Short Stories by Edgar Allan Poe. Opowiadania Edgara Allana Poe w wersji do nauki angielskiego - ebook

Wstęp

Edgar Allan Poe (ur. 19 stycznia 1809 roku) to autor nietuzinkowy. Uważa się go bezdyskusyjnie za jednego z prekursorów powieści grozy, horroru, ale także science fiction, fantasy i powieści detektywistycznej. Pracę pisarską zaczynał jako dziennikarz, pisząc eseje, recenzje i opowiadania dla różnych magazynów. Uznanie i sławę przyniosła mu dopiero publikacja poematu Kruk w 1845 roku. Większość jego twórczości z tego okresu wpisuje się doskonale w nurt literatury gotyckiej. Lubował się w tematach związanych ze śmiertelnością, rozkładem, poruszał także kwestie np. pochowania żywcem – co nawet teraz nie jest tematem lekkim, a wówczas uchodziło za zdecydowanie ekstrawaganckie. Późniejsze dokonania H.P. Lovecrafta bezpośrednio czerpią z kierunku, jaki wyznaczył Poe.

Był jedną z kluczowych postaci amerykańskiego romantyzmu, o ile jednak nasz rodzimy Mickiewicz koncentrował się na rozważaniach patriotycznych i miłosnych, o tyle Poe stworzył podwaliny współczesnej kultury popularnej.

Po sukcesie w USA szybko stał się znany także w Europie, a to za sprawą doskonałych przekładów jego wierszy autorstwa Charlesa Baudelaire’a. Z kolei postać C. Auguste’a Dupina, detektywa-amatora z przebłyskami genialnej refleksji, wnikliwej obserwacji i zdolności wczuwania się w psychikę złoczyńcy, dała mu zasłużoną renomę ojca kryminałów – odwoływał się do niego z uznaniem i należną estymą choćby Arthur Conan Doyle (twórca Sherlocka Holmesa, którego opowiadania dostępne są w jednej z części naszej książkowej serii). Wyrazem przekornego hołdu dla Edgara Allana Poe mogą być słowa Sherlocka Holmesa z opowiadania Studium w szkarłacie (1887), który, w odpowiedzi na porównanie go do Dupina, odpowiada:

„Bez wątpienia sądzisz, że to dla mnie komplement… W mojej opinii jednak Dupin był zdecydowanie podrzędną osobą. Bez wątpienia, obdarzoną pewnym geniuszem analitycznym, ale z pewnością nie tak wielkim fenomenem, jak pragnąłby tego Poe”.

Tego rodzaju puszczenie oka do Czytelnika i z trudem ukrywana zazdrość detektywa z Baker Street są wyraźnym sygnałem uznania. Dupinem inspirowała się także Agatha Christie. Opowiadania jak np. The Purloined Letter czy The Murders in the Rue Morgue weszły do klasyki gatunku. Czytając je, w ramach prezentowanego zbioru, łatwo mogą Państwo dostrzec, że postaci znane ze współczesnych seriali i książek kryminalnych znajdują bezpośrednią inspirację w bohaterze stworzonym przez Edgara Allana Poe.

Jako ciekawostkę warto podać, że był jednym z pierwszych Amerykanów, którzy utrzymywali się z pracy pisarskiej. Ponieważ w ówczesnych czasach było to zdecydowanie rzadkością, a honoraria autorskie, podobnie jak nakłady, były dość niskie, Poe przez większość życia z trudem wiązał koniec z końcem. Do biedy był jednak przywykły: jako sierota wychowywana przez życzliwą, ale również ubogą rodzinę, nie mógł liczyć na dobrą edukację. Ze studiów musiał zrezygnować po pierwszym semestrze z braku środków. Zaciągnął się też do wojska, żeby mieć z czego żyć. Ciężko chorował na wiele różnych dolegliwości, cierpiał także na chorobę alkoholową. Trudno wyrokować, jaki wpływ te doświadczenia mogły mieć na jego twórczość, ale zdecydowanie jest ona także mroczna i ponura. Pouczająca, a nie ponura, jest natomiast z pewnością nauka języka angielskiego za pomocą prezentowanego zbioru opowiadań. Serdecznie zachęcamy do lektury – już za kilka miesięcy zaprezentujemy kolejną pozycję!

Opracowany przez nas podręcznik oparty na oryginalnym tekście opowiadań został skonstruowany według przejrzystego schematu.

- Na marginesach tekstu podano objaśnienia trudniejszych wyrazów.
- Każdy rozdział jest zakończony krótkim testem sprawdzającym stopień rozumienia tekstu.
- Zawarty po każdym rozdziale dział O słowach jest poświęcony poszerzeniu słownictwa z danej dziedziny, wyrazom kłopotliwym (false friends), wyrazom wieloznacznym, słowotwórstwu oraz wyrażeniom idiomatycznym.
- W dziale poświęconym gramatyce omówiono wybrane zagadnienie gramatyczne, ilustrowane fragmentem rozdziału.
- Dla dociekliwych został również opracowany komentarz do wybranych tematów związanych z kulturą i historią.

