Tristram Shandy: Book 8: Chapters 22-28 Summary & Analysis

Chapter 22. There is no resisting fate, Trim warns. Then he continues his story. On Sunday, while the peasants are out, the Beguine nun comes in to see Trim, whose wound is much better. She asks to see it and offers to rub it. As she continues to rub his knee, and then moves her hands upward, Trim realizes he is in love. She rubs more and more intensely. At this point in Trim’s story, Toby interrupts before Trim can describe what happens next. Toby suggests that Trim grabbed the nun’s hand and kisses it before making a speech declaring his love. Tristram comments that what really happens next is irrelevant, as Toby’s description contains the timeless essence of romance.

Chapter 23. As soon as Trim finishes his story, widow Wadman leaves her garden and heads to Toby’s sentry box, seizing the opportunity to approach Toby while he is in a romantic state of mind. Toby orders Trim to clear the field, leaving him and widow Wadman alone. Tristram asks the reader to consider how futile it is to expect things to go according to plan, given the unpredictable nature of events. Widow Wadman cannot repeat her usual attack as the plan of Dunkirk hanging in the sentry box no longer corresponds to the bowling green, forcing her to improvise. 

Chapter 24. Widow Wadman tells Toby she has something stuck in her eye and asks him to look into it, squeezing onto the bench next to him. Toby innocently looks deep into her eyes, a rare thing, as he tends not to make eye contact. Tristram imagines Toby as Galileo looking at the sun as he looks in vain for whatever is stuck in widow Wadman’s eyes, and Tristram warns him that if he looks for a second longer he will be “undone.”

Chapter 25. Tristram argues that eyes are like cannons, insofar as it is their carriages that enable them to function. Tristram asks the reader to keep this in mind when considering widow Wadman’s eye. Toby says he cannot see anything in it, and she tells him to look into her pupil. Tristram claims that widow Wadman’s eyes were perfectly created to entrap Toby.

Chapter 26. Tristram claims that nothing distinguishes Toby and Walter’s characters more than their different responses to love. Walter was very passionate before marriage, raging against love and writing heartfelt rants full of swearing. Toby, by contrast, submits to love entirely but doesn’t act on his emotions. Toby also mistakes the sensation of love for other passions, as that same day he and Walter try to prevent a forest nearby from being chopped down for the poor. A footnote suggests Tristram must mean “the poor in spirit.”

Chapter 27. Toby, being unworldly, feels unashamedly chivalrous about his new romance, and he tells Trim that he is in love.

Chapter 28. Trim is surprised, as Toby was perfectly well two days earlier when he told the story of the king of Bohemia. Toby asks what ever happened to that story, but Trim says they lost it. Toby explains that widow Wadman has “left a ball” in his heart, and Trim excitedly says that she will not be able to run away or withstand a siege. Toby resolves to tell her politely first, however. Trim advises him to approach her passionately, arguing that widow Wadman cannot “[with]stand a siege,” and to be polite afterward.

Meanwhile, widow Wadman and Bridget have already been discussing the situation. Widow Wadman is worried that Toby’s wound to the groin will be an obstacle to their romance. Bridget suggests that she entice Trim to court her too, which he does. Trim proposes to Toby that they get out his best wig and his scarlet breeches. Toby prefers his red plush breeches, which Trim dismisses as “clumsy.”