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diff --git a/932-h/932-h.htm b/932-h/932-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..c6c9fa8 --- /dev/null +++ b/932-h/932-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,1312 @@ +<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"> +<html> +<head> +<title>The Project Gutenberg eBook The Fall of the House of +Usher, by Edgar Allan Poe</title> +<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content= +"text/html; charset=iso-8859-1"> +<style type="text/css"> +<!-- +DIV.book { margin-left: 5%; margin-right: 5%; text-align: justify; } +P { text-indent: 2em; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; } +P.noindent { text-indent: 0em; } +--> +</style> +</head> +<body> + + +<pre> + +Project Gutenberg's The Fall of the House of Usher, by Edgar Allan Poe + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere 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 + + +Title: The Fall of the House of Usher + +Author: Edgar Allan Poe + +Posting Date: December 15, 2010 [EBook #932] +Release Date: June, 1997 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE FALL OF THE HOUSE OF USHER *** + + + + +Produced by Levent Kurnaz and Jose Menendez + + + + + +</pre> + + + +<div class="book"> +<center> +<hr size="3" noshade> +<br> +<h1>THE FALL OF<br> +THE HOUSE OF USHER</h1> + +<br> +<h3>BY</h3> + +<br> +<h2>EDGAR ALLAN POE</h2> + +<hr size="3" noshade> +<br> + + +<table cellpadding="2" cellspacing="2" summary="quote"> +<tr> +<td><i>Son cœur est un luth suspendu;<br> +Sitôt qu’on le touche il résonne.</i></td> +</tr> +</table> +</center> + +<br> +<p class="noindent" align="right"><i>De Béranger.</i></p> + +<p><br> +<font size="+1">D</font>URING 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 had been passing alone, on +horseback, through a singularly dreary tract of country, and at +length found myself, as the shades of the evening drew on, within +view of the melancholy House of Usher. I know not how it +was—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 images of 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 few +rank sedges—and upon a few white trunks of decayed +trees—with an utter depression of soul which I can compare +to no earthly sensation more properly than to the after-dream of +the reveller upon opium—the bitter lapse into every-day +life—the hideous dropping off of the veil. There was an +iciness, a sinking, a sickening of the heart—an unredeemed +dreariness of thought which no goading of the imagination could +torture into aught of the sublime. What was it—I paused to +think—what was it that so unnerved me in the contemplation +of the House of Usher? It was a mystery all insoluble; nor could +I grapple with the shadowy fancies that crowded upon me as I +pondered. I was forced to fall back upon the unsatisfactory +conclusion, that while, beyond doubt, there <i>are</i> +combinations of very simple natural objects which have the power +of thus affecting us, still the analysis of this power lies among +considerations beyond our depth. It was possible, I reflected, +that a mere different arrangement of the particulars of the +scene, of the details of the picture, would be sufficient to +modify, or perhaps to annihilate its capacity for sorrowful +impression; and, acting upon this idea, I reined my horse to the +precipitous brink of a black and lurid tarn that lay in unruffled +lustre by the dwelling, and gazed down—but with a shudder +even more thrilling than before—upon the remodelled and +inverted images of the gray sedge, and the ghastly tree-stems, +and the vacant and eye-like windows.</p> + +<p>Nevertheless, in this mansion of gloom I now proposed to +myself a sojourn of some weeks. Its proprietor, Roderick Usher, +had been one of my boon companions in boyhood; but many years had +elapsed since our last meeting. A letter, however, had lately +reached me in a distant part 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 bodily +illness—of a mental disorder which oppressed him—and +of an earnest desire to see me, as his best and indeed his only +personal friend, with a 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 <i>heart</i> that went with his request—which +allowed me no room for hesitation; and I accordingly obeyed +forthwith what I still considered a very singular summons.</p> + +<p>Although, as boys, we had been even intimate associates, yet I +really knew little of my friend. His reserve had been always +excessive and habitual. I was aware, however, that his very +ancient family had been noted, time out of mind, for a peculiar +sensibility of temperament, displaying itself, through long ages, +in many works of exalted art, and manifested, of late, in +repeated deeds of munificent yet unobtrusive charity, as well as +in a passionate devotion to the intricacies, perhaps even more +than to the orthodox and easily recognizable beauties, of musical +science. I had learned, too, the very remarkable fact, that the +stem of the Usher race, all time-honored as it was, had put +forth, at no period, any enduring branch; in other words, that +the entire family lay in the direct line of descent, and had +always, with very trifling and very temporary variation, so lain. +It was this deficiency, I considered, while running over in +thought the perfect keeping of the character of the premises with +the accredited character of the people, and while speculating +upon the possible influence which the one, in the long lapse of +centuries, might have exercised upon the other—it was this +deficiency, perhaps, of collateral issue, and the consequent +undeviating transmission, from sire to son, of the patrimony with +the name, 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 minds of the +peasantry who used it, both the family and the family +mansion.