Różnorodne ćwiczenia pozwolą Czytelnikowi powtórzyć i sprawdzić omówione w podręczniku zagadnienia leksykalne i gramatyczne. Alfabetyczny wykaz wyrazów objaśnianych na marginesie tekstu znajduje się w słowniczku. Odpowiedzi do wszystkich zadań zamkniętych są podane w kluczu na końcu książki.1 THE BLACK CAT

SŁOWNICTWO

For the most wild, yet most homely narrative which I am about to pen, I neither expect nor solicit belief. Mad indeed would I be to expect it, in a case where my very senses reject their own evidence. Yet, mad am I not—and very surely do I not dream. But to-morrow I die, and to-day I would unburthen my soul. My immediate purpose is to place before the world, plainly, succinctly, and without comment, a series of mere household events. In their consequences, these events have terrified—have tortured—have destroyed me. Yet I will not attempt to expound them. To me, they have presented little but Horror—to many they will seem less terrible than barroques. Hereafter, perhaps, some intellect may be found which will reduce my phantasm to the common-place—some intellect more calm, more logical, and far less excitable than my own, which will perceive, in the circumstances I detail with awe, nothing more than an ordinary succession of very natural causes and effects.

From my infancy I was noted for the docility and humanity of my disposition. My tenderness of heart was even so conspicuous as to make me the jest of my companions. I was especially fond of animals, and was indulged by my parents with a great variety of pets. With these I spent most of my time, and never was so happy as when feeding and caressing them. This peculiarity of character grew with my growth, and in my manhood, I derived from it one of my principal sources of pleasure. To those who have cherished an affection for a faithful and sagacious dog, I need hardly be at the trouble of explaining the nature or the intensity of the gratification thus derivable. There is something in the unselfish and self-sacrificing love of a brute, which goes directly to the heart of him who has had frequent occasion to test the paltry friendship and gossamer fidelity of mere Man.

I married early, and was happy to find in my wife a disposition not uncongenial with my own. Observing my partiality for domestic pets, she lost no opportunity of procuring those of the most agreeable kind. We had birds, gold-fish, a fine dog, rabbits, a small monkey, and a cat.

This latter was a remarkably large and beautiful animal, entirely black, and sagacious to an astonishing degree. In speaking of his intelligence, my wife, who at heart was not a little tinctured with superstition, made frequent allusion to the ancient popular notion, which regarded all black cats as witches in disguise. Not that she was ever serious upon this point—and I mention the matter at all for no better reason than that it happens, just now, to be remembered.

Pluto—this was the cat’s name—was my favorite pet and playmate. I alone fed him, and he attended me wherever I went about the house. It was even with difficulty that I could prevent him from following me through the streets.

Our friendship lasted, in this manner, for several years, during which my general temperament and character—through the instrumentality of the Fiend Intemperance—had (I blush to confess it) experienced a radical alteration for the worse. I grew, day by day, more moody, more irritable, more regardless of the feelings of others. I suffered myself to use intemperate language to my wife. At length, I even offered her personal violence. My pets, of course, were made to feel the change in my disposition. I not only neglected, but ill-used them. For Pluto, however, I still retained sufficient regard to restrain me from maltreating him, as I made no scruple of maltreating the rabbits, the monkey, or even the dog, when by accident, or through affection, they came in my way. But my disease grew upon me—for what disease is like Alcohol!—and at length even Pluto, who was now becoming old, and consequently somewhat peevish—even Pluto began to experience the effects of my ill temper.

One night, returning home, much intoxicated, from one of my haunts about town, I fancied that the cat avoided my presence. I seized him; when, in his fright at my violence, he inflicted a slight wound upon my hand with his teeth. The fury of a demon instantly possessed me. I knew myself no longer. My original soul seemed, at once, to take its flight from my body and a more than fiendish malevolence, gin-nurtured, thrilled every fibre of my frame. I took from my waistcoat-pocket a pen--knife, opened it, grasped the poor beast by the throat, and deliberately cut one of its eyes from the socket! I blush, I burn, I shudder, while I pen the damnable atrocity.

When reason returned with the morning—when I had slept off the fumes of the night’s debauch—I experienced a sentiment half of horror, half of remorse, for the crime of which I had been guilty; but it was, at best, a feeble and equivocal feeling, and the soul remained untouched. I again plunged into excess, and soon drowned in wine all memory of the deed.

