The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman Part 56

The youth struck the note upon the tabourin-his pipe followed, and off we bounded-'the duce take that slit!'

The sister of the youth, who had stolen her voice from heaven, sung alternately with her brother-'twas a Gascoigne roundelay.

Viva la Joia!

Fidon la Tristessa!

The nymphs join'd in unison, and their swains an octave below them-

I would have given a crown to have it sew'd up-Nannette would not have given a sous-Viva la joia! was in her lips-Viva la joia! was in her eyes. A transient spark of amity shot across the s.p.a.ce betwixt us-She look'd amiable!-Why could I not live, and end my days thus? Just Disposer of our joys and sorrows, cried I, why could not a man sit down in the lap of content here-and dance, and sing, and say his prayers, and go to heaven with this nut-brown maid? Capriciously did she bend her head on one side, and dance up insidious-Then 'tis time to dance off, quoth I; so changing only partners and tunes, I danced it away from Lunel to Montpellier-from thence to Pescnas, Beziers-I danced it along through Narbonne, Carca.s.son, and Castle Naudairy, till at last I danced myself into Perdrillo's pavillion, where pulling out a paper of black lines, that I might go on straight forwards, without digression or parenthesis, in my uncle Toby's amours-

I begun thus-

Chapter 4.XXV.

-But softly-for in these sportive plains, and under this genial sun, where at this instant all flesh is running out piping, fiddling, and dancing to the vintage, and every step that's taken, the judgment is surprised by the imagination, I defy, notwithstanding all that has been said upon straight lines (Vid. Vol. III.) in sundry pages of my book-I defy the best cabbage planter that ever existed, whether he plants backwards or forwards, it makes little difference in the account (except that he will have more to answer for in the one case than in the other)-I defy him to go on coolly, critically, and canonically, planting his cabbages one by one, in straight lines, and stoical distances, especially if slits in petticoats are unsew'd up-without ever and anon straddling out, or sidling into some b.a.s.t.a.r.dly digression-In Freeze-land, Fog-land, and some other lands I wot of-it may be done-

But in this clear climate of fantasy and perspiration, where every idea, sensible and insensible, gets vent-in this land, my dear Eugenius-in this fertile land of chivalry and romance, where I now sit, unskrewing my ink-horn to write my uncle Toby's amours, and with all the meanders of Julia's track in quest of her Diego, in full view of my study window-if thou comest not and takest me by the hand-

What a work it is likely to turn out!

Let us begin it.

Chapter 4.XXVI.

It is with Love as with Cuckoldom-

But now I am talking of beginning a book, and have long had a thing upon my mind to be imparted to the reader, which, if not imparted now, can never be imparted to him as long as I live (whereas the Comparison may be imparted to him any hour in the day)-I'll just mention it, and begin in good earnest.

The thing is this.

That of all the several ways of beginning a book which are now in practice throughout the known world, I am confident my own way of doing it is the best-I'm sure it is the most religious-for I begin with writing the first sentence-and trusting to Almighty G.o.d for the second.

'Twould cure an author for ever of the fuss and folly of opening his street-door, and calling in his neighbours and friends, and kinsfolk, with the devil and all his imps, with their hammers and engines, &c. only to observe how one sentence of mine follows another, and how the plan follows the whole.

I wish you saw me half starting out of my chair, with what confidence, as I grasp the elbow of it, I look up-catching the idea, even sometimes before it half way reaches me-

I believe in my conscience I intercept many a thought which heaven intended for another man.

Pope and his Portrait (Vid. Pope's Portrait.) are fools to me-no martyr is ever so full of faith or fire-I wish I could say of good works too-but I have no

Zeal or Anger-or Anger or Zeal- And till G.o.ds and men agree together to call it by the same name-the errantest Tartuffe, in science-in politics-or in religion, shall never kindle a spark within me, or have a worse word, or a more unkind greeting, than what he will read in the next chapter.

Chapter 4.XXVII.

-Bon jour!-good morrow!-so you have got your cloak on betimes!-but 'tis a cold morning, and you judge the matter rightly-'tis better to be well mounted, than go o' foot-and obstructions in the glands are dangerous-And how goes it with thy concubine-thy wife,-and thy little ones o' both sides? and when did you hear from the old gentleman and lady-your sister, aunt, uncle, and cousins-I hope they have got better of their colds, coughs, claps, tooth-aches, fevers, stranguries, sciaticas, swellings, and sore eyes.

-What a devil of an apothecary! to take so much blood-give such a vile purge-puke-poultice-plaister-night-draught-clyster-blister?-And why so many grains of calomel? santa Maria! and such a dose of opium! peri-c.l.i.tating, pardi! the whole family of ye, from head to tail-By my great-aunt Dinah's old black velvet mask! I think there is no occasion for it.

Now this being a little bald about the chin, by frequently putting off and on, before she was got with child by the coachman-not one of our family would wear it after. To cover the Mask afresh, was more than the mask was worth-and to wear a mask which was bald, or which could be half seen through, was as bad as having no mask at all-

This is the reason, may it please your reverences, that in all our numerous family, for these four generations, we count no more than one archbishop, a Welch judge, some three or four aldermen, and a single mountebank-

In the sixteenth century, we boast of no less than a dozen alchymists.

Chapter 4.XXVIII.

'It is with Love as with Cuckoldom'-the suffering party is at least the third, but generally the last in the house who knows any thing about the matter: this comes, as all the world knows, from having half a dozen words for one thing; and so long, as what in this vessel of the human frame, is Love-may be Hatred, in that-Sentiment half a yard higher-and Nonsense-no, Madam,-not there-I mean at the part I am now pointing to with my forefinger-how can we help ourselves?

Of all mortal, and immortal men too, if you please, who ever soliloquized upon this mystic subject, my uncle Toby was the worst fitted, to have push'd his researches, thro' such a contention of feelings; and he had infallibly let them all run on, as we do worse matters, to see what they would turn out-had not Bridget's pre-notification of them to Susannah, and Susannah's repeated manifestoes thereupon to all the world, made it necessary for my uncle Toby to look into the affair.

Chapter 4.XXIX.

Why weavers, gardeners, and gladiators-or a man with a pined leg (proceeding from some ailment in the foot)-should ever have had some tender nymph breaking her heart in secret for them, are points well and duly settled and accounted for, by ancient and modern physiologists.

A water-drinker, provided he is a profess'd one, and does it without fraud or covin, is precisely in the same predicament: not that, at first sight, there is any consequence, or show of logic in it, 'That a rill of cold water dribbling through my inward parts, should light up a torch in my Jenny's-'

-The proposition does not strike one; on the contrary, it seems to run opposite to the natural workings of causes and effects-

But it shews the weakness and imbecility of human reason.

-'And in perfect good health with it?'

-The most perfect,-Madam, that friends.h.i.+p herself could wish me-

'And drink nothing!-nothing but water?'

-Impetuous fluid! the moment thou pressest against the flood-gates of the brain-see how they give way-!

In swims Curiosity, beckoning to her damsels to follow-they dive into the center of the current-