At this point, Tristram is supposed to begin telling us how he was born, but we aren't the wiser about that after these seven chapters. Still, he has asked us to be patient with him as he tells his story in his own way. The midwife and her license are the excuse for introducing the following: Parson Yorick, his character and his troubles; hobby-horses; a misplaced Dedication; the midwife herself, who will eventually assist at the birth of Tristram; and the joke of "Alas, poor Yorick!"
Parson Yorick, one of the major characters of the book, has been seen as a portrait of Sterne himself; the malice directed against Yorick is reminiscent of the personal and political difficulties that Sterne had with some of the important people in church politics in York. The jester in Yorick is in fact very much like the jester in Laurence Sterne, but that biographical information plays no significant part in the construction of the book and we are free to ignore it.
Hobby-horses, introduced quite casually, are the backbone of Tristram Shandy. First, we begin to see that Tristram is treating his writing as a hobby: he does it just the way he wants to, and it gives him a lot of enjoyment. Second, everyone of importance in the book has a hobby, and the hobbies are a greater part of their character than is anything else.