In the meantime the cat slowly recovered. The socket of the lost eye presented, it is true, a frightful appearance, but he no longer appeared to suffer any pain. He went about the house as usual, but, as might be expected, fled in extreme terror at my approach. I had so much of my old heart left, as to be at first grieved by this evident dislike on the part of a creature which had once so loved me. But this feeling soon gave place to irritation. And then came, as if to my final and irrevocable overthrow, the spirit of PERVERSENESS. Of this spirit philosophy takes no account. Yet I am not more sure that my soul lives, than I am that perverseness is one of the primitive impulses of the human heart—one of the indivisible primary faculties, or sentiments, which give direction to the character of Man. Who has not, a hundred times, found himself committing a vile or a silly action, for no other reason than because he knows he should not? Have we not a perpetual inclination, in the teeth of our best judgment, to violate that which is Law, merely because we understand it to be such? This spirit of perverseness, I say, came to my final overthrow. It was this unfathomable longing of the soul to vex itself—to offer violence to its own nature—to do wrong for the wrong’s sake only—that urged me to continue and finally to consummate the injury I had inflicted upon the unoffending brute. One morning, in cool blood, I slipped a noose about its neck and hung it to the limb of a tree;—hung it with the tears streaming from my eyes, and with the bitterest remorse at my heart;—hung it because I knew that it had loved me, and because I felt it had given me no reason of offence;—hung it because I knew that in so doing I was committing a sin—a deadly sin that would so jeopardize my immortal soul as to place it—if such a thing wore possible—even beyond the reach of the infinite mercy of the Most Merciful and Most Terrible God.

On the night of the day on which this cruel deed was done, I was aroused from sleep by the cry of fire. The curtains of my bed were in flames. The whole house was blazing. It was with great difficulty that my wife, a servant, and myself, made our escape from the conflagration. The destruction was complete. My entire worldly wealth was swallowed up, and I resigned myself thenceforward to despair.

I am above the weakness of seeking to establish a sequence of cause and effect, between the disaster and the atrocity. But I am detailing a chain of facts—and wish not to leave even a possible link imperfect. On the day succeeding the fire, I visited the ruins. The walls, with one exception, had fallen in. This exception was found in a compartment wall, not very thick, which stood about the middle of the house, and against which had rested the head of my bed. The plastering had here, in great measure, resisted the action of the fire—a fact which I attributed to its having been recently spread. About this wall a dense crowd were collected, and many persons seemed to be examining a particular portion of it with very minute and eager attention. The words “strange!” “singular!” and other similar expressions, excited my curiosity. I approached and saw, as if graven in bas-relief upon the white surface, the figure of a gigantic cat. The impression was given with an accuracy truly marvellous. There was a rope about the animal’s neck.

When I first beheld this apparition—for I could scarcely regard it as less—my wonder and my terror were extreme. But at length reflection came to my aid. The cat, I remembered, had been hung in a garden adjacent to the house. Upon the alarm of fire, this garden had been immediately filled by the crowd—by some one of whom the animal must have been cut from the tree and thrown, through an open window, into my chamber. This had probably been done with the view of arousing me from sleep. The falling of other walls had compressed the victim of my cruelty into the substance of the freshly-spread plaster; the lime of which, with the flames, and the ammonia from the carcass, had then accomplished the portraiture as I saw it.

Although I thus readily accounted to my reason, if not altogether to my conscience, for the startling fact just detailed, it did not the less fail to make a deep impression upon my fancy. For months I could not rid myself of the phantasm of the cat; and, during this period, there came back into my spirit a half-sentiment that seemed, but was not, remorse. I went so far as to regret the loss of the animal, and to look about me, among the vile haunts which I now habitually frequented, for another pet of the same species, and of somewhat similar appearance, with which to supply its place.

One night as I sat, half stupified, in a den of more than infamy, my attention was suddenly drawn to some black object, reposing upon the head of one of the immense hogsheads of Gin, or of Rum, which constituted the chief furniture of the apartment. I had been looking steadily at the top of this hogshead for some minutes, and what now caused me surprise was the fact that I had not sooner perceived the object thereupon. I approached it, and touched it with my hand. It was a black cat—a very large one—fully as large as Pluto, and closely resembling him in every respect but one. Pluto had not a white hair upon any portion of his body; but this cat had a large, although indefinite splotch of white, covering nearly the whole region of the breast. Upon my touching him, he immediately arose, purred loudly, rubbed against my hand, and appeared delighted with my notice. This, then, was the very creature of which I was in search. I at once offered to purchase it of the landlord; but this person made no claim to it—knew nothing of it—had never seen it before.

I continued my caresses, and, when I prepared to go home, the animal evinced a disposition to accompany me. I permitted it to do so; occasionally stooping and patting it as I proceeded. When it reached the house it domesticated itself at once, and became immediately a great favorite with my wife.

For my own part, I soon found a dislike to it arising within me. This was just the reverse of what I had anticipated; but—I know not how or why it was—its evident fondness for myself rather disgusted and annoyed. By slow degrees, these feelings of disgust and annoyance rose into the bitterness of hatred. I avoided the creature; a certain sense of shame, and the remembrance of my former deed of cruelty, preventing me from physically abusing it. I did not, for some weeks, strike, or otherwise violently ill use it; but gradually—very gradually—I came to look upon it with unutterable loathing, and to flee silently from its odious presence, as from the breath of a pestilence.

