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Widow Wadman
Yorick is the local parson and a good friend of Walter Shandy’s. Yorick is thoughtful, considerate, and well-read. He composes excellent sermons, which Tristram intends to compile and publish after the completion of his own book. Yorick is descended from a Danish aristocratic family, and Tristram believes that his ancestor was none other than Yorick the court jester in Shakespeare’s Hamlet. Yorick frequently visits Shandy-Hall to debate with Walter, Toby, and Dr. Slop, and he is very fond of humorous tales. Yorick is not universally beloved in his neighborhood, however, as his jokes and mockery make enemies of both members of his congregation and his fellow priests, such as Phutatorius. Yorick also has a vain and headstrong streak of his own, as he pays for the midwife’s education in order to stop having to lend parishioners his horse to fetch a midwife from farther away. He likewise annotates his sermons with terminology from Italian opera to compliment and criticize himself. These negative traits make lots of enemies for Yorick, causing his career to stall. In the end, he dies brokenhearted.
Yorick (The Parson) Quotes in Tristram Shandy
The Tristram Shandy quotes below are all either spoken by Yorick (The Parson) or refer to Yorick (The Parson) . For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Book 4: Chapters 26-32 Quotes
Now the chapter I was obliged to tear out, was the description of this cavalcade, in which corporal Trim and Obadiah, upon two coach-horses a-breast, led the way as slow as a patrole—whilst my uncle Toby, in his laced regimentals and tye-wig, kept his rank with my father, in deep roads and dissertations alternately upon the advantage of learning and arms, as each could get the start.
—But the painting of this journey, upon reviewing it, appears to be so much above the stile and manner of any thing else I have been able to paint in this book, that it could not have remained in it, without depreciating every other scene; and destroying at the same time that necessary equipoise and balance, (whether good or bad) betwixt chapter and chapter, from whence the just proportions and harmony of the whole work results. For my own part, I am but just set up in the business, so know little about it—but, in my opinion, to write a book is for all the world like humming a song—be but in tune with yourself, madam, ’tis no matter how high or how low you take it.—
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As Yorick pronounced the word point blank, my uncle Toby rose up to say something upon projectiles—when a single word, and no more, uttered form the opposite side of the table, drew every one’s ears towards it—a word of all others in the dictionary the last in that place to be expected—a word I am ashamed to write—yet must be written—must be read;—illegal—uncanonical—guess ten thousand guesses, multiplied into themselves—rack—torture your invention for ever, you’re where you was—In short, I’ll tell it in the next chapter.
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Book 5: Chapters 36-43 Quotes
A white bear! Very well. Have I ever seen one? Might I ever have seen one? Am I ever to see one? Ought I ever to have seen one? Or can I ever see one?
Would I had seen a white bear? (for how can I imagine it?)
If I should see a white bear, what should I say? If I should never see a white bear, what then?
If I never have, can, must or shall see a white bear alive; have I ever seen the skin of one? Did I ever see one painted?—described? Have I never dreamed of one?
Did my father, mother, uncle aunt, brothers or sisters, ever see a white bear? What would they give? How would they behave? How would the white bear have behaved? Is he wild? Tame? Terrible? Rough? Smooth?
—Is the white bear worth seeing?—
—Is there no sin in it?—
Is it better than a black one?
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Yorick (The Parson) Character Timeline in Tristram Shandy
The timeline below shows where the character Yorick (The Parson) appears in Tristram Shandy. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Book 1: Chapters 6-10
...the closest midwife lived seven miles away. After the midwife learned all the necessary skills, the parson gave her money to acquire a proper license. Tristram muses on licenses and the power...
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Chapter 10. Tristram affirms that while the parson ’s support of the midwife may seem irrelevant to the story of his birth, that...
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Riding his sorry-looking horse, the parson was laughed at from village to village, but he never took offense. A humorous man...
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With his horse-related expenses adding up, the parson found himself unable to be generous in other ways. He realized he had two options:...
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Book 1: Chapters 11-15
Chapter 11. The parson was named Yorick, Tristram explains, a family name allegedly going back 900 years. Tristram is greatly impressed by...
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Tristram finds Yorick’s character much more in keeping with the English than the Danish, and he wonders if...
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...while those made fun of will remember the mockery and the “debt” they are owed. Yorick owes many such debts, as he ignores the good counsel of Eugenius and often offends...
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Describing this revenge as if he is narrating a battle, Tristram describes how Yorick’s enemies struck him down. Despite his gallant behavior, Yorick died brokenhearted. Later, Eugenius visits Yorick...
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Book 2: Chapters 16-19
...confident, based on the style, that the author of the sermon is none other than Yorick. Tristram notes that this is in fact correct: Yorick had borrowed Toby’s copy of Stevinus...
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Tristram then explains that the sermon was lost once again after its return to Yorick following its discovery in the Stevinus book. Yorick dropped it through a hole in his...
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Book 4: Chapters 13-18
...responds that there is no time: the child is having a fit and possibly dying. Yorick has sent his curate to christen the child, and Susannah wishes to know what he...
