Richmondshire, vol. i., a ground-plan of the building is given, along with notices of the monuments of the old abbots and other dignitaries which are still preserved (Laing).
4 (p. 335) Ichabod! … my house!: Ichabod means “without glory.” See the Bible, 1 Samuel 4:21.
5 (p. 340) “Thou be’st a hedge-priest”: [Author’s note] Hedge-Priests. It is curious to observe, that in every state of society some sort of ghostly consolation is provided for the members of the community, though assembled for purposes diametrically opposite to religion. A gang of beggars have their patrico, and the banditti of the Apennines have among them persons acting as monks and priests, by whom they are confessed, and who perform mass before them. Unquestionably, such reverend persons, in such a society, must accommodate their manners and their morals to the community in which they live; and if they can occasionally obtain a degree of reverence for their supposed spiritual gifts, are, on most occasions, loaded with unmerciful ridicule, as possessing a character inconsistent with all around them.
Hence the fighting parson in the old play of Sir John Oldcastle, and the famous friar of Robin Hood’s band. Nor were such characters ideal. There exists a monition of the Bishop of Durham against irregular churchmen of this class, who associated themselves with Border robbers, and desecrated the holiest offices of the priestly function, by celebrating them for the benefit of thieves, robbers, and murderers, amongst ruins and in caverns of the earth, without regard to canonical form, and with torn and dirty attire, and maimed rites, altogether improper for the occasion.
1 (p. 342) epigraph: The lines are from Shakespeare’s King John (act 3, scene 3).
2 (p. 343) Ahithophel: Ahithophel was a co-conspirator with Absalom against his father, King David, in the Bible, 2 Samuel 15-17.
3 (p. 344) bloody … with speed: The quotation, slightly altered, is from Shakespeare’s Richard II (act 2, scene 3) .
4 (p. 348) Thomas-a-Becket … stained the steps of his own altar: The most notorious event of Henry II’s largely beneficent reign was the murder, at his suggestion, of his erstwhile friend Thomas a Becket, archbishop of Canterbury, in 1170. After Thomas’s elevation to sainthood three years later, Canterbury Cathedral, site of the killing, became a destination for pilgrims and is perhaps the most famous of England’s holy places. Waldemar Fitzurse, Prince John’s counselor in Ivanhoe, is a fictional son of one of Thomas’s murderers, Reginald Fitzurse.
5 (p. 348) Tracy, Morville, Brito: [Author’s note] Slayers of Becket. Reginald Fitzurse, William de Tracy, Hugh de Morville, and Richard Brito were the gentlemen of Henry the Second’s household who, instigated by some passionate expressions of their sovereign, slew the celebrated Thomas-a- Becket.
1 (p. 350) epigraph: The lines are written by Scott himself.
2 (p. 351) “we visit the preceptories”: [Author’s note] Preceptories. The establishments of the Knights Templars were called preceptories, and the title of those who presided in the order was preceptor ; as the principal Knights of St. John were termed commanders, and their houses commanderies. But these terms were sometimes, it would seem, used indiscriminately.—Such an establishment formerly existed at Temple Newsam, in the West Riding, near Leeds (Laing) .
3 (p. 352) fiery furnace seven times heated: See the Bible, Daniel 3:19.
4 (p. 355) Ut leo semper feriatur: The Latin translates as “The lion must always be struck down.” [Author’s note follows] Ut Leo Semper Feriatur. In the ordinances of the Knights of the Temple, this phrase is repeated in a variety of forms, and occurs in almost every chapter, as if it were the signal-word of the order; which may account for its being so frequently put in the Grand Master’s mouth.
5 (p. 357) “Take to thee the brand of Phineas”: The Grand Master refers to a grisly incident in the Bible (Numbers 25:7-8) and a symbolic biblical indictment of interracial sex that is pertinent to the case of Rebecca and Bois-Guilbert. Phineas, on finding an Israelite soldier sleeping with a Midianite woman, slays them both with a single thrust of his spear.
6 (p. 360) the thrashing-floor: See Matthew 3:12.
7 (p. 360) Vinum … pulchritudine tua: The first phrase quotes the Bible, Psalm 104:15: “Wine that maketh glad the heart of man.” The second derives from Psalm 45:11, “So shall the king greatly desire thy beauty” (KJV).
1 (p. 363) epigraph: The lines are written by Scott himself.
1 (p. 371) epigraph: The lines are written by Scott himself.
2 (p. 383) trial by combat: In a recent article, Gary Dyer has uncovered a contemporary context for Scott’s evocation of this Norman law, which allows the accused to defend themselves, if proxy by necessary, in single combat; the belief was that God would justly decide the outcome of the contest, revealing the truth of the case in a manner beyond human divination. In 1817 Britons were amazed to learn that the law of combat was still on the books when Abraham Thornton, accused of the murder of Mary Ashford, invoked his defendant’s chivalric right. The case against Thornton broke down in confusion, and the trial was widely reported. See Gary R. Dyer, “Ivanhoe, Chivalry, and the Murder of Mary Ashford,” Criticism 39 ( 1997) , pp. 383-408.
1 (p. 383) epigraph: The lines, slightly altered, are from Shakespeare’s Richard II (act 4, scene 1).
2 (p. 388) “even as the signet of the mighty Solomon was said to command the evil genii: The Koran records that God gave Solomon power over the genii. It is only tradition, however, possibly derived from its mention in The Arabian Nights, which locates the power in his signet ring.
3 (p. 389) Benoni: The name, which means ”son of my sorrow” in Hebrew, was given by the dying Rachel to her son in the Bible, Genesis 35:18. Jacob would rename him Benjamin, and the boy became his ill-fated favorite.
4 (p. 389) gourd of Jonah: Isaac is referring not to a cup, but rather to the fruit