Legend of Sleepy Hollow and Other Writings (Barnes & Noble Classics Series) (73 page)

The whip-poor-will is a bird which is only heard at night. It receives its name from its note, which is thought to resemble those words [Irving’s note].

From “L’ Allegro” ( 1631 ), by English poet John Milton (line 140).

Boisterous, merrymaking.

Strong, flexible climbing shrub used to make walking sticks.

Greek hero of the
Iliad
who fought with Agamemnon over who would claim the captured girl Briseis.

Ruler used for punishing children.

Messenger of the gods in Roman mythology, traditionally represented as wearing a hat with wings.

Pancakes.

An olykoek is a traditional Dutch fried pastry.

Christian martyr (died c.303); Saint Vitus’s dance was a name for chorea, a neurological disease that causes involuntary muscular convulsions.

The American Revolution.

British officer (1751-1780) hanged as a spy during the American Revolution.

Court of small claims.

Closing the second volume of the London edition [Irving’s note].

Long attributed to Chaucer, this poem is in fact a translation by Sir Richard Ros of a poem by the fifteenth-century French writer Alain Chartier.

Praises.

From
The Jovial Crew; or, The Merry Beggars
(1641), by English dramatist Richard Brome.

See the Bible, Revelations 18:23.

Fortified inner tower, or dungeon.

Mirror for Magistrates
[Irving’s note]. See footnote on p. 113.

From Shakespeare’s
Hamlet, Prince of Denmark
(act 1, scene 1).

Card showing samples of their wares.

Overcoat.

A number of periodicals were published under the title
Ladies Magazine;
Irving probably had in mind the one edited by Oliver Goldsmith from 1759 to 1763.

Middle English for “named.”

Melancholy.

The
London Times
and the
Morning Chronicle
were the leading British newspapers in early-nineteenth-century England.

English political party that championed reform, in particular the limiting of royal authority.

Henry Hunt (1773-1835), English radical politician; with English journalist William Cobbett (1763-1835), he formed the Radical Reform Association, which advocated for such labor reform laws as a ten-hour day and an end to child labor.

Offense.

So called after English boxer James Belcher (1781-1811), who often wore a blue handkerchief with white spots. (See William Hazlitt’s essay “The Fight”)

Cocktail of hot water, wine, and lemon juice, sweetened and spiced.

Incognito.

From Shakespeare’s
The Winter’s Tale
(act 2, scene 1).

Or Tipu Sahib; sultan of Mysore (in southern India), who, aided by the French, fought against British colonization of India; he was defeated by General Wellesley at the city of Seringapatam in 1799.

Antiquitates vulgares
(1725), by English historian Henry Bourne; this quotation has not been located.

Manhattan, a borough of New York City.

Acacias [Irving’s note].

In Greek mythology, the Hesperides were nymphs who guarded a garden with a tree that bore golden apples.

See footnote on p. 424.

see footnote on p. 402.

From A
Tale of a Tub
(1633), by English poet Ben Jonson (act 3, scene 1, lines 67—74).

Edward Hyde, Lord Cornbury, royal governor of New York and New Jersey (1703—1708).

1705 [Irving’s noteJ.

Big and clumsy.

Tuberculosis.

Small covered pots used to hold ointments.

Robert Hunter, royal governor of New York and New Jersey (1710—1719); he brought the Palatines (German refugees) to New York to produce naval stores for England.

Mercenary soldiers from the Ukraine region.

Rabies.

Farmer (from the Dutch word
boer).

I will not, sir (Dutch and low German).

Jacob Leisler (c.1640-1691), known for leading Leisler’s Rebellion (1689), in which he deposed New York’s lieutenant governor, Francis Nicholson, and named himself governor; he was tried and executed after refusing to step down.

Candle made of the dried pith of a rush plant dipped in tallow.

Of the same age.

Calvinist manual (1563) used to instruct children in the Christian faith.

Hunting knife.

Landmarks along the Hudson River (subsequent references to such landmarks will not be annotated).

This must have been the bend at West Point [Irving’s note].

See footnote on p. 10.

Belt made of strings of beads or shells that were used for money by some Native Americans.

Small, schooner-rigged boat.

Provisions.

In Greek mythology, warriors under Achilles’ leadership in the Trojan War.

The song is unidentified.

Henricus Selyns (1636—1701), pastor of the Reformed Dutch Church of New York (his poems were included in H. C. Murphy’s
Anthology of New Netherland,
1865).

See footnote on p. 411.

Woman (Dutch).

Site of the fortifications that guarded the approach to New York’s harbor.

See “Rip Van Winkle” (p. 87).

See p. 454.

i.e.,
The “Thunder-Mountain,” so called from its echoes [Irving’s note].

Boundary line.

