“Scholia” to the Florida Bramine’s Journal Annotations

Abstract

213 2.2–8 the different tracks . . . off it.] (Add after present note) In addition to this very specific borrowing from ECHU, Sterne’s opening pages seem indebted also to Locke’s Some Thoughts Concerning Education (1693). In particular, this opening paragraph bears comparison to Locke’s opening paragraph, both as it agrees with Locke and as it points, ironically , in a rather different direction: A Sound Mind in a sound Body, is a short, but full Description of a Happy State in this World: He that has these Two, has little more to wish for; and he that wants either of them, will be but little the better for any thing else. . . . I confess, there are some Men’s Constitutions of Body and Mind so vigorous, and well framed by Nature, that they need not much Assistance from others , but by the Strength of their natural Genius, they are from their Cradles carried towards what is Excellent . . . . But Examples of this Kind are but few, and I think I may say, that ofalltheMenwemeetwith, Nine Parts of Ten are what they are, Good or Evil, useful or not, by their Education. ‘Tis that which makes the great Difference in Mankind. The little, and almost insensible Impressions on our tender Infancies, have very important and lasting Consequences: And there ‘tis, as in the Fountains of some Rivers, where a gentle Application of the Hand turns the flexible Waters into Chanels , that make them take quite contrary Courses, and by this little Direction given them at first in the Source, they receive different Tendencies , and arrive at last, at very remote and distant Places’’ (Educational Writings, 114–115). James Gow Wolfville, Nova Scotia ‘‘SCHOLIA’’ TO THE FLORIDA BRAMINE’S JOURNAL ANNOTATIONS In several of his letters and in Bramine ’s Journal, 172, Sterne alludes to his midnight walks to Byland Abbey, some two miles from the back door of Shandy Hall, where he communes with the ‘‘ghost of Cordelia’’ (see, e.g., Curtis, Letters, 360–363). The Florida editors admit to bafflement as to why Sterne chose the name Cordelia, but then add: ‘‘if Lear’s loving daughter was in his mind, it might suggest the way in which both Eliza and Maria . . . were to ‘‘not only eat of my bread and drink of my own cup, but . . . should lay in my bosom, and be unto me as a daughter’’(ASJ 154.110– 112). Without totally dismissing this notion , two more likely suggestions may be offered, the first, an aural linkage between Cordelia and Cordeliers, and second , Mark Akenside’s poem, ‘‘To Cordelia ’’(1741). Thus the note to Bramine’s Journal, 176.20–23 (Works, 6:386–387) might well be expanded. 172.20–23 Cordelia’s Spirit . . . Cottage ] [add after last sentence] Sterne may also have had in mind the echo of Cordeliers that would make Cordelia an appropriate ‘‘monastic’’ name; although Byland Abbey was Cistercian, and Cordelier a common French (and English) appellation for Franciscans (for the knotted rope worn around their waist), Sterne may not have thought the difference worth the distinction; he would introduce a Franciscan monk, Father Lorenzo, in the early pages of ASJ. Or, finally, Sterne’s imaginative flight of fancy may allude to Mark Akenside’s‘‘ToCordelia’’ (1741), a short lyric very much in the tradition Sterne evokes with his sentimental visitations to the Abbey (although not 214 publisheduntilthenineteenthcentury,the poem was in the possession of Israel Wilkes, John Wilkes’s older brother, who spent much of his life in Europe and may wellhavemetSterneinhisbrother’scompany ): From pompous life’s dull masquerade , From Pride’s pursuits, and Passion’s war, Far, my Cordelia, very far, To thee and me my Heaven assign The silent pleasures of the shade, The joys of peace, unenvied, though divine! Safe in the calm embowering grove, As thy own lovely brow serene, Behold the world’s fantastic scene! What low pursuits employ the great, What tinsel things their wishes move, The forms of Fashion, and the toys of State. There are three more stanzas, all reiterating the notion that a flight withCordelia from the ambitions of this world to a ‘‘prospect of enchanting things / As ever slumbering poet knew / When Love...