The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman Part 57

Fancy sits musing upon the bank, and with her eyes following the stream, turns straws and bulrushes into masts and bow-sprits-And Desire, with vest held up to the knee in one hand, s.n.a.t.c.hes at them, as they swim by her, with the other-

O ye water drinkers! is it then by this delusive fountain, that ye have so often governed and turn'd this world about like a mill-wheel-grinding the faces of the impotent-bepowdering their ribs-bepeppering their noses, and changing sometimes even the very frame and face of nature-

If I was you, quoth Yorick, I would drink more water, Eugenius-And, if I was you, Yorick, replied Eugenius, so would I.

Which shews they had both read Longinus-

For my own part, I am resolved never to read any book but my own, as long as I live.

Chapter 4.x.x.x.

I wish my uncle Toby had been a water-drinker; for then the thing had been accounted for, That the first moment Widow Wadman saw him, she felt something stirring within her in his favour-Something!-something.

-Something perhaps more than friendship-less than love-something-no matter what-no matter where-I would not give a single hair off my mule's tail, and be obliged to pluck it off myself (indeed the villain has not many to spare, and is not a little vicious into the bargain), to be let by your worships into the secret-

But the truth is, my uncle Toby was not a water-drinker; he drank it neither pure nor mix'd, or any how, or any where, except fortuitously upon some advanced posts, where better liquor was not to be had-or during the time he was under cure; when the surgeon telling him it would extend the fibres, and bring them sooner into contact-my uncle Toby drank it for quietness sake.

Now as all the world knows, that no effect in nature can be produced without a cause, and as it is as well known, that my uncle Toby was neither a weaver-a gardener, or a gladiator-unless as a captain, you will needs have him one-but then he was only a captain of foot-and besides, the whole is an equivocation-There is nothing left for us to suppose, but that my uncle Toby's leg-but that will avail us little in the present hypothesis, unless it had proceeded from some ailment in the foot-whereas his leg was not emaciated from any disorder in his foot-for my uncle Toby's leg was not emaciated at all. It was a little stiff and awkward, from a total disuse of it, for the three years he lay confined at my father's house in town; but it was plump and muscular, and in all other respects as good and promising a leg as the other.

I declare, I do not recollect any one opinion or pa.s.sage of my life, where my understanding was more at a loss to make ends meet, and torture the chapter I had been writing, to the service of the chapter following it, than in the present case: one would think I took a pleasure in running into difficulties of this kind, merely to make fresh experiments of getting out of 'em-Inconsiderate soul that thou art! What! are not the unavoidable distresses with which, as an author and a man, thou art hemm'd in on every side of thee-are they, Tristram, not sufficient, but thou must entangle thyself still more?

Is it not enough that thou art in debt, and that thou hast ten cart-loads of thy fifth and sixth volumes (Alluding to the first edition.) still-still unsold, and art almost at thy wit's ends, how to get them off thy hands?

To this hour art thou not tormented with the vile asthma that thou gattest in skating against the wind in Flanders? and is it but two months ago, that in a fit of laughter, on seeing a cardinal make water like a quirister (with both hands) thou brakest a vessel in thy lungs, whereby, in two hours, thou lost as many quarts of blood; and hadst thou lost as much more, did not the faculty tell thee-it would have amounted to a gallon?-

Chapter 4.x.x.xI.

-But for heaven's sake, let us not talk of quarts or gallons-let us take the story straight before us; it is so nice and intricate a one, it will scarce bear the transposition of a single t.i.ttle; and, somehow or other, you have got me thrust almost into the middle of it-

-I beg we may take more care.

Chapter 4.x.x.xII.

My uncle Toby and the corporal had posted down with so much heat and precipitation, to take possession of the spot of ground we have so often spoke of, in order to open their campaign as early as the rest of the allies; that they had forgot one of the most necessary articles of the whole affair, it was neither a pioneer's spade, a pickax, or a shovel-

-It was a bed to lie on: so that as Shandy-Hall was at that time unfurnished; and the little inn where poor Le Fever died, not yet built; my uncle Toby was constrained to accept of a bed at Mrs. Wadman's, for a night or two, till corporal Trim (who to the character of an excellent valet, groom, cook, sempster, surgeon, and engineer, super-added that of an excellent upholsterer too), with the help of a carpenter and a couple of taylors, constructed one in my uncle Toby's house.

