Tristram Shandy Eccentric Public Orator
1979; University of Western Ontario Libraries; Volume: 5; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1353/esc.1979.0021
ISSN1913-4835
Autores Tópico(s)Scottish History and National Identity
ResumoT R I S T R A M S H A N D Y E C C E N T R I C P U B L I C O R A T O R * RICHARD A. DAVIES Acadia University S te rn e’s choice of his novel’s title, “The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman,” is more than a droll variation of the more usual “Life and Adventures” formula. The title reflects what Tristram calls “the strange state of affairs between the reader and myself,” 1 brought about by Tristram’s inability to control his opinions. Because they will be the death of him and seem likely to cause him endless problems as an author, Tristram decides to make a virtue out of his opinionative temperament and lead “a fine life of it [as an opinion-monger] out of this self-same life of mine.” 2 It is a decision that has intrigued twentieth-century readers of Sterne and resulted in many attempts to explain Tristram’s eccentricities as a narrator. Tristram has been described as a “master showman,” “ a great comic figure on the stage,” and even a “monologuist behind the footlights” (of the printed page) .3 The theatrical nature of his authorial intrusions have prompted others to relate the book to the world of eighteenth-century drama proper.4 It has been suggested that Tristram’s narrative behaviour relates closely to the acting style of David Garrick in full flow.5 To date, no one has noticed how Tris tram’s manner and behaviour resemble that of the eccentric public orator, a prominent figure in the annals of popular entertainment during Sterne’s day. What follows, therefore, is a description of the leading exponents of eccentric public oratory during Sterne’s lifetime ( 1 713-68) in order to restore a for gotten contemporary influence on Tristram Shandy (1759-67). The leading practitioners in this form of entertainment were “Orator” John Henley (1696-1756), Chevalier John Taylor the Oculist (1703-72), Tony Aston the comedian (1682-1749?), Christopher Smart the poet (17227 1), Samuel Foote the playwright (1720-77), Charles Macklin the actor (1697?-1797) and George Alexander Stevens (1710-84) a theatrical jack-ofall trades, all of whose activities span Sterne’s lifetime. Although their indi vidual differences as public orators and comic entertainers were responsible for their successes, they do form a tradition of eccentric oratory and lecturing that helped to give the age the public display of singularity it admired and loved so much. The greatest orator of all was “Orator” John Henley (of E n g l is h St u d ie s in C anada, v, 2, Summer 1979 Dunciad fame) .e It was his vitality and success as a public orator that tempted others into the field and we must start with Henley if we are to understand this mode of eighteenth-century public entertainment. Before Graham Midgley’s study, The Life of Orator Henley (1973), little attention had been given to the most eccentric orator of the age. Midgley’s concerns in his book are those of a biographer and he has little to say about the tradition of eccentric public oratory described here.7 His book is a valu able guide to the facts of Henley’s busy life. In 1726, Henley established an “ Oratory” for himself in Newport Market, a busy London meat market, having resigned his living in the Church of England. He was inspired by a wish to free himself from the constraints of the orthodox pulpit so he set out to create his own public platform at the “Oratory.” It was a combination of pulpit, theatre, lecture hall and mountebank stage and lasted for thirty years until his death in 1756. In his Oratory, Henley established himself in a double role, as a “teacher of religion” and a “ teacher of human learning,” simultaneously attempting to create a surrogate church and a metropolitan university.8 The venture was “an ecclesiastical institution; but, since the holy Bible and theology cannot be understood without the other arts and sciences, it will also take in, on a religious footing, an academy of the sciences and languages...
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