Tristram Shandy: Book 3: Chapters 36-42 Summary & Analysis

Chapter 36. Tristram continues to narrate Tristram’s father’s research on noses. The debate between Phamphagus and Cocles, recorded by Erasmus, is a great disappointment to Walter. Tristram cautions the reader not to let the devil take hold of their imagination in this chapter, comparing it to Tickletoby’s mare, and urges them to throw him off of it, but also to be merciful to him once they have done so. Answering the question of what was Tickletoby’s mare, Tristram lambasts the reader for their ignorance and urges them to read more. He suggests that they put this book down immediately, as they lack the knowledge to grasp the meaning of the marbled page to follow. (The next two pages of Tristram Shandy are covered by a marbled design.)

Chapter 37. Returning to his father’s research, Tristram explains why Walter is so disappointed by Erasmus’s writing, which is too precise and lacking in subtlety to be useful to them. Walter continues to try to extract a deeper, more esoteric meaning, even cutting up and reordering sentences. Though he tries to ignore Toby’s suggestion that Erasmus’s writing on noses is perhaps as simple as it seems, he eventually gives up.

Chapter 38. Tristram praises Slawkenbergius and his writing on noses, which is so insightful that the method behind it remains a complete mystery. Tristram recounts Slawkenbergius’s description of his motivations for writing on noses: finding himself capable of discerning the meaning of long noses and disappointed in the lack of clarity in previous writing on the topic, Slawkenbergius made addressing the subject of long noses his life’s work. Tristram believes that Slawkenbergius was more than up to this task, applying a dialectical method to the study of noses and writing the definitive book on the subject. This, Tristram explains, is why he chooses not to discuss the rest of his father’s library on noses, though it includes other older luminaries like Prignitz and Scroderus.

Even as Tristram disavows describing the work of Prignitz and Scroderus, he describes at length how their built upon and criticized each other’s work, as did Ambrose Paraeus. Paraeus not only overturned his predecessor’s theories but the Shandy household, as well, as his hypothesis that the length of the nose is caused by the softness of the nurse’s breast prompted a three-day argument between Walter and Mrs. Shandy. Tristram’s explanation is interrupted, however, by other pressing narrative demands: a loose cow has destroyed Toby’s fortifications, and Trim demands to be court-martialed for allowing this to happen. Meanwhile, Walter is still lying on his bed in despair. Before returning to Walter, however, narrator-Tristram must describe Slawkenbergius’s studies, recount a dialogue between Walter and Toby on scholars of noses, and translate a story of Slawkenbergius’s.

Chapter 39. Tristram begins to relate the most entertaining anecdote in his family’s history and, to emphasize it, affirms that no family ever had such dramatic characters and scenes as his. The most exciting of these scenes would take place when Walter’s imagination was set off on the subject of noses, with Toby soon dragged in. They would sit together for hours debating Prignitz and Scroderus, with Walter explaining their theories to Toby and translating, poorly, from Latin.

Chapter 40. Tristram asserts that humans syllogize with their noses. Critical thinking, he argues, is derived from examining the contradiction between two ideas through a third idea. Tristram suggests that an observer watching Walter and Toby debate noses might take Toby to be that third idea juxtaposing the ideas Walter laid before him. This, however, is not at all what Walter desires, as he would prefer for Toby to listen and understand rather than join the discussion. Toby, however, does neither.  

Chapter 41. Walter expresses to Toby his despair that truth is so hard to come by, comparing the search for it to a siege. Toby, whose imagination has already wandered, as usual, to fortifications, suddenly takes his pipe out of his mouth and pays attention. Walter repeats himself, but without the siege metaphor, bemoaning the lack of clear answers despite the many “solutions of noses.” Toby, misunderstanding, asks if noses can be “dissolved.” Walter almost storms around the room in frustration.

Tristram, as narrator, highlights what a powerful effect Toby’s foolish questions have on Walter’s passions, yet Toby continues to smoke his pipe, letting Walter calm himself down. Walter, using one of Ernulphus’s curses, berates Toby for his lack of attention. Toby simply responds that the only answer to the question of noses is that of God’s will. Walter dismisses this as a religious answer, not a philosophical one, and Toby whistles Lillabullero.

Chapter 42. Tristram returns to Slawkenbergius, describing the wealth of philosophical riches in his writing. Unlike Walter, however, Tristram prefers Slawkenbergius not for his study of noses but for the diverting stories that compose his second book. Though Tristram concedes that it was perhaps philosophically irresponsible of Slawkenbergius to publish these tales, he believes that it is worth recounting the ninth of Slawkenbergius’s ten tales here.