Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in A Sentimental Journey, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Sentimentality
Travel
Sexuality and Kindness
National vs. Personal Identity
Religion
Summary
Analysis
The narrator (later revealed to be Yorick) is telling a gentleman about something that the French do better. The gentleman asks Yorick whether he has been in France. Yorick goes home and packs, and he sails for France the next morning. He brings clothing, a portmanteau, and a picture of a woman named Eliza. Recalling that France seizes the property of foreigners who die within its borders, Yorick mentally scolds the king of France for the unfair law.
Yorick’s abrupt decision to travel to France reveals his impulsiveness. What he packs—some clothes, a “portmanteau” (a single suitcase), and a picture of a woman named Eliza—suggests his priorities. Rather than bring (for example) a second suitcase on an international trip of unknown length, he brings a memento of a woman, which implies that he is a romantic and not a very good planner. Finally, he changes his mind about France in a very short period. He begins the passage by praising France but, as soon as he’s there, criticizes its laws. This about-face shows both Yorick’s fickleness and the importance of nationality to the book.
Themes
Literary Devices
In Calais, France, Yorick eats dinner and toasts the King of France to prove he is not angry with the King. He comments to himself that the French are not mean but gentle. Then he kicks his portmanteau and asks himself why the world makes good people bad. He thinks: “When man is at peace with man, how much lighter than a feather is the heaviest of metals in his hand!” Indeed, he thinks, peacefulness makes men charitable and healthy. He says to himself that if he were the king of France, an orphaned beggar would be lucky to ask for his portmanteau at that moment.
This passage introduces Yorick’s tendency toward overblown emotional outbursts: in rapid succession, he toasts the King of France, kicks his suitcase, and philosophizing to himself about the benefits of peacefulness. Clearly, the book is satirizing Yorick, his changeable emotions, and his grand pronouncements about French people—none of whom he seems to have met yet. Yorick’s absolute certainty that he would give away his suitcase to the next beggar who asked, meanwhile, makes the reader wonder whether Yorick knows himself as well as he thinks he does.
Themes
Literary Devices
A Franciscan monk enters Yorick’s room to ask for alms. Yorick thinks that men do not like to have their good characteristics tested by luck, and he resolves to give the monk no money. Walking up to the monk, Yorick estimates his age to be between 60 and 70 and notes his expression, which seems to stare “at something beyond this world.” Yorick wonders how a monk could have such an expression.
Immediately before the monk arrived, Yorick was praising his own generosity, but as soon as a real person asks Yorick for alms—that is, a donation to support poor people—he decides not to give. This passage thus reveals the contrast between Yorick’s emotions and beliefs about himself and his actual actions. Interestingly, Yorick is surprised that the monk seems to look “beyond this world,” even though “beyond this world” is exactly where one might expect a monk who believes in the afterlife to look. Yorick’s surprise at the monk’s otherworldliness suggests that he is skeptical of monks and perhaps of organized religion in general.
Themes
Literary Devices
The monk puts his hand to his chest and explains to Yorick his monastery’s financial needs and his monastic order’s vow of poverty. Yorick is impressed by the monk’s “grace” and humility but nevertheless recalls his resolution to give the monk no money.
In Christianity, “grace” is a gift from God. By attributing grace to the monk, Yorick implies that he believes the monk is authentically religious. That Yorick still refuses to give the monk alms, despite believing in the monk’s authenticity, shows his stubbornness and lack of generosity.
Themes
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Yorick tells the monk that he commends to God those people who rely on others’ generosity, since said generosity “is no way sufficient for the many great claims which are hourly made upon it.” He acknowledges the monk’s poor clothing and insufficient food but says that since the monk could get better food and clothing by working, the Order of St. Francis ought not beg for them and thereby take away from more deserving beggars. Besides, Yorick has a responsibility to give to his own poor countrymen first. He also insists on a distinction between people who work for their keep and members of religious orders who rely on charity. The Franciscan monk blushes but shows no anger. Instead, he simply leaves the room.
Yorick’s sarcastic dismissal of human generosity here—stating that it “is no way sufficient for the many great claims which are hourly made upon it”—contrasts starkly with his earlier belief that he would give his suitcase to the first beggar who asked. Indeed, Yorick now seems to be suggesting that too many people rely on the generosity of others and ought to shift for themselves instead. His claim that he should give to Englishmen before people from other countrymen, meanwhile, demonstrates xenophobia (prejudice toward foreigners), which is at odds with his earlier praise of France and toasting of the French king. Given Yorick’s changeability from page to page, the reader may wonder whether he has any consistent personality traits or views at all. That the monk leaves without anger, despite Yorick’s rudeness, suggests that Yorick was correct in perceiving authentic religiosity and humility in the monk.
Themes
Literary Devices
Yorick, regretting his behavior, thinks the only authority he had over the monk was to refuse him, not to be cruel to him. He remembers the monk’s old age and imagines the monk returning to ask what he ever did to Yorick. Yorick concludes that he has acted badly, but that the trip he is taking will better him.
That Yorick immediately wishes he had behaved better reveals, once again, how impulsive and changeable he is. His belief that foreign travel will improve his manners, meanwhile, implies that socializing with people unlike oneself is good for a person. The reader must read on to discover whether Yorick will, in fact, improve.
Themes
Since Yorick needs a carriage to travel, he goes to a coach yard to find one. There he sees a “Desobligeant,” a one-person carriage, which he likes. He climbs into it and asks a servant to fetch the hotelier Monsieur Dessein. Then he spies, across the yard, the Franciscan monk talking to a woman (later revealed to be Madame de L—) who has recently come to the hotel. Not wanting the monk to see him, Yorick pulls the carriage’s curtain shut and starts writing the preface to his travelogue.
