Legend of Sleepy Hollow and Other Stories (54 page)

“Faith, sir,” replied the story teller, “as to that matter, I don't believe one half of it myself.” D.K.

Go, little booke, God send thee good passage,
And specially let this be thy prayere,
Unto them all that thee will read or hear,
Where thou art wrong, after their help to call,
Thee to correct in any part or all.

CHAUCER'S
Belle Dame sans Mercie.

 

In concluding a second volume of the Sketch Book, the Author cannot but express his deep sense of the indulgence with which his first has been received, and of the liberal disposition that has been evinced to treat him with kindness as a stranger. Even the critics, whatever may be said of them by others, he has found to be a singularly gentle and good natured race: it is true that each has in turn objected to some one or two articles,—and that these individual exceptions, taken in the aggregate, would amount almost to a total condemnation of his work; but then he has been consoled by observing, that what one has particularly censured, another has as particularly praised; and thus, the encomiums being set off against the objections, he finds his work, upon the whole, commended far beyond its deserts.

He is aware that he runs a risk of forfeiting much of this kind favour by not following the counsel that has been liberally bestowed upon him; for where abundance of valuable advice is given gratis, it may seem a man's own fault if he should go astray. He can only say, in his vindication, that he faithfully determined, for a time, to govern himself in his second volume by the opinions passed upon his first; but he was soon brought to a stand by the contrariety of excellent counsel. One kindly advised him to avoid the ludicrous; another to shun the pathetic; a third assured him that he was tolerable at description, but cautioned him to leave narrative alone; while a fourth declared that he had a very pretty knack at turning a story, and was really entertaining when in a pensive mood, but was grievously mistaken if he imagined himself to possess a spirit of humour.

Thus perplexed by the advice of his friends, who each in turn closed some particular path, but left him all the world beside to range in, he found that to follow all their counsels would, in fact, be to stand still. He remained for a time sadly embarrassed; when, all at once, the thought struck him to ramble on even as he had begun: that his work being miscellaneous, and written for different humours, it could not be expected that any one would be pleased with the whole; but that if it should contain something to suit each reader, his end would be completely answered. Few guests sit down to a varied table with an equal appetite for every dish. One has an elegant horror of a roasted pig; another holds a curry or a devil in utter abomination; a third cannot tolerate the ancient flavour of venison and wild fowl; and a fourth, of truly masculine stomach, looks with sovereign contempt on those knick-knacks, here and there dished up for the ladies. Thus each article is condemned in its turn; and yet, amidst this variety of appetites, seldom does a dish go away from the table without being tasted and relished by some one or other of the guests.

With these considerations he ventures to serve up this second volume in the same heterogeneous way with his first; simply requesting the reader, if he should find here and there something to please him, to rest assured that it was written expressly for intelligent readers like himself; but intreating him, should he find any thing to dislike, to tolerate it, as one of those articles which the author has been obliged to write for readers of a less refined taste.

To be serious.-The author is conscious of the numerous faults and imperfections of his work; and well aware how little he is disciplined and accomplished in the arts of authorship. His deficiencies are also increased by a diffidence arising from his peculiar situation. He finds himself writing in a strange land, and appearing before a public which he has been accustomed, from childhood, to regard with the highest feelings of awe and reverence. He is full of solicitude to deserve their approbation, yet finds that very solicitude continually embarrassing his powers, and depriving him of that ease and confidence which are necessary to successful exertion. Still the kindness with which he is treated encourages him to go on, hoping that in time he may acquire a steadier footing; and thus he proceeds, half venturing, half shrinking, surprized at his own good fortune, and wondering at his own temerity.

[This “Prospectus” introduced
Sketch Book
Number I in the first three American editions. ]

 

 

 

 

The following writings are published on experiment; should they please they may be followed by others. The writer will have to contend with some disadvantages. He is unsettled in his abode, subject to interruptions, and has his share of cares and vicissitudes. He cannot therefore promise a regular plan, nor regular periods of publication. Should he be encouraged to proceed, much time may elapse between the appearance of his numbers; and their size must depend on the materials he has on hand. His writings will partake of the fluctuations of his own thoughts and feelings; sometimes treating of scenes before him; sometimes of other purely imaginary, and sometimes wandering back with his recollections to his native country. He will not be able to give them that tranquil attention necessary to finished composition, and as they must be transmitted across the Atlantic for publication, he must trust to others to correct the frequent errors of the press. Should his writings, however, with all their imperfections, be well received, he cannot conceal that it would be a source of the purest gratification; for though he does not aspire to those high honours that are the rewards of loftier intellects; yet it is the dearest wish of his heart to have a secure, and cherished, though humble, corner in the good opinions and kind feelings of his countrymen.

London, 1819

[This “Advertisement” was printed at the beginning of Volume I of the first British edition, 1820, and continued to introduce The Sketch Book until replaced by the “Preface to the Revised Edition” in 1848.

 

 

 

 

The following desultory papers are part of a series written in this country, but published in America. The author is aware of the austerity with which the writings of his countrymen have hitherto been treated by British critics: he is conscious, too, that much of the contents of his papers can be interesting only in the eyes of American readers. It was not his intention, therefore, to have them reprinted in this country. He has, however, observed several of them from time to time inserted in periodical works of merit, and has understood that it was probable they would be republished in a collective form. He has been induced, therefore, to revise and bring them forward himself, that they may at least come correctly before the public. Should they be deemed of sufficient importance to attract the attention of critics, he solicits for them that courtesy and candour which a stranger has some right to claim, who presents himself at the threshold of a hospitable nation.

 

February,
1820.

(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.”

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.

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.

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).

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.

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

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.