Legend of Sleepy Hollow and Other Stories

by Washington Irving

  February, 1820.

  NOTES

  (A somewhat abridged and slightly modified version of the “Explanatory Notes” compiled by Haskell Springer, editor of The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent. (Boston: Twayne Publishers, 1978)—vol. VIII of The Complete Works of Washington Irving—and included in that volume, pp. 305- 39. Used with permission. Quotations and allusions that are unexplained in the notes have yet to be identified.)

  The numbers before all notes indicate page and line respectively. Chapter numbers, chapter or section titles, epigraphs, author’s chapter or section summaries, text quotations, and footnotes are included in the line count. Only running heads and rules added by the printer to separate the running head from the text are omitted from the count. The quotation from the text, to the left of the bracket, is the matter under discussion.

  epigraph “I have no wife....” Burton.] Robert Burton’s The Anatomy of Melancholy, 1621. The quotation is from the introductory section entitled “Democritus Junior to the Reader.”

  PREFACE TO THE REVISED EDITION

  5.5 ‘And for my love ...’] The Merchant of Venice, I, iii.

  5.10 crimp] To impress soldiers or seamen; hence, to entrap.

  5.29 Don Cossack] The Don Cossacks are so called because the river Don flows through their homeland in southwest Russia.

  6.23 John Bunyan’s Holy War] Published in 1682.

  6.30 Lockhart] John Gibson Lockhart (1794-1854), a contributor to Black-wood’s Edinburgh Magazine, who married Scott’s daughter, Sophia. His Life of Scott was published in 1838.

  6.36 “nigomancy”] A form of “necromancy,” not a slur on “Negro.”

  7.33 Sunnyside] In 1835 Irving bought twenty-four acres on the Hudson River near Tarrytown, and gradually remodeled the small cottage he found there into Sunnyside, a fine house of romantic architecture.

  THE AUTHOR’S ACCOUNT OF HIMSELF

  8.8 LYLY’s EUPHUES] John Lyly (1554-1606) published Euphues, The Anatomy of Wit in 1578, and Euphues and His England in 1580. “Euphuism” derives from the title of the book and describes its style.

  10.4-5 the cascade of Terni] The artificially created falls of the river Velino near the town of Terni in the Italian province of Perugia.

  THE VOYAGE

  11.12 OLD POEM] The fourth stanza of a song, “Halloo my fancie,” given in English Minstrelsy, 2d ed. (Edinburgh: Ballantyne & Co., 1810), vol. II, song 13.

  11.25-26 ‘a lengthening chain’] Oliver Goldsmith, The Traveller (1764), line 10.

  14.6 Deep called unto deep. ] “Deep calleth unto deep” (Ps. 42:7).

  ROSCOE

  16.1 ROSCOE] William Roscoe (1753-1831). His most important works are: The Life of Lorenzo de’Medici; and The Life and Pontificate of Leo the Tenth. Irving met him in 1815 when Roscoe was at the peak of his fame, and the two became well acquainted.

  16.7 THOMSON] James Thomson (1700-1748), wrote The Seasons and The Castle of Indolence. This quotation is from a tragedy, Sophonisba, II, i.

  16.9 the Athenaeum] Originally “the temple of Athena” at Athens, in which poets and learned men read their works. In modern times a literary and scientific club.

  17.3-4 stony places of the world] See Matt. 13:5.

  17:31 living streams of knowledge] See Cant. 4:15 and Rev. 7:17.

  17.31 “daily beauty in his life,”] Othello, V, i.

  18.3 Lorenzo De Medici] (1449-1492), called “il Magnifico”; Florentine statesman, patron of arts and letters, scholars, poet.

  18.42 *Address on the opening of the Liverpool Institution.] The Royal Institution. Roscoe was the prime mover behind its establishment in 1817. It was the central literary institution in Liverpool.

  19.22 ”... dispersed about the country”] Irving apparently did not know that Roscoe’s friends purchased £600 of his books at the sale, and offered them to him as a gift. He refused it, and they gave them to the Liverpool Athenaeum to form a “Roscoe Collection.”

  19.31-32 black letter] A heavy-faced type used in the earliest printed books.

  20.23 Pompey’s column at Alexandria] Erected in honor of the Emperor Diocletian in 302.

  THE WIFE

  22.8 MIDDLETON] Thomas Middleton (1570-1627), dramatist. The quotation is from Women, Beware Women, III, i.

  RIP VAN WINKLE

  Irving reportedly wrote “Rip Van Winkle” at great speed in June, 1818, at the home of his sister, Sarah Van Wart, in Birmingham. His immediate literary source was “Peter Klaus” in Otmar’s Volkssagen, but his own observation of Dutch families in New York, his reading from Riesbeck’s Travels Through Germany, and his interest in American and European folklore are also apparent in the story.

