Ivanhoe: A Romance
[ This very curious poem, long a desideratum in Scottish literature,
and given up as irrecoverably lost, was lately brought to light by the
researches of Dr Irvine of the Advocates’ Library, and has been
reprinted by Mr David Laing, Edinburgh.]
3 (return)
[ Vol. ii. p. 167.]
4 (return)
[ Like the Hermit, the Shepherd makes havock amongst the King’s game;
but by means of a sling, not of a bow; like the Hermit, too, he has his
peculiar phrases of compotation, the sign and countersign being
Passelodion and Berafriend. One can scarce conceive what humour our
ancestors found in this species of gibberish; but “I warrant it proved
an excuse for the glass.”]
5 (return)
[ The author had revised this posthumous work of Mr Strutt. See General
Preface to the present edition, Vol I. p. 65.]
6 (return)
[ This anticipation proved but too true, as my learned correspondent
did not receive my letter until a twelvemonth after it was written. I
mention this circumstance, that a gentleman attached to the cause of
learning, who now holds the principal control of the post-office, may
consider whether by some mitigation of the present enormous rates, some
favour might not be shown to the correspondents of the principal
Literary and Antiquarian Societies. I understand, indeed, that this
experiment was once tried, but that the mail-coach having broke down
under the weight of packages addressed to members of the Society of
Antiquaries, it was relinquished as a hazardous experiment. Surely,
however it would be possible to build these vehicles in a form more
substantial, stronger in the perch, and broader in the wheels, so as to
support the weight of Antiquarian learning; when, if they should be
found to travel more slowly, they would be not the less agreeable to
quiet travellers like myself.—L. T.]
7 (return)
[ Mr Skene of Rubislaw is here intimated, to whose taste and skill the
author is indebted for a series of etchings, exhibiting the various
localities alluded to in these novels.]
8 (return)
[ Note A. The Ranger of the Forest, that cuts the fore-claws off our
dogs.]
9 (return)
[ Note B. Negro Slaves.]
11 (return)
[ The original has “Cnichts”, by which the Saxons seem to have
designated a class of military attendants, sometimes free, sometimes
bondsmen, but always ranking above an ordinary domestic, whether in the
royal household or in those of the aldermen and thanes. But the term
cnicht, now spelt knight, having been received into the English
language as equivalent to the Norman word chevalier, I have avoided
using it in its more ancient sense, to prevent confusion. L. T.]
12 (return)
[ Pillage.]
13 (return)
[ These were drinks used by the Saxons, as we are informed by Mr
Turner: Morat was made of honey flavoured with the juice of mulberries;
Pigment was a sweet and rich liquor, composed of wine highly spiced,
and sweetened also with honey; the other liquors need no explanation.
L. T.]
14 (return)
[ There was no language which the Normans more formally separated from
that of common life than the terms of the chase. The objects of their
pursuit, whether bird or animal, changed their name each year, and
there were a hundred conventional terms, to be ignorant of which was to
be without one of the distinguishing marks of a gentleman. The reader
may consult Dame Juliana Berners’ book on the subject. The origin of
this science was imputed to the celebrated Sir Tristrem, famous for his
tragic intrigue with the beautiful Ysolte. As the Normans reserved the
amusement of hunting strictly to themselves, the terms of this formal
jargon were all taken from the French language.]
15 (return)
[ In those days the Jews were subjected to an Exchequer, specially
dedicated to that purpose, and which laid them under the most
exorbitant impositions.—L. T.]
16 (return)
[ This sort of masquerade is supposed to have occasioned the
introduction of supporters into the science of heraldry.]
17 (return)
[ These lines are part of an unpublished poem, by Coleridge, whose Muse
so often tantalizes with fragments which indicate her powers, while the
manner in which she flings them from her betrays her caprice, yet whose
unfinished sketches display more talent than the laboured masterpieces
of others.]
18 (return)
[ This term of chivalry, transferred to the law, gives the phrase of
being attainted of treason.]
19 (return)
[ Presumption, insolence.]
20 (return)
[ “Beau-seant” was the name of the Templars’ banner, which was half
black, half white, to intimate, it is said, that they were candid and
fair towards Christians, but black and terrible towards infidels.]
21 (return)
[ There was nothing accounted so ignominious among the Saxons as to
merit this disgraceful epithet. Even William the Conqueror, hated as he
was by them, continued to draw a considerable army of Anglo-Saxons to
his standard, by threatening to stigmatize those who staid at home, as
nidering. Bartholinus, I think, mentions a similar phrase which had
like influence on the Danes. L. T.]
22 (return)
[ The Jolly Hermit.—All readers, however slightly acquainted with black
letter, must recognise in the Clerk of Copmanhurst, Friar Tuck, the
buxom Confessor of Robin Hood’s gang, the Curtal Friar of Fountain’s
Abbey.]
23 (return)
[ Note C. Minstrelsy.]
24 (return)
[ It may be proper to remind the reader, that the chorus of “derry
down” is supposed to be as ancient, not only as the times of the
Heptarchy, but as those of the Druids, and to have furnished the chorus
to the hymns of those venerable persons when they went to the wood to
gather mistletoe.]
25 (return)
[ A rere-supper was a night-meal, and sometimes signified a collation,
which was given at a late hour, after the regular supper had made its
appearance. L. T.]
26 (return)
[ Note D. Battle of Stamford.]
