Are you smarter than an Eighteenth Century Reader?

Sterne was clearly concerned with the materiality of his book, and the effects that the press, the paper and even the ink could have on the reading experience. This is an index of occurrences of the words "print/printing," "bookseller" and "publish" and a close reading of some passages with references. 


GET THE FULL EXPERIENCE: You can download the neat-looking tables (much easier to follow) on the "downloads" tab. The word document classifies each of these in separate tables for quote, context, and references.
Quotations are in purple, organized by Volume and Chapter. Commentary follows in green.

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References to Booksellers

I.xiv à These unforeseen stoppages, which I own I had no conception of when I first set out ; -- but which, I am convinced now, will rather increase than diminish as I advance, -- have struck out a hint which I am resolved to follow ; -- and that is, -- not to be in a hurry ; -- but to go on leisurely, writing and publishing two volumes  of my life every year ; ---- which, if I am suffered to go on quietly, and can make a tolerable bargain with my bookseller, I shall continue to do as long as I live.                                             
Although Sterne had originally intended to have Dodsley publish his first volume, the latter refused, afraid that the demanded cost (£50 ) was too prohibitive. Although this may not be a direct reference to that, it is clear that Sterne –and Shandy—were quite aware that writing a book was just step one of having it delivered to a reader!

 
IV.xiii à HOLLA! -- you chairman ! -- here's sixpence -- do step into that bookseller's shop, and call me a Day-talk critick. I am very willing to give any one of 'em a crown to help me with his tackling, to get my father and my uncle Toby off the stairs, and to put them to bed. --                     


VII.xxxvii à I leave this void space that the reader may swear into it, any oath that he is most accustomed to -- For my own part, if ever I swore  a whole oath into a vacancy in my life, I think it was into that -- * * *  * * * *   * *, said I -- and so my remarks through France, which were as full of wit, as an egg is full of meat, and as well worth four hundred guineas, as the said egg is worth a penny -- Have I been selling here to a chaise-vamper -- for four Louis d'Ors -- and giving him a post-chaise (by heaven) worth six into the bargain ; had it been to Dodsley, or Becket, or any creditable bookseller, who was either leaving off business, and wanted a post-chaise -- or who was beginning it -- and wanted my remarks, and two or three guineas along with them -- I could have borne it -- but to a chaise-vamper!           
Shandy complains about the bad bargain he got selling his chaise, and adds in another quip about the value of booksellers and the relative importance of their jobs.

 The great irony here is that Tristram has left part of his book in the chaise and so is unwittingly selling his writings along with the coach. Call me crazy, but I think this is a disguised critique of the bad bargain writers ended up getting when selling their work (especially if they were in dire need for money and could not bargain much).                

Although authors by this time held copyright (according to Jack Lynch, “Publishers have no perpetual common-law copyright, said the Lords; the government gives authors the exclusive but limited right to copy their works. Authors can sell that right to publishers, but when that right expires, works can be copied freely by anyone”) they often had to bargain with the booksellers and publishers to get their material produced. Sterne is one such case: he passed over copyright to Dodsley in exchange for having him print TS (see Curtis, “The First Printer of Tristram Shandy” PMLA 47.3).

References to Print/Printing/Printers (Other references to print and imprinting in the book refer to the marks made on paper or on an individual and, thus—though one could make an argument to the contrary—do not belong in this indexing list. )

I.xxii à THE learned Bishop Hall, I mean the famous Dr. Joseph Hall, who was Bishop of Exeter in King James the first's reign, tells us in one of his Decads, at the end of his divine art of meditation, imprinted at London, in the year 1610,by John Beal, dwelling in Aldersgate-street, “That it is an abominable thing for a man to commend himself;'' -- and I really think it is so. This is one of many great instances in which Sterne reproduces not only the title of the book, as to be expected, but repeats what one could imagine to be on the title page of the publication. Not only does the reader get a clear visualization of the title-page, but this also adds a playful realism to the citation, implying that the reader could indeed go buy this book later.

