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THE SELF-CONSCIOUS NARRATOR IN COMIC FICTION
BEFORE TRISTRAM SHANDY
By WAYNE C. BOOTH
I
163
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164 The Self-Conscious Narrator in Comic Fiction
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Wayne C. Booth 165
It has long been customary in literary histories to say that Sterne was
influenced by Cervantes. Sterne himself frequently cites Don Quixote as
one of his models, and the striking similarities between Uncle Toby, with
his servant Trim, and Don Quixote, with his servant Sancho, have been
noted again and again as evidence for the relationship. But surely just
as striking, once one's attention is given to narrative methods, is the
fact that Don Quixote is really the first important novel using the self-
conscious narrator.3 Indeed, Cervantes developed the device to a point
not reached by any other comic novelist until well into the eighteenth
century.
Although the intrusions themselves are infrequent, the narrator who
makes them is about as fully characterized, particularly in the prefaces,
as a narrator could be.
You may depend upon my bare Word, Reader, without any farther Security,
that I cou'd wish this Offspring of my Brain were as ingenious ... as your self
could desire; but . . . Nature will have its Course: Every Production must re-
semble its Author, and my barren and unpolish'd Understanding can produce
nothing but what is very dull, very impertinent, and extravagant beyond
Imagination.4 (p. xix)
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166 The Self-Conscious Narrator in Comic Fiction
I had a great Mind to have expos'd it [his book] as naked as it was born, with-
out the Addition of a Preface. . . For I dare boldly say, that tho' I bestow'd
some Time in writing the Book, yet it cost me not half so much Labour as this
very Preface. I very often took up my Pen, and as often laid it down, and could
not for my Life think of any thing to the Purpose. Sitting once in a very studious
Posture, with my Paper before me, my Pen in my Ear, my Elbow on the Table,
and my Cheek on my Hand, considering how I should begin.... [I] had made
my self so uneasy about it, that I was now resolv'd to trouble my Head no fur-
ther either with Preface or Book, and even to let the Atchievements of that noble
Knight remain unpublish'd: For, continu'd I, why shou'd I expose my self to
the Lash of the old Legislator, the Vulgar? (p. xx)
But here we must deplore the abrupt End of this History, which the Author
leaves off just at the very Point when the Fortune of the Battle is going to be
decided, pretending that he could find nothing more recorded of Don Quixote's
wondrous Atchievements than what he had already related. However, the second
Undertaker of this Work could not believe, that so curious a History could lie
for ever inevitably buried in Oblivion; or that the Learned of La Mancha were
so regardless of their Country's Glory, as not to preserve [it] ....
As I said before, the Story remain'd imperfect .... This vex'd me extremely,
and turn'd the Pleasure, which the Perusal of the Beginning had afforded me,
into Disgust.... (p. 51)
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Wayne C. Booth 167
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168 The Self-Conscious Narrator in Comic Fiction
of his master Cervantes, even though the actual intrusions in Don Quix-
ote never attain to the level of Tristram's involved conversations with a
highly characterized reader. Indeed, no other novelist until Marivaux
approached as closely as Cervantes to the genuine Shandean manner.
Most comic writers of the next century were quite satisfied with the
straightforward, unself-conscious narrative manner conventional with
writers of serious works. Those few authors who really exploited nar-
rative possibilities did not, in the main, write works properly to be con-
sidered as comic fiction but rather wrote facetiae or satires; for example,
the most important work using self-conscious narration in English be-
fore Fielding was undoubtedly Swift's A Tale of a Tub. This is not, how-
ever, to say that the intruding narrator was dead. There were dozens of
works which imitated Cervantes' devices, although most of them, like
Sorel's Francion (1622-41), confined the interest in the narrator to in-
troductory material (see Books I, vIr, and x).
The most highly intrusive of the exceptions before 1700 was Fure-
tiere's Le Roman Bourgeois (1666, translated as Scarron's City Romance,
1671). This work has, in addition to an intimate "Epistle" to the reader,
a sprinkling of commentary on the narrator's problems. In one respect
it outdoes Don Quixote: one is made to feel that the order of events is
transformed merely to portray the whimsical narrator and thus to
parody conventional narration. "I am afraid there is not any Reader
(be he never so courteous) but will cry out here is a pitiful Romancer.
