Legend of Sleepy Hollow and Other Writings (Barnes & Noble Classics Series) (72 page)

Quotation from
Areopagitica
(1644), a prose work by English poet John Milton arguing for freedom of the press.

That is, democracy.

Legendary territory sought by European explorers of the Americas, said to be rich in gold and precious stones.

That is, hereditary class distinctions.

Not genuine; spurious.

Compare this with Irving’s characterization of America as a “logocracy” in Salmagundi, pp. 27 and 36.

Slander.

Common blood.

Quotation from
The Anatomy of Melancholy
(1621), by English clergyman Robert Burton (from the author’s preface, “Democritus Junior to the Reader”)

Walks.

Quotation from
The Faerie Queene
(1589-1596), by English poet Edmund Spenser (book 2, canto 2, stanza 32).

See the Bible, Isaiah 28:10 (King James Version).

Allusion to Shakespeare’s
Macbeth
(act 4, scene 1).

Street in London known for its old-clothes shops.

Popular verse miscellany published in 1576.

Also spelled Sydney; English Elizabethan poet and courtier (1554-1586), whose works include the sonnet cycle
Astrophel and Stella
and the unfinished prose romance
Arcadia.

That is, rustic or pastoral.

See Shakespeare’s
The Life of Henry the Fifth
(act 2, scene 1).

English dramatists Francis Beaumont (1584?-1616) and John Fletcher (1579-1625) collaborated on a number of plays, including
The Maides Tragedy, Phylaster,
and A
King and No King.

In Roman mythology, Castor and Pollux were the twin sons of Jupiter and Leyda (in Greek myth, Zeus and Leda).

English playwright and poet (1572-1637), perhaps the best known of Shakespeare’s contemporaries.

Figure of mischief and frivolity in the pantomime tradition, often dressed in parti-colored clothes.

Greek warrior in Homer’s
Iliad
who was killed by Hector at Troy, sparking Achilles’ outrage and grief (see books 16-18).

See Shakespeare’s
The First Part of Henry the Fourth
(act 3, scene 2).

See Shakespeare’s
King Lear
(act 3, scene 4).

Scottish poet William Drummond (1585-1649); Irving inaccurately quotes from a sonnet in his
Poems
(1616).

The Domesday Book contains the results of a survey ordered by William the Conqueror (King William I of England) in 1086 to verify tax revenues.

That is, Robert Grosseteste (c.1175-1253), bishop of Lincoln; he wrote numerous works on science, geometry, and optics as well as commentaries on Aristotle.

Or Gerald de Barri (c.1147-1223), Welsh clergyman and historian, perhaps best known for his history of the Norman conquest of Ireland.

Archdeacon and historian of early medieval England (c.1084-1155); Irving refers to his treatise
Epistola de Contemptu Mundi.

Latin poet (died c.1210), author of
De Bello Trojano,
and an epic, now lost, on the deeds of Richard I.
^‡
John Wallis is possibly a reference to the Oxford mathematician whose
A Treatise of Algebra Both Historical and Practical
(London, 1685) includes a history of mathematics in medieval England; English historian William of Malmesbury (c.1090-c.1143) was known for his history of English kings entitled
Gesta
regum
Anglorum;
Simeon (c.1060-1130) was a Benedictine monk and precentor of Durham Cathedral; Benedict (died 1193) was abbot of Peterborough; John Hanville of St. Albans (born c.1180) was a Dominican monk and archdeacon of Oxford.
^§
In Latin and French hath many soueraine wittes had great delyte to endite, and have many noble thinges fulfilde, but certes there ben some that speaken their poisye in French, of which speche the Frenchmen have as good a fantasye as we have in hearying of Frenchmen’s Englishe.—Chaucer’s
Testament of Love
[Irving’s note].
The Testament of Love
was actually written by English author Thomas Usk (died 1388) while he was incarcerated in Newgate Prison.

British printer (died c.1535) who succeeded William Caxton in 1491 to become the second printer in England.

Robert of Gloucester (flourished 1260-1300), author of a chronicle of England.

Holinshed, in his Chronicle, observes, “afterwards, also, by deligent travell of Geffry Chaucer and of John Gowre, in the time of Richard the Second, and after them of John Scogan and John Lydgate, monke of Berrie, our said toong was brought to an excellent passe, norwithstanding that it never came unto the type of perfection until the time of Queen Elizabeth, wherein John Jewell, Bishop of Sarum, John Fox, and sundrie learned and excellent writers, have fully accomplished the ornature of the same, to their great praise and immortal commendation” [Irving’s note].
¹⁴

See footnote on p. 102.

Xerxes I (c.519—465 B.C.), king of ancient Persia; the anecdote that follows is taken from the Greek historian Herodotus’
Histories
(7.44—46).

For Sir Philip Sydney, see footnote on p. 104. English poet Thomas Sackville (1536—1608) contributed to the collection
The Mirror for Magistrates
(1563) and is credited with its arrangement. John Lyly (see footnote on p. 49) is described as “unparalleled” in a collection of his plays published by Edward Blount in 1632.

Live ever sweete booke; the simple image of his gentle witt, and the golden-pillar of his noble courage; and ever notify unto the world that thy writer was the secretary of eloquence, the breath of the muses, the honey-bee of the daintyest flowers of witt and arte, the pith of morale and intellectual virtues, the arme of Bellona in the field, the tonge of Suada in the chamber, the sprite of Practise in esse, and the paragon of excellency in print.—
Harvey, Pierce’s Supererogation
[Irving’s note]. Gabriel Harvey (c.1550-1631 ) was an English poet and scholar.

