Poe, Edgar Allen - The Complete Works of Edgar Allen Poe

by Volume 01-05 (lit)

  which, at this one epoch of my life, I was almost seriously disposed to

  defend. On this subject we had long and animated discussions -- he

  maintaining the utter groundlessness of faith in such matters, -- I

  contending that a popular sentiment arising with absolute spontaneity-

  that is to say, without apparent traces of suggestion -- had in itself the

  unmistakable elements of truth, and was entitled to as much respect as

  that intuition which is the idiosyncrasy of the individual man of genius.

  The fact is, that soon after my arrival at the cottage there had occurred

  to myself an incident so entirely inexplicable, and which had in it so

  much of the portentous character, that I might well have been excused for

  regarding it as an omen. It appalled, and at the same time so confounded

  and bewildered me, that many days elapsed before I could make up my mind

  to communicate the circumstances to my friend.

  Near the close of exceedingly warm day, I was sitting, book in hand, at an

  open window, commanding, through a long vista of the river banks, a view

  of a distant hill, the face of which nearest my position had been denuded

  by what is termed a land-slide, of the principal portion of its trees. My

  thoughts had been long wandering from the volume before me to the gloom

  and desolation of the neighboring city. Uplifting my eyes from the page,

  they fell upon the naked face of the bill, and upon an object -- upon some

  living monster of hideous conformation, which very rapidly made its way

  from the summit to the bottom, disappearing finally in the dense forest

  below. As this creature first came in sight, I doubted my own sanity -- or

  at least the evidence of my own eyes; and many minutes passed before I

  succeeded in convincing myself that I was neither mad nor in a dream. Yet

  when I described the monster (which I distinctly saw, and calmly surveyed

  through the whole period of its progress), my readers, I fear, will feel

  more difficulty in being convinced of these points than even I did myself.

  Estimating the size of the creature by comparison with the diameter of the

  large trees near which it passed -- the few giants of the forest which had

  escaped the fury of the land-slide -- I concluded it to be far larger than

  any ship of the line in existence. I say ship of the line, because the

  shape of the monster suggested the idea- the hull of one of our

  seventy-four might convey a very tolerable conception of the general

  outline. The mouth of the animal was situated at the extremity of a

  proboscis some sixty or seventy feet in length, and about as thick as the

  body of an ordinary elephant. Near the root of this trunk was an immense

  quantity of black shaggy hair- more than could have been supplied by the

  coats of a score of buffaloes; and projecting from this hair downwardly

  and laterally, sprang two gleaming tusks not unlike those of the wild

  boar, but of infinitely greater dimensions. Extending forward, parallel

  with the proboscis, and on each side of it, was a gigantic staff, thirty

  or forty feet in length, formed seemingly of pure crystal and in shape a

  perfect prism, -- it reflected in the most gorgeous manner the rays of the

  declining sun. The trunk was fashioned like a wedge with the apex to the

  earth. From it there were outspread two pairs of wings- each wing nearly

  one hundred yards in length -- one pair being placed above the other, and

  all thickly covered with metal scales; each scale apparently some ten or

  twelve feet in diameter. I observed that the upper and lower tiers of

  wings were connected by a strong chain. But the chief peculiarity of this

  horrible thing was the representation of a Death's Head, which covered

  nearly the whole surface of its breast, and which was as accurately traced

  in glaring white, upon the dark ground of the body, as if it had been

  there carefully designed by an artist. While I regarded the terrific

  animal, and more especially the appearance on its breast, with a feeling

  or horror and awe -- with a sentiment of forthcoming evil, which I found

  it impossible to quell by any effort of the reason, I perceived the huge

  jaws at the extremity of the proboscis suddenly expand themselves, and

  from them there proceeded a sound so loud and so expressive of wo, that it

  struck upon my nerves like a knell and as the monster disappeared at the

  foot of the hill, I fell at once, fainting, to the floor.

  Upon recovering, my first impulse, of course, was to inform my friend of

  what I had seen and heard -- and I can scarcely explain what feeling of

  repugnance it was which, in the end, operated to prevent me.

  At length, one evening, some three or four days after the occurrence, we

  were sitting together in the room in which I had seen the apparition -- I

  occupying the same seat at the same window, and he lounging on a sofa near

  at hand. The association of the place and time impelled me to give him an

  account of the phenomenon. He heard me to the end -- at first laughed

  heartily -- and then lapsed into an excessively grave demeanor, as if my

  insanity was a thing beyond suspicion. At this instant I again had a

  distinct view of the monster- to which, with a shout of absolute terror, I

  now directed his attention. He looked eagerly -- but maintained that he

  saw nothing- although I designated minutely the course of the creature, as

  it made its way down the naked face of the hill.