This Story is neither long nor intricate, and a Wedding resolved already,
which is not wont to be till the 10th Volume; but I beg his pardon for
cutting short, and riding post to the conclusion . . yet he may please
to observe that many things fall between the Cup and Lip: and this
Wedding is not in such forwardness as he imagines. It is now in my power
to form here a Heroine that shall be stollen away, as often as I have a
mind to write Volumns . . ." (p. 19). As this quotation suggests, the
interest is frequently shifted to a hypothetical "reader" and his demands
upon the narrator: "But now I am afraid the Reader expects the Latter
Part of this Book should be the Continuation of the former, and necessar-
ily depend upon it; in which he extreamly mistakes.... [I] leave the
care of their connection to him that binds the Book" (pp. 159-160).
This radical flouting of tradition is at times carried to great lengths in
extended conversations between narrator and reader. But the most suc-
cessful thrust at convention is the narrator's conclusion. With his hero
still pursuing his heroine, he stops to tell the story of the hare that had
been promised by the Gods never to be caught, pursued by the hound
that had been promised never to fail in the chase. They are running still,
he tells us, just as are his hero and heroine. This final joke, together with
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Wayne C. Booth 169
all of the narrative play, particularly the shift from one story to another
in the middle of the work, makes of the book as a whole a trick played
by the narrator on the reader, just as in a sense Tristram Shandy is an
elaborate evasion of the promise given in the title.
A much better foreign work, but one of less significance to this history,
was Scarron's Roman Comique.5 Its relatively few intrusions are given
importance by the use of an unusually full characterization in the
Dedication, "To the Courteous Reader that never saw me":
Unknown Friend, who never saw'st me in thy Life, and perhaps never troublest
thy self much about it, because there is no great matter to be got by the sight
of such a Fellow as I am: Be it known to thee, that neither am I desirous thou
shouldst see my Person, but that I have been inform'd that some facetious
Gentlemen ... describe me another sort of a Monster than really I am . . . and
for that reason [I] have order'd my Picture to be engraven, as thou seest it, in
the beginning of this Book.... Thou wilt grumble in thy Gizzard, I say, and
snarl, and quarrel, and huff, and puff, because forsooth, I shew thee my Back-
side. But prithee, old Friend, don't be too Cholerick....
6 Part I, 1651; Part iI, 1657. First translated, 1676. Tr. by "Mr. Tho. Brown, Mr. Savage,
and Others" as The Comical Romance (London, 1700). My references are to the 1712 edi
tion of this translation.
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170 The Self-Conscious Narrator in Comic Fiction
Delight after the same Manner as a drunken Man creates in us an Aversion for
Drunkenness, and yet may sometimes divert us with his merry Impertinence.
Let's end this Moral Reflection and return. (p. 40)
III
6 For further outstanding intrusions see pp. 99-100, 160, 203, 208, 212, 242,
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Wayne C. Booth 171
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Wayne C. Booth 173
apples have sower'd;) and how greatly am I oblig'd to the guests, for saving us
from the remainder of his tale!-Harkee, reader. I cou'd take upon me to defend
the story...
But, gentle reader, I shall not take upon me to say, that you yourself are in
the wrong to imagine this part of my work dull; at least I won't tell you so, what-
ever I myself may think. Your finding it heavy may, perhaps, be my fault, per-
haps your's; which is all I will observe on this head, whence you cannot fail of
concluding me extremely modest ...
I am no author, I declare to you once again. I trifle away my time in telling
you a parcel of fictitious tales; but this, (let me observe,) is better than being
quite idle. Let us therefore proceed.-Our whole company are now got to bed.
'Tis three in the morning, with regard to them; but 'tis no more than nine at
night with respect to myself; for which reason, I'll bring them all into action
again, as tho' they had snor'd away the four and twenty hours round.
Up! up!-I am instantly obey'd.... They have slept till they are sober, but
find themselves a little tir'd. (iI, 114-117)
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174 The Self-Conscious Narrator in Comic Fiction
1 Examples of this are to be found throughout Marianne (e.g., I, 15, 57, 83, 159, 272; n
58, 182). The following is typical: "It would perhaps be much better not to mention
these little particulars; but I write as well as I can. I must not think that I am makin
book, for that would discompose my mind too much. I rather chuse to fancy my self co
versing with you, because what passes in conversation is tolerable. Let us then procee
(I, 30).