  28.13 a history of the province] Irving’s A History of New York... by Diedrich Knickerbocker.

  28.28 “... more in sorrow than in anger,”] Hamlet, I, ii.

  28.34 Waterloo medal] Issued by George IV as regent to every officer and soldier who took part in the actions of June 16, 17, and 18, 1815.

  28.34-35 Queen Anne’s farthing] These farthings were struck in 1713- 1714 on the recommendation of Jonathan Swift. They are falsely thought to be very rare.

  29.6 thylke] The, or that same.

  29.8 CARTWRIGHT] William Cartwright (1611-1643), clergyman, poet, and dramatist. The quotation is unidentified.

  29.28 Peter Stuyvesant] Governor of New Netherlands from 1647 to 1664.

  29.38 Fort Christina] See the History of New York, bk. 6, chap. 7.

  30.6 curtain lecture] “A reproof given by a wife to her husband in bed” (Johnson’s Dictionary).

  31.8 galligaskins] Loose breeches.

  34.23 hanger] A kind of short sword, originally hung from the belt.

  34.43 hollands] A gin manufactured in Holland.

  37.9-10 a red night cap] The Phrygian cap, worn by slaves freed by the Romans and later adopted as the symbol of liberty in the French Revolution.

  40.12 Hendrick Hudson] Henry Hudson (d. 1611) was English, not Dutch as Irving’s rendering of the name is meant to imply.

  41.23-24 emperor Frederick der Rothbart, and the Kypphauser mountain] Holy Roman Emperor Frederick I (1152-1190), also known as Frederick Barbarossa, sleeps, according to legend, in a cave of the Kyffhäuser mountain in central Germany. When Barbarossa’s red beard has thrice encircled the table at which he sleeps, he will awake and make Germany the preeminent state of the world.

  42.1 POSTSCRIPT] Irving added this section in 1848.

  ENGLISH WRITERS ON AMERICA

  43.6 ON THE LIBERTY OF THE PRESS] That is, Areopagitica (1644).

  48.21 Knowledge is power] (“Nam et ipsa scientia potestas est.”) The quotation is from Francis Bacon’s Essayes, Religious Meditations. Places of Perswasion and Disswasion (1597).

  RURAL LIFE IN ENGLAND

  50.5 COWPER] William Cowper (1731-1796); the quotation is from The Task, bk. III, lines 290-92; “pleasure” should be “leisure.”

  50.11 wakes] These were annual festivals to commemorate the completion of the parish church.

  53.28 “The Flower and the Leaf”] Dryden attributed it to Chaucer, but its authorship is still unknown.

  THE BROKEN HEART

  56.6 MIDDLETON] from Blurt, Master Constable, III, i.

  56.37-38 the wings of the morning] Ps. 139:9.

  56.38 “fly to the uttermost part of the earth, and be at rest.”] Pss. 139:10, 55:6.

  57.18 “dry sorrow drinks her blood,”] Romeo and Juliet, III, v, “Dry sorrow drinks our blood.”

  57.22 “darkness and the worm.”] “The deep damp vault, the darkness, and the worm” (Edward Young, Night Thoughts, Night IV, line 11).

  57.41 young E————] Robert Emmet (1778-1803) planned to capture Dublin Castle and the lord lieutenant; after his failure he was tried and hanged. He made moving speeches before being sentenced, and on the gallows.

  58.11-12 the daughter of a late celebrated Irish Barrister] Sarah, the youngest daughter of John Philpot Curran, a famous Irish lawyer and ju
dge.

  59.2 “heeded not the song of the charmer....”] “Which will not hearken to the voice of charmers, charming never so wisely” (Ps. 58:5).

  59.34 Moore] Thomas Moore (1779-1852). The poem, whose first line is also its title, is in Irish Melodies.

  THE ART OF BOOK MAKING

  61.2 Synesius] A bishop of Cyrene at the time of Theodosius the younger, ca. 375-413.

  62.23 “pure English undefiled”] The allusion is to Spenser, The Faerie Queen, bk. 2, canto 2, stanza 32: “Dan Chaucer, well of English undefiled,” but may also owe something to the Bible. See James 1:27: “Pure religion and undefiled....”

  63.1-2 line upon line, precept upon precept, here a little and there a little.] See Isa. 28:10.

  63.3-5 witches’ caldron ... “slab and good.”] Macbeth, IV, i, is the source for these lines, which are somewhat inaccurately quoted.

  64.22 “The Paradise of dainty Devices,”] (1576) A popular verse miscellany.