In French, the word Yorick uses for a one-person carriage, “Desobligeant,” can also mean “unfriendly”—a good description of how Yorick behaved toward the Franciscan monk. The novel seems to be making fun of Yorick’s rudeness by having him be immediately attracted to this “unfriendly” one-person vehicle. That Yorick hides from the monk inside the carriage, meanwhile, shows that he is ashamed of his earlier behavior.
Themes
In his preface, Yorick writes that nature has lessened humankind’s unhappiness by keeping people mostly at home, where they generally have things that make them happy and that ease their suffering. He notes that people do have some ability to enjoy themselves away from home but cautions that, away from home, we have a limited ability to convey our feelings to others.
This passage, in which Yorick philosophizes about travel, reveals that he is something of a braggart. It also emphasizes his focus on emotion—he interprets people’s decisions to stay home or travel through the lens of their feelings rather than other, more practical motives they might have, such as education or business.
Themes
Because people have difficulty communicating with those from different places, travelers in foreign countries are at a social and emotional disadvantage. Given this disadvantage, Yorick enumerates the possible reasons people could nevertheless have for traveling: sickness, stupidity, or “necessity.” To these three reasons he adds a fourth, which he thinks is rare: to save money. Because they could as easily save money without traveling and because their motive is straightforward, Yorick calls this group “Simple Travellers.” He then provides a list of different groups of travelers, ending with “The Sentimental Traveller,” which he identifies with himself.
Here, the book is likely satirizing nonfiction travelogues that offer windy philosophical justifications for travel. Yet the passage also has some serious content: Yorick’s suspicion that people may not be able to communicate with those foreign to them gives insight into his earlier xenophobia. Meanwhile, his identification of himself as a “Sentimental Traveller” emphasizes how important emotion is to Yorick’s idea of himself.
Themes
Yorick writes that since his travelogue will be unique in the genre of travelogues, he could have claimed a group all to himself, but he wishes to be humble. He notes that if the reader has traveled, he should be able to pick out which group he belongs to and thus improve in self-knowledge.
Once again, the novel is satirizing Yorick and his inconsistency—in the same passage, he claims uniqueness for his writing and then brags about his own humility. Yet Yorick’s off-hand comment that readers might be able to recognize themselves in his catalogue of various travelers and so gain self-knowledge implicitly challenges the reader. Does the reader have any more self-knowledge than Yorick does? Is the reader any more consistent?
Themes
Yorick compares travelers to the Dutchman who planted grapes from Burgundy in the Cape of Good Hope, not hoping to drink Burgundy wine but hoping to drink wine of some kind—the quality of which would be a matter of luck. Yorick acknowledges that travel can lead to benefits, but whether these benefits are real or illusory is “all a lottery.” Ergo, most people should stay home if they can receive the benefits of travel without traveling. Nevertheless, Yorick believes that no country is more educated, artistic, naturally beautiful, or wittier, than—
After Yorick rudely rejected the Franciscan monk asking for alms, he consoled himself with the thought that travel would improve his manners. Yet now Yorick is arguing that whether or not travel benefits travelers is a “lottery.” Once again, Yorick’s opinions are inconsistent, and once again, the novel makes fun of Yorick by interrupting him in the middle of his overblown praise of some country—which country, the reader never discovers, as Yorick breaks off mid-sentence.
Themes
Literary Devices
Some Englishmen look into Yorick’s carriage. Yorick exits the carriage and doffs his hat. One Englishmen asks Yorick why the carriage was moving, and Yorick replies that it was due to his vigorous writing. The other Englishman says he’s never heard “of a preface wrote in a Desobligeant.” Yorick says he would have preferred a “Vis a Vis” and, not wishing to socialize with other Englishmen while in France, heads back to his room.
Here, the novel mocks Yorick’s enthusiastic pretensions to travel writing by revealing he was composing his preface so forcefully that he shook the carriage he was hiding in. The phrase vis a vis means “face to face” in French. Yorick is saying, in other words, that he would have preferred a two-person carriage to a one-person carriage—that he wants company. Yet, in contrast with the earlier, xenophobic preference for other Englishmen that Yorick expressed to the Franciscan monk, he does not seem to want their company while in France.
Themes
On the way to his room, Yorick runs into Monsieur Dessein. Suddenly imagining that the Desobligeant has been abandoned after exciting adventures, Yorick tells Monsieur Dessein that if he were the hotelier, he would sell the Desobligeant, as “every rainy night” the carriage abandoned in the coach yard must cause him pangs of sympathetic depression. Monsieur Dessein replies that while it pains him to keep the carriage, it would also pain him to sell it, since it would break down on the poor traveler very soon. They walk back to look at the other carriages.
This passage is poking fun at Yorick’s overblown, inappropriately directed sentiments and overactive imagination. Though he has just rudely rejected the company of the other English travelers, he is now expressing tender sympathy for a carriage—an inanimate object that, of course, doesn’t have feelings. Monsieur Dessein, a sensible businessman, redirects Yorick’s sympathies by pointing out the problems that a rickety carriage might cause for travelers—human beings who do have feelings.
Themes
Yorick notes that buyers tend to regard sellers as their opponents in a duel. Going to buy a coach from Monsieur Dessein, Yorick begins to perceive him as an enemy or a marginalized person—“he look’d like a Jew—then a Turk.” A moment later, Yorick has a change of feeling, turns, and curses his own lack of generosity out loud: “thy hand is against every man, and every man’s hand against thee.”
