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OXFORD WORLD'S CLASSICS

EDGAR ALLAN POE

Selected Tales

Edited with an Introduction and Notes ky

DAVID VAN LEER

OXFORDUNIVERSITY PRESS

OXFORDUNIVERSITY PRESS

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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

Data available

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data

Poe, Edgar AlIan, 1809-18-19.[Talcs. Selections]

Selected t:lles I edited with :In introduction :lnd notes by D:lvid Van Leer.p. cm.-{Oxford world's classics)Includes bibliographk-al referen<:es.

l. Horror tales, American. I. Van Leer, David. 1949~

11. Title. Ill. Series: Oxford world's classics (Oxford Univcrsity Prcss)PS26J2.A3 1998 813'.3-dc21 97-39648

ISBN 0--19-28322-1-7

5791086

Typeset by]ayvee, Trivandrum, Indi'lPrinted in Great Britain h~'

Cox & 'Vyman Lnt.Reading, Berkshiu"

CONTENTS

Introdutt ion

Note on the Text

Select Bibliography

A Chronology (!f Edgar Allan Poe

SELECTED TALES

MS. Found in a BottleBereniceMorella

LigeiaThe Man that was Used UpThe Fall of the House of UsherWilliam WilsonThe Man of the Crowd

The Murders in the Rue MorgueEleonora

The Masque of the Red DeathThe Pit and the Pendulum

The Mystery ofMarie RogetThe Tell-Tale Heart

The Gold-BugThe Black Cat

A Tale of the Ragged MountainsThe Purloined Letter

The System of Doctor Tarr and Professor FetherThe Imp of the PerverseThe Cask of AmontilladoThe Domain of Arnheim

Hop-FrogVon Kempelen and his Discovery

Explanatory Notes

VB

XXII

XXlII

XXVI

3

1321

26

40

4966

84

92123129135

149

19319823°239249266

283

289

296

310

319

326

48 Edgar Allan Poe

to Parmly's at once; high prices, but excellent work. I swallowed somevery capital articles, though, when the big Bugaboo rammed me downwith the butt end of his rifle.'

'Butt end! ram down!! my eye!!''0 yes, by-the-by, my eye-here, Pompey, you scamp, screw it in!

Those Kickapoos are not so very slow at a gouge; but he's a belied man,that Or Williams, after all; you can't imagine how well I see with theeyes of his make.'

I now began very clearly to perceive that the object before me wasnothing more nor less than my new acquaintance, Brevet BrigadierGeneral John A. B. C. Smith. The manipulations of Pompey hadmade, I must confess, a very striking difference in the appearance ofthe personal man. The voice, however, still puzzled me no little; buteven this apparent mystery was speedily cleared up.

'Pompey, you black rascal,' squeaked the General, 'I really dobelieve you would let me go out without my palate.'

Hereupon the negro, grumbling out an apology, went up to his mas­ter, opened his mouth with the knowing air of a horse-jockey, andadjusted therein a somewhat singular-looking machine, in a very dex­terous manner, that I could not altogether comprehend. The alter­ation, however, in the entire expression of the General's countenancewas instantaneous and surprising. When he again spoke, his voice hadresumed all that rich melody and strength which I had noticed uponour original production.

'D-n the vagabonds!' said he, in so clear a tone that I positivelystarted at the change, 'D-n the vagabonds! they not only knocked inthe roof of my mouth, but took the trouble to cut off at least seven­eighths of my tongue. There isn't Bonfanti's equal, however, in Amer­ica, for really good articles of this description. I can recommend you tohim with confidence,' [here the General bowed,] 'and assure you thatI have the greatest pleasure in so doing.'

I acknowledged his kindness in my best manner, and took leave ofhim at once, with a perfect understanding of the true state of affairs­with a full comprehension of the mystery which had troubled me solong. It was evident. It was a clear case. Brevet Brigadier General JohnA. B. C. Smith wasthe man-was the man that was used up.

THE FALL OF THE HOUSE OF USHER*

Son Cfcur est un luth suspendu;Situt qu'on le touche il resonne.

De Bcranger*

DURING the whole of a dull, dark, and soundless day in the autumn of

the year, when the clouds hung oppressively low in the heavens, I hadbeen passing alone, on horseback, through a singularly dreary tract ofcountry; and at length found myself, as the shades of the evening drewon, within view of the melancholy House of Usher. I know not how itwas-but, with the first glimpse of the building, a sense of insufferable

gloom pervaded my spirit. I say insufferable; for the feeling was un­relieved by any of that half-pleasurable, because poetic, sentiment,with which the mind usually receives even the sternest natural imagesof the desolate or terrible. I looked upon the scene before me-upon

the mere house, and the simple landscape features of the domain­

upon the bleak walls-upon the vacant eye-like windows-upon a fewrank sedges-and upon a few white trunks of decayed trees-with anutter depression of soul which I can compare to no earthly sensationmore properly than to the after-dream of the reveller upon opium­the bitter lapse into every-day life-the hideous dropping off of theveil. There was an iciness, a sinking, a sickening of the heart-an un­redeemed dreariness of thought which no goading of the imaginationcould torture into aught of the sublime. What was it-I paused tothink-what was it that so unnerved me in the contemplation of the

House of Usher? It was a mystery all insoluble; nor could I grapplewith the shadowy fancies that crowded upon me as I pondered. I wasforced to fall back upon the unsatisfactory conclusion, that while,

beyond doubt, there are combinations of very simple natural objectswhich have the power of thus affecting us, still the analysis of thispower lies among considerations beyond our depth. It was possible, Ireflected, that a mere different arrangement of the particulars of thescene, of the details of the picture, would be sufficient to modify, orperhaps to annihilate its capacity for sorrowful impression; and, actingupon this idea, I reined my horse to the precipitous brink of a black andlurid tarn that lay in unruffled lustre by the dwelling, and gazed

50 E{(e:ar AlIan Poe

down-but with a shudder even more thrilling than before-upon theremodelled and inverted images of the gray sedge, and the ghastlytree-stems, and the vacant and eye-like windows.

Nevertheless, in this mansion of gloom I now proposed to myself asojourn of some weeks. Its proprietor, Roderick Usher, had been one ofmy boon companions in boyhood; but many years had elapsed sinceour last meeting. A letter, however, had lately reached me in a distantpart of the country-a letter from him-which, in its wildly importun­ate nature, had admitted of no other than a personal reply. The MS.gave evidence of nervous agitation. The writer spoke of acute bodilyillness-of a mental disorder which oppressed him-and of an earnestdesire to see me, as his best, and indeed his only personal friend, witha view of attempting, by the cheerfulness of my society, some allevi­ation of his malady. It was the manner in which all this, and much

more, was said-it was the apparent heart that went with his request­which allowed me no room for hesitation; and I accordingly obeyedforthwith, what I still considered a very singular summons.

Although, as boys, we had been even intimate associates, yet I reallyknew little of my friend. His reserve had been always excessive andhabitual. I was aware, however, that his very ancient family had beennoted, time out of mind, for a peculiar sensibility of temperament,displaying itself, through long ages, in many works of exalted art, andmanifested, of late, in repeated deeds of munificent yet unobtrusive

charity, as well as in a passionate devotion to the intricacies, perhapseven more than to the orthodox and easily recognisable beauties, ofmusical science. I had learned, too, the very remarkable fact, that thestem of the Usher race, all time-honored as it was, had put forth, at noperiod, any enduring branch; in other words, that the entire family layin the direct line of descent, and had always, with very trifling and verytemporary variation, so lain. It was this deficiency, I considered, whilerunning over in thought the perfect keeping of the character of thepremises with the accredited character of the people, and whilespeculating upon the possible influence which the one, in the longlapse of centuries, might have exercised upon the other-it wasthis deficiency, perhaps, of collateral issue, and the consequentundeviating transmission, from sire to son, of the patrimony with thename, which had, at length, so identified the two as to merge the ori­ginal title of the estate in the quaint and equivocal appellation of the'House of Usher'-an appellation which seemed to include, in the

The Fall a/the House {~rUsher 5 Iminds of the peasantry who used it, both the family and the familymansIOn.

I have said that the sole effect of my somewhat childish experi­ment-that oflooking down within the tarn-had been to deepen thefirst singular impression. There can be no doubt that the conscious­ness of the rapid increase of my superstition-for why should I not soterm it?-served mainly to accelerate the increase itself. Such, I havelong known, is the paradoxical law of all sentiments having terror as abasis. And it might have been for this reason only, that, when I againuplifted my eyes to the house itself, from its image in the pool, theregrew in my mind a strange fancy-a fancy so ridiculous, indeed, that Ibut mention it to show the vivid force of the sensations which

oppressed me. I had so worked upon my imagination as really tobelieve that about the whole mansion and domain there hung anatmosphere peculiar to themselves and their immediate vicinity-anatmosphere which had no affinity with the air of heaven, but which hadreeked up from the decayed trees, and the gray wall and the silenttarn-a pestilent and mystic vapor, dull, sluggish, faintly discernible,and leaden-hued.