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Wayne C. Booth 175
is not true. The methods of Marivaux have been carried beyond their
original intent, and have produced something which is, however difficult
to describe and however closely derived from earlier experiments, new.
IV
12 The History of the English Novel, iv (London, 1930), 240. See also Sherburn's ac
in Albert C. Baugh et al., A Literary History of England (New York, 1948), p. 1024
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176 The Self-Conscious Narrator in Comic Fiction
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Wayne C. Booth 177
able in Fielding's works. The gross differences between the total effects
of the two works, and between particular effects of the devices within
the works, tend to obscure this fact, because the total impression de-
rived from the intrusions of Fielding's narrator is that he knows where he
is going, whereas Tristram ostensibly does not. Fielding's narrator,
although he intrudes with a frequency which is not realized except when
one reads his book with this aspect specifically in mind, is never over-
whelmed by his problems; rather, he is omniscient and omnipotent.
He never doubts his own ability to tell his story or to move the reader
any way he pleases. However whimsical he may choose to appear on
occasion, he leaves no doubt that his intrusions are always carefully
employed to serve the requirements of his book as a whole. In short,
Fielding's narrative devices are usually functional rather than merely
ornamental. Tristram, on the other hand, always presents two opposite
aspects to his readers, the most obvious being that he has not the slightest
idea of what is going on, or of how to control it. His intrusions on this
level thus have the effect of seeming merely ornamental: the "story"
seems to be hindered rather than helped by them. His opposite claim,
that he has transcendental insight and will somehow miraculously make
order out of all his chaos, is repeated so much less frequently, and seems
so thoroughly confuted by everything he does, that readers have tended
to ignore it. They have thus ignored both the signs that the intrusions
are, in fact, functional and carefully planned, and the striking similarities
between Sterne's and Fielding's narrative devices.
The first step in reassessing the relationship between the two writers
is of course a detailed consideration of Sterne's devices as they appear
in Fielding. There is some reason to believe that the sheer quantity of
Fielding's intrusions was an important element in determining his in-
fluence, but since our interest is primarily in the quality of the inter-
ventions, and since even a great number of them would perhaps have
had little effect if they had not been qualitatively successful, relatively
limited examples of the major kinds of intrusion and their effects may
suffice.
Perhaps the intrusions which are most clearly functional are those
which are used to characterize the potential readers morally, and to
manipulate the real readers into the moral attitudes Fielding desires.
"There are two sorts of people, who, I am afraid, have already conceived
some contempt for my hero on account of his behavior to Sophia ..."
(Tom Jones Iv.vi). At times this moral manipulation becomes, just as it
does later in Tristram Shandy, very effective indeed: "Examine your
heart, my good reader, and resolve whether you do believe these matters
with me. If you do, you may now proceed to their exemplification in the
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178 The Self-Conscious Narrator in Comic Fiction
following pages: if you do not, you have, I assure you, already read more
than you have understood ... To treat of the effects of love to you,
must be as absurd as to discourse on colours to a man born blind; since
possibly your idea of love may be as absurd as that which we are told
such blind men once entertained of the colour scarlet . . . love probably
may, in your opinion, very greatly resemble a dish of soup or a sirloin
of roast-beef" (vi.i). It would take a strong-minded reader to resist this
kind of rhetoric and to refuse to "believe these matters." And such
rhetoric is often needed, since Tom's conduct frequently becomes
imprudent that most readers, unaided by the narrator, might fin
difficult to remember the real virtue that prompts his actions. If
are to sympathize with the generous, open-hearted and affectionate her
we must be goaded into the camp of those who admire such qualit
more than they deplore imprudence or minor violations of conventi
moral codes. The narrator thus affects an intimacy with us at eve
crucial point throughout the story of Tom's actions, and forestalls
criticism we might wish to offer.