Yorick expresses his sudden dislike of Monsieur Dessein xenophobically, with antisemitic and anti-Turkish language (Jewish and Turkish people were both discriminated against in Europe at the time). Ever-changeable, Yorick almost immediately regrets his bad attitude toward Monsieur Dessein, which he expresses using language from the Bible. The line “thy hand is against every man, and every man’s hand against thee” is an allusion to Genesis 16:12, when an angel tells Abraham’s maidservant Hagar that her son Ishmael will be ostracized by all his relatives. By using the phrase in this context, Yorick is suggesting that his own xenophobia and lack of generosity will make him an outcast.
Themes
Having turned, Yorick finds himself face to face with Madame de L—, who exclaims “heaven forbid!” in response to his outburst. He gives her his hand, and they walk to the coach-house behind Monsieur Dessein. Monsieur Dessein realizes he brought the incorrect key for the coach-house and leaves. Left alone holding hands with Madame de L—, Yorick strikes up a conversation with her.
The reader already knows that Yorick traveled from England to France with a picture of a woman named Eliza. Yet he seems willing, even eager, to be left alone with a strange new woman and hold hands with her. This passage thus suggests that Yorick may be fickle not only in his opinions and emotions but also in his romantic commitments.
Themes
In an aside to the reader, Yorick admits that he drew the curtain of the Desobligeant earlier not only because he wanted to avoid the Franciscan monk, but because he suspected the monk of telling Madame de L— about how Yorick had refused to give alms. He was ashamed, because he had the sense that Madame de L— was “of a better order of beings.”
Here, Yorick admits that he is sometimes an unreliable narrator: earlier in the book, he withheld information from the reader about his true motives for hiding in the one-person carriage. That he withheld information about his reaction to Madame de L—suggests that he is conscious of something inappropriate in his reaction to her. He also believes she is “of a better order of beings” despite not knowing her, which suggests that he is sentimental about women and perhaps judging Madame de L— based solely on her physical appearance.
Themes
Waiting for Monsieur Dessein with Madame de L—, Yorick again senses her personal superiority. When he sees her face, he estimates that she is about 26, tan, and not beautiful but “interesting”-looking. From marks of suffering in her expression, Yorick imagines that she is a widow, feels tempted to ask her about her trials, and decides to be very polite to her—even to help her somehow, if possible.
Up to this point in the novel, Yorick has been unpleasant to everyone—rude to the Franciscan monk, standoffish with the other English travelers, and suspicious of Monsieur Dessein. Now, all of a sudden, he is using his overactive imagination to give someone the benefit of the doubt. Because this someone is an “interesting” young woman, the reader may suspect that Yorick has both sentimental and sexual motives for his kind attitude toward her.
Themes
Lifting Madame de L—’s hand, Yorick tells her it must be a joke of Fortune to leave two strangers, male and female, possibly from different countries, alone and holding hands as if they were friends. Madame de L— replies that his response betrays his chagrin at their situation: when things are going how we like, we are simply glad of it and don’t pass judgments on it.
Yorick’s commentary on his and Madame de L—’s situation is ambiguous. He may simply be noting the social oddity, in 18th-century France, of an unmarried and unrelated man and woman being left alone together. On the other hand, he may be expressing unease, guilt, or even pleasure at the situation. Madame de L— chooses, somewhat flirtatiously, to interpret him as abashed or dismayed to be alone with her.
Themes
Having spoken, Madame de L— takes away her hand from Yorick. Yorick feels pained and humiliated, but as soon as she touches his sleeve, he feels better. He again sees suffering on her face, longs to comfort her, and holds her hand loosely. He thinks that he can reverse any poor opinion she might have of him due to anything the Franciscan monk told her.
At this point in the book, the reader already knows that Yorick is sentimental and emotionally volatile. In this passage, the reader learns that the presence of attractive women heightens Yorick’s emotions: his feelings yo-yo according to whether Madame de L— is touching him, and he’s sentimental when he imagines easing her suffering.
Themes
The Franciscan monk appears, approaches Yorick, and offers him his snuff-box. Yorick places his own snuff-box in the monk’s hand. When the monk pronounces its good quality, Yorick asks the monk to take it as “the peace-offering of a man who once used you unkindly.” The monk flushes and denies that Yorick did so. Madame de L— agrees such a thing seems implausible. Yorick, against the monk and Madame de L—’s continued protestations, insists on his own fault. For a moment, they all stand in silence. Then the monk suggests that he and Yorick exchange snuff-boxes. They do. The monk kisses Yorick’s snuff-box, weeps, and exits.
It is difficult for the reader to know exactly how to interpret Yorick’s kind behavior toward the Franciscan monk in this passage. Since Yorick has been worrying that the Franciscan monk said something bad about him to Madame de L—, it seems possible that he is being kind to the monk solely to show off for her, due to his sentimental and sexual interest in her. Yet the reader knows Yorick regretted his behavior toward the monk immediately after it occurred, before he saw the monk speaking with Madame de L—, which suggests his remorse may be genuine. In that case, Yorick’s manners may be improving as a result of his travel, just as he predicted—and the exchange of snuff-boxes is a kind of ritual acknowledgment of that improvement.
Themes
Yorick notes that since receiving the Franciscan monk’s snuff-box, he has treasured it as a memento that helps him access some of the monk’s grace and humility. Yorick later learns that monk entered the monastery at age 45, after a failed military career and a heartbreak. The latest time Yorick goes to Calais, after the journey he is now recounting, he discovers that the monk—whose name is Father Lorenzo—has died. Yorick goes to visit his grave, takes out his snuff-box, and bursts into tears.
