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Traits of Indian Character: In “Traits of Indian Character,” Irving participates in the construction of the myth of “the noble savage,” a figure to be used in the development of a uniquely American literary culture. He presents the Native American warriors as figures comparable to the “knights-errant” of Arthurian legend (p. 142), and predicts that “if ... some dubious memorial of them should survive, it may be in the romantic dreams of the poet, to people in imagination his glades and groves, like the fauns and satyrs and sylvan deities of antiquity” (p. 145). Although Irving may have had in mind poetry such as “Gertrude of Wyoming” (1809), by British poet Thomas Campbell, the heroic type he describes (p. 142) was perhaps most fully realized by James Fenimore Cooper in his depiction of Chingachgook, the Mohican warrior and companion of Natty Bumppo in The Leatherstocking Tales (1823-1841).

18 (p. 146) Philip of Pokanoket: Philip of Pokanoket (1639?-1676), also known as King Philip, was chief of the Wampanoag tribe and the son of Massasoit, who signed a treaty with the Pilgrims at Plymouth in 1621. In this sketch, Irving continues the theme of “Traits of Indian Character,” presenting Philip as a figure representative of the classical ideal of heroic virtue. The character traits Irving attributes to Philip are those of American individualism as represented in the mythic figure of the frontiersman inspired by the likes of Daniel Boone and Davy Crocket. That Irving imagines these character traits to be attributes of American national identity is suggested in his conclusion to the sketch, which presents King Philip as “a patriot attached to his native soil” with “an untamable love of natural liberty” (p. 161).

19 (p. 162) The Legend of Sleepy Hollow: Along with “Rip Van Winkle,” this is one of Irving’s best-known stories. However, it is the setting, rather than the competition between Ichabod Crane and Brom Bones for the hand of Katrina Van Tassel, that makes this story important. Irving describes Sleepy Hollow as a timeless space for romantic fiction, “a retreat, whither I might steal from the world and its distractions, and dream quietly away the remnant of a troubled life” (p. 163).

Bracebridge Hall

1 (p. 197) Bracebridge Hall: Published in 1822, Bracebridge Hall is the immediate successor of The Sketch-Book and in some ways a continuation of it. The Sketch-Book contains a series of sketches (not included in this edition) describing the Christmas festivities at Bracebridge Hall, a fictional English manor based on Irving’s visit to Aston Hall in Birmingham and on the hospitality he enjoyed at Abbotsford, in Scotland, while staying with Sir Walter Scott. This section of The Sketch-Book was popular with his English audience, and in a conscious effort to appeal to that readership, Irving took Bracebridge Hall as the setting for his second book of sketches and stories.

2 (p. 202) Story-Telling: This sketch serves as the frame-narrative (see note 15 above) for “The Stout Gentleman,” which follows. The narrator Irving introduces here, “a thin, pale, weazen-faced man, extremely nervous” (p. 202), is one he later uses to narrate the first part of Tales of a Traveller (1824), “Strange Stories By a Nervous Gentleman ”

3 (p. 202) the current of anecdotes and stories ... that have ... filled the world with doubts and conjecture; such as the Wandering Jew, the Man with the Iron Mask, ... the Invisible Girl, and ... the Pig-faced Lady: This is a list of legendary stories. In medieval myth, the Wandering Jew is an Israelite who mocks Christ at the crucifixion and is cursed to wander the earth alone until the Day of Judgment. The mysterious, unidentified French prisoner known as the “Man with the Iron Mask” was imprisoned from 1679 until his death in 1707, some of that time in the Bastille. The Invisible Girl probably refers to the poem “To the Invisible Girl,” by English poet Thomas Hood (1799-1845), which is included in English Minstrelsy (vol. 2, 1810), edited by Sir Walter Scott. The Pig-faced Lady is a folk story, popular in Europe