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the Shandean
VOLUME20
NOVEMBER 2009
AN ANNUAL VOLUME DEVOTED TO LAURENCE STERNE
AND HIS WORKS
~
en from p. 264 of
nan translation of
am Shandy,
THE LAURENCE STERNE TRUST
T
Point blank - orfa?filling Tristram 's command ef
'painting' on the blank page
It took a Frenchman (presumably) to order the matter of the blank page
differently, if not better, than most readers - with neither a drawing nor
a doodle, but a twenty-nine line description of a female, hand-written in
'pen and ink'.'
This can be found in a 1785 copy of Suite et.fin de la vie et des opinions
de Tristram Shandy kept in the library of the city from whence originated
a future admirer and imitator of Sterne. The city is Besanc;:on and the
admirer Charles Nodier (born 1780), the author of Histoire du roi de Boheme
et de ses sept chdteaux (1830) and of a few other earlier shandean variations
such as Moi-Meme or Le dernier chapitre de man roman. 2 Tempting as it is to
ascribe the interesting copy to the famous author, no such conclusion can
be drawn from the bibliographic data presently available. Moreover, the
hand-written text hardly compares with Nodier's self-debunking humour
and textual games.
The book is the third volume of a set of four, half-bound in sheep, with
decorative paper boards, from the end of the eighteenth or the beginning
of the nineteenth century. 3 The first two volumes are a 1777 Neuchatel
edition of Frenais's La vie et les opinions de Tristram Shandy. Books Three
and Four consist of Griffet de la Baume's translation (on the title-page
'M.D.L.B'), which prolongs Tristram Shandy with fragments of sterneana he
had also translated (he was taken in by The Koran's claim of being by Sterne):
'Melanges, Lettrcs, Pensees, Bon-mots & Memoires'. It was published by
Buisson, with the imprint 'A Landres, 1785' (fig. 29). 4 This Suite et.fin was
not reprinted as frequently as de Bonnay's Suite de La vie et des opinions de
Tristram Shandy, also published in 1785. 5 Because de la Baume transposes
references or names into a Swiss context and published his 1784 Nouveau
Vqyage en France de Sterne in Switzerland, I wonder if this translation may
have targeted readers in Switzerland and French provinces under Swiss
influence. Suggestions on this point would be very welcome. 6
The representation of Widow Wadman provided by this literal reader
of Tristram Shandy is fairly elaborate (figs. 30, 31, here transcribed):
La personne
insensible, le p
d'abord une ca
plus vif incarn
son beau visai
brillans et des
me servirais m
l' air d'un lieu
pas ses levres
soleils !. il serai
occasion pour
au mont liban
puis-je vous d
de scs regards
Mr-Shand;
The person I
insensible hea
radiant bloom
a pure white 1
combination c
parterre. I wo
smack of the
to coral, her t1
be impious to
compare her
Mount Lebar.
I not give ym
gaze? Of the:
Mr-Shandy.
This answt
Sterne's text.'
a complete ve
manuscript w
provided, whe
simultaneous!
layout leaves.
(standard prir
POINT BLANK
127
Manuscript :
La personne dont je parle etait faite pour emouvoir le cceur le plus
insensible, le plus sec, le mains susceptible de sentiments tendres. Elle avait
d'abord une carnation si eblouissante, des joties si agreablement colorees du
plus vif incarnat, un teint d'une blancheur si pure qu'on eut pris volontiers
son beau visage, pour un melange artistement combine des lys les plus
brillans et des roses les plus fraiches que renferme le parterre de flare. je
me servirais meme assez volontiers de cette comparaison si elle n'avait pas
l'air d'un lieu commun. C'est pour la meme raison que je n'assimilerai
pas ses levres au corail, ses dents aux perles de l'orient et ses yeux a des
soleils !. il serait impie d'employer les termes de la saintc ccriturc en pareille
occasion pour comparer son col au tronc majestueux des cedres et sa gorge
au mont liban .. je ne comparerai pas !.., Que ne puis-je peindre ? que ne
puis-je vous donncr quclque notion imparfaite de la vivacite seduisante
de ses regards .. de la douceur de sa voix .. de la noblesse de sa taille .. oh!