</p> + +<p>I have said that the sole effect of my somewhat childish +experiment—that of looking down within the tarn—had +been to deepen the first singular impression. There can be no +doubt that the consciousness of the rapid increase of my +superstition—for why should I not so term it?—served +mainly to accelerate the increase itself. Such, I have long +known, is the paradoxical law of all sentiments having terror as +a basis. And it might have been for this reason only, that, when +I again uplifted my eyes to the house itself, from its image in +the pool, there grew in my mind a strange fancy—a fancy so +ridiculous, indeed, that I but mention it to show the vivid force +of the sensations which oppressed me. I had so worked upon my +imagination as really to believe that about the whole mansion and +domain there hung an atmosphere peculiar to themselves and their +immediate vicinity—an atmosphere which had no affinity with +the air of heaven, but which had reeked up from the decayed +trees, and the gray wall, and the silent tarn—a pestilent +and mystic vapor, dull, sluggish, faintly discernible, and +leaden-hued.</p> + +<p>Shaking off from my spirit what <i>must</i> have been a dream, +I scanned more narrowly the real aspect of the building. Its +principal feature seemed to be that of an excessive antiquity. +The discoloration of ages had been great. Minute fungi overspread +the whole exterior, hanging in a fine tangled web-work from the +eaves. Yet all this was apart from any extraordinary +dilapidation. No portion of the masonry had fallen; and there +appeared to be a wild inconsistency between its still perfect +adaptation of parts, and the crumbling condition of the +individual stones. In this there was much that reminded me of the +specious totality of old wood-work which has rotted for long +years in some neglected vault, with no disturbance from the +breath of the external air. Beyond this indication of extensive +decay, however, the fabric gave little token of instability. +Perhaps the eye of a scrutinizing observer might have discovered +a barely perceptible fissure, which, extending from the roof of +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.</p> + +<p>Noticing these things, I rode over a short causeway to the +house. A servant in waiting took my horse, and I entered the +Gothic archway of the hall. A valet, of stealthy step, thence +conducted me, in silence, through many dark and intricate +passages in my progress to the <i>studio</i> of his master. Much +that I encountered on the way contributed, I know not how, to +heighten the vague sentiments of which I have already spoken. +While the objects around me—while the carvings of the +ceilings, the sombre tapestries of the walls, the ebony blackness +of the floors, and the phantasmagoric armorial trophies which +rattled as I strode, were but matters to which, or to such as +which, I had been accustomed from my infancy—while I +hesitated not to acknowledge how familiar was all this—I +still wondered to find how unfamiliar were the fancies which +ordinary images were stirring up. On one of the staircases, I met +the physician of the family. His countenance, I thought, wore a +mingled expression of low cunning and perplexity. He accosted me +with trepidation and passed on. The valet now threw open a door +and ushered me into the presence of his master.</p> + +<p>The room in which I found myself was very large and lofty. The +windows were long, narrow, and pointed, and at so vast a distance +from the black oaken floor as to be altogether inaccessible from +within. Feeble gleams of encrimsoned light made their way through +the trellised panes, and served to render sufficiently distinct +the more prominent objects around; the eye, however, struggled in +vain to reach the remoter angles of the chamber, or the recesses +of the vaulted and fretted ceiling. Dark draperies hung upon the +walls. The general furniture was profuse, comfortless, antique, +and tattered. Many books and musical instruments lay scattered +about, but failed to give any vitality to the scene. I felt that +I breathed an atmosphere of sorrow. An air of stern, deep, and +irredeemable gloom hung over and pervaded all.