But, in spite of these things, it was a gay and magnificent revel. The tastes of the Prince were peculiar. He had a fine eye for colors and effects. He disregarded the decora of mere fashion. His plans were bold and fiery, and his conceptions glowed with barbaric 5 luster. There were 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 10 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 15 the madman fashions. There was 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 20 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 25 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 cham30 ber 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-colored panes; and the blackness of the sable drapery appalls; and to him whose foot falls upon the sable carpet, there comes from the near clock 35 of ebony a muffled peal more solemnly emphatic than any which reaches their ears who indulge 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. And then the music ceased, as I have told; and the 5 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 reveled. 10 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 this new pres15 ence 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 20 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 Prince's indefinite. decorum. There are chords in the hearts of the most reckless which 25 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, so 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 35 revelers 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 Prince Prospero fell upon this spectral image (which with a slow and solemn movement, as if more fully to sus5 tain its rôle, 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? 10 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 15 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 20 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, unim25 peded, 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 same solemn and measured step which had distinguished him from the first, through the blue chamber to the purple30 through the purple to the green-through the green to the orangethrough 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 35 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 șable carpet, upon which, instantly afterwards, 5 fell prostrate in death the Prince Prospero. Then, summoning the wild courage of despair, a throng of the 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 10 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 revelers in the blood-bedewed halls of their revel, and died each 15 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.

NOTES AND QUESTIONS

For Biography, see page 92.

Discussion. Poe was a leader in the development of the short story. In "The Masque of the Red Death," a typical short story, he aims to make a single, vivid effect. To get this he planned a story of four parts: an introduction (paragraphs 1 and 2) that suggests the effect he wished to produce; a main incident (paragraphs 3-12) that develops the suggested effect; a powerful climax (paragraph 13) that indelibly impresses this effect on the reader; and a conclusion (paragraph 14)—all these to include no unnecessary character, incident, or detail. Poe aims to suggest from the beginning a fear that shall increase until it ends in a climax of awful terror.

Poe chose as the cause of the terror, the fear of death by a plague; can you tell why the fear of the plague was so great? Poe desired to describe a more terrible plague than any of which he had ever read—it should be a red death; to whom would the thought of this death, which no one could prevent, be most terrible? Justify his choice of a Prince for the principal character. A masque is a revel in which all wear masks; whose revel did this prove to be? Is this what the title suggests?

The introduction gives the situation at the beginning of the main incident and introduces all the characters but one; tell in a few words what this situation is. How many characters are mentioned by name? How many are described? How do the thousand friends that are only figures add to

the effect of terror? Coming directly after the description of the awful plague, what effect upon you has the statement, "But the Prince Prospero was happy and dauntless and sagacious"? What is really suggested by the fact that they welded the gate? By the determination to let the "external world take care of itself"? By the thought that it was "folly to think or grieve"? What was the Prince's real object in providing "all the appliances of pleasure"? Does the introduction leave you confident that "security was within"? From this beginning would you expect the ending to be happy or tragic?

Notice how Poe develops the main incident: Prince Prospero entertains his friends at a masked ball, to which comes an intruder masked as a victim of the Red Death. Prospero, enraged, commands that the intruder be unmasked. At what stage in the progress of the pestilence was this ball given? Do you think such a revelry at such a time showed a "happy and dauntless and sagacious" mind? Try to make a mental picture of the scene Poe has so wonderfully described. Make a list of the adjectives Poe uses to aid him in picturing it, such as "novel," "gaudy," etc. As you read this description of the rooms, the color, and the fantastic moving figures, do you feel it to be a joyful scene? Poe uses this description of the ball to aid him in making the reader feel this terror; what three means does he use to produce this effect?

Show that Poe has prepared in the introduction for the use of color as one of these means. With what color was their fear associated? How was this color used in the seventh room, and what effect did it nave upon the dancers?

Poe wished to suggest still more subtly the fear of the Red Death that filled every heart; could he have chosen anything more suited to this purpose than the "clock of ebony," with its stroke "of so peculiar a note" that the whole gay company had to stop to hear the striking of each hour? What was the reason that this particular sound so disconcerted the dancers? What made the thought of passing time so terrible to them?

Where is the first hint given of the approach of the masked figure that is so terrible? At what hour did the “new presence" come? With what does superstition associate this hour? How does Poe show us the falseness of Prospero's claim to be considered "happy and dauntless and sagacious"? In what way did Prospero betray the fear he really felt? What was the one thing about this figure that could not be endured?

Poe, in approaching the climax, creates suspense by describing the masked figure's slow progress through each room. Notice how well the slow movement of the narrative here imitates this "solemn and measured step”; what causes this "nameless awe"? Note the final rush toward the climaxthe prince's rage, his pursuit, and threatening dagger, the stranger's sudden stand, Prospero's death, and (full climax) the seizure of the terrible figure and the "unutterable horror."