Shaking off from my spirit what must have been a dream, I scannedmore narrowly the real aspect of the building. Its principal featureseemed to be that of an excessive antiquity. The discoloration of ageshad been great. Minute fungi overspread the whole exterior, hangingin a fine tangled web-work from the eaves. Yet all this was apart froman extraordinary dilapidation. No portion of the masonry had fallen;and there appeared to be a wild inconsistency between.its still perfectadaptation of parts, and the crumbling condition of the individualstones. In this there was much that reminded me of the specious total­ity of old wood-work which has rotted f<)rlong years in some neglectedvault, with no disturbance from the breath of the external air. Beyondthis indication of extensive decay, however, the fabric gave little tokenof instability. Perhaps the eye of a scrutinizing observer might havediscovered a barely perceptible fissure, which, extending from the roofof the building in front, made its way down the wall in a zigzag direc­tion, until it became lost in the sullen waters of the tarn.

Noticing these things, I rode over a short causeway to the house. Aservant in waiting took my horse, and I entered the Gothic archway ofthe hall. A valet, of stealthy step, thence conducted me, in silence,through many dark and intricate passages in my progress to the studio

52 Ed,gar AlIan Poe The Fall o.fthe House of Usher 53

of his master. Much that I encountered on the way contributed, I knownot how, to heighten the vague sentiments of which I have alreadyspoken. While the objects around me-while the carvings of the ceil­ings, the sombre tapestries of the walls, the ebon blackness of thefloors, and the phantasmagoric armorial trophies which rattled as Istrode, were but matters to which, or to such as which, I had beenaccustomed from my infancy-while I hesitated not to acknowledgehow familiar was all this-I still wondered to find how unfamiliar were

the fancies which ordinary images were stirring up. On one of thestaircases, I met the physician of the family. His countenance, Ithought, wore a mingled expression ofiow cunning and perplexity. Heaccosted me with trepidation and passed on. The valet now threwopen a door and ushered me into the presence of his master.

The room in which I found myself was very large and lofty. Thewindows were long, narrow, and pointed, and at so vast a distance fromthe black oaken floor as to be altogether inaccessible from within. Fee­ble gleams of encrimsoned light made their way through the trellisedpanes, and served to render sufficiently distinct the more prominentobjects around; the eye, however, struggled in vain to reach theremoter angles of the chamber, or the recesses of the vaulted and fret­ted ceiling. Dark draperies hung upon the walls. The general furniturewas profuse, comfortless, antique, and tattered. Many books and mu­sical instruments lay scattered about, but failed to give any vitality tothe scene. I felt that I breathed an atmosphere of sorrow. An air ofstern, deep, and irredeemable gloom hung over and pervaded all.

Upon my entrance, Usher arose from a sofa on which he had beenlying at full length, and greeted me with a vivacious warmth which hadmuch in it, I at first thought, of an overdone cordiality-of the con­strained effort of the e1l1l1~)leman ofthe world. A glance, however, at hiscountenance, convinced me of his perfect sincerity. We sat down; andfor some moments, while he spoke not, I gazed upon him with a feel­ing half of pity, half of awe. Surely, man had never before so terriblyaltered, in so brief a period, as had Roderick Usher! It was with diffi­culty that I could bring myself to admit the identity of the wan beingbefore me with the companion of my early boyhood. Yet the characterof his face had been at all times remarkable. A cadaverousne~s of com­plnioll; ;111eyc larp;c, liquid, and luminous beyond comparison; lips~;"lIl1'\\h;11Ihill ;lIld wry pallid, but ofa surpassingly beautiful curve; a1l••~;\••1.1d..lll ;11,,1khrnv Illodcl, hut with a breadth of nostril unusual

in similar fi>rmations; a finely moulded chin, speaking, in its want ofprominence, of a want of moral energy; hair of a more than web-likesoftness and tenuity; these features, with an inordinate expansionabove the regions of the temple, made up altogether a countenance noteasily to be forgotten. And now in the mere exaggeration of the pre­vailing character of these features, and of the expression they werewont to convey, lay so much of change that I doubted to whom Ispoke. The now ghastly pallor of the skin, and the now miraculouslustre of the eye, above all things startled and even awed me. The silkenhair, too, had been suffered to grow all unheeded, and as, in its wildgossamer texture, it floated rather than fell about the face, I could not,even with effort, connect its Arabesque expression with any idea ofsimple humanity.

In the manner of my friend I was at once struck with an incoher­ence-an inconsistency; and Isoon found this to arise from a series offeeble and futile struggles to overcome an habitual trepidancy-anexcessive nervous agitation. For something of this nature I had indeedbeen prepared, no less by his letter, than by reminiscences of certainboyish traits, and by conclusions deduced from his peculiar physicalconformation and temperament. His action was alternately vivaciousand sullen. His voice varied rapidly from a tremulous indecision(when the animal spirits seemed utterly in abeyance) to that species ofenergetic concision-that abrupt, weighty, unhurried, and hollow­sounding enunciation-that leaden, self-balanced and perfectlymodulated guttural utterance, which may be observed in the lostdrunkard, or the irreclaimable eater of opium, during the periods ofhis most intense excitement.

It was thus that he spoke of the object of my visit, of his earnestdesire to see me, and of the solace he expected me to afford him. Heentered, at some length, into what he conceived to be the nature of hismalady. It was, he said, a constitutional and a family evil, and one forwhich he despaired to find a remedy-a mere nervous affection, heimmediately added, which would undoubtedly soon pass. It displayeditself in a host of unnatural sensations. Some of these, as he detailed

them, interested and bewildered me; although, perhaps, the terms,and the general manner of the narration had their weight. He sufferedmuch from a morbid acuteness of the senses; the most insipid food wasalone endurable; he could wear only garments of certain texture; theodors of all flowers were oppressive; his eyes were tortured by even a

faint light; and there were but peculiar sounds, and these from stringedinstruments which did not inspire him with horror.

To an anomalous species of terror I found him a boundcn slave. 'Ishall perish,' said he, 'I must perish in this deplorable folly. Thus, thus,and not otherwise, shall I be lost. I dread the events of the future, notin themselves, but in their results. I shudder at the thought of any, eventhe most trivial, incident, which may operate upon this intolerableagitation of soul. I have, indeed, no abhorrence of danger, except inits absolute effect-in terror. In this unnerved-in this pitiablecondition-I feci that the period will sooner or later arrive when Imust abandon life and reason together, in some struggle with the grimphantasm, FEAR.'

I learned, moreover, at intervals, and through broken and equivocalhints, another singular featurc of his mental condition. He wasenchained by certain superstitious imprcssions in rcgard to thedwelling which he tenanted, and whencc, for many ycars, he had neverventured forth-in reg"ard to an influence whose supposititious forcewas conveyed in terms too shadowy here to be re-stated-an influencewhich some peculiarities in the mere form and substance of his familymansion, had, by dint of long sufferance, he said, obtained over hisspirit-an effect which the physique of the gray walls and turrets, andof the dim tarn into which they all looked down, had, at length,brought about upon the morale of his existencc.

He admitted, however, although with hesitation, that much of thepeculiar gloom which thus affiicted him could be traccd to a morc nat­ural and far more palpable origin-to the sevcre and long-continuedillness-indeed to the evidently approaching dissolution--of a ten­derly beloved sister-his sole companion for long years-his last andonly relative on earth. 'Her deccase,' hc said, with a bitterness which Ican never forget, 'would leave him (him the hopeless and the frail) thelast of the ancient race of the Ushers.' While he spoke, the lady Made­line (for so was she called) passed slowly through a remote portion ofthe apartment, and, without having noticed my presence, disappeared.I regarded hcr with an uttcr astonishment not unmingled withdread-and yet I found it impossible to account for such feelings. Asensation of stupor oppressed me, as my eyes followed hcr retreatingsteps. When a door, at length, closed upon her, my glance soughtinstinctively and eagerly the countenance of the brother-but he hadburied his face in his hands, and I could only perccive that a far more

54 E((~ar Allan Poe The Fall (~rthe House of Usher 55

than ordinary wanness had overspread the emaciated fingers throughwhich trickled many passionate tears.

The disease of the lady Madeline had long baffied the skill of her

physicians. A settled apathy, a gradual wasting away of the person, andfrequent although transient affections of a partially catalepticalcharacter, were the unusual diagnosis. Hitherto she had steadily borneup against the pressure of her malady, and had not betaken herselffinally to bed; but, on the closing in of the evening of my arrival at thehouse, she succumbed (as her brother told me at night with inexpress­ible agitation) to the prostrating power of the destroyer; and I learnedthat the glimpse I had obtained of her person would thus probably bethe last I should obtain-that the lady, at least while living, would be

seen by me no more.For several days ensuing, her name was unmentioned by either

Usher or myself: and during this period I was busied in earnestendeavors to alleviate the melancholy of my friend. We painted and

read together; or I listened, as ifin a dream, to the wild improvisationsof his speaking guitar. And thus, as a closer and still closer intimacyadmitted me more unreservedly into the recesses of his spirit, the morebitterly did I perceivc the futility of all attempt at chcering a mind fromwhich darkness, as if an inhcrent positive quality, pourcd forth upon allobjects of the moral and physical universe, in one unceasing radiationof gloom.

