_________________________________________________________________________Swansea University E-Theses Context of Sterne's Sermons. Gow, James Sladen How to cite: _________________________________________________________________________ Gow, James Sladen (2003) Context of Sterne's Sermons.. thesis, Swansea University. http://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa42536 Use policy: _________________________________________________________________________ This item is brought to you by Swansea University. Any person downloading material is agreeing to abide by the terms of the repository licence: copies of full text items may be used or reproduced in any format or medium, without prior permission for personal research or study, educational or non-commercial purposes only. The copyright for any work remains with the original author unless otherwise specified. The full-text must not be sold in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holder. Permission for multiple reproductions should be obtained from the original author. Authors are personally responsible for adhering to copyright and publisher restrictions when uploading content to the repository. Please link to the metadata record in the Swansea University repository, Cronfa (link given in the citation reference above.) http://www.swansea.ac.uk/library/researchsupport/ris-support/ CONTEXTS OF STERNE’S SERMONS ecco lo il vero Punchinello! James Sladen Gow Submitted to the University of Wales in fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy University of Wales Swansea 2003 ProQuest Number: 10805285 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a com plete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. uest ProQuest 10805285 Published by ProQuest LLC(2018). Copyright of the Dissertation is held by the Author. All rights reserved. This work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States C ode Microform Edition © ProQuest LLC. ProQuest LLC. 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106- 1346 SUMMARY As soon as the reading public realized that the much-enjoyed first volumes of Tristram Shandy were written by a priest and, furthermore, that this parson was publishing sermons under the name of Hamlet’s exhumed jester, the sincerity of Sterne towards his vocation was questioned—if not flatly denied. This immediate reticence and indignation has expanded and persisted. The stumbling blocks are two: bawdy fiction is not fitting from a priest; and, the sermons, full of plagiarism, lack evangelical heat. The aim of this dissertation is to review the contexts of mid-eighteenth century Anglican homiletics with reference to Sterne’s oeuvres. Once we understand what was expected from the pulpit in content and style, we are equipped to observe ways in which Sterne strove to meet those expectations. To date no published work has responsibly considered his much-alleged plagiarism. This is rectified, and the evidence unveils an interested and very capable sermon-writer. We then consider Sterne’s fictions. That, alongside ribaldry, the first volumes of Tristram contain an entire sermon has led some to conclude Steme was mocking religion. On the contrary, tracing themes of the homilies through both novels we come to appreciate an intended reciprocity between the works. Of interest in this regard is Sterne’s engagement with fideistic scepticism, and the manner in which he developed his parabolic contribution to this tradition of faithful, learned ignorance. I suggest that, far from the buffoonery of a snickering prankster, Sterne’s fiction represents the elements of his orthodox sermons within a provocative and curiously accessible mode. As such, his canon has integrity. He lusted earnestly, and endeavoured carefully that these little books might stand instead o f many bigger books ; and his hope was that they would do us good. DECLARATION This work has not previously been accepted in substance for any degree and is not being concurrently submitted in candidature for any degree. Signed: Date: 1 June 2003 STATEMENT 1 This thesis is the result of my own investigations, except where otherwise stated. Other sources are acknowledged by explicit reference within the text and endnotes. A bibliography is appended. Signed: Date: 1 June 2003 STATEMENT 2 I hereby give consent for my thesis, if accepted, to be available for photocopying and for inter-library loan, and for the title and summary to be made available to outside organizations. Signed: Date: 1 June 2003 CONTENTS I. INTRODUCTION 1 H. STERNE’S COMPOSITION OF SERMONS 20 Why Bother? 20 Composition Dates & Initial Publication 23 Contemporary Expectations 27 Repetition of Self 33 Use of Scripture 34 Plagiarism and Creative Reapplication 38 John Tillotson 49 Samuel Clarke 58 Further Editorial Examples 67 Joseph Hall et al: Implicit Criticism of Sources 76 Doctrinal Polemic and Religious Discipline 92 m . “AUXILIARIES ON THE SIDE OF VIRTUE” 111 A Larger Congregation 111 Pursuit of Happiness 118 ‘Abuses’, Prepossession, and Inappropriate Solutions 129 Aids to Reformation 154 Artful Presentation 169 Potential Emancipation 190 IV. “ECCO LOIL VERO PUNCHINELLO!” 