</p> + +<p>Upon my entrance, Usher rose from a sofa on which he had been +lying at full length, and greeted me with a vivacious warmth +which had much in it, I at first thought, of an overdone +cordiality—of the constrained effort of the +<i>ennuyé</i> man of the world. A glance, however, at his +countenance convinced me of his perfect sincerity. We sat down; +and for 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 terribly altered, in so brief a period, as had Roderick Usher! +It was with difficulty that I could bring myself to admit the +identity of the man being before me with the companion of my +early boyhood. Yet the character of his face had been at all +times remarkable. A cadaverousness of complexion; an eye large, +liquid, and luminous beyond comparison; lips somewhat thin and +very pallid, but of a surpassingly beautiful curve; a nose of a +delicate Hebrew model, but with a breadth of nostril unusual in +similar formations; a finely moulded chin, speaking, in its want +of prominence, of a want of moral energy; hair of a more than +web-like softness and tenuity;—these features, with an +inordinate expansion above the regions of the temple, made up +altogether a countenance not easily to be forgotten. And now in +the mere exaggeration of the prevailing character of these +features, and of the expression they were wont to convey, lay so +much of change that I doubted to whom I spoke. The now ghastly +pallor of the skin, and the now miraculous lustre of the eye, +above all things startled and even awed me. The silken hair, too, +had been suffered to grow all unheeded, and as, in its wild +gossamer texture, it floated rather than fell about the face, I +could not, even with effort, connect its Arabesque expression +with any idea of simple humanity.</p> + +<p>In the manner of my friend I was at once struck with an +incoherence—an inconsistency; and I soon found this to +arise from a series of feeble and futile struggles to overcome an +habitual trepidancy—an excessive nervous agitation. For +something of this nature I had indeed been prepared, no less by +his letter, than by reminiscences of certain boyish traits, and +by conclusions deduced from his peculiar physical conformation +and temperament. His action was alternately vivacious and sullen. +His voice varied rapidly from a tremulous indecision (when the +animal spirits seemed utterly in abeyance) to that species of +energetic concision—that abrupt, weighty, unhurried, and +hollow-sounding enunciation—that leaden, self-balanced and +perfectly modulated guttural utterance, which may be observed in +the lost drunkard, or the irreclaimable eater of opium, during +the periods of his most intense excitement.</p> + +<p>It was thus that he spoke of the object of my visit, of his +earnest desire to see me, and of the solace he expected me to +afford him. He entered, at some length, into what he conceived to +be the nature of his malady. It was, he said, a constitutional +and a family evil, and one for which he despaired to find a +remedy—a mere nervous affection, he immediately added, +which would undoubtedly soon pass off. It displayed itself 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 suffered +much from a morbid acuteness of the senses; the most insipid food +was alone endurable; he could wear only garments of certain +texture; the odors of all flowers were oppressive; his eyes were +tortured by even a faint light; and there were but peculiar +sounds, and these from stringed instruments, which did not +inspire him with horror.</p> + +<p>To an anomalous species of terror I found him a bounden slave. +“I shall perish,” said he, “I <i>must</i> +perish in this deplorable folly. Thus, thus, and not otherwise, +shall I be lost. I dread the events of the future, not in +themselves, but in their results. I shudder at the thought of +any, even the most trivial, incident, which may operate upon this +intolerable agitation of soul. I have, indeed, no abhorrence of +danger, except in its absolute effect—in terror. In this +unnerved, in this pitiable, condition I feel that the period will +sooner or later arrive when I must abandon life and reason +together, in some struggle with the grim phantasm, <font size= +"+1">F</font>EAR.”</p> + +<p>I learned, moreover, at intervals, and through broken and +equivocal hints, another singular feature of his mental +condition. He was enchained by certain superstitious impressions +in regard to the dwelling which he tenanted, and whence, for many +years, he had never ventured forth—in regard to an +influence whose supposititious force was conveyed in terms too +shadowy here to be re-stated—an influence which some +peculiarities in the mere form and substance of his family +mansion had, by dint of long sufferance, he said, obtained over +his spirit—an effect which the <i>physique</i> of the gray +walls and turrets, and of the dim tarn into which they all looked +down, had, at length, brought about upon the <i>morale</i> of his +existence.</p> + +<p>He admitted, however, although with hesitation, that much of +the peculiar gloom which thus afflicted him could be traced to a +more natural and far more palpable origin—to the severe and +long-continued illness—indeed to the evidently approaching +dissolution—of a tenderly beloved sister, his sole +companion for long years, his last and only relative on earth. +“Her decease,” he said, with a bitterness which I can +never forget, “would leave him (him the hopeless and the +frail) the last of the ancient race of the Ushers.” While +he spoke, the lady Madeline (for so was she called) passed slowly +through a remote portion of the apartment, and, without having +noticed my presence, disappeared. I regarded her with an utter +astonishment not unmingled with dread; and yet I found it +impossible to account for such feelings. A sensation of stupor +oppressed me as my eyes followed her retreating steps. When a +door, at length, closed upon her, my glance sought instinctively +and eagerly the countenance of the brother; but he had buried his +face in his hands, and I could only perceive that a far more than +ordinary wanness had overspread the emaciated fingers through +which trickled many passionate tears.