In Volume 1, Yorick at last arrives in Paris. Almost immediately, he is overwhelmed by the splendor of the city and, more importantly, the splendor of its citizens. In a passage laden with color imagery and metaphor—and no shortage of euphemism—Yorick laments the flamboyance of his new surroundings:
I walked up gravely to the window in my dusty black coat, and looking through the glass saw all the world in yellow, blue, and green, running at the ring of pleasure.—The old with broken lances, and in helmets which had lost their vizards—the young in armour bright which shone like gold, beplumed with each gay feather of the east—all—all tilting at it like fascinated knights in tournaments of yore for fame and love.—
Generally, this passage makes use of the metaphor of chivalric competition as a way to talk about sex and sexual competition: jousting stands in for intercourse ("running at the ring of pleasure"), with the "broken lances" of the old knights representing their impotence. What's more, Sterne underscores the vividness of this scene for Yorick through the use of visual imagery—Yorick, in his dull, old black coat, contrasts with the colorful world beyond the window, full of knights in shining armor and their bright feathers.
Although Sterne may have been a clergyman, A Sentimental Journey is full of bawdy references like the ones made above—and Sterne devotes much of the novel to an exploration of the way human sexuality affects human behavior.
