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The following tale was found among the papers of the
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late Diedrich Knickerbocker, an old gentleman of New York, who
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was very curious in the Dutch history of the province
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and the manners of the descendants from its primitive settlers.
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His historical researches, however, did not lie so much among
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books as among men, for the former are lamentably scanty
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on his favorite topics, whereas he found the old burghers,
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and still more their wives, rich in that legendary lore
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so invaluable to true history. Whenever, therefore, he happened upon
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a genuine Dutch family snugly shut up in its low-roofed
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farmhouse under a spreading sycamore, he looked upon it as
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a little clasped volume of black letter, and studied it
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with the zeal of a bookworm. The result of all
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these researches was a history of the province during the
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reign of the Dutch governors, which was published some years since.
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There have been various opinions as to the literary character
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of his work, and, to tell the truth, it is
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not a whit better than it should be. Its chief
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merit is its scrupulous accuracy, which indeed was a little
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questioned on its first appearance, but has since been completely established,
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and is now admitted into all historical collections as a
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book of unquestionable authority. The old gentleman died shortly after
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the publication of his work, and now that he is
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dead and gone it cannot do much harm to his
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memory to say that his time might have been better
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employed in weightier labours. He, however, was apt to ride
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his hobby his own way, and though it did now
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and then kick up the dust a little in the
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eyes of his neighbours and grieve the spirit of some
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friends for whom he felt the truest deference and affection,
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yet his errors and follies are remembered more in sorrow
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and than in anger. and it begins to be suspected
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that he never intended to injure or offend. But, however
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his memory may be appreciated by critics, it is still
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held dear by many folks whose good opinion is well
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worth having, particularly by certain biscuit bakers, who have gone
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so far as to imprint his likeness on their New
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Year cakes, and have thus given him a chance for immortality,
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almost equal to the being stamped on a Waterloo medal
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or a Queen Anne's farthing. RIP VAN WINKLE by washington
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irving whoever has made a voyage up the hudson must
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remember the catskill mountains they are a dismembered branch of
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the great appalachian family and are seen away to the
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west of the river swelling up to a noble height
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and lording it over the surrounding country every change of
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season every change of weather indeed every hour of the
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day produces some change in the magical hues and shapes
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of these mountains and they are regarded by all the
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good wives far and near as perfect barometers. When the
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weather is fair and settled, they are clothed in blue
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and purple, and print their bold outlines on the clear
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evening sky. But sometimes, when the rest of the landscape
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is cloudless, they will gather a hood of gray vapors
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about their summits, which in the last rays of the
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setting sun will glow and light up like a crown
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of glory. At the foot of these fairy mountains, the
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voyager may have decried the light smoke curling up from
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a village, whose shingle roofs gleam among the trees, just
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where the blue tints of the upland melt away into
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the fresh green of the nearer landscape. It is a
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little village of great antiquity, having been founded by some
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of the Dutch colonists in the early times of the province,
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just about the beginning of the government of the good
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Peter Stuyvesant. May he rest in peace! And there were
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some of the houses of the original settlers, standing within
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a few years, built of small yellow bricks brought from Holland,
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having latticed windows and gable fronts surmounted with weathercocks. In
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that same village, in one of these very houses, which,
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to tell the precise truth, was sadly time-worn and weather-beaten,
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there lived many years since, while the country was yet
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a province of Great Britain, a simple, good-natured fellow of
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the name of Rip Van Winkle. He was a descendant
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of the Van Winkles, who figured so gallantly in the
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chivalrous days of Peter Syvesant, and accompanied him to the
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siege of Fort Christina. He inherited, however, but little of
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the martial character of his ancestors. I have observed that
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he was a simple, good-natured man. He was, moreover, a
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kind neighbor, and an obedient, hen-pecked husband. Indeed, to the
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latter circumstance might be owing that meekness of spirit which
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gained him such universal popularity. For those men are most
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apt to be obsequious and conciliating abroad, who are under
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the discipline of shrews at home, Their tempers, doubtless, are
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rendered pliant and malleable in the fiery furnace of domestic tribulation,
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and a curtain lecture is worth all the sermons in
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the world for teaching the virtues of patience and long-suffering.
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A termigent wife may therefore in some respects be considered
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a tolerable blessing, and if so, Rip Van Winkle was
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thrice blessed. Certain it is that he was a great
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favorite among all the good wives of the village, and who,
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as usual with the amiable sex, took his part in
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all family squabbles, and never failed, whenever they talked those
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matters over in their evening gossipings, to lay all the
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blame on Dame Van Winkle. The children of the village, too,
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would shout with joy whenever he approached. He assisted at
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their sports, made their playthings, taught them to fly kites
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and shoot marbles, and told them long stories of ghosts, witches,
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and Indians. Whenever he went dodging about the village, he
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was surrounded by a troop of them hanging on his skirts,
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clambering on his back, and playing a thousand tricks on
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him with impunity. And not a dog would bark at
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him throughout the neighborhood. The great error in Rip's composition
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was an insuperable aversion to all kinds of profitable labor.
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It could not be from the want of assiduity or perseverance,
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for he would sit on a wet rock and with
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a rod as long and heavy as a tartar's lance,
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and fish all day without a murmur. even though he
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should not be encouraged by a single nibble. He would
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carry a fowling-piece on his shoulder for hours together, trudging
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through woods and swamps and uphill and down dale, to
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shoot a few squirrels or wild pigeons. He would never
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refuse to assist a neighbor, even in the roughest toil,
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and was a foremost man at all country frolics for
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husking Indian corn or building stone fences. The women of
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the village, too, used to employ him to run their errands,
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and do such little odd jobs that as their less
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obliging husbands would not do for them. In a word,
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Rip was ready to attend to anybody's business but his own.
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But as to doing family duty and keeping his farm
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in order, he found it impossible. In fact, he declared
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it was of no use to work on his farm.
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It was the most pestilent little piece of ground in
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the whole country. Everything about it went wrong, and would
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go wrong in spite of him. His fences were continually
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falling to pieces. His cow would either go astray or
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get among the cabbages. Weeds were sure to grow quicker
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in his fields than anywhere else. The rain always made
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a point of setting in, just as he had some
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outdoor work to do, so that though his patrimonial estate
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had dwindled away under his management, acre by acre, until
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there was little more left than a mere patch of
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Indian corn and potatoes, yet it was the worst-conditioned farm
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in the neighborhood. His children, too, were as ragged and
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wild as if they belonged to nobody. His son, Rip,
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an urchin begotten in his own likeness, promised to inherit
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the inhabitants with the old clothes of his father. He
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was generally seen trooping like a colt at his mother's heels,
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equipped in a pair of his father's cast-off gallagaskins, which
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he had much ado to hold up with one hand,
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as a fine lady does her train in bad weather.
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Rip Van Winkle, however, was one of those happy mortals,
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of foolish, well-oiled dispositions. who take the world easy, eat
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white bread or brown, whichever he can be got with
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least thought or trouble, and he would rather starve on
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a penny than work for a pound. If left to himself,
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he would have whistled life away in perfect contentment. But
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his wife kept continually dinning in his ears about his
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carelessness and the ruin he was bringing on his family. Morning, noon,
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and night her tongue was incessantly going, and everything he
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said or did was sure to produce a torrent of
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household eloquence. Rip had but one way of replying to
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all lectures of the kind. and that by frequent use
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had grown into a habit. He shrugged his shoulders, shook
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his head, cast up his eyes, but said nothing. This, however,
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always provoked a fresh volley from his wife, so that
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he was fain to draw off his forces and take
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to the outside of the house. The only side which
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in truth belongs to a hen-pecked husband. Rip's sole domestic
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adherent was his dog, Wolf, who was as much hen-pecked
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as his master. for Dame Van Winkle regarded them as
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companions in idleness, and even looked upon Wolf with an
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evil eye as the cause of his master's going so
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often astray. True it is, in all points of spirit
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befitting an honorable dog, he was as courageous an animal
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as ever scoured the woods. But what courage can withstand
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the ever-during and all-descending terrors of a woman's tongue? The
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moment Wolf entered the house his crest fell, his tail
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drooped to the ground or curled between his legs, he
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sneaked about with a gallows air, casting many a sidelong
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glance at Dame Van Winkle, and at the least flourish
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of a broomstick or ladle, he would fly to the
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door with yelping precipitation. Times grew worse and worse for
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Rip Van Winkle, as years of matrimony rolled on. A
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tart temper never mellows with age, and a sharp tongue
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is the only edged tool that grows keener with constant use.
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For a long while he used to console himself when
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driven from home by frequenting a kind of perpetual club
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of the sages, philosophers, and other idle personages of the village,
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which held its sessions on a bench before a small inn,
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designated by a rubicund portrait of His Majesty, George III.
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Here they used to sit in the shade, through a long,
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lazy summer's day, talking listlessly over village gossip, or telling
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endless sleepy stories about nothing. But it would have been
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worth any statesman's money to have heard the profound discussions
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that sometimes took place, when by chance an old newspaper
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fell into their hands from some passing traveler. How solemnly
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they would listen to the contents, as drawled out by
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Derek Van Bummel, the schoolmaster, a dapper, learned little man,
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who was not to be daunted by the most gigantic
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word in the dictionary— and how sagely they would deliberate
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upon public events some months after they had taken place.
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The opinions of this Ginto were completely controlled by Nicholas Vedder,
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a patriarch of the village and landlord of the inn,
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at the door of which he took his seat from
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morning till night, just moving sufficiently to avoid the sun
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and keep in the shade of a large tree, so
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that the neighbours could tell the hour by his movements
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as accurately as by a sundial. It is true he
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was rarely heard to speak, but smoked his pipe incessantly,
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His adherents, however, for every great man has his adherents,
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perfectly understood him, and knew how to gather his opinions.
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When anything that was read or related displeased him, he
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was observed to smoke his pipe vehemently, and to send
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forth short, frequent, and angry puffs. When pleased, he would
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inhale the smoke slowly and tranquilly, and emit it in
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light and placid clouds, and sometimes, taking the pipe from
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his mouth and letting the fragrant vapour curl about his nose,
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would gravely nod his head. in token of perfect approbation.
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From even this stronghold the unlucky Rip was at length
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routed by his termigant wife, who would suddenly break in
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upon the tranquillity of the assemblage, and call the members
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all to naught. Nor was that august personage Nicholas Vedder himself,
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sacred from the daring tongue of this terrible Virgo, who
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charged him outright with encouraging her husband in habits of idleness.
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Poor Rip was at last reduced almost to despair. and
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his only alternative to escape from the labor of the
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farm and clamor of his wife was to take gun
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in hand and stroll away into the woods. Here he
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would sometimes seat himself at the foot of a tree
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and share the contents of his wallet with Wolf, with
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whom he sympathized as a fellow sufferer in persecution. Poor Wolf,
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he would say, thy mistress leads thee a dog's life
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of it. But never mind, my lad, whilst I live
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thou shalt never want a friend to stand by thee.
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Wolf would wag his tail, look wistfully in his master's face,
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and if dogs can feel pity, I verily believe he
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reciprocated the sentiment with all his heart. In a long
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ramble of the kind, on a fine autumnal day, Rip
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had unconsciously scrambled to one of the highest parts of
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the Catskill Mountains. He was after his favorite sport of squirrel-shooting,
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and the still solitudes had echoed and re-echoed with the
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reports of his gun. Panting and fatigued, he threw himself
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late in the afternoon on a green knoll covered with
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mountain herbage that crowned the brow of a precipice from
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an opening between the trees he could overlook all the
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lower country from many a mile of rich woodland he
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00:13:24.159 --> 00:13:27.279
saw at a distance the lordly hudson far far below
237
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him moving on its silent but majestic course with the
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reflection of a purple cloud or the sail of a
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lagging bark here and there sleeping on its glassy bosom
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and at last losing itself in the blue highlands On
241
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the other side he looked down into a deep mountain glen, wild, lonely,
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and shagged, the bottom filled with fragments from the impending
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cliffs and scarcely lighted by the reflected rays of the
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setting sun. For some time Rip lay musing on this scene.
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Evening was gradually advancing. The mountains began to throw their
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long blue shadows over the valleys. He saw that it
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would be dark long before he could reach the village,
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and he heaved a heavy sigh when he thought of
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encountering the terrors of Dame Van Winkle. As he was
250
00:14:12.509 --> 00:14:15.370
about to descend, he heard a voice from a distance howling,
251
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Rip Van Winkle! Rip Van Winkle! He looked round, but
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00:14:21.039 --> 00:14:23.500
could see nothing but a crow winging its solitary flight
253
00:14:23.539 --> 00:14:27.200
across the mountain. He thought his fancy must have deceived him,
254
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and turned again to descend when he heard the same
255
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cry ringing through the still evening air, Rip Van Winkle!
256
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Rip Van Winkle! At the same time, Wolf whistled up
257
00:14:38.490 --> 00:14:41.009
his neck, and giving a low growl, skulked to his
258
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master's side. looking fearfully down into the glen. Rip now
259
00:14:45.120 --> 00:14:49.059
felt a vague apprehension stealing over him. He looked anxiously
260
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in the same direction and perceived a strange figure slowly
261
00:14:53.340 --> 00:14:55.730
toiling up the rocks and bending under the weight of
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something he carried on his back. He was surprised to
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00:14:59.429 --> 00:15:02.129
see any human being in this lonely and unfrequented place,
264
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but supposing it to be someone of the neighborhood in
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00:15:05.090 --> 00:15:08.070
need of his assistance, he hastened down to yield it.