A more frequent, though perhaps less necessary, function of the
trusions, especially in Tom Jones and Joseph Andrews, is that of insuri
a comic response to scenes which in themselves are not necessarily comi
or which are even potentially serious. These intrusions are thus sup
mental to many other devices of narration which are used to effect
same ends. For example, just after Adams has awaked and fled the
hounds, and just before Joseph gives them battle, the narrator intrudes
to say:
Nor let this be any detraction from the bravery of his character: let the number
of the enemies, and the surprise in which he was taken, be considered; and if there
be any modern so outrageously brave that he cannot admit of flight in any cir-
cumstance whatever, I say (but I whisper that softly, and I solemnly declare
without any intention of giving offence to any grave man in the nation), I say,
or rather whisper, that he is an ignorant fellow ... he is unacquainted with the
history of some great men living, who, though as grave as lions, ay, as tigers,
have run away .... But if persons of such heroic disposition are a little offended
at the behavior of Adams, we assure them they shall be as much pleased with
what we shall immediately relate of Joseph Andrews. (Joseph Andrews III.vi)
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Wayne C. Booth 179
to carry the reader laughing through Fanny's own abduction and near
ravishment.
In all of this, the narrator's qualities as a writer are only implicitly
involved. But it is in those many intrusions which discuss directly the
narrator's procedures as narrator that we are most interested. Many of
them resemble Tristram's intrusions closely, although when Fielding's
narrator digresses, he does so much more deliberately than Tristram,
and is, in fact, not really digressing at all. Indeed, one effect of the
majority of the intrusions throughout Tom Jones is to reinforce every
impression given by the story itself that the narrator is a man of great
genius and that the book is something new and wonderful. Sometimes
the playful commentary merely brings into the open processes which the
reader normally is left to perform for himself in private, suggesting that
the narrator is sufficiently clever to forestall the reader at every turn
(e.g., II.ix and III.i). At other times the commentary playfully dispar-
ages previous writers (e.g., xI.viii). And sometimes it is made up of
mock attacks on the reader, previous narrators, or the narrator himself
as a man, but always with the implication that as a writer he is a man of
consummate skill: "We would bestow some pains here in minutely de-
scribing all the mad pranks which Jones played . . .could we be well
assured that the reader would take the same pains in perusing them;
but as we are apprehensive that, after all the labour which we should
employ in painting this scene, the said reader would be very apt to skip
it entirely over, we have saved ourselves that trouble. To say the truth,
we have, from this reason alone, often done great violence to the luxuri-
ance of our genius, and have left many excellent descriptions out of our
work which would otherwise have been in it" (xII.iii).
Even the long introductory chapters, which perhaps run the most
danger of being considered merely ornamental, almost always can be
readily seen to contribute to the real form of the two. works in which
they occur. Without discussing these functions in detail, it is evident
that these prefaces vary considerably in the degree of service they per-
form. Many of them are functional only in the sense that they contribute
to the characterization of the narrator and the intimate comic relation-
ship between him and the reader. At times they become so far divorced
from the particular story being told that it is easy to understand how
later novelists could misinterpret them as merely ornamental, and imitate
them without imitating their general functionality. No one else in English
fiction had ever tried to attain the degree of intimacy that Fielding at-
tains in his intrusive conversations with his "readers," and it is not
strange that his intimacy should have been copied without reference to
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180 The Self-Conscious Narrator in Comic Fiction
his ends. Thus it is his introductory chapters, and the techniques dis-
played in them, which, along with his methods of entitling chapters,
were most frequently borrowed during the next decade. Indeed, these
chapters, if read through without any of the intervening story, make a
kind of running "story" of growing intimacy between the narrator and
the reader, and Fielding's followers can hardly be condemned for ex-
ploring the possibilities of this masterful intimacy for its own sake. In
his closing prefatory comment in Tom Jones, Fielding practically invites
this kind of imitation, by producing a denouement to the story of his
relationships with the reader, and thus implying a kind of autonomous
interest which, in his story when it is read properly, the intrusions never
really have:
We are now, reader, arrived at the last stage of our long journey. As we have,
therefore, travelled together through so many pages, let us behave to one another
like fellow-travellers in a stage-coach, who have passed several days in the com-
pany of each other; and who, notwithstanding any bickerings or little animosities
which may have occurred on the road, generally make all up at last, and mount,
for the last time, into their vehicle with cheerfulness and good-humour....