This passage suggests that Yorick’s improvement in manners as a result of traveling and meeting the Franciscan monk is real, not a show Yorick is putting on for Madame de L—. After all, Yorick is reporting that he has kept the snuff-box and used it as an inspiration to be a better person, independent of his association with Madame de L—. The passage also suggests that despite Yorick’s implied skepticism about organized religion (or at least Catholicism), some genuinely religious people like the monk can be sources of goodness and inspiration.
Themes
In the present of the story, Yorick is still holding Madame de L—’s hand. He decides it would be “indecent” to drop her hand without kissing it, so he does. Madame de L— blushes. The two Englishmen who interrupted Yorick while he was writing his preface in the Desobligeant, mistaking Yorick and Madame de L— for a married couple, approach them and ask whether they are going to Paris the next day. Yorick says he can’t speak for Madame de L—. She tells them she is going to Amiens. One of the Englishmen notes that Amiens is on the way to Paris. Yorick, tempted to reply sarcastically, takes some snuff from the Franciscan monk’s snuff-box instead.
This passage immediately illustrates how Yorick uses the Franciscan monk’s snuff-box for self-improvement: when he feels tempted to be rude to someone, he uses the snuff-box instead. The passage also illustrates Yorick’s somewhat skewed attitude toward women and flirtation. Whereas the word “indecent” is usually used to describe obscene or at least excessively forward behavior, Yorick thinks it would be “indecent” not to be forward with Madame de L—, that is, not to kiss her hand. Yorick’s unusual perspective on indecency here hints at his overt sexuality, as does the English travelers’ mistaking him and Madame de L— for a married couple.
Themes
Once the Englishmen have departed, Yorick has the idea to ask Madame de L— to travel with him in a two-person carriage. Immediately, his greed warns of additional cost, his caution suggests Madame de L— is an unknown person, and his cowardice suggests something bad may happen. After his discretion suggests people may think he has an inappropriate sexual relationship with Madame de L—, his hypocrisy, meanness, and pride all warn him that riding with Madame de L— could harm his place in society and career in the church.
Yorick has a whole crowd of personified emotions that give him advice, a detail that suggests both his overblown sentimentality and his fluid identity—it’s almost as though he is not a single person but many. Interestingly, although his various personified emotions recognize that other people might think he has an inappropriate sexual relationship with Madame de L—, he doesn’t seem worried that such an inappropriate relationship might actually arise, which implies that his sexual attraction to her his largely subconscious.
Themes
Literary Devices
Yorick, who tends to ignore his second thoughts, is about to ask Madame de L— to join him anyway. He turns to speak to her and finds that she has walked off, pacing thoughtfully by herself. He concludes that she, too, is wondering whether they should travel together and may have some relative who would disapprove. To give her time to think, Yorick begins pacing by himself outside the door of the coach-house.
This passage highlights both Yorick’s impulsivity (he admits that he usually ignores his second thoughts) and his relative lack of concern for propriety (he realizes Madame de L— might have relatives who might disapprove of her traveling with a strange man but doesn’t consider that she herself might hesitate). At the same time, Yorick reveals his ability to be considerate in some contexts: he doesn’t press Madame de L— and gives her time to think.
Themes
Literary Devices
Yorick thinks that if Madame de L— had stayed near him, he would have rested content with his supposition that she was a distressed widow. Now that she is walking away from him, however, he recognizes that soon he may never see her again, and this possibility makes him want to know all about her. Yet he cannot think of a way to ask her.
Yet again, the novel is satirizing Yorick’s overblown emotions: although Madame de L— has only gone a few steps away and is pacing in full view of him, he immediately imagines their final parting and becomes obsessed with knowing everything about her.
Themes
A French captain, coming down the street, introduces himself to Madame de L— and asks her a battery of questions, which reveal that she is Flemish and from Brussels. The captain comments that he once participated in a siege on Brussels, and he asks her name and marital status. Then, before she can answer, he vanishes. Yorick comments, “Had I served seven years apprenticeship to good breeding, I could not have done as much.”
Yorick’s comment about the French captain’s manners—“Had I served seven years apprenticeship to good breeding, I could not have done as much”—implies that a certain knack for manners is not something one can learn. Instead, it’s innate. Since the only marked difference between Yorick and the French captain that the reader knows of is their nationality, Yorick seems to be implying that “good breeding” (that is, politeness) is an innate part of French national character.
Themes
Monsieur Dessein returns with the right key to the coach-house and lets in Yorick and Madame de L—. Yorick tries to haggle with Monsieur Dessein for the coach he wants. Claiming that it has barely enough room for two people, he climbs into it. Monsieur Dessein asks Madame L— to get into the coach as well. After pausing, she does. Monsieur Dessein, called away by a servant, shuts Yorick and Madame de L—into the carriage and leaves.
Presumably, Monsieur Dessein asks Madame de L— to climb into the carriage to prove to Yorick that it can fit two people. Yet, comically, he is closing Yorick into a small space with a strange woman after already leaving them alone together once. It seems that despite Yorick’s worries about discretion, he almost can’t help finding himself in mildly inappropriate situations.
Themes
Madame de L— comments on how funny it is that chance has again left her and Yorick alone together. Yorick suggests it would be funnier if he immediately started flirting with Madame de L—as a Frenchman would. Madame de L— observes that flirtation is one of Frenchmen’s strengths. Yorick counters that while they have that reputation, he thinks they’re terrible at romance: springing direct flirtation on a woman betrays a man’s attentions to the judgment of “an unheated mind.” Instead, a man should begin by paying a woman “small, quiet attentions.” Madame de L— turns red and tells Yorick that he must have been flirting with her this whole time.