II.xxvii à [Then the Apostle is altogether in the wrong, I suppose, quoth Dr. Slop, and the Protestant divine is in the right. Sir, have patience, replied my father, for I think it will presently appear that St. Paul and the Protestant divine are both of an opinion. -- As nearly so, quoth Dr. Slop, as East is to West ; -- but this, continued he, lifting both hands, comes from the liberty of the press. It is no more, at the worst, replied my uncle Toby, than the liberty of the pulpit ; for it does not appear that the sermon is printed, or ever likely to be. Go on, Trim, quoth my father.]
Trim reads a sermon that has fallen out of one of the books in Walter Shandy’s library.
This section works as a double-play of intersections between fiction and reality; private and public: in the story, the sermon indeed has not been printed, but it has indeed been inserted into a book, and one could question its value as public text as such (and also as a sermon, meant to be delivered to a parish). However, this is trumped by the fact that the sermon has in fact been published, because it’s Sterne’s own!

Again, another tricky moment in which Sterne and Shandy are quite tied together!
According to Howard Henderson, “the sermon is one that Sterne had preached at the cathedral of York, at the opening of the summer court sessions in 1750. It had been published separately…” (N88).

Same --> Can the reader believe, that this sermon of Yorick's was preach'd at an assize, in the cathedral of York, before a thousand  witnesses, ready to give oath of it, by a certain prebendary of that church, and actually printed by him when he had done, ---- and within so short a space as two years and three months after Yorick's death. -- Yorick, indeed, was never better served in his life ! ---- but it was a little hard to male-treat him before, and plunder  him after he was laid in his grave. However, as the gentleman who did it, was in perfect charity with Yorick, -- and, in conscious justice, printed but a few copies to give away ; -- and that, I am told, he could moreover have made as good a one himself, had he thought fit, -- Double-play, part two: is Sterne that “certain prebendary” who appropriated himself of Yorick’s original sermon, or is Sterne meant to be represented by Yorick, and thus not responsible for the publication? Since Yorick is dead, we’ll go with the former.
There also seems to be something fishy here about the nature of authorship, and how hard it is to assign it to a single individual.

III.xià E X C O M M U N I C A T I O. EX auctoritate Dei omnipotentis, Patris, et Filii, et Spiritus Sancti, et sanctorum canonum, sanctæque et intemeratæ Virginis Dei genetricis Mariæ, As the genuineness of the consultation of the Sorbonne upon the question of baptism, was doubted by some, and denied by others, ---- 'twas thought proper to print the original of this excommunication; for the copy of which Mr. Shandy returns thanks to the chapter clerk of the dean and chapter of Rochester.

This reference is out of place because it also referred to chapter “XXXV” in the excepted Latin text and your edition (i.e. me) got confused.
This is an actual excommunication that had been available since the 12th century.

IV.tale à The abbess of Quedlinburg and her four dignitaries was no stop ; for the enormity of the stranger's nose running full as much in their fancies as their case of conscience -- The affair of their placket-holes kept cold -- In a word, the printers were ordered to distribute their types -- all controversies dropp'd.

IV.xxviii à  If that is the case, said Eugenius, I would advise you, Phutatorius,not to tamper with it by any means ; but if you will send to the next printer, and trust your cure to such a simple thing as a soft sheet of paper just come off the press -- you need do nothing more than twist it round -- The damp paper, quoth Yorick (who sat next to his friend Eugenius) though I know it has a refreshing coolness in it -- yet I presume is no more than the vehicle -- and that the oil and lamp-black with which the paper is so strongly impregnated, does the business –
By far my favorite printing reference: Eugenius explains how a page hot off the press is the perfect remedy for the burn caused by the hot chestnut.
 
Once again we are reminded of the materiality of books, and all the machinery involved in producing letters on a page. The fact that this can be a soothing remedy is also telling of the effects of books and reading.

Same à It falls out very luckily, replied Phutatorius, that the second edition of my treatise de Concubinis retinendis, is at this instant in the press -- You may take any leaf of it, said Eugenius -- No matter which -- provided, quoth Yorick, there is no bawdry in it --   They are just now, replied Phutatorius, printing off the ninth chapter -- which is the last chapter but one in the book -- Pray what is the title to that chapter, said Yorick, making a respectful bow to Phutatorius as he spoke -- I think, answered Phutatorius, 'tis that, de re concubinaria.  For heaven's sake keep out of that chapter, quoth Yorick.
Continuing the brilliant mockery of the effects of books on readers, here Yorick, who had said any page off the book would serve the purpose to cure the burn, is now utterly against the idea that the chapter on extra-marital relations be placed against Phutatorius’ private parts.

