The Vampyre & Other Tales Of The Macabre

[dem bones]

Chris Baldick & Robert Morrison (eds.) – John Polidori: The Vampyre & Other Tales Of The Macabre (Oxford University Press, 2008; originally 1997)

G. Baldry The Kiss (detail)

Acknowledgements
Introduction
Notes On The Text
Selected Bibliography
Chronology Of The Magazines

John Polidori – The Vampyre
Horace Smith – Sir Guy Eveling’s Dream
William Carleton – Confessions Of A Reformed Ribbonman
Edward Bulwer – Monos And Daimonos
Allan Cunningham – The Master Of Logan
Anonymous – The Victim
James Hogg – Some Terrible Letters From Scotland
Anonymous – The Curse
Anonymous – Life In Death
N. P. Willis – My Hobby, —- Rather
Catherine Gore – The Red Man
Charles Lever – Post-Mortem Recollections Of A Medical Lecturer
Letitia E. Landon – The Bride Of Lindorf
Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu – Passage In The Secret History Of An Irish Countess

Appendix A: Preliminaries for The Vampyre
Appendix B: Note On The Vampyre
Appendix C: Lord Byron, by Augustus Darvell
Bibliographical Notes
Explanatory Notes

Blurb:
`Upon her neck and breast was blood, and upon her throat were the marks of teeth having opened the vein:—to this the men pointed, crying, simultaneously struck with horror, "a Vampyre, a Vampyre!...

John Polidori's classic tale of the vampire was a product of the same ghost- story competition that produced Mary Shelley's 'Frankenstein'. Written in reaction to the dominating presence of his employer Lord Byron, the story introduced the vampire into English fiction, launching a vampire craze that has never diminished.

This edition also includes thirteen other tales of the macabre first published in the leading London and Dublin magazines between 1819 and 1838, including Edward Bulwer's chilling account of the doppelganger, Letitia Landon's elegant reworking of the Gothic romance, William Carleton's terrifying description of an actual lynching, and James Hogg's ghoulish exploitation of the cholera epidemic of 1831

It's been too long since we enjoyed a decent wallow in Gothic misery and melodrama, so grateful thanks to whichever kindly soul found this cracker surplus to requirements. Three stories in and it is business as usual, i.e., murder, insanity, infidelity, misogyny, torture, infanticide, etc. Guest stars include a Cockney Burke & Hare tribute act, a heavily pregnant damsel manacled to a dungeon wall, and a starving cat loose at an open casket funeral.

Anonymous - The Victim: (New Monthly Magazine, Dec. 1831). Melville St. Clare, a young medical student, trails the love of his life, Emily Smith, from Devon to Borough, South London, winning her heart in the process. In urgent need of a cadaver to dissect, he asks Dudley, his best friend and our narrator, to procure a nice fresh one from the local Resurrection Men. Unknown to the medics, the London boys are a Burke & Hare tribute act: why go to all that trouble of disturbing a grave when you can just as easily abduct and murder a stranger? You will not be surprised to learn that their young victim is a vision of perfection unparalleled in the history of womankind, so much so that Dudley feels a strange urge to kiss her cold flesh. But Who can she have been?

N. P. Willis - My Hobby, -- Rather: (New Monthly Magazine, Ocy. 1834). A vigil by the bedside of a beautiful consumptive recently perished. While the narrator, a self-confessed amateur of suffering, takes a stroll around the garden, two lady friends of the the deceased take over the waych. Both fall asleep, providing opportunity for a mad cat to steal in through the window and disfigure the corpse. Narrator and cat engage in a battle to the death! Reminiscent of Ambrose Bierce's super-sick John Mortenson's Funeral. It really would be rude not to laugh horribly.

Catherine Gore - The Red Man: (New Monthly Magazine, June 1835).

Anselme Lanoue, the brilliant mechanic, weds the local beauty, seventeen year old Lucile Moronival, even though she finds him a miserable bore prone to mania and her heart belongs to her cousin. At first, all is well. Lucile, resigned to her not overly disagreeable lot, makes the best of things, gives birth to a daughter, and puts a brave face on her disappointment. But then cousin Clement returns from overseas. Anselme bans him from the house. Lucile falls pregnant again - and elopes with the father. A devastated Anselme places his daughter, little Lucille, in the care of her nurse, Nanette, departs Saint-Étienne, and that is the last anyone sees about him.

Fifteen years later, a Priest arrives in Saint-Étienne with papers declaring him the uncle and legal guardian of Lucile. It is with much reluctance the young woman leaves with the stern pastor and his decrepit mulatto servant for a new life in Notre Dame. But Père Lanoue is so kind and wise that she soon comes to love him - but if only he wouldn't embarrass her by banging on about the sins of the flesh!

