3. scantlings: Small timbers supporting a floor.
The Cask of Amontillado
1. The Cask of Amontillado: This story was first published in Godey’s Lady’s Book, November 1846.
2. a pipe of . . . Amontillado: Amontillado is a Spanish sherry, which Poe possibly thought was Italian. Montresor imagines a pipe, or large cask, of amontillado to be a sufficient lure to get Fortunato to accompany him into his wine cellar.
3. nitre: Potassium nitrate, which covers walls of caverns in gray-white crystalline deposits and is used to make gunpowder.
4. roquelaire: A knee-length cape. Montresor, like Fortunato, is in costume for the carnival.
5. Medoc: A French red wine.
6. Nemo me impune lacessit: Latin: “No one provokes me with impunity.”
7. puncheons: Large casks.
8. De Grâve: Another type of French red wine; Montresor is having a joke with himself about his plans for Fortunato.
9. In pace requiescat!: Latin: “May he rest in peace!” Montresor’s revelation that he is telling this story fifty years later and his use of the Latin prayer suggests that he is telling it on his deathbed, perhaps to soothe a guilty conscience.
The Black Cat
1. The Black Cat: First published in the United States Saturday Post, August 19, 1843.
2. baroques: Extravagant or grotesque stories.
3. Pluto: Roman god of the underworld.
4. Intemperance: The excessive consumption of alcohol.
Ligeia
1. Ligeia: First published in the Baltimore American Museum, September 1838.
2. Joseph Glanvill: English clergyman and philosopher (1636–1680). Scholars have been unable to locate this passage in Glanvill’s work.
3. Ashtophet: Poe is probably referring to the Phoenician goddess of fertility, Astarte.
4. Delos: Greek island presided over by the god Apollo and his sister, Artemis.
5. “There is no exquisite beauty . . . without some strangeness in the proportion”: Poe is paraphrasing slightly from the essay “Of Beauty” by Francis Bacon, Lord Verulam, Viscount St. Albans. “There is no excellent beauty that hath not some strangeness in the proportion.”
6. Cleomenes: Greek sculptor whose statue of the goddess Venus was supposedly inspired by a divine vision of Apollo.
7. Nourjahad: A reference to the novel The History of Nourjahad (1767), about a harem-keeping prince, by Frances Sheridan.
8. Houri: In Muslim mythology, the virgins who await men in heaven; “houri” literally refers to their dark eyes.
9. Democritus: Greek philosopher (c. 460–370 B.C.) known for his inquiries into the structure of matter, astronomy, and ethics. The saying “truth lies at the bottom of a well,” meaning the truth is hidden, is attributed to Democritus.
10. Leda: Mother of Castor and Pollux, twins who were fathered by Zeus. Castor and Pollux are also the names of two stars in the constellation Gemini.
11. Lyra: Constellation whose name means “the lyre” or “the harp.” The large star in Lyra is Vega, the second brightest in the Northern Hemisphere. Lyra contains several binary star systems.
12. Saturnian lead: This is a reference to Ligeia’s interest in alchemy, an occult science that was the precursor to chemistry. Alchemists tried to turn matter from one form to another, most famously lead into gold.
13. Azrael: Muslim angel of death.
The Masque of the Red Death
1. The Masque of the Red Death: Originally published in Graham’s Magazine, May 1842.
2. Avatar: Originally a reference to the human incarnation of a Hindu god; here meaning its manifestation or sign.
3. pest ban: First visible signs of the disease.
4. improvisatori: Performers who improvise songs and poems.
5. decora: Plural of “decorum,” here meaning the rules of style.
6. “Hernani”: Controversial play by Victor Hugo that was greeted with rioting at its premiere in 1830.
7. out-Heroded Herod: Herod, ruler of Palestine, was known for his extravagance as well as his cruelty. This line alludes to William Shakespeare’s Hamlet, where Hamlet utters the same words referring to bad actors.
8. habiliments: Garments.
9. mummer: A pantomime performer.
10. thief in the night: 1 Thessalonians 5:2–3 contains one of several references to the Lord returning like a “thief in the night”: “. . . then sudden destruction cometh upon them . . . and they shall not escape.”
The Fall of the House of Usher
1. The Fall of the House of Usher: Originally published in Burton’s Gentleman’s Magazine, September 1839.
2. Son cœur est . . . —De Béranger: “His heart is like a suspended lute; as soon as it is touched it resonates.” These lines are derived from “Le Refus,” a poem written in 1830 by Pierre-Jean de Béranger (1780–1857), a French poet and songwriter.