In their discussion of flirtation, Yorick and Madame de L— both affirm stereotypes about flirtatious Frenchmen. Yet up to this point in the novel, the reader hasn’t seen any Frenchmen aggressively flirting. Instead, it’s Yorick himself—an Englishman—who has been flirting with Madame de L—, despite his implied romantic commitment to another woman, Eliza. Moreover, Yorick reveals that he has a theory of flirtation, using kindness to advance on women slowly rather than springing flirtation on “an unheated mind”—that is, on a woman not primed to be receptive. Here, then, the book is implicitly undermining national stereotypes about flirtatious Frenchmen by showing that Yorick, an Englishman, is the really flirtatious one. It is also implying that Yorick’s kindness and attentiveness to women may always have a sexual undercurrent.
Themes
Monsieur Dessein returns and tells Madame de L—that her brother has come to the hotel. Yorick tells her that her brother’s arrival interferes with a suggestion he was going to make. She tells him he doesn’t need to tell her what it was, as a woman tends to know beforehand when a man is going to be kind to her. Yorick replies that nature gives his knowledge to women for their self-defense. She denies she would have needed to defend herself from Yorick, tells him she would have accepted his suggestion, and goes on to say that, if she had, she would have told him a story that would make him pity her. Then she exits the carriage and says goodbye.
Up to this point, Yorick has couched his flirtation with Madame de L— largely in terms of his sentimental interest in her suffering. By admitting that women sometimes need to defend themselves from men, he acknowledges that Madame de L— could interpret his overtures as sexually opportunistic, even predatory. Madame de L— herself, however, does not seem to find Yorick threatening. Moreover, by telling him that he would pity her if he knew her story, she affirms that Yorick’s sentimental intuition about her suffering is correct. Thus, while the novel sometimes mocks Yorick’s sexually tinged sentimentality, it here suggests that sentiment does sometimes help Yorick correctly understand situations.
Themes
Yorick buys a carriage, orders horses, and is walking back to the hotel when he hears a clock strike. He realizes that he’s been in Calais for barely an hour. He muses to himself that life contains a wealth of experiences for curious and observant people. He pities those people who cannot find anything to engage their emotions when they travel and believes that he himself could do so even in a desert.
At this point, Yorick has both suggested that travel can improve manners and argued that whether travel improves travelers’ personalities is a matter of chance. In this passage, he clarifies the apparent contradiction: travel can improve already curious and observant people, but it likely won’t have any effect on incurious and unemotional people.
Themes
A man named Smelfungus once traveled all over Europe but, due to his cranky disposition, enjoyed nothing: he criticized the Pantheon and the Venus of Medicis. Another man, Mundungus, traveled all over Europe but got nothing out of it because he would not look around him. Yorick thinks men like Smelfungus and Mundugus would not be content even in heaven.
Critics believe that the novel is using the character Smelfungus to satirize a real, nonfiction travel writer, a Scotsman named Tobias Smollett, whose 1766 travelogue Travels through France and Italy complained a great deal about foreign people and their customs. Smelfungus and Mundungus are examples of incurious or unemotional people whom travel cannot improve.
Themes
Literary Devices
Traveling from Calais to Montriul, Yorick must repeatedly exit his carriage to reattach his portmanteau, which keeps falling off. When he reaches Montriul, the landlord suggests he hire a servant and tells him of a young man who would like to serve an Englishman. Yorick asks why an Englishman. The landlord replies that Englishmen are generous and notes that, the previous night, an English lord gave money to the servant girl. In French, Yorick says that’s too bad for Mademoiselle Janatone (the landlord’s daughter). The landlord, thinking Yorick has made a language mistake, tells him he should say not “too bad” but “so much the better.” Yorick notes that these two phrases are “the two great hinges in French conversation.”
Once again, characters in the book are affirming national stereotypes that the book itself seems to undermine. The landlord in Montriul claims that Englishmen are generous, but readers have already observed Yorick, an Englishman, behaving ungenerously toward the Franciscan monk. Meanwhile, Yorick makes a grand claim about Frenchman’s frequent use of the phrases “too bad” and “so much the better,” but these phrases have not appeared frequently in Frenchmen’s dialogue in the novel up to this point. Thus, the novel seems to question whether national stereotypes accurately describe individuals.
Themes
The landlord introduces Yorick to La Fleur, his new servant, and tells Yorick that he (Yorick) is to decide whether he appreciates La Fleur’s quality as a servant. But the landlord himself will vouch for his loyalty.
La Fleur is the first major French character the book has introduced. As such, the reader may wonder whether La Fleur will adhere to the stereotypes about Frenchmen that Yorick has been affirming.
Themes
Yorick is sensible that he tends “to be taken with all kinds of people at first sight” and, as a result, steels himself against generous impulses. La Fleur, though, looks “genuine” to him, so he hires him immediately. He subsequently learns that La Fleur, having served in the military playing drums for a while and then having returned to his home country, only knows how to play drum, fife, and (somewhat) the fiddle. He cannot shave or dress wigs. Though Yorick takes himself to task a little for hiring an untalented servant, he nevertheless likes La Fleur’s picturesque face.
Yorick displays a degree of self-knowledge by admitting that he tends “to be taken with all kinds of people at first sight”—readers have already seen him indulge in such a sentimental snap reaction to Madame de L—. Despite his self-knowledge, however, Yorick does not change his behavior: he has an immediate sentimental reaction to La Fleur’s “genuine” appearance and hires him before figuring out that La Fleur has no useful skills. Here, the novel seems to suggest that understanding one’s own emotional tendencies doesn’t necessarily lead to greater self-control.
