How we cite our quotes:
Quote #7
It had ever been the custom of the family, and by length of time was almost become a matter of common right, that the eldest son of it should have free ingress, egress, and regress into foreign parts before marriage,—not only for the sake of bettering his own private parts, by the benefit of exercise and change of so much air—but simply for the mere delectation of his fancy (4.31.7)
One of the only people who seems to enjoy sex ("the mere delectation of his fancy") in Tristram Shandy is Bobby, Tristram's older brother who lives and dies offstage. The association between 'foreign parts' and fun sexy times shows up again, when Tristram remembers having a good time with a peasant named Nanette in the south of France.
Quote #8
What signifies it, brother Shandy, replied my uncle Toby, which of the two it is, provided it will but make a man marry, and love his wife, and get a few children. (8.33.2)
Like Walter, Toby thinks sex is for procreation. Ever the romantic, he also acknowledges that love has something to do with it. Of course, it's all abstract for Toby, who's never gotten close enough to a woman to test out his theories. One word, Toby: deodorant.
Quote #9
The more she rubbed, and the longer strokes she took—the more the fire kindled in my veins—till at length, by two or three strokes longer—than the rest—my passion rose to the highest pitch—I seized her hand— (8.22.17)
Welcome to one of the book's the most explicit passages. Trim is telling Toby how a young nun used to rub his leg, but, well, it seems a lot like she's rubbing something else. Notice, though, that Trim doesn't get to finish. Like every other sex act, it's coitus (or something) interruptus.