高中生经典英文小说阅读与欣赏系列 The Masque of the Red Death

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 madness 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 incidents of half an hour.

But

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

crenellated

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

Death.

It

was

toward

the

close

of

the

fifth

or

sixth

month

of

his

seclusion

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. 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, so that the view of the whole extant is scarcely impeded.

Here the case was very different; as might have been expected from the duke's love

of

the

The

apartments

were

so

irregularly

disposed

that

the

vision

embraced but little more than one at a time. There was a sharp turn at the right and

left, in the middle of each wall, a tall and narrow Gothic window looked out upon a

closed corridor of which pursued the windings of the suite. These windows were of

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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 --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

color

of

the

windows

failed

to

correspond with the decorations. The panes were scarlet--a deep blood color. Now

in no one of any of the seven apartments was there any lamp or candelabrum, amid

the profusion of golden ornaments that lay scattered to and fro and 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

each

window,

a

heavy

tripod,

bearing

a

brazier

of

fire,

that

projected

its

rays

through the tinted glass and so glaringly lit the room. And thus were produced a

multitude of gaudy and fantastic appearances. But in the western or back 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 within this apartment, also, that

there stood against the western wall, a gigantic clock of ebony. It 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 hearken 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

revery 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 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

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