What added, no doubt, to my hatred of the beast, was the discovery, on the morning after I brought it home, that, like Pluto, it also had been deprived of one of its eyes. This circumstance, however, only endeared it to my wife, who, as I have already said, possessed, in a high degree, that humanity of feeling which had once been my distinguishing trait, and the source of many of my simplest and purest pleasures.

With my aversion to this cat, however, its partiality for myself seemed to increase. It followed my footsteps with a pertinacity which it would be difficult to make the reader comprehend. Whenever I sat, it would crouch beneath my chair, or spring upon my knees, covering me with its loathsome caresses. If I arose to walk it would get between my feet and thus nearly throw me down, or, fastening its long and sharp claws in my dress, clamber, in this manner, to my breast. At such times, although I longed to destroy it with a blow, I was yet withheld from so doing, partly by a memory of my former crime, but chiefly—let me confess it at once—by absolute dread of the beast.

This dread was not exactly a dread of physical evil—and yet I should be at a loss how otherwise to define it. I am almost ashamed to own—yes, even in this felon’s cell, I am almost ashamed to own—that the terror and horror with which the animal inspired me, had been heightened by one of the merest chimaeras it would be possible to conceive. My wife had called my attention, more than once, to the character of the mark of white hair, of which I have spoken, and which constituted the sole visible difference between the strange beast and the one I had destroyed. The reader will remember that this mark, although large, had been originally very indefinite; but, by slow degrees—degrees nearly imperceptible, and which for a long time my Reason struggled to reject as fanciful—it had, at length, assumed a rigorous distinctness of outline. It was now the representation of an object that I shudder to name—and for this, above all, I loathed, and dreaded, and would have rid myself of the monster had I dared—it was now, I say, the image of a hideous—of a ghastly thing—of the GALLOWS!—oh, mournful and terrible engine of Horror and of Crime—of Agony and of Death!

And now was I indeed wretched beyond the wretchedness of mere Humanity. And a brute beast —whose fellow I had contemptuously destroyed—a brute beast to work out for me—for me a man, fashioned in the image of the High God—so much of insufferable woe! Alas! neither by day nor by night knew I the blessing of Rest any more! During the former the creature left me no moment alone; and, in the latter, I started, hourly, from dreams of unutterable fear, to find the hot breath of the thing upon my face, and its vast weight—an incarnate Night-Mare that I had no power to shake off—incumbent eternally upon my heart!

Beneath the pressure of torments such as these, the feeble remnant of the good within me succumbed. Evil thoughts became my sole intimates—the darkest and most evil of thoughts. The moodiness of my usual temper increased to hatred of all things and of all mankind; while, from the sudden, frequent, and ungovernable outbursts of a fury to which I now blindly abandoned myself, my uncomplaining wife, alas! was the most usual and the most patient of sufferers.

One day she accompanied me, upon some household errand, into the cellar of the old building which our poverty compelled us to inhabit. The cat followed me down the steep stairs, and, nearly throwing me headlong, exasperated me to madness. Uplifting an axe, and forgetting, in my wrath, the childish dread which had hitherto stayed my hand, I aimed a blow at the animal which, of course, would have proved instantly fatal had it descended as I wished. But this blow was arrested by the hand of my wife. Goaded, by the interference, into a rage more than demoniacal, I withdrew my arm from her grasp and buried the axe in her brain. She fell dead upon the spot, without a groan.

This hideous murder accomplished, I set myself forthwith, and with entire deliberation, to the task of concealing the body. I knew that I could not remove it from the house, either by day or by night, without the risk of being observed by the neighbors. Many projects entered my mind. At one period I thought of cutting the corpse into minute fragments, and destroying them by fire. At another, I resolved to dig a grave for it in the floor of the cellar. Again, I deliberated about casting it in the well in the yard—about packing it in a box, as if merchandize, with the usual arrangements, and so getting a porter to take it from the house. Finally I hit upon what I considered a far better expedient than either of these. I determined to wall it up in the cellar—as the monks of the middle ages are recorded to have walled up their victims.

For a purpose such as this the cellar was well adapted. Its walls were loosely constructed, and had lately been plastered throughout with a rough plaster, which the dampness of the atmosphere had prevented from hardening. Moreover, in one of the walls was a projection, caused by a false chimney, or fireplace, that had been filled up, and made to resemble the red of the cellar. I made no doubt that I could readily displace the bricks at this point, insert the corpse, and wall the whole up as before, so that no eye could detect any thing suspicious. And in this calculation I was not deceived. By means of a crow-bar I easily dislodged the bricks, and, having carefully deposited the body against the inner wall, I propped it in that position, while, with little trouble, I re-laid the whole structure as it originally stood. Having procured mortar, sand, and hair, with every possible precaution, I prepared a plaster which could not be distinguished from the old, and with this I very carefully went over the new brickwork. When I had finished, I felt satisfied that all was right. The wall did not present the slightest appearance of having been disturbed. The rubbish on the floor was picked up with the minutest care. I looked around triumphantly, and said to myself—”Here at least, then, my labor has not been in vain.”

