Ivanhoe

CHAPTER XXIX

1 (p. 284) epigraph: The lines are from Friedrich Schiller’s Die Jungfrau von Orleans (The Maid of Orleans; 1801; act 5, scene 11 ); the translation is by Scott.

2 (p. 286) The quiver … the shouting: The reference is to the Bible, Job 39:23-25.

3 (p. 287) “Something resembling a bar of iron, and a padlock painted blue on the black shield”: [Author’s note] Heraldry. The Author has been here upbraided with false heraldry, as having charged metal upon metal. It should be remembered, however, that heraldry had only its first rude origin during the crusades, and that all the minutiae of its fantastic science were the work of time, and introduced at a much later period. Those who think otherwise must suppose that the Goddess of Armoirers, like the Goddess of Arms, sprung into the world completely equipped in all the gaudy trappings of the department she presides over. In corroboration of what is above stated, it may be observed, that the arms which were assumed by Godfrey of Boulogne himself, after the conquest of Jerusalem, was a cross counter potent cantoned with four little crosses or upon a field azure, displaying thus metal upon metal. The heralds have tried to explain this undeniable fact in different modes; but Ferne gallantly contends that a prince of Godfrey’s qualities should not be bound by the ordinary rules. The Scottish Nisbet and the same Feme insist that the chiefs of the crusade must have assigned to Godfrey this extraordinary and unwonted coat-of-arms in order to induce those who should behold them to make inquiries; and hence give them the name of arma inquirenda. But with reverence to these grave authorities, it seems unlikely that the assembled princes of Europe should have adjudged to Godfrey a coat armorial so much contrary to the general rule, if such rule had then existed; at any rate, it proves that metal upon metal, now accounted a solecism in heraldry, was admitted in other cases similar to that in the text. See Ferne’s Blazon of Gentrie, p. 238; edition 1586. Nisbet’s Heraldry, vol. i. p. 113; second edition.

4 (p. 289) “close under the outer barrier of the barbican”: [Author’s note] Barriers. Every Gothic castle and city had, beyond the outer walls, a fortification composed of palisades, called the barriers, which were often the scene of severe skirmishes, as these must necessarily be carried before the walls themselves could be approached. Many of those valiant feats of arms which adorn the chivalrous pages of Froissart took place at the barriers of besieged places.