Mr - Shandy.. il n'y a pas assez de deux pages.
ref
e blank page
drawing nor
tld-written in
et des opinions
:e originated
u;on and the
~ roi de Boheme
an variations
ing as it is to
mclusion can
foreovcr, the
king humour
Translation :
The person I am speaking of was made to move the driest, the most
insensible heart, the least open to tender sentiments. First she had such a
radiant bloom, cheeks of such an agreeable rosiness, a complexion of such
a pure white that one could have taken her beautiful face for an artistic
combination of the brightest lilies and the freshest roses contained in Flora's
parterre. I would even be quite happy to use this comparison if it did not
smack of the commonplace. For the same reason I will not liken her lips
to coral, her teeth to the pearls of the East and her eyes to suns!. It would
be impious to use the words of the sacred Bible on such an occasion to
compare her neck to the majestic trunk of the cedar and her bosom to
Mount Lebanon .. I will not compare! .., Why can I not paint? 'Why can
I not give you some imperfect notion of the appealing liveliness of her
gaze? Of the sweetness of her voice .. of the nobleness of her figure .. oh,
Mr - Shandy.. two pages are not enough.
This answers cues from translator de la Baume which expatiate on
Sterne's text. 'Dcux pages de papier blanc', amounting to half a recto and
a complete verso, and invite writing more than drawing. A succession of
manuscript words and punctuation marks makes the most of the space
provided, whereas a picture would waste half a page and not be visualised
simultaneously with the printed text. The Becket and de Handt 1762
layout leaves just a few vacant lines at the bottom of the left-hand page
(standard printing practice to indicate a break in the text, as before a new
n sheep, with
he beginning
77 Neuchatel
Books Three
he title-page
sterneana he
1g by Sterne):
published by
luite et fin was
des opinions de
1e transposes
1784 Nouveau
nslation may
under Swiss
6
literal reader
·ibed):
..........
128
THE SHANDEAN
chapter) with a blank right-hand page. 7 The French edition does respect
the presence of the page number in the usual format, which indicates that
whatever is on it is part of the text, but cannot fit the typographic game on
one single opening, which good editions of TS always manage to do. 8
.Moreover, the word order of 'peins a ton esprit ccttc veuve' suggests a
more abstract representation than Sterne's ambivalent 'paint her to your
own mind'. The literal sense of 'painting' implies colour, which is at odds
with 'pen and ink'. 9 De Bonnay, the other translator, followed Sterne's
text more closely ('Mais je veux que vous fassiez vous-meme son portrait.
[ ... ] peignez la a votre fantaisie') but the blank space allotted by publisher
Volland consists of eight lines at the bottom of the even-numbered page
and only thirteen lines on its verso (243-44, figs. 32, 33). The ornament at
the bottom of page 244 which fills in the blank before the new chapter (as
in more than twenty other instances) is hardly sufficient to make the reader
realise that its absence on page 243 signifies the space is his. Although the
De Bonnay narrator puts everything that is needed at the disposal of the
reader(' · Voici une plume, de l'encre & du papier'), rather than making
the reader partake in the gathering of the implements and thus 'halve
this matter amicably' ('- call for pen and ink - here's paper ready to your
hand'), this edition provides a paltry blank page. De la Baume respects
Sterne's use of the imperative ('demande de l'encre et une plume') and
suggests that the paper ('je laisse ici deux pages de papier blanc') is to be
filled like the chair the narrator vacates: 'voila ma chaise ... Assieds-toi'.