My next step was to look for the beast which had been the cause of so much wretchedness; for I had, at length, firmly resolved to put it to death. Had I been able to meet with it, at the moment, there could have been no doubt of its fate; but it appeared that the crafty animal had been alarmed at the violence of my previous anger, and forebore to present itself in my present mood. It is impossible to describe, or to imagine, the deep, the blissful sense of relief which the absence of the detested creature occasioned in my bosom. It did not make its appearance during the night—and thus for one night at least, since its introduction into the house, I soundly and tranquilly slept; aye, slept even with the burden of murder upon my soul!

The second and the third day passed, and still my tormentor came not. Once again I breathed as a freeman. The monster, in terror, had fled the premises forever! I should behold it no more! My happiness was supreme! The guilt of my dark deed disturbed me but little. Some few inquiries had been made, but these had been readily answered. Even a search had been instituted—but of course nothing was to be discovered. I looked upon my future felicity as secured.

Upon the fourth day of the assassination, a party of the police came, very unexpectedly, into the house, and proceeded again to make rigorous investigation of the premises. Secure, however, in the inscrutability of my place of concealment, I felt no embarrassment whatever. The officers bade me accompany them in their search. They left no nook or corner unexplored. At length, for the third or fourth time, they descended into the cellar. I quivered not in a muscle. My heart beat calmly as that of one who slumbers in innocence. I walked the cellar from end to end. I folded my arms upon my bosom, and roamed easily to and fro. The police were thoroughly satisfied and prepared to depart. The glee at my heart was too strong to be restrained. I burned to say if but one word, by way of triumph, and to render doubly sure their assurance of my guiltlessness.

“Gentlemen,” I said at last, as the party ascended the steps, “I delight to have allayed your suspicions. I wish you all health, and a little more courtesy. By the bye, gentlemen, this—this is a very well constructed house.” —“I may say an excellently well constructed house. These walls—are you going, gentlemen?—these walls are solidly put together;” and here, through the mere phrenzy of bravado, I rapped heavily, with a cane which I held in my hand, upon that very portion of the brick-work behind which stood the corpse of the wife of my bosom.

But may God shield and deliver me from the fangs of the Arch-Fiend! No sooner had the reverberation of my blows sunk into silence, than I was answered by a voice from within the tomb!—by a cry, at first muffled and broken, like the sobbing of a child, and then quickly swelling into one long, loud, and continuous scream, utterly anomalous and inhuman—a howl—a wailing shriek, half of horror and half of triumph, such as might have arisen only out of hell, conjointly from the throats of the dammed in their agony and of the demons that exult in the damnation.

Of my own thoughts it is folly to speak. Swooning, I staggered to the opposite wall. For one instant the party upon the stairs remained motionless, through extremity of terror and of awe. In the next, a dozen stout arms were toiling at the wall. It fell bodily. The corpse, already greatly decayed and clotted with gore, stood erect before the eyes of the spectators. Upon its head, with red extended mouth and solitary eye of fire, sat the hideous beast whose craft had seduced me into murder, and whose informing voice had consigned me to the hangman. I had walled the monster up within the tomb!Rozumienie tekstu

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Zaznacz zdania prawdziwe literą T (true), a fałszywe – literą F (false).

1. The narrator was a good-natured person as a child.

2. The narrator’s parents tried to fulfill all his wishes, so they gave him many pets.

3. The narrator’s wife believed in superstitions concerning black cats.

4. The cat found in a den soon began to annoy his master.

5. The narrator was calm when the police arrived.

O słowach

MINUTE

„(…) Many persons seemed to be examining a particular portion of it with very minute and eager attention.”

Przymiotnik minute to nie tylko, jak w powyższym cytacie, drobiazgowy, szczegółowy, dokładny. Oznacza również maleńki, miskroskopijny, znikomy.

Rzeczownik minute to oczywiście minuta, a w liczbie mnogiej (minutes) również protokół. Czasownik minute oznacza protokołować.

Gramatyka

DO SO/IT/THAT

„(…) The animal evinced a disposition to accompany me. I permitted it to do so.”

Do so/it/that używamy, aby uniknąć powtórzenia czasownika i jego dopełnienia, np.:

Mike asked me if I could help him, and I promised to do so.

Mike spytał mnie, czy mógłbym mu pomóc i obiecałem to zrobić.

Do so/it/that odnosi się do czynności intencjonalnych – nie zastępuje na ogół czasowników opisujących akcje i stany niezależne od naszej woli, jak np. feel, lose, think itd. Porównaj przykłady:

Andrew has finally proposed to Mary. I thought he’d never do it!