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Book 4: Chapters 19-25
...and believes that her arguing was also bad for the fetus. Toby suggests they call Yorick.
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Chapter 23. Walter asks Yorick if a child can be renamed after it’s been christened. Yorick suggests that Walter come...
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Book 4: Chapters 26-32
Chapter 26. Didius, Kysarcius, and Yorick argue about Yorick’s sermon. Yorick has destroyed the sermon because he believes it express his...
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After his exclamation, Phutatorius removes the chestnut and throws it on the floor. Yorick then picks it up. Phutatorius interprets this as evidence that Yorick somehow slipped the chestnut...
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Chapter 28. Phutatorius, Gastripheres, Eugneius, and Yorick discuss the best ways to soothe the hot pain in Phutatorius’s genitalia, suggesting freshly printed...
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...of its parents, the parents are not “blood or seed” of the child. Didius and Yorick then join the argument, pointing out that the father is therefore also not kin, and...
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Chapter 30. Heading downstairs, Toby asks Yorick what conclusion the church leaders have come too. Yorick says that they have concluded that...
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...reads about farming one day and about travel the next, and he debates with Toby, Yorick, and Obadiah over the best course of action. Eventually the decision becomes yet another misery...
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Book 5: Chapters 15-21
...the blame on Susannah and confesses to Toby, who is in the middle of telling Yorick the story of the battle of Steenkirk, which was lost because of Count Solmes’s poor...
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...blame, as he gave Trim the orders to build the models out of the weights. Yorick points out that if Count Solmes were as good a commander as Toby, the battle...
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Book 5: Chapters 22-28
Chapter 22. Toby tells Yorick that after the battle of Steenkirk, King William refused to see Count Solmes for months....
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Chapter 23. Toby gathers Yorick, Trim, and Susannah, and they all march over to Shandy-Hall. Trim says he wishes he...
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Chapter 28. Walter smiles at Yorick and comments on how abnormal Tristram’s various religious rites have been. Yorick hopes that the...
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Book 5: Chapters 29-35
Chapter 29. Yorick describes the acrobatic tricks performed by Gymnast on his horse, including backflips while in the...
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Chapter 30. Walter proposes to read from the Tristrapoedia. Toby lights his pipe, Yorick pulls his chair closer, and Trim snuffs out the candle as Walter begins to read.
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...between man and woman, soon joined by a servant in the form of a bull. Yorick comments that it should be an ox. Walter continues, explaining that he is reading to...
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...knows the catechism by heart. Walter is annoyed by the interruption, but Toby insists that Yorick ask Trim to read. Yorick politely asks Trim to recite the fifth commandment, but Trim...
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Chapter 33. Walter begins the next chapter on the subject of health. He and Yorick debate the roles of radical heat and radical moisture in the body, the tension between...
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Book 5: Chapters 36-43
...if not for the brandy they burned. Walter is thoroughly confused, while Toby turns to Yorick and continues his explanation.
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...to maintain the balance of radical heat and radical moisture with hot wine and spices. Yorick asks Trim for his opinion, and Trim takes up his oratorical pose again and prepares...
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...surrounded by marshlands. Dr. Slop comments that this is a strange medical lecture, to which Yorick replies that more doctors should follow Trim’s example. Trim tells the company that during the...
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...methods and ideas, comparing the ages at which different historical figures learned how to reason. Yorick pays close attention to Walter’s bizarre logic. Walter explains his theory that there is an...
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Book 6: Chapters 1-5
...will educate Tristram with this method and make him conjugate every word in the dictionary. Yorick suggests that the historical genius Vincent Quirino must have been educated by the same method;...
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Chapter 5. Walter explains to Toby and Yorick his plan to place Tristram in the care of a governor. He insists on having...
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Book 6: Chapters 11-15
...story in the next two chapters. Toby attends the funeral with Le Fever’s son, where Yorick reads a sermon. Tristram is able to deduce this fact from the Yorick’s habit of...
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Book 6: Chapters 31-35
...and reflection on the misery of war, arguing that they are separate acts. Then, addressing Yorick, Toby quotes the sermon from Le Fever’s funeral. If a gentle creature like Le Fever...
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Book 8: Chapters 1-5
...who arouse curiosity in women with their lifestyle choice—and this curiosity inevitably leads to desire. Yorick and Eugenius each advise the other to drink more water, which Tristram claims shows they...
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Book 8: Chapters 29-35
...had a blister. Even though they are in front of Mrs. Shandy, Dr. Slop, and Yorick, Toby thinks it is more polite than not to use the same terminology as his...
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Yorick is in favor of Walter’s theoretical approach to love, adding that he has wasted much...
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Book 9: Chapters 26-33
...just as Toby and Trim head over. He uses this new information to prove to Yorick—in front of his wife—that all women are lustful and sinful. Yorick is attempting to add...
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...bad, citing Diogenes and Plato. War, by contrast, is glorious, Walter argues; both Toby and Yorick are about to enter the debate, arguing for and against the glories of war, respectively,...
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...his life.” Mrs. Shandy swears, asking what kind of story her husband is telling, and Yorick replies that it is about a cock and a bull and is one of the...
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