  I was now immeasurably alarmed, for I considered the vision either as an

  omen of my death, or, worse, as the fore-runner of an attack of mania. I

  threw myself passionately back in my chair, and for some moments buried my

  face in my hands. When I uncovered my eyes, the apparition was no longer

  apparent.

  My host, however, had in some degree resumed the calmness of his demeanor,

  and questioned me very rigorously in respect to the conformation of the

  visionary creature. When I had fully satisfied him on this head, he sighed

  deeply, as if relieved of some intolerable burden, and went on to talk,

  with what I thought a cruel calmness, of various points of speculative

  philosophy, which had heretofore formed subject of discussion between us.

  I remember his insisting very especially (among other things) upon the

  idea that the principle source of error in all human investigations lay in

  the liability of the understanding to under-rate or to over-value the

  importance of an object, through mere mis-admeasurement of its

  propinquity. "To estimate properly, for example," he said, "the influence

  to be exercised on mankind at large by the thorough diffusion of

  Democracy, the distance of the epoch at which such diffusion may possibly

  be accomplished should not fail to form an item in the estimate. Yet can

  you tell me one writer on the subject of government who has ever thought

  this particular branch of the subject worthy of discussion at all?"

  He here paused for a moment, stepped to a book-case, and brought forth one

  of the ordinary synopses of Natural History. Requesting me then to

  exchange seats with him, that he might the better distinguish the fine

  print of the volume, he took my armchair at the window, and, opening t
he

  book, resumed his discourse very much in the same tone as before.

  "But for your exceeding minuteness," he said, "in describing the monster,

  I might never have had it in my power to demonstrate to you what it was.

  In the first place, let me read to you a schoolboy account of the genus

  Sphinx, of the family Crepuscularia of the order Lepidoptera, of the class

  of Insecta -- or insects. The account runs thus:

  "'Four membranous wings covered with little colored scales of metallic

  appearance; mouth forming a rolled proboscis, produced by an elongation of

  the jaws, upon the sides of which are found the rudiments of mandibles and

  downy palpi; the inferior wings retained to the superior by a stiff hair;

  antennae in the form of an elongated club, prismatic; abdomen pointed, The

  Death's -- headed Sphinx has occasioned much terror among the vulgar, at

  times, by the melancholy kind of cry which it utters, and the insignia of

  death which it wears upon its corslet.'"

  He here closed the book and leaned forward in the chair, placing himself

  accurately in the position which I had occupied at the moment of beholding

  "the monster."

