Ivanhoe

CHAPTER XVIII

1 (p. 183) epigraph: This epigraph begins a sequence of invented verse passages authored by Scott himself to serve as epigraphs in Ivanhoe. Scott was in a hurry to finish the novel, needing the money from its sales to purchase a commission in the army for his son. There is no better evidence of his haste than his choosing to invent epigraphs rather than go to the trouble of remembering and locating an appropriate verse or passage.

2 (p. 190) Hotspur: Scott refers to the scene in Shakespeare’s 1 Henry IV in which Hotspur is frustrated by a reluctant and sluggish ally, Archbishop Scroop (act 3, scene 1).