Tristram Shandy's World: Sterne's Philosophical Rhetoric by John Traugott

Review by: Samuel Holt Monk

Modern Language Notes, Vol. 71, No. 1 (Jan., 1956), pp. 48-50
Published by: The Johns Hopkins University Press
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latoris indeeda verylarge order,perhapsquitebeyondthe compassof
a one-hundred-page monograph. Certainlythereis God's plentyin
thewayofmaterial,sinceDrydenwroteextensively on theart oftrans-
lationand on mostofthepoetshe turnedintoEnglish. But Mr. Frost
makes surprisinglylittle use of these riches. He gives the briefest
summaryof Dryden's theoryof paraphrase,refersslightlyto the
lengthydiscussionsof heroicpoetry,and quotes few of those pene-
tratingobservations on the " character" of variouswriters,whichtell
us so muchabout Dryden'sviewoftheworkshe was translating.
And yet for Dryden,renderingthis individual " character" was
among the firstobligationsof the translator. For the purpose of
assessinghis achievement, includinghis failures,Dryden'stermseems
moreusefulthan " pillar symbols." So it seemsmoreappropriateto
measurehis Aeneis by the contemporary theoryof the true Heroick
Poem than a
by schematicanalysis of the Odysseyand the Aeneid in
termsof chaos and order. But as intimated,Mr. Frost does not make
much use of his theoreticalyard-sticks. He returns-as all critics
inevitablymust-to " observingthe patient'sreactions." He rightly
admiresDryden's" energyand rapidity,"observesthat he was " cor-
rectin claiminga kinshipbetweenChaucer'sspiritand his own,"and
findsthat he " is less intensethan Virgil in communicating certain
effectsof horrorand pathos." The final judgment is thus fairly
traditional,and the reader must agree with the author that this
studyof Dryden'stranslationsis no morethan " exploratory."

Harvard University REUBEN A. BROWER

John Traugott, TristramShandy's World: Sterne's Philosophical

Rhetoric(Berkeleyand Los Angeles: Univ. of CaliforniaPress,1953.
xvi+ 162 pp. $3.00). THE new awarenessof the role of formal
rhetoricin much eighteenth-century literatureis proving useful.
Nineteenth-century aestheticsand critical presuppositionsmade it
possibleto ignorethepresenceof the" neutralart" of rhetoricin such
works as Pope's Imitations of Horace and Gulliver's Travels, and
consequently to read themas personalconfessions ratherthan,in part,
rhetoricaldiscourses. The habit of identifyingan author with his
workhas led to seriousmisunderstanding of the aims and methodsof
Augustanart.
Sternehas alwayssuffered frommisinterpretation of thissort. He

48 Modern Language Notes

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has been consideredself-conscious, artificial,and sentimental. His
apologistsin our century,answeringthese criticisms,have failed
sufficiently to recognizethatTristramShandyis, amongotherthings,
a brilliantrhetoricalwork. In view of Sterne's constantreferences
to rhetoricand eloquence,this is a rathersurprisingfact; but we may
be glad that the topic has been reservedto so discerninga criticas
ProfessorTraugott. This is certainlyone of the best studies of
Sterne'sart. It challengesseveralpersistentquestionableinterpreta-
tionsand sets TristramShandy in a new light.
The studyis equallydividedintotwo parts: the firstdeals withthe
conceptualworldof the novel,the secondwithits rhetoricalstructure.
The analysesof scenes and episodesare too complexfor mere sum-
mary. It is practicalonlyto touchon someof the principalideas in
the book.
Traugottbeginswith Sterne'suse of Locke, and it is soon evident
that he has read both TristramShandy and the Essay to betterpur-
pose than have many of Sterne's critics. Briefly,his thesis is that
Locke is not so muchthe sourceof Sterne'sideas as the occasionof
them. Sternedoes not borrowideas fromLocke; ratherhe subverts
Locke's system,exploitingits ambiguitiesand difficulties and drama-
tizingthemin his characters. The problemforbothLocke and Sterne
is the same: " How can isolated minds communicate? " Locke an-
swersthatthis can be done onlythoughclearlydeterminate ideas and
exactlydetermined language. Sternecreatesa worldin whichno one
ever holds a distinctlydeterminedidea, and yet the characterscom-
municate throughprivate rhetoricapprehendedin the contextof
humansituations. Sterne'scomicgeniusdeniesthevalidityof Locke's
rationalismin the mundane sphere of daily, familiar intercourse.
Similarly,thoughLocke disparagesrhetoricas a deceptiveart,wit as
trivial,and the passions as distortersof truth,Sterne createsa be-
lievableworld,using rhetoricas his method,wit as his instrument,
and the passions as ever-present forcesshaping the motivesof his
characters.Thus TristramShandyuses Lockeanconcepts,but is none
the less a comicinversionof Locke's system.
Traugottsays some sensiblethingsin oppositionto thosewho con-
sider TristramShandy to be an adumbrationof the stream-of-con-
sciousnessnovel. He concludesthat,thoughSterne uses association
of ideas abundantly,the digressivestructureof the bookis a deviceof
comicrhetoric,not of phychologicalanalysis. Traugott'sdiscussion

VOL. LXXI, January 1956 49

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of Sterne's treatmentof time is also at variancewith recentinter-
pretation.
As Sterne subvertedLocke, so he pervertedconventionalrhetoric
to servehis ownends: to definecharacter,feelings,attitudes,to expose
motivesand affections, and to render a coherentworld. He uses
rhetoricin TristramShandy as he did in his sermons-to forcethe
readerto participatein the rhetoricalproofs. Sterne'salleged self-
consciousnessthus provesto be largelythe self-consciousness of the
reader,the victimof rhetoricaldeviceswhichforcehim throughthe
wittydialecticto examinehis ownmotivesand to construct,
persistent,
occasionallywithwrydistaste,the historyof his own mind.
Inflatedrhetoricis alwaysavailableto checkand controlsentiment.
The rhetoricalcadencesand ornamentsof any of the famouspathetic
passages should be heard and recognizedfor what they are-the
deliberatedevices of the comic rhetor. Traugott maintainsrather
too strenuouslythat Tristram Shandy is not a novel, but a comic,
rhetoricaltreatisethat merelyborderson narrative. It is true, no
doubt,thatin thistimelessworldthereis no progression, no character
development;that Sternegivesus not action,but rhetoricaldescrip-
tions of ideas embodiedin characterswho almost approach being
prosopopoeias.But no usefulcriticalpurposewill be servedby identi-
fyingthe book totallywith its rhetoric,howevermuch that rhetoric
may determineits structure. Rhetoricsurelyremainsin Tristram
Shandythe instrument of imagination.

University of Minnesota SAMUEL HOLT MONK

RobertH. Super, WalterSavage Landor: a Biography(New York:

New York Univ. Press, 1954. xv + 654 pp. $7.50). TO writea
balanced, full, and scholarlylife of Walter Savage Landor, whose
active and contentiouscareer stretchedover eighty-nineyears and
touchedeventsand people of the firstimportancein the eighteenth
as well as the nineteenthcentury,called for the talents of a super-
scholar (no pun on the author'sname intended). This biographyis
an excellentfactualrecordof the private,public,and literaryachieve-
ments of Landor. Its full documentationindicates the extent to
whichProfessorSuper,whohad accessto muchnew materialhereand
abroad,has added to or correctedthe nineteenthcenturybiographyby
JohnForsterand the morerecentSavage Landor by MalcolmElwin.

50 Modern Language Notes

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