Sterne's '- here's paper ready to your hand. - Sit down, Sir' reads more
like an invitation to be seated by Tristram's side and 'paint' the widow
while the reader visualizes the two producers of the work sharing a table
(and male suggestiveness) thanks to the graphic combination of dashes
and letters: '-Sit down Sir'. De la Baume leaves out any indication of
gender but intimates greater familiarity with the reader than de Bonnay
through his use of 'tu'. By leaving his place to the narratee, this narrator
gives him more freedom than does the original Tristram.
The owner (?) of the copy now in Besarn:;on filled this space to the
full, and even complained that it was not enough: 'il n'y a pas assez de
deux pages'. After taking up the role of the first-person narrator at the
beginning of his stunt ('la personnc dontje parle'), he relinquishes it at the
bottom of the second page by paying allegiance to Tristram with shandean
punctuation, as if to ask for leniency: 'oh! Mr - Shandy ... ' Punctuation
does not play a great role in the rest of the performance. What can be
viewed as vaguely shandean is the ironic self-reflexive judgement (je me
servirais meme assez volontiers de cctte comparaison si elle n'avait pas l'air
d'un lieu commun') and the repeated use of paralipsis in what may be a
pale echo of Sc
on the collapsi
inability to dot
medium. He e'
first referring ti
concrete/ ahstr
reference to th
One possibl1
from what see
Philippe Mart
write in their 1
commentary 1
rather than tc
into a new ob~
space left by "l
thus not have
his narrator's :
\Valter's 'scrat
or to MacNal
sagacity.
ANNE BANI
Universite de St1
NOTES
David A. I
158-61, am
162-68, re
See also el
2
Anne Ban
Twentieth
Peter de'
41-48.
3 Besarn;:on
Suite etfin 1
pensees, bo1
Troisiemc
p. 337· 24
Waille, R
POINT BLANK
129
does respect
indicates that
)hie game on
tge to do. 8
ve' suggests a
Lt her to your
ich is at odds
wed Sterne's
son portrait.
. by publisher
mbered page
ornament at
w chapter (as
ke the reader
Although the
isposal of the
thanmaking
d thus 'halve
ready to your
ume respects
plume') and
anc ') is to be
. Assieds-toi'.
r' reads more
1t' the widow
taring a table
on of dashes
indication of
n de Bonnay
this narrator
pale echo of Sonnet 130 and Song of Songs. 10 The writer moreover plays
on the collapsing of writing, drawing and painting when he laments his
inability to do the latter or indeed to represent the female character in any
medium. He even increases the range of possible means of expression by
first referring to speech ('la personne dont je parle) with the same kind of
concrete/abstract ambivalence as Tristram's 'paint', while ending with a
reference to the book as such with its 'deux pages'.
One possible explanation for this writing on the blank page could stem
from what seems to have been a French habit. According to historian
Philippe Martin, it was customary for people from all walks of life to
write in their pious books, appropriating margins and blank spaces for
commentary notes, marginalia occasionally devoted to everyday life
rather than to devotion, or 'invasive notes,' thereby turning the book
into a new object. 11 The person who wrote the description in the blank
space left by 'Tristram' may have been familiar with such a practice and
thus not have found it 'impious' to appropriate Sterne's page by taking
his narrator's invitation to the letter. Whether this explanation is akin to
Walter's 'scratch[ing] some better sense' with a penknife (TS, 3. 37. 272)
or to MacNally's variation on button-holes 12 is best left to the reader's
sagacity.
space to the
pas assez de
trrator at the
iishes it at the
rith shandean
' Punctuation
What can be
~ment ('je me
'avait pas l'air
hat may be a
2
ANNE BANDRY-SCUBBI
Universite de Strasbourg
NOTES
3
--ollllll._
David A Brewer, 'A Drawing on the Blank Page', The Shandean, 17 (2006)
158-6!, and Brigitte Friant-Kessler, 'A Doodle and more 'Curious Cuts',
162-68, refer to the main analyses of the blank page (7:r;;, 6. 38. 566).
See also elsewhere in this Shandean.
