The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman · Chapter
Book V explained
The chapter opens with epigraphs from Horace and Erasmus, and a citation from the Second Council of Carthage, setting a tone of playful defiance against those who might criticize the author's jocularity or theological lightness.
What happens
The chapter opens with epigraphs from Horace and Erasmus, and a citation from the Second Council of Carthage, setting a tone of playful defiance against those who might criticize the author's jocularity or theological lightness. The narrator invokes Democritus and defends the right to jest, even in serious contexts.
Themes in this chapter
Modesty and Obscenity
The epigraphs and the author's defensive posture suggest a tension between decorum and the freedom to jest, touching on boundaries of modesty and obscenity in writing.
The Absurdity of Systems
The invocation of Democritus and the playful citation of ecclesiastical censure highlight the absurdity of rigid systems that seek to suppress humor and intellectual play.
Key passages
“Dixero si quid fortè jocosius, hoc mihi juris Cum venia dabis.”
If I should say something perhaps too jocular, you will grant me this right with your indulgence.
Horace's epigraph sets a tone of playful apology for potential levity.
“Si quis calumnietur levius esse quam decet theologum, aut mordacius quam deceat Christianum—non Ego, sed Democritus dixit.”
If anyone should slander me, saying it is lighter than befits a theologian, or more biting than becomes a Christian—it was not I, but Democritus who said it.
Erasmus's epigraph deflects criticism by attributing the jest to the laughing philosopher Democritus.
“Si quis Clericus, aut Monachus, verba joculatoria, risum moventia, sciebat, anathema esto.”
If any clergyman or monk knowingly uses jocular words that provoke laughter, let him be anathema.
The Second Council of Carthage's decree underscores the historical censure of humor among the clergy, which the narrator playfully challenges.