`At length she revolted against these iterations of his daily sermon.—"You talk to me, dear uncle," said she, "of crimes that enter not into my apprehension. What pleasure can you suppose me to find in seeking after books, images, ideas, expressions of an immodest nature? What sense of enjoyment can possibly attach itself to things which bring a blush to the cheek, and confusion to the heart?"

"'Nevertheless, beware!" rejoined the stern pastor, "cir­cumstances may arise to invest with unknown charms these very accessories of evil. And remember, Lucile,— remember, my niece,— remember, my beloved child, that sooner than see thee yield to the backslidings by which so many of thy sex sink into the gulf of perdition, I would tear thee limb from limb,—behold thee perish inch by inch, and minute by minute. The soul of woman is the brightest emanation of the eternal fountain of light and life, but the smallest blemish upon its spotlessness, and corruption and utter darkness ensue."

All we need now is that Lucile should fall for a handsome young debauchee with a flair for seducing innocent maidens, and lucky us, the Count de Valencey is on hand to oblige. When the Count mistakes the Confessional box for a place to repent his sins and confide his troubles, what follows is particularly unpleasant.

[dem bones]

William Carleton – Confessions Of A Reformed Ribbonman: (Dublin Literary Review, Jan 23rd & 30th 1830). A midnight meeting of Republicans at chapel. 'The Captain,' Patrick Devann, a local schoolmaster, swears his 130 strong audience to secrecy before embarking on a visit to the home of an informant who must be taught the error of his ways. With the house surrounded, Devann's henchmen set the property ablaze. As the doomed informant pleads for the life of his granddaughter, the baby is speared on a pike and pushed back into the flames. The majority of Ribbonmen are appalled at the massacre but cannot find it within themselves to intervene. Based on a terrible crime at Lough in late October, 1816, Carleton's treatment depicts the ringleaders as the devil's disciples - they even prepare for their mission by swigging whiskey at the Holy altar. The author later revised his account as Wildgoose Lodge, under which title it has been much anthologised.

[vaultadventcalendar]

The following was written by Colin and first appeared on his excellent, now, sadly defunct forum, Gothic Horror Vault. My thanks to him for granting us permission to reproduce it here

***

Sep 27th, 2006, 12:02pm: Colin wrote:

John Polidori - The Vampyre: A laid-back and somewhat sinister nobleman called Lord Ruthven [Byron] makes his entry into London high-society. He has 'dead grey eyes', a very pale complexion and a haughty demeanor. This proves a hit with the ladies, some of whom, like Lady Mercer [Lady Caroline Lamb] are led into indiscretions on his behalf. Lord Ruthven, however, maintains his aloof bearing and attracts the attention of young Aubrey [Polidori] who becomes his travelling companion when Ruthven has to leave the country due to his affairs being embarrassed....
In Brussels 'and other towns through which they passed' Ruthven proves to be mean and moody, ruining the good whilst supplying the vicious and dissipated with the means of their own destruction.
In Rome Aubrey receives news from home of Ruthven's notorious seductions of supposedly virtuous females who he had thus 'hurled from the pinnacle of unsullied virtue, down to the lowest abyss of infamy and degradation'. Thus warned he foils Ruthven's attempted seduction of an innocent young girl and then leaves him for Athens, Greece. 1

Aubrey goes to Athens where he is distracted from his antiquarian researches by the lovely young Ianthe who indulges herself in skipping and tripping and chasing after butterflies - inadvertently showing 'the whole beauty of her form' to his 'eager gaze'.... And not only this, she is fund of knowledge on Greek folklore and tells Aubrey tales of the bloodsucking fiend known as the 'Vampyre' said to haunt the vicinity. Though Aubrey is initially inclined to be sceptical as to the veracity of these tales, he is somewhat alarmed that Ianthe's description of the appearance of the Vampyre matches that of Lord Ruthven.... 2

Aubrey finds himself becoming more and more attached to the simple Greek girl Ianthe and finds that her parents also believe in Vampyres and are quite horrified when he makes light of their beliefs. They warn him not to return at night from a trip he has planned as on the way back he must pass through a wood where the vampyres hold their 'nocturnal orgies'.... 3

Undeterred by the pleas of Ianthe and her parents Aubrey goes off on his excursion....and....like a fool....loses track of time and is surprised by the swift onset of night. Making his way back through the wood during a storm he hears a woman's scream coming from a hut followed by the 'exultant mockery of a laugh'. Rushing into the hut he grapples in the dark with an unknown antagonist of superhuman strength who is, however, prevented from finishing him off by the surprise arrival of the villagers with their torches. The antagonist makes his escape. The villagers go in search of the woman....and find the pale corpse of Ianthe with the marks of teeth on her throat. She is the victim of a Vampyre! 4