</p> + +<p>The disease of the lady Madeline had long baffled the skill of +her physicians. A settled apathy, a gradual wasting away of the +person, and frequent although transient affections of a partially +cataleptical character were the unusual diagnosis. Hitherto she +had steadily borne up against the pressure of her malady, and had +not betaken herself finally to bed; but on the closing in of the +evening of my arrival at the house, she succumbed (as her brother +told me at night with inexpressible agitation) to the prostrating +power of the destroyer; and I learned that the glimpse I had +obtained of her person would thus probably be the last I should +obtain—that the lady, at least while living, would be seen +by me no more.</p> + +<p>For several days ensuing, her name was unmentioned by either +Usher or myself; and during this period I was busied in earnest +endeavors to alleviate the melancholy of my friend. We painted +and read together, or I listened, as if in a dream, to the wild +improvisations of his speaking guitar. And thus, as a closer and +still closer intimacy admitted me more unreservedly into the +recesses of his spirit, the more bitterly did I perceive the +futility of all attempt at cheering a mind from which darkness, +as if an inherent positive quality, poured forth upon all objects +of the moral and physical universe in one unceasing radiation of +gloom.</p> + +<p>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 in any attempt to convey an idea of the exact +character of the studies, or of the occupations, in which he +involved me, or led me the way. An excited and highly distempered +ideality threw a sulphureous lustre over all. His long improvised +dirges will ring forever in my ears. Among other things, I hold +painfully in mind a certain singular perversion and amplification +of the wild air of the last waltz of Von Weber. From the +paintings over which his elaborate fancy brooded, and which grew, +touch by touch, into vagueness at which I shuddered the more +thrillingly, because I shuddered knowing not why—from these +paintings (vivid as their images now are before 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 +overawed attention. If ever mortal painted an idea, that mortal +was Roderick Usher. For me at least, in the circumstances then +surrounding me, there arose out of the pure abstractions which +the hypochondriac contrived to throw upon his canvas, an +intensity of intolerable awe, no shadow of which felt I ever yet +in the contemplation of the certainly glowing yet too concrete +reveries of Fuseli.</p> + +<p>One of the phantasmagoric conceptions of my friend, partaking +not so rigidly of the spirit of abstraction, may be shadowed +forth, although feebly, in words. A small picture presented the +interior of an immensely long and rectangular vault or tunnel, +with low walls, smooth, white, and without interruption or +device. Certain accessory points of the design served well to +convey the idea that this excavation lay at an exceeding depth +below the surface of the earth. No outlet was observed in any +portion of its vast extent, and no torch or other artificial +source of light was discernible; yet a flood of intense rays +rolled throughout, and bathed the whole in a ghastly and +inappropriate splendor.</p> + +<p>I have just spoken of that morbid condition of the auditory +nerve which rendered all music intolerable to the sufferer, with +the exception of certain effects of stringed instruments. It was, +perhaps, the narrow limits to which he thus confined himself upon +the guitar which gave birth, in great measure, to the fantastic +character of the performances. But the fervid <i>facility</i> of +his <i>impromptus</i> could not be so accounted for. They must +have been, and were, in the notes, as well as in the words of his +wild fantasias (for he not unfrequently accompanied himself with +rhymed verbal improvisations), the result of that intense mental +collectedness and concentration to which I have previously +alluded as observable 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 I perceived, and for the +first time, a full consciousness on the part of Usher 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:—<br> +</p> + +<center> +<table cellpadding="6" cellspacing="4" summary= +"The Haunted Palace"> +<tr> +<td align="center" colspan="2"> <br> +I.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> </td> +<td>In the greenest of our valleys,<br> + By good angels tenanted,<br> + Once a fair and stately palace—<br> + Radiant palace—reared its head.<br> + In the monarch Thought’s dominion—<br> + It stood there!<br> + Never seraph spread a pinion<br> + Over fabric half so fair.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td align="center" colspan="2"> <br> + II.