BIOGRAPHY

Laurence Sterne

Laurence Sterne (1713-68), the author of Tristram Shandy and A Sentimental Journey, was the great-grandson of Richard Sterne, Archbishop of York and Master of Jesus College. Laurence's father, Roger Sterne, was a soldier who served as an officer in Flanders under the Duke of Marlborough. His mother, Agnes, was the widow of a fellow officer, who married Roger Sterne while he was on campaign in Dunkirk in 1711. Laurence was born on 24 November 1713 at Clonmel in County Tipperary, where his father's regiment was stationed. He spent his childhood wandering from place to place in Ireland and England, following in the wake of his father's regiment. Military life was to furnish Sterne with some of his most notable comic characters, especially Uncle Toby, Corporal Trim and Lieutenant Le Fever in Tristram Shandy.

In 1723, when he was ten years old, he was sent to a school in Halifax, where he learned Latin and Greek. His impressionable nature manifested itself in the classroom, where the stories in the Iliad moved him to uncontrollable tears or laughter (1). He was also much given to mischief, as when, the schoolroom having been newly whitewashed, he mounted the workman's ladder and wrote with the brush 'Lau. Sterne' in large capital letters on the wall. According to Sterne, the master declared (somewhat improbably) that 'that name should never be effaced, for [he] was a boy of genius and sure to come to preferment' (2). In 1727, his father took part in the defence of Gibraltar, and there 'was run through the body by Captain Phillips in a duel: the quarrel began about a goose' (3). He never fully recovered from the wound and died suddenly in March 1731.

Sterne left school soon after his father's death and, two years later, in July 1733, was admitted as a student of Jesus College Cambridge. A year later, in July 1734, he was awarded an exhibition founded by his grandfather, Archbishop Sterne. He detested the curriculum he had to study at Cambridge, especially mathematics and logic, but he read with enthusiasm the ancient and modern literary classics. He formed one close friendship during his time at Jesus College, with John Hall-Stevenson, a distant cousin from Yorkshire, a friendship that lasted until his death. 'They used to study together under a large wallnutt tree in the inner court, where one of 'em wrote underneath these lines:

This shou'd be the Tree of Knowledge,
As it stands in so very wise a colledge'.⁽⁴⁾

Whilst he was at the college he ran up considerable debts, which continued to embarrass him for some time afterwards. In his last year, a haemorrhage of the lungs was the first sign of the consumption that was to trouble him for the rest of his life. He graduated B.A. in 1736 and proceeded M.A. in 1740.

Sterne owed his start in life to his uncle Jaques, who was precentor and a canon of York. Acting on his uncle's advice, he took holy orders, a vocation for which he was temperamentally unsuited. He was ordained in 1738 and became vicar of Sutton-in-the-Forest, a village eight miles north of York. He also took his turn as a preacher at York Minster, but he never acquired much fame in that capacity. It was reported that as soon as he mounted the pulpit 'half of the congregation usually left the church, as his delivery and voice [were] so very disagreeable' (5). In 1741, he married Elizabeth Lumley, in York Minster, and, in 1747, a daughter, Lydia, was born. For twenty years Sterne resided with his family at Sutton, living the life of a rural parson. His friend John Hall-Stevenson resided nearby at Skelton Hall, in Cleveland, and Sterne was an occasional member of a club created by Hall-Stevenson, which he called the 'Demoniacks'.

Sterne's lungs remained weak and the wet climate and low-lying situation of Sutton exacerbated his ill health. Moreover, his marriage, which had never been happy, reached a crisis in 1758, when his wife, after learning of an affair with a maid-servant, fell into a state of temporary insanity and was eventually placed under the care of a doctor in a private house in York. His own health continued to fail, his daughter Lydia's health was also precarious, and, increasingly, he fell into a state of melancholy. It was in this atmosphere of gloom and despondency that Sterne began to write The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman, one of the most light-hearted books in the whole of literature. He completed fourteen chapters in six weeks and promised to write two volumes a year for the rest of his life (7). The title of the book is somewhat misleading, since Tristram Shandy is not born until halfway through the book, and the account of his life thereafter never manages to progress beyond his third year. As a comic creation, he is outshone by his loquacious father, Walter Shandy, whose eccentric opinions on every conceivable subject take up a large part of the book, and by his Uncle Toby, a former soldier with a wound in his thigh, who spends his days reconstructing the battles of the Duke of Marlborough on his bowling green, with the help of his servant Corporal Trim. Sterne portrayed himself in the character of Parson Yorick, and even published a collection of his own sermons under the title of The Sermons of Mr.Yorick.

