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diff --git a/old/1064-0.txt b/old/1064-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6b1af09 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/1064-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,605 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Masque of the Red Death, by Edgar Allan Poe + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most +other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions +whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of +the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at +www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have +to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook. + +Title: The Masque of the Red Death + +Author: Edgar Allan Poe + +Release Date: June 6, 2010 [EBook #1064] +[Most recently updated: October 18, 2020] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: UTF-8 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MASQUE OF THE RED DEATH *** + + + + +Produced by Levent Kurnaz. HTML version by Al Haines. + + + + +The Masque of the Red Death + +by Edgar Allan Poe + + +The “Red Death” had long devastated the country. No pestilence had +ever been so fatal, or so hideous. Blood was its Avatar and its seal—the +redness and the horror of blood. There were sharp pains, and sudden dizziness, +and then profuse bleeding at the pores, with dissolution. The scarlet stains +upon the body and especially upon the face of the victim, were the pest ban +which shut him out from the aid and from the sympathy of his fellow-men. And +the whole seizure, progress and termination 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 his presence a thousand hale +and light-hearted friends from among the knights and dames of his court, and +with these retired to the deep seclusion of one of his castellated abbeys. This +was an extensive and magnificent structure, the creation of the prince’s +own eccentric yet august taste. A strong and lofty wall girdled it in. This +wall had gates of iron. The courtiers, having entered, brought furnaces and +massy hammers and welded the bolts. They resolved to leave means neither of +ingress nor egress to the sudden impulses of despair or of frenzy from within. +The abbey was amply provisioned. With such precautions the courtiers might bid +defiance to contagion. The external world could take care of itself. In the +meantime it was folly to grieve, or to think. The prince had provided all the +appliances of pleasure. There were buffoons, there were improvisatori, there +were ballet-dancers, there were musicians, there was Beauty, there was wine. +All these and security were within. Without was the “Red Death”. + +It was towards the close of the fifth or sixth month of his seclusion, and +while the pestilence raged most furiously abroad, that the Prince Prospero +entertained his thousand friends at a masked ball of the most unusual +magnificence. + +It was a voluptuous scene, that masquerade. But first let me tell of the rooms +in which it was held. These 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, so that the view of the +whole extent is scarcely impeded. Here the case was very different, as might +have been expected from the duke’s love of the _bizarre_. The +apartments were so irregularly disposed that the vision embraced but little +more than one at a time. There was a sharp turn at every twenty or thirty +yards, and at each turn a novel effect. To the right and left, in the middle of +each wall, a tall and narrow Gothic window looked out upon a closed corridor +which pursued the windings of the suite. These windows were of stained glass +whose colour varied in accordance with the prevailing hue of the decorations of +the chamber into which it opened. That at the eastern extremity was hung, for +example in blue—and vividly blue were its windows. The second chamber was +purple in its ornaments and tapestries, and here the panes were purple. The +third was green throughout, and so were the casements. The fourth was furnished +and lighted with orange—the fifth with white—the sixth with violet. +The seventh apartment was closely shrouded in black velvet tapestries that hung +all over the ceiling and down the walls, falling in heavy folds upon a carpet +of the same material and hue. But in this chamber only, the colour of the +windows failed to correspond with the decorations. The panes here were +scarlet—a deep blood colour. Now in no one of the seven apartments was +there any lamp or candelabrum, amid the profusion of golden ornaments that lay +scattered to and fro or depended from the roof. There was no light of any kind +emanating from lamp or candle within the suite of chambers. But in the +corridors that followed the suite, there stood, opposite to each window, a +heavy tripod, bearing a brazier of fire, that projected its rays through the +tinted glass and so glaringly illumined the room. And thus were produced a +multitude of gaudy and fantastic appearances. But in the western or black +chamber the effect of the fire-light that streamed upon the dark hangings +through the blood-tinted panes, was ghastly in the extreme, and produced so +wild a look upon the countenances of those who entered, that there were few of +the company bold enough to set foot within its precincts at all. + +It was in this apartment, also, that there stood against the western wall, a +gigantic clock of ebony. Its pendulum swung to and fro with a dull, heavy, +monotonous clang; and when the minute-hand made the circuit 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 deep and exceedingly musical, but of so +peculiar a note and emphasis that, at each lapse of an hour, the musicians of +the orchestra were constrained to pause, momentarily, in their performance, to +harken to the sound; and thus the waltzers perforce ceased their evolutions; +and there was a brief disconcert of the whole gay company; and, while the +chimes of the clock yet rang, it was observed that the giddiest grew pale, and +the more aged and sedate passed their hands over their brows as if in confused +reverie or meditation. But when the echoes had fully ceased, a light laughter +at once pervaded the assembly; the musicians looked 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 of the clock should produce in them no similar +emotion; and then, after the lapse of sixty minutes, (which embrace three +thousand and six hundred seconds of the Time that flies,) there came yet +another chiming of the clock, and then were the same disconcert and +tremulousness and meditation as before. + +But, in spite of these things, it