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> </td> +<td>Banners yellow, glorious, golden,<br> + On its roof did float and flow;<br> + (This—all this—was in the olden<br> + Time long ago);<br> + And every gentle air that dallied,<br> + In that sweet day,<br> + Along the ramparts plumed and pallid,<br> + A winged odor went away.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td align="center" colspan="2"> <br> + III.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> </td> +<td>Wanderers in that happy valley<br> + Through two luminous windows saw<br> + Spirits moving musically<br> + To a lute’s well-tunèd law;<br> + Round about a throne, where sitting<br> + (Porphyrogene!)<br> + In state his glory well befitting,<br> + The ruler of the realm was seen.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td align="center" colspan="2"> <br> + IV.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> </td> +<td>And all with pearl and ruby glowing<br> + Was the fair palace door,<br> + Through which came flowing, flowing, flowing<br> + And sparkling evermore,<br> + A troop of Echoes whose sweet duty<br> + Was but to sing,<br> + In voices of surpassing beauty,<br> + The wit and wisdom of their king.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td align="center" colspan="2"> <br> + V.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> </td> +<td>But evil things, in robes of sorrow,<br> + Assailed the monarch’s high estate;<br> + (Ah, let us mourn, for never morrow<br> + Shall dawn upon him, desolate!)<br> + And, round about his home, the glory<br> + That blushed and bloomed<br> + Is but a dim-remembered story<br> + Of the old time entombed.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td align="center" colspan="2"> <br> + VI.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> </td> +<td>And travellers now within that valley,<br> + Through the red-litten windows see<br> + Vast forms that move fantastically<br> + To a discordant melody;<br> + While, like a rapid ghastly river,<br> + Through the pale door,<br> + A hideous throng rush out forever,<br> + And laugh—but smile no more.</td> +</tr> +</table> +</center> + +<br> +<p>I well remember that suggestions arising from this ballad, led +us into a train of thought wherein there became manifest an +opinion of Usher’s which I mention not so much on account +of its novelty (for other men<a href="#1">*</a> have thought +thus), as on account of the pertinacity with which he maintained +it. This opinion, in its general form, was that of the sentience +of all vegetable things. But, in his disordered fancy, the idea +had assumed a more daring character, and trespassed, under +certain conditions, upon the kingdom of inorganization. I lack +words to express the full extent, or the earnest <i>abandon</i> +of his persuasion. The belief, however, was connected (as I have +previously hinted) with the gray 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 in +that of the many <i>fungi</i> which overspread them, and of the +decayed trees which stood around—above all, in the long +undisturbed endurance of this 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 condensation of an atmosphere of their own about the +waters and the walls. The result was discoverable, he added, in +that silent yet importunate and terrible influence which for +centuries had moulded the destinies of his family, and which made +<i>him</i> what I now saw him—what he was. Such opinions +need no comment, and I will make none.</p> + +<p>Our books—the books which, for years, had formed no +small portion of the mental existence of the invalid—were, +as might be supposed, in strict keeping with this character of +phantasm. We pored together over such works as the “Ververt +et Chartreuse” of Gresset; the “Belphegor” of +Machiavelli; the “Heaven and Hell” of Swedenborg; the +“Subterranean Voyage of Nicholas Klimm” by Holberg; +the “Chiromancy” of Robert Flud, of Jean +D’Indaginé, and of De la Chambre; the “Journey +into the Blue Distance” of Tieck; and the “City of +the Sun” of Campanella. One favorite volume was a small +octavo edition of the “Directorium Inquisitorium,” by +the Dominican Eymeric de Gironne; and there were passages in +Pomponius Mela, about the old African Satyrs and Œgipans, +over which Usher would sit dreaming for hours. His chief delight, +however, was found in the perusal of an exceedingly rare and +curious book in quarto Gothic—the manual of a forgotten +church—the <i>Vigiliæ Mortuorum Secundum Chorum +Ecclesiæ Maguntinæ</i>.</p> + +<p>I could not help thinking of the wild ritual of this work, and +of its probable influence upon the hypochondriac, when, one +evening, having informed me abruptly that the lady Madeline was +no more, he stated his intention of preserving her corpse for a +fortnight (previously to its final interment), in one of the +numerous vaults within the main walls of the building. The +worldly reason, however, assigned for this 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, of +certain obtrusive and eager inquiries on the part of her medical +men, and of the remote and exposed situation of the burial-ground +of the family. 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 my arrival at the house, I had no desire to oppose +what I regarded as at best but a harmless, and by no means an +unnatural, precaution.