The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and Other Wr - Washington Irving [241]
11 (p. 91) English Writers on America: In this sketch, Irving responds to condemnations of American culture in the British press, dismissing such criticism as little more than “cobwebs woven round the limbs of an infant giant” (p. 94). But while he proclaims the “national power and glory” of America (p. 94), Irving also writes to appease his British readers, insisting that there is still a “kindred tie” between the nations (p. 97). He concludes by instructing his American readers to view English cultural history as “a perpetual volume of reference” because “the spirit of her constitution [and] ... the manners of her people are ... all congenial to the American character” (p. 99).
12 (p. 100) The Art of Book-Making: This sketch continues the theme introduced in “English Writers on America” insofar as it suggests that all authors possess a “pilfering disposition” that leads them to borrow their ideas and even their style from earlier writers (p. 102). Irving is casting a sly wink here at his own method of borrowing: Because he does not have “a card of admission” to the library, he is “convicted of being an arrant poacher” (p. 106). This is also a veiled allusion that associates Irving with William Shakespeare, who, according to legend, was arrested for poaching deer from the estate of Sir Thomas Lucy. Shakespeare was also known to have borrowed extensively from sources such as Chronicles of England, Scotland, and Ireland (1577), by English chronicler Raphael Holinshed.
13 (p. 107) The Mutability of Literature: In “The Mutability of Literature” Irving continues to engage the problem that the English literary tradition poses for American writers. Crayon’s conversation with a dusty old quarto shows the vast majority of English books to be lost in obscurity. The only way to stave off such neglect is to “root [oneself] in the unchanging principles of human nature,” as Shakespeare did (p. 115). American writers can achieve the greatness of a Shakespeare so long as they “write from the heart” (p. 116). Herman Melville took up this idea of an American Shakespeare in his review of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s 1846 collection of short stories Mosses from an Old Manse. (The review, “Hawthorne and His Mosses,” appeared in The Literary World in August 1850.)
14 (p. 112) “afterwards, also, by deligent travell of Geffry Chaucer and of John Gowre ... their great praise and immortal commendation” [Irving’s note]: This is a quotation from Holinshed’s Chronicles of England, Scotland, and Ireland (see note 12, above), which Shakespeare and other Elizabethan dramatists used as a source for several of their works. In this passage, Holinshed traces the development of the literary style of Elizabethan England. He lists: Geoffrey Chaucer (c.1340-1400), English poet and author of The Canterbury Tales; John Gower (1330?-1408), English poet and a friend of Chaucer; Richard II (1367-1400), king of England; John Scogan (c.1480), court jester to Edward IV, although there may be some confusion here with Henry Scogan (1361-1407), a poet and a friend of Chaucer; John Lydgate (1370?-1449?), English author and translator who is credited with keeping the Chaucerian poetic tradition alive; Elizabeth I (1533-1603), queen of England during the height of the Renaissance; John Jewel ( 1522-1571 ), bishop of Sarum (Salisbury) and author of Apologia ecclesiae Anglicanae (1562; An Apology of the Church of England); and John Foxe (1516-1587), English clergyman and author of Book of Martyrs (1559).
15 (p. 118) The Inn Kitchen: “The Inn Kitchen” provides the frame-narrative for the subsequent story, “The Spectre Bridegroom”; this is a narrative technique Irving used extensively in Bracebridge Hall (1822) and Tales of a Traveller (1824).
16 (p. 120) The Spectre Bridegroom: “The Spectre Bridegroom” shows the influence of German folklore and Gothic romanticism on Irving’s stories, subjects he studied with the encouragement of Scottish author Sir Walter Scott (1771-1832), whom he met during the summer of 1817 (see the Introduction, p. xxiv).
17 (p. 135)