Andrew w końcu oświadczył się Mary. Myślałem, że nigdy tego nie zrobi!

Sheila denied feeling disappointed, but I knew she did. (nie: did so)

Sheila zaprzeczyła, jakoby czuła zawód, ale wiedziałem, że czuje.

Użycie samego do lub do w połączeniu z it/that, ale nie so, jest również bardziej właściwe w sytuacjach, kiedy opisywana przez czasownik czynność odnosi się do tej samej osoby. Porównaj przykłady:

I told Kelly to pull in and she did so.

Powiedziałem Kelly, żeby zjechała na bok i zrobiła to.

My daughter usually eats porridge in the morning, but I hardly ever do.

Moja córka zazwyczaj rano je owsiankę, ale ja prawie nigdy.

Jim can’t book the rooms – shall I do it?

Jim nie może zabukować pokojów – czy ja mam to zrobić?

Kultura i historia

ZAMUROWANIE ŻYWCEM

Trudno jednoznacznie zawyrokować, kiedy dokładnie ludzie wpadli na pomysł zamurowywania żywcem jednostek w jakiś sposób niewygodnych. Trop urywa się w średniowieczu. Ludowy folklor dostarcza wiele legend o dzieciach zamurowanych w fundamentach domów, sklepieniach mostów, murach zamczysk. Duch-opiekun poświęconego człowieka ma wedle wierzeń chronić budowlę. Zamurowanie żywcem bywało karą za cudzołóstwo w dawnym świecie islamu i w świecie chrześcijańskim. Znane są mity o lubieżnych księżach i zakonnicach zamurowanych w ścianach klasztorów – ponoć u Cystersów w Wąchocku „kapitularz służył za więzienie dla obwinionych zakonników, a według podania jeden z tych nieszczęśliwych był tu niegdyś żywcem zamurowany. Powiadają nawet, iż winą jego była miłość i romans zbyt głośno prowadzony” (Biblioteka warszawska, Warszawa 1851, tom 4, s. 420). William Rule w swojej opublikowanej w 1871 roku Historii Inkwizycji opisuje mnicha Tommaso Fabiano di Mileto zamurowanego przez inkwizycję w 1564 roku, przytaczając przy tym świadectwa świadków, którzy ponoć wielokrotnie widzieli ludzkie kości w klasztorach Sewilli.

Zamurowanie jako konsekwencja niegodnych czynów nie omijało i wyżej postawionych. Przez długi czas utrzymywał się sąd, iż za swe okrutne zbrodnie Elżbieta Batory (1560–1614) została zamurowana żywcem w swym zamku; faktem jest, że wyrok sądu skazywał ją na pobyt do końca życia w jednej z cel, jednak „zamurowanej” miano podawać jedzenie. Elżbieta zmarła niedługo po procesie. Wcześniej podobne plotki rozniosły się na temat króla Ryszarda II (1367–1400), więzionego na zamku Pontefract po pokonaniu go przez Henryka Bolingbroke.

Pewna pieśń gruzińska przechowała ostatnie chwile chłopca, syna ubogiej wdowy, zamurowywanego w murze wznoszonego zamku Suram dla zapewnienia mu powodzenia w budowie. Do literatury wprowadził ją i rozpowszechnił Daniel Chonkadze (1830–1860), badacz folkloru gruzińskiego. Słowa pieśni przytaczano w różnych wersjach – oto jedna z nich:

„Jak ci, syneczku mój, czyś żyw?… Mateńku, mur mam po kolana.

Jak ci, syneczku mój, czyś zdrów? Ach matko, matko ukochana,

syneczek twój zdrów i żyje, ale mur po pas, po szyje,

już po ramiona, już do skroni, za chwilkę świat mi mur zasłoni…”

(„Gwiazdka Cieszyńska: pismo naukowe i zabawne” R. 42, nr 13, 30 marca 1889).

Podobna węgierska legenda o dwunastu murarzach, którzy dla zapewnienia trwałości stawianego muru twierdzy zdecydowali, iż poświęcą narzeczoną jednego z nich, tę, która pierwsza przyniesie im wodę bądź posiłek, również doczekała się wielu adaptacji. Takie opowieści wspólne były folklorowi wielu stron świata.

