Scholia to Tristram Shandy

247 SCHOLIA TO TRISTRAM SHANDY In Tristram Shandy V.34, Walter Shandy waxes eloquent in his apostrophe to Francis Bacon’s medical acumen: ‘‘—O, my lord Verulam! cried my father . . . What shall I say to thee, my great lord Verulam? What shall I say to thy internal spirit–thy opium,——thy salt-petre, etc.’’ The Florida editors overlooked a possible echo here of Shakespeare’s Henry V, and a new note is called for: 473.8-12 O my lord Verulam . . . spirit] Sterne is perhaps recalling, with some irony, King Henry’s angry speech to Lord Scroop, just before arresting him as a traitor in Henry V, II.ii.93-95: ‘‘But O, / What shall I say to thee, Lord Scroop, thou cruel, / Ingrateful, savage, and inhuman creature?’’ That one member of the Demoniacs was Thomas Scrope (1723–1792), may suggest a private joke in the allusion; see letter 151 (where the name is spelled ‘‘Scroope’’) in Letters, 8:425–26, 429, n.10. Thomas Goggans SCRIBLERIANA The scholarship on female writers in the eighteenth century continues to grow. To help review the work of Aphra Behn more thoroughly, we have added Mary Ann O’Donnell (Manhattan College); for the novels of Eliza Haywood, Amy Wolf (Canisius College). We are very pleased they are joining us; with them, the Scriblerian is a better review journal. We also welcome Beverly Schneller (Millersville University), who will help us with current bibliographical matters, allowing us to be more current. Lacey Young (Auburn University Montgomery) is editorial assistant. Special thanks for this issue go to the care of E. Derek Taylor, W. B. Gerard, and Mel New. And the important oversight of Matthew Binney and Kate Klebes saved us from many missteps. We appreciate the support of a new sponsor , Manhattan College. ACCORDING TO BECKETT From The Letters of Samuel Beckett (Vol. I: 1929–1940): On Defoe: Oct. 8, 1932 ‘‘There is also a drill’s [a West African baboon ’s] arse and Daniel Defoe. They coexist very amiably’’ (p. 125). On Swift: Feb. 17, 1934 ‘‘I am a Bigendian [Swift’s caricature of Catholics], not instinctively but by education . Instinctively I am a Smallendian [a Protestant], with the result that when I am tired or my mind clouded these two wretched affinities, the civilised for the large, and the primitive for the small, end of the egg, come into conflict and the egg is not eaten’’ (p. 189). On Pope: March 25, 1936 ‘‘I have been reading wildly all over the place, Goethe’s Iphigenia & then Racine’s to remove the taste, Chesterfield, Boccaccio, Fischart, Ariosto & Pope! ‘Is there no bright reversion in the sky’ [Elegy on An Unfortunate Lady] is lovely. Pope says bright or ...