Among the superstitions which prevailed in the colonies, during the early times of the settlements, there seems to have been a singular one about phantom ships. The superstitious fancies of men are always apt to turn upon those objects which concern their daily occupations. The solitary ship, which, from year to year, came like a raven in the wilderness [see the Bible, 1 Kings 17:1-17], bringing to the inhabitants of a settlement the comforts of life from the world from which they were cut off, was apt to be present to their dreams, whether sleeping or waking. The accidental sight from shore of a sail gliding along the horizon in those as yet lonely seas, was apt to be a matter of much talk and speculation. There is mention made in one of the early New England writers of a ship navigated by witches, with a great horse that stood by the mainmast. I have met with another story, somewhere, of a ship that drove on shore, in fair, sunny, tranquil weather, with sails all set, and a table spread in the cabin, as if to regale a number of guests, yet not a living being on board. These phantom ships always sailed in the eye of the wind; or ploughed their way with great velocity, making the smooth sea foam before their bows, when not a breath of air was stirring.

Moore has finely wrought up one of these legends of the sea into a little tale [“Written on Passing Deadman’s Island in the Gulf of the St. Lawrence, Late in the Evening, September, 1804,” by Irish poet Sir Thomas Moore], which, within a small compass, contains the very essence of this species of supernatural fiction. I allude to his
Spectre Ship, bound to Deadman’s Isle
[Irving’s note].

Legendary substance said to change baser metals into gold.

See footnote on p. 37.

Sideboards.

Wealthy Dutch families whose descendants were recognized as the aristocracy of New York; American author Herman Melville’s mother was a Gansevoort.

“Sinbad, the Sailor” is one of the better-known stories from The Arabian Nights (see endnote 6 to
Bracebridge Hall).

See p. 447.

That is, planned.

Reckless.

Rascal.

One living off others.

Old female cat.

Former.

That is, what is got over the devil’s back is spent under his belly (squandered).

Social clubs.

Sudden fit of emotion; a stroke.

That is, the ablest teller of tall tales.

From Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Prince of Denmark (act 1, scene 5).

See the Bible, Genesis 23:4 (King James Version); compare also with the conclusion of Irving’s sketch “The Voyage” (p. 57).

Allusion to Shakespeare’s
Othello, the Moor of Venice
(act 5, scene 2).

From an article (said to be by Robert Southey, Esq.) published in the Quarterly Review. It is to be lamented that that publication should so often forget the generous text here given [Irving’s note]. Robert Southey (1774-1843) was an English poet and man of letters.

I love (German).

Moral fable.

Greek physician (c.460-c.377 B.C.) known as the father of medicine.

Pill.

From the 1624 play by English dramatist John Fletcher (act 2, scene 1).

The Great Unknown” is a nickname of Scottish author Sir Walter Scott. Scott published
Waverley
(1814),
Peveril
of the Peak (1822), and all of his other novels anonymously until 1827, generating much public speculation as to their authorship; his identity was an open secret by the time Irving published Tales
of a Traveller
(1824).

A great hunter; see the Bible, Genesis 10:8-9.

Liquor, usually a spiced ale or wine.

That is, to her limits.

Descendants of King Milesius, legendary Celtic invader of Ireland.

Emmanuel Swedenborg (1688-1772), Swedish scientist, anatomist, and mystic, whose theory of correspondences influenced the transcendentalist movement in America.

The French Revolution, which began in 1789.

La Sorbonne, the University of Paris.

Compare with the conclusion of Irving’s sketch “The Voyage” (p. 57).

Canopy over a four-poster bed.

Mythical reptile whose gaze kills its victims.

Broom.

In confusion.

Venice is the site of an annual carnival in which participants dress in masquerade.

Italian painter and poet (1615-1673), whose work was admired by members of the picturesque school (see endnote 4 to
The Sketch-Book).

Raphael (1483-1520), Titian (c.1485-1576), and Correggio (1490?-1534) were painters of the Italian High Renaissance.

Jesus is dead (Latin).

Proverbial for “sudden reversal.”

Breakwater piers.

Person who resolves problems of conscience with often specious reasoning.

See the Bible, Luke 15:11-32.

Pietro Metastasio (1698-1782), Italian poet and librettist.

See the Bible, Genesis 4:3-17.

From
The Jew of Malta
(c.1589), by English dramatist Christopher Marlowe (act 2, scene 1).

Drunkard.

See p. 403.

In book 12 of Homer’s
Odyssey,
the names given to a sea monster and a whirlpool that guard either side of a hazardous strait through which Odysseus must steer his ship.

Or Strait of Messina; channel dividing Sicily and Italy.

For a very interesting and authentic account of the devil and his stepping-stones, see the valuable Memoir read before the New York Historical Society, since the death of Mr. Knickerbocker, by his friend, an eminent jurist of the place [Irving’s note]. Mr. Knickerbocker’s “friend” is a reference to Egbert Benson, who presented his memoir to the New York Historical Society in 1816; see Collections
of the New York Historical Society,
second series (1848), vol. 2, pp. 28-148.