thin
offering up half At
an hours'
the outset amusement
of his work, Sterne was uncer-
*** when out of place-operates more
tain, any reader may see, as to the course his fo
at present, as half story
anwas hour's
to run.... Theamusement
narrative moved on w
more serviceable.., .after labour and so
heavily.
than after a philosophical
Sterne knew instinctivelyrepast.
that he could not
Sterne had dedicated the
continue longer second
on the oddities of Mr. Shandy, edition
and escape theto
the first instalment danger of writing himself
Pitt. out.
Certainly
use of a priori . . . He therefore
and passed to the kitchen of
a posteriori, in con
Shandy Hall and
tion with the first and over to my lastuncle Toby's
instalm
bowling green for a set of characters not yet so
seems rather peculiar if no conclus
far exhausted.14
intended.
Once one starts to look for them, suchRemnants of this attitude persist even
details begin to pop up in really surprising among critics who have spent a good deal
numbers. But since in themselves they of time and energy opposing it. Putney,
are at best inconclusive and would per- for example, who has done perhaps more
haps continue to be so even if collected by than any other one man to restore Sterne's
the hundreds, it will be necessary beforereputation as a conscious comic artist,
assembling them to get at more important nevertheless sees Uncle Toby's story as an
and more difficult matters. The crucial excrescence on an otherwise impeccable
question about Volume IX concerns Un-Tristram Shandy:
cle Toby's amours: his affair with the The assumption of Tristram's mind pro-
Widow Wadman, which has been our vides
ma- also the chief structural device of the
book. In the fragment we possess, very little
jor concern for several volumes, is perma-
nently completed just three chaptersofbe-
Tristram's life is narrated, but he was once
destined to play a larger part than Sterne's
fore the book closes. If one is to go beyond
the relatively unimportant problem fate of allowed him to fulfill. Up to chapter xx
whether or not Sterne grew tired ofofhis
Volume VI, the misadventures of Tristram's
life provide the skeleton on which the digres-
book and got rid of it, and treat the funda-
sions are hung ... This [a passage promising
mental problem of whether or not he
an account of the troubles resulting from Tris-
wrote a book which is in any sense a com-tram's flattened nose] and other passages in
pleted whole, it will be necessary to con-
the novel make it clear that as he commenced
sider in some detail just what significance
the book Sterne intended to follow Tristram's
the completion of these amours has career in into manhood with a series of humilia-
terms of the book as a whole. tions and petty disasters.
For those who view the novel in the The abandonment of this scheme in the
conventional manner, this must seemmiddle
a of Volume VI for the interpolation of
fantastic pursuit. It is, for them, the very
Uncle Toby's wars, his amour with the Widow
nature of Tristram Shandy that its parts Wadman, and Tristram's travels has obscured
do not relate in any fundamental way the to structural unity (on the principle of the
one another. Sterne (and, for them, Sterneassociation of ideas) that prevailed for the first
five and a half volumes. All but a few brief and
and Tristram are the same) cavorts along
his planless way and talks of whatever he14 Wilbur L. Cross, The life and times of Laurence
Sterne (3d ed.; New Haven: Yale University Press,
stumbles upon. When he grows tired 1929),
of pp. 278-79.
unimportant digressions are connected