266
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On nearer approach he was still more surprised at the
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singularity of the stranger's appearance. He was a short, square-built
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00:15:17.269 --> 00:15:20.629
old fellow, with thick bushy hair and a grizzled beard.
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00:15:21.529 --> 00:15:24.460
His dress was of the antique Dutch fashion, a cloth
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00:15:24.539 --> 00:15:27.620
jerkin strapped round the waist, several pair of breeches, the
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00:15:27.740 --> 00:15:31.080
outer one of ample volume, decorated with rows of buttons
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00:15:31.159 --> 00:15:34.090
down the sides and bunches at the knees. He bore
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00:15:34.149 --> 00:15:36.570
on his shoulder a stout keg, and that seemed full
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of liquor, and made signs for Rip to approach and
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assist him with the load. Though rather shy and distrustful
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of this new acquaintance, Rip complied with his usual alacrity, and,
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mutually relieving one another, they clambered up a narrow gully,
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apparently the dry bed of a mountain torrent. As they ascended,
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00:15:54.730 --> 00:15:58.029
Rip every now and then heard long, rolling peals, like
280
00:15:58.110 --> 00:16:01.080
distant thunder, that seemed to issue out of a deep ravine,
281
00:16:01.679 --> 00:16:04.379
or rather cleft between lofty rocks toward which their rugged
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00:16:04.419 --> 00:16:08.690
path conducted. He paused for an instant, but supposing it
283
00:16:08.730 --> 00:16:11.210
to be the muttering of one of those transient thundershowers
284
00:16:11.269 --> 00:16:16.230
which often take place in mountain heights, he proceeded. Passing
285
00:16:16.250 --> 00:16:18.330
through the ravine, they came to a hollow like a
286
00:16:18.429 --> 00:16:22.740
small amphitheater, surrounded by perpendicular precipices over the brinks of
287
00:16:22.769 --> 00:16:26.039
which impending trees shot their branches, so that you only
288
00:16:26.059 --> 00:16:28.940
caught glimpses of the azure sky and the bright evening cloud.
289
00:16:30.100 --> 00:16:32.379
During the whole time Rip and his companion had labored
290
00:16:32.440 --> 00:16:35.490
on in silence, for though the former marveled greatly what
291
00:16:35.509 --> 00:16:37.610
could be the object of carrying a keg of liquor
292
00:16:37.669 --> 00:16:41.149
up this wild mountain, yet there was something strange and
293
00:16:41.210 --> 00:16:45.789
incomprehensible about the unknown that inspired awe and check familiarity.
294
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On entering the amphitheater, new objects of wonder presented themselves.
295
00:16:51.830 --> 00:16:53.789
On a level spot in the center was a company
296
00:16:53.820 --> 00:16:57.899
of odd-looking personages, laying at nine pins. They were dressed
297
00:16:57.919 --> 00:17:02.240
in a quaint, outlandish fashion, Some wore short doublets, others
298
00:17:02.360 --> 00:17:05.259
jerkins with long knives in their belts, and most of
299
00:17:05.279 --> 00:17:07.740
them had enormous breeches of similar style with that of
300
00:17:07.779 --> 00:17:12.119
the guides. Their visages, too, were peculiar. One had a
301
00:17:12.200 --> 00:17:16.420
large beard, broad face, and small piggish eyes. The face
302
00:17:16.460 --> 00:17:19.160
of another seemed to consist entirely of nose, and was
303
00:17:19.220 --> 00:17:22.019
surmounted by a white sugar-loaf hat set off with a
304
00:17:22.039 --> 00:17:25.789
little red cock's tail. They all had beards of various
305
00:17:25.829 --> 00:17:28.369
shapes and colors. There was one who seemed to be
306
00:17:28.390 --> 00:17:31.380
the commander, He was a stout old gentleman with a
307
00:17:31.460 --> 00:17:35.519
weather-beaten countenance. He wore a laced doublet, broad belt and hanger,
308
00:17:35.859 --> 00:17:39.690
high-crowned hat and feather, red stockings and high-heeled shoes with
309
00:17:39.769 --> 00:17:42.690
roses in them. The whole group reminded Rip of the
310
00:17:42.769 --> 00:17:45.730
figures in an old Flemish painting in the parlor of
311
00:17:45.789 --> 00:17:48.730
Dominique van Schijk, the village parson, and which had been
312
00:17:48.750 --> 00:17:50.950
brought over from Holland at the time of the settlement.
313
00:17:52.630 --> 00:17:54.990
What seemed particularly odd to Rip was that, though these
314
00:17:55.079 --> 00:17:58.759
folks were evidently amusing themselves, yet they maintained the gravest
315
00:17:58.819 --> 00:18:02.410
faces— the most mysterious silence, and were withal the most
316
00:18:02.470 --> 00:18:06.430
melancholy party of pleasure he had ever witnessed. Nothing interrupted
317
00:18:06.450 --> 00:18:09.410
the stillness of the scene but the noise of the balls, which,
318
00:18:09.529 --> 00:18:12.529
whenever they were rolled, echoed along the mountains like rumbling
319
00:18:12.609 --> 00:18:16.450
peals of thunder. As Rip and his companion approached them,
320
00:18:16.829 --> 00:18:19.450
they suddenly desisted from their play and stared at him
321
00:18:19.490 --> 00:18:23.660
with such fixed, statue-like gaze and such strange, uncouth, lackluster
322
00:18:23.700 --> 00:18:27.079
countenances that his heart turned within him and his knees
323
00:18:27.319 --> 00:18:31.329
smoked together. His companion now emptied the contents of the
324
00:18:31.369 --> 00:18:34.529
keg into large flagons, and made signs to him to
325
00:18:34.569 --> 00:18:38.190
wait upon the company. He obeyed with fear and trembling.
326
00:18:38.690 --> 00:18:41.970
They quaffed a liquor in profound silence, and then returned
327
00:18:42.029 --> 00:18:46.980
to their game. By degrees, Rip's awe and apprehension subsided.
328
00:18:47.720 --> 00:18:50.720
He even adventured, when no eye was fixed upon him,
329
00:18:50.900 --> 00:18:54.059
to taste the beverage, which he found had much of
330
00:18:54.099 --> 00:18:59.049
the flavor of excellent Holland's. He was, naturally, a thirsty soul,
331
00:18:59.450 --> 00:19:03.240
and was soon tempted to repeat the draft. One taste
332
00:19:03.299 --> 00:19:06.720
provoked another, and he reiterated his visits to the flagon
333
00:19:07.140 --> 00:19:11.119
so often that at length his senses were overpowered. His
334
00:19:11.660 --> 00:19:16.220
eyes swam in his head, his head gradually declined, and
335
00:19:16.240 --> 00:19:21.950
he fell into a deep sleep. On waking, he found
336
00:19:21.970 --> 00:19:24.349
himself on the green knoll once he had first seen
337
00:19:24.410 --> 00:19:27.650
the man of the glen. He rubbed his eyes. It
338
00:19:27.690 --> 00:19:30.390
was a bright, sunny morning. The birds were hopping and
339
00:19:30.430 --> 00:19:33.539
twittering among the bushes, and the eagle was wheeling aloft
340
00:19:33.680 --> 00:19:38.319
and breasting the pure mountain breeze.' Surely,' thought Rip,' I
341
00:19:38.359 --> 00:19:42.900
have not slept here all night!' He recalled the occurrences
342
00:19:42.960 --> 00:19:46.349
before he fell asleep. The strange man with a keg
343
00:19:46.369 --> 00:19:49.829
of liquor, the mountain ravine, the wild retreat among the
344
00:19:49.869 --> 00:19:54.819
rocks— the woebegone party at Ninepins, the flag— Oh, that flagon!
345
00:19:55.200 --> 00:19:58.500
That wicked flagon! thought Rip. What excuse shall I make
346
00:19:58.519 --> 00:20:02.500
to Dame Van Winkle? He looked round for his gun,
347
00:20:03.079 --> 00:20:06.319
but in place of the clean, well-oiled fowling-piece, he found
348
00:20:06.339 --> 00:20:09.980
an old firelock lying by him. the barrel encrusted with rust,
349
00:20:10.279 --> 00:20:13.819
the lock falling off, and the stock worm-eaten. He now
350
00:20:13.900 --> 00:20:16.460
suspected that the grave roisterers of the mountain had put
351
00:20:16.480 --> 00:20:18.880
a trick upon him, and having dosed him with liquor,
352
00:20:18.920 --> 00:20:22.140
had robbed him of his gun. Wolf, too, had disappeared,
353
00:20:22.549 --> 00:20:25.150
but he might have strayed away after a squirrel or partridge.
354
00:20:25.849 --> 00:20:28.750
He whistled after him, and shouted his name, but all
355
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in vain. The echoes repeated his whistle and shout, but
356
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no dog was to be seen. He determined to revisit
357
00:20:36.490 --> 00:20:38.759
the scene of the last evening's gamble, and if he
358
00:20:38.799 --> 00:20:40.940
met with any of the party, to demand his dog
359
00:20:41.000 --> 00:20:43.880
and gun. As he rose to walk he found himself
360
00:20:44.039 --> 00:20:46.980
stiff in the joints, and wanting in his usual activity.
361
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These mountain beds do not agree with me, thought Rip,
362
00:20:51.059 --> 00:20:52.839
and if this frolic should lay me up with a
363
00:20:52.880 --> 00:20:55.380
fit of the rheumatism, I shall have a blessed time
364
00:20:55.420 --> 00:20:59.859
with Dame Van Winkle. With some difficulty he got down
365
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into the glen. He found the gully up which he
366
00:21:02.359 --> 00:21:05.180
and his companion had ascended the preceding evening, but to
367
00:21:05.220 --> 00:21:08.079
his astonishment a mountain stream was now foaming down it.
368
00:21:08.500 --> 00:21:10.980
leaping from rock to rock and filling the glen with
369
00:21:11.039 --> 00:21:15.079
babbling murmurs. He, however, made shift to scramble up its sides,
370
00:21:15.400 --> 00:21:19.380
working his toilsome way through thickets of birch, sassafras, and witch-hazel,
371
00:21:19.819 --> 00:21:22.880
and sometimes tripped up or entangled by the wild grape-vines
372
00:21:23.220 --> 00:21:25.769
that twisted their quails or tendrils from tree to tree,
373
00:21:26.309 --> 00:21:30.230
and spread a kind of network in his path. At
374
00:21:30.269 --> 00:21:32.329
length he reached to where the ravine had opened through
375
00:21:32.349 --> 00:21:35.170
the cliffs to the amphitheatre, but no traces of such
376
00:21:35.309 --> 00:21:39.480
opening remained. The rocks presented a high, impenetrable wall, over
377
00:21:39.500 --> 00:21:42.039
which the torrent came tumbling in a sheet of feathery foam,
378
00:21:42.359 --> 00:21:45.200
and fell into a broad, deep basin, black from the
379
00:21:45.240 --> 00:21:48.650
shadows of the surrounding forest. Here, then, poor Rip was
380
00:21:48.710 --> 00:21:51.430
brought to a stand. He again called and whistled after
381
00:21:51.470 --> 00:21:54.329
his dog. He was only answered by the cawing of
382
00:21:54.369 --> 00:21:57.369
a flock of idle crows, sporting high in air about
383
00:21:57.390 --> 00:22:00.619
a dry tree that overhung a sunny precipice, and who,
384
00:22:00.779 --> 00:22:03.819
secure in their elevation, seemed to look down and scoff
385
00:22:03.859 --> 00:22:07.329
at the poor man's perplexities. What was to be done?
386
00:22:08.069 --> 00:22:11.049
The morning was passing away, and Rip felt famished for
387
00:22:11.130 --> 00:22:13.890
one of his breakfast. He grieved to give up his
388
00:22:13.950 --> 00:22:17.220
dog and gun. He dreaded to meet his wife, but
389
00:22:17.240 --> 00:22:20.019
it would not do to starve among the mountains. He
390
00:22:20.059 --> 00:22:23.420
shook his head, shouldered the rusty firelock, and with a
391
00:22:23.460 --> 00:22:26.559
heart full of trouble and anxiety turned his steps homeward.
392
00:22:28.440 --> 00:22:31.039
As he approached the village he met a number of people,
393
00:22:31.279 --> 00:22:34.930
but none whom he knew, which somewhat surprised him. for
394
00:22:34.970 --> 00:22:36.910
he had thought himself acquainted with every one in the
395
00:22:36.950 --> 00:22:40.509
country round. Their dress, too, was of different fashion from
396
00:22:40.549 --> 00:22:43.250
that to which he was accustomed. They all stared at
397
00:22:43.269 --> 00:22:46.150
him with equal marks of surprise, and whenever they cast
398
00:22:46.210 --> 00:22:50.730
their eyes upon him, invariably stroked their chins. The constant
399
00:22:50.769 --> 00:22:55.339
recurrence of this gesture induced Rip, involuntarily, to do the same, when,
400
00:22:55.380 --> 00:22:58.000
to his astonishment, he found his beard had grown a
401
00:22:58.099 --> 00:23:02.019
foot long. He had now entered the skirts of the village.