If “The early-eighteenth-century antinovel discourse promotes the fear that …. a reader/consumer can be made to conform to the subject” (Warner 143), here Sterne takes that even further, having Yorick imply that even some kind of osmosis process could happen from the ink to the burned skin. The absurdity of that supposition automatically calls out the ridiculous accusation that readers were too easily molded by what they read.

VI.xi à -- for which reason, whene'er Yorick's dramatic sermons are offered to the world, though I shall admit but one out of the whole number of the so, so's, I shall, nevertheless, adventure to print the two moderato's without any sort of scruple. These short characters of his sermons were always written, excepting in this one instance, upon the first leaf of his sermon, which served as a cover to it ; and usually upon the inside of it, which was turned towards the text ; -- but at the end of his discourse, where, perhaps, he had five or six pages, and sometimes, perhaps, a whole score to turn himself in, -- he took a larger circuit, and, indeed, a much more mettlesome one ; --as if he had snatched the occasion of unlacing himself with a few more frolicksome strokes at vice, than the straitness of the pulpit allowed. -- These, though hussar-like, they skirmish lightly and out of all order, are still auxiliaries on the side of virtue -- ; tell me then, Mynheer Vander Blonederdondergewdenstronke, why they should not be printed together ?
VI.xxi àsee reference to writing

VIII.xxvi à “A Devil 'tis  --  and mischief such doth work” As never yet did Pagan, Jew, or Turk.'' *                                                   * This will be printed with my father's life of Socrates, &c. &c.

 

References to Publishing

I.xiv à see bookseller ref.                                                                                                  I.xix à-- No -- , he would say, -- TRISTRAM ! -- The thing is impossible. What could be wanting in my father but to have wrote a book to publish this notion of his to the world ? Little boots it to the subtle speculatist to stand single in his opinions, (…)              
Tristram’s father so hated that name that he had planned to write an entire book on the matter.  

II.xviii à (see print reference above) I declare I would not have published this anecdote to the world ; -- nor do I publish it with an intent to hurt his character and advancement in the church ; -- I leave that to others ; -- but I find myself impell'd by two reasons, which I cannot withstand.             
Sterne seems to use “publish” as meaning both the act of setting a book to be printed and distributed but also as advancing and distributing ideas (much like in the example above).               

II.xix à My father, who dipp'd into all kinds of books, upon looking into Lithopædus Senonesis de Partu difficili*, published by Adrianus Smelvgot, had found out, That the lax and pliable state of a child's head in parturition, the bones of the cranium having no sutures at that time, was such, -- that by force of the woman's efforts, ...                                                       
III.xx à THE AUTHOR'S PREFACE. NO, I'll not say a word about it, -- here it is ; ---- in publishing it, ---- I have appealed to the world, ---- and to the world I leave it ; ---- it must speak for itself. All I know of the matter is, ---- when I sat down, my intent was to write a good book ; and as far as the tenuity of my understanding would hold out, -- a wise, aye, and a discreet, ---- taking care only, as I went along, to put into it all the wit and the judgment (be it more or less) which the great author and bestower of them had thought fit originally to give me, ---- so that, as your worships see, -- 'tis just as God pleases.         
That the author’s preface should come halfway through the third volume is perhaps no surprise. What’s maybe more interesting is to think that a preface stands on its own as some kind of authorial grandstanding no matter where it’s place.      

Here Sterne plays with natural gifts of genius. Tristram Shandy perhaps imagines himself an “original” as Edward Young had imagined it:
“an Original may be said to be of a vegetable nature; it rises spontaneously from the vital root of genius; it grows; it is not made…” and “hence has ever genius been supposed to partake of something divine” (7,13).