fied inwith
looking rather closely at the claim
that suddenly, after five and a half vol-
the accidents that befall Tristram.'5
There follows an excellent account of the umes of superb artistry, he became a
interconnections of the first five and a bumbler.
half volumes, with perhaps the strongest Actually, it does not take very careful
praise for Sterne's structural gifts ever reading to discover that, as Work dimly
made: "Up to this point Tristram Shandy suggests in the passage quoted above,
is as thoughtfully constructed and as uni- there are only two main story-threads in
fied as Tom Jones." Then the man with Tristram Shandy: the story of the young
Tristram, before and after birth, and the
the structural gifts of a Fielding is made
story of Uncle Toby. More important,
to change his fundamental design to satis-
fy a few prudes: they run simultaneously; there is no real
shift of direction to match the announced
The probable cause for the alteration in
shift in the sixth volume. The details of
Sterne's design was the clamor against the
Uncle
double entendre and downright indecencies of Toby's campaigns and amours have
the second installment. Possibly he also
been promised again and again, beginning
in Volume I, and the misfortunes of Tris-
realized that Walter's hypotheses were growing
slightly stale. Still the compromise he made
tram's youth pervade the remainder of
was minor. He shifted his subject to the more
the book (to say nothing of the fact which
poignant humor of Uncle Toby's activities,Putney does notice-that Tristram, the
but the consistency of Tristram's character as
adult narrator, persists as one of the cen-
narrator and consequently the tone and com-
tral interests fully as much after the
edy were scrupulously maintained.1'
"shift" as before).
The assumption that the book is lessThe first volume has not been long un-
bawdy after Volume VI than before,deral- way before we are introduced to Un-
though a somewhat amusing one in thecle Toby's campaigns, which ostensibly
light of the sustained bawdry of the court-
do not begin until Volume VI. But even
ships of Corporal Trim and Uncle Toby, before his Hobby-Horse, which is his cam-
does not concern us primarily here. paigning,
But is presented to us, we are given
the assumption that the shift Tristram
a passage on his modesty:
announces in chapter xx of this volumeMy uncle TOBY SHANDY, Madam, was a
was not planned from the very beginning
gentleman, who.., .possessed.., .a most ex-
of Sterne's writing is of primary concern,
treme and unparallel'd modesty of nature;-
particularly since it comes in a passage the
tho' I correct the word nature, for this reason,
main point of which is to declare Sterne's
that I may not prejudge a point which must
structural artistry. Our attitude toward
shortly come to a hearing, and that is, Whether
this modesty of his was natural or acquir'd.
the book as a whole and toward the prob-
lem of its completion depends on what -
weWhichever way my uncle Toby came by
it, 'twas nevertheless modesty in the truest
think is happening when Tristram an-
sense of it.
nounces that he is dropping his story and
taking up the story of his Uncle Toby.He got it, Madam, by a blow.., .from a
And if Sterne is really as skilful a crafts- stone, broke off by a ball from the parapet of
a horn-work at the siege of Namur, which
man as Putney says, one is certainly justi-
struck full upon my uncle Toby's groin.--
1f Rufus D. S. Putney, "Laurence Sterne, apostle
of laughter," The age of Johnson: Essays presented to
Which way could that affect it? The story of
C. B. Tinker (New Haven, 1949), p. 163. that, Madam, is long and interesting;- but
16 Ibid., pp. 164-65. it would be running my history all upon heaps
178 WAYNE BOOTH
to give it you here.- 'Tis

In what manner a plain for an episo
man, with nothing
but common sense, could bear up againstrelating
after; and every circumstance two
such allies in science,-
its proper place, shall is hard to conceive.
be faithfully laid
you [Vol. I,
chap. - You may conjecture upon it, if you please,
xxi].
--and whilst your imagination is in motion,
Thus when this first volume ends with a
you may encourage it to go on, and discover
description of Uncle Toby's wound and by of what causes and effects in nature it could
its effects on his Hobby-Horse, the atten-
come to pass, that my uncle Toby got his mod-
tive reader already suspects that Toby esty
is by the wound he received upon his groin.
to figure as prominently in the book -as You may raise a system to account for the
Tristram, and, without knowing it, he hasloss of my nose by marriage articles,- and
been given the basic facts of the Toby- shew the world how it could happen, that I
Wadman denouement. should have the misfortune to be called TRIS-
The first five chapters of Volume TRAM,

