Legend of Sleepy Hollow and Other Writings (Barnes & Noble Classics Series) (71 page)

Followers.

Mythical hero of ancient Greece who possessed remarkable strength and the courage to accomplish any task.

Cool indifference; literally, “cold blood” (French).

Ornate speeches, such as those printed from engraved copper printing plates.

As in the slow, stately pace of the minuet.

That is, the conceited arrogance of young men.

A sweet alcoholic drink.

Or salmagundi: dish made up of an assortment of meats, eggs, and vegetables; a miscellany.

Face; shortened from “physiognomy.”

The title of a newspaper published in New York, the columns of which, among other miscellaneous topics, occasionally contained strictures on the performances at the theatres.—
Paris
Ed. [Irving’s note].

Fictional family whose exploits are depicted in subsequent numbers of
Salmagundi.

This sentence concludes with a list of the regular features and columns of
Salmagundi.

Flamboyant, ostentatious man.

That is, their colloquial expressions.

That is, an owl.

Coach drawn by four horses.

Stereotypical Englishman.

Greek lyric poet (c.518-c.438 B.C.).

Variant of “thingamajigs” or “what-do-you-call-them:”

Coastal sailing vessel.

Several Tripolitan prisoners, taken by an American squadron, in an action off Tripoli, were brought to New York, where they lived at large, objects of the curiosity and hospitality of the inhabitants, until an opportunity presented to restore them to their own country.—
Paris
Ed. [Irving’s note].
²

Or Muhammad (570?-632), prophet and founder of Islam, whose revelations are recorded in the Qur’an. In 1850 Irving published
Lives of Mahomet and His Successors,
a biography he worked on sporadically for years.

Beautiful young women who inhabit the Muslim paradise.

Harems. ‡A landscape in
The Citizen of the World; or, Letters from a Chinese Philosopher, Residing in London, to His Friends in the East
(1762), by English poet Oliver Goldsmith (letter 76, “The Preference of Grace to Beauty: An Allegory”).

Or dervishes; mendicant ascetics and religious teachers of Islam.

This is another allusion to the primitive habits of Mr. Jefferson [see endnote 4], who, even while the first magistrate of the Republic, and on occasions when a little of the “pomp and circumstance” of office would not have been incompatible with that situation, was accustomed to dress in the plainest garb, and when on horseback to be without an attendant; so that it not unfrequently happened that he might be seen, when the business of the state required his personal presence, riding up alone to the government house at Washington, and having tied his steed to the nearest post, proceed to transact the important business of the nation.—
Paris Ed.
[Irving’s note].

Possibly Abu al-Faraj Ali of Esfahan (897-967), Arabic scholar known for his
Kitab al-Aghani,
or Book of Songs.

Name given by Dutch colonizers to some of the native peoples of South Africa.

The rank of some Turkish officials was indicated by the number of horsetails tied to their standards.

Muhammad’s journey from his native city of Mecca to Medina in the year 622.

See endnote 4 to
Salmagundi.

Reference to the American Revolutionary War.

Flood described in the Bible, Genesis 7.

See the Bible, Numbers 22:21-35.

That is, a scholar from France who challenged the historical accuracy of the Bible.

Punishment in which the soles of one’s feet are beaten with a stick.

The sage Mustapha, when he wrote the above paragraph, had probably in his eye the following anecdote, related either by Linkum Fidelius, or Josephus Millerius, vulgarly called Joe Miller, of facetious memory.

The captain of a slave-vessel, on his first landing on the coast of Guinea, observed under a palm-tree a negro chief, sitting most majestically on a stump; while two women, with wooden spoons, were administering his favorite pottage of boiled rice; which, as his imperial majesty was a little greedy, would part of it escape the place of destination and run down his chin. The watchful attendants were particularly careful to intercept these scape-grace particles, and return them to their proper port of entry. As the captain approached, in order to admire this curious exhibition of royalty, the great chief clapped his hands to his sides, and saluted his visitor with the following pompous question—“Well, sir! what do they say of me in England?” [Irving’s note].

Pun on “intestate” (having no legal will).

Newsmongers, gossips.

In Greek mythology, the Titan who was condemned to hold the sky on his shoulders.

Or Ramadan, ninth month of the Islamic year, in which Muslims fast from dawn to dusk to commemorate the revelation of the Qur’an to Muhammad.

Celebration that occurs on the pilgrim route to Mecca.

Aesop’s fable “The Frog and the Ox.”