I shall ever bear about me a memory of the many solemn hours I thus

spent alone with the master of the House of Usher. Yet I should fail inany attempt to convey an idca of the exact character of the studies, orof the occupations, in which he involvcd me, or led me the way. Anexcited and highly distempered ideality threw a sulphureous lustreover all. His long improvised dirges will ring forevcr in my ears.Among othcr things, I hold painfully in mind a certain singular per­version and amplification of the wild air of the last waltz of VonWeber.* From the paintings over which his elaborate fancy brooded,and which grew, touch by touch, into vaguenesses at which Ishuddered the more thrillingly, because I shuddered knowing not

why;~from these paintings (vivid as their imagcs now are beforc me)I would in vain endeavor to educe more than a small portion which

should lie within the compass of merely written words. By the utter

simplicity, by the nakedness, of his designs, he arrested and overawedattention. If ever mortal painted an idea, that mortal was Roderick

1.

In the greenest of our valleys,By good angels tenanted,

Once a fair and stately palace­Radiant palace--reared its head.

In the monarch Thought's dominion-

Usher. For me at least-in the circumstances then surrounding me­there arose out of the pure abstractions which the hypochondriaccontrived to throw upon his canvass, an intensity of intolerable awe, noshadow of which felt I ever yet in the contemplation of the certainlyglowing yet too concrete reveries ofFuseli.*

One of the phantasmagoric conceptions of my friend, partaking notso rigidly of the spirit of abstraction, may be shadowed forth, althoughfeebly, in words. A small picture presented the interior of an immenselylong and rectangular vault or tunnel, with low walls, smooth, white,and without interruption or device. Certain accessory points of thedesign served well to convey the idea that this excavation lay at anexceeding depth below the surface of the earth. No outlet was observedin any portion of its vast extent, and no torch, or o~her artificial sourceof light was discernible; yet a flood of intense rays rolled throughout,and bathed the whole in a ghastly and inappropriate splendor.

I have just spoken of that morbid condition of the auditory nervewhich rendered all music intolerable to the sufferer with the exceptionof certain effects of stringed instruments. It was, perhaps, the narrowlimits to which he thus confined himself upon the guitar, which gavebirth, in great measure, to the fantastic character of his performances.But the fervid.fi,cili~J' of his impnl1llptus could not so be accounted for.They must have been and were, in the notes, as well as in the words ofhis wild fantasias (for he not unfrequcntly accompanied himself withrhymed verbal improvisations), the result of that intense mental col­lectedness and concentration to which I have previously alluded asobservable only in particular moments of the highest artificial excite­ment. The words of one of these rhapsodies I have easily remembered.I was, perhaps, the more forcibly impressed with it, as he gave it,because, in the under or mystic current of its meaning, I fancied that Iperceived, and for the first time, a full consciousness on the part ofUsher, of the tottering of his lofty reason upon her throne. The verses,which were entitled 'The Haunted Palace,' ran very nearly, if not accu­rately, thus:*

56 Edgar Allan Poe The Fall '!Fthe House ,!FUsher

It stood there!Never seraph spread a pinion

Over fabric half so fair.

n.Banners yellow, glorious, golden,

On its roof did float and flow;(This-all this-was in the olden

Time long ago)And every gentle air that dallied,

In that sweet day,Along the ramparts plumed and pallid,

A winged odor went away.

Ill.Wanderers in that happy valley

Through two luminous windows sawSpirits moving musically

To a lute's well-tuned law,Round about a throne, where sitting

(Porphyrogene!)In state his glory well befitting,

The ruler ofthe realm was seen.

IV.

And all with pearl and ruby glowingWas the fair palace door,

Through which came flowing, flowing, flowing,And sparkling evermore,

A troop of Echoes whose sweet dutyWas but to sing,

In voices of surpassing beauty,The wit and wisdom of their king.

V.

But evil things, in robes of sorrow,Ass,liledthe monarch's high estate;

(Ah, let us mourn, for never morrowShall dawn upon him, desolate!)

And, round about his home, the gloryThat blushed and bloomed

Is but dim-remembered storyOf the old time cntombed.

57

I Watson, Dr Percival, Spallanzani, and especially the Bishop of l.andaff.--See'Chemical Essays', vo!. v.*

I well remember that suggestions arising from this ballad led us intoa train of thought wherein there became manifest an opinion ofUsher's which I mention not so much on account of its novelty, (forother men I have thought thus,) as on account of the pertinacity withwhich he maintained it. This opinion, in its general form, was that ofthe sentience of all vegetable things. But, in his disordered fancy, theidea had assumed a more daring character, and trespassed, under cer­tain conditions, upon the kingdom of inorganization. I lack words toexpress the full extent, or the earnest abandon of his persuasion. Thebelief, however, was connected (as I have previously hinted) with thegray stones of the home of his forefathers. The conditions of the sen­tience had been here, he imagined, fulfilled in the method of colloca­tion of these stones-in the order of their arrangement, as well as inthat of the manyfungi which overspread them, and of the decayed treeswhich stood around-above all, in the long undisturbed endurance ofthis arrangement, and in its reduplication in the still waters of the tarn.Its evidence-the evidence of the sentience-was to be seen, he said(and I here started as he spoke,) in the gradual yet certain condensationof an atmosphere of their own about the waters and the walls. Theresult was discoverable, he added, in that silent, yet importunate andterrible influence which for centuries had moulded the destinies of his

family, and which made him what I now saw him-what he was. Suchopinions need no comment, and I will make none.

Our books-the books which, for years, had formed no smallportion of the mental existence of the invalid-were, as might besupposed, in strict keeping with this character of phantasm. We poredtogether over such works as the Ververt et Chartreuse of Gresset; theBelphegor of Machiavelli; the Heaven and Hell of Swedenborg; the

58 Et(f(ar Allan Poe

VI.

And travellers now within that valley,Through the red-litten windows, sce

Vast forms that move fantasticallyTo a discordant melody;

While, like a rapid ghastly river,Through the pale door,

A hideous throng rush out forever,And laugh-but smile no more.

The Fallrd'the House (!!'Usher 59

Subterranean Voyage of Nicholas Klimm by Holberg; the Chiro­mancy ofRobert Flud, ofJean D'Indagine, and of Dc la Chambre; theJourney into the Blue Distance of Tieck; and the City of the Sun ofCampanella. One favorite volume was a small octavo edition of theDirectorium !nquisitofum, by the Dominican Eymeric de Gironne; andthere were passages in Pomponius Mela, about the old African Satyrsand CEgipans, over which Usher would sit dreaming for hours. Hischief delight, however, was found in the perusal of an exceedingly rareand curious book in quarto Gothic-the manual of a forgottenchurch-the Vigiliae MOftUOfll1l1 secundum Chorum Ecdesiae Magunti­nae.*

I could not help thinking of the wild ritual of this work, and of itsprobable influence upon the hypochondriac, when, onc evening, hav­ing informed me abruptly that the lady Madeline was no more, hestated his intention of preserving her corpse for a fortnight, (previ­ously to its final interment,) in one of the numerous vaults within themain walls of the building. The worldly reason, however, assigned forthis singular proceeding, was one which I did not feel at liberty to dis­pute. The brother had been led to his resolution (so he told me) by con­sideration of the unusual character of the malady of the deceased, ofcertain obtrusive and eager inquiries on the part of her medical men,and of the remote and exposed situation of the burial-ground of thefamily. I will not deny that when I called to mind the sinister counten­ance of the person whom I met upon the staircase, on the day of myarrival at the house, I had no desire to oppose what I regarded as at bestbut a harmless, and by no means an unnatural, precaution.