II in opposition to my father's hypothesis,
and the wish of the whole family, God-fathers
deal with further background events of
and God-mothers not excepted.- These,
the campaigns, concluding:
with fifty other points left yet unraveled, you
How my uncle Toby and Corporal Trim
may endeavour to solve if you have time;-
managed this matter,- with the history but
of I tell you before-hand it will be in vain, for
their campaigns, which were no way barrennot
of the sage Alquife, the magician in Don
events,- may make no uninteresting under-
Belianis of Greece... could pretend to come
plot in the epitasis and working-up of this
within a league of the truth.
drama.-At present the scene must drop,The reader will be content to wait for a full
-and change for the parlour fire-side. explanation of these matters till the next year,
-when a series of things will be laid open
And we go to the parlor fireside to await
which he little expects.
the birth of Tristram. But the many
Now besides the resolution of the immedi-
exigencies surrounding his delivery are
ate scene, there are only three events ex-
interspersed with hints and promises of
plicitly promised in this conclusion. Two
what is to come, with ever increasing allu-
of them concern the young Tristram, and
sions to Uncle Toby's hobby and amours
they are given in Volumes III and IV.
and with perhaps even more suspense
The other concerns Uncle Toby's mod-
concerning Uncle Toby than concerning
esty: the reader discovers how Uncle Toby
Tristram, whenever promises of future
got his modesty as a result of his wound
volumes and chapters are made. For
only in the third to the last chapter of
example:
Volume IX!
I know nothing at all about them [women], In the second instalment, Volumes III
- replied my uncle Toby: And I think, con-
and IV (January, 1761), Tristram tells
tinued he, that the shock I received the year
the story of Trim's affair with the Widow
after the demolition of Dunkirk, in my affair
with widow Wadman;- which shock you Wadman's servant, Bridget, pretending
that it must be told to make clear the in-
know I should not have received, but from my
total ignorance of the sex-has given me just cident of the broken nose-bridge. He says:
cause to say, That I neither know nor do pre- The story, in one sense, is certainly out of its
tend to know any thing about 'em or their con- place here; for by right it should come in,
cerns either [Vol. II, chap. vii]. either amongst the anecdotes of my uncle
Toby's amours with widow Wadman, in which
The first instalment (January, 1760) corporal Trim was no mean actor,-or else
then concludes with these two paragraphs: in the middle of his and my uncle Toby's cam-
paigns on the bowling-green- forauthor,

it willshall
do counterbalance the many evils
very well in either place;-- butwhich
then have
ifbefallen
I thee as a man- thou
reserve it for either of those parts of my story,
wilt
all feast remembrance
sense upon the one-.when thou hast lost
- I ruin the story I'm upon,- and if and
I tell of the other!-
it here- I anticipate matters, andNoruin
wonder
itI itch so much as I do, to get at
there [Vol. III, chap. xxiii]. these amours- They are the choicest morsel
of my whole story! and when I do get at 'em
And Tristram gives an even more explicit
- assure yourselves, good folks,- (nor do
prediction of the events of Volume IX in
I value whose squeamish stomach takes of-
the succeeding chapter: fence at it) I shall not be at all nice in the
Tho' the shock my uncle Toby received the
choice of my words;.., .the thing I hope is,
year after the demolition of Dunkirk, in worships
that your his and reverences are not
affair with widow Wadman, had fixed him in a
offended- if you are, depend upon't I'll give
resolution never more to think of the sex....
you something, my good gentry, next year, to
After a series of attacks and repulses in a be offended at- that's my dear Jenny's way
course of nine months on my uncle Toby's - but who my Jenny is- and which is the
quarter, a most minute account of every par-right and which the wrong end of a woman, is
ticular of which shall be given in its proper the thing to be concealed- it shall be told
place, my uncle Toby, honest man! found ityou the next chapter but one, to my chapter
necessary to draw off his forces and raise theof button-holes,- and not one chapter
siege somewhat indignantly [Vol. III, chap. before.
xxiv].
The fourth volume concludes thus: Here the only long-range promise that
has anything to do with what has gone
In less than five minutes I shall have thrown
before or that is ever mentioned again is
my pen into the fire-I have but half a
score things to do in the time- I have a the promise of the "choicest morsel of my
thing to name--a thing to lament-a-- whole story," Uncle Toby's amours. This
thing to hope... and a thing to pray for.- choicest morsel is what we are given in
This chapter, therefore, I name the chapter of the ninth volume. When it comes, Sterne
THINGS- and my next chapter to it, that is, is careful to remind us of its central im-
the first chapter of my next volume, if I live, portance: he has been hastening all along
shall be my chapter upon WHISKERS, in order toward it, Tristram says, knowing "it to
to keep up some sort of connection in my be the choicest morsel of what I had to
works. offer to the world."
The thing I lament is, that things have
It should perhaps be emphasized that
crowded in so thick upon me, that I have not
all these explicit promises have been given
been able to get into that part of my work,
towards which I have all the way looked for- to us long before the "interpolation" of
wards, with so much earnest desire; and that Uncle Toby's amours into the story, in
is the campaigns, but especially the amours of Volume VI. And they are explicitly for the
my uncle Toby, the events of which are of so exact event as it occurs in the ninth vol-
singular a nature, and so Cervantick a cast, ume. No other future events are promised
that if I can so manage it, as to convey but the nearly so often or with such consistency
same impressions to every other brain, which and particularity." And, as we would ex-
the occurrences themselves excite in my own
-I will answer for it the book shall make 17 There are, of course, some unfulfilled "promises"
when the book closes. But a careful tabulation of
its way in the world, much better than itstoo
them, lengthy to insert here, shows that none of
master has done before it- Oh Tristram! them is ever made in such a way as to arouse serious
expectations. Practically all of them are, in fact, imi-
Tristram! can this but be once broughttations
about of similar kinds of promises made in the pre-
-the credit, which will attend thee cursors
as anof Tristram Shandy (see n. 21, below).
180 WAYNE BOOTH
pect from these ninth volume (January, 1767)