Themes
As an aside to the reader, Yorick says that La Fleur goes on to accompany him throughout his travels and that he (Yorick) never regrets hiring La Fleur despite his lack of useful talents, because of his levelheadedness in the face of trouble, which supports Yorick’s mood.
Interestingly, Yorick’s sentimental snap judgment about La Fleur turns out well for him. Once again, the novel seems to suggest that while Yorick’s overblown emotional reactions may be silly, they do sometimes lead him to intuitively understand other people, such as Madame de L— and La Fleur.
Themes
The next day, as Yorick is planning to leave Montriul, he sees La Fleur surrounded by girls, whose hands he is repeatedly kissing. The landlord tells Yorick that the whole town will miss La Fleur and that the servant’s only bad luck is, “He is always in love.” Yorick muses that he himself is almost always in love, and he feels that he is a better and more generous person when in love—it is only in periods between love affairs that he behaves cruelly or ungenerously.
At first glance, this passage seems to affirm stereotypes about French people: La Fleur, the novel’s first major French character, is a flirtatious womanizer. Yet the landlord, another Frenchman, seems to be criticizing La Fleur for his romantic behavior, which implies that a national stereotype will not apply to every individual of that nationality. Moreover, Yorick, an Englishman, finds himself sympathizing with La Fleur’s stereotypically French romanticism—a detail suggesting that personal identity trumps national identity in determining people’s sexual and romantic behavior. Previously, the novel has shown that sexual attraction motivates Yorick to be kind to the object of his attraction. Here, he claims that love affairs make him a kinder person in general. This claim seems to imply that sexuality and kindness are somehow intertwined behaviors.
Themes
Yorick briefly recounts an ancient story: there was a town in Thrace called Abdera known for violence and corruption. One day, the play Andromeda of Euripides was staged there. The people of Abdera loved the play, particularly Perseus’s speech about Cupid. The next day, all the people of Abdera were talking of Perseus and Cupid and became obsessed with Love. They gave up their violent ways, became loving to one another, and made and listened to music. Only God could have accomplished such a change in Abdera.
Euripides was an ancient Greek tragedian who lived in the 400s B.C.E. His play Andromeda has not survived in full but is referenced in other surviving works. It tells the story of the Greek hero Perseus saving the princess Andromeda from being eaten by a monster and falling in love with her. Yorick’s story is about the violent people of Abdera becoming peaceful after they heard Perseus’s speech about Cupid, the Greco-Roman god of love, in Andromeda. The outcome of this story reinforces the claim he made earlier that love and sex motivate people to be kinder. His further claim that God transformed the people of Abdera implies that love and sex have a religious aspect.
Themes
Literary Devices
As Yorick leaves the inn at Montriul, a group of beggars surrounds him. One beggar withdraws his claim on Yorick to make room for female beggars, which Yorick esteems. After Yorick has given out all the money he thinks he can spare, he sees a beggar he hasn’t noticed before, who has held back due to his shame. Touched, Yorick gives him a large amount. All the beggars thank Yorick, but he feels that the shamefaced beggar who must dry his face with his handkerchief shows him the most gratitude.
At first glance, Yorick may seem to behave generously by giving the Montriul beggars money. His gratification that one of the beggars cries and must dry his face with a handkerchief suggests a more cynical reading, however—namely, that Yorick is and self-indulgently using the beggars’ emotional reactions to feed his own sentimentality. This passage is the first of several instances in the novel in which a handkerchief marks an episode of satirized emotional self-indulgence.
Themes
Yorick enters his carriage, and La Fleur mounts a horse to ride alongside him. They come upon a dead donkey, which La Fleur’s horse refuses to approach. When La Fleur tries to make it, the horse bucks him off. La Fleur cries “Diable!,” remounts the horse, and beats it, but the horse bucks him off again and flees back to Montriul. La Fleur cries, “Peste!” When the horse has passed out of sight, La Fleur cries out a third curse that Yorick leaves to the reader’s imagination. Yorick decides, for decency, not to swear at all while in France. He invites La Fleur into the carriage with him, and they travel on to Nampont.
The close attention that Yorick pays to La Fleur’s various French curses seems to be satirizing nonfiction travelogues that focus too much on unimportant details. Yorick’s decision not to swear at all while in France, meanwhile, betrays a squeamishness and excessive delicacy at odds with his unruly sexual attractions.
Themes
In Nampont, Yorick and La Fleur meet a man in mourning. Yorick initially thinks, from the man’s tone, that he is mourning his child, but he’s actually mourning the dead donkey Yorick just passed in the road. The man tells his story: he once lived in Germany, where he had three sons. Two died of smallpox, and the third got sick with it. The man swore to go on a pilgrimage to Spain if his own life was spared. As the man survived, he went on his pilgrimage riding on a donkey, and it became his friend. Yorick tries to comfort the man by telling him he must have been a good donkey-owner, but the man worries that he wasn’t. Yorick reflects that people ought to love one another as much as this man loved his donkey.
In the episode of the German man with the dead donkey, the book is poking fun at people who are excessively sentimental in reaction to small matters but unemotional in reaction to large ones. The joke is that the German man’s children have died, but he is crying over his donkey, not over them. Yorick’s idea that people ought to love one another as much as the German man loved his donkey suggests that emotion can be a good thing—but only when it’s directed toward the right objects.
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Literary Devices
Although Yorick wants his coach to go slowly, so he can contemplate the donkey-owner’s story, his coach-driver puts the coach to a gallop. Yorick, irritated, falls asleep. When he wakes, he has reached Amiens, where he sees Madame de L— drive by. Later, Madame de L— sends Yorick a note asking him to deliver a letter to Madame R— in Paris. She also suggests that if he visits her in Brussels, she will tell him her tale of woe. Recalling that he has sworn fidelity to another woman, Eliza, Yorick vows not to visit Brussels without Eliza.
