Sterne as Editor: The "Abuses of Conscience" Sermon

Abstract

Sterne as Editor: The “Abuses of Conscience” Sermon MELVYN NEW The sermon read by Corporal Trim in the middle of the second volume of Tristram Shandy was first preached by Laurence Sterne ten years earlier in the York Minster (July 29, 1750), at the close of the summer assizes in York. It appeared as a six-penny pamphlet less than two weeks later. In fitting the actual sermon to the fictional situation of the Shandy parlor, Sterne was not required to make a single signifi­ cant alteration; indeed, the foremost pleasure in comparing the two versions is to observe the manner in which his wit was able to capitalize so brilliantly on such an innocuous passage in the original as “sits there invulnerable, fortified with Cases and Reports so strongly on all Sides.”1 In Tristram Shandy, Toby immediately breaks in: “Aye, —aye, Trim! quoth my uncle Toby, shaking his head, —these are but sorry fortifications, Trim, ” and the two are mounted and galloping on their hobby-horse.2 Again, in the original, Sterne innocently wrote, “I know the banker I deal with, or the Physician I usually call in” (p. 17); in Tristram, the word “physician” awakens Dr. Slop: “There is no need, cried Dr. Slop (waking) to call in any physician in this case” (p. 135). It is precisely Sterne’s faithfulness to the original, however, that adds interest to the almost ninety substantive variants between the 243 244 / MELVYNNEW two versions. To be sure, a few new readings correct obvious errors in the 1750 version, including one long sentence fragment (pp. 113-14; see section 1 in the Appendix). Several others may be the result of compositorial error (or interference) or copyist error; from the evi­ dence of other borrowed materials in Tristram Shandy I have suggested elsewhere that Sterne was not a precise copier, though in this in­ stance, considering the length of the self-borrowing—3,700 words— he did very well indeed.3 When we have discounted these possible sources for the variants between the 1750 and 1760 versions, we still have remaining many interesting alterations in which the author’s hand is evident. To­ gether, they provide an indication of the subtlety of Sterne’s prose, the care with which he sought the right word, the right phrase, even the right pointing. In rewriting his sermon for Tristram Shandy, Sterne knew that the humor of his endeavor resided in his capacity to incor­ porate into his comic world a sermon actually preached from England’s second most important pulpit; he could not resist, however, the op­ portunity to polish and refine his effort ten years after composition— to act, that is, as his own editor. The most interesting changes, perhaps, are Sterne’s second thoughts about particular words. Sterne makes over thirty such changes, often for reasons not altogether apparent. In a few instances, the changes might suggest a careful modification of Sterne’s theologi­ cal position—or at least of his tone. These examples are listed in the Appendix under section 2. For example, “so great a Virtue, as moral Honesty” (p. 17) becomes “so amiable a virtue as moral honesty” (p. 134); amiable is a word we associate with the religion of sensibil­ ity. Similarly, Sterne’s description of Catholicism as a “Religion without Morality” (p. 23) becomes “religion without mercy” (p. 146), a more telling word in view of the tortures just described, and perhaps an even stronger condemnation in Sterne’s eyes. Again, he alters the phrase “Instrumental Duties of Religion” (p. 20) to “instru­ mental parts of religion” (p. 138), a phrase he apparently liked, for he uses it again in Volume 8 ofTristram (chapter 31) and inA Sentimental Journey (Stout ed., p. 101). It may be worth noting that in one of the two major excisions, Sterne removed a passage from the original Sterne as Editor I 245 which twice speaks of duties (pp. 19-20).4 This softening of religious tone is perhaps also evident in the change of “that BEING, before whom thou art finally to give an Account” (p. 14) to “that Being, to whom thou art finally to give an account” (p. 128...