promises, thereis almost is an
increasing concentration
entirely concerned with theseon
amours Uncle
and
in the remainderdescribes
of the book.
them in their entirety.The
Once thi
stalment, Volumes V and
Uncle Toby "receives VI
his modesty," his (Jan
story is completely
1762), contains the beginning of U exhausted; our long-
Toby's amours: herange interest
falls in himinhas been
lovegratifiedin t
and all particular
four chapters, and we expectations
are told fulfilled. to e
the descriptive This
details in
happens in the third later
to the last chap- cha
The last chapter,ter: the amours are
the completed with Uncle
famous chapt
narrative lines, Toby's discovery of theonly
contains source for the one e
Widow Wadman's
promise for future "humanity."
material of any
It thus seems thoroughly
except for the promise to try plausible that,
harder
from the beginning,
the story in a straight Sterne planned
line: "I am the no
structure of the book
ginning to get fairly as an elaborate
into my and wor
by the help of a prolonged
vegitable contradictiondiet,
of his title-page.
with
of the cold seeds,
For this I make
purpose, one major no
shift of doubt
atten-
shall be able to go
tion, on with
if sufficiently my
surrounded withuncle
a mul-
story, and my own,tiplicity of
in minor shifts, is all that is str
a tolerable
line." needed: begin by pretending to tell the
In the fourth instalment (January, life and opinions of Tristram Shandy and
1765), after the trip abroad in Volume end by telling the amours and campaigns
VII, which fulfils his promise to go on with of Uncle Toby, concluding the whole ac-
his own story, Volume VIII begins the count four years before the birth of your
amours in earnest, though of course in the original hero. Whether, as Putney sug-
same playful, digressive manner that has gests, Sterne originally intended to do a
been used throughout, circling about thelot of other things besides is hard to deter-
subject, telling first of Trim's amours, and mine. It does seem likely that he con-
concluding with the elaborate prepara- sidered many possible alternative digres-
tions for "the attack" by Uncle Toby andsions on his main line; for example, it is
Trim, and the preparations of my fatherprobable that he once contemplated fol-
and my mother to walk down to the lowing Tristram's father and the family on
Widow Wadman's, "to countenance him a fairly detailed journey through Europe,
in this attack of his": and later, as a result of his own trip
My uncle Toby and the corporal had beenabroad, substituted an account of Tris-
accoutred both some time, when my father and tram's journey alone. But his main line
remained unchanged. As Putney shows,
mother enter'd, and the clock striking eleven,
were that moment in motion to sally forth- Tristram's misadventures dominate the
but the account of this is worth more, than to
first few volumes; all the "digressions" of
be wove into the fag end of the eighth volume
these volumes cohere as tightly as Tris-
of such a work as this.-
tram, in his more sanguine moments,
Thus each of the first four instalments
claims. And, as we have seen, the only
concludes with a chapter in which the sizable body of material in the first part
promises concern either Uncle Toby's not dependent upon Tristram's story is
amours and Tristram's life or, once the the account of Uncle Toby's Hobby-
events of that "life" are completed and Horse, which, with his amours, dominates
dropped, Uncle Toby's amours alone. The the last part of the book. What seems to
have been his abiding intention ginning

