Ivanhoe

CHAPTER XVII

1 (p. 178) epigraph: The lines, slightly altered, are from Thomas Warton’s “Inscription in a Hermitage at Ansley Hall in Warwickshire” (1777; lines 25—30).

2 (p. 179) a ballad in the vulgar English: [Author’s note] Minstrelsy. The realm of France, it is well known, was divided betwixt the Norman and Teutonic race, who spoke the language in which the word “yes” is pronounced as oui, and the inhabitants of the southern regions, whose speech, bearing some affinity to the Italian, pronounced the same word oc. The poets of the former race were called minstrels, and their poems lays; those of the latter were termed troubadours, and their compositions called sirventes and other names. Richard, a professed admirer of the joyous science in all its branches, could imitate either the minstrel or troubadour. It is less likely that he should have been able to compose or sing an English ballad; yet so much do we wish to assimilate him of the Lion Heart to the land of the warriors whom he led, that the anachronism, if there be one, may readily be forgiven.

3 (p. 180) Iconium’s turban’d soldan fell: Iconium is the medieval name for the Turkish city of Konya, which fell to the advancing Crusaders in 1190.

4 (p. 181) a sort of derry-down chorus: [Author’s note] Derry-down Chorus. 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.

5 (p. 183) old Ariosto: Author of the romance Orlando Furioso (1516), Ludovico Ariosto was considered in Scott’s time as the modern Virgil, and was widely read and quoted. In his “Essay on Romance” (1822) Scott writes approvingly of Ariosto’s digressive narrative technique, which he alludes to and imitates here.