27 (return)
[ “Nota Bene.”—We by no means warrant the accuracy of this piece of
natural history, which we give on the authority of the Wardour MS. L.
T.]
28 (return)
[ Note E. The range of iron bars above that glowing charcoal]
29 (return)
[ Henry’s Hist. edit. 1805, vol. vii. p..146.]
30 (return)
[ I wish the Prior had also informed them when Niobe was sainted.
Probably during that enlightened period when “Pan to Moses lent his
pagan horn.” L. T.]
31 (return)
[ “Surquedy” and “outrecuidance”—insolence and presumption]
32 (return)
[ Mantelets were temporary and movable defences formed of planks, under
cover of which the assailants advanced to the attack of fortified
places of old. Pavisses were a species of large shields covering the
whole person, employed on the same occasions.]
33 (return)
[ The bolt was the arrow peculiarly fitted to the cross-bow, as that of
the long-bow was called a shaft. Hence the English proverb—“I will
either make a shaft or bolt of it,” signifying a determination to make
one use or other of the thing spoken of.]
34 (return)
[ The arblast was a cross-bow, the windlace the machine used in bending
that weapon, and the quarrell, so called from its square or
diamond-shaped head, was the bolt adapted to it.]
35 (return)
[ Note F. Heraldry]
36 (return)
[ Every Gothic castle and city had, beyond the outer-walls, a
fortification composed of palisades, called the barriers, which were
often the scene of severe skirmishes, as these must necessarily be
carried before the walls themselves could be approached. Many of those
valiant feats of arms which adorn the chivalrous pages of Froissart
took place at the barriers of besieged places.]
37 (return)
[ “Derring-do”—desperate courage.]
38 (return)
[ The author has some idea that this passage is imitated from the
appearance of Philidaspes, before the divine Mandane, when the city of
Babylon is on fire, and he proposes to carry her from the flames. But
the theft, if there be one, would be rather too severely punished by
the penance of searching for the original passage through the
interminable volumes of the Grand Cyrus.]
39 (return)
[ Note G. Ulrica’s Death Song]
40 (return)
[ Thrall and bondsman.]
41 (return)
[ A lawful freeman.]
42 (return)
[ The notes upon the bugle were anciently called mots, and are
distinguished in the old treatises on hunting, not by musical
characters, but by written words.]
421 (return)
[ Note H. Richard Cœur-de-Lion.]
43 (return)
[ A commissary is said to have received similar consolation from a
certain Commander-in-chief, to whom he complained that a general
officer had used some such threat towards him as that in the text.]
44 (return)
[ Borghs, or borrows, signifies pledges. Hence our word to borrow,
because we pledge ourselves to restore what is lent.]
45 (return)
[ “Dortour”, or dormitory.]
46 (return)
[ Note I. Hedge-Priests.]
47 (return)
[ Reginald Fitzurse, William de Tracy, Hugh de Morville, and Richard
Brito, were the gentlemen of Henry the Second’s household, who,
instigated by some passionate expressions of their sovereign, slew the
celebrated Thomas-a-Becket.]
48 (return)
[ The establishments of the Knight Templars were called Preceptories,
and the title of those who presided in the Order was Preceptor; as the
principal Knights of Saint John were termed Commanders, and their
houses Commanderies. But these terms were sometimes, it would seem,
used indiscriminately.]
49 (return)
[ In the ordinances of the Knights of the Temple, this phrase is
repeated in a variety of forms, and occurs in almost every chapter, as
if it were the signal-word of the Order; which may account for its
being so frequently put in the Grand Master’s mouth.]
50 (return)
[ See the 13th chapter of Leviticus.]
51 (return)
[ The edict which he quotes, is against communion with women of light
character.]
53 (return)
[ The reader is again referred to the Rules of the Poor Military
Brotherhood of the Temple, which occur in the Works of St Bernard. L.
T.]
54 (return)
[ “Essoine” signifies excuse, and here relates to the appellant’s
privilege of appearing by her champion, in excuse of her own person on
account of her sex.]
55 (return)
[ “Capul”, i.e. horse; in a more limited sense, work-horse.]
56 (return)
[ “Destrier”—war-horse.]
561 (return)
[ From the ballads of Robin Hood, we learn that this celebrated outlaw,
when in disguise, sometimes assumed the name of Locksley, from a
village where he was born, but where situated we are not distinctly
told.]
57 (return)
[ Note J. Castle of Coningsburgh.]
58 (return)
[ The crowth, or crowd, was a species of violin. The rote a sort of
guitar, or rather hurdy-gurdy, the strings of which were managed by a
wheel, from which the instrument took its name.]
581 (return)
[ Infamous.]
59 (return)
[ The resuscitation of Athelstane has been much criticised, as too
violent a breach of probability, even for a work of such fantastic
character. It was a “tour-de-force”, to which the author was compelled
to have recourse, by the vehement entreaties of his friend and printer,
who was inconsolable on the Saxon being conveyed to the tomb.]
60 (return)
[ Dissertation on Romance and Minstrelsy, prefixed to Ritson’s Ancient
Metrical Romances, p. clxxxvii.]
61 (return)
[ A “Tulchan” is a calf’s skin stuffed, and placed before a cow who has
lost its calf, to induce the animal to part with her milk. The
resemblance between such a Tulchan and a Bishop named to transmit the
temporalities of a benefice to some powerful patron, is easily
understood.]
62 (return)
[ Bannatyne’s Journal.]