And now, my friend, I take this opportunity (as I shall have no other) of heart-
ily wishing thee well. If I have been an entertaining companion to thee, I
promise thee it is what I have desired. If in anything I have offended, it was
really without any intention. Some things, perhaps, here said, may have hit
thee or thy friends; but I do most solemnly declare they were not pointed at thee
or them....
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Wayne C. Booth 181
But there were also published during this decade more genuinely
Shandean works than in the whole preceding quarter century. Some of
them, it is true, have little if anything more than is to be found in Field-
ing; others approach, in certain respects, to even the most eccentric
elements of Sterne's practice.
Perhaps the first novel after Tom Jones to show how Fielding was to
influence succeeding narrative practice was Charlotte Summers,5 which
is dominated by the presence of a persistently intruding narrator. Al-
though most of his comments are closer to Fielding's style than to Sterne's
they go farther than Fielding's in the characterization of the "readers,"
in the intimate portrayal of the narrator in his physical surroundings,
facing his writing problems, and in the elaboration of conversations be-
tween them. The "readers," for example, are not only more various, but
also much more fully endowed with ridiculous characteristics than are
Fielding's:
I fancy by this Time, my Readers are pretty well acquainted with the Lady
Bountiful, and ready to thank me for the Pains I have taken ... but I can hear
Beau Thoughtless and pretty Miss Pert, whispering to one another, 'Hang the old
Woman, I wish we were done with her, we have seen enough of her, I want to
see the young Wench . . . ' but I must inform the pretty Triflers, that I am de-
termined my Readers shall learn something in every Chapter, and in this,
amongst other Things, they must learn and practice Patience ... (I, 24)
Oh Pox upon her for a Fool ... says grayhair'd Mrs. Sit-her-time, she'll never
get such another Match,-but plague on the Author. (II, 221)
What the Devil does the Fellow mean? .. says Dick Dapperwit, in a Pas-
sion . . . (II, 1-2)
16 The History of Charlotte Summers, The Fortunate Parish Girl (London, 1749). CBEL
says that this book has been attributed to Sarah Fielding. The "first edition" I have used
is dated 1750.
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182 The Self-Conscious Narrator in Comic Fiction
ber, that I left off at the End of-I think it was the 6th Chapter. Turn to the 7th
Chapter, and let me hear how it begins-Polly reads, "Chapter the 7th,-The
Death of my Lady Fanciful's Squirrel ...." Hold, Wench, you read too fast;
and I don't understand one Word of what you are saying... I must not have
got so far-Look back to the End of that Chapter where the Blookhead of an
Author bids us take a Nap, and remember where he left off.-O la, Ma'am, I
have found it; here it is. As your Ladyship said, he says ... (I, 68-69)
and she repeats the conclusion of Chapter iv. She then goes on reading
aloud from page 69 to page 85, at which point the narrator intrudes:
"But the Reader must remember Polly, Miss Dimple's Maid, is reading
all this while. She had just come to this Length, when she looks about at
her Mistress and finds her fast asleep . . . its time to put an end to the
Chapter, when pretty Miss Dimple sleeps over it." This is of course a
great "advance" over Fielding;16 it is unquestionably as "Shandean"
as anything Tristram ever does.
Perhaps the "reader" closest to any of Sterne's is Miss Censorious,
sharply on the lookout for any bawdry:
You must know then, that this Lady [Lady Bountiful], amiable as she is in
Person and Character has her Failings and some little Foibles; but pray Miss
Censorious don't run too quick upon a malicious Scent, her Faults are not such
as your Imagination has fixed on, I tell you positively she is not familiar with her
Chaplain,-nor with the Doctor,-nor any Man on Earth; she is chaste as the
new-fallen Snow. . . 'Hang your Impertinence, I did not think that she was
actually naughty with any of the odious Male Things, I but supposed that it
might be such a Thing which you introduced with so much Formality. But why
need you keep a Person in suspence? Tell us for God sake . . . ' Well Miss, I'll
keep you no longer in Pain ... (I, 25-26)
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Wayne C. Booth 183
manner of The Beggar's Opera: "I think I had best leave her [Charlotte]
there, since she now enjoys as much as can possibly make a reasonable
Woman happy. Oh, Pox! says Widow Lackit, sure you won't give over
without marrying her? It's impossible she can be happy without a Hus-
band. Besides, it's contrary to all Rule to end a History of this Kind,
without marrying the Hero and Heroine. Plague! I would not give a
Rush for it without a Wedding-night" (II, 313-314; for other conversa-
tions, see I, 2, 8, 12, 23, 34, 49, 228; II, 56, 108, 134, 295). And, with mock
reluctance, a happy ending is provided.