</p> + +<p>At the request of Usher, I personally aided him in the +arrangements for the temporary entombment. The body having been +encoffined, we two alone bore it to its rest. The vault in which +we placed it (and which had been so long unopened that our +torches, half smothered in its oppressive 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 building in 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 highly combustible substance, as a portion of its floor, +and the whole interior of a long archway through which we reached +it, were carefully sheathed with copper. The door, of massive +iron, had been, also, similarly protected. Its immense weight +caused an unusually sharp, grating sound, as it moved upon its +hinges.</p> + +<p>Having deposited our mournful burden upon tressels within this +region of horror, we partially turned aside the yet unscrewed lid +of the coffin, and looked upon the face of the tenant. A striking +similitude between the brother and sister now first arrested my +attention; and Usher, divining, perhaps, my thoughts, murmured +out some few words from which I learned that the deceased and +himself had been twins, and that sympathies of a scarcely +intelligible nature had always existed between them. Our glances, +however, rested not long upon the dead—for we could not +regard her unawed. The disease which had thus entombed the lady +in the maturity of youth, had left, as usual in all maladies of a +strictly cataleptical character, the mockery of a faint blush +upon the bosom and the face, and that suspiciously lingering +smile upon the lip which is so terrible in death. We replaced and +screwed down the lid, and, having secured the door of iron, made +our way, with toil, into the scarcely less gloomy apartments of +the upper portion of the house.</p> + +<p>And now, some days of bitter grief having elapsed, an +observable change came over the features of the mental disorder +of my friend. His ordinary manner had vanished. His ordinary +occupations were neglected or forgotten. He roamed from chamber +to chamber with hurried, unequal, and objectless step. The pallor +of his countenance had assumed, if possible, a more ghastly +hue—but the luminousness of his eye had utterly gone out. +The once occasional huskiness of his tone was 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 some +oppressive secret, to divulge which he struggled for the +necessary courage. At times, again, I was obliged to resolve all +into the mere inexplicable vagaries of madness, for I beheld him +gazing upon vacancy for long hours, in an attitude of the +profoundest attention, as if listening to some imaginary sound. +It was no wonder that his condition terrified—that it +infected me. I felt creeping upon me, by slow yet certain +degrees, the wild influences of his own fantastic yet impressive +superstitions.</p> + +<p>It was, especially, upon retiring to bed late in the night of +the seventh or eighth day after the placing of the lady Madeline +within the donjon, that I experienced the full power of such +feelings. Sleep came not near my couch—while the hours +waned and waned away. I struggled to reason off the nervousness +which had dominion over me. I endeavored to believe that much, if +not all of what I felt, was due to the bewildering influence of +the gloomy furniture of the room—of the dark and tattered +draperies, which, tortured into motion by the breath of a rising +tempest, swayed fitfully to and fro upon the walls, and rustled +uneasily about the decorations of the bed. But my efforts were +fruitless. An irrepressible 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 the pillows, and, peering +earnestly within the intense darkness of the chamber, +hearkened—I know not why, except that an instinctive spirit +prompted 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 yet unendurable, I threw on my clothes with haste +(for I felt that I should sleep no more during the night), and +endeavored to arouse myself from the pitiable condition into +which I had fallen, by pacing rapidly to and fro through the +apartment.</p> + +<p>I had taken but few turns in this manner, when a light step on +an adjoining staircase arrested my attention. I presently +recognized it as that of Usher. In an instant afterward he +rapped, with a gentle touch, at my door, and entered, bearing a +lamp. His countenance was, as usual, cadaverously wan—but, +moreover, there was a species of mad hilarity in his +eyes—an evidently restrained <i>hysteria</i> in his whole +demeanor. His air appalled me—but anything was preferable +to the solitude which I had so long endured, and I even welcomed +his presence as a relief.</p> + +<p>“And you have not seen it?” he said abruptly, +after having stared about him for some moments in +silence—“you have not then seen it?—but, stay! +you shall.” Thus speaking, and having carefully shaded his +lamp, he hurried to one of the casements, and threw it freely +open to the storm.