has beento juxtapose Toby's and Trim's
carried out; there are no unexhausted
stories at the end of his novel. At the very
lines of expectation, once Trimleast,
reveals
it is clear that Sterne is here, as else-
the truth about the Widow's humanity.'8
where throughout the last volume, using
Once we accept this hypothesis as
up whatever good materials his earlier
promises
plausible, the signs of finality in make available.
the last
volume itself, and particularly in Similarly,
the last the dclaircissement-like scene
chapters, are much more striking.atFor
the conclusion,
ex- which is hard to justify
if we assume that the novel is to continue,
ample, in each of the first two instalments
we are promised the story of Trim's makes very good sense as a summation of
brother's courtship of the Jew's widow, the whole novel. Yorick's final statement
in Spain."1 In both cases the seemingly to the assembled cast of characters is that
pointless detail is stressed that the Jew'sthe "story" is about "A COCK and a BULL."
wife "sold sausages." Only when the story The "story" as a whole consists, as we
is finally told to us in Volume IX do wehave seen, of the substitution of one
learn why. The account comes as a pre- story-thread for another-Toby's for
liminary to Uncle Toby's visit to the Tristram's. Yorick's phrase thus refers
Widow's, and with its bawdy scene ofnot only to Obadiah's immediate problem,
courtship over a sausage machine--a which it neatly summarizes, but also to the
scene which could not take place withoutwhole book, the first word epitomizing
the sausage machine-it is a perfect build-the whole story of Uncle Toby's amours,
up to the more "delicate" bawdry of the centering as they do in the Widow's con-
scenes with the Widow. It thus seems very cern about the extent of the damage to his
likely that Sterne planned from the be-groin, and the last word referring to the
is There are two possible exceptions to this. It is trick of the belied title and the topsy-
seemingly probable that the narrator will be unpre-turvy novel that results.20 What is more,
dictable, and it might be argued that, with Sterne,
anything goes. However, this is never more than a it was common for earlier facetious writers
superficial probability, since part of the pleasureto
ofcall their entire books "cock-and-bull
the work depends on our recognition that Tristram
stories"
seems not to know, yet does know, where he is going. (in French, coq-a-l'dne).21 Sterne,
In practically every case of Tristram's "irresponsi- who knew many of these works well, can
bility," as far as narrative devices are concerned, the
hardly have failed to intend this meaning
reader in the long run finds himself fooled; the caprice
was not caprice after all. Similarly, it might be argued
for the phrase when he wrote that final
that Sterne could have gone on with his own youthful
misadventures or, as Putney suggests, using as evi- line. Furthermore, the materials out of
dence Tristram's early statement, with the troubles
that resulted from the flattening of his nose. But as
which Obadiah's problem in this last chap-
for other youthful troubles, it would be hard to think ter is built are the same materials out of
of any that would lend themselves to Sterne's manner
which the first few chapters of the whole
so well as conception, birth, naming, circumcision, and
breeching; and as for the troubles resulting from thebook are built: sexual intercourse, gesta-
flattened nose, we have certainly been given them
tion periods, fertility and sterility, and, of
aplenty by the end of Vol. IX (one should note, too,
that the promise for these troubles is made in the samecourse, birth itself. The materials of my
general terms as his many other promises for chapters
and anecdotes that never materialize). I don't doubt
father's oration, also in the last chapter,
that Sterne could have managed to make us accept 20 "Bull," according to the OED, was used in the
almost anything, had he decided early enough to do so.sense of "ludicrous jest" as late as 1695; as a verb, it
But only by planning whatever was to follow Uncle meant "to make a fool of, to mock, to cheat out of," at
least as late as 1674.
Toby's amours before writing the first instalment could
he write a book which belonged as well with the con- 21 For substantiation of this and other points about
tinuing material as the entire present book belongs Tristram Shandy's precursors in this paper see my
with the present conclusion. unpublished University of Chicago dissertation, "Tris-
tram Shandy and its precursors: The self-conscious
19 Vol. II, chap. xvii; Vol. IV, chap. iv. narrator" (1950).
182 WAYNE BOOTH
are even more Chapter