3. direct line of descent: The narrator is referring to the Ushers’ habit of inbreeding.
4. ennuyé: Bored; suffering from ennui.
5. affections of . . . cataleptical: She has fits during which she becomes rigid, like a corpse.
6. ideality: A reference to the Romantic idea of a transcendent level of ideal or pure thought. Usher’s ideality is corrupted by his line of study.
7. Von Weber: German Romantic composer Carl Maria von Weber (1786–1826).
8. Fuseli: Swiss-born painter Henry Fuseli (1741–1825), best known for his two paintings entitled The Nightmare.
9. seraph spread a pinion: A seraph is the highest-ranking order of angel in the Judeo-Christian hierarchy, each possessing two or three pairs of pinions, or wings.
10. Porphyrogene!: Greek: “born in the purple.” The color purple has long been associated with royalty, and so a porphyrogene is one born into royalty.
11. Watson, Dr. Percival . . . See “Chemical Essays,” vol. v: Note added here by Poe to lend credibility to Usher’s poem. Richard Watson (1737–1816) was a British theologian, who became the Bishop of Llandaff; Percival was probably a Dr. Thomas Percival (1740–1804), the author of Medical Ethics (1803); Lazzaro Spallanzani (1729–1799) was an Italian professor of natural history.
12. We pored together . . . Campanella: Jean-Baptiste-Louis Gresset (1709–1777), a French poet and dramatist, two of whose poems were “Vert-Vert” and “La Chartreuse;” “Belphegor,” or “Belfagor arcidiavolo,” by Niccolò Machiavelli (1469–1527), is a satirical novella about men and women; Emanuel Swedenborg (1688–1772) was a Swedish mystical philosopher; Ludvig Holberg (1684–1754) was a Danish historian and playwright; Flud, or Robert Fludd, was a practitioner of palm-reading, or chiromancy, as were Jean D’Indaginé and Marin Cureau de la Chambre, and all three wrote volumes under that title; Ludwig Tieck (1773–1853) was a German Romantic poet, dramatist, and fiction writer; Tomasso Campanella (1568–1639) was the author of the utopian City of the Sun.
13. Directorium . . . Œgipans: Nicolas Eymeric was the grand inquisitor of Aragon beginning in 1356; his Directorium Inquisitorium contained instructions for interrogating heretics. Pomponius Mela was a Roman geographer who described a variety of strange creatures in faraway lands, including the goatlike Œgipans.
14. Vigilæ . . . Maguntinæ: “The Vigils of the Dead According to the Church of Mainz.”
15. donjon-keep: A dungeon.
16. “Mad Trist” of Sir Launcelot Canning: Unlike Usher’s other books, critics consider this one an invention of Poe’s.
17. doughty: Resolute; fearless.
18. alarumed: Made an alarm or call to arms.
The Murders in the Rue Morgue
1. The Murders in the Rue Morgue: Originally published in Graham’s Magazine, April 1841.
2. What song . . . —Sir Thomas Browne: From Browne’s essay Hydriotaphia, or Urn-Burial.
3. draughts: Checkers.
4. involute: Intricate; involved.
5. recherché: Exotic or refined.
6. whist: A card game played
with partners, similar to bridge.
7. Hoyle: Edmond Hoyle (1672–1769), author of A Short Treatise on the Game of Whist.
8. phrenologists: Believers in a pseudoscience, popular in the nineteenth century (Poe makes frequent reference to it), premised on the belief that the shape of the skull corresponds to aspects of a person’s character.
9. Théâtre des Variétés: A theater that produces variety shows.
10. quondam: Latin: “former.”
11. Crébillon’s tragedy: Prosper Jolyot de Crébillon (1674–1762) was a French dramatist, author of Xerxes (1714).
12. Pasquinaded: To be publicly mocked. From the Piazza di Pasquino, a piazza in Rome where satirists posted lampoons of public figures.
13. et id genus omne: Latin: “and all that sort of thing.”
14. charlatânerie: The act of perpetrating a fraud; charlatanism.
15. rencontre: Encounter, sometimes hostile.
16. Dr. Nichols: A reference to astronomer J. P. Nichol, author of Views of the Architecture of the Heavens in a Series of Letters to a Lady (1837).
17. stereotomy: The science of stonecutting.