Small-minded and self-important; from English author Jonathan Swift’s satire
Gulliver’s Travels
(1726), in which Lemuel Gulliver is captured by the Lilliputians, a race of people who are only six inches tall.

Veteran soldiers who fought for the Continental army during the American Revolution.

Argument to the man (Latin); attacking the person giving an argument rather than attacking the argument itself.

Irving was named after George Washington (1732-1799), first president of the United States and commander-in-chief of the Continental army during the American Revolution.

Alexander III (356-323 B.C.), king of Macedon; he conquered much of Asia.

The Greek painter Zeuxis (fifth century B.C.) is said to have died from laughter caused by his viewing of the picture he had completed during a competition with Parrhasius to see who could paint a more realistic picture.

Quotation from
Euphues and His England
(1580), one book of a two-part work (with
The Anatomy of Wit,
1578) by English writer John Lyly; the term “euphuism” (referring to an elaborate and artificial writing style) is derived from Lyly’s style.

Profit from employment.

Parts unknown.

List of sites in Italy commonly visited by those making a “grand tour” of Europe.

From the anonymous poem “Halloo My Fancie,” found in
English Minstrelsy
(vol. 2, 1810), edited by Sir Walter Scott.

Quotation from “The Traveler; or, A Prospect of Society” (1764), by English poet Oliver Goldsmith (line 10).

Whale.

See the Bible, Psalms 42:7.

Quotation from the 1730 tragedy
Sophonisba
(act 2, scene 1), by Scottish poet and dramatist James Thomson.

Building that keeps books, periodicals, and such.

See endnote 6 to
The Sketch-Book.

Diligent attention to detail.

From Shakespeare’s
Othello, the Moor of Venice
(act 5, scene 1).

Italian merchant prince (1449-1492) who ruled in the city of Florence at the height of the Renaissance.

Address on the opening of the Liverpool Institution [Irving’s note].

See the Bible, Exodus 16.

Column erected in honor of the Roman emperor Diocletian to commemorate the conquest of Alexandria in A.D. 296.

This poem was first published in
Gentleman’s Magazine,
vol. 86 (1816).

From the 1625 tragedy
Women Beware Women,
by English dramatist Thomas Middleton (act 3, scene 2, lines 3-8).

Charles Robert Leslie (1794-1859), biographer and painter, who illustrated scenes from Irving’s A
History of New York.
This sketch, however, is based on events in the life of Washington Allston (see endnote 4 to The
Sketch-Book).

Fictional narrator of Irving’s A
History of New York.

Quotation from
The Ordinary
(1635), by English dramatist William Cartwright; Irving may have taken it from Sir Walter Scott’s 1816 novel The
Antiquary
(chapter 16).

Heavy, ornamental printing typeface.

That is, his hobbyhorse.

Waterloo Medals, issued to soldiers who had participated in various battles of the Napoleonic Wars, commemorated Napoleon’s final defeat at the Battle of Waterloo (June 18, 1815) by the Allies under English and Prussian generals Wellington and Blücher. Queen Anne farthings were issued only in 1714, during the last year of Queen Anne’s reign in Great Britain and Ireland, and were thought to be rare.

The last Dutch director-general of New Netherland (1646-1664); unpopular for his harsh leadership, he was forced to surrender the colony to Great Britain in 1664, when it was subsequently renamed New York.

Swedish settlement on the Delaware River; it was captured by the Dutch under Stuyvesant in 1655.

That is, one given behind the curtains, out of sight of neighbors.

Argumentative and nagging.

Loose-fitting breeches.

British king (1760-1820) against whom the colonists rebelled in the American Revolution.

Quarrelsome, shrewish woman.

Knapsack.

Small sailing ship.

Clergyman.

The Dutch established the settlement of New Amsterdam in 1625; its history is the subject of Irving’s
A History of New York.

Sweet-tasting gin produced by the Dutch.

Revelers.

Concerning marriage.

See footnote on p. 40.

The Battle of Bunker Hill (June 17, 1775) was one of the earliest of the American Revolution.

Like the confusion of tongues said to have followed the fall of the Tower of Babel; see the Bible, Genesis 11.

The two major political parties of the early Republic.

Derogatory term for an American who advocated allegiance to Great Britain during the American Revolution.

Or Anthony’s Nose; headland on the Hudson River near Peekskill.

Adriaen Van Der Donck ( 1620-1655?), Dutch lawyer and a colonist to America, whose
Description of the New Netherlands
was used as a promotional tract to encourage emigration to the colony.

Duplicate.