At the request of Usher, I personally aided him in the arrangementsfor the temporary entombment. The body having been encoffined, wetwo alone bore it to its rest. The vault in which we placed it (and whichhad been so long unopened that our torches, half smothered in itsoppressive atmosphere, gave us little opportunity for investigation)was small, damp, and entirely without means of admission for light;lying, at great depth, immediately beneath that portion of the buildingin which was my own sleeping apartment. It had been used, appar­ently, in remote feudal times, for the worst purposes of a donjon-keep,and, in later days, as a place of deposit for powder, or some other highlycombustible substance, as a portion of its floor, and the whole interiorof a long archway through which we reached it, were carefullysheathed with copper. The door, of massive iron, had been, also,

my couch-while the hours waned and waned away. I struggled to rea­son ofTthe nervousness which had dominion over me. I endeavored to

believe that much, if not all of what I felt, was due to the bewilderinginfluence of the gloomy furniture of the room-of the dark and tat­tered draperies, which, tortured into motion by the breath of a risingtempest, swayed fitfully to and fro upon the walls, and rustled uneasilyabout the decorations of the bed. But my efforts were fruitless. Anirrepressible tremor gradually pervaded my frame; and, at length,there sat upon my very heart an incubus of utterly causeless alarm.Shaking this off with a gasp and a struggle, I uplifted myself upon thepillows, and, peering earnestly within the intense darkness of thechamber, harkened-I know not why, except that an instinctive spiritprompted me-to certain low and indefinite sounds which came,through the pauses of the storm, at long intervals, I knew not whence.Overpowered by an intense sentiment of horror, unaccountable yetunendurable, I threw on my clothes with haste (for I felt that I shouldsleep no more during the night), and endeavored to arouse myselffromthe pitiable condition into which I had fallen, by pacing rapidly to andfro through the apartment.

I had taken but few turns in this manner, when a light step on anadjoining staircase arrested my attention. I presently recognised it asthat of Usher. In an instant afterward he rapped, with a gentle touch,at my door, and entered, bearing a lamp. His countenance was, asusual, cadaverously wan-but, moreover, there was a species of madhilarity in his eyes-an evidently restrained hysteria in his wholedemean or. His air appalled me-but anything was preferable to thesolitude which I had so long endured, and I even welcomed his pres­ence as a relief.

'And you have not seen it?' he said abruptly, after having staredabout him for some moments in silence-'you have not then seen it?­

hut, stay! you shall.' Thus speaking, and having carefully shaded hislamp, he hurried to one of the casements, and threw it freely open to(he storm.

The impetuous fury of the entering gust nearly lifted us from ourketo It was, indeed, a tempestuous yet sternly beautiful night, and onewildly singular in its terror and its beauty. A whirlwind had apparentlycollected its force in our vicinity; for there were frequent and violentalterations in the direction of the wind; and the exceeding density of(he clouds (which hung so low as to press upon the turrets of the

60 Edgar AlIan Foe

similarly protected. Its immense weight caused an unusually sharpgrating sound, as it moved upon its hinges.

Having deposited our mournful burden upon tressels within thisregion of horror, we partially turned aside the yet unscrewed lid of thecoffin, and looked upon the face of the tenant. A striking similitudebetween the brother and sister now first arrested my attention; and

Usher, divining, perhaps, my thoughts, murmured out some fewwords from which I learned that the deceased and himself had been

twins, and that sympathies of a scarcely intelligible nature had alwaysexisted betwFw them. Our glances, however, rested not long upon thedead-for oNe could not regard her unawed. The disease which hadthus entombed the lady in the maturity of youth, had left, as usual inall maladies of a strictly cataleptical character, the mockery of a faintblush upon the bosom and the face, and that suspiciously lingeringsmile upon the lip which is so terrible in death. We replaced andscrewed down the lid, and, having secured the door of iron, made ourway, with toil, into the scarcely less gloomy apartments of the upperportion of the house.

And now, some days of bitter grief having elapsed, an observablechange came over the features of the mental disorder of my friend. Hisordinary manner had vanished. His ordinary occupations wereneglected or forgotten. He roamed from chamber to chamber withhurried, unequal, and objectless step. The pallor of his countenancehad assumed, if possible, a more ghastly hue-but the luminousness ofhis eye had utterly gone out. The once occasional huskiness of his tonewas heard no more; and a tremulous quaver, as if of extreme terror,

habitually characterized his utterance. There were times, indeed,when I thought his unceasingly agitated mind was laboring with someoppressive secret, to divulge which he struggled for the necessarycourage. At times, again, I was obliged to resolve all into the mere inex­plicable vagaries of madness, for I beheld him gazing upon vacancy ft)!"long hours, in an attitude of the profoundest attention, as iflistening tosome imaginary sound. It was no wonder that his condition terrified­that it infected me. I felt creeping upon me, by slow yet certaindegrees, the wild influences of his own fantastic yet impressivesuperstitions.

It was, especially, upon retiring to bed late in the night of the seventhor eig'hth day after the placing of the lady Madeline within the donjon,(hat Iexperienced the full power of such feelings. Sleep came not near

The Fall of the House of Usher 61

62 Ed.e;arAllall Poe

house) did not prevent our perceiving the life-like velocity with whichthey flew careering from all points against each other, without passingaway into the distance. I say that even their exceeding density did notprevent our perceiving this-yet we had no glimpse of the moon orstars-nor was there any flashing forth of the lightning. But the under

.surbces of the huge masses of agitated vapor, as well as a.Jlterrestrialobjects immediately around us, were glowing in the unnatural light ofa Llintly luminous and distinctly visible gaseous exhalation whichhung about and enshrouded the mansion.

'You must not-you shall not behold this!' said I, shudderingly, toUsher, as I led him, with a gentle violence, from the window to a scat.

'These appearances, which bewilder you, are merely electrical phe­nomena not uncommon--or it may be that they have their ghastly ori­gin in the rank miasma of the tarn. Let us close this casement;-the airis chilling and dangerous to your frame. Here is one of your favoriteromances. I will read, and you shalllisten;-and so we will pass awaythis terrible night together.'

The antique volume which I had taken up was the 'Mad Trist' of SirLauncelot Canning; but I had called it a favorite of Usher's more in sadjest than in earnest; for, in truth, there is little in its uncouth and

unimaginative prolixity which could have had interest for the lofty andspiritual ideality of my friend. It was, however, the only book immedi­ately at hand; and I indulged a vague hope that the excitement whichnow agitated the hypochondriac, might find relief (for the history ofmental disorder is full of similar anomalies) even in the extremeness of

the folly which I should read. Could I have judged, indeed, by the wildoverstrained air of vivacity with which he harkened, or apparentlyharkened, to the words of the tale, I might well have congratulatedmyself upon the success of my design.

I had arrived at that well-known portion of the story whereEthelred, the hero of the Trist, having sought in vain for peaceableadmission into the dwelling of the hermit, proceeds to make good anentrance by force. Here, it will be remembered, the words of the nar­rative run thus:

'And Ethelred, who was by nature of a doughty heart, and who wasnow mighty withal, on account of the powerfulness of the wine whichhe had drunken, waited no longer to hold parley with the hermit, who,in south, was of an obstinate and maliceful turn, but, feeling the rainupon his shoulders, and fearing the rising of the tempest, uplifted his

The Fall (~rtheHouse of Usher 63

mace outright, and, with blows, made quickly room in the plankings ofthe door for his gauntleted hand; and now pulling therewith sturdily,he so cracked, and ripped, and tore all asunder, that the noise of the dryand hollow-sounding wood alarummed and reverberated throughoutthe forest.'

At the termination of this sentence I started, and for a moment,paused;' for it appeared to me (although I at once concluded that myexcited fancy had deceived me)-it appeared to me that, from somevery remote portion of the mansion, there came, indistinctly, to myears, what might have been, in its exact similarity of character, the echo(but a stifled and dull onc certainly) of the very cracking and rippingsound which Sir Launcelot had so particularly described. It was,beyond doubt, the coincidence alone which had arrested my attention;for, amid the rattling of the sashes of the casement, and the ordinarycommingled noises of the still increasing storm, the sound, in itself,had nothing, surely, which should have interested or disturbed me. Icontinued the story:

'But the good champion Ethelred, now entering within the door,was sore enraged and amazed to perceive no signal of the malicefulhermit; but, in the stead thereof, a dragon of a scaly and prodigiousdemean or, and of a fiery tongue, which sate in guard before a palace ofgold, with a floor of silver; and upon the wall there hung a shield ofshining brass with this legend enwritten-

Who entereth herein, a conqueror hath bin;Who slayeth the dragon, the shield he shall win;

And Ethelred uplifted his mace, and struck upon the head of thedragon, which fell before him, and gave up his pesty breath, with ashriek so horrid and harsh, and withal so piercing, that Ethelred hadfain to close his ears with his hands against the dreadful noise of it, thelike whereof was never before heard.'

Here again I paused abruptly, and now with a feeling of wild amaze­ment-for there could be no doubt whatever that, in this instance, Idid actually hear (although from what direction it proceeded I found itimpossible to say) a low and apparently distant, but harsh, protracted,and most unusual screaming or grating sound-the exact counterpartof what my fancy had already conjured up for the dragon's unnaturalshriek as described by the romancer.

