son's Idylls of the King (1859-85), based largely on Malory. The "san-grael," or "holy-grail," was, according to the old legend, the cup which Jesus used at the last supper. Many knights rode in quest of it, but it could be recovered only by one who was pure in thought, word, and deed.

132-33. Parcel-gilt: part-gilt, or gilt on the embossed portions. The quotation is from ii., i., 78–84.

133-25. "Tedious brief": A Midsummer Night's Dream, iv., i., 56. 134-8. The shield of Achilles: made by the god Hephaistos (Vulcan), and by him ornamented with beautiful and intricate designs, which were described at length in the eighteenth book of the Iliad, a passage which scholars have never wearied in discussing. The far-famed Portland vase: a famous antique glass vase, belonging to the Duke of Portland, now in the British Museum. There has been much discussion as to the meaning of the reliefs on it.

MUTABILITY OF LITERATURE

135-5. Sprite: spirit.

135-15. Westminster School: a noted preparatory school, estab lished in Westminster Abbey by Henry VIII., and reëstablished by Elizabeth.

135-24. Vergers: officers who have charge of the interiors of church-buildings.

135-27. Chapter-house: a house in which the chapter (or body of officers connected with a cathedral church) meet for the transaction of business. In this case the chapter-house is close to the south transept. The room which Irving describes as the library is evidently the so-called muniment room, in which are now kept the archives of the church.

135-28. Doomsday book: the chapter-house of Westminster was long used as a depository of public records, among which was apparently kept the precious doomsday book, so-called, in which William the Conqueror had caused to be entered the record of ownership of lands and similar tacts of importance.

137-18. Quarto: in printing books, the size of the page is determined by the number of times a sheet of paper (of standard dimensions) is folded; thus, folio means that the original sheet has been folded once; quarto (4to), that it has been folded twice; octavo (8vo), three times, etc.

139-5. Your contemporaries: it is unnecessary for the young student to know more than Irving says here with regard to these forgotten worthies-great English scholars of the Middle Ages.

139-37ff. Soueraine wittes: sovereign wits (intellects); certes, certainly; ben: are; fantasye: idea, notion.

140-1. Wynkyn de Worde: an early printer who went to England as an assistant of Caxton (the first English printer); in 1491, he succeeded to Caxton's business.

140-2. When the language had become fixed. The poor book thought that the language of his time would be eternal. It seemed to him perfect in comparison with that of the slightly more antique period to which Irving had referred.

140-17. "Well of pure English": see note, 84-13.

140-34ff. Travell: travail, labor; passe: pass, state; ornature: ornamentation, enrichment.

141-13. Runic inscriptions: inscriptions in the runes (or characters) of certain primitive alphabets. Such alphabets were used by the early Goths, Angles, and Scandinavians. Irving perhaps had in mind the cuneiform inscriptions in Persia, though these are not written in runes.

141-18. Xerxes: the Persian king who tried in vain, with his enormous host, to conquer the Greeks.

141-25ff. "Arcadia": an Elizabethan prose romance of shepherds and shepherdesses, published in 1590.-Sackville: part-author of Gorboduc (1565), the first tragedy in English literature." Mirror for Magistrates:" a compilation of poems, first issued in 1559; it contained nineteen metrical tragedies; the part contributed by Sackville outweighs all the rest in value.-John Lyly: an Elizabethan dramatist, a predecessor of Shakespeare, and author also of the famous prose romance Euphues (1579, 1580). The high-flown, artificial style of this romance has given the name "Euphuism" to all affected elegance of diction, such as characterized the court speech of Elizabeth's reign.

142-35. Bellona: war; Suada, persuasion; esse: ease.

143-27. Checks on population: Irving undoubtedly refers to the famous theory of the English economist, Thomas Malthus, according to which population increases more rapidly than the means of subsistence; hence, crime and vice are "salutary," in that they furnish necessary checks to the growth of the population.

144-6. Little of Latin, etc.: the oft-quoted remark of Ben Jonson, in his lines prefacing the First Folio (1623) of Shakespeare's plays. The deer-stealing tradition is now proved to have no foundation in fact.

145-23. The setting may be antiquated: the attempts to modernize Chaucer, of which Dryden's is the most notable, have signally failed.

145-34ff. Thorow: through; featly: dexterously, neatly; shoes: shows; glass: mirror; drosse: gold.

RURAL FUNERALS

147-3. Fitt'st, fittest; strow, strew.

147-25. Larded, interlarded, interspersed; love showers: showers of tears.-The stanza is taken from Hamlet, iv., v., 35.

148-21. Thus, thus, etc.: the second stanza of Herrick's Dirge of Jepthah's Daughter, in Noble Numbers. Robert Herrick (15911674), one of Irving's favorite poets, wrote some of the most de lightful lyrics in the English language.

149-19. Corse: corpse; the passage is from act i., sc. i.

149-24. John Evelyn (1620-1706), author of one of the most notable English diaries; it covers the years 1641-97, but was not printed until the year before The Sketch-Book. Sylva, a more or less scientific treatise on the trees of England, was published in 1664. 150-14. Umbratile: unreal, visionary.

152-15. "Lay her i' the earth," etc.: from Hamlet, v., i., 262.

152-23. Sleep in thy peace, etc. These are the 11th and 13th stanzas; the 2d was quoted on page 148.-Wonted: customary, regular.