  "Ah, here it is," he presently exclaimed -- "it is reascending the face of

  the hill, and a very remarkable looking creature I admit it to be. Still,

  it is by no means so large or so distant as you imagined it, -- for the

  fact is that, as it wriggles its way up this thread, which some spider has

  wrought along the window-sash, I find it to be about the sixteenth of an

  inch in its extreme length, and also about the sixteenth of an inch

  distant from the pupil of my eye."

  ~~~ End of Text ~~~

  ======

  HOP-FROG

  I NEVER knew anyone so keenly alive to a joke as the king was. He

  seemed to live only for joking. To tell a good story of the joke kind, and

  to tell it well, was the surest road to his favor. Thus it happened that

  his seven ministers were all noted for their accomplishments as jokers.

  They all took after the king, too, in being large, corpulent, oily men, as

  well as inimitable jokers. Whether people grow fat by joking, or whether

  there is something in fat itself which predisposes to a joke, I have never

  been quite able to determine; but certain it is that a lean joker is a

  rara avis in terris.

  About the refinements, or, as he called them, the 'ghost' of wit, the king

  troubled himself very little. He had an especial admiration for breadth in

  a jest, and would often put up with length, for the sake of it.

  Over-niceties wearied him. He would have preferred Rabelais' 'Gargantua'

  to the 'Zadig' of Voltaire: and, upon the whole, practical jokes suited

  his taste far better than verbal ones.

  At the date of my narrative, professing jesters had not altogether gone

  out of fashion at court. Several of the great continental 'powers' still

  retain their 'fools,' who wore motley, with caps and bells, and who were

  expected to be always ready with sharp witticisms, at a moment's notice,

  in consideration of the crumbs that fell from the royal table.

  Our king, as a matter of course, retained his 'fool.' The fact is, he

  required something in the way of folly -- if only to counterbalance the

  heavy wisdom of the seven wise men who were his ministers -- not to

  mention himself.

  His fool, or professional jester, was not only a fool, however. His value

  was trebled in the eyes of the king, by the fact of his being also a dwarf

  and a cripple. Dwarfs were as common at court, in those days, as fools;

  and many monarchs would have found it difficult to get through their days

  (days are rather longer at court than elsewhere) without both a jester to

  laugh with, and a dwarf to laugh at. But, as I have already observed, your

  jesters, in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred, are fat, round, and

  unwieldy -- so that it was no small source of self-gratulation with our

  king that, in Hop-Frog (this was the fool's name), he possessed a

  triplicate treasure in one person.

  I believe the name 'Hop-Frog' was not that given to the dwarf by his

  sponsors at baptism, but it was conferred upon him, by general consent of

  the several ministers, on account of his inability to walk as other men

  do. In fact, Hop-Frog could only get along by a sort of interjectional

  gait -- something between a leap and a wriggle -- a movement that afforded

  illimitable amusement, and of course consolation, to the king, for

  (notwithstanding the protuberance of his stomach and a constitutional

  swelling of the head) the king, by his whole court, was accounted a

  capital figure.

  But although Hop-Frog, through the distortion of his legs, could move only

  with great pain and difficulty along a road or floor, the prodigious

  muscular power which nature seemed to have bestowed upon his arms, by way

  of compensation for deficiency in the lower limbs, enabled him to perform

  many feats of wonderful dexterity, where trees or ropes were in question,

  or any thing else to climb. At such exercises he certainly much more

  resembled a squirrel, or a small monkey, than a frog.

  I am not able to say, with precision, from what country Hop-Frog

  originally came. It was from some barbarous region, however, that no

  person ever heard of -- a vast distance from the court of our king.

  Hop-Frog, and a young girl very little less dwarfish than himself

  (although of exquisite proportions, and a marvellous dancer), had been

  forcibly carried off from their respective homes in adjoining provinces,

  and sent as presents to the king, by one of his ever-victorious generals.

  Under these circumstances, it is not to be wondered at that a close

  intimacy arose between the two little captives. Indeed, they soon became

  sworn friends. Hop-Frog, who, although he made a great deal of sport, was

  by no means popular, had it not in his power to render Trippetta many

  services; but she, on account of her grace and exquisite beauty (although

  a dwarf), was universally admired and petted; so she possessed much

  influence; and never failed to use it, whenever she could, for the benefit

  of Hop-Frog.

  On some grand state occasion -- I forgot what -- the king determined to

  have a masquerade, and whenever a masquerade or any thing of that kind,

  occurred at our court, then the talents, both of Hop-Frog and Trippetta

  were sure to be called into play. Hop-Frog, in especial, was so inventive

  in the way of getting up pageants, suggesting novel characters, and

  arranging costumes, for masked balls, that nothing could be done, it

  seems, without his assistance.

  The night appointed for the fete had arrived. A gorgeous hall had been

  fitted up, under Trippetta's eye, with every kind of device which could

  possibly give eclat to a masquerade. The whole court was in a fever of

  expectation. As for costumes and characters, it might well be supposed

  that everybody had come to a decision on such points. Many had made up

  their minds (as to what roles they should assume) a week, or even a month,

  in advance; and, in fact, there was not a particle of indecision anywhere

  -- except in the case of t
he king and his seven minsters. Why they

  hesitated I never could tell, unless they did it by way of a joke. More

  probably, they found it difficult, on account of being so fat, to make up

  their minds. At all events, time flew; and, as a last resort they sent for

  Trippetta and Hop-Frog.

  When the two little friends obeyed the summons of the king they found him

  sitting at his wine with the seven members of his cabinet council; but the

  monarch appeared to be in a very ill humor. He knew that Hop-Frog was not

  fond of wine, for it excited the poor cripple almost to madness; and

  madness is no comfortable feeling. But the king loved his practical jokes,

  and took pleasure in forcing Hop-Frog to drink and (as the king called it)

  'to be merry.'

  "Come here, Hop-Frog," said he, as the jester and his friend entered the

  room; "swallow this bumper to the health of your absent friends, [here

  Hop-Frog sighed,] and then let us have the benefit of your invention. We

  want characters -- characters, man -- something novel -- out of the way.

  We are wearied with this everlasting sameness. Come, drink! the wine will

  brighten your wits."

  Hop-Frog endeavored, as usual, to get up a jest in reply to these advances

  from the king; but the effort was too much. It happened to be the poor

  dwarf's birthday, and the command to drink to his 'absent friends' forced

  the tears to his eyes. Many large, bitter drops fell into the goblet as he

  took it, humbly, from the hand of the tyrant.

  "Ah! ha! ha!" roared the latter, as the dwarf reluctantly drained the

  beaker. -- "See what a glass of good wine can do! Why, your eyes are

  shining already!"

  Poor fellow! his large eyes gleamed, rather than shone; for the effect of

  wine on his excitable brain was not more powerful than instantaneous. He

  placed the goblet nervously on the table, and looked round upon the