</p> + +<p>The impetuous fury of the entering gust nearly lifted us from +our feet. It was, indeed, a tempestuous yet sternly beautiful +night, and one wildly singular in its terror and its beauty. A +whirlwind had apparently collected its force in our vicinity; for +there were frequent and violent alterations in the direction of +the wind; and the exceeding density of the clouds (which hung so +low as to press upon the turrets of the house) did not prevent +our perceiving the life-like velocity with which they flew +careering from all points against each other, without passing +away into the distance. I say that even their exceeding density +did not prevent our perceiving this—yet we had no glimpse +of the moon or stars, nor was there any flashing forth of the +lightning. But the under surfaces of the huge masses of agitated +vapor, as well as all terrestrial objects immediately around us, +were glowing in the unnatural light of a faintly luminous and +distinctly visible gaseous exhalation which hung about and +enshrouded the mansion.</p> + +<p>“You must not—you shall not behold this!” +said I, shuddering, to Usher, as I led him, with a gentle +violence, from the window to a seat. “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 air is chilling and dangerous to your frame. +Here is one of your favorite romances. I will read, and you shall +listen:—and so we will pass away this terrible night +together.”</p> + +<p>The antique volume which I had taken up was the “Mad +Trist” of Sir Launcelot Canning; but I had called it a +favorite of Usher’s more in sad jest than in earnest; for, +in truth, there is little in its uncouth and unimaginative +prolixity which could have had interest for the lofty and +spiritual ideality of my friend. It was, however, the only book +immediately at hand; and I indulged a vague hope that the +excitement which now agitated the hypochondriac, might find +relief (for the history of mental disorder is full of similar +anomalies) even in the extremeness of the folly which I should +read. Could I have judged, indeed, by the wild overstrained air +of vivacity with which he hearkened, or apparently hearkened, to +the words of the tale, I might well have congratulated myself +upon the success of my design.</p> + +<p>I had arrived at that well-known portion of the story where +Ethelred, the hero of the Trist, having sought in vain for +peaceable admission into the dwelling of the hermit, proceeds to +make good an entrance by force. Here, it will be remembered, the +words of the narrative run thus:</p> + +<p>“And Ethelred, who was by nature of a doughty heart, and +who was now mighty withal, on account of the powerfulness of the +wine which he had drunken, waited no longer to hold parley with +the hermit, who, in sooth, was of an obstinate and maliceful +turn, but, feeling the rain upon his shoulders, and fearing the +rising of the tempest, uplifted his mace outright, and, with +blows, made quickly room in the plankings of the door for his +gauntleted hand; and now pulling therewith sturdily, he so +cracked, and ripped, and tore all asunder, that the noise of the +dry and hollow-sounding wood alarumed and reverberated throughout +the forest.”</p> + +<p>At the termination of this sentence I started and, for a +moment, paused; for it appeared to me (although I at once +concluded that my excited fancy had deceived me)—it +appeared to me that, from some very remote portion of the +mansion, there came, indistinctly to my ears, what might have +been, in its exact similarity of character, the echo (but a +stifled and dull one certainly) of the very cracking and ripping +sound 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 casements, +and the ordinary commingled noises of the still increasing storm, +the sound, in itself, had nothing, surely, which should have +interested or disturbed me. I continued the story:</p> + +<p>“But the good champion Ethelred, now entering within the +door, was sore enraged and amazed to perceive no signal of the +maliceful hermit; but, in the stead thereof, a dragon of a scaly +and prodigious demeanor, and of a fiery tongue, which sat in +guard before a palace of gold, with a floor of silver; and upon +the wall there hung a shield of shining brass with this legend +enwritten—</p> + +<center> +<table cellpadding="8" cellspacing="8" summary="verse"> +<tr> +<td>Who entereth herein, a conqueror hath bin;<br> + Who slayeth the dragon, the shield he shall win.</td> +</tr> +</table> +</center> + +And Ethelred uplifted his mace, and struck upon the head of the +dragon, which fell before him, and gave up his pesty breath, with +a shriek so horrid and harsh, and withal so piercing, that +Ethelred had fain to close his ears with his hands against the +dreadful noise of it, the like whereof was never before +heard.” + +<p>Here again I paused abruptly, and now with a feeling of wild +amazement—for there could be no doubt whatever that, in +this instance, I did actually hear (although from what direction +it proceeded I found it impossible to say) a low and apparently +distant, but harsh, protracted, and most unusual screaming or +grating sound—the exact counterpart of what my fancy had +already conjured up for the dragon’s unnatural shriek as +described by the romancer.