Your readers are familiar with the incident in Tristram Shandy, where the Abbess and Margarita, having occasion to make use of two very coarse and indecent expressions, resort to the ludicrous expedient of splitting them in two, each pronouncing a separate syllable. Those words are scandalously common in the mouths of Frenchmen; and yet Sterne seems so little aware of the correct spelling of them, that he makes the poor nuns give utterance to two words, one of which, "bouger," means "to move," and the other, "fouter," is unknown to the French language.
Farther on, in chapter xxxiv., the commissary employs the expression "C'est tout égal;" but this is merely the translation of our English phrase "'Tis all one." The French say "C'est égal," but never "C'est tout égal."
In the Sentimental Journey, under the head of "The Bidet," La Fleur is made to say "C'est un cheval le plus opiniâtre du monde." Now, the man who could write the Drummer's Letter would not have applied the epithet "opiniâtre" to a horse; and, at any rate, he would have said "C'est le cheval le plus opiniâtre du monde."
In the chapter headed "The Passport," and also in another place, we have the phrase "Ces Messieurs Anglais sont des gens très extraordinaires." This should be "Messieurs les Anglais," &c.
Again, under the head of "Characters," Count de B. says, "But if you do support it, M. Anglais, you must do it with all your powers." This "M. Anglais" is our "Mr. Englishman." The correct expression is "M. l'Anglais"—Mr. the Englishman.
I might add other instances; but these, I trust, are sufficient to warrant the opinion that the Drummer's Letter, in its present shape, was not written by Sterne.
Henry H. Breen.
St. Lucia.