A daughter of Eve, for such was widow Wadman, and 'tis all the character I intend to give of her-

-'That she was a perfect woman-' had better be fifty leagues off-or in her warm bed-or playing with a case-knife-or any thing you please-than make a man the object of her attention, when the house and all the furniture is her own.

There is nothing in it out of doors and in broad day-light, where a woman has a power, physically speaking, of viewing a man in more lights than one-but here, for her soul, she can see him in no light without mixing something of her own goods and chattels along with him-till by reiterated acts of such combination, he gets foisted into her inventory-

-And then good night.

But this is not matter of System; for I have delivered that above-nor is it matter of Breviary-for I make no man's creed but my own-nor matter of Fact-at least that I know of; but 'tis matter copulative and introductory to what follows.

Chapter 4.x.x.xIII.

I do not speak it with regard to the coa.r.s.eness or cleanness of them-or the strength of their gussets-but pray do not night-shifts differ from day-shifts as much in this particular, as in any thing else in the world; that they so far exceed the others in length, that when you are laid down in them, they fall almost as much below the feet, as the day-shifts fall short of them?

Widow Wadman's night-shifts (as was the mode I suppose in King William's and Queen Anne's reigns) were cut however after this fashion; and if the fashion is changed (for in Italy they are come to nothing)-so much the worse for the public; they were two Flemish ells and a half in length, so that allowing a moderate woman two ells, she had half an ell to spare, to do what she would with.

Now from one little indulgence gained after another, in the many bleak and decemberley nights of a seven years widow-hood, things had insensibly come to this pa.s.s, and for the two last years had got establish'd into one of the ordinances of the bed-chamber-That as soon as Mrs. Wadman was put to bed, and had got her legs stretched down to the bottom of it, of which she always gave Bridget notice-Bridget, with all suitable decorum, having first open'd the bed-clothes at the feet, took hold of the half-ell of cloth we are speaking of, and having gently, and with both her hands, drawn it downwards to its furthest extension, and then contracted it again side-long by four or five even plaits, she took a large corking-pin out of her sleeve, and with the point directed towards her, pinn'd the plaits all fast together a little above the hem; which done, she tuck'd all in tight at the feet, and wish'd her mistress a good night.

This was constant, and without any other variation than this; that on shivering and tempestuous nights, when Bridget untuck'd the feet of the bed, &c. to do this-she consulted no thermometer but that of her own pa.s.sions; and so performed it standing-kneeling-or squatting, according to the different degrees of faith, hope, and charity, she was in, and bore towards her mistress that night. In every other respect, the etiquette was sacred, and might have vied with the most mechanical one of the most inflexible bed-chamber in Christendom.

The first night, as soon as the corporal had conducted my uncle Toby up stairs, which was about ten-Mrs. Wadman threw herself into her arm-chair, and crossing her left knee with her right, which formed a resting-place for her elbow, she reclin'd her cheek upon the palm of her hand, and leaning forwards, ruminated till midnight upon both sides of the question.

The second night she went to her bureau, and having ordered Bridget to bring her up a couple of fresh candles and leave them upon the table, she took out her marriage-settlement, and read it over with great devotion: and the third night (which was the last of my uncle Toby's stay) when Bridget had pull'd down the night-shift, and was a.s.saying to stick in the corking pin-

-With a kick of both heels at once, but at the same time the most natural kick that could be kick'd in her situation-for supposing......... to be the sun in its meridian, it was a north-east kick-she kick'd the pin out of her fingers-the etiquette which hung upon it, down-down it fell to the ground, and was shiver'd into a thousand atoms.

From all which it was plain that widow Wadman was in love with my uncle Toby.

Chapter 4.x.x.xIV.

My uncle Toby's head at that time was full of other matters, so that it was not till the demolition of Dunkirk, when all the other civilities of Europe were settled, that he found leisure to return this.

This made an armistice (that is, speaking with regard to my uncle Toby-but with respect to Mrs. Wadman, a vacancy)-of almost eleven years. But in all cases of this nature, as it is the second blow, happen at what distance of time it will, which makes the fray-I chuse for that reason to call these the amours of my uncle Toby with Mrs. Wadman, rather than the amours of Mrs. Wadman with my uncle Toby.

This is not a distinction without a difference.

It is not like the affair of an old hat c.o.c.k'd-and a c.o.c.k'd old hat, about which your reverences have so often been at odds with one another-but there is a difference here in the nature of things-

And let me tell you, gentry, a wide one too.