Aubrey retrieves from the hut a 'naked dagger of a particular construction' and then relapses into delirium, to be nursed back to health by none other than Lord Ruthven who has made a surprise appearance in Athens...Lord Ruthven is at first solicitous as to his recovery before relapsing into his usual apathetic state...
After Aubrey recovers he retreats to his former haunts in the woods and glades outside Athens but is startled by hallucinations (?) of the lovely Ianthe who appears to him with pale face and punctured neck.
He determines to fly the scene with Lord Ruthven and explore other parts of Greece. Here they are set upon by robbers who shoot Lord Ruthven. As he lies dying he extorts an oath from Aubrey not to let anyone know of his death for a year and a day..... 5

Waking up the next morning Aubrey finds Ruthven's body gone. The bandits tell him that they had instructions from Ruthven to expose his body to 'the first cold ray of the moon' on top of a nearby hill, however, when Aubrey goes in search of it, it is no longer there...
Aubrey, at this point, has had enough and resolves to go home and waits for a vessel at Smyrna (modern Izmir, Turkey) [Somehow Polidori has transported us from Greece to Turkey, without mentioning it in the narrative. The Turkish location of the exposure of Lord Ruthven's body is made explicit in Byron's version...as we shall see....].
Whilst waiting for a ship Aubrey discovers amongst Ruthvens effects a scabbard exactly fitting the knife Aubrey found in the hut...

Aubrey travels home via Rome where he discovered that the girl Lord Ruthven attempted to seduce before is 'missing presumed vampirised'. Back in the UK he retreats to his family mansion where he is greeted by his young sister, who is about to be introduced into society as a debutante. However at the reception he hears the baleful voice of ...who should it be but... Lord Ruthven....enjoining him to remember his oath and turns round to see the spectral figure of his recently deceased f(r)iend. Spotting Ruthven again at another party Aubrey is driven to distraction and is soon roving the streets in tattered clothing at every hour of the day or night before going so mad he has to be confined to his chamber and put under medical supervision as a suspected lunatic. Strangely he is observed by his carers to be counting on his fingers and getting somewhat more cheerful as the year comes to its end.
On the last day of the year he is informed by his carers that his sister is to be married to one Earl of Marsden, the next day.
However to his horror he sees that the portrait in the locket round his sister's neck is...Lord Ruthven! It seems our fiend had taken advantage of Aubrey's pitiful mental state to cosy up to his sister.
Aubrey's efforts to dissuade his sister are taken to be signs of madness and the next day the wedding goes ahead, despite one last attempt at intervention by Aubrey who bursts a blood vessel in his rage. Conveyed to bed, at midnight he relates the story we have just read and then dies. Then:
'The guardians hastened to protect Miss Aubrey; but when they arrived it was too late. Lord Ruthven had disappeared, and Aubrey's sister had glutted the thirst of a Vampyre!' 6

THE END
..............
1. This part of the the story is semi-real though in real life Polidori was dismissed from Byron's service in Switzerland and then decided to walk over the Alps to Milan...where he bumped into Byron once again, before being ordered to leave the city by the authorities after an altercation with a soldier at the opera....Sort of makes you feel sorry for the guy really...
Lord Ruthven is one of the titles of Lord Glenarvon in Lady Caroline Lamb's Gothic novel of the same name (published 1816) which was also based on the life of Byron. In Lamb's book (which perhaps we should read.....) Glenarvon/Ruthven/Byron also displays vampiric traits....

2. Just to say here that Polidori never went to Greece himself but is drawing on Byron's fragment and - I guess - from the account of Byron's adventures in the East recounted in his autobiographical poem 'Childe Harold's Pilgrimage' and his 'Oriental Poems'. In one of these poems Byron expresses his love for an idealised young 'Athenian Maid', much in mould of Polidori's Ianthe:

Maid of Athens, ere we part
Give, oh, give me back my heart!
Or, since that has left my breast,
Keep it now, and take the rest!
Hear my vow before I go,
[Greek characters I can't decipher]

This poem was very popular and there are even paintings depicting Byron with the 'Maid of Athens' though the reality of Byron's relationship with her......is a bit more....er...sordid.

3. I guess this must be the first occasion in world literature when village rustics warn an outsider about the local vampire(s). A scene to be repeated many times, particularly in Hammer Horror films...
..............
4. I guess that Ianthe must be the first beautiful female victim of a vampire in world literature, with trademark neck-punctures. Polidori is silent however as to whether she becomes a vampire herself or whether the resourceful villagers prevent this by putting a stake through her heart....

5. Is the post-mortem appearance of Ianthe an hallucination or has she come back as a vampyre ?

6. So...not a happy ending....Interesting that Lord Ruthven waits until the wedding day to vampirise Aubrey's sister. Is this some sort of folkloric reference? I'm reminded of stories by Le Fanu, Nesbit and Wharton with a similar theme of brides taken off to the nether-world by the 'Demon-Lover'.