was a gay and magnificent revel. The tastes +of the duke were peculiar. He had a fine eye for colours and effects. He +disregarded the _decora_ of mere fashion. His plans were bold and fiery, +and his conceptions glowed with barbaric lustre. There are some who 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 was not. + +He had directed, in great part, the movable embellishments of the seven +chambers, upon occasion of this great _fête_; and it was his own guiding +taste which had given character to the masqueraders. Be sure they were +grotesque. There were much glare and glitter and piquancy and +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 excited disgust. To and fro +in the seven chambers there stalked, in fact, a multitude 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 the ebony clock which stands in the hall of the +velvet. And then, for a moment, all is still, and all is silent save the voice +of the clock. The dreams are stiff-frozen as they stand. But the echoes of the +chime die away—they have endured but an instant—and a light, +half-subdued laughter floats after them as they depart. And now again the music +swells, and the dreams live, and writhe to and fro more merrily than ever, +taking hue from the many tinted windows through which stream the 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 through the blood-coloured panes; and the blackness of +the sable drapery appals; and to him whose foot falls upon the sable carpet, +there comes from the near clock of ebony a muffled peal more solemnly emphatic +than any which reaches _their_ ears who indulged in the more remote +gaieties of the other apartments. + +But these other apartments were densely crowded, and in them beat feverishly +the heart of life. And the revel went whirlingly on, until at length there +commenced the sounding of midnight upon the clock. And then the music ceased, +as I have told; and the evolutions of the waltzers were quieted; and there was +an uneasy cessation of all things as before. But now there were twelve strokes +to be sounded by the bell of the clock; and thus it happened, perhaps, that +more of thought crept, with more of time, into the meditations of the +thoughtful among those who revelled. And thus too, it happened, perhaps, that +before the last echoes of the last chime had utterly sunk into silence, there +were many individuals in the crowd who had found leisure to become aware of the +presence of a masked figure which had arrested the attention of no single +individual before. And the rumour of this new presence having spread itself +whisperingly around, there arose at length from the whole company a buzz, or +murmur, expressive of disapprobation and surprise—then, finally, of +terror, of horror, and of disgust. + +In an assembly of phantasms such as I have painted, it may well be supposed +that no ordinary appearance could have excited such sensation. In truth the +masquerade licence of the night was nearly unlimited; but the figure in +question had out-Heroded Herod, and gone beyond the bounds of even the +prince’s indefinite decorum. There are chords in the hearts of the most +reckless which cannot be touched without emotion. Even with the utterly lost, +to whom life and death are equally jests, there are matters of which no jest +can be made. The whole company, indeed, seemed now deeply to feel that in the +costume and 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 so nearly to resemble +the countenance of a stiffened corpse that the closest scrutiny must have had +difficulty in detecting the cheat. And yet all this might have been endured, if +not approved, by the mad revellers around. But the mummer had gone so far as to +assume the type of the Red Death. His vesture was dabbled in +_blood_—and his broad brow, with all the features of the face, was +besprinkled with the scarlet horror. + +When the eyes of the Prince Prospero fell upon this spectral image (which, with +a slow and solemn movement, as if more fully to sustain its role, stalked to +and fro among the waltzers) he was seen to be convulsed, in the first moment +with a strong shudder either of terror or distaste; but, in the next, his brow +reddened with rage. + +“Who dares,”—he demanded hoarsely of the courtiers who stood +near him—“who dares insult us with this blasphemous mockery? Seize +him 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 seven rooms loudly and clearly, +for the prince was a bold and robust man, and the music had become 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 rushing movement of this +group in the direction of the intruder, who at the moment was also near at +hand, and now, with deliberate and stately step, made closer approach to the +speaker. But from a certain nameless awe 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 the +centres of the rooms to the walls, he made his way uninterruptedly, but with +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 this again 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 own momentary 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 rapid +impetuosity, to within three or four feet of the retreating figure, when the +latter, having attained the extremity of the velvet apartment, turned suddenly +and confronted his pursuer. There was a sharp cry—and the dagger dropped +gleaming upon the sable carpet, upon which, instantly afterwards, fell +prostrate in death the Prince Prospero. Then, summoning the wild courage of +despair, a throng of the revellers at once threw themselves into the black +apartment, and, seizing the mummer, whose tall figure stood erect and +motionless within the shadow of the ebony clock, gasped in unutterable horror +at finding the grave cerements and corpse-like mask, which they handled with so +violent a rudeness, untenanted by any tangible form. + +And now was acknowledged the presence of the Red Death. He had come like a +thief in the night. And one by one dropped the revellers in the blood-bedewed +halls of their revel, and died each in the despairing posture of his fall. And +the life of the ebony clock went out with that of the last of the gay. And the +flames of the tripods expired. And Darkness and Decay and the Red Death held +illimitable dominion over all. + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Masque of the Red Death, by Edgar Allan Poe + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MASQUE OF THE RED DEATH *** + +***** This file should be named 1064-0.txt or 1064-0.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/1/0/6/1064/ + +Produced by Levent Kurnaz. 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