Oppressed, as I certainly was, upon the occurrence of this second

64 Edgar Allan Poe The Fall orthe House or U~her 65

and most extraordinary coincidence, by a thousand conflicting sensa­tions, in which wonder and extreme terror were predominant, I stillretained sufficient presence of mind to avoid exciting, by any observa­tion, the sensitive nervousness of my companion. I was by no meanscertain that he had noticed the sounds in question; although,assuredly, a strange alteration had, during the last few minutes, takenplace in his demeanor. From a position fronting my own, he had grad­ually brought round his chair, so as to sit with his face to the door of the

chamber; and thus I could but partially perceive his features, althoughI saw that his lips trembled as if he were murmuring inaudibly. Hishead had dropped upon his breast-yet I knew that he was not asleep,from the wide and rigid opening ofthe eye as I caught a glance of it inprofile. The motion of his body, too, was at variance with this idea-forhe rocked from side to side with a gentle yet constant and uniformsway. Having rapidly taken notice of all this, I resumed the narrative ofSir Launcelot, which thus proceeded:

'And now, the champion, having escaped from the terrible fury ofthe dragon, be thinking himself of the brazen shield, and of the break­ing up of the enchantment which was upon it, removed the carcassfrom out of the way before him, and approached valorously over thesilver pavement of the castle to where the shield was upon the wall;which in sooth tarried not for his full coming, but fell down at his feetupon the silver floor, with a mighty great and terrible ringing sound.'

No sooner had these syllables passed my lips, than-as if a shield ofbrass had indeed, at the moment, fallen heavily upon a floor of silver­I became aware of a distinct, hollow, metallic, and clangorous, yetapparently muffled reverberation. Completely unnerved, I leaped tomy feet; but the measured rocking movement of Usher was undis­turbed. I rushed to the chair in which he sat. His eyes were bent fixedlybefore him, and throughout his whole countenance there reigned astony rigidity. But, as I placed my hand upon his shoulder, there camea strong shudder over his whole person; a sickly smile quivered abouthis lips; and I saw that he spoke in a low, hurried and gibbering mur­mur, as if unconscious of my presence. Bending closely over him, I atlength drank in the hideous import of his words.

'Not hear it?-yes, I hear it, and have heard it. Long-long­long-many minutes, many hours, many days, have I heard it-yetI dared not-oh, pity me, miserable wretch that I aml-I dared not­

I dared not speak! We have put her living in the tomb! Said I not that my

senses were acute? I nom tell you that I heard her first feeble move­ments in the hollow coffin. I heard them-many, many days ago--yetI dared not-J dared not speak! And now-to-night-Ethelred-ha!hal-the breaking of the hermit's door, and the death-cry of thedragon, and the clangor of the shieldl-say, rather, the rending of hercoffin, and the grating of the iron hinges of her prison, and her strug­gles within the coppered archway of the vault! Oh whither shall I fly?Will she not be here anon? Is she not hurrying to upbraid me for myhaste? Have I not heard her footstep on the stair? Do tnot distinguishthat heavy and horrible beating of her heart? Madmanl'-here hesprang furiously to his feet, and shrieked out his syllables, as if in theeffort he were giving up his soul- 'Madman! J tell you that she nomstands mithout the door!'

As if in the superhuman energy of his utterance there had beenfound the potency of a spell-the huge antique pannels to which thespeaker pointed, threw slowly back, upon the instant, their ponderousand ebony jaws. It was the work of the rushing gust-but then withoutthose doors there did stand the lofty and enshrouded figure of the ladyMadeline of Usher. There was blood upon her white robes, and theevidence of some bitter struggle upon every portion of her emaciatedframe. For a moment she remained trembling and reeling to and froupon the threshold-then, with a low moaning cry, fell heavily inwardupon the person of her brother, and in her violent and now final death­agonies, bore him to the floor a corpse, and a victim to the terrors hehad anticipated.

From that chamber, and from that mansion, I fled aghast. Thestorm was still abroad in all its wrath as I found myself crossing the oldcauseway. Suddenly there shot along the path a wild light, and I turnedto see whence a gleam so unusual could have issued; for the vast houseand its shadows were alone behind me. The radiance was that of the

full, setting, and blood-red moon, which now shone vividly throughthat once barely-discernible fissure, of which I have before spoken as

. extending from the roof of the building, in a zigzag direction, to thebase. While I gazed, this fissure rapidly widened-there came a fiercebreath of the whirlwind-the entire orb of the satellite burst at once

upon my sight-my brain reeled as I saw the mighty walls rushingasunder-there was a long tumultuous shouting sound like the voiceof a thousand waters-and the deep and dank tarn at my feet closedsullenly and silently over the fragments of the 'House (d·Usher.'

128 Et/gar Allan Poe

my whole soul in tears at the feet of the ethereal Ermengarde?-Ohbright was the seraph Ermengarde! and in that knowledge I had roomfor none other.-Oh divine was the angel Ermengarde! and as I lookeddown into the depths of her memorial eyes I thought only of them­and (~fher.

I wedded;-nor dreaded the curse I had invoked; and its bitternesswas not visited upon mc. And once-but once again in the silence ofthe night, there came through my lattice the soft sighs which had for­

saken me; and they modelled themselves into familiar and sweet voice,saymg:

'Sleep in peace!-for the Spirit of Love reigneth and ruleth, and, intaking to thy passionate heart her who is Ermengarde, thou artabsolved, for reasons which shall be made known to thee in Heaven, ofthy vows unto Eleonora.'

THE MASQUE OF THE RED DEATH

THE 'Red Death'* had long devastated the country. No pestilence hadever been so fatal, or so hideous. Blood was its Avatar and its seal-theredness and the horror of blood. There were sharp pains, and suddendizziness, and then profuse bleeding at the pores, with dissolution.The scarlet stains upon the body and especially upon the face of thevictim, were the pest ban which shut him out from the aid and from thesympathy of his fellow-men. And the whole seizure, progress andtermination of the disease, were the incidents of half an hour.

But the Prince Prospero was happy and dauntless and sagacious.When his dominions were half depopulated, he summoned to hispresence a thousand hale and light-hearted friends from among theknights and dames of his court, and with these retired to the deepseclusion of one of his castellated abbeys. This was an extensive andmagnificent structure, the creation of the prince's own eccentric yetaugust taste. A strong and lofty wall girdled it in. This wall had gatesof iron. The courtiers, having entered, brought furnaces and massyhammers and welded the bolts. They resolved to leave means neitherof ingress or egress to the sudden impulses of despair or offrenzy fromwithin. The abbey was amply provisioned. With such precautions thecourtiers might bid defiance to contagion. The external world couldtake care of itself. In the meantime it was folly to grieve, or to think.The prince had provided all the appliances of pleasure. There werebuffoons, there were improvisatori, there were ballet-dancers, therewere musicians, there was Beauty, there was wine. All these andsecurity were within. Without was the 'Red Death.'

It was toward the close of the fifth or sixth month of his seclusion,and while the pestilence raged most furiously abroad, that the PrinceProspero entertained his thousand friends at a masked ball of the mostunusual magnificence.

It was a voluptuous scene, that masquerade. But first let me tell ofthe rooms in which it was held. There were seven-an imperial suite.In many palaces, however, such suites form a long and straight vista,while the folding doors slide back nearly to the walls on either hand, sothat the view of the whole extent is scarcely impeded. Here the case

sound; and thus the waltzers perforce ceased their evolutions; andthere was a brief disconcert of the whole gay company; and, while thechimes of the clock yet rang, it was observed that the giddiest grewpale, and the more aged and sedate passed their hands over their browsas if in confessed revery or meditation. But when the echoes had fullyceased, a light laughter at once pervaded the assembly; the musicianslooked at each other and smiled as if at their own nervousness and folly,and made whispering vows, each to the other, that the next chiming ofthe clock should produce in them no similar emotion; and then, afterthe lapse of sixty minutes, (which embrace three thousand and sixhundred seconds of the Time that flies,) there came yet another chim­ing of the clock, and then were the same disconcert and tremulousnessand meditation as before.

But, in spite of these things, it was a gay and magnificent revel. Thetastes of the duke were peculiar. He had a fine eye for colors and effects.He disregarded the decora of mere fashion. His plans were bold andfiery, and his conceptions glowed with barbaric lustre. There are somewho would have thought him mad. His followers felt that he was not.It was necessary to hear and see and touch him to be sure that he wasnot.