Anne Bandry, 'Romantic to Avant-Garde: Sterne in Nineteenth- and
Twentieth-Century France', The Reception ef Laurence Sterne in Europe,
Peter de Voogd, John Neubauer eds. (London: Continuum, 2004),
41-48.
Besarn;on, Bibliotheque d'etude et de conservation, classmark 245047:
Suite etfin de la vie et des opinions de Tristram Shanrfy, suivies de melanges, lettres,
pensees, bans-mots, & memoires; traduits de l'anglois de Stern, par M. D. L. B.
Troisieme partie. ALondres, 1785. [2], XVIII, 337, [1] p., with an errata
p. 337. 245048 is 'Quatrieme partie.' I am indebted to Marie-Claire
Waille, Rare books Head librarian, for bibliographical details.
THE SHANDEAN
4
5
6
7
8
9
IO
11
12
See my 'A Bibliography of Sterne in French', The Shandean, 12 (2001),
ro3-ro5.
Lana Asfour~ 'Movements of Sensibility and Sentiments: Sterne in
Eighteenth-Century France', The Reception ef Laurence Sterne in Europe,
2i. A facsimile of the title-pages of Frenais (1776) and de Bonnay (1785)
can be seen in The Shandean, 6 (1994), 66.
Buisson was established in Paris and later published Jacques le .fataliste
(<Euvres de Diderot, Paris: Gallimard, Bibliotheque de la Pleiade, 1946,
No. 1442). See my 'Les differentes traductions de Tristram Shandy au
XVIIIe siecle' in La Traduction romanesque au dix-huitieme siecle, Annie
Cointre, Alain Lautel , Annie Rivara, eds. (Arras: Artois Presses
Universite, 2003), 247-66, better informed than 'The First French
Translation of Tristram Shandy', The Shandean, 6 (1994), 67-85, and more
detailed than 'Tristram in French Garb; or, the French Translations
of Tristram Shandy' in Through Other Eyes: The Translation ef Anglophone
Literature in Europe, Richard Trim, Sophie Alatorre, eds (Cambridge:
Cambridge Scholar Press, 2007), 67-76. Comments and suggestions
please to me at:[email protected].
If a copy of the 1762 edition is not at hand, pp.146-147 can be viewed
at http:/ I special.lib.gla.ac. uk/ exhibns/ month/ oct2000.html
The black pages are also wrong, being on the same opening rather than
recto-verso to suggest a slab, and the marbled pages were expunged
out the text by Frenais.
OED: i.a. 'to make (a picture or representation) on a surface in colours
[... ] ',2.b. 'to depict or describe in words; to set forth as in a picture; to
present vividly to the mind's eye, call up a picture o(' The last example
for I.e., 'said of writing (as a kind of painting)', is dated 1638.
Such a reader had probably read Le Tourneur's Shakespeare (177683).
.
Philippe Martin, Une religion des livres: 1640-1850 (Paris: Cerf, 2003,
Collection Histoire religieuse de la France), w9, 524: 'les intrusions
du lecteur clans le contenu memc de son ouvrage en y incluant des
commentaires, en y raturant des passages, en inflechissant le sens
de certain es phrases.' Serendipity in the guise of a paper heard at a
conference in Mulhouse University presided over my coming upon
this interpretation.
Leonard MacNally, Sentimental Excursions to Windsor and Other Places,
London, 1781, 165-66, quoted in David A Brewer, The Aflerlije ef
Character, 1726-1825 (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press,
2005), 183.
Martin Roi
'I beg
de die:
gener
minu1
Martin Rowsor
enjoy his provo
to his portfolio,
he 'collided Eli<
Not only was ti
copyright dem
would never de
booksellers we1
postmodern in
Some years
drink in a Dub
Press to create
stayed with ~
Cambridge, ar
admirable coll
because the ca1
and earthiness
narrative as a
Sterne had do
Full of Shan
vault, the ard
indeed. Far fr
Rowson takes
what I have se
nor to any m<