Unit 1 Lesson 5 - Mask of Red Death.pdf

The Red Death” had long devastated
the cuuittrv. No pestilence had ever been so
fatal, or so hideous. Blood was its Avatar
and it aal the redness and the horror of
blood. There were sharp paills. and sudden
dizzifle-, 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 teimination of the disease,
were the tncidents of half an hour.
But the Prince Prospero was happy and
dauntless and sagacious. When his domin
ions were half depopulated, he summoned
to his presence a thousand hale and light
hearted fri ends from among the knights and
dames of his court, and with these retired to
the deep seclusion of one of his castellated
abbeys. Thi.s was an extensive and magnifi
cent structure, the creation of the princes
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
The Masque
of the Red Death
3 hammers and welded
Edgar Allan Poe
the bolts. They resolved to leave irleatis tici
tiler of ingress or egress to the sudden
impulses of despair or of frenzy from within.
[he abbey was amply proisioited. With
such piecautions the courtiers might bid
defiance to contagion. Phe 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 improv
isatori,
were musicians, there was Beauty, there
was wine. All these and security were with
in. Without was the “Red Death.”
It was toward 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 thou
sand friends at a masked ball of the most
unusual magnificence.
It was a voluptuous scene, that mas
querade. 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 ldrm a long and straight vista,
while the folding doors slide back nearly to
the walls on either hand, so that the view of
5 there were ballet dancers, there
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1. Avatar t’ tar’) ri. A smbo1 or manifestation of
an uns .,
2. Ctejj4t4 kas t Ia tid) abbeys 1db eu
i erits itfl La,tle like t0 (IS.
3. massy .‘ is’ el oc).. Massie or large.
4. ingress rn’ iies) or egress te’ gles) Enteuiu ,)i
lea nig
5. improvsatur1 till pi to tot 0 [‘0(1, .slIu
itOprol sr. r eate erses ‘a ithout prr 1005 tiluliClil
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Iho .“!asqLw vi the Krci Dr 1im iv /