The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman · Chapter
Slawkenbergius's Tale explained
A stranger with an enormous nose arrives in Strasburg, causing a city-wide uproar of curiosity, debate, and obsession.
What happens
A stranger with an enormous nose arrives in Strasburg, causing a city-wide uproar of curiosity, debate, and obsession. The townspeople, from sentinels to scholars, argue over the nature and reality of the nose, leading to theological and philosophical disputes that consume the city for weeks.
Themes in this chapter
The Absurdity of Systems
The entire city's obsession with the stranger's nose leads to absurd theological and philosophical debates, highlighting the folly of systematic reasoning.
Obsession and Hobbyhorses
The Strasburgers' fixation on the nose, and Walter Shandy's delight in the tale for its support of his pet theories, exemplify obsessive hobbyhorses.
Knowledge and Philosophy
The learned and unlearned alike engage in futile attempts to understand the nose through reason, induction, and theological argument, satirizing the pursuit of knowledge.
Characters to notice
- Hafen Slawkenbergius
Author of the tale being translated; his story about the stranger's nose is recounted.
- Walter Shandy
Mentioned as reading Slawkenbergius's tale with delight because it flatters his hypotheses about names and noses.
- The Stranger
The mysterious traveler with a prodigious nose, who enters Strasburg and causes widespread fascination and debate.
- The Strasburgers
The citizens of Strasburg, whose fantasies and curiosities are consumed by the stranger's nose.
- The Master of the Inn
Gives a lecture about the nose under the portico of his stable-yard.
- The Lady Baussiere
Not directly mentioned in excerpts; omitted as no clear match.
Key passages
“the riot and disorder it occasioned in the Strasburgers’ fantasies was so general—such an overpowering mastership had it got of all the faculties of the Strasburgers’ minds—so many strange things, with equal confidence on all sides, and with equal eloquence in all places, were spoken and sworn to concerning it, that turned the whole stream of all discourse and wonder towards it”
The stranger's nose caused such widespread chaos in the imaginations of the Strasburgers that it dominated all conversation and curiosity.
Describes the all-consuming effect of the nose on the city's populace.
“The two universities of Strasburg were hard tugging at this affair of Luther’s navigation. The Protestant doctors had demonstrated, that he had not sailed right before the wind, as the Popish doctors had pretended; and as everyone knew there was no sailing full in the teeth of it—they were going to settle, in case he had sailed, how many points he was off”
The universities were deeply engaged in a theological dispute about Martin Luther's navigation, but the stranger's nose diverted their attention.
Highlights the shift from religious controversy to the absurd debate over the nose.
“Heat is in proportion to the want of true knowledge.”
The intensity of passion is directly related to the lack of genuine understanding.
A philosophical observation on the nature of curiosity and ignorance.