What did you think of this story?

[helrunar]

I think one source of the story may have been the old legend of the Lamia or Empousa, a female vampire who, in one account, enticed a handsome young student of Apollonius of Tyana. According to the legend, this type of spirit enticed a young man to marry her. On the wedding night, after making love to him, she slew him and consumed his flesh. She was able to appear as an attractive, beautiful maiden but her true form was monstrous (some of the accounts mention that she had one brass leg--or even more fantastic details).

The main element that the narrative in the Polidori tale echoes here is the idea that the monster has to wait till the wedding night to take his (or her) victim. Presumably, this reflected in part the social norm that one did not take one's clothes off with a person of the opposite sex unless and until the proper rites had been performed.

H.

[fritzmaitland]

5th of Shocktober - meant to go modern, but something lured me further back into the past. Back to 1819 in fact - John Polidori’s The Vampyre. Written during the infamous stay at the Villa Deodati, where Polidori was staying with Lord Byron, Mary Wollenscraft, Percy Shelley and Claire Claremont. Immortalised in Ken Russell’s Gothic. And Howard Brenton’s Bloody Poetry. And Haunted Summer. And a Spanish film with Hugh Grant as Byron and Liz Hurley as Clairmont.
The ghost story writing competition produced Frankenstein as well as The Vampyre. Byron’s effort went nowhere, but produced A Fragment aka Fragment Of A Novel aka The Burial : A Fragment although it appears in the anthology I have that contains The Vampyre as The End Of My Journey.
Two for the price of one. I read Byron’s Fragment. Two men journey through Greece. One grows progressively weaker. His journey ends in an abandoned cemetery, as his companion watches him apparently disintegrate.
Inspired by the this work, Polidori took things a step further, creating an aristocratic vampire, Lord Ruthven, who infiltrates society, corrupting the innocent and rewarding the dissolute. He falls in with Aubrey , a young man who accompanies him on a tour of Europe. Aubrey deserts him in Rome when he realises that Ruthven is evil, travelling on to Greece where he begins to fall in love with a young Greek girl. The girl is murdered (the scenes after this rather remarkably feature torch-bearing villagers.). Aubrey reunites with Ruthven shortly after, before Ruthven is killed by bandits, swearing Aubrey to secrecy about the Lord’s activities for a year and a day, as he dies.
Returning to England, Aubrey reunites with his sister, but everywhere he goes, he’s haunted by Ruthven reminding him of his oath.
We’re heading towards the end now. Aubrey is losing his mind. His innocent sister has been proposed to by a member of the aristocracy. The year is almost up. The wedding is approaching.
I really like this one.

[Michael Connolly]

Oct 5, 2020 21:19:29 GMT fritzmaitland said:

5th of Shocktober - meant to go modern, but something lured me further back into the past. Back to 1819 in fact - John Polidori’s The Vampyre. Written during the infamous stay at the Villa Deodati, where Polidori was staying with Lord Byron, Mary Wollenscraft, Percy Shelley and Claire Claremont. Immortalised in Ken Russell’s Gothic. And Howard Brenton’s Bloody Poetry. And Haunted Summer. And a Spanish film with Hugh Grant as Byron and Liz Hurley as Clairmont.
The ghost story writing competition produced Frankenstein as well as The Vampyre. Byron’s effort went nowhere, but produced A Fragment aka Fragment Of A Novel aka The Burial : A Fragment although it appears in the anthology I have that contains The Vampyre as The End Of My Journey.
Two for the price of one. I read Byron’s Fragment. Two men journey through Greece. One grows progressively weaker. His journey ends in an abandoned cemetery, as his companion watches him apparently disintegrate.
Inspired by the this work, Polidori took things a step further, creating an aristocratic vampire, Lord Ruthven, who infiltrates society, corrupting the innocent and rewarding the dissolute. He falls in with Aubrey , a young man who accompanies him on a tour of Europe. Aubrey deserts him in Rome when he realises that Ruthven is evil, travelling on to Greece where he begins to fall in love with a young Greek girl. The girl is murdered (the scenes after this rather remarkably feature torch-bearing villagers.). Aubrey reunites with Ruthven shortly after, before Ruthven is killed by bandits, swearing Aubrey to secrecy about the Lord’s activities for a year and a day, as he dies.
Returning to England, Aubrey reunites with his sister, but everywhere he goes, he’s haunted by Ruthven reminding him of his oath.
We’re heading towards the end now. Aubrey is losing his mind. His innocent sister has been proposed to by a member of the aristocracy. The year is almost up. The wedding is approaching.
I really like this one.

On now: In Our Time: Polidori's The Vampyre: www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m00162xz
You can listen to it in your own time.