Ben Jonson’s famous jibe against his rival Shakespeare—“Thou hadst small Latin, and less Greek”—is from his poem “To the Memory of My Beloved, the Author, Mr. William Shakespeare, and What He Hath Left Us.”

Excessive, or profuse.

Thorow earth and waters deepe,
The pen by skill doth passe:
And featly nyps the worldes abuse,
And shoes us in a glasse,
The vertu and the vice
Of every wight alyve;
The honey comb that bee doth make
Is not so sweet in hyve,
As are the golden leves
That drop from poet’s head!
Which doth surmount our common talke
As farre as dross doth lead.

Churchyard
[Irving’s note]. English writer Thomas Churchyard (c.1520-1604).

Quotation from Shakespeare’s
The First Part of Henry the Fourth
(act 3, scene 3).

The Golden Apple (French).

Meal served to guests at a fixed time and price.

Meerschaum (literally, “seafoam” in French); a claylike mineral used to make tobacco pipes.

The erudite reader, well versed in good-for-nothing lore, will perceive that the above Tale must have been suggested to the old Swiss by a little French anecdote, a circumstance said to have taken place at Paris [Irving’s note].

From
The History of Sir Eger, Sir Grahame, and Sir Gray-Steel
(1687), an early metrical romance; Irving’s source is unidentified.

i.
e., CAT’S-ELBOW. The name of a family of those parts very powerful in former times. The appellation, we are told, was given in compliment to a peerless dame of the family, celebrated for her fine arm [Irving’s note].

Das Heldenbuch,
or Book of Heroes, a collection of thirteenth-century German metrical romances.

Or Minnesingers; medieval German troubadours.

Chaperone, or governess.

Attention to ceremony or formality.

Wine from the Rhine region of Germany.

that is, old, tainted wine.

One of the largest wine vats in the world, the Heidelburg Tun, found in the castle at Heidelberg, Germany, held approximately 58,000 gallons.

Revel and riot.

Famous German wine.

“Lenore,” a ballad by German poet Gottfried August Burger (1747-1794), is one of Irving’s sources for “The Spectre Bridegroom.”

Version of a speech given in 1774 by Native American Mingo chief Logan after his family was massacred by white settlers; various versions of Logan’s speech—often published under the title “Logan’s Lament”—were written by white Americans during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries to exemplify the noble sentiments of the “savage.”

The American government has been indefatigable in its exertions to ameliorate the situation of the Indians, and to introduce among them the arts of civilization, and civil and religious knowledge. To protect them from the frauds of the white traders, no purchase of land from them by individuals is permitted; nor is any person allowed to receive lands from them as a present, without the express sanction of government. These precautions are strictly enforced [Irving’s note].

Thomas Morton (c.1579-1647), who established the colony at Merry Mount (now Quincy, Massachusetts); Irving quotes from his
New English Canaan
(book 1).

Morton’s
New English Canaan
(book 1, “Of a Vision and a Battle”).

Souls.

See Shakespeare’s
Othello, the Moor of Venice
(act 3, scene 3).

Abusive language.

Reference to
A Narrative of the Troubles with the Indians in New England
(1677), by William Hubbard.

Backless chairs with curved legs, reserved for Roman civil magistrates.

These words are attributed to Tenskwatawa, the Shawnee shaman and brother of Chief Tecumseh.

From
Gertrude of Wyoming
(1809), by British poet Thomas Campbell (part 1, stanza 23, lines 4-9).

While correcting the proof sheets of this article, the author is informed that a celebrated English poet has nearly finished an heroic poem on the story of Philip of Pokanoket [Irving’s note]. The poet Irving refers to is Robert Southey (1774-1843), English poet laureate, who in 1837 published “Oliver Newman, A New England Tale,” which is set in the events surrounding King Philip’s War.

Now Bristol, Rhode Island [Irving’s note].

The Rev. Increase Mather’s History [Irving’s note]. This and subsequent passages are taken from
A Brief History of the War with the Indians
(1676), by American Puritan clergyman Increase Mather.

Omnipresence.

MS. of the Rev. W. Ruggles [Irving’s note]. Possibly the Rev. Thomas Ruggles, Jr., who wrote a history of Guilford, Connecticut, in 1763.

Shell beads used by some Native Americans as money.

See the discussion that begins on page xxiii of the Introduction.

From
The Castle of Indolence
( 1748), by Scottish poet and dramatist James Thomson (canto 1, stanza 6, lines 1-4).
^‡
Patron saint of travelers and sailors and of all those in distress.

See endnote 9 to
The Sketch-Book.

Allusion to Shakespeare’s
King Lear
(act 3, scene 4).

German mercenary soldier who fought on the side of the British in the American Revolution.

Long, thin, and hooked, like the bills of certain shorebirds known as snipe.

Embodiment.

Slender, flexible twig.

Studying.

See the Bible, Proverbs 13:24: “He that spareth his rod hateth his son: but he that loveth him chasteneth him betimes” (King James Version).

This phrase comes from the illustration of the letter L in the
New England Primer
(c.1683), a spelling book.

Puritan clergyman Cotton Mather (1663-1728), the son of Increase Mather (see footnote on p. 152), participated in the Salem witch trials and wrote a number of works concerning witchcraft, including
Memorable Providences, Relating to Witchcrafts and Possessions
(1689) and
The Wonders of the Invisible World
(1693).