  64.36 an arcadian hat] Any rustic hat. Arcadia, a pastoral region in the Peloponnesus, is supposed to be typical of rural simplicity.

  64.38 Primrose hill] North of Regent’s Park, it commands a fine view of London.

  64.41 “babbling about green fields.”] Henry V, II, iii. Falstaff on his death-bed “babbled of green fields.”

  65.15 Beaumont and Fletcher] Francis Beaumont (ca. 1584-1616), and John Fletcher (1579-1625), Elizabethan dramatists chiefly noted for the plays they wrote together.

  65.15-16 Castor and Pollux] The Dioscuri or Twins. Perhaps the reference is to the battle of Lake Regillus (see Macaulay’s Lays of Ancient Rome).

  65.16 Ben Jonson] (1572-1637). The famous playwright and poet is supposed to have killed an enemy in single-handed combat while serving with the English army in the Netherlands.

  65.20 the dead body of Patroclus.] See the Iliad, bks. 16-18.

  65.28-29 “chopped bald shot.”] Henry IV, Part II, III, ii. Falstaff “O give me always a little, lean, old, chapt, bald shot.”

  65.31-32 learned Theban] King Lear, III, iv.

  A ROYAL POET

  67.25 Sir Peter Lely] (1618-1680), a Dutch artist; First Painter to Charles II.

  67.26 “large green courts,”] Surrey’s “Prisoned in Windsor, he recounteth his pleasure there passeth,” line 6.

  67.28-29 hapless Surrey] Henry Howard, earl of Surrey (ca. 1517-1547). He was beheaded on a charge of treason.

  67.30 the Lady Geraldine] The “Fair Geraldine” of Surrey’s poetry was apparently inspired by Lady Elizabeth Fitzgerald, but she was a child at the time, and the lady in the poetry is no doubt largely imaginary.

  67.31-32 “With eyes cast up....”] “Prisoned in Windsor ... ,” lines 7, 8.

  67.34 James the First] (1394-1437). He became king in 1406, and was assassinated on February 20 or 21, 1437. His widow, Joan Beaufort, a granddaughter of John of Gaul, had no difficulty bringing the murderers to justice. Irving’s picture of him, though romanticized, is, in historical detail, largely correct.

  68.41 °Buchanan] George Buchanan (1506-1582), Rerum Scotticarum Historia, bk. 10.

  68.42 †Ballenden’s Translation of Hector Boyce.] bk. 16, chap. 16. A free translation into the Scottish vernacular, by John Ballenden or Ballentyne (1533-1587), of a history of Scotland written in ancient Latin by Hector Bocce, or Boethius (1465-1536).

  69.22 Tasso in his dismal cell] The Italian poet (1544-1595) was confined for seven years in a hospital for lunatics because he offended the duke of Ferrara.

  69.40 †Roger l‘Estrange] This is stanza 11 of “Loyalty Confined,” found in David Lloyd’s Memoirsof Those that Suffered in the Cause of Charles I (London, 1668), and reprinted in Bishop Percy’s Reliques of Ancient English Poetry, vol. II, bk. 3, song 12. Percy attributes it to Sir Roger L’Estrange (1616-1704). His authorship of this song, though, has not been proven.

  70.17-18 “Cynthia rinsing....”] A very free translation.

  71.21-22 ... his perpetual blindness] See the sonnets “When I consider how my light is spent” and “Cyriac, this three years’ day”; see also Paradise Lost, bk. 3, lines 1-55.

  74.28 gilliflower] Used to designate any of several flowers, including the stock and clove pink.

  75.24 Gower] John Gower (ca. 1330-1408) wrote the Confessio Amantis.

  75.41-42 morning stars] “When the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy.” Job 38:7.

  76.1-2 captivating fiction] The allusion is to Sir Walter Scott.

  77.37 “Christ’s Kirk of the Green,”] Its authorship is uncertain.

  78.6 Vaucluse] Near Avignon, it was for many years the home of Petrarch.

  78.6-7 the shrine at Loretto] The Santa Casa at Loreto, Italy, according to tradition, is the house in which Mary had been born, brought up, and received the Annunciation. Because of threatened destruction by the Turks in the thirteenth century the building was supposedly carried away by angels and ultimately placed where it now stands.

  THE COUNTRY CHURCH

  79.6 BEGGAR’S BUSH] A comedy (1615-1622) by John Fletcher and Philip Massinger. The quotation is from II, iii.

  82.42 rapt out of sight in a whirlwind] See Elijah in 2 Kings 2:1.

  THE WIDOW AND HER SON

  83.4 MARLOWE’S TAMBURLAINE] The preceding passage is from part I, V, ii, in C. F. Tucker Brooke’s edition.

  83.14-15 Sweet day, so pure....] Lines 1 and 2 of “Virtue” in The Temple, by George Herbert (1593-1633).