When the first two volumes of Tristram Shandy were published, in York and London, in January 1760, Sterne became instantly famous. In the first week of March, he travelled to London and took lodgings in St Alban's Street. The news of his presence there soon spread, visitors thronged to his rooms, and invitations to fashionable dinners and receptions abounded. His witty talk in society was much applauded, and Sterne himself proved to be as great an attraction as his book. However, he was also much criticized, by people from the area around York, for his often scurrilous portraits of well-known local figures, such as the male midwife Dr. Slop, and by critics, such as Dr. Johnson, for his use of indecent innuendo.

Meanwhile, Mrs. Sterne's state of mind had begun to improve, but Sterne continued to neglect her, and fell in love with a young French singer called Catherine Fourmantelle, who visited London at this time under his auspices. In the summer of 1760, the Sterne family moved back to Yorkshire, to a large cottage in Coxwold, which he renamed Shandy Hall. Sterne wrote two more volumes of Tristram Shandy and, the following Christmas, he returned to London to superintend their publication. These volumes appeared in January 1761, to the same chorus of praise and criticism as the earlier volumes. Fashionable society welcomed him back and for another three months he was immersed in social life. When he returned to Shandy Hall, he continued to work on Tristram Shandy, and the fifth and sixth volumes were completed by December 1761. While supervising the publication of these volumes in London, he suffered a severe haemorrhage of the lungs, and a journey to the south of France was hastily arranged for his health's sake. Obtaining a year's absence from his post from the Archbishop of York, he left for Paris in January 1762.

Sterne's fame had preceded him to Paris and he was lionised in much the same way as he had been in London. His health temporarily improved, and, in May 1762, he sent for his wife and his daughter, who was suffering from asthma. In July, following a relapse of his health, they left for Toulouse, where they stayed for a year. Sterne spent the year writing a seventh volume of Tristram Shandy, incorporating some of his experiences in France into the story. However this volume was not as successful with the reading public as the previous volumes had been. In July 1763, the family visited the Pyrenees, Aix and Marseilles, and in September 1763, they settled in Montpellier for the winter. By February 1764, Sterne declared himself 'heartily tired of France'(8) and the following month he resolved to return to England. However, his wife did not share his desire to leave and decided to stay in France with Lydia, while she completed her education. 'My system' wrote Sterne 'is to let her please herself' (9) and he acceded to her wish. He spent most of the summer in London, and then returned to Shandy Hall in the autumn. He was soon immersed in an eighth volume of Tristram Shandy. The seventh and eighth volumes were published on 26th January 1765.

In October 1765, Sterne set out for a seven months' tour through France and Italy, which was later immortalised in his second novel A Sentimental Journey through France and Italy, by Mr.Yorick. He passed through Paris and Lyons to Turin, where he began his tour through Italy in the company of Sir James Macdonald, a cultivated young man then resident in Italy. He visited Milan, Parma, Florence, Rome and Naples, and, on his return through France, he visited his wife and daughter. His wife had decided that she could manage better without him, and begged to stay abroad for another year. He returned alone to England in June 1766. His main companion in Yorkshire, now that he was separated from his family, was his old friend John Hall-Stevenson. In the autumn he completed the ninth and final volume of Tristram Shandy and began planning A Sentimental Journey. By this time Sterne was seriously short of money, having spent most of his literary earnings on his foreign tours. Having a family abroad to support, he set about repairing his financial position, by means of the sales of a ninth volume of Tristram Shandy and two new volumes of sermons.

In December 1766, he was in London again, where he met Mrs. Eliza Draper, the wife of Daniel Draper, an official from Bombay, and fell in love with her. This passion was to dominate what remained of his life. Within two months she was summoned home to her husband in Bombay, and Sterne never saw her again, but he was not willing to let the relationship go. He sent her his books, and, having had her portrait painted, wore it round his neck. With half an eye on posterity, he kept a 'Journal to Eliza', modelled on Swift's 'Journal to Stella', and A Sentimental Journey is full of references to Eliza, to the portrait, and his vows of eternal fidelity to her. However, this did not stop him from continuing to flirt with other ladies in London during his stay there.

On returning to Yorkshire, he was visited by his wife and daughter in August 1767, but, since they continued to find each other's company insupportable, he and his wife finally came to an agreement that she and Lydia should return to the South of France, with an improved financial allowance, and never return to England. Sterne seems to have been content with this arrangement, although he also seems to have been upset at being parted from Lydia, for whom he had a genuine affection. By December 1767, two volumes of A Sentimental Journey were completed, and Sterne set off with John Hall-Stevenson for London to superintend their publication. In March, he fell ill with influenza, and on the 18th he died. Many compromising letters from ladies of rank were found in his rooms and burnt by a friend. It is believed that two days after his burial, his body was stolen from its grave and sold for the purpose of dissection to the professor of anatomy at Cambridge. His features were recognised by a student at the dissecting table. His skeleton, it is said, was for a long time preserved in the anatomy school at Cambridge.