Masque of the Red Death - Edgar Allan Poe

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
The Mask 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

(00:20):
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.

(00:41):
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

(01:03):
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,

(01:26):
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

(01:48):
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 improvisatory there
were ballet dancers, there were musicians, There was beauty, there
was wine. All these and security were within. Without was

(02:12):
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

(02:36):
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

(02:58):
expected from the Duke's love of the bazaar. 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

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window looked out upon a closed corridor which pursued the
windings of the sweet 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 was hung, for example, in blue,

(03:40):
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

(04:00):
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 color of the windows
failed to correspond with the decorations. The panes here were scarlet,

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a deep blood color. 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

(04:44):
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 illuminated the and thus were
produced a multitude of gaudy and fantastic appearances. But in

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the western or black chamber, the effect of the firelight
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,

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also that there stood against the western wall a gigantic
clock of ebony. Its pendulum swung to and fro with
a heavy, dull, 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,

(05:57):
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 hearken to the sound. And thus the waltzers
perforce ceased their evolutions, and there was a brief disconcert

(06:20):
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

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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 embraced three thousand and six hundred ndred seconds of

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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

(07:23):
colors and effects. He disregarded the decora of mere fashion.
His plans were bold and fiery, His conceptions glowed with
barbaric luster. There are some who would have thought a mad.
His followers felt that he was not. It was necessary
to hear, and see and touch him to be sure

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that he was not. He had directed, in great part
the movable embellishments of the Seven Chambers. Upon occasion of
this great fate, 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

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and phanfasm, much of what has been seen since 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

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the bazaar, 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

(08:50):
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.

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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

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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 colored panes, and
the blackness of the sable drapery appalls. And to him
whose footfalls upon the sable carpet, there comes from the
nearer clock of Ebony a muffled peace, more solemnly emphatic

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than any which reaches their ears, who indulged in the
more remote gayeties 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,

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and 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

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the thoughtful among those who reveled. 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 rumor of

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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, and then finally of terror,
of horror, and of disgust. In an assembly of phanfasms

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such as I have painted, it may well be supposed
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 gone
beyond the bounds of even the princes indefinite decorum. There

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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.

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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

(12:39):
all this might have been endured, if not approved by
the mad revelers around. But the mummer had gone so
far as to assume the type of the red death.
His festure was dabbled in blood, and his broad brow,
with all the features of the face, was wrinkled with

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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,

(13:21):
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

(13:44):
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 them
had become hushed at the waving of his hand. It
was in the Blue room where stood the Prince, with

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a group of pale courtiers by his side. At first,
as he spoke, there was a slight rushing movement of
this group, and 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

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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 centers of the rooms to
the walls. He made his way uninterruptedly, but with the

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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,

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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

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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 rage of despair,

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a throng of revelers 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 seerments and
corpselike mask, which they handled with so violent a rudeness

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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
revelers in the blood bedewed halls of their revel and

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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 mask of

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the Red Death.