18. Epicurus: Greek philosopher (341–270 B.C.) who taught that all matter is made up of atoms floating in space.
19. Perdidit antiquum litera prima sonum: Poe gives a quote from the Roman poet Ovid’s Fasti: “The first letter has lost its original sound.”
20. Napoleons: Twenty-franc gold coins.
21. métal d’Alger: A metal made in Algiers from a combination of lead, tin, and antimony.
22. robe-de-chambre—pour mieux entendre la musique: That is, calling for his robe so that he can understand the music better. Dupin is quoting a play by Molière, Le bourgeois gentilhomme, in which Jourdain, the eponymous bourgeois, believes that the trappings of nobility will give him the finer sensibilities of a nobleman. In the same way, Dupin says, the French police make a big show of their efficiency, although they have no real intelligence.
23. Vidocq: Eugène François Vidocq (1775–1857), Napoleon Bonaparte’s minister of police, whom critics have speculated was an inspiration for Dupin.
24. Truth is not always in a well: A reference to the Greek philosopher Democritus’ claim that “Truth lies at the bottom of a well.”
25. loge de concierge: A doorkeeper’s apartment.
26. Je les ménageais: French (idiomatic): “I handled them carefully” (or tactfully).
27. outré: Unusual, strange.
28. a posteriori: Latin: “after the fact”; drawn based on previous experience and empirical evidence.
29. Maison de Santé: Sanitarium, or insane asylum.
30. Cuvier: French naturalist Georges Cuvier (1769–1832), author of The Animal Kingdom (1817).
31. au troisième: French: “on the third floor.”
32. Neufchâtelish: A reference to the supposedly uncultured people of the Neufchâtel region of France.
33. Jardin des Plantes: A botanical garden in Paris.
34. Laverna: The Roman goddess of impostors and frauds.
35. ‘de nier . . . n’est pas.’: The French translates thus: “of denying what is, and explaining what is not,” a line from Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s Julie ou la Nouvelle Héloise (1760).
The Purloined Letter
1. The Purloined Letter: Originally published in The Gift: A Christmas, New Year, and Birthday Present (1845).
2. Nil sapientiæ . . . —Seneca: Latin: “Nothing is more hateful to wisdom than too much cunning.” Lucius Annaeus Seneca (Seneca the Younger, c. 4 B.C.–A.D. 65,) was a Roman dramatist, statesman, and Stoic philosopher.
3. meerschaum: A kind of pipe, named for the hard white clay material used to make the bowl.
4. au troisième: French: “on the third floor.”
5. au fait: Well informed.
6. Abernethy: John Abernethy (1764–1831), a London-born physician known for his sense of humor as well as his medical expertise.
7. escritoire: A writing desk.
8. Procrustean bed: In Greek legend, Procrustes (“He who stretches”) was a villainous host who fitted his guests to the bed he had for them, stretching them on a rack if they were too short for it and cutting off their legs if they were too long. He was killed by the hero Theseus.
9. Rochefoucault . . . Campanella: François, duc de la Rochefoucauld (1613–1680), French moralist and author; La Bougive: possibly a mistaken reference to Jean de la Bruyère (1645–1696), a French writer; Niccolò Machiavelli (1469–1527), Italian political philosopher; Tommaso Campanella (1568–1639), Dominican monk and author imprisoned for heresy.
10. recherchés: Exotic, strange, or elaborate.
11. non distributio medii: Latin: “undistributed middle,” a logical fallacy that makes an illegitimate connection between the major premise and the minor premise of an argument. Example: All students wear blue jeans. My mother wears blue jeans. My mother is a student.
12. ‘Il y a . . . plus grand nombre’: Roughly, “It is safe to wager that every idea that is popular is a bit of stupidity, because it is suited to the opinion of the majority.” Chamfort was the pen name of Sébastien-Roch Nicholas, an eighteenth-century French writer, known for his epigrams.
13. “if a term . . . ‘honorable men’ ”: Dupin is making a distinction between distinguished men in society and honorable men, just as ambitus (a circuit, revolution) is distinct from “ambition” and religio (duty) is distinct from “religion.”
14. Bryant: Jacob Bryant (1715–1804), author of A New System; or, an Analysis of Antient Mythology.
15. intrigant: One who engages in secret plots or intrigues.
16. vis inertiæ: Latin: “power of inertia,” or the tendency for a body to remain at rest or in motion unless some force is applied to it.