He had directed, in great part, the moveable embellishments of theseven chambers, upon occasion of this greatfhe; and it was his ownguiding taste which had given character to the masqueraders. Be surethey were grotesque. There were much glare and glitter and piquancyand phantasm-much of what has been since seen in 'Hernani.'*There were arabesque figures with unsuited limbs and appointments.There were delirious fancies such as the madman fashions. There were

much of the beautiful, much of the wanton, much of the bizarre, some­thing of the terrible, and not a little of that which might have exciteddisgust. To and fro in the seven chambers there stalked, in fact, amultitude of dreams. And these-the dreams-writhed in and about,taking hue from the rooms, and causing the wild music of the orches­tra to seem as the echo of their steps. And, anon, there strikes theebony clock which stands in the hall of the velvet. And then, for amoment, all is still, and all is silent save the voice of the clock. Thedreams are stiff-frozen as they stand. But the echoes of the chime dieaway-they have endured but an instant-and a light, half-subduedlaughter floats after them as they depart. And now again the musicswells, and the dreams live, and writhe to and fro more merrily than

130 Edgar Allan Poe

was very different; as might have been expected from the duke's love ofthe bizarre. The apartments were so irregularly disposed that the

vision embraced but little more than one at a time. There was a sharpturn at every twenty or thirty yards, and at each turn a novel effect. Tothe right and left, in the middle of each wall, a tall and narrow Gothicwindow looked out upon a closed corridor which pursued the wind­ings of the suite. These windows were of stained glass whose color var­ied in accordance with the prevailing hue of the decorations of the

chamber into which it opened. That at the eastern extremity washung, for example, in blue-and vividly blue were its windows. The

second chamber was purple in its ornaments and tapestries, and herethe panes were purple. The third was green throughout, and so were the

casements. The fourth was furnished and lighted with orange­the fifth with white-the sixth with violet. The seventh apartment wasclosely shrouded in black velvet tapestries that hung all over the ceil­ing and down the walls, falling in heavy folds upon a carpet of the samematerial and hue. But in this chamber only, the color of the windows

failed to correspond with the decorations. The panes here werescarlet-a deep blood color. Now in no one of the seven apartmentswas there any lamp or candelabrum, amid the profusion of goldenornaments that lay scattered to and fro or depended from the roofThere was no light of any kind emanating from lamp or candle withinthe suite of chambers. But in the corridors that followed the suite,there stood, opposite to each window, a heavy tripod, bearing a brazieroffire that projected its rays through the tinted glass and so glaringlyillumined the room. And thus were produced a multitude of gaudy andfantastic appearances. But in the western or black chamber the effect

of the fire-light that streamed upon the dark hangings through theblood-tinted panes, was ghastly in the extreme, and produced so wilda look upon the countenance of those who entered, that there were fewof the company bold enough to set foot within its precincts at all.

It was in this apartment, also, that there stood against the westernwall, a gigantic clock of ebony. Its pendulum swung to and fro with adull, heavy, monotonous clang; and when the minute-hand made thecircuit of the face, and the hour was to be stricken, there came from the

brazen lungs of the clock a sound which was clear and loud and deepand exceedingly musical, but of so peculiar a note and emphasis that,at each lapse of an hour, the musicians of the orchestra were con­

strained to pause, momentarily, in their performance, to harken to the

The Masque afthe Red Death 131

ever, taking hue from the many tinted windows through which streamthe rays from the tripods. But to the chamber which lies most west­wardly of the seven, there are now none of the maskers who venture;for the night is waning away; and there flows a ruddier light throughthe blood-colored panes: and the blackness of the sable drapery appals;and to him whose foot falls upon the sable carpet, there comes from thenear clock of ebony a muffled peal more solemnly emphatic than anywhich reaches their ears who indulge in the more remote gaieties of theother apartments.

But these other apartments were densely crowded, and in them beatfeverishly the heart of life. And the revel went whirlingly on, until atlength there commenced the sounding of midnight upon the clock.And then the music ceased, as I have told; and the evolutions of thewaltzers were quieted; and there was an uneasy cessation of all thingsas before. But now there were twelve strokes to be sounded by the bellof the clock; and thus it happened, perhaps, that more of thoughtcrept, with more of time, into the meditations of the thoughtful amongthose who revelled. And thus, too, it happened, perhaps, that beforethe last echoes of the last chime had utterly sunk into silence, therewere many individuals in the crowd who had found leisure to becomeaware of the presence of a masked figure which had arrested the atten­tion of no single individual before. And the rumor of this new presencehaving spread itself whisperingly around, there arose at length fromthe whole company a buzz, or murmur, expressive of disapprobationand surprise-then, finally, of terror, of horror, and of disgust.

In an assembly of phantasms such as I have painted, it may well besupposed that no ordinary appearance could have excited such sensa­tion. In truth the masquerade license of the night was nearly un­limited; but the figure in question had out-Heroded Herod, and gonebeyond the bounds of even the prince's indefinite decorum. There arechords in the hearts of the most reckless which cannot be touched

without emotion. Even with the utterly lost, to whom life and death areequally jests, there are matters of which no jest can be made. Thewhole company, indeed, seemed now deeply to feel that in the costumeand bearing of the stranger neither wit nor propriety existed. The fig­ure was tall and gaunt, and shrouded from head to foot in the habili­ments of the grave. The mask which concealed the visage was made sonearly to resemble the countenance of a stiffened corpse that theclosest scrutiny must have had difficulty in detecting the cheat. And

132 Edgar Allan Poe The Masque of the Red Death 133

yet all this might have been endured, if not approved, by the madrevellers around. But the mummer had gone so far as to assume the

type of the Red Death. His vesture was dabbled in blood-and hisbroad brow, with all the features of the face, was besprinkled with thescarlet horror.

When the eyes of Prince Prospero fell upon this spectral image(which with a slow and solemn movement, as if more fully to sustain itsrole, stalked to and fro among the waltzers) he was seen to be con­vulsed, in the first moment with a strong shudder either of terror ordistaste; but, in the next, his brow reddened with rage.

'Who dares?' he demanded hoarsely of the courtiers who stood nearhim-'who dares insult us with this blasphemous mockery?' Seizehim and unmask him-that we may know whom we have to hang at

sunrise, from the battlements!'It was in the eastern or blue chamber in which stood the Prince

Prospero as he uttered these words. They rang throughout the sevenrooms loudly and clearly-for the prince was a bold and robust man,and the music had became hushed at the waving of his hand.

It was in the blue room where stood the prince, with a group of pale

courtiers by his side. At first, as he spoke, there was a slight rushingmovement of this group in the direction of the intruder, who at themoment was also near at hand, and now, with deliberate and statelystep, made closer approach to the speaker. But from a certain namelessawe with which the mad assumptions of the mummer had inspired the

whole party, there were found none who put forth hand to seize him;so that, unimpeded, he passed within a yard of the prince's person;and, while the vast assembly, as if with one impulse, shrank from thecentres of the rooms to the walls, he made his way uninterruptedly, butwith the same solemn and measured step which had distinguished him

from the first, through the blue chamber to the purple-through the

purple to the green-through the green to the orange-through thisagain to the white-and even thence to the violet, ere a decided move­ment had been made to arrest him. It was then, however, that the

Prince Prospero, maddening with rage and the shame of his ownmomentary cowardice, rushed hurriedly through the six chambers,while none followed him on account of a deadly terror that had seized

upon all. He bore aloft a drawn dagger, and had approached, in rapidimpetuosity, to within three or four feet of the retreating figure, whenthe latter, having attained the extremity of the velvet apartment,

134 Edgar AI/an Poe

turned suddenly and confronted his pursuer. There was a sharpcry-and the dagger dropped gleaming upon the sable carpet, uponwhich, instantly afterwards, fell prostrate in death the Prince Pros­pero. Then, summoning the wild courage of despair, a throng of therevellers at once threw themselves into the black apartment, and, seiz­ing the mummer, whose tall figure stood erect and motionless withinthe shadow of the ebony clock, gasped in unutterable horror at findingthe grave cerements and corpselike mask which they handled with soviolent a rudeness, untenanted by any tangible form.

And now was acknowledged the presence of the Red Death. He hadcome like a thief in the night. * And onc by one dropped the revellers inthe blood-bedewed halls of their revel, and died each in the despairingposture of his fall. And the life of the ebony clock went out with that ofthe last of the gay. And the flames of the tripods expired. And Darknessand Decay and the Red Death held illimitable dominion over all.

THE PIT AND THE PENDULUM

lmpia tortorum longas hie turba furoresSanguinis innocui, non satiata, aluit.Sospite nunc patriii, fracto nunc funeris antro,Mors ubi dira fuit, vita salusque patent.

[Quatrain composed for the gates of a market to be erected uponthe site of the Jacobin club house at Paris.]*

I WAS sick-sick unto death with that long agony; and when they atlength unbound me, and I was permitted to sit, I felt that my senseswere leaving me. The sentence-the dread sentence of death-was thelast of distinct accentuation which reached my ears. After that, thesound of the inquisitorial voices* seemed merged in one dreamy inde­terminate hum. It conveyed to my soul the idea of revolution-perhapsfrom its association in fancy with the burr of a mill-wheel. This onlyfor a brief period; for presently I heard no more. Yet, for a while, I saw;but with how terrible an exaggeration! I saw the lips of the black­robed judges. They appeared to me white-whiter than the sheetupon which I trace these words-and thin even to grotesqueness; thinwith the intensity of their expression of firmness--of immoveableresolution--of stern contempt of human torture. I saw that thedecrees of what to me was Fate, were still issuing from those lips. I sawthem writhe with a deadly locution. I saw them fashion the syllables ofmy name; and I shuddered because no sound succeeded. I saw, too, fora few moments of delirious horror, the soft and nearly imperceptiblewaving of the sable draperies which enwrapped the walls of the apart­ment. And then my vision fell upon the seven tall candles upon thetable. At first they wore the aspect of charity, and seemed white slenderangels who would save me; but then, all at once, there came a mostdeadly nausea over my spirit, and I felt every fibre in my frame thrill asif I had touched the wire of a galvanic battery, while the angel formsbecame meaningless spectres, with heads of flame, and I saw that fromthem there would be no help. And then there stole into my fancy, like arich musical note, the thought of what sweet rest there must be in thegrave. The thought came gently and stealthily, and it seemed longbefore it attained full appreciation; but just as my spirit came at length

328 Explanatory Notes Explanatory Notes 329

33 the jilir-/wired ... Tremaine: Rowcna is the fairer of the two heroines in SirWaIter Scott's Ivan/we.

