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Passage Illustrated

— He will be ready, Monsieur, said she, in a moment. — And in that moment, replied I, most willingly would I say something very civil to you for all these courtesies. Any one may do a casual act of good nature, but a continuation of them shows it is a part of the temperature; and certainly, added I, if it is the same blood which comes from the heart which descends to the extremes (touching her wrist) I am sure you must have one of the best pulses of any woman in the world. — Feel it, said she, holding out her arm. So laying down my hat, I took hold of her fingers in one hand, and applied the two forefingers of my other to the artery.—

— Would to heaven! my dear Eugenius, thou hadst passed by, and beheld me sitting in my black coat, and in my lack-a-day-sical manner, counting the throbs of it, one by one, with as much true devotion as if I had been watching the critical ebb or flow of her fever. — How wouldst thou have laugh’d and moralized upon my new profession! — and thou shouldst have laugh’d and moralized on.—Trust me, my dear Eugenius, I should have said, “There are worse occupations in this world than feeling a woman’s pulse.” — But a grisette’s! thou wouldst have said, — and in an open shop! Yorick —

— So much the better: for when my views are direct, Eugenius, I care not if all the world saw me feel it. ["The Pulse. Paris," p. 78]

Commentary

Stothard characteristically imbues the scene with an emotional coolness not entirely consistent with Yorick's delightedly recounting the incident in the glove-maker's shop for his friend Eugenius back in England. In his clerical garb and holding the Grisset's hand in a detached manner, Stothard's Yorick could well be mistaken by passersby — and the unknowing viewer — as a consulting physician.

In "The Pulse" Sterne is ambiguous about Yorick's motives with the grisette in the glove-maker's shop. In the illustration of the same name, Stothard resolves the ambiguity because, although the young woman is comely enough and elegantly dressed, Yorick has adopted a physician's earnest interest in monitoring the woman's heart-beat, and seems to be listening intently. No hint of lasciviousness passes across Yorick's face, suggesting that he is deep in thought rather than actuated by any inappropriate passion. Curiously, Stothard has included hat boxes on the shelf above Yorick, although Sterne is unequivocal about the nature of the business.

Relevant illustration from the 1857 edition

Above: Tony Johannot's study of Yorick's taking the gristte's pulse in Yorick and the Pulse (uncaptioned), "The Gloves. Paris." (1857). [Click on the image to enlarge it.]

Bibliography

Sterne, Laurence. A Sentimental Journey through France and Italy by Mr. Yorick. Illustrated by Thomas Stothard. London: J. Good, No. 159, New Bond Street; and E. and S. Harding, No. 102, Pall Mall, 1792; rpt., 1801].

Sterne, Laurence. A Sentimental Journey through France and Italy. Illustrated with one hundred engravings on wood, by Bastin and G. Nichols, from original designs by Jacque and Fussell. London: Joseph Thomas, 1841.

Sterne, Laurence. A Sentimental Journey through France and Italy. With 100 illustrations by Tony Johannot. London: Willoughby, 1857.

Stothard's Illustrations for Sterne's A Sentimental Journey through France and Italy by Mr. Yorick (1792). Accessed 26 September 2018. Available online at VTS: fulltable.com

Turner, Katherine. "Notes." Laurence Sterne's A Sentimental Journey through France and Italy (1768). Peterborough, ON: Broadview, 2010.

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Last modified 25 October 2018