17. facilis descensus Averni: Latin: “The descent to Hades is easy,” a line from Virgil’s Aeneid.
18. Catalani: Italian opera singer Angelica Catalani (1780–1849).
19. monstrum horrendum: Latin: “horrendous monster,” from Book III of the Aeneid; refers to the cyclops Polyphemus.
20. Un dessein si . . . digne de Thyeste: “So malevolent a plan, if unworthy of Atreus, is yet worthy of Thyeste.” From the play Atrée et Thyeste (1707), by Prosper Jolyot de Crébillon (1674–1762).
The Gold-Bug
1. The Gold-Bug: Originally published in two installments in the Philadelphia Dollar Newspaper, June 21 and June 28, 1843.
2. What ho! . . . —All in the Wrong: Despite Poe’s attribution, these lines are not in Arthur Murphy’s 1761 comedy All in the Wrong. Poe either got the lines from another source or made them up. They refer to the conventional wisdom that the bite from a tarantula causes a mania for dancing.
3. Huguenot: A group of Calvinist Protestants who were driven out of France and relocated in America, among other places.
4. Fort Moultrie: U.S. Army fort on Sullivan’s Island near Charleston, South Carolina. Poe was stationed there from 1827 to 1828.
5. Swammerdamm: Dutch naturalist Jan Swammerdamm (1637–1680) pioneered use of the microscope.
6. foolscap: A long sheet of writing paper, originally named for its fool’s cap watermark.
7. scarabœus caput hominis: Latin: “man’s-head beetle.”
8. him ’noovers: Or “his maneuvers.”
9. pissel: Jupiter’s pronunciation of “epistle,” or letter.
10. brusquerie: An instance of being rude, or brusque.
11. solus: Latin: “alone.”
12. empressement: Pressure.
13. curvets and caracols: Equestrian terms for a leap (curvet) or a capering turn (caracol).
14. bi-chloride of mercury: A substance used to prevent deterioration of wood objects or museum pieces.
15. Zaffre . . . aqua regia: Legrand is referring to an alchemical process: Zaffre is oxidized cobalt, and aqua regia is a solvent made from hydrochloric and nitric acids.
16. regulus: Metallic sludge that sinks to the bottom of a furnace duri
ng smelting.
17. caloric: Heating element.
18. Golconda: Or Golkonda, an ancient city in India, near present-day Hyderabad, famed for its diamond mines.
Ms. Found in a Bottle
1. Ms. Found in a Bottle: Originally published as the winner of a contest sponsored by the Baltimore Saturday Visiter, October 19, 1833.
2. Qui n’a plus . . . Quinault—Atys: “He who has no more than a moment to live has nothing more to lie about,” a line from Philippe Quinault’s libretto for the opera Atys (1676), composed by Jean-Baptiste Lully.
3. German moralists: German writers of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, known for their rigorous moral and philosophical works.
4. Pyrrhonism: Skepticism; after Pyrrho, a Greek philosopher of the third century B.C.
5. ignes fatui: Latin: “foolish fire”; things that dazzle or deceive.
6. Lachadive Islands: Present-day Laccadive coral atolls in the Arabian Sea, off the coast of the Malabar region of India.
7. coir, jaggeree, ghee: Coir: a fiber produced from the shells of coconuts; jaggeree: a sugar product made from palm sap; ghee: clarified butter, traditionally made from the milk of a water buffalo.
8. crank: Listing with unbalanced cargo and in danger of capsizing.
9. grabs: A variety of sailing ship used in the East India shipping trade.
10. Malays: People of Southeast Asia, particularly from the Malay Peninsula.
11. simoon: A strong, dry desert wind, here used to convey a powerful storm at sea.
12. New Holland: Former name of Australia.
13. kraken: Sea monster from Norse mythology, possibly based on the giant squid, which it resembles.
14. East Indiaman: A large merchant ship involved in the East India trade.
15. press of sail: The greatest amount of sail that a ship can carry safely.
16. hove in stays: A reference to a vessel as it tacks, that is, when the wind shifts from one side of the sails to the other.
17. shifting-boards: Removable partitions in the hold of a ship to keep cargo from shifting.
18. ratlin-stuff: Material for rope ladders.
19. yawl: A small utility boat for a ship.
20. studding-sail: A small sail used for extra thrust in good weather.
21. top-gallant yard-arms: The uppermost horizontal poles from which a ship’s sails are hung.
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