IV.xxv à but that the chesnut's taking that particular course, and in a manner of its own accord -- and then falling with all its heat directly into that one particular place, and no other ---- was a real judgment upon Phutatorius, for that filthy and obscene treatise de Concubinis retinendis, which Phutatorius had published about twenty years ago -- and was that identical week going to give the world a second edition of.                                                                                                                                             

V.xii à He had wrote the * Life of Socrates himself the year before he left off trade, which, I  * This book my father would never consent to publish ; 'tis in manuscript, with some other tracts of his, in the family, all or most of which will be printed in due time. fear, was the means of hastening him out of it ; ---- so that no one was able to set out with so full a sail, and in so swelling a tide of heroic loftiness upon the occasion, as my father was.                                                                                                                

V.xxvà whenever a Christian was writing a book(not for his private amusement, but) where his intent and purpose was bonâ fide, to print and publish it to the world, his first thoughts were always the temptations of the evil one. -- This was the state of ordinary writers : but when a personage of venerable character and high station, either in church or state, once turned author, -- he maintained, that from the very moment he took pen in hand -- all the devils in hell broke out of their holes to cajole him. -- 'Twas Term-time with them, -- every thought, first and last, was captious ; -- how specious and good soever, -- 'twas all one ;-- in whatever form or colour it presented  itself to the imagination, -- 'twas still a stroke of one or other of 'em leveled at him, and was to be fenced off. – So that the life of a writer, whatever he might fancy to the contrary, was not so much a state of composition, as a state of warfare ; and his probation in it, precisely that of any other man militant upon earth, -- both depending alike, not half so much upon the degrees of his WIT --as his RESISTANCE.     
Sterne takes up once again to mocking the existing theories on the negative influences of writing, and describes this fear of temptation as one that ends up keeping men from performing—both artistically and physically!   

Samuel Richardson wrote in a letter to Mark Hidesley (bishop of Sodor and Man) supposedly copying a letter from his daughter’s friend that complained about the fact that “even the bishops admire, and recompense [Sterne’s] wit, though his own character as a clergyman seems much impeached by printing such gross and vulgar tales, as no decent mind can endure without extreme disgust!” (Tristram Shandy 482)


V.xxxv à What my father had to say to my lord of Verulam's opiates, his salt-petre, and greasy uncrions and glisters, you shall read, -- but not today -- or tomorrow : time presses upon me, -- my reader is impatient -- I must get forwards. --  You shall read the chapter at your leisure, (if you chuse it) as soon as ever the Tristrapædia is published. --      Sufficeth it at present, to say, my father levelled the hypothesis with the ground, and in doing that, the learned know, he built up and established his own. --           
The Tirstrapedia is never published, and so we are teased with the promise to read an imaginary unpublished work. In many ways, this section also teases us with the possibility that Shandy won’t finish his Opinions either, and that we’ll forever be waiting for his promised chapters.    

In “Did Sterne Complete Tristram Shandy?” Wayne Booth discusses all the evidence available to demonstrate that, however odd, TS did not encounter the same fate of the Tristrapaedia. Amongst other things, Booth mentions the lack of cliffhangers in the final volume and the conclusion of the central digression of the book: the amours of Uncle Toby.


VI.xi àWith all these extenuations, I am aware, that in publishing this, I do no service to Yorick's character as a modest man ; -- but all men have their failings !and what lessens this still farther, and almost wipes it away, is this; that theword was struck through sometime afterwards (as appears from a different tint of the ink) with a line quite across it in this manner, BRAVO   -- as if he had retracted, or was ashamed of the opinion he had once entertained of it.                                                                          Roger B. Moss examines the brilliancy of this passage in using crossed out type:  “the typography is not just in the service of this narrative blockage, but is also a precise image of it. It asks us to read a word, and then to read it deleted, to read the unreadable” (187).


VII.xxi àTHE abbess of Andoüillets, which if you look into the large set of provincial maps now publishing at Paris, you will find situated amongst the hills which divide Burgundy from Savoy, being in danger of an Ankylosis or stiff joint (the sinovia of her knee becoming hard by long matins) and having tried every remedy          
Romances (and later Gothic novels) made it a point to situate their stories into a remotely unfamiliar territory which, nonetheless, could still be found on a map.

 
VII.xxviii à Tenez -- said she -- so without any idea of the nature of my suffering, she took them from her curls, and put them gravely one by one into my hat -- one was twisted this way -- another twisted that -- ay! by my faith ; and when   they are published, quoth I, -  They will be worse twisted still.               

Tristram eventually finds his writings that had gone off with the sold coach being used as curling papers. This reference to twisting also connects us back to the visual description of the non-linear meanderings of the story in Volume VI, chapter XL.