Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 54.djvu/226

 the most happy, the most idiomatic of any that is to be found. It is the pure essence of English conversational style.’ It is seen to best advantage throughout the ‘Sentimental Journey.’ In ‘Tristram Shandy’ he at times descends into the rambling incoherence of the buffoon. But his habit of abrupt transition from one topic to another maintains the interest of patient readers. In both books his impertinent grossness occasionally causes irritation. In spite of his trick of masking his predilection for double-entendre by a free use of aposiopesis, his words are often as indecent as his thoughts.

Sterne's sermons are as a rule professional efforts on common-sense lines, and mainly interest the literary critic by the perspicuity, orderliness, and restrained eloquence of which they prove his literary style to be capable. He claimed that they were ‘dramatic’ (Tristram, ii. 231), and admitted that passages were stolen. His careless philosophy of life and his impatience of gravity led him into other incongruities which tend to profanity. The parable of the prodigal son suggests to him remarks on the advantages of foreign travel, and the desirability of confiding one's son when on the grand tour to a tutor of gentlemanly habits and worldly experience. Cardinal Newman admitted Sterne's eloquence when quoting from his sermon (xlii) on the literary value of the bible (, Idea of a University, 1889, pp. 270–2).

But after full account has been taken of Sterne's numerous deflections from the paths of literary rectitude—of his indecency, his buffoonery, his mawkishness, his plagiarisms, his wanton digressiveness—he remains, as the author of ‘Tristram Shandy,’ a delineator of the comedy of human life before whom only three or four humorous writers, in any tongue or of any age, can justly claim precedence. Uncle Toby, Corporal Trim, Dr. Slop, Mr. and Mrs. Shandy, Obadiah, and the Widow Wadman are of the kin—however the degrees of kinship may be estimated—of Pantagruel and Don Quixote, of Falstaff and Juliet's Nurse, of Monsieur Jourdain and Tartuffe. For the guerilla warfare that he incidentally waged in his own freakish fashion throughout the novel on the pedantries and pretences of learning he deserves many of the honours that have been paid to Pope and Swift. No modern writer has shown a more certain touch in transferring to his canvas commonplace domestic scenes which only a master's hand can invest with point or interest. It is this kind of power especially that glorifies ‘A Sentimental Journey.’ Defects due to the author's overstrained sensibility practically count for nothing against the artistic and finished beauty of the series of vignettes which Sterne, by his sureness of insight and descriptive faculty, created in ‘A Sentimental Journey’ out of the simplest and most pedestrian episodes of travel.

Apart from ‘The Case of Elijah, a charity sermon,’ 1747; ‘The Abuses of Conscience,’ 1750; and ‘The Political Romance,’ 1769; Sterne's authentic works (with eighteenth-century reprints) are: 1. ‘The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy,’ vols. i. and ii. York, 1759 (2nd edit. London, 1760, with plate by Hogarth); vols. iii. and iv. 1761, with a second plate by Hogarth; vols. v. and vi. 1762; vols. vii. and viii. 1765; vol. ix. 1767. The volumes of the original edition numbered v. vii. and ix. often bear Sterne's genuine autograph on the title-page. The first collective edition, in nine 12mo volumes, appeared in 1767, and the second in 1768. Other editions were, 1777, 6 vols.; 1779, 2 vols. 2. ‘Sermons of Mr. Yorick,’ London, 1760, vols. i. and ii. 12mo (2nd edit. 1763, Dublin, 1761); vols. iii. and iv. 1766; vols. v. vi. and vii. 1769. Reissues appeared in 1775 and 1777, 6 vols.; 1779, 2 vols.; 1784, and 1787. 3. ‘A Sentimental Journey,’ 1768, 2 vols. 12mo; 1778, 2 vols. 12mo; 1792, with six plates after Stothard. 4. ‘Letters from Yorick to Eliza,’ 1775 (Feb.) 5. ‘Twelve Letters to his Friends on various occasions, to which is added his history of a watch-coat, with explanatory notes,’ London (July), 1775 (letters iv–xi are of very doubtful authenticity). 6. ‘Letters of the Late Reverend Laurence Sterne to his most intimate friends, with a fragment in the manner of Rabelais [apparently a first draft of a projected scene in ‘Tristram’], to which are prefixed memoirs of his life and family, written by himself, published by his daughter, Lydia Sterne de Medalle,’ 1775 (Oct.) 7. ‘Seven Letters written by Sterne and his Friends [two only by Sterne],’ edited by W. Durrant Cooper, 1844 (privately printed).

Several volumes of extracts appeared under such titles as ‘Sterne's Witticisms’ or ‘The Beauties of Sterne’ (1783). The latter reached a tenth edition in 1787, and was often reissued.

The first collected edition of Sterne's works appeared in Dublin in 7 vols. in 1779. It was dedicated to Eugenius [i.e. John Hall-Stevenson], and includes the spurious ‘Koran,’ but no letters were admitted. A fifth Dublin edition in five 12mo volumes, ‘with additions,’ omitted the ‘Koran’ and included Madame de Medalle's letters. The best early collected edition appeared in London, with all the genuine letters and a few (Nos.