402
00:23:02.549 --> 00:23:05.269
A troop of strange children ran at his heels, hooning
403
00:23:05.390 --> 00:23:08.789
after him and pointing at his grey beard. The dogs, too,
404
00:23:09.130 --> 00:23:11.390
not one of which he recognized for an old acquaintance,
405
00:23:11.609 --> 00:23:14.950
barked at him as he passed. The very village was altered.
406
00:23:15.230 --> 00:23:17.950
It was larger and more populous. There were rows of
407
00:23:18.029 --> 00:23:20.529
houses which he had never seen before, and those which
408
00:23:20.549 --> 00:23:24.869
had been his familiar haunts had disappeared. Strange names were
409
00:23:24.930 --> 00:23:28.329
over the doors. Strange faces at the windows. Everything was strange.
410
00:23:28.769 --> 00:23:31.710
His mind now misgave him. He began to doubt whether
411
00:23:31.750 --> 00:23:33.849
both he and the world around him were not bewitched.
412
00:23:34.789 --> 00:23:36.930
Surely this was his native village, which he had left
413
00:23:36.990 --> 00:23:40.460
but the day before. There stood the Catskill Mountains. There
414
00:23:40.500 --> 00:23:43.160
ran the Silver Hudson at a distance. There was every
415
00:23:43.200 --> 00:23:46.319
hill and dale, precisely as it has always been. Rip
416
00:23:46.380 --> 00:23:50.660
was sorely perplexed.' That flagon last night,' thought he,' has
417
00:23:50.839 --> 00:23:54.970
addled my poor head sadly.' It was with some difficulty
418
00:23:55.009 --> 00:23:57.599
that he found his way to his own house. which
419
00:23:57.700 --> 00:24:00.779
he approached with silent awe, expecting every moment to hear
420
00:24:00.799 --> 00:24:04.309
the shrill voice of Dame Van Winkle. He found the
421
00:24:04.349 --> 00:24:08.029
house gone to decay, the roof fallen in, the windows shattered,
422
00:24:08.049 --> 00:24:11.670
and the doors off the hinges. A half-starved dog that
423
00:24:11.710 --> 00:24:14.750
looked like Roof was skulking about it. Rip called him
424
00:24:14.769 --> 00:24:17.410
by name, but the girl snarled, showed his teeth, and
425
00:24:17.450 --> 00:24:23.250
passed on. This was an unkind cut indeed.' My very dog,'
426
00:24:23.160 --> 00:24:27.599
sighed poor Rip,' has forgotten me. He entered the house, which,
427
00:24:27.819 --> 00:24:30.690
to tell the truth, Dame Van Winkle had always kept
428
00:24:30.750 --> 00:24:35.210
in neat order. It was empty, forlorn, and apparently abandoned.
429
00:24:35.710 --> 00:24:39.490
This desolateness overcame all his connubial fears. He called loudly
430
00:24:39.569 --> 00:24:42.490
for his wife and children. The lonely chambers rang for
431
00:24:42.529 --> 00:24:44.990
a moment with his voice, and then all again was silence.
432
00:24:46.759 --> 00:24:49.019
He now hurried forth and hastened to his old resort,
433
00:24:49.079 --> 00:24:51.900
the village inn, but it too was gone. a large
434
00:24:52.009 --> 00:24:54.849
rickety wooden building stood in its place with great gaping
435
00:24:54.910 --> 00:24:57.430
windows some of them broken and mended with old hats
436
00:24:57.470 --> 00:25:01.369
and petticoats and over the door was painted the union
437
00:25:01.430 --> 00:25:05.690
hotel by jonathan doolittle instead of the great tree that
438
00:25:05.750 --> 00:25:07.849
used to shelter the quiet little dutch inn of yore
439
00:25:08.210 --> 00:25:11.630
there now was reared a tall naked pole with something
440
00:25:11.670 --> 00:25:14.130
on the top that looked like a red nightcap and
441
00:25:14.230 --> 00:25:16.609
from it was fluttering a flag on which was a
442
00:25:16.690 --> 00:25:21.049
singular assemblage of stars and stripes All this was strange
443
00:25:21.069 --> 00:25:25.279
and incomprehensible. He recognized on the sign, however, the ruby
444
00:25:25.339 --> 00:25:27.920
face of King George, under which he had smoked so
445
00:25:27.940 --> 00:25:31.599
many a peaceful pipe. But even this was singularly metamorphosed.
446
00:25:31.980 --> 00:25:34.539
The red coat was changed for one of blue and buff.
447
00:25:35.279 --> 00:25:37.420
A sword was held in the hand instead of a scepter.
448
00:25:37.920 --> 00:25:40.990
The head was decorated with a cocked hat, and underneath
449
00:25:41.069 --> 00:25:48.200
was painted in large characters, General George Washington. There was,
450
00:25:48.299 --> 00:25:50.660
as usual, a crowd of folk about the door, but
451
00:25:50.789 --> 00:25:53.910
none that Rip recollected. The very character of the people
452
00:25:53.970 --> 00:25:58.099
seemed changed. There was a busy, puzzling, disputatious tone about it,
453
00:25:58.410 --> 00:26:02.859
instead of the accustomed phlegm and drowsy tranquillity. He looked
454
00:26:02.880 --> 00:26:05.640
in vain for the sage Nicholas Vedder, with his broad face,
455
00:26:06.000 --> 00:26:09.440
double chin, and fair long pipe, uttering clouds of tobacco
456
00:26:09.539 --> 00:26:13.119
smoke instead of idle speeches. Or Van Bummel, the schoolmaster,
457
00:26:13.440 --> 00:26:16.450
doling forth the contents of an ancient newspaper, in places
458
00:26:16.869 --> 00:26:19.529
In place of these, a lean, bilious-looking fellow with his
459
00:26:19.609 --> 00:26:24.440
pockets full of hand-bulls was hanging vehemently about rights of citizens, elections,
460
00:26:24.799 --> 00:26:29.380
members of Congress, liberty, Bunker's Hill, heroes of Seventy-Six, and
461
00:26:29.480 --> 00:26:32.359
other words which were a perfect Babylonish jargon to the
462
00:26:32.380 --> 00:26:37.049
bewildered Van Winkle. The appearance of Rip, with his wrong,
463
00:26:37.089 --> 00:26:40.750
grizzled beard, his rusty fowling-piece, his uncouth dress, and an
464
00:26:40.869 --> 00:26:43.450
army of women and children at his heels, soon attracted
465
00:26:43.470 --> 00:26:47.099
the attention of the tavern politicians— They crowded round him,
466
00:26:47.640 --> 00:26:51.019
eyeing him from head to foot with great curiosity. The
467
00:26:51.119 --> 00:26:54.759
orator bustled up to him, and, drawing him partly aside, inquired,
468
00:26:55.380 --> 00:26:59.319
On which side he voted. Rip stared in vacant stupidity.
469
00:27:00.140 --> 00:27:03.490
Another short but busy little fellow pulled him by the arm, and,
470
00:27:03.569 --> 00:27:06.569
rising on tiptoe, inquired in his ear whether he was
471
00:27:06.690 --> 00:27:10.190
Federal or Democrat. Rip was equally at a loss to
472
00:27:10.230 --> 00:27:14.529
comprehend the question, when a knowing, self-important old gentleman, in
473
00:27:14.569 --> 00:27:17.799
a sharp-cocked hat, made his way through the crowd putting
474
00:27:17.839 --> 00:27:19.599
them to the right and left with his elbows as
475
00:27:19.619 --> 00:27:22.880
he passed and planting himself before van winkle with one
476
00:27:22.960 --> 00:27:26.049
arm akimbo the other resting on his cane his keen
477
00:27:26.250 --> 00:27:28.410
eyes and sharp hat penetrating as it were into his
478
00:27:28.450 --> 00:27:32.490
very soul demanded in an austere tone what brought him
479
00:27:32.549 --> 00:27:34.990
to the election with a gun on his shoulder and
480
00:27:35.029 --> 00:27:36.960
a mob at his heels and whether he meant to
481
00:27:37.000 --> 00:27:40.720
breed a riot in the village alas gentlemen cried rip
482
00:27:40.779 --> 00:27:44.849
somewhat dismayed i am a poor quiet man a native
483
00:27:44.869 --> 00:27:47.170
of the place, and a loyal subject of the king.
484
00:27:47.569 --> 00:27:51.380
God bless him! Here a general shout burst from the bystanders.
485
00:27:51.690 --> 00:27:55.140
A Tory! A Tory! A spy! A refugee! Hustle him!
486
00:27:55.259 --> 00:27:59.140
Away with him! It was with great difficulty that the
487
00:27:59.200 --> 00:28:02.559
self-important man in the cocked hat restored order, and having
488
00:28:02.599 --> 00:28:05.880
assumed a tenfold austerity of brow, demanded again of the
489
00:28:06.000 --> 00:28:08.829
unknown culprit what he came there for and whom he
490
00:28:08.849 --> 00:28:12.150
was seeking. The poor man humbly assured him that he
491
00:28:12.190 --> 00:28:14.680
meant no harm, but merely came there in search of
492
00:28:14.720 --> 00:28:18.650
some of his neighbors, who used to keep about the tavern.' Well,
493
00:28:18.970 --> 00:28:22.809
who are they? Name them!' Rip bethought himself a moment,
494
00:28:22.930 --> 00:28:28.130
and inquired,' Where' s Nicholas Vedder?' There was a silence for
495
00:28:28.170 --> 00:28:31.289
a little while, when an old man replied in a thin,
496
00:28:31.390 --> 00:28:35.450
piping voice,' Nicholas Vedder? Why, he's dead and gone these
497
00:28:35.519 --> 00:28:38.779
eighteen years. There was a wooden tombstone in the churchyard
498
00:28:38.819 --> 00:28:41.140
that used to tell all about him, but that's rotten
499
00:28:41.180 --> 00:28:46.319
and gone, too.' Where's Brom Dutcher? Oh, he went off
500
00:28:46.339 --> 00:28:48.460
to the army in the beginning of the war. Some
501
00:28:48.500 --> 00:28:50.680
say he was killed at the storming of Stony Point.
502
00:28:51.180 --> 00:28:53.140
Others say he was drowned on a squall at the
503
00:28:53.160 --> 00:28:55.900
foot of Anthony's nose. I don't know. He never came
504
00:28:55.940 --> 00:29:01.019
back again. Where's Van Bummel, the schoolmaster? He went off
505
00:29:01.039 --> 00:29:03.279
to the wars, too, was a great militia general, and
506
00:29:03.319 --> 00:29:07.250
is now in Congress. Rip's heart died away at hearing
507
00:29:07.269 --> 00:29:10.089
of these sad changes in his home and friends, and
508
00:29:10.150 --> 00:29:14.240
finding himself thus alone in the world. Every answer puzzled him, too,
509
00:29:14.319 --> 00:29:17.289
by treating of such enormous lapses of time, and of
510
00:29:17.369 --> 00:29:21.650
matters which he could not understand. War? Congress? Stony Point?
511
00:29:22.430 --> 00:29:24.650
He had no courage to ask after any more friends,
512
00:29:24.930 --> 00:29:27.630
but cried out in despair, Does anybody here know Rip
513
00:29:27.670 --> 00:29:31.230
Van Winkle? Oh, Rip Van Winkle, he explained to her three.
514
00:29:31.250 --> 00:29:33.470
I ought to be sure. That's Rip Van Winkle yonder,
515
00:29:33.569 --> 00:29:36.930
leaning against the tree. Rip looked, and beheld a precise
516
00:29:37.009 --> 00:29:39.890
counterpart of himself as he went up the mountain. Apparently
517
00:29:39.910 --> 00:29:42.700
his lazy and certainly as ragged the poor fellow was
518
00:29:42.740 --> 00:29:45.990
now completely confounded he doubted his own identity and whether
519
00:29:46.049 --> 00:29:48.670
he was himself or another man in the midst of
520
00:29:48.690 --> 00:29:51.349
his bewilderment the man in the cocked hat demanded who
521
00:29:51.390 --> 00:29:54.490
he was and what was his name god knows exclaimed
522
00:29:54.529 --> 00:29:57.809
he at his wits end I'm not myself. I'm somebody else.
523
00:29:57.849 --> 00:30:00.329
That's me yonder. No, that's somebody else gone into my shoes.
524
00:30:00.730 --> 00:30:02.670
I was myself last night, but I fell asleep on
525
00:30:02.690 --> 00:30:04.980
the mountain, and they've changed my gun, and everything's changed,
526
00:30:05.019 --> 00:30:06.900
and I'm changed, and I can't tell what's my name
527
00:30:06.920 --> 00:30:11.259
or who I am. The bystanders began now to look
528
00:30:11.279 --> 00:30:15.019
at each other, nod, wink significantly, and tap their fingers
529
00:30:15.079 --> 00:30:18.609
against their foreheads. There was a whisper also about securing
530
00:30:18.650 --> 00:30:21.049
the gun and keeping the old fellow from doing mischief,
531
00:30:21.430 --> 00:30:23.970
at the very suggestion of which the self-important man in
532
00:30:23.990 --> 00:30:28.559
the cocked hat retired with some precipitation. At this critical
533
00:30:28.619 --> 00:30:31.380
moment a fresh, comely woman pressed through the throng to
534
00:30:31.400 --> 00:30:34.140
get a peep at the grey-bearded man. She had a
535
00:30:34.200 --> 00:30:36.779
chubby child in her arms, which, frightened at his looks,
536
00:30:36.839 --> 00:30:41.589
began to cry.' Hush, Rip!' cried she.' Hush, you little fool!
537
00:30:41.609 --> 00:30:44.809
The old man won't hurt you!' The name of the child,
538
00:30:45.390 --> 00:30:47.609
the air of the mother, the tone of her voice,
539
00:30:47.890 --> 00:30:52.390
all awakened a train of recollections in his mind.' What
540
00:30:52.430 --> 00:30:57.480
is your name, my good woman?' asked he.' Judith Gardenier.''
541
00:30:56.579 --> 00:31:01.920
And your father's name?'' Ah, poor man! Rip Van Winkle
542
00:31:01.960 --> 00:31:04.319
was his name, but it's twenty years since he went
543
00:31:04.359 --> 00:31:06.720
away from home with his gun, and never has been
544
00:31:06.759 --> 00:31:09.970
heard of since. His dog came home without him, but
545
00:31:09.990 --> 00:31:12.410
whether he shot himself or was carried away by the Indians,
546
00:31:12.769 --> 00:31:15.490
nobody can tell. I was then but a little girl.'
547
00:31:16.430 --> 00:31:20.150
Rip had but one question more to ask, but he
548
00:31:20.190 --> 00:31:25.319
put it with a faltering voice.' Where' s your mother?' Oh,
549
00:31:25.660 --> 00:31:28.809
she too had died, but a short time since. She
550
00:31:28.880 --> 00:31:30.789
broke a blood vessel in a fit of passion at
551
00:31:30.829 --> 00:31:34.890
a New England peddler. There was a drop of comfort,
552
00:31:34.930 --> 00:31:38.690
at least in this intelligence. The honest man could contain
553
00:31:38.730 --> 00:31:41.470
himself no longer. He caught his daughter and her child
554
00:31:41.509 --> 00:31:44.920
in his arms. I am your father, cried he. Young
555
00:31:44.980 --> 00:31:48.259
Rip Van Winkle once, old Rip Van Winkle now. Does
556
00:31:48.319 --> 00:31:53.059
nobody know poor Rip Van Winkle? All stood amazed. until
557
00:31:53.079 --> 00:31:55.819
an old woman tottering out from among the crowd put
558
00:31:55.839 --> 00:31:58.339
her hand to her brow and peering under it in
559
00:31:58.380 --> 00:32:01.759
his face for a moment exclaimed sure enough it is
560
00:32:01.880 --> 00:32:05.920
rip van winkle it is himself welcome home again old
561
00:32:05.980 --> 00:32:09.480
neighbor why where have you been these twenty long years
562
00:32:11.299 --> 00:32:14.339
rip's story was soon told for the whole twenty years
563
00:32:14.420 --> 00:32:17.059
had been to him but as one night the neighbors
564
00:32:17.160 --> 00:32:19.339
stared when they heard it some were seen to wink
565
00:32:19.380 --> 00:32:21.500
at each other and put their tongues in their cheeks
566
00:32:22.089 --> 00:32:24.470
and the self-important man in the cocked hat, who when
567
00:32:24.490 --> 00:32:27.099
the alarm was over had returned to the field, screwed
568
00:32:27.130 --> 00:32:29.339
down the corners of his mouth and shook his head,
569
00:32:29.779 --> 00:32:31.680
upon which there was a general shaking of the head
570
00:32:31.720 --> 00:32:35.099
throughout the assemblage. It was determined, however, to take the
571
00:32:35.160 --> 00:32:38.619
opinion of old Peter Vanderdonk, who was seen slowly advancing
572
00:32:38.660 --> 00:32:41.240
up the road. He was a descendant of the historian
573
00:32:41.259 --> 00:32:43.299
of that name, who wrote one of the earliest accounts
574
00:32:43.319 --> 00:32:46.180
of the province. Peter was the most ancient inhabitant of
575
00:32:46.200 --> 00:32:48.920
the village, and well versed in all the wonderful events
576
00:32:48.990 --> 00:32:51.799
and traditions of the neighbourhood, He recollected Rip at once,
577
00:32:52.079 --> 00:32:55.259
and corroborated his story in the most satisfactory manner. He
578
00:32:55.299 --> 00:32:57.740
assured the company that was a fact, handed down from
579
00:32:57.779 --> 00:33:01.609
his ancestor the historian, that the Catskill Mountains had always
580
00:33:01.650 --> 00:33:05.789
been haunted by strange beings, that it was affirmed that
581
00:33:05.829 --> 00:33:08.730
the great Hendrick Hudson, the first discoverer of the river
582
00:33:08.750 --> 00:33:11.690
and country, kept a kind of vigil there every twenty
583
00:33:11.730 --> 00:33:15.079
years with his crew of the half-moon, being permitted in
584
00:33:15.119 --> 00:33:17.940
this way to revisit the scenes of his enterprise and
585
00:33:17.980 --> 00:33:20.640
keep a guardian eye upon the river. and the great
586
00:33:20.720 --> 00:33:23.839
city called by his name, that his father had once
587
00:33:23.880 --> 00:33:26.190
seen them in their old Dutch dresses playing at nine
588
00:33:26.250 --> 00:33:28.529
pins in a hollow of the mountain, and that he
589
00:33:28.569 --> 00:33:31.589
himself had heard, one summer afternoon, the sound of their
590
00:33:31.630 --> 00:33:35.490
balls like distant peals of thunder. To make a long
591
00:33:35.529 --> 00:33:37.990
story short, the company broke up and returned to the
592
00:33:38.029 --> 00:33:41.119
more important concerns of the election. Rip's daughter took him
593
00:33:41.160 --> 00:33:43.839
home to live with her. She had a snug, well-furnished house,
594
00:33:44.259 --> 00:33:46.920
and a stout, cheery farmer for a husband, whom Rip
595
00:33:46.960 --> 00:33:48.900
recollected for one of the urchins that used to climb
596
00:33:48.940 --> 00:33:52.630
upon his back as to Rip's son and heir, who
597
00:33:52.650 --> 00:33:55.029
was the ditto of himself seen leaning against the tree.
598
00:33:55.829 --> 00:33:58.230
He was employed to work on the farm, but evinced
599
00:33:58.269 --> 00:34:01.710
an hereditary disposition to attend to anything but his business.
600
00:34:03.369 --> 00:34:06.329
Rip now resumed his old walks and habits. He soon
601
00:34:06.369 --> 00:34:08.860
found many of his former cronies, though all rather the
602
00:34:08.889 --> 00:34:11.539
worse for wear and tear of time, and preferred making
603
00:34:11.619 --> 00:34:14.320
friends among the rising generation, with whom he soon grew
604
00:34:14.360 --> 00:34:17.519
into great favour. having nothing to do at home and
605
00:34:17.579 --> 00:34:19.840
being arrived at that happy age when a man can
606
00:34:19.880 --> 00:34:22.719
be idle with impunity, he took his place once more
607
00:34:22.780 --> 00:34:24.849
on the bench at the inn door and was reverenced
608
00:34:24.909 --> 00:34:26.769
as one of the patriarchs of the village and a
609
00:34:26.809 --> 00:34:30.210
chronicle of the old times before the war. It was
610
00:34:30.250 --> 00:34:32.150
some time before he could get into the regular track
611
00:34:32.170 --> 00:34:34.929
of gossip or could be made to comprehend the strange
612
00:34:34.989 --> 00:34:37.610
events that had taken place during his torpor, how that
613
00:34:37.630 --> 00:34:39.989
there had been a revolutionary war, that the country had
614
00:34:40.030 --> 00:34:42.280
thrown off the yoke of old England, and that instead
615
00:34:42.300 --> 00:34:45.119
of being a subject of His Majesty George III, He
616
00:34:45.139 --> 00:34:48.400
was now a free citizen of the United States. Rip,
617
00:34:48.440 --> 00:34:51.639
in fact, was no politician. The changes of states and
618
00:34:51.699 --> 00:34:55.199
empires made but little impression on him. But there was
619
00:34:55.389 --> 00:34:58.789
one species of despotism under which he had long groaned,
620
00:34:59.329 --> 00:35:04.010
and that was petticoat government. Happily, that was at an end.
621
00:35:04.610 --> 00:35:06.349
He had got his neck out of the yoke of
622
00:35:06.409 --> 00:35:09.230
matrimony and could go in and out whenever he pleased
623
00:35:09.309 --> 00:35:14.210
without dreading the tyranny of Dame Van Winkle. Whenever her
624
00:35:14.250 --> 00:35:17.750
name was mentioned, however, he shook his head, shrugged his shoulders,
625
00:35:18.110 --> 00:35:20.820
and cast up his eyes, which might pass either for
626
00:35:20.860 --> 00:35:24.000
an expression of resignation to his fate, or joy at
627
00:35:24.059 --> 00:35:27.340
his deliverance. He used to tell his story to every
628
00:35:27.380 --> 00:35:30.980
stranger that arrived at Mr. Doolittle's hotel. He was observed
629
00:35:31.019 --> 00:35:33.059
at first to vary on some points every time he
630
00:35:33.119 --> 00:35:35.840
told it, which was doubtless owing to his having so
631
00:35:35.880 --> 00:35:39.139
recently awaked. It at last settled down to precisely the
632
00:35:39.159 --> 00:35:41.250
tale I have related, and not a man, woman, or
633
00:35:41.329 --> 00:35:44.170
child in the neighborhood but knew it by heart, Some
634
00:35:44.269 --> 00:35:46.769
always pretended to doubt the reality of it, and insisted
635
00:35:46.789 --> 00:35:48.389
that Rip had been out of his head, and that
636
00:35:48.409 --> 00:35:50.650
this was one point on which he always remained fighting.
637
00:35:51.489 --> 00:35:54.750
The old Dutch inhabitants, however, almost universally gave it full credit.
638
00:35:55.489 --> 00:35:57.730
Even to this day, they never hear a thunderstorm on
639
00:35:57.750 --> 00:36:00.610
a summer afternoon about the Catskill, but they say Hendrik
640
00:36:00.650 --> 00:36:02.949
Hudson and his crew are at their game of ninepins.
641
00:36:03.679 --> 00:36:05.860
And it is a common wish of all hemp-pecked husbands
642
00:36:05.900 --> 00:36:08.480
in the neighborhood. When life hangs heavy on their hands,
643
00:36:08.900 --> 00:36:11.420
they might have a quieting draft out of Rip Van
644
00:36:11.460 --> 00:36:18.400
Winkle's flagon. The foregoing tale, one would suspect, had been
645
00:36:18.440 --> 00:36:22.139
suggested to Mr. Knickerbocker by a little German superstition about
646
00:36:22.179 --> 00:36:25.719
the Emperor Frederick de Rothbart and the Kaifhauser Mountain. The
647
00:36:25.739 --> 00:36:28.239
subjoined note, however, which he had appended to the tale,
648
00:36:28.639 --> 00:36:31.469
shows that it is an absolute fact narrated with his
649
00:36:31.570 --> 00:36:35.829
usual fidelity. The story of Rip Van Winkle may seem
650
00:36:35.849 --> 00:36:39.889
incredible to many, but nevertheless I give it my full belief,
651
00:36:40.469 --> 00:36:42.710
for I know the vicinity of our old Dutch settlements
652
00:36:43.030 --> 00:36:46.570
to have been very subject to marvellous events and appearances
653
00:36:47.210 --> 00:36:50.170
indeed i have heard many stranger stories than this in
654
00:36:50.190 --> 00:36:52.610
the villages along the hudson all of which were too
655
00:36:52.679 --> 00:36:55.500
well authenticated to admit of a doubt i have even
656
00:36:55.539 --> 00:36:58.539
talked with rip van winkle myself who when last i
657
00:36:58.619 --> 00:37:01.800
saw him was a venerable old man and so perfectly
658
00:37:01.860 --> 00:37:04.480
rational and consistent on every other point that i think
659
00:37:04.539 --> 00:37:07.380
no conscientious person could refuse to take this into the
660
00:37:07.420 --> 00:37:11.340
bargain I have seen a certificate on the subject taken
661
00:37:11.380 --> 00:37:14.420
before a country justice and signed with a cross in
662
00:37:14.440 --> 00:37:19.139
the justice's own handwriting. The story, therefore, is beyond the
663
00:37:19.159 --> 00:37:26.050
possibility of a doubt. End of recording Rip Van Winkle
664
00:37:28.789 --> 00:37:30.489
Read by Alex Lella
1
00:00:00.880 --> 00:00:04.820
The following tale was found among the papers of the
2
00:00:04.839 --> 00:00:07.500
late Diedrich Knickerbocker, an old gentleman of New York, who
3
00:00:07.549 --> 00:00:10.410
was very curious in the Dutch history of the province
4
00:00:10.429 --> 00:00:13.269
and the manners of the descendants from its primitive settlers.
5
00:00:30.109 --> 00:00:33.570
His historical researches, however, did not lie so much among
6
00:00:33.630 --> 00:00:37.390
books as among men, for the former are lamentably scanty
7
00:00:37.450 --> 00:00:40.450
on his favorite topics, whereas he found the old burghers,
8
00:00:40.950 --> 00:00:44.399
and still more their wives, rich in that legendary lore
9
00:00:44.520 --> 00:00:48.740
so invaluable to true history. Whenever, therefore, he happened upon
10
00:00:48.759 --> 00:00:51.719
a genuine Dutch family snugly shut up in its low-roofed
11
00:00:51.799 --> 00:00:55.359
farmhouse under a spreading sycamore, he looked upon it as
12
00:00:55.399 --> 00:00:58.619
a little clasped volume of black letter, and studied it
13
00:00:58.700 --> 00:01:01.780
with the zeal of a bookworm. The result of all
14
00:01:01.820 --> 00:01:04.200
these researches was a history of the province during the
15
00:01:04.239 --> 00:01:07.459
reign of the Dutch governors, which was published some years since.
16
00:01:09.000 --> 00:01:11.540
There have been various opinions as to the literary character
17
00:01:11.560 --> 00:01:13.819
of his work, and, to tell the truth, it is
18
00:01:13.859 --> 00:01:16.780
not a whit better than it should be. Its chief
19
00:01:16.859 --> 00:01:20.090
merit is its scrupulous accuracy, which indeed was a little
20
00:01:20.170 --> 00:01:23.670
questioned on its first appearance, but has since been completely established,
21
00:01:24.170 --> 00:01:27.310
and is now admitted into all historical collections as a
22
00:01:27.349 --> 00:01:32.730
book of unquestionable authority. The old gentleman died shortly after
23
00:01:32.769 --> 00:01:35.049
the publication of his work, and now that he is
24
00:01:35.090 --> 00:01:37.010
dead and gone it cannot do much harm to his
25
00:01:37.069 --> 00:01:39.409
memory to say that his time might have been better
26
00:01:39.469 --> 00:01:43.359
employed in weightier labours. He, however, was apt to ride
27
00:01:43.400 --> 00:01:45.879
his hobby his own way, and though it did now
28
00:01:45.900 --> 00:01:47.340
and then kick up the dust a little in the
29
00:01:47.459 --> 00:01:49.799
eyes of his neighbours and grieve the spirit of some
30
00:01:49.879 --> 00:01:52.379
friends for whom he felt the truest deference and affection,
31
00:01:53.200 --> 00:01:56.489
yet his errors and follies are remembered more in sorrow
32
00:01:56.909 --> 00:01:59.530
and than in anger. and it begins to be suspected
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that he never intended to injure or offend. But, however
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his memory may be appreciated by critics, it is still
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held dear by many folks whose good opinion is well
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worth having, particularly by certain biscuit bakers, who have gone
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so far as to imprint his likeness on their New
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Year cakes, and have thus given him a chance for immortality,
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almost equal to the being stamped on a Waterloo medal
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or a Queen Anne's farthing. RIP VAN WINKLE by washington
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irving whoever has made a voyage up the hudson must
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remember the catskill mountains they are a dismembered branch of
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the great appalachian family and are seen away to the
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west of the river swelling up to a noble height
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and lording it over the surrounding country every change of
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season every change of weather indeed every hour of the
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day produces some change in the magical hues and shapes
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of these mountains and they are regarded by all the
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good wives far and near as perfect barometers. When the
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weather is fair and settled, they are clothed in blue
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and purple, and print their bold outlines on the clear
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evening sky. But sometimes, when the rest of the landscape
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is cloudless, they will gather a hood of gray vapors
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about their summits, which in the last rays of the
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setting sun will glow and light up like a crown
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of glory. At the foot of these fairy mountains, the
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voyager may have decried the light smoke curling up from
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a village, whose shingle roofs gleam among the trees, just
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where the blue tints of the upland melt away into
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the fresh green of the nearer landscape. It is a
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little village of great antiquity, having been founded by some
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of the Dutch colonists in the early times of the province,
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just about the beginning of the government of the good
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Peter Stuyvesant. May he rest in peace! And there were
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some of the houses of the original settlers, standing within
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a few years, built of small yellow bricks brought from Holland,
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having latticed windows and gable fronts surmounted with weathercocks. In
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that same village, in one of these very houses, which,
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to tell the precise truth, was sadly time-worn and weather-beaten,
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there lived many years since, while the country was yet
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a province of Great Britain, a simple, good-natured fellow of
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the name of Rip Van Winkle. He was a descendant
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of the Van Winkles, who figured so gallantly in the
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chivalrous days of Peter Syvesant, and accompanied him to the
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siege of Fort Christina. He inherited, however, but little of
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the martial character of his ancestors. I have observed that
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he was a simple, good-natured man. He was, moreover, a
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kind neighbor, and an obedient, hen-pecked husband. Indeed, to the
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latter circumstance might be owing that meekness of spirit which
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gained him such universal popularity. For those men are most
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apt to be obsequious and conciliating abroad, who are under
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the discipline of shrews at home, Their tempers, doubtless, are
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rendered pliant and malleable in the fiery furnace of domestic tribulation,
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and a curtain lecture is worth all the sermons in
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the world for teaching the virtues of patience and long-suffering.
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A termigent wife may therefore in some respects be considered
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a tolerable blessing, and if so, Rip Van Winkle was
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thrice blessed. Certain it is that he was a great
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favorite among all the good wives of the village, and who,
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as usual with the amiable sex, took his part in
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all family squabbles, and never failed, whenever they talked those
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matters over in their evening gossipings, to lay all the
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blame on Dame Van Winkle. The children of the village, too,
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would shout with joy whenever he approached. He assisted at
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their sports, made their playthings, taught them to fly kites
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and shoot marbles, and told them long stories of ghosts, witches,
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and Indians. Whenever he went dodging about the village, he
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was surrounded by a troop of them hanging on his skirts,
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clambering on his back, and playing a thousand tricks on
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him with impunity. And not a dog would bark at
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him throughout the neighborhood. The great error in Rip's composition
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was an insuperable aversion to all kinds of profitable labor.
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It could not be from the want of assiduity or perseverance,
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for he would sit on a wet rock and with
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a rod as long and heavy as a tartar's lance,
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and fish all day without a murmur. even though he
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should not be encouraged by a single nibble. He would
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carry a fowling-piece on his shoulder for hours together, trudging
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through woods and swamps and uphill and down dale, to
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shoot a few squirrels or wild pigeons. He would never
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refuse to assist a neighbor, even in the roughest toil,
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and was a foremost man at all country frolics for
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husking Indian corn or building stone fences. The women of
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the village, too, used to employ him to run their errands,
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and do such little odd jobs that as their less
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obliging husbands would not do for them. In a word,
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Rip was ready to attend to anybody's business but his own.
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But as to doing family duty and keeping his farm
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in order, he found it impossible. In fact, he declared
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it was of no use to work on his farm.
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It was the most pestilent little piece of ground in
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the whole country. Everything about it went wrong, and would
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go wrong in spite of him. His fences were continually
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falling to pieces. His cow would either go astray or
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get among the cabbages. Weeds were sure to grow quicker
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in his fields than anywhere else. The rain always made
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a point of setting in, just as he had some
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outdoor work to do, so that though his patrimonial estate
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had dwindled away under his management, acre by acre, until
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there was little more left than a mere patch of
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Indian corn and potatoes, yet it was the worst-conditioned farm
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in the neighborhood. His children, too, were as ragged and
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wild as if they belonged to nobody. His son, Rip,
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an urchin begotten in his own likeness, promised to inherit
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the inhabitants with the old clothes of his father. He
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was generally seen trooping like a colt at his mother's heels,
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equipped in a pair of his father's cast-off gallagaskins, which
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he had much ado to hold up with one hand,
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as a fine lady does her train in bad weather.
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Rip Van Winkle, however, was one of those happy mortals,
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of foolish, well-oiled dispositions. who take the world easy, eat
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white bread or brown, whichever he can be got with
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least thought or trouble, and he would rather starve on
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a penny than work for a pound. If left to himself,
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he would have whistled life away in perfect contentment. But
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his wife kept continually dinning in his ears about his
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carelessness and the ruin he was bringing on his family. Morning, noon,
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and night her tongue was incessantly going, and everything he
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said or did was sure to produce a torrent of
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household eloquence. Rip had but one way of replying to
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all lectures of the kind. and that by frequent use
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had grown into a habit. He shrugged his shoulders, shook
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his head, cast up his eyes, but said nothing. This, however,
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always provoked a fresh volley from his wife, so that
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he was fain to draw off his forces and take
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to the outside of the house. The only side which
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in truth belongs to a hen-pecked husband. Rip's sole domestic
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adherent was his dog, Wolf, who was as much hen-pecked
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as his master. for Dame Van Winkle regarded them as
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companions in idleness, and even looked upon Wolf with an
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evil eye as the cause of his master's going so
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often astray. True it is, in all points of spirit
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befitting an honorable dog, he was as courageous an animal
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as ever scoured the woods. But what courage can withstand
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the ever-during and all-descending terrors of a woman's tongue? The
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moment Wolf entered the house his crest fell, his tail
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drooped to the ground or curled between his legs, he
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sneaked about with a gallows air, casting many a sidelong
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glance at Dame Van Winkle, and at the least flourish
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of a broomstick or ladle, he would fly to the
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door with yelping precipitation. Times grew worse and worse for
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Rip Van Winkle, as years of matrimony rolled on. A
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tart temper never mellows with age, and a sharp tongue
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is the only edged tool that grows keener with constant use.
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For a long while he used to console himself when
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driven from home by frequenting a kind of perpetual club
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of the sages, philosophers, and other idle personages of the village,
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which held its sessions on a bench before a small inn,
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designated by a rubicund portrait of His Majesty, George III.
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Here they used to sit in the shade, through a long,
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lazy summer's day, talking listlessly over village gossip, or telling
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endless sleepy stories about nothing. But it would have been
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worth any statesman's money to have heard the profound discussions
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that sometimes took place, when by chance an old newspaper
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fell into their hands from some passing traveler. How solemnly
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they would listen to the contents, as drawled out by
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Derek Van Bummel, the schoolmaster, a dapper, learned little man,
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who was not to be daunted by the most gigantic
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word in the dictionary— and how sagely they would deliberate
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upon public events some months after they had taken place.
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The opinions of this Ginto were completely controlled by Nicholas Vedder,
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a patriarch of the village and landlord of the inn,
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at the door of which he took his seat from
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morning till night, just moving sufficiently to avoid the sun
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and keep in the shade of a large tree, so
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that the neighbours could tell the hour by his movements
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as accurately as by a sundial. It is true he
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was rarely heard to speak, but smoked his pipe incessantly,
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His adherents, however, for every great man has his adherents,
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perfectly understood him, and knew how to gather his opinions.
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When anything that was read or related displeased him, he
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was observed to smoke his pipe vehemently, and to send
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forth short, frequent, and angry puffs. When pleased, he would
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inhale the smoke slowly and tranquilly, and emit it in
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light and placid clouds, and sometimes, taking the pipe from
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his mouth and letting the fragrant vapour curl about his nose,
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would gravely nod his head. in token of perfect approbation.
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From even this stronghold the unlucky Rip was at length
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routed by his termigant wife, who would suddenly break in
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upon the tranquillity of the assemblage, and call the members
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all to naught. Nor was that august personage Nicholas Vedder himself,
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sacred from the daring tongue of this terrible Virgo, who
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charged him outright with encouraging her husband in habits of idleness.
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Poor Rip was at last reduced almost to despair. and
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his only alternative to escape from the labor of the
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farm and clamor of his wife was to take gun
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in hand and stroll away into the woods. Here he
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would sometimes seat himself at the foot of a tree
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and share the contents of his wallet with Wolf, with
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whom he sympathized as a fellow sufferer in persecution. Poor Wolf,
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he would say, thy mistress leads thee a dog's life
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of it. But never mind, my lad, whilst I live
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thou shalt never want a friend to stand by thee.
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Wolf would wag his tail, look wistfully in his master's face,
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and if dogs can feel pity, I verily believe he
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reciprocated the sentiment with all his heart. In a long
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ramble of the kind, on a fine autumnal day, Rip
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had unconsciously scrambled to one of the highest parts of
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the Catskill Mountains. He was after his favorite sport of squirrel-shooting,
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and the still solitudes had echoed and re-echoed with the
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reports of his gun. Panting and fatigued, he threw himself
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late in the afternoon on a green knoll covered with
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mountain herbage that crowned the brow of a precipice from
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an opening between the trees he could overlook all the
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lower country from many a mile of rich woodland he
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saw at a distance the lordly hudson far far below
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him moving on its silent but majestic course with the
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reflection of a purple cloud or the sail of a
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lagging bark here and there sleeping on its glassy bosom
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and at last losing itself in the blue highlands On
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the other side he looked down into a deep mountain glen, wild, lonely,
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and shagged, the bottom filled with fragments from the impending
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cliffs and scarcely lighted by the reflected rays of the
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setting sun. For some time Rip lay musing on this scene.
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Evening was gradually advancing. The mountains began to throw their
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long blue shadows over the valleys. He saw that it
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would be dark long before he could reach the village,
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and he heaved a heavy sigh when he thought of
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encountering the terrors of Dame Van Winkle. As he was
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about to descend, he heard a voice from a distance howling,
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Rip Van Winkle! Rip Van Winkle! He looked round, but
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could see nothing but a crow winging its solitary flight
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across the mountain. He thought his fancy must have deceived him,
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and turned again to descend when he heard the same
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cry ringing through the still evening air, Rip Van Winkle!
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Rip Van Winkle! At the same time, Wolf whistled up
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his neck, and giving a low growl, skulked to his
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master's side. looking fearfully down into the glen. Rip now
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felt a vague apprehension stealing over him. He looked anxiously
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in the same direction and perceived a strange figure slowly
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toiling up the rocks and bending under the weight of
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something he carried on his back. He was surprised to
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see any human being in this lonely and unfrequented place,
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but supposing it to be someone of the neighborhood in
265
00:15:05.090 --> 00:15:08.070
need of his assistance, he hastened down to yield it.
266
00:15:09.850 --> 00:15:12.070
On nearer approach he was still more surprised at the
267
00:15:12.129 --> 00:15:17.090
singularity of the stranger's appearance. He was a short, square-built
268
00:15:17.269 --> 00:15:20.629
old fellow, with thick bushy hair and a grizzled beard.
269
00:15:21.529 --> 00:15:24.460
His dress was of the antique Dutch fashion, a cloth
270
00:15:24.539 --> 00:15:27.620
jerkin strapped round the waist, several pair of breeches, the
271
00:15:27.740 --> 00:15:31.080
outer one of ample volume, decorated with rows of buttons
272
00:15:31.159 --> 00:15:34.090
down the sides and bunches at the knees. He bore
273
00:15:34.149 --> 00:15:36.570
on his shoulder a stout keg, and that seemed full
274
00:15:36.590 --> 00:15:39.580
of liquor, and made signs for Rip to approach and
275
00:15:39.620 --> 00:15:43.379
assist him with the load. Though rather shy and distrustful
276
00:15:43.399 --> 00:15:47.210
of this new acquaintance, Rip complied with his usual alacrity, and,
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00:15:47.379 --> 00:15:50.149
mutually relieving one another, they clambered up a narrow gully,
278
00:15:50.490 --> 00:15:54.389
apparently the dry bed of a mountain torrent. As they ascended,
279
00:15:54.730 --> 00:15:58.029
Rip every now and then heard long, rolling peals, like
280
00:15:58.110 --> 00:16:01.080
distant thunder, that seemed to issue out of a deep ravine,
281
00:16:01.679 --> 00:16:04.379
or rather cleft between lofty rocks toward which their rugged
282
00:16:04.419 --> 00:16:08.690
path conducted. He paused for an instant, but supposing it
283
00:16:08.730 --> 00:16:11.210
to be the muttering of one of those transient thundershowers
284
00:16:11.269 --> 00:16:16.230
which often take place in mountain heights, he proceeded. Passing
285
00:16:16.250 --> 00:16:18.330
through the ravine, they came to a hollow like a
286
00:16:18.429 --> 00:16:22.740
small amphitheater, surrounded by perpendicular precipices over the brinks of
287
00:16:22.769 --> 00:16:26.039
which impending trees shot their branches, so that you only
288
00:16:26.059 --> 00:16:28.940
caught glimpses of the azure sky and the bright evening cloud.
289
00:16:30.100 --> 00:16:32.379
During the whole time Rip and his companion had labored
290
00:16:32.440 --> 00:16:35.490
on in silence, for though the former marveled greatly what
291
00:16:35.509 --> 00:16:37.610
could be the object of carrying a keg of liquor
292
00:16:37.669 --> 00:16:41.149
up this wild mountain, yet there was something strange and
293
00:16:41.210 --> 00:16:45.789
incomprehensible about the unknown that inspired awe and check familiarity.
294
00:16:47.330 --> 00:16:51.129
On entering the amphitheater, new objects of wonder presented themselves.
295
00:16:51.830 --> 00:16:53.789
On a level spot in the center was a company
296
00:16:53.820 --> 00:16:57.899
of odd-looking personages, laying at nine pins. They were dressed
297
00:16:57.919 --> 00:17:02.240
in a quaint, outlandish fashion, Some wore short doublets, others
298
00:17:02.360 --> 00:17:05.259
jerkins with long knives in their belts, and most of
299
00:17:05.279 --> 00:17:07.740
them had enormous breeches of similar style with that of
300
00:17:07.779 --> 00:17:12.119
the guides. Their visages, too, were peculiar. One had a
301
00:17:12.200 --> 00:17:16.420
large beard, broad face, and small piggish eyes. The face
302
00:17:16.460 --> 00:17:19.160
of another seemed to consist entirely of nose, and was
303
00:17:19.220 --> 00:17:22.019
surmounted by a white sugar-loaf hat set off with a
304
00:17:22.039 --> 00:17:25.789
little red cock's tail. They all had beards of various
305
00:17:25.829 --> 00:17:28.369
shapes and colors. There was one who seemed to be
306
00:17:28.390 --> 00:17:31.380
the commander, He was a stout old gentleman with a
307
00:17:31.460 --> 00:17:35.519
weather-beaten countenance. He wore a laced doublet, broad belt and hanger,
308
00:17:35.859 --> 00:17:39.690
high-crowned hat and feather, red stockings and high-heeled shoes with
309
00:17:39.769 --> 00:17:42.690
roses in them. The whole group reminded Rip of the
310
00:17:42.769 --> 00:17:45.730
figures in an old Flemish painting in the parlor of
311
00:17:45.789 --> 00:17:48.730
Dominique van Schijk, the village parson, and which had been
312
00:17:48.750 --> 00:17:50.950
brought over from Holland at the time of the settlement.
313
00:17:52.630 --> 00:17:54.990
What seemed particularly odd to Rip was that, though these
314
00:17:55.079 --> 00:17:58.759
folks were evidently amusing themselves, yet they maintained the gravest
315
00:17:58.819 --> 00:18:02.410
faces— the most mysterious silence, and were withal the most
316
00:18:02.470 --> 00:18:06.430
melancholy party of pleasure he had ever witnessed. Nothing interrupted
317
00:18:06.450 --> 00:18:09.410
the stillness of the scene but the noise of the balls, which,
318
00:18:09.529 --> 00:18:12.529
whenever they were rolled, echoed along the mountains like rumbling
319
00:18:12.609 --> 00:18:16.450
peals of thunder. As Rip and his companion approached them,
320
00:18:16.829 --> 00:18:19.450
they suddenly desisted from their play and stared at him
321
00:18:19.490 --> 00:18:23.660
with such fixed, statue-like gaze and such strange, uncouth, lackluster
322
00:18:23.700 --> 00:18:27.079
countenances that his heart turned within him and his knees
323
00:18:27.319 --> 00:18:31.329
smoked together. His companion now emptied the contents of the
324
00:18:31.369 --> 00:18:34.529
keg into large flagons, and made signs to him to
325
00:18:34.569 --> 00:18:38.190
wait upon the company. He obeyed with fear and trembling.
326
00:18:38.690 --> 00:18:41.970
They quaffed a liquor in profound silence, and then returned
327
00:18:42.029 --> 00:18:46.980
to their game. By degrees, Rip's awe and apprehension subsided.
328
00:18:47.720 --> 00:18:50.720
He even adventured, when no eye was fixed upon him,
329
00:18:50.900 --> 00:18:54.059
to taste the beverage, which he found had much of
330
00:18:54.099 --> 00:18:59.049
the flavor of excellent Holland's. He was, naturally, a thirsty soul,
331
00:18:59.450 --> 00:19:03.240
and was soon tempted to repeat the draft. One taste
332
00:19:03.299 --> 00:19:06.720
provoked another, and he reiterated his visits to the flagon
333
00:19:07.140 --> 00:19:11.119
so often that at length his senses were overpowered. His
334
00:19:11.660 --> 00:19:16.220
eyes swam in his head, his head gradually declined, and
335
00:19:16.240 --> 00:19:21.950
he fell into a deep sleep. On waking, he found
336
00:19:21.970 --> 00:19:24.349
himself on the green knoll once he had first seen
337
00:19:24.410 --> 00:19:27.650
the man of the glen. He rubbed his eyes. It
338
00:19:27.690 --> 00:19:30.390
was a bright, sunny morning. The birds were hopping and
339
00:19:30.430 --> 00:19:33.539
twittering among the bushes, and the eagle was wheeling aloft
340
00:19:33.680 --> 00:19:38.319
and breasting the pure mountain breeze.' Surely,' thought Rip,' I
341
00:19:38.359 --> 00:19:42.900
have not slept here all night!' He recalled the occurrences
342
00:19:42.960 --> 00:19:46.349
before he fell asleep. The strange man with a keg
343
00:19:46.369 --> 00:19:49.829
of liquor, the mountain ravine, the wild retreat among the
344
00:19:49.869 --> 00:19:54.819
rocks— the woebegone party at Ninepins, the flag— Oh, that flagon!
345
00:19:55.200 --> 00:19:58.500
That wicked flagon! thought Rip. What excuse shall I make
346
00:19:58.519 --> 00:20:02.500
to Dame Van Winkle? He looked round for his gun,
347
00:20:03.079 --> 00:20:06.319
but in place of the clean, well-oiled fowling-piece, he found
348
00:20:06.339 --> 00:20:09.980
an old firelock lying by him. the barrel encrusted with rust,
349
00:20:10.279 --> 00:20:13.819
the lock falling off, and the stock worm-eaten. He now
350
00:20:13.900 --> 00:20:16.460
suspected that the grave roisterers of the mountain had put
351
00:20:16.480 --> 00:20:18.880
a trick upon him, and having dosed him with liquor,
352
00:20:18.920 --> 00:20:22.140
had robbed him of his gun. Wolf, too, had disappeared,
353
00:20:22.549 --> 00:20:25.150
but he might have strayed away after a squirrel or partridge.
354
00:20:25.849 --> 00:20:28.750
He whistled after him, and shouted his name, but all
355
00:20:28.789 --> 00:20:32.309
in vain. The echoes repeated his whistle and shout, but
356
00:20:32.410 --> 00:20:36.470
no dog was to be seen. He determined to revisit
357
00:20:36.490 --> 00:20:38.759
the scene of the last evening's gamble, and if he
358
00:20:38.799 --> 00:20:40.940
met with any of the party, to demand his dog
359
00:20:41.000 --> 00:20:43.880
and gun. As he rose to walk he found himself
360
00:20:44.039 --> 00:20:46.980
stiff in the joints, and wanting in his usual activity.
361
00:20:47.940 --> 00:20:50.539
These mountain beds do not agree with me, thought Rip,
362
00:20:51.059 --> 00:20:52.839
and if this frolic should lay me up with a
363
00:20:52.880 --> 00:20:55.380
fit of the rheumatism, I shall have a blessed time
364
00:20:55.420 --> 00:20:59.859
with Dame Van Winkle. With some difficulty he got down
365
00:20:59.900 --> 00:21:02.319
into the glen. He found the gully up which he
366
00:21:02.359 --> 00:21:05.180
and his companion had ascended the preceding evening, but to
367
00:21:05.220 --> 00:21:08.079
his astonishment a mountain stream was now foaming down it.
368
00:21:08.500 --> 00:21:10.980
leaping from rock to rock and filling the glen with
369
00:21:11.039 --> 00:21:15.079
babbling murmurs. He, however, made shift to scramble up its sides,
370
00:21:15.400 --> 00:21:19.380
working his toilsome way through thickets of birch, sassafras, and witch-hazel,
371
00:21:19.819 --> 00:21:22.880
and sometimes tripped up or entangled by the wild grape-vines
372
00:21:23.220 --> 00:21:25.769
that twisted their quails or tendrils from tree to tree,
373
00:21:26.309 --> 00:21:30.230
and spread a kind of network in his path. At
374
00:21:30.269 --> 00:21:32.329
length he reached to where the ravine had opened through
375
00:21:32.349 --> 00:21:35.170
the cliffs to the amphitheatre, but no traces of such
376
00:21:35.309 --> 00:21:39.480
opening remained. The rocks presented a high, impenetrable wall, over
377
00:21:39.500 --> 00:21:42.039
which the torrent came tumbling in a sheet of feathery foam,
378
00:21:42.359 --> 00:21:45.200
and fell into a broad, deep basin, black from the
379
00:21:45.240 --> 00:21:48.650
shadows of the surrounding forest. Here, then, poor Rip was
380
00:21:48.710 --> 00:21:51.430
brought to a stand. He again called and whistled after
381
00:21:51.470 --> 00:21:54.329
his dog. He was only answered by the cawing of
382
00:21:54.369 --> 00:21:57.369
a flock of idle crows, sporting high in air about
383
00:21:57.390 --> 00:22:00.619
a dry tree that overhung a sunny precipice, and who,
384
00:22:00.779 --> 00:22:03.819
secure in their elevation, seemed to look down and scoff
385
00:22:03.859 --> 00:22:07.329
at the poor man's perplexities. What was to be done?
386
00:22:08.069 --> 00:22:11.049
The morning was passing away, and Rip felt famished for
387
00:22:11.130 --> 00:22:13.890
one of his breakfast. He grieved to give up his
388
00:22:13.950 --> 00:22:17.220
dog and gun. He dreaded to meet his wife, but
389
00:22:17.240 --> 00:22:20.019
it would not do to starve among the mountains. He
390
00:22:20.059 --> 00:22:23.420
shook his head, shouldered the rusty firelock, and with a
391
00:22:23.460 --> 00:22:26.559
heart full of trouble and anxiety turned his steps homeward.
392
00:22:28.440 --> 00:22:31.039
As he approached the village he met a number of people,
393
00:22:31.279 --> 00:22:34.930
but none whom he knew, which somewhat surprised him. for
394
00:22:34.970 --> 00:22:36.910
he had thought himself acquainted with every one in the
395
00:22:36.950 --> 00:22:40.509
country round. Their dress, too, was of different fashion from
396
00:22:40.549 --> 00:22:43.250
that to which he was accustomed. They all stared at
397
00:22:43.269 --> 00:22:46.150
him with equal marks of surprise, and whenever they cast
398
00:22:46.210 --> 00:22:50.730
their eyes upon him, invariably stroked their chins. The constant
399
00:22:50.769 --> 00:22:55.339
recurrence of this gesture induced Rip, involuntarily, to do the same, when,
400
00:22:55.380 --> 00:22:58.000
to his astonishment, he found his beard had grown a
401
00:22:58.099 --> 00:23:02.019
foot long. He had now entered the skirts of the village.
402
00:23:02.549 --> 00:23:05.269
A troop of strange children ran at his heels, hooning
403
00:23:05.390 --> 00:23:08.789
after him and pointing at his grey beard. The dogs, too,
404
00:23:09.130 --> 00:23:11.390
not one of which he recognized for an old acquaintance,
405
00:23:11.609 --> 00:23:14.950
barked at him as he passed. The very village was altered.
406
00:23:15.230 --> 00:23:17.950
It was larger and more populous. There were rows of
407
00:23:18.029 --> 00:23:20.529
houses which he had never seen before, and those which
408
00:23:20.549 --> 00:23:24.869
had been his familiar haunts had disappeared. Strange names were
409
00:23:24.930 --> 00:23:28.329
over the doors. Strange faces at the windows. Everything was strange.
410
00:23:28.769 --> 00:23:31.710
His mind now misgave him. He began to doubt whether
411
00:23:31.750 --> 00:23:33.849
both he and the world around him were not bewitched.
412
00:23:34.789 --> 00:23:36.930
Surely this was his native village, which he had left
413
00:23:36.990 --> 00:23:40.460
but the day before. There stood the Catskill Mountains. There
414
00:23:40.500 --> 00:23:43.160
ran the Silver Hudson at a distance. There was every
415
00:23:43.200 --> 00:23:46.319
hill and dale, precisely as it has always been. Rip
416
00:23:46.380 --> 00:23:50.660
was sorely perplexed.' That flagon last night,' thought he,' has
417
00:23:50.839 --> 00:23:54.970
addled my poor head sadly.' It was with some difficulty
418
00:23:55.009 --> 00:23:57.599
that he found his way to his own house. which
419
00:23:57.700 --> 00:24:00.779
he approached with silent awe, expecting every moment to hear
420
00:24:00.799 --> 00:24:04.309
the shrill voice of Dame Van Winkle. He found the
421
00:24:04.349 --> 00:24:08.029
house gone to decay, the roof fallen in, the windows shattered,
422
00:24:08.049 --> 00:24:11.670
and the doors off the hinges. A half-starved dog that
423
00:24:11.710 --> 00:24:14.750
looked like Roof was skulking about it. Rip called him
424
00:24:14.769 --> 00:24:17.410
by name, but the girl snarled, showed his teeth, and
425
00:24:17.450 --> 00:24:23.250
passed on. This was an unkind cut indeed.' My very dog,'
426
00:24:23.160 --> 00:24:27.599
sighed poor Rip,' has forgotten me. He entered the house, which,
427
00:24:27.819 --> 00:24:30.690
to tell the truth, Dame Van Winkle had always kept
428
00:24:30.750 --> 00:24:35.210
in neat order. It was empty, forlorn, and apparently abandoned.
429
00:24:35.710 --> 00:24:39.490
This desolateness overcame all his connubial fears. He called loudly
430
00:24:39.569 --> 00:24:42.490
for his wife and children. The lonely chambers rang for
431
00:24:42.529 --> 00:24:44.990
a moment with his voice, and then all again was silence.
432
00:24:46.759 --> 00:24:49.019
He now hurried forth and hastened to his old resort,
433
00:24:49.079 --> 00:24:51.900
the village inn, but it too was gone. a large
434
00:24:52.009 --> 00:24:54.849
rickety wooden building stood in its place with great gaping
435
00:24:54.910 --> 00:24:57.430
windows some of them broken and mended with old hats
436
00:24:57.470 --> 00:25:01.369
and petticoats and over the door was painted the union
437
00:25:01.430 --> 00:25:05.690
hotel by jonathan doolittle instead of the great tree that
438
00:25:05.750 --> 00:25:07.849
used to shelter the quiet little dutch inn of yore
439
00:25:08.210 --> 00:25:11.630
there now was reared a tall naked pole with something
440
00:25:11.670 --> 00:25:14.130
on the top that looked like a red nightcap and
441
00:25:14.230 --> 00:25:16.609
from it was fluttering a flag on which was a
442
00:25:16.690 --> 00:25:21.049
singular assemblage of stars and stripes All this was strange
443
00:25:21.069 --> 00:25:25.279
and incomprehensible. He recognized on the sign, however, the ruby
444
00:25:25.339 --> 00:25:27.920
face of King George, under which he had smoked so
445
00:25:27.940 --> 00:25:31.599
many a peaceful pipe. But even this was singularly metamorphosed.
446
00:25:31.980 --> 00:25:34.539
The red coat was changed for one of blue and buff.
447
00:25:35.279 --> 00:25:37.420
A sword was held in the hand instead of a scepter.
448
00:25:37.920 --> 00:25:40.990
The head was decorated with a cocked hat, and underneath
449
00:25:41.069 --> 00:25:48.200
was painted in large characters, General George Washington. There was,
450
00:25:48.299 --> 00:25:50.660
as usual, a crowd of folk about the door, but
451
00:25:50.789 --> 00:25:53.910
none that Rip recollected. The very character of the people
452
00:25:53.970 --> 00:25:58.099
seemed changed. There was a busy, puzzling, disputatious tone about it,
453
00:25:58.410 --> 00:26:02.859
instead of the accustomed phlegm and drowsy tranquillity. He looked
454
00:26:02.880 --> 00:26:05.640
in vain for the sage Nicholas Vedder, with his broad face,
455
00:26:06.000 --> 00:26:09.440
double chin, and fair long pipe, uttering clouds of tobacco
456
00:26:09.539 --> 00:26:13.119
smoke instead of idle speeches. Or Van Bummel, the schoolmaster,
457
00:26:13.440 --> 00:26:16.450
doling forth the contents of an ancient newspaper, in places
458
00:26:16.869 --> 00:26:19.529
In place of these, a lean, bilious-looking fellow with his
459
00:26:19.609 --> 00:26:24.440
pockets full of hand-bulls was hanging vehemently about rights of citizens, elections,
460
00:26:24.799 --> 00:26:29.380
members of Congress, liberty, Bunker's Hill, heroes of Seventy-Six, and
461
00:26:29.480 --> 00:26:32.359
other words which were a perfect Babylonish jargon to the
462
00:26:32.380 --> 00:26:37.049
bewildered Van Winkle. The appearance of Rip, with his wrong,
463
00:26:37.089 --> 00:26:40.750
grizzled beard, his rusty fowling-piece, his uncouth dress, and an
464
00:26:40.869 --> 00:26:43.450
army of women and children at his heels, soon attracted
465
00:26:43.470 --> 00:26:47.099
the attention of the tavern politicians— They crowded round him,
466
00:26:47.640 --> 00:26:51.019
eyeing him from head to foot with great curiosity. The
467
00:26:51.119 --> 00:26:54.759
orator bustled up to him, and, drawing him partly aside, inquired,
468
00:26:55.380 --> 00:26:59.319
On which side he voted. Rip stared in vacant stupidity.
469
00:27:00.140 --> 00:27:03.490
Another short but busy little fellow pulled him by the arm, and,
470
00:27:03.569 --> 00:27:06.569
rising on tiptoe, inquired in his ear whether he was
471
00:27:06.690 --> 00:27:10.190
Federal or Democrat. Rip was equally at a loss to
472
00:27:10.230 --> 00:27:14.529
comprehend the question, when a knowing, self-important old gentleman, in
473
00:27:14.569 --> 00:27:17.799
a sharp-cocked hat, made his way through the crowd putting
474
00:27:17.839 --> 00:27:19.599
them to the right and left with his elbows as
475
00:27:19.619 --> 00:27:22.880
he passed and planting himself before van winkle with one
476
00:27:22.960 --> 00:27:26.049
arm akimbo the other resting on his cane his keen
477
00:27:26.250 --> 00:27:28.410
eyes and sharp hat penetrating as it were into his
478
00:27:28.450 --> 00:27:32.490
very soul demanded in an austere tone what brought him
479
00:27:32.549 --> 00:27:34.990
to the election with a gun on his shoulder and
480
00:27:35.029 --> 00:27:36.960
a mob at his heels and whether he meant to
481
00:27:37.000 --> 00:27:40.720
breed a riot in the village alas gentlemen cried rip
482
00:27:40.779 --> 00:27:44.849
somewhat dismayed i am a poor quiet man a native
483
00:27:44.869 --> 00:27:47.170
of the place, and a loyal subject of the king.
484
00:27:47.569 --> 00:27:51.380
God bless him! Here a general shout burst from the bystanders.
485
00:27:51.690 --> 00:27:55.140
A Tory! A Tory! A spy! A refugee! Hustle him!
486
00:27:55.259 --> 00:27:59.140
Away with him! It was with great difficulty that the
487
00:27:59.200 --> 00:28:02.559
self-important man in the cocked hat restored order, and having
488
00:28:02.599 --> 00:28:05.880
assumed a tenfold austerity of brow, demanded again of the
489
00:28:06.000 --> 00:28:08.829
unknown culprit what he came there for and whom he
490
00:28:08.849 --> 00:28:12.150
was seeking. The poor man humbly assured him that he
491
00:28:12.190 --> 00:28:14.680
meant no harm, but merely came there in search of
492
00:28:14.720 --> 00:28:18.650
some of his neighbors, who used to keep about the tavern.' Well,
493
00:28:18.970 --> 00:28:22.809
who are they? Name them!' Rip bethought himself a moment,
494
00:28:22.930 --> 00:28:28.130
and inquired,' Where' s Nicholas Vedder?' There was a silence for
495
00:28:28.170 --> 00:28:31.289
a little while, when an old man replied in a thin,
496
00:28:31.390 --> 00:28:35.450
piping voice,' Nicholas Vedder? Why, he's dead and gone these
497
00:28:35.519 --> 00:28:38.779
eighteen years. There was a wooden tombstone in the churchyard
498
00:28:38.819 --> 00:28:41.140
that used to tell all about him, but that's rotten
499
00:28:41.180 --> 00:28:46.319
and gone, too.' Where's Brom Dutcher? Oh, he went off
500
00:28:46.339 --> 00:28:48.460
to the army in the beginning of the war. Some
501
00:28:48.500 --> 00:28:50.680
say he was killed at the storming of Stony Point.
502
00:28:51.180 --> 00:28:53.140
Others say he was drowned on a squall at the
503
00:28:53.160 --> 00:28:55.900
foot of Anthony's nose. I don't know. He never came
504
00:28:55.940 --> 00:29:01.019
back again. Where's Van Bummel, the schoolmaster? He went off
505
00:29:01.039 --> 00:29:03.279
to the wars, too, was a great militia general, and
506
00:29:03.319 --> 00:29:07.250
is now in Congress. Rip's heart died away at hearing
507
00:29:07.269 --> 00:29:10.089
of these sad changes in his home and friends, and
508
00:29:10.150 --> 00:29:14.240
finding himself thus alone in the world. Every answer puzzled him, too,
509
00:29:14.319 --> 00:29:17.289
by treating of such enormous lapses of time, and of
510
00:29:17.369 --> 00:29:21.650
matters which he could not understand. War? Congress? Stony Point?
511
00:29:22.430 --> 00:29:24.650
He had no courage to ask after any more friends,
512
00:29:24.930 --> 00:29:27.630
but cried out in despair, Does anybody here know Rip
513
00:29:27.670 --> 00:29:31.230
Van Winkle? Oh, Rip Van Winkle, he explained to her three.
514
00:29:31.250 --> 00:29:33.470
I ought to be sure. That's Rip Van Winkle yonder,
515
00:29:33.569 --> 00:29:36.930
leaning against the tree. Rip looked, and beheld a precise
516
00:29:37.009 --> 00:29:39.890
counterpart of himself as he went up the mountain. Apparently
517
00:29:39.910 --> 00:29:42.700
his lazy and certainly as ragged the poor fellow was
518
00:29:42.740 --> 00:29:45.990
now completely confounded he doubted his own identity and whether
519
00:29:46.049 --> 00:29:48.670
he was himself or another man in the midst of
520
00:29:48.690 --> 00:29:51.349
his bewilderment the man in the cocked hat demanded who
521
00:29:51.390 --> 00:29:54.490
he was and what was his name god knows exclaimed
522
00:29:54.529 --> 00:29:57.809
he at his wits end I'm not myself. I'm somebody else.
523
00:29:57.849 --> 00:30:00.329
That's me yonder. No, that's somebody else gone into my shoes.
524
00:30:00.730 --> 00:30:02.670
I was myself last night, but I fell asleep on
525
00:30:02.690 --> 00:30:04.980
the mountain, and they've changed my gun, and everything's changed,
526
00:30:05.019 --> 00:30:06.900
and I'm changed, and I can't tell what's my name
527
00:30:06.920 --> 00:30:11.259
or who I am. The bystanders began now to look
528
00:30:11.279 --> 00:30:15.019
at each other, nod, wink significantly, and tap their fingers
529
00:30:15.079 --> 00:30:18.609
against their foreheads. There was a whisper also about securing
530
00:30:18.650 --> 00:30:21.049
the gun and keeping the old fellow from doing mischief,
531
00:30:21.430 --> 00:30:23.970
at the very suggestion of which the self-important man in
532
00:30:23.990 --> 00:30:28.559
the cocked hat retired with some precipitation. At this critical
533
00:30:28.619 --> 00:30:31.380
moment a fresh, comely woman pressed through the throng to
534
00:30:31.400 --> 00:30:34.140
get a peep at the grey-bearded man. She had a
535
00:30:34.200 --> 00:30:36.779
chubby child in her arms, which, frightened at his looks,
536
00:30:36.839 --> 00:30:41.589
began to cry.' Hush, Rip!' cried she.' Hush, you little fool!
537
00:30:41.609 --> 00:30:44.809
The old man won't hurt you!' The name of the child,
538
00:30:45.390 --> 00:30:47.609
the air of the mother, the tone of her voice,
539
00:30:47.890 --> 00:30:52.390
all awakened a train of recollections in his mind.' What
540
00:30:52.430 --> 00:30:57.480
is your name, my good woman?' asked he.' Judith Gardenier.''
541
00:30:56.579 --> 00:31:01.920
And your father's name?'' Ah, poor man! Rip Van Winkle
542
00:31:01.960 --> 00:31:04.319
was his name, but it's twenty years since he went
543
00:31:04.359 --> 00:31:06.720
away from home with his gun, and never has been
544
00:31:06.759 --> 00:31:09.970
heard of since. His dog came home without him, but
545
00:31:09.990 --> 00:31:12.410
whether he shot himself or was carried away by the Indians,
546
00:31:12.769 --> 00:31:15.490
nobody can tell. I was then but a little girl.'
547
00:31:16.430 --> 00:31:20.150
Rip had but one question more to ask, but he
548
00:31:20.190 --> 00:31:25.319
put it with a faltering voice.' Where' s your mother?' Oh,
549
00:31:25.660 --> 00:31:28.809
she too had died, but a short time since. She
550
00:31:28.880 --> 00:31:30.789
broke a blood vessel in a fit of passion at
551
00:31:30.829 --> 00:31:34.890
a New England peddler. There was a drop of comfort,
552
00:31:34.930 --> 00:31:38.690
at least in this intelligence. The honest man could contain
553
00:31:38.730 --> 00:31:41.470
himself no longer. He caught his daughter and her child
554
00:31:41.509 --> 00:31:44.920
in his arms. I am your father, cried he. Young
555
00:31:44.980 --> 00:31:48.259
Rip Van Winkle once, old Rip Van Winkle now. Does
556
00:31:48.319 --> 00:31:53.059
nobody know poor Rip Van Winkle? All stood amazed. until
557
00:31:53.079 --> 00:31:55.819
an old woman tottering out from among the crowd put
558
00:31:55.839 --> 00:31:58.339
her hand to her brow and peering under it in
559
00:31:58.380 --> 00:32:01.759
his face for a moment exclaimed sure enough it is
560
00:32:01.880 --> 00:32:05.920
rip van winkle it is himself welcome home again old
561
00:32:05.980 --> 00:32:09.480
neighbor why where have you been these twenty long years
562
00:32:11.299 --> 00:32:14.339
rip's story was soon told for the whole twenty years
563
00:32:14.420 --> 00:32:17.059
had been to him but as one night the neighbors
564
00:32:17.160 --> 00:32:19.339
stared when they heard it some were seen to wink
565
00:32:19.380 --> 00:32:21.500
at each other and put their tongues in their cheeks
566
00:32:22.089 --> 00:32:24.470
and the self-important man in the cocked hat, who when
567
00:32:24.490 --> 00:32:27.099
the alarm was over had returned to the field, screwed
568
00:32:27.130 --> 00:32:29.339
down the corners of his mouth and shook his head,
569
00:32:29.779 --> 00:32:31.680
upon which there was a general shaking of the head
570
00:32:31.720 --> 00:32:35.099
throughout the assemblage. It was determined, however, to take the
571
00:32:35.160 --> 00:32:38.619
opinion of old Peter Vanderdonk, who was seen slowly advancing
572
00:32:38.660 --> 00:32:41.240
up the road. He was a descendant of the historian
573
00:32:41.259 --> 00:32:43.299
of that name, who wrote one of the earliest accounts
574
00:32:43.319 --> 00:32:46.180
of the province. Peter was the most ancient inhabitant of
575
00:32:46.200 --> 00:32:48.920
the village, and well versed in all the wonderful events
576
00:32:48.990 --> 00:32:51.799
and traditions of the neighbourhood, He recollected Rip at once,
577
00:32:52.079 --> 00:32:55.259
and corroborated his story in the most satisfactory manner. He
578
00:32:55.299 --> 00:32:57.740
assured the company that was a fact, handed down from
579
00:32:57.779 --> 00:33:01.609
his ancestor the historian, that the Catskill Mountains had always
580
00:33:01.650 --> 00:33:05.789
been haunted by strange beings, that it was affirmed that
581
00:33:05.829 --> 00:33:08.730
the great Hendrick Hudson, the first discoverer of the river
582
00:33:08.750 --> 00:33:11.690
and country, kept a kind of vigil there every twenty
583
00:33:11.730 --> 00:33:15.079
years with his crew of the half-moon, being permitted in
584
00:33:15.119 --> 00:33:17.940
this way to revisit the scenes of his enterprise and
585
00:33:17.980 --> 00:33:20.640
keep a guardian eye upon the river. and the great
586
00:33:20.720 --> 00:33:23.839
city called by his name, that his father had once
587
00:33:23.880 --> 00:33:26.190
seen them in their old Dutch dresses playing at nine
588
00:33:26.250 --> 00:33:28.529
pins in a hollow of the mountain, and that he
589
00:33:28.569 --> 00:33:31.589
himself had heard, one summer afternoon, the sound of their
590
00:33:31.630 --> 00:33:35.490
balls like distant peals of thunder. To make a long
591
00:33:35.529 --> 00:33:37.990
story short, the company broke up and returned to the
592
00:33:38.029 --> 00:33:41.119
more important concerns of the election. Rip's daughter took him
593
00:33:41.160 --> 00:33:43.839
home to live with her. She had a snug, well-furnished house,
594
00:33:44.259 --> 00:33:46.920
and a stout, cheery farmer for a husband, whom Rip
595
00:33:46.960 --> 00:33:48.900
recollected for one of the urchins that used to climb
596
00:33:48.940 --> 00:33:52.630
upon his back as to Rip's son and heir, who
597
00:33:52.650 --> 00:33:55.029
was the ditto of himself seen leaning against the tree.
598
00:33:55.829 --> 00:33:58.230
He was employed to work on the farm, but evinced
599
00:33:58.269 --> 00:34:01.710
an hereditary disposition to attend to anything but his business.
600
00:34:03.369 --> 00:34:06.329
Rip now resumed his old walks and habits. He soon
601
00:34:06.369 --> 00:34:08.860
found many of his former cronies, though all rather the
602
00:34:08.889 --> 00:34:11.539
worse for wear and tear of time, and preferred making
603
00:34:11.619 --> 00:34:14.320
friends among the rising generation, with whom he soon grew
604
00:34:14.360 --> 00:34:17.519
into great favour. having nothing to do at home and
605
00:34:17.579 --> 00:34:19.840
being arrived at that happy age when a man can
606
00:34:19.880 --> 00:34:22.719
be idle with impunity, he took his place once more
607
00:34:22.780 --> 00:34:24.849
on the bench at the inn door and was reverenced
608
00:34:24.909 --> 00:34:26.769
as one of the patriarchs of the village and a
609
00:34:26.809 --> 00:34:30.210
chronicle of the old times before the war. It was
610
00:34:30.250 --> 00:34:32.150
some time before he could get into the regular track
611
00:34:32.170 --> 00:34:34.929
of gossip or could be made to comprehend the strange
612
00:34:34.989 --> 00:34:37.610
events that had taken place during his torpor, how that
613
00:34:37.630 --> 00:34:39.989
there had been a revolutionary war, that the country had
614
00:34:40.030 --> 00:34:42.280
thrown off the yoke of old England, and that instead
615
00:34:42.300 --> 00:34:45.119
of being a subject of His Majesty George III, He
616
00:34:45.139 --> 00:34:48.400
was now a free citizen of the United States. Rip,
617
00:34:48.440 --> 00:34:51.639
in fact, was no politician. The changes of states and
618
00:34:51.699 --> 00:34:55.199
empires made but little impression on him. But there was
619
00:34:55.389 --> 00:34:58.789
one species of despotism under which he had long groaned,
620
00:34:59.329 --> 00:35:04.010
and that was petticoat government. Happily, that was at an end.
621
00:35:04.610 --> 00:35:06.349
He had got his neck out of the yoke of
622
00:35:06.409 --> 00:35:09.230
matrimony and could go in and out whenever he pleased
623
00:35:09.309 --> 00:35:14.210
without dreading the tyranny of Dame Van Winkle. Whenever her
624
00:35:14.250 --> 00:35:17.750
name was mentioned, however, he shook his head, shrugged his shoulders,
625
00:35:18.110 --> 00:35:20.820
and cast up his eyes, which might pass either for
626
00:35:20.860 --> 00:35:24.000
an expression of resignation to his fate, or joy at
627
00:35:24.059 --> 00:35:27.340
his deliverance. He used to tell his story to every
628
00:35:27.380 --> 00:35:30.980
stranger that arrived at Mr. Doolittle's hotel. He was observed
629
00:35:31.019 --> 00:35:33.059
at first to vary on some points every time he
630
00:35:33.119 --> 00:35:35.840
told it, which was doubtless owing to his having so
631
00:35:35.880 --> 00:35:39.139
recently awaked. It at last settled down to precisely the
632
00:35:39.159 --> 00:35:41.250
tale I have related, and not a man, woman, or
633
00:35:41.329 --> 00:35:44.170
child in the neighborhood but knew it by heart, Some
634
00:35:44.269 --> 00:35:46.769
always pretended to doubt the reality of it, and insisted
635
00:35:46.789 --> 00:35:48.389
that Rip had been out of his head, and that
636
00:35:48.409 --> 00:35:50.650
this was one point on which he always remained fighting.
637
00:35:51.489 --> 00:35:54.750
The old Dutch inhabitants, however, almost universally gave it full credit.
638
00:35:55.489 --> 00:35:57.730
Even to this day, they never hear a thunderstorm on
639
00:35:57.750 --> 00:36:00.610
a summer afternoon about the Catskill, but they say Hendrik
640
00:36:00.650 --> 00:36:02.949
Hudson and his crew are at their game of ninepins.
641
00:36:03.679 --> 00:36:05.860
And it is a common wish of all hemp-pecked husbands
642
00:36:05.900 --> 00:36:08.480
in the neighborhood. When life hangs heavy on their hands,
643
00:36:08.900 --> 00:36:11.420
they might have a quieting draft out of Rip Van
644
00:36:11.460 --> 00:36:18.400
Winkle's flagon. The foregoing tale, one would suspect, had been
645
00:36:18.440 --> 00:36:22.139
suggested to Mr. Knickerbocker by a little German superstition about
646
00:36:22.179 --> 00:36:25.719
the Emperor Frederick de Rothbart and the Kaifhauser Mountain. The
647
00:36:25.739 --> 00:36:28.239
subjoined note, however, which he had appended to the tale,
648
00:36:28.639 --> 00:36:31.469
shows that it is an absolute fact narrated with his
649
00:36:31.570 --> 00:36:35.829
usual fidelity. The story of Rip Van Winkle may seem
650
00:36:35.849 --> 00:36:39.889
incredible to many, but nevertheless I give it my full belief,
651
00:36:40.469 --> 00:36:42.710
for I know the vicinity of our old Dutch settlements
652
00:36:43.030 --> 00:36:46.570
to have been very subject to marvellous events and appearances
653
00:36:47.210 --> 00:36:50.170
indeed i have heard many stranger stories than this in
654
00:36:50.190 --> 00:36:52.610
the villages along the hudson all of which were too
655
00:36:52.679 --> 00:36:55.500
well authenticated to admit of a doubt i have even
656
00:36:55.539 --> 00:36:58.539
talked with rip van winkle myself who when last i
657
00:36:58.619 --> 00:37:01.800
saw him was a venerable old man and so perfectly
658
00:37:01.860 --> 00:37:04.480
rational and consistent on every other point that i think
659
00:37:04.539 --> 00:37:07.380
no conscientious person could refuse to take this into the
660
00:37:07.420 --> 00:37:11.340
bargain I have seen a certificate on the subject taken
661
00:37:11.380 --> 00:37:14.420
before a country justice and signed with a cross in
662
00:37:14.440 --> 00:37:19.139
the justice's own handwriting. The story, therefore, is beyond the
663
00:37:19.159 --> 00:37:26.050
possibility of a doubt. End of recording Rip Van Winkle
664
00:37:28.789 --> 00:37:30.489
Read by Alex Lella