214 Homiletic Humor? 214 Moitie Moral & Moitie Buffon 222 Sympathy and Grace 236 Uncle Toby 245 Redemption: Love Without Definition 265 V. CONCLUSION 272 Endnotes 286 Bibliography 306 1 I-INTRODUCTION Concluding ‘A Defence of Nonsense’ G.K. Chesterton wrote: “the well-meaning person who, by merely studying the logical side of things, has decided that ‘faith is nonsense,’ does not know how truly he speaks; later it may come back to him in the form that nonsense is faith.”1 The study of things was well attended in Sterne’s day, and their logical side was appreciated as difficult to establish. Searching for truth and accuracy scientists revealed and explicated serious curiosities, but these were tending rather to increase than to relieve perceived complexities. Current alternatives of broad scepticism and focused determinism offered little comfort to those considering their validity. The epigraph to the first two volumes of The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy is appropriate, in Cotton’s translation of Montaigne’s use of it: “men . are tormented with the Opinions they have of Things, and not by the Things themselves.”2 This phrase of Epictetus, echoed through centuries, alerts Tristram’s readers that a lesson in perspective will follow. We do well to register the philosophic implications that such a quotation conjures. It has been of no service to discuss Sterne’s use of Locke, for example, while Locke’s own contexts -his texts as well- have been neglected. Fortunately in recent years the heritage of epistemological discourse from which Sterne works, proposed in scripture especially by Job, Ecclesiastes and St. Paul, has begun to be accurately addressed. That the truly wise are so by understanding primarily that they know nothing is a Socratic commonplace embedded in the Bible: 2 I gave my heart to know wisdom, and to know madness and folly: I perceived that this also is vexation of spirit. For in much wisdom is much grief: and he that increaseth knowledge increaseth sorrow. (Eccles. i. 17-8) Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this world? Hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. (I Cor. i.20-1) Gradually Sterne’s appreciation of this tradition of humble access is evolving. Of late, “fideistic scepticism” is being appreciated by Stemeans through the contributions of J.T. Parnell and Donald Wehrs, and Peter Briggs wrote perceptively in 1985: it is important to note that the perceptual relativism and consequent skepticism implicit in Sterne’s methods is not necessarily bound up with moral relativism. Commenting upon this tradition of faithful doubting, reading backwards from Nietzsche and recalling Keats’ coining of “negative capability,” Melvyn New claims “resolution and positiveness are the tempting and inevitable vices of Sterne’s world-view; suspension and doubt, its difficult, if not impossible, virtues.”4 This unfortunate conclusion is repeated in the introduction to Critical Essays on Laurence Sterne [1998]5 and a disservice will be done to Sterne if such a summary of Christian scepticism is allowed to stand for lack of experience with the tempers of Sterne’s mentors. In Tristram Shandy: A Book for Free Spirits New continues. Here is skepticism pressed into the service of religious faith .... A comic and tragic futility is found in the human desire for certainty and conviction, and somewhere among Rabelais, Montaigne, Burton, Locke, Chambers, and Swift, Sterne sought a skeptical stance that would deny the absoloutism of dogmatists while preserving his own (and his congregation’s) capacity to believe in the concept of Truth. Sterne could not abandon his own certainty concerning Anglican centrism; hence his blindness to the rhetorical gambits and dogmatics of his own argument that one need only “preach the gospel” or direct words “to the heart.”6 New’s rhetoric of poles and response leaves little room for any viable sense of an appreciation for what faith might entail in a believer. We have yet to be offered an accurate assessment of Sterne’s considered investment in the discourse of fideism then current. Even recently in Steme studies we continue to hear more of Nietzsche than of More, Pope, Berkeley or Hume, so it is not surprising Sterne’s world-view continues to be widely misrepresented. When we become familiar with the tradition that seeks to “reconcile us to our condition” and to maintain scepticism within a sphere corresponding to that condition, a better reckoning of Sterne’s epistemology -and ontology- will become possible. He did not seek a hoary stance somewhere to press it into service of a faithful (though allegedly blind) discourse.