The Man that was Used Up

First published in Burton's Gentleman's Maga::;ine for August ,839, this satire was

collectcd in Tales (){the Grotesque and Arabesque (,840).

40 Pleure::;, pleure::; ... : Poe translated the motto, 'Weep, weep, my eyes! It is no

time to laugh I For half myself has buried the other half'; from Le Cid, Ill. iii.

7-8. The 'used up' of the title can mean 'badly treated', as well as 'exhausted'.

The Kickapoo tribe was among those fighting in the Florida Indian Wars of

,839·

4' reasom: pronounced 'raisins' in Poe's joke.

43 quorulll pars magnajhit: 'of which hc was a great part'; from Virgil, Aeneid, ii. 6.

horresco referI'm: 'I shudder recalling It'; ibid. ii. 204,

44 lJuJ1ulragora... yesterday: Shakespeare, Othello, III. iii. 330-3.

46 Man-Fred . , . Bas-Bleus: the excess of Byron's romantic Man.tred was both

admired and parodied, A Man Friday is a devoted aide, after the native in

Dcfoe's Robimon Crusoe, Bas-Bleu is French for 'bluestocking', a derogatoryterm fi}r women interested in the lIrts.

mall in the mask: the Man in the Iron Mask WllSa political prisoner in the Bastille.

With his identity hidden, his aristocratic origins were the subject of popularspeculation, especilllly in the novel of Alexandre Dumlls,

47 ,w'auh: a kind of wig. Although De L 'Orme is a fiction, many of those named in

this section were relll Philadelphia tradespeople,

The Fall of the House of Usher

First published in Burton 's Gentleman's Maga::;ine, for September, 839, this famous

tale was collected in both Tales (dihe Grotesque and Arabesque (,840) and Tales (,845).

49 Usher: the source of the protagonist's family name is uncertain. Poc's mother

acted with a couple named Usher, whose children were neurotic: Elsewhere,

Poe alludes to Archbishop James Ussher, the respected though pedantic

seventeenth-century biblical scholar, best remembered for dating Creationprecisely in 40041lC.

Son ClEur •.• : 'His heart is a suspended lute; it sounds as soon as it is touched';

adapted from the nineteenth-century lyricist Pierre-Jean de Beranger.

55 Von Weber: the early nineteenth-century German composer Carl Maria von

Weber was best known for his representations of the supernatural, as in the WolfGlen scene of his gothic opera Der Freisdult::;. His so-called 'last waltz' was

actually by his friend Karl Gottlieb Reissiger.

56 Fuseli: the Swiss-born English painter John Henry Fuseli was best known for

his depictions of the unconscious, as in The N(e;htmare (, 785-<)0).

'The Haumed Palace': published separately in April ,839, the poem was

included in all editions of the talc. According to Poe the central image is of 'amind haunted by phantoms-a disordered brain'.

58 n.' Watson ... vol. v: Poe's 'authenticating' note draws on the collected works of

Richard Watson, Professor of Chemistry at Cambridge in the eighteenthcentury. Watson cites thc works of Dr Thomas Percival and Abbe Lazzaro

Spallanzani, and is himself the Bishop ofLlandafT.

59 We pored ... ,t1aguntinae: all the books in Usher's library, except the 'Mad

Trist', arc real, although many are so rare that Poe could have known them only

second- or third-hand. Gresset, Machiavelli, Holberg, Tieck, and Campanella

offer allegorical tales with optimistic and pessimistic views about contemporary

society; Swedenborg's vision of heaven and hell and Pomponius Mela's geo­

graphy arc similarly Utopian, though both claim to be true. The palmistries ofRobcrt Fludd, Joannes ab Indagine, and Marin Cureau de la Chambre involve

Renaissance traditions of fortune-telling. The Diredoriulll of Eymeric of

Gironne instructs priests during the Spanish Inquisition, especially concernin~

forbidden books. The Vigiliae dcscribcs the vigils fi,l' the ,kad IIsed in Main/. ill

'500.

William Wilson

This talc first lIppeared in The Gifi: a Christmas and Nen' Vear's PresentjiJl' 1840,

which was actually issued earlier, in ,839. It WllScollected in Talesrdihe Grotesque and

Arabesque (,840).

66 Phar01l1lida: the motto is not from the named work ofWilliam Chamberlayne,

though the seventeenth-century playwright does speak of conscience in another

of his plays.

Elah-Gabalus: the homosexual Roman emperor Elagabalus or Heliogabalus was

rcnowned for his cruelty.

69 Dr Bransby: at Stoke Newington near London, Poe himself studied at Manor

House School under the Reverend John Bransby. HITI' and dsewhlTe ill ,Ill'

tale, the details of Wilson's life parallel those of Poe's OWII.

peineforte et dure: literally 'strong and hard penahy', ,he Ie~al tl'l'lII 51'11 1 l'1Il';11I',"

person to be crushed to death,

Cllfthaginian medals: the exergue is the lower part of the emhlem Oil t ht' rl'Vl'I'Sl'

of a coin. Poe seems to believe, from his misreading of a Frellch encyc1opal'll;a,

that this part of the design lasts longer.

70 Oh, lebon temps ... : 'Oh, what a good time it was, that age of iron'; from Voltaire,'Le Mondain'.

7' the nineteenth. , . ollJnniltivi(y: Poe's birthday was '9January; and although born

in ,809, to make himself seem younger he sometimes gave ,8'3 (or ,8, ,) as the

year of his birth.

73 k~y: here, tone or pitch of voice.

75 Eton: as Poe had no first-hand experience of this famous English public school,

Wilson's years there are less fully described than his earlier schooling.

Eleonora

The Masque of the Red Death

This brief masterpiece first appeared in Grahalll's :Hagazinl' filr May 1842.

129 Red Death: although its name recalls the Black Plague of the Middle Ages, the

The last ofPoe's 'women' talcs, 'I':leonora' appeared in ·I'h •. (;i/i: 1 Chrisll/II/s ill/I!

Nel1' Year's Prt'sellt./ilr 18.12, available in autumn 18.p.

123 Lul~v:' Under the protection of a specific form, the soul is safe.' The reference,

quoted in Victor Hugo's Notrt'-Dame de Paris, is to the trials of the biblical Job,

as explicated by the thirteenth-century Spanish mystic Ramon L1ull.

'agressi ... exploraturi': 'they were come into the sea of shades [Atlantic Ocean],to find out what is in it'. From Geographia NubiellSis, the J,atin translation of the

twelfth-century travclnarrative of Arab scientist AI- Idrisi.

Oedipus: on arriving at Thebes, thc Greek hero Oedipus solved the riddle of the

sphinx, which refers to the stages of human maturation.

125 bard o/Se/liraz: the fourteenth-century Persian poet Shams ud-din Muhammad,known as Hafiz.

126 Helusi'Jll: variant for Elysium.

127 Hesper: Hesperia, the western region dominated by Hesperus, the evening star.

99 metal d>lIger: an inexpensive alloy used in place of silver. Napoleons arc20-franc gold pieces.

100 the headfell Idt: earlier versions continue 'and rolled to some distance'. Most

other of Poe's many revisions to the description of the crime arc less gruesome

and concern only minor details.

105 Mllnsieur }ourdain: in Act I, scene ii of lVloliere's Le Bourgeois Gentillwmme, themiddle-class hero affects gentlemanly airs by calling for his dressing-gown (robe

de e/wmbre), 'better to hear the [chamber] music'.

Vidocq: in the nineteenth century, the reformed criminal Fran<;ois-Eugene

Vidocq headed the intelligence service under Napoleon, and later founded the

first private detective agency. His 1828 Met/wires whetted readers' appetite forcrime novels, and Vidocq's own moral ambiguity made him the model for the

tortured avenger of subsequent detective fiction.

106 }e les menageais: 'I dealt with them tactfully'.

116 Cuvier: Georges Cuvier, nineteenth-century French natural historian.

118 NeI4dwtel-ish: countrified, after a remote French provinc<"-

122 }ardin des PlatJIes: the great Parisian Botanical ( ,ar,1t-n wll",,,, 1,0,,1,,1'," .d 01,,"1'1,11"

anticipated evolutionary tlwory.

