Dans der Vampieren Lesmap

Dans der Vampieren

Lesmap

Lesmap Dans der Vampieren

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LESMAP Dans der Vampieren Vampieren zijn in! Dat is het minste wat we kunnen zeggen. De boeken en films rond de Twilight Saga zijn immens populair en ook televisiereeksen als Buffy, the Vampire Slayer en films als Interview with the Vampire of Bram Stoker’s Dracula hielden vampieren voortdurend in ons cultureel patrimonium. Een aantal jaren geleden bracht Music Hall reeds de vampieren musical Dracula met Hans Peter Janssens in de hoofdrol. Anno 2010 veroveren de vampieren opnieuw de Stadsschouwburg van Antwerpen, deze keer in de musical Dans der Vampieren, een productie van Musical van Vlaanderen vzw. Deze lesmap biedt leraren informatie over thema’s die verband houden met deze musical en die in verschillende lessen kunnen aangesneden worden. Er zijn ook suggesties voor lesopdrachtjes. Eén of meerdere thema’s of opdrachten kunnen besproken worden tijdens de les. Niet alle thema’s zijn geschikt voor de leerlingen van de eerste graad secundair onderwijs. Als er in de les geen mogelijkheid is om rond deze lesmap te werken, dan kan ze aan de leerlingen van de 3e graad ook meegegeven worden als extra lectuur voor thuis. Voor de andere leerjaren dient een selectie gemaakt te worden. De thema’s die aan bod komen zijn: Bram Stoker & zijn Dracula (eerste hoofdstuk tevens als bijlage), de wrede Middeleeuwse heerser Vlad Tepes, Polidori’s vampier (kortverhaal tevens als bijlage), vampierenfilms, de Chinese vampier en een speciale archeologische ontdekking. Voor meer informatie over de lesmappen rond de producties van Musical van Vlaanderen of feedback over deze lesmap kunt u altijd contact opnemen met Leen Cogghe (dramaturg) via [email protected] Suggesties om de lesmappen beter te laten aansluiten bij de noden van de leerkrachten en leerlingen zijn altijd welkom!


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DRACULA WIE? Bram Stoker en de bekendste aller vampieren

Als we denken aan vampieren, denken we ook spontaan aan één bepaalde vampier genaamd Dracula. Deze vampier zag het levenslicht in het gelijknamige boek van Bram Stoker uit 1897. Inmiddels is het boek in vele talen vertaald en meerdere malen verfilmd. Bram Stoker vond ‘vampieren’ niet zelf uit. Het geloof in vampirisme zelf is veel ouder dan de Dracula‐roman en wijdverbreid. Op Babylonische en Assyrische vazen kon men al afbeeldingen van vampier‐achtige wezens aantreffen en in het oude China vreesde men de Ghiang Shih (zie onder), een boze geest. In onze Westerse wereld is het toch vooral Bram Stoker die met zijn Dracula‐roman vampieren populair maakte. Misschien baseerde hij zijn boek op de historie van een Roemeense prins met de naam Vlad Tepes (zie onder) of op een reeds bestaand vampierenverhaal van John Polidori (opgenomen als bijlage). De geestelijke vader van Dracula Bram (Abraham) Stoker (°Dublin 1847 – London 1912) is vooral bekend voor zijn sensationele horrorverhalen. Tijdens zijn kinder‐ en jeugdjaren was hij vaak ziek. Hij studeerde letteren, wiskunde en natuurkunde aan de Universiteit van Dublin. Na een job als ambtenaar die hem niet beviel, werd hij theatercriticus. Op die manier leerde hij de beroemde acteur Henry Irving kennen. Ze werden goede vrienden en Stoker begeleidde de acteur op zijn binnen‐ en buitenlandse tournees en was tevens lange tijd manager van Irvings Lyceum Theatre in London. Door zijn werk en het vele reizen kwam hij in contact met bekende artiesten en mensen uit hogere kringen. Het schrijven van de roman Dracula was het belangrijkste wapenfeit uit de carrière van Stoker. Hij schreef ook de romans The Pimrose Path (1875), The Snake’s Pass (1890), the Watter’s Mou’ (1895), The Shoulder of Shasta (1895), Miss Betty (1898), The Mystery of the Sea (1902), The Jewel of Seven Stars (1903), The Man/The Gates of Life (1905), Lady Athlyne (1908), The Lady of the Shroud (1909), Lair of the White Worm/The Garden of Evil (1911). Daarnaast schreef hij ook verhalen en enkele non‐fictie werken. Inmiddels heeft een achterneef van Stoker, Dacre Stoker, samen met Ian Holt een vervolg geschreven op Dracula. Het boek Dracula: The UnDead, speelt zich vijfentwintig jaar later af. Het verhaal zou gebaseerd zijn op handgeschreven aantekeningen van Stoker zelf. Wellicht was dit een poging van de familie Stoker om toch mee te genieten van het succes van de oorspronkelijke Dracula. Op het boek rusten immers geen auteursrechten. Het is dan ook probleemloos te downloaden op internet.


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De roman Dracula

De roman Dracula is toegeschreven aan verschillende literaire genres zoals vampierenliteratuur, horror fictie en de zogenaamde gothic novel. Structureel gezien is het een soort briefroman, een verhaal dat verteld wordt door middel van een serie brieven, dagboekfragmenten, krantenknipsels enz. Literatuurcritici hebben verschillende thema’s in de roman onderzocht zoals de rol van de vrouw in de Victoriaanse cultuur, conventionele en conservatieve seksualiteit, immigratie, kolonisatie, post‐kolonisatie en folklore. Dracula werd immens belangrijk voor de populariteit van vampieren. De roman heeft geleid tot vele theater‐, film‐ en televisieversies met vampieren in de hoofdrol. Hieronder lees je de korte inhoud van het boek. Lees dit stukje niet als je je voorneemt de hele roman te lezen. Dan zal het boek een stuk spannender zijn. Het verhaal vangt aan in 1893. De jonge Engelse advocaat Jonthan Harker reist naar Transsylvanië om de aankoop van een Londons huis af te handelen met een graaf genaamd Dracula. De koper is een grijze man met een grote snor, nogal puntige oren en eerder grote hoektanden. Tijdens het verblijf van Harker in het slot van Dracula is hij getuige van een aantal gruwelijke voorvallen. Harker begint te vermoeden dat graaf Dracula aast op mensenbloed. Hij slaagt er in uit het slot te ontsnappen en komt met een zenuwinzinking terecht in een ziekenhuis in Boedapest. Ondertussen is graaf Dracula al afgereisd naar Engeland. In Engeland, op de kust bij Whitby, komt een soort spookschip aan. Een hond gaat aan land en verdwijnt in de richting van het kerkhof. De volgende dagen krