Rip Van Winkle’s Wicked Flagon

Abstract

Although Washington Irving, who was arguably the most celebrated American author of the early nineteenth century, is not widely read today, our culture has long since assimilated a number of his memorable fictional characters, most notably the gangly, terrified schoolmaster Ichabod Crane, and Rip Van Winkle, who is usually depicted carrying his rusty flintlock and gazing out from behind the long, grey beard that grew during his famous twenty-year nap in the deep woods of the Cats-kills. Ah, that sweet, sweet sleep, which so few of us forget! But I find more fascinating the cause of Rip’s famous snooze, which so few of us remember: he was stone cold drunk. Absolutely bombed. In fact, Rip never falls asleep at all; instead, he simply passes out.