153-9. With fairest flowers, etc.: Cymbeline, iv., ii., 283.

153–22. Conceits: in literature, conceits are extravagant and farfetched figures of speech.

153-27. In proportion as people grow polite, etc.: for a remarkable defense of this idea, see Macaulay's essay on Milton.

153-37. Jeremy Taylor: an English bishop and celebrated theological writer (1613-67); his best-known works are Holy Living and Holy Dying.

154-9. Passing bell: a funeral bell which tolls at, or near, the time of death.

154-26. Each lonely place, etc.: a slight misquotation of the last stanza of Collins's Dirge in Cymbeline.

156-24. But the grave of those we loved, etc.: Irving is here reminiscent. Ten years before writing this piece, while he was at work on his Knickerbocker's History of New York, he had attended the funeral of his own betrothed, Matilda Hoffman, who had died of consumption. Her death was a profound shock to the impressionable young Irving, and he remained unmarried to the end of his life, out of devotion to her memory. The hilarious and, at times, almost boisterous abandon of humor which so strongly characterized the History never returned to his writings, but in its place appeared

the mellowed and softened pathos which marks the present paper, as well as many others in this volume. And it was these pathetic sketches, especially "The Broken Heart," which won readiest applause from the sentimental age for which Irving wrote.

THE INN KITCHEN

160-3. Pomme d'Or: Golden Apple.

160-5. Table d'hôte: literally, "the host's table," a meal of several courses, at a specified price, ready between stated hours, at a public dining place.

160-25. Diligence: the French term for a public stage-coach. 161-9. Flitch: a side (of a hog), salted and cured.

162–6. Écume de mer: literally, "sea foam." The more familiar form of the word is its German equivalent meerschaum; a compact, soft, white, mineral deposit, used chiefly for carving into tobaccopipes and cigar-holders.

THE SPECTRE BRIDEGROOM

163-1ff. Dight, dressed; trow, think; yestreen, yester-even.

164-30. Heldenbuch: Book of Heroes-a German collection of the romances of medieval heroes.

164-37. Minne-lieders: the songs of the Minnesingers or "lovesingers," a class of German lyric poets of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, so-called because their chief theme was love.

165-3. Duenna: an elderly female attendant who, after the Spanish fashion, keeps strict guard over the conduct of a young

woman.

167-23. Ferne-wein: wine brought from a distance.

167-24. Great Heidelburg tun: a monstrous cask in the cellar of Heidelburg Castle, capable of holding 49,000 gallons. 167-26. Saus und Braus: roar and bluster.

168-16. Starkenfaust: strong fist.

173-28. Leonora: see the translation by Sir Walter Scott. 174-20. Cresset: an iron basket filled with combustibles which burn like a torch.

177-16. Trencher: the platter or meal spread before them.

WESTMINSTER ABBEY

For the better understanding of Irving's sketches, the student is advised to read the brief description of this famous building in an encyclopedia or guide book.

180-24. Westminster School: See note, 135–15.

181-9. Death's heads: human skulls, symbols of death. 181–31. Vitalis abbas., etc. The words in parentheses are the Latin inscriptions on the tombstones of the three abbots, Vitalis, Gilbert, and Lawrence; the dates are the years of their deaths.

183-1. Poets' Corner: a space in Westminster Abbey, containing the busts, tablets, or monuments of Shakespeare, Ben Jonson, Chaucer, Milton, Spenser, and other British poets, actors, divines, and great men. Some of them are buried near, or under, their monuments. A bust of Longfellow stands near the monument of the English poet, Robert Browning.

183-33. Chapels: not separate edifices, but compartments, or recesses, in a larger church or abbey. The name "Chapels" was latterly applied to the buildings in which the dissenting denominations worshiped, especially the Methodists.

184-14. Morion: a kind of open helmet.

184-15. The holy war: the Crusades.

186-21. Stalls: seats in the choir of a cathedral, wholly or partly enclosed at back and sides.

186-22. Knights of the Bath: an ancient order of English knighthood, so-called because the initiates were originally immersed in water, as a symbol of purity.

188-11. For in the silent grave, etc. These lines are from Beaumont and Fletcher's play, Thierry and Theodoret, act iv., sc. i.

188-16. Suddenly the notes of the organ, etc. The following passage is justly famous for its attempt to imitate, in words, the deep, long-rolling cadences of the pipe-organ; note the swing and music of the sentences.

189-17. "Beds of darkness": compare Job xvii. 13.

191-4. Sir Thomas Browne, an important prose writer of the seventeenth century; his most-read works are Religio Medici (1643) and Urn Burial (1658). Irving quotes from Chapter v. of the latter.

191-15. Cambyses III., King of Persia, who incorporated Egypt into the Persian Empire in 525 B. c.—Mizraim is the Old Testament, Hebrew name for northern, or Lower, Egypt.-Pharaoh is the title given to the ruler of Egypt.

191-24. Gairish: same as "garish," showy, dazzling. 191-30. As a tale that is told: Psalms xc. 9.

CHRISTMAS

The influence of Irving on Dickens may be seen by comparing these Christmas sketches with the corresponding, humorously realtic Dingley Bell chapters of the Pickwick Papers.

193-16. Advent: the season of the year including the four Sun