explicitly similar;
xi consists of a joke on my father,
lament that generation
the point of which depends must
on our remem-tak
bering his sacrament-day
in sordid conditions, with regularities-
sordid
ments: the regularities which we learned about in
I still think and do maintain it to be a the
pity,very first chapter and which led to
Tristram's downfall:
that it should be done by means of a passion
which bends down the faculties, and turns- all
Though if it comes to persuasion -
the wisdom, contemplations, and operations
saidof
my father
the soul backwards- a passion, my dear,
- Lord have mercy upon them.
continued my father, addressing himself to Amen:
my said my mother, piano
mother, which couples and equals wise men Amen: cried my father, fortissime
with fools.
Amen: said my mother again- but with
such
It is as if he were lamenting four years in a sighing cadence of personal pity at the
advance the manner of Tristram's beget-end of it, as discomfited every fibre about my
father- he instantly took out his almanack;
ting and reprimanding his wife in advance
but before he could untie it, Yorick's congrega-
for her foolish question about the clock in
tion coming out of church, became a full an-
chapter i. In short, we have a thematicswer to one half of his business with it- and
return which seems deliberate, since mynomother telling him it was a sacrament day
other chapter in the whole work resem-
- left him as little in doubt, as to the other
bles so completely the first five chapters
part- He put his almanack into his pocket.
of Volume I. The first Lord of the Treasury thinking of
What is more, the subject matter andways and means, could not have returned
the allusions of the entire final volume are home, with a more embarrassed look.
more closely parallel to those of the first And there are other passages in Volume
volume than are those of any other vol-IX which would be very strange indeed if
ume of the work. Chapter i consists of ataken as mere stages in a much longer
lengthy discussion of Tristram's mother'sjourney. For instance, the transition be-
lack of pruriency, the quality which tween chapter xxiii, which deals with a
caused the initial incident of the book and
very close assault by the Widow Wadman,
thus indirectly produced Tristram's ca-and chapter xxiv is as follows:
priciousness and the kind of book he
Let us drop the metaphor.
writes. Her deficiency has never been dis- CHAPTER XXIV
cussed at such length before; only the - And the story too- if you please: for
first few chapters of the whole book ap- though I have all along been hastening towards
proach it. Tristram even quotes the exact this part of it, with so much earnest desire, as
words of the earlier discussion: well knowing it to be the choicest morsel of
what I had to offer to the world, yet now that
And here am I sitting, this 12th day of August,
1766, in a purple jerkin and yellow pair ofI am got to it, any one is welcome to take my
pen, and go on with the story for me that will.
slippers, without either wig or cap on, a most
tragicomical completion of his [Walter's] pre-
In the light of everything else, Tristram
diction [in Vol. I, chap. iii], "That I should
can hardly be understood as dropping only
neither think, nor act like any other man's
child, upon that very account."22 a small part of his story; he is dropping
22 There is a similar echo in chap. xxv of this last
what has gone on "all along." He could
volume: "All I wish is, that it may be a lesson to the indeed hardly give us a plainer indication
world, 'to let people tell their stories their own way' ";
cf. Vol. I, chap. vi: ". . bear with me,- and let
of his intention to quit than the echo of
me go on, and tell my story my own way." the concluding promise ("choicest mor-
dismissed
sel") of Volume IV. One must thinkas a valiant, but rather unim-
pressive,
Sterne very clumsy indeed to suppose last-minute effort at tying up the
that
he intended to continue beyond loose
hisends.
an-But as we have seen, he has all
nounced choicest morsel, after allbeen
along this
"hastening towards" this part,
buildup through eight volumes and he has it
toward been liberally dropping clues
and after the final explicit pronouncement plan all along the way.
to his whole
that this morsel and no other is what he If, in the light of these converging
has "all the time" been hastening to tell.probabilities, one can accept at least
If this pronouncement were an isolatedtentatively not only the fact that Sterne
one, we might perhaps question its impor- was through with his book when he sent
tance. He might indeed have a dozen Volume IX to the printer sometime late in
"choicest morsels." We might even say, if December, 1766, but also that the book
we had no other evidence, that all these he had completed represented the com-
echoes of earlier phrases and situations pletion of a plan, however rough, which
merely indicate that Sterne, tired of writ-was present in his mind from the begin-
ing, decided to quit and pillaged his earlier ning, then the book as a whole begins to
work in order to make some semblance of come into focus. Questions about the form
a concluding gesture. Even the fact that of this "formless work," questions which
one finds more "fulfilments" of earlier have until now been ignored and which I
facetious promises (a chapter on the right have scarcely touched on here, can now
end of a woman, a chapter on pishes, etc.) for the first time receive adequate con-
in Volume IX than in Volumes V, VI, sideration.
VII, and VIII together might be similarly HAVERFORD COLLEGE

Wayne C. Booth - Did Sterne Complete Tristram Shandy

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Did Sterne Complete "Tristram Shandy?

The book was planned and written, That

write, there can

to complete Tristram Shandy and further

I see more Tristram's

unimportant digressions are connected

to give it you here.- 'Tis

The first five chapters of Volume TRAM,

paigns on the bowling-green- forauthor,

pect from these ninth volume (January, 1767)

have been his abiding intention ginning

are even more Chapter

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