Zdawać by się mogło, że na progu współczesności praktyki takie od dawna są jedynie makabrycznym wspomnieniem minionych, bezdusznych obyczajów. Jednak jeszcze w XIX wieku o podobnych zdarzeniach sporadycznie donosiła prasa. „Angielskie gazety z Kalkuty z d.15 listop. donosząc o różnych interesujących przypadkach, opisują czyn okrutny brata Księcia Nizam. Odkrył on jakąś zbrodnię jednej z swych żon i kazał ją żywcem zamurować, a nią i siedem niewolnic; w murze zostawił otwór mały, ażeby się przypatrywać konaniu. Próżne były prośby krewnych, dopiero wojska angielskie biedaczkę pół martwą uwolniły” („Gazeta Codzienna”, nr 18, 19 stycznia 1848). Podobne przypadki miały miejsce i w naszych stronach. W 1897 roku głośno było o dziwacznej, bytującej w Rosji sekcie Biegunów, której członkowie dobrowolnie zamurowywali się wzajemnie w piwnicach albo zakopywali w grobach. W sumie na „piękną śmierć” przystało 27 osób (Słowo R.16, nr 140, 24 czerwca 1897). Szerokim echem odbiła się także gorsząca historia uwolnionej w 1869 roku Barbary Ubryk, chorej psychicznie zakonnicy, którą trzymano przez ponad 20 lat w krakowskim klasztorze karmelitanek, w małej celi z zamurowanym oknem i niewielkim otworem do podawania pożywienia.

Ćwiczenia

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1. Połącz wyrazy (1–10) z ich synonimami i definicjami (A–J).

1) alteration

2) conceive

3) conspicuous

4) fidelity

5) notion

6) peevish

7) retain

8) sagacious

9) succinctly

10) toil

A) to work hard

B) briefly and clearly

C) easy to see

D) wise

E) faithfulness

F) an idea

G) a change

H) to keep

I) irritable, easily annoyed

J) to make up, to plan

2. Uzupełnij zdania wyrazami z ramki w odpowiedniej formie.

accuracy; caress; contemptuously; gallows; inflict; resist; resolve; urge

a) Henry gently…………… the body of his lover as she was beginning to wake.

b) These criminals can …………… serious injury.

c) She …………… her children to exit the house and followed them immediately.

d) Such a temptation I can’t ……………!

e) If the research has been done with utmost ……………, where do the errors result from?

f) If we were living in the 18^(th) century, such people would end up on the …………….

g) The winner snorted …………… at the sight of his competitors.

h) I’ve …………… to change my life style completely.

3. Wybierz właściwą formę lub wyraz.

a) Josh had never considered losing his precious watch until he finally did it/did. What a carefree person he is!

b) There’s plenty of letters that should be sent by 4 p.m. Who will do it/do?

c) I was at/in a loss what to do next.

d) The head mistress asked us to admit damaging the computer, but we refused to do/do so.

e) I asked my sister to send me the details, but apparently she forgot to do/do that.

f) They say the murderer acted in/with cool blood.

4. Zgromadź informacje dotyczące życia i utworów Edgara A. Poe. Przygotuj prezentację multimedialną poświęconą jego biografii i twórczości (około 10 slajdów).solicit: zabiegać o

reject: odrzucać

unburthen (= unburden): odciążać, zdejmować brzemię

succinctly: zwięźle

mere: zwykły

expound: wyjaśniać, interpretować

baroque: barok; tu: dziwadło, groteska

hereafter: w przyszłości

phantasm: zmora, zjawa, fantom

common-place: rzecz codzienna, pospolite zjawisko

perceive: dostrzegać, dojrzeć

awe: trwoga

succession: następstwo

docility: potulność, uległość

disposition: usposobienie

conspicuous: wyraźny, widoczny

jest: pośmiewisko, obiekt żartów

indulge: dogadzać, rozpieszczać

caress: pieścić

peculiarity: cecha charakterystyczna

derive (from): czerpać (z)

cherish: żywić (uczucie)

sagacious: mądry

thus: tak, w ten sposób

derivable: otrzymywany

paltry: błahy, marny

gossamer: cienki jak pajęczyna

fidelity: wierność

uncongenial: niepokrewny, niezbliżony

partiality: upodobanie, słabość

procure: zdobyć, nabyć

tincture: lekko zabarwić

notion: pogląd, wyobrażenie

instrumentality: pomoc, narzędzie

fiend: diabeł, szatan, zły duch

intemperance: niewstrzemięźliwość, pijaństwo

alteration: zmiana

suffer (oneself) to: pozwalać (sobie) na

intemperate: niepowściągliwy

at length: w końcu

retain: zachowywać (coś)

restrain: powstrzymywać

maltreat: źle traktować, maltretować

scruple: skrupuł, opór (przed zrobieniem czegoś)

consequently: skutkiem tego, w konsekwencji

peevish: drażliwy

intoxicated: odurzony, pijany

haunt: spelunka

inflict: zadać, wyrządzić

fiendish: diabelski

malevolence: wrogość; złośliwość

fibre: tu: nerw

frame: postura, ciało

pen-knife: scyzoryk

deliberately: umyślnie

socket: oczodół

damnable: godny potępienia, nikczemny

atrocity: potworność, okropność

fumes: opary

debauch: hulanka

remorse: skrucha, wyrzuty sumienia

equivocal: niejasny, niejednoznaczny

deed: czyn

irrevocable: nieodwołalny

overthrow: przewrót; upadek

perverseness: zepsucie; perwersja

indivisible: niepodzielny

primary: pierwotny, elementarny

faculty: władza, zmysł

vile: podły, nędzny, nikczemny

perpetual: wieczny

inclination: inklinacja, skłonność

merely: jedynie, tylko

unfathomable: niewyobrażalny

vex: dręczyć

urge: zachęcać

consummate: dokonać

unoffending: niewinny, nieszkodliwy

in cool blood: z zimną krwią

noose: stryczek, pętla

limb: konar

jeopardize: zagrażać, narażać na niebezpieczeństwo

conflagration: pożar, pożoga

resign: poddać się (czemuś)

