The Hyperion Chronicles

The Hyperion Chronicles

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#334 A Tell-Tale Birthday

Friends; we’re going to try something a little different here this week. I feel so strongly about #335 that I have gone to the unprecedented step of sending out an entire column of prologue and background material. I know it’s a lot to wade through, but the two news items are short, the story is by a master, and all of it is needed to understand what’s coming.

What I have for you today is a brief background on the death of Poe and a news report from the Associated Press about the remembrance of Edgar Allan Poe’s birthday. After that, I have one of Poe’s short stories, “The Cask of Amontillado,” including a link to a website that discusses the story and helps you make sense of it if you’re having trouble, and a brief explanation of the two Latin terms in the story.

All of this is interesting in its own right. The death of Poe is mysterious. the story about the anniversary of Poe’s birth is creepy and sexy at the same time, and Poe’s story is one of the best ever written. But like I told you, all of this is set-up so you can understand what’s coming. I hope you enjoy.

Hyperion

January 25, 2005

From www.crimelibrary.com (I have taken out quite a bit on theories of Poe’s death, for which there are several. If you’re interested please feel free to go there and read them yourself.):

As the autumn of 1849 began, Poe was in top form: sober, earning praise on his lecture tour, and engaged to marry his childhood sweetheart. Poe left Richmond on September 27, 1849, probably feeling that some of his dark clouds had passed and that he was soon to reap the benefits of his hard work. Friends who saw him onto the boat that day stated that he was in good spirits and he promised that he would be back in Richmond very soon.

Poe's happiness at that point makes the events of the following days all the more extraordinary and inexplicable.

His itinerary called for him to leave Richmond on September 27 and arrive in Baltimore the following day to catch a train. It is certain that he did take the boat to Baltimore and did arrive there on September 28^th. From there he was to journey to Philadelphia where he had a business appointment, and then on to New York City to meet Maria Clemm. They would both travel back to Richmond for Poe’s upcoming wedding.

But Poe never showed up for his appointment in Philadelphia.

Maria Clemm never saw him alive again.

After stepping off the boat in Baltimore on September 28^th, no clear record of his movements or activities is known until Joseph Walker on October 3rd stopped to speak to a man "rather the worse for wear" and who was "in need of immediate assistance..." .

…

Dr. Moran, the doctor who attended Poe at his deathbed, wrote a letter to Maria Clemm that obviously presumed that Maria would already know that Poe had drank himself to death:

"Presuming you are already aware of the malady of which Mr. Poe died, I need only state concisely the particulars of his circumstances from his entrance until his decease.

When brought to the hospital, he was unconscious of his condition…to this state succeeded tremor of the limbs, and at first a busy, but not violent or active delirium—constantly talking—and vacant converse with spectral and imaginary objects on the walls. His face was pale and his whole person drenched in perspiration. We were unable to induce tranquility before the second day after his admission.

Having left orders with the nurses to that effect, I was summoned to his bedside as soon as consciousness supervened, and questioned him in reference to his family, place of residence, relatives, etc. But his answers were incoherent and unsatisfactory. He told me, however, he had a wife in Richmond [a reference, most probably, to Elmira Shelton, and not Virginia Poe], which I have since learned was not the fact, that he did not know when he left that city or what had become of his trunk or clothing."

Dr. Moran didn't mention to Maria Clemm Poe's cryptically calling out for "Reynolds" on his death-bed. Nobody has ever determined who "Reynolds" was.

Regarding the trunk mentioned in Dr. Moran's letter, John Evangelist Walsh, in his book Midnight Dreary - The Mysterious Death of Edgar Allen Poe, reports that the trunk was later recovered from a local hotel. But it revealed nothing about Poe's activities during his last days.

The fact that Poe had apparently checked the trunk at a Baltimore hotel deepens the mystery: if Baltimore was merely the place Poe was going to catch a train, why and when did he leave his luggage at a local hotel?

How did Edgar Allan Poe die?
Who was the mysterious "Reynolds"?
Where and how did he spend those five "lost" days?
To this day, nobody knows the answers.

Days after his death he was buried in an unmarked grave in a Baltimore cemetery -- before many of his friends and family had even heard he was dead. It would not be until 1875 that a marker would be placed over Poe's remains, and later the remains of his wife Virginia and Maria Clemm were added to the site.

Poe's grave is also the location for yet another mystery. On the night of Poe's birthday in 1949, a man entered the cemetery in the dark of night and left three roses and a half-full bottle of cognac on Poe's tombstone and then vanished. Many assumed that the three roses were in honor of Edgar, Virginia, and Maria but the cognac was a mystery.

But 1949 was just the beginning: every year on the night of January 19^th, a hooded man has entered the cemetery in the dead of night and has left the same tribute of roses and cognac at Poe's grave. Poe enthusiasts have gathered to watch the mysterious visitor, but nobody has ever tried to communicate with the cloaked figure or to learn his identity. On January 19, 1993, along with the roses and liquor, the man left a note saying "the torch will be passed," and it is believed that the first man passed the tradition onto another before his death, because the annual visitations continue.

Scholars, historians, biographers, and the medical community continue to present theories about what happened to Poe from September 28 to October 3, 1849, but nobody has conclusively proven whether one of America's premier writers died by his own foolish behavior or at the hands of a cold-blooded killer.

The mystery continues. Poe would be delighted.

The tradition continued even this year, if you care to read about it: http://www.wtopnews.com/index.php?sid=393937&nid=25

Next, we have two phrases which appear in the story:

In pace requiescat: Rest in Peace.

This is fairly simple to understand. The next has a bit more history:

Nemo me impune lacessit: No one provokes me with impunity.

Basically, what this means is, you mess with me and I’ll mess you up. Interestingly, this is the official motto of a group in Scotland. From wikipedia.org:

The Most Ancient and Most Noble Order of the Thistle is an order of chivalry associated with Scotland. While its original date of foundation is unknown, James VII (also King of England as James II) instituted the modern Order in 1687. The Sovereign alone grants membership of the Order; he or she is not advised by the Government, as occurs with most other Orders. The Order's primary emblem is the thistle, the national flower of Scotland. The motto is Nemo me impune lacessit (Latin for "No-one provokes me with impunity.

Finally today, we present Poe’s story itself. It’s not too long but is quite chilling. It may be a little bit difficult for some of you to understand, and if you’re having trouble I encourage you to go to http://www.poedecoder.com/essays/cask/ for an explanation. And tomorrow, we’ll begin to make sense of what all of these pieces have in common. See you then.

The Cask of Amontillado

Edgar Allan Poe

Credits

Thanks to crimelibrary.com, wikipedia.org, and the Associated Press

Thanks to E.A.P.

Thanks to Koz for helping me arrange everything and for giving me a better title to the column than I originally had

Motto Explanation

It’s a simple play on words with the Order of Thistle. If you really had to ask, you’re probably not up for tomorrow’s revelations