12zn. I "de nil'f ... ": Lto dell)' whal is, and 10("l'lalll ",11.11 I'; 11111'. It 0111 1',111 \' I,

letter xi of ROllSSt'all's .7111i,', Of 'I'/tt' NI'II' 1I1'10HI", .111 1'11'.1111'1'11111 I llllll!' 1111\ I I

exploring the tCmale illlln 1"1''''''''''''''' '1'1••. I'lIa 11" 11"1'1" .i1,,,,,', "Ill., 1',11'

graph's 'stamens' and 'codlish' {"II,asl"ld.,I,·11 ••. 1', .-1 •.• 1

331Explanatory Notes

93 Ho)!le: in the eighteenth century, Edmund Hoyle published widely on the rules

of card-playing. In revised forms, his books remain in print.

96 Bi-Part Soul: since as early as Plato's S)'lIlposium, philosophers have argued for

the duality of the soul. One variation accounts for the Doppe{({iingt'r motive,common in Poc.

97 et id genus Off/ne: 'and all of that kind'. The whole discussion of the fictitious

effeminate Chantilly suggests the narrator's fears about the sexual ambiguity ofhis relation to Dupin; sce David Van Leer, 'Detecting Truth: The World of the

Dupin Tales', in Silverman (cd.), NetlJ Essays on Poe's NIajot' Tales, 69-79.

98 Epicurtls ... nebular ((}Slllog'JllV:in Eureka, his late essay on the universe, Poe

associated the atomic theory of the ancient Greek philosopher with William

Hcrschel's eighteenth-century explanation of the universe in terms of the Orionnebula.

Pert/idit ... : 'the first letter has lost its original sound'; from Ovid, Pasti, v.

330 Explanatory Notes

78 Herodes Alticus: Tiberius Claudius Atticus Herodes W'lS a second-century

rhetorician who, like his friend the emperor Hadrian, spent his wealth liberallyon public buildings.

The Man of the Crowd

The talc appeared in both 7'l1l' Casket and I8urtrm's I Gellfleman's Magazine forDecember 1839. It was collected in Tales (1845).

84 Cc grand malheur ... : 'That great misfortune, not to be able to be alone'; from Les

Caraeteres, by the seventeenth-century moralist Jean de la Bruycre.

axilr)<; ... : 'the mist that previously was upon them'; adapted from Homer,fliad, v. 127.

Leilmitz ... Gorgias: Poe's opinion elsewhere varied on I ,eibniz, the seventeenth­

century rationalist and co-inventor of caleulus. The sophist Gorgias representsfaulty rhetoric in the Socratic dialogue bearing his name.

85 Eupatrids: well-born, after hereditary nobles of Athens.

88 Ret:::se/l: Friedrieh Retzsch, nineteenth-century German artist, famous for hisillustrations of Go et he's PaIW.

9! n. I fillrtulus Allim<.e... : the rare sixteenth-century Ortulus anime Climllratiun­

culis of Johanna Griininger, whose illustrations Isaac D'lsraeli judged indecent.

The Murders in the Ruc Morgue

Arguably the first detective story, this talc was published in Graham's Magazine forApri1184I. It was collected in Tales (1845).

92 BrollJlle: from chapter V of Um Burial by the seventeenth-century doctor and

polymath. The first version of this extensively revised tale omitted the motto,

but opened with a learned paragraph on the phrenological organ of 'analysis',

similar to the discussion of phrenology at the beginning of 'The Imp of thePerverse'.

332 E:tplanatory Notes Explanatory Notes 333

Red Death is imaginary. Cholera, however, was a pressing reality in the nine­

teenth century, and the United States suffered two serious outbreaks duringPoe's lifetime.

131 'Hernani': Victor Hugo's 1830 play of political and romantic intrigue in the

reign of Charles V of Spain.

134 t/thi~j'inthe night: Christ in His second coming will reappear like a thief in the

night: I Thessalonians 5: 2.

The Pit and the Pendulum

This tale first appeared in The Gifi: A Christmas and Nen' Year's Pres<'ll/,

MDCCCXLfl I,available earlier in 1842.

135 lmpia ... at Paris: the motIo reads: 'Here the wicked mob, unappeased, longcherished a hatred of blood. Now that the fatherland is saved, and the cave of

death demolished, where grim death has been, life and health appear.' In the

French Revolution, the Jacobins were extreme radicals responsible for the

excesses of the Reign of Terror . Their liberal politics were the opposite of those

of the reactionary Spanish .Inquisition.

inquisitorial voias: Poe draws on American anti-Catholic paranoia in the nine­

teenth century, especially about the long-standing 'inquisitions' by which the

Church searched out heresy. Although not historically precise, the tale correctly

suggests that the Inquisition was particularly harsh in Spain, where it was

centred in Toledo, and was halted temporarily in 1808 by Napoleonic troopsunder General Colbert, Comte de Lasalle.

The Mystery ofMarie Roget

This second of the Dupin tales appeared in William Snowden's Ladies' Companion in

three instalments-November and December 1842, and February 1843 . .It was col­lected in his 1845 Tales. Poe's use of a fictional character to solve a real-life murder

affords the tale its special interest, and led Dorothy Sayers to declare it his finest

work. The facts were essentially as Poe indicated. In July 1841 the shop-girl Mary

Rogers was found floating dead in the Hudson River. Sensationalizing journalists

converted this commonplace incident into a media event by emphasizing its mys­

terious elements, implying that Rogers was the victim of gang violence. When Poe

began his account, the death remained unexplained. His early instalments reprinted

various newspaper articles in an edited but fairly accurate form to expose their faulty

logic and implicit xenophobia. While he was preparing his final instalment-in

which Dupin exposed the complicity of Rogers's secret lover-the innkeeper Mrs

Loss (called Madame Deluc by Poe) confessed on her death-bed to ha ving assisted in

the abortion during which Rogers died. Faced with this new evidence, Poe quickly

altered his final instalment and revised the whole talc more extensively for its repub­

lication in book form. As a result, the talc offers fundamentally two explanations: the

favoured is Poe's original solution involving the secret lover; the second, barelysketched in, transforms the lover into the abortionist ofMrs Loss's account, without

ever actually mentioning her confession or what it implied about Rogers's death. For

a detailed account ofPoe's use of his sources, sce John Walsh, Poe the Detective: nil'

Curious Cirl'llmstt/nces behim/ 'The M)'ste~y I~f Marie Rogh' (New Brunswick, N]:

Rutgers University Press, 1968).

149 Nova/is: the late eighteenth-century German romantic writer, Friedrich von

Hardenberg.

grisette: French term for a seamstress, identified by her grey (gris) smock. By

assuming the sexual immorality of such a class of women, the term can also

mean, more colloquially, 'prostitute'.

151 n. I Nassau Street: Poe's Paris is not geographically accurate. Although his notes

provide the real names for most of the characters, they do not do so for Madame

Deluc, the guilty innkeeper who actually arranged for the disposal of Mary's

body after the failed abortion.

152 emeutes: French for tumults or uprisings, in particular the revolutionary activity

of1830.

167 sequitur: Latin for 'it follows', most commonly in the phrase /1IIns<'I(lIilllr.

170 de lunatiC/) inquirendo: the Latin name fi,l' the legal writ calling li,r a jlll'Y inq"irv

into the defendant's sanity.

170 n. I Landor: William Landor, PSl"l(lonVlll orll •••.a\'(· Billot'V W;dl,Il to '1'1 ••. 'I""tation is from Wallacc's anonymons "ovd SltllI(I')' (I SIll)

187 Et hinc illt£ irt£?: .I.atin fill" And hence Ihis anl'.•.•./·

188 /atalaccidellt: the reference 10 the possihili,y or dl'ath al I )d"c's '"'' is ""c' 01

Poe's late additions, trying to adjus' his original solution to lhe real li',' lacl 01

the fatal abortion. On ('ne and abortion, sce Van Leer, 'Detecting Truth'.

The Tell-Tale Heart

The tale first appeared in January 1843 in James Russell Lowell's The Pioneer . .It was

frequently reprinted, but not collected by Poe himself.

The Gold-Bug

Poe's talc won a contest sponsored by the Philadelphia Dollar Newspaper, in which it

first appeared in two instalments on 21 and 28June 1843 . .It was frequently reprinted

and collected in Tales (1845).

198 All in the Wrong: the motIo is Poe's own, and not, as claimed, from Arthur

Murphy's eighteenth-century comedy.

199 scambt£us: Latin for scarab, a family of beetles, whose sacred image ancient

Egyptians frequently used as ornaments.

201 scambt£us ct/put Iwminis: scarab with a human head.

216 (/Innected with it: end of first newspaper instalment.

220 Captain Kidd: the buried treasure of the ScotIish pirate William Kidd

((.1645-1701) was a popular legend in mid-nineteenth-century America . .It is

alluded to as well in works by lrving, Thoreau, and Melville.

223 a table: although Poe's tabulations arc not correct, his cryptography is funda­

mentally sound.