thenceforward: odtąd

succeed: następować po

compartment wall: przepierzenie, ścianka działowa

plastering: otynkowanie

resist: oprzeć się (czemuś)

attribute (to): przypisywać (czemuś)

minute: drobiazgowy

singular: osobliwy

graven: wyryty

bas-relief: płaskorzeźba

accuracy: dokładność

behold (beheld, beheld): ujrzeć, zobaczyć

apparition: zjawa

adjacent: przylegający

compress: zgniatać

plaster: tynk

lime: wapno

ammonia: amoniak

carcass: padlina, ścierwo

accomplish: zrealizować, dokonać

portraiture: portret

rid (rid, rid): pozbywać się

frequent: odwiedzać

stupefied: ogłupiały, oniemiały

den: melina

infamy: niesława, zła reputacja

repose: spoczywać

hogshead: duża beczka na piwo

in every respect: pod każdym względem

indefinite: nieokreślony

splotch: plama

purr: mruczeć (o kocie)

caress: pieszczota

evince: ujawniać, objawiać

stoop: pochylać się

anticipate: antycypować, przewidywać

fondness: czułość, sympatia

abuse: skrzywdzić, źle traktować

otherwise: inaczej, w inny sposób

unutterable: niewysłowiony

loathing: wstręt, odraza

pestilence: zaraza, dżuma

deprive (of): pozbawić

trait: cecha

pertinacity: upór, nieustępliwość

comprehend: pojąć, zrozumieć

crouch: kucać

loathsome: wstrętny, nienawistny

clamber: wspinać się

withhold (withheld, withheld): wstrzymywać

be at a loss: łamać sobie głowę

felon: przestępca, złoczyńca

chimaera: chimera; iluzja; zjawa

conceive: wymyślić, obmyślić

imperceptible: niedostrzegalny

assume: przybierać

rigorous: bezwzględny

distinctness: wyraźność

hideous: ohydny, odrażający

gallows: szubienica

contemptuously: pogardliwie

insufferable: nieznośny, nie do wytrzymania

woe: niedola

alas: niestety

incarnate: wcielony

incumbent: ciążący

torment: udręka, męka

remnant: pozostałość, resztka

succumb: poddać się; umrzeć

intimate: bliski przyjaciel

ungovernable: niepohamowany

uncomplaining: cierpliwy, nienarzekający

errand: sprawa

compel: zmuszać

exasperate: dręczyć, drażnić

wrath: gniew

hitherto: dotąd

descend: zniżać się

goad: prowokować, ponaglać

interference: interwencja, wtrącenie się

withdraw(withdrew, withdrawn): wyciągnąć, wycofać

forthwith: niezwłocznie

deliberation: namysł, rozważanie

resolve: postanowić

deliberate: rozważać

merchandize: towary

expedient: środek, sposób

crow-bar: łom

dislodge: usuwać

deposit: składać, umieszczać

mortar: zaprawa murarska

precaution: ostrożność; środek zapobiegawczy

forbear (forebore, foreborne): powstrzymywać się

blissful: błogi, szczęśliwy

occasion: powodować

bosom: pierś

tranquilly: spokojnie

burden: brzemię, ciężar

tormentor: dręczyciel

premises: teren, siedziba

institute: wszczynać, rozpoczynać

felicity: szczęśliwość

assassination: zabójstwo

rigorous: drobiazgowy

inscrutability: nieprzeniknioność, zagadkowość

nook: zakamarek

quiver: drżeć

slumber: drzemać

roam: przemierzać, wałęsać się

glee: radość

render: uczynić (coś jakimś)

allay: rozwiewać

rabid: zaciekły, wściekły

utter: wypowiedzieć

phrenzy (= frenzy): szał

bravado: brawura, zuchwałość

rap: pukać

shield: osłaniać

deliver from: wybawić od

Arch-Fiend: szatan

reverberation: pogłos, echo

muffled: stłumiony

sobbing: łkanie

utterly: całkowicie

anomalous: anormalny, nietypowy

wailing: zawodzący

conjointly: wspólnie, razem

exult: radować się

folly: szaleństwo

swoon: mdleć

stagger: zachwiać się

stout: niezłomny

toil: mozolić się

decayed: w stanie rozkładu

clotted: zakrzepnięty (np. o krwi)

gore: krew

erect: wyprostowany

spectator: widz

consign (to): oddać w czyjeś ręce