There are only two steps that an author can take beyond the use of
the narrator in this book; Sterne took those steps in making his narrator
the subject of his own book, and in extending the intrusions in quantity
until the whole book seems to be the product of the kind of whimsy which
produces the altered conclusion of Charlotte Summers.
There are many other works published in the next few years which, if
written in the thirties or forties, would have been landmarks in this
history but which, coming when they do, are not worth individual cita-
tion.18 There is one, however, which can hardly be thus dismissed;
Captain Greenland, by William Goodall,l9 may be no better as a novel
than any of the others, but it is probably more completely dominated
by an intruding narrator than any previous novel. More than half of
the first thirty pages are taken up with commentary of the following kind
on the book, its author, and its "readers":
Volume I, Chapter 1: Containing Matter prefatory, necessary, and useful, both
to the Author and the Reader. And wherein the latter is most wisely informed
of the Capacity and Power of the Former.... (p. 1)
If the Patience of our good Readers be anywise too far trespassed upon, in
18 For example: The Adventures of Mr. Loveill, Interspers'd with many Real Amours of
The Modern Polite World (London, 1750), esp. pp. 1-2; John Kidgell, The Card (Dublin,
1755), esp. pp. 11-13; The Juvenile Adventures of David Ranger, Esq. ... (London, 1757);
Angola. An Indian History. A Work destitute of all Probability ... (London, 1750); The
Life and Memoirs of Mr. Ephraim Tristram Bates, commonly called Corporal Bates, A
Brokenhearted Soldier (London, 1756). This last work is important to the study of Tristram
Shandy more for other reasons than for its narrative intrusions; it is a possible source,
though an indefinite one, for some of the materials-as distinct from the devices-of
Sterne's book (see "A Precursor of Tristram Shandy," by Helen Sard Hughes, JEGP, xvin
[1918], 227-251). But it does show a good deal of fairly subtle narrative intrusion (e.g., pp.
10, 14, 15, 90). Perhaps the best stroke is the author's trick of having Bates begin his story
in third-person, with a great show of objectivity, and then more or less unconsciously drift
into first-person at crucial points in the story, thus throwing a delightful retrospective
humor over all the pretenses of the preceding narrative.
19 The Adventures of Captain Greenland, Written in Imitation of all those Wise, Learned,
Witty, and Humorous Authors, who either already have, or hereafter may Write in the same
Stile and Manner (London, 1752).
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184 The Self-Conscious Narrator in Comic Fiction
detaining too long their Enterance on the Body of this useful Work; to make them
some amends, we have this Comfort in store for them; that we shall give them a
much greater Opportunity to prove their Patience, as well as all their other Vir-
tues and Passions, before they have travelled through half the Vicissitudes of this
useful History. (I, 8)
Our Readers shall here be Remember'd, that in our first Chapter we reserved
to ourselves a Right of digressing, when, where, and howsoever, we, in our infi-
nite Judgment, shall think proper ... (I, 20)
And now, having it occur to our Fancy, that the Reader of this Work may be
compared to a Man who is riding a long Journey, through strange and uncertain
Roads; where he will sometimes find himself in a Wood, sometimes in a long open
Desart... and anon set fast in a Slough; we therefore, as the whole Track of
this Circuit is cut and marked out by us ... have erected all modern Con-
veniencies, except Post-Chaises, for him to travel by. [After making his road
difficult for a time] ... as a Reward for his Toil, and to Refresh him we shall
immediately present him with a Tavern... or Ginshop; in the Shapes of a
Digression, a Poem, a Song, or a Story. The Number of our Pages may serve for
Mile-stones, and when he is weary, and has travelled his Day, at the end of our
Chapter he may put up his Horse, and so now we'll suppose him to be gone to
his Rest. (I, 30-32)
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Wayne C. Booth 185
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