Page:A political romance (IA politicalromance00sterrich).pdf/21

 tayne, shorn of his surname, becomes merely John the parish clerk; and the members of the Chapter figure as the church-wardens. Incidentally Mark Braithwaite appears as Mark Slender, and William Stables as William Doe. Dr. Topham, renamed Trim, because he receives so thorough a trimming at the last, is degraded to sexton and dog-whipper of the parish; and Sterne himself is slightly disguised under the name of Lorry Slim.

As of the characters, so of the incidents, which cover the bickerings of ten years, from 1748 to 1758. In the dispute over the height of John's desk, everybody would see a comical version of the quarrel that Dr. Topham stirred up between Archbishop Hutton and Dean Fountayne over the key to the Cathedral pulpit. When Trim, clad in an old coat, hat, and wig, emerges from the vicarage and struts across the churchyard, bawling out to John, "See here, my Lad! how fine I am!"—that is Sterne's way of saying that Dr. Topham has obtained from the Archbishop the patent of the Prerogative Courts in defiance of the Dean's protest. The pair of black plush breeches which Trim begs John to let him have for God's sake, is the Commissaryship of Pickering and Pocklington that the Dean refused him and bestowed upon Sterne. Similarly, the green pulpit-cloth and old velvet cushion, which Trim