At various points in the novel, Yorick has argued that sexuality and kindness reinforce each other: sexual attraction motivates us to be kind, and kindness can be a form of flirtation. Here, however, he acknowledges that sexual attraction can make us behave unkindly: his sexual attraction to Madame de L—has tempted him to break his promise to Eliza. Thus, the relationship between sexuality and kindness is more complicated that Yorick has acknowledged before.
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Literary Devices
La Fleur gives wine to the servant who brought Madame de L—’s letter. To return the favor, the servant brings La Fleur back to Madame de L—’s hotel, where La Fleur plays the fife for the servants in the kitchen. Madame de L—, overhearing the music and discovering that Yorick’s servant is the one playing it, asks La Fleur to come speak with her and inquires whether Yorick has sent her a letter in return. La Fleur, embarrassed that Yorick has not written Madame de L— a letter, pretends he has forgotten it and runs back to Yorick’s hotel.
This passage further complicates Yorick’s earlier claims that sexuality and kindness are mutually reinforcing. Having decided not to pursue Madame de L—out of respect for his promise to Eliza, Yorick now must decide whether to rudely refuse to respond to Madame de L—or to continue corresponding with her and risk infidelity to Eliza. It seems that Yorick’s multiple sexual attractions will lead him to be unkind to one woman or the other.
Themes
Back at Yorick’s hotel, La Fleur tells Yorick what happened and suggests he write Madame de L— a letter right then. Yorick can think of nothing to write. La Fleur suggests that Yorick plagiarize a letter from a drummer to a corporal’s wife that he happens to have. The letter suggests that the drummer was having an affair with the corporal’s wife and waiting for her husband to leave so he could see her. Yorick copies the letter with a few details changed, sends it to Madame L—, and leaves for Paris.
Yorick’s dilemma about Eliza and Madame de L— ends farcically. Although he may keep the letter of his promise to Eliza, he seems to violate the spirit of it by sending another woman a plagiarized love letter. In addition, he is treating Madame de L— rather badly by sending her a love letter that originally belonged to someone else. Here, the book seems to satirize Yorick’s flirtatiousness and kindness by suggesting that in his attempts to flirt with two women, he has ended up treating them both unkindly.
Themes
In Paris, Yorick looks out the window of his hotel, sees young and old dandies passing by, and despairs of his “dusty black coat” and single servant. He contemplates fleeing to a back alley and flirting with a shop girl to make himself feel better, but instead, he resolves to deliver the letter to Madame R— and asks La Fleur to get him a barber and clean his coat.
In this passage, Yorick reveals the link between his vanity and his flirtatiousness: when he feels “dusty,” dowdy, and poor in comparison to Parisian dandies, he wants to flirt with someone to boost his mood. Again, the novel is suggesting that while Yorick’s sexuality may motivate him to be kind, his sexuality can also be vain and self-indulgent.
Themes
Literary Devices
When the barber arrives, he disdains Yorick’s current wig and insists on selling him a new one. Yorick criticizes the wig’s curls, and the barber suggests he dip it in the ocean—by which he means a bucket of water in the next room. Yorick thinks that calling a water bucket an ocean is quintessentially French, and he muses that these small details are more revelatory of national character than “the most important matters of state.” Because the barber takes so long, Yorick puts off delivering Madame R—’s letter and goes for a walk instead.
Because Yorick values personal emotions over public affairs, he believes that minor personal details—such as the barber’s exaggerations—reveal more about national character than “matters of state.” Yet, curiously, he does not value personal and individual details so much as to reject stereotyping individuals according to their nationality. This tension—between Yorick’s individualism and his belief in stereotypes—has run throughout the novel so far.
Themes
On his walk, Yorick enters a shop to ask a grisset directions to the Opera comique. Although the grisset repeats the directions multiple times, Yorick forgets them as soon as he leaves. He returns to the shop to ask again. The grisset expresses disbelief at his forgetfulness. Yorick excuses himself by saying he was thinking more about her, the grisset, than the directions. The grisset asks him to wait a moment while an employee takes care of some business. As Yorick and the grisset are waiting for the employee, Yorick tells the grisset that she has such a good heart, she must have an excellent pulse. She suggests he take her pulse, so he lays his fingers on her wrist.
“Grisset” is a French term for a working-class woman. Whereas previously Yorick has confined his flirtations to women (Madame de L— and, in the past, Eliza) who seem to belong to his social class, he’s now seemingly interested in a woman of a lower social class than he is. Since the grisset depends on the business of people like Yorick for her livelihood, his flirtation with her seems less kind and more predatory than his flirtation with Madame de L—.
Themes
While Yorick is taking the grisset’s pulse, her husband enters the shop. The grisset explains to her husband that Yorick is taking her pulse. The husband doffs his cap to Yorick and leaves. Shocked, Yorick contemplates how, in England, shopkeeper husbands and wives do everything together—whereas in France, shopkeeper wives deal with customers while shopkeeper husbands lurk in back rooms. He concludes that social interaction makes people better.
Previously, Yorick has expressed a belief that travel makes people better because it exposes them to people unlike themselves. Now he seems to broaden his claim about travel—interacting with foreigners—being good to include all kinds of social interaction: he believes the French shopkeeper is inferior to the English shopkeeper because he interacts with fewer people. Yorick displays a certain hypocrisy, here, when he feels shocked that the French shopkeeper doesn’t mind Yorick flirting with his wife—after all, Yorick is the one who decided to flirt with her in the first place.