</p> + +<p>Oppressed, as I certainly was, upon the occurrence of this +second and most extraordinary coincidence, by a thousand +conflicting sensations, in which wonder and extreme terror were +predominant, I still retained sufficient presence of mind to +avoid exciting, by any observation, the sensitive nervousness of +my companion. I was by no means certain that he had noticed the +sounds in question; although, assuredly, a strange alteration +had, during the last few minutes, taken place 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, although I +saw that his lips trembled as if he were murmuring inaudibly. His +head had dropped upon his breast—yet I knew that he was not +asleep, from the wide and rigid opening of the eye as I caught a +glance of it in profile. The motion of his body, too, was at +variance with this idea—for he rocked from side to side +with a gentle yet constant and uniform sway. Having rapidly taken +notice of all this, I resumed the narrative of Sir Launcelot, +which thus proceeded:</p> + +<p>“And now, the champion, having escaped from the terrible +fury of the dragon, bethinking himself of the brazen shield, and +of the breaking up of the enchantment which was upon it, removed +the carcass from out of the way before him, and approached +valorously over the silver 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 feet upon the silver floor, with a +mighty great and terrible ringing sound.”</p> + +<p>No sooner had these syllables passed my lips, than—as if +a shield of brass had indeed, at the moment, fallen heavily upon +a floor of silver—I became aware of a distinct, hollow, +metallic, and clangorous, yet apparently muffled, reverberation. +Completely unnerved, I leaped to my feet; but the measured +rocking movement of Usher was undisturbed. I rushed to the chair +in which he sat. His eyes were bent fixedly before him, and +throughout his whole countenance there reigned a stony rigidity. +But, as I placed my hand upon his shoulder, there came a strong +shudder over his whole person; a sickly smile quivered about his +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 at length drank in the hideous import of his words.</p> + +<p>“Not hear it?—yes, I hear it, and <i>have</i> +heard it. Long—long—long—many minutes, many +hours, many days, have I heard it—yet I dared not—oh, +pity me, miserable wretch that I am!—I dared not—I +<i>dared</i> not speak! <i>We have put her living in the +tomb!</i> Said I not that my senses were acute? I <i>now</i> tell +you that I heard her first feeble movements in the hollow coffin. +I heard them—many, many days ago—yet I dared +not—<i>I dared not speak!</i> And +now—to-night—Ethelred—ha! ha!—the +breaking of the hermit’s door, and the death-cry of the +dragon, and the clangor of the shield!—say, rather, the +rending of her coffin, 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 my haste? Have I not heard her +footstep on the stair? Do I not distinguish that heavy and +horrible beating of her heart? Madman!”—here he +sprang furiously to his feet, and shrieked out his syllables, as +if in the effort he were giving up his +soul—<i>“Madman! I tell you that she now stands +without the door!”</i></p> + +<p>As if in the superhuman energy of his utterance there had been +found the potency of a spell, the huge antique panels to which +the speaker pointed threw slowly back, upon the instant, their +ponderous and ebony jaws. It was the work of the rushing +gust—but then without those doors there <i>did</i> stand +the lofty and enshrouded figure of the lady Madeline of Usher. +There was blood upon her white robes, and the evidence of some +bitter struggle upon every portion of her emaciated frame. For a +moment she remained trembling and reeling to and fro upon the +threshold—then, with a low moaning cry, fell heavily inward +upon the person of her brother, and in her violent and now final +death-agonies, bore him to the floor a corpse, and a victim to +the terrors he had anticipated.</p> + +<p>From that chamber, and from that mansion, I fled aghast. The +storm was still abroad in all its wrath as I found myself +crossing the old causeway. Suddenly there shot along the path a +wild light, and I turned to see whence a gleam so unusual could +have issued; for the vast house and its shadows were alone behind +me. The radiance was that of the full, setting, and blood-red +moon which now shone vividly through that once barely-discernible +fissure of which I have before spoken as extending from the roof +of the building, in a zigzag direction, to the base. While I +gazed, this fissure rapidly widened—there came a fierce +breath of the whirlwind—the entire orb of the satellite +burst at once upon my sight—my brain reeled as I saw the +mighty walls rushing asunder—there was a long tumultuous +shouting sound like the voice of a thousand waters—and the +deep and dank tarn at my feet closed sullenly and silently over +the fragments of the “<i>House of Usher</i>.”<br> +</p> + +<hr> +<p class="noindent"><a name="1">*</a> Watson, Dr. Percival, +Spallanzani, and especially the Bishop of Landaff.—See +“Chemical Essays,” vol. v.<br> +</p> + +<hr size="3" noshade> +</div> + + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The Fall of the House of Usher, by Edgar Allan Poe + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE FALL OF THE HOUSE OF USHER *** + +***** This file should be named 932-h.htm or 932-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/9/3/932/ + +Produced by Levent Kurnaz and Jose Menendez + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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