What a jovial and a merry world would this be, may it please your worships, but for that inextricable labyrinth of debts, cares, woes, want, grief, discontent, melancholy, large jointures, impositions, and lies!
Doctor Slop , like a son of a w⸺, as my father called him for it,—to exalt himself,—debased me to death,—and made ten thousand times more of Susannah’s accident, than there was any grounds for; so that in a week’s time, or less, it was in everybody’s mouth, That poor Master Shandy * * * * * * * * entirely.—And Fame , who loves to double everything,—in three days more, had sworn, positively she saw it,—and all the world, as usual, gave credit to her evidence⸺“That the nursery window had not only * * * * * * * * * * * * ;⸺but that * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *’s also.”
Could the world have been sued like a body-corporate ,—my father had brought an action upon the case, and trounced it sufficiently; but to fall foul of individuals about it⸺as every soul who had mentioned the affair, did it with the greatest pity imaginable;⸺’twas like flying in the very face of his best friends:⸺And yet to acquiesce under the report, in silence—was to acknowledge it openly,—at least in the opinion of one half of the world; and to make a bustle again, in contradicting it,—was to confirm it as strongly in the opinion of the other half.⸻
⸺Was ever poor devil of a country gentleman so hampered? said my father.
I would show him publickly, said my uncle Toby , at the market cross.
⸺’Twill have no effect, said my father.