  87.20-21 “that looked on his childhood,”] Unidentified.

  A SUNDAY IN LONDON

  89.40 *Part of a sketch....] The manuscript of this piece gives no clue about the “sketch” to which Irving refers. It apparently never became part of The Sketch Book.

  THE BOAR’S HEAD TAVERN, EAST CHEAP

  91.7 MOTHER BOMBIE] John Lyly’s last comedy.

  91.37 a great German critick] No doubt August Wilhelm von Schlegel, whose Lectures on Dramatic Art and Literature appeared in English in 1815.

  92.18-19 old Jack Falstaff.... ] Falstaff describes himself in these terms in Henry IV, Part I, II, iv.

  92.26 Dame Quickly] Hostess of the Boar’s Head Tavern. She appears in The Merry Wives of Windsor, both parts of Henry IV, and Henry V.

  92.32 haunted regions of Cock-lane] Alluding to the reported appearance of a ghost in a Cock Lane house in 1762. Samuel Johnson was instrumental in exposing the spirit as a fraud.

  92.33—34 Cateaton Street and Oly Jewry] Cateaton Street is now Gresham Street. The name “Old Jewry” derives from their Jewish quarter which existed there before the expulsion of the Jews from England in 1290.

  92.34—35 Guildhall and its two stunted Giants] The council hall of the city of London; its “giants” are large figures of Gog and Magog. (See Ezekiel 38-39, and Rev. 20:8. See also Caxton’s translation of the Recuyell of the Historyes of Troye [ca. 1474] for the mythical connection of Gog and Magog with the history of Britain.)

  92.36 London Stone] Probably a fragment of the great central milestone of the Romans, from which all distances were measured.

  92.37 Jack Cade] The leader of a rebellion in 1450, during the reign of Henry VI.

  92.41 old Stow] John Stowe, or Stow, historian and antiquary, published a Survey of London in 1598. It is our most valuable source book on medieval and Renaissance London.

  93.1 sawtrie] psaltry.

  93.22 the Monument] A stone column built by Sir Christopher Wren to commemorate the great fire of 1666.

  93.29-30 the great fire of London] It began on September 2, 1666, lasted five days, and virtually destroyed the city.

  94.15 Milton’s angels] The allusion is no doubt to Paradise Lost, bk. 2. lines 557-61: “Others apart sat on a Hill retir‘d, / In thoughts more elevate, and reason’d high / Of Providence, Foreknowledge, Will, and Fate, / Fixt Fate, Free will, Foreknowledge absolute, / And found no end, in wand’ring mazes lost.”

  94.29 Turenne] Henri Vicomte de Turenne (1611-1675); French general.

  94.
32-33 William Walworth ... Wat Tyler] Walworth, Mayor of London, in 1381 killed Wat Tyler, one of the leaders of a revolt, while Tyler was speaking to the King.

  94.35 Sovereigns of Cockney] Irving uses “Cockney” here to mean London. More exactly, it refers to someone born “within the sound of Bow Bells,” the bells of the church of St. Mary le Bow, Cheapside.

  95.15-16 the “mirre garland of captain Death”] Unidentified.

  95.16 sundry train-band captains] The train-bands or trained-bands were a militia established in 1327. They were discontinued in 1662, except for those of London, which were reorganized in 1794 as the City of London Militia.

  96.23 Miles Lane] A corruption of St. Michael’s Lane.

  96.25 “bully Rock”] Or “bully-rook,” now archaic. The Merry Wives of Windsor, I, iii; II, i. Bully-rock apparently means either (1) a jovial comrade or (2) a blustering gallant.

  98.3 the learned Scriblerius....] See Chapter 3 of Memoirs of the Extraordinary Life,Works and Discoveries of Martinus Scriblerus, a burlesque on pedantry, written by members of the Scriblerus Club which included Pope, Arbuthnot, Gay, and Swift. Published by Pope in 1741.

  98.14 Bardolph] He appears in Henry IV, parts 1 and 2, Henry V, and The Merry Wives of Windsor.

  98.42 IId.- Part. Henry IV.] II, i.

  99.18 a “tedious brief account] A Midsummer Night’s Dream, V, i.

  99.35 the far famed Portland vase. ] An ancient funeral urn, loaned in 1810 to the British Museum by the duke of Portland.

  THE MUTABILITY OF LITERATURE

  100.11 DRUMMOND OF HAWTHORNDEN] William Drummond of Hawthornden (1585-1649). The quotation (inaccurate in several places) consists of lines 1-3 and 5-8 of an untitled sonnet from his Poems (1616). The last line should read: “And that nought lighter is than airy praise.”