Themes
The grisset’s employee returns carrying a parcel of gloves, interrupting Yorick taking her pulse, and Yorick tells the grisset he’d like to buy some gloves as well. None of the gloves she offers fit him. Yorick buys some gloves, anyway, hoping that the grisset will overcharge him. Eventually she does ask for slightly more money. Yorick pays it, bows, and leaves.
Yorick seems to want the grisset to overcharge him because, finding her pretty, he wants to do something nice for her. Once again, sexuality and kindness are intertwined in Yorick’s behavior. Yet the exchange of money makes the flirtation between Yorick and the grisset seems a little more disturbing than the flirtation between Yorick and Madame de L—.
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At the Opera comique, Yorick shares a box with an old French soldier, who reminds him of his ex-soldier friend Captain Tobias Shandy. When Yorick enters, the soldier takes his glasses off, and Yorick bows in return. He contemplates the value of body language in understanding other people.
Captain Tobias Shandy is a character in another one of Laurence Sterne’s novels, The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentlemen, in which Yorick also plays a small role. Yorick’s musings on body language suggest that human beings have certain universal traits in common and can understand one another while traveling, despite differences in nationality.
Themes
Yorick recalls a concert he attended in Milan, where he and the Marquesina di F*** were walking down opposite sides of a hall, couldn’t figure out how to pass each other courteously, and collided. Eventually, Yorick resolved their difficulties by freezing. After the Marquesina passed him, to followed her to apologize, handed her into her coach, and ended up riding to her home with her. He concludes by stating he enjoyed the Marquesina’s company more than anyone else’s in Italy.
Here, the inconsistent Yorick once again undercuts the point he was attempting to make. Although he was just praising body language for its ability to help people understand one another, he immediately shares an anecdote about failures of body language—he and the Marquesina kept second-guessing each other’s movements and ended up knocking into each other. Characteristically for the flirtatious Yorick, this initial failure of communication did not prevent him from going home with the Marquesina shortly afterward.
Themes
The opera comique contains a standing section for when all the seats are taken. In the standing section, Yorick sees a dwarf. In front of the dwarf, blocking his view of the stage, stands a very tall German man. When the dwarf tries to explain his predicament to the German, the German ignores him. Yorick, taking some snuff from the Franciscan monk’s snuff-box, thinks how graciously the monk would have reacted in the German’s place.
Although Yorick remains inconsistent, he still remembers the Franciscan monk and the principles of friendliness, generosity, and religious humility that their exchange of snuff-boxes represents. Thus, the novel reveals that Yorick’s travels have made some impression on him, even if he remains in large part the impulsive and fickle person he was at the novel’s beginning.
Themes
The dwarf, outraged, threatens to cut off the German’s ponytail, and the German implies the dwarf couldn’t reach his ponytail to make good the threat. The old French soldier alerts an opera employee of the problem, and the employee pushes the German aside and moves the dwarf in front of him. Yorick claps. The soldier comments that, despite Yorick’s approval, such a thing wouldn’t be allowed in England. Yorick replies that in England, everyone sits. The soldier, admiring Yorick’s wit, offers him some snuff.
Like most characters in the novel, the old French soldier affirms national stereotypes—he has decided ideas about what would and would not be allowed in England, a foreign country. Yet since the old French soldier offers Yorick snuff—associated, in the novel, with the Franciscan monk’s snuff-box and thus with international friendship—the reader suspects the soldier will not be xenophobic.
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Yorick hears someone yelling at a priest to put his hands up. He asks the old French soldier what’s going on. The soldier explains that some audience members are insisting that a priest, standing behind some shop girls, keep his hands up during the opera. Yorick asks whether a priest would steal from shop girls. In response, the soldier whispers something to Yorick that makes him blanch and cry out against people’s discourtesy. The soldier explains “it was an illiberal sarcasm at the church.” He goes on to say that every nation has pros and cons, and that traveling to different nations is good because “it taught us mutual toleration; and mutual toleration […] taught us mutual love.” Yorick thinks the soldier is stating his exact thoughts, but better than Yorick could have expressed them himself.
The novel seems to imply here that the people are yelling at the priest to keep his hands up so that he won’t grope the shop girls. This implication associates organized religion with sexual predation and hypocrisy. Yet, contrary to Yorick’s earlier skepticism about organized religion in continental Europe, his belief that the people are being discourteous to the priest and the old French soldier’s description of their behavior as “illiberal sarcasm” suggests that they are joking—no one really believes the priest is going to grope the girls. The old French soldier’s statements about travel, mutual toleration, and mutual love almost seem like thesis statements for the novel: travel improves us by making us more sympathetic to foreign people, who may be unlike us.
Themes
Yorick recalls a time that he at first found a foreigner’s behavior crude and embarrassing but later found it innocent. One day, he took a coach ride into the country with an acquaintance, Madame de Rambouliet. As they were returning, Yorick asked her whether she needed anything. She replied that she only needed to urinate. Yorick helped her down from the coach; he concludes, “had I been the priest of the chaste CASTALIA, I could not have served at her fountain with a more respectful decorum.”
In Greek mythology, Castalia was a naiad or water nymph. In some versions of her story, she turned herself into a fountain to escape the god Apollo’s sexual predation. The novel seems to make fun of Yorick’s sentimentality about women here: by comparing Madame de Rambouliet to a mythological nymph, her urine to a “fountain,” and himself to a priest, he seems to be talking in an overly precious and religious way about basic bodily functions. Yet, at the same time, this anecdote reveals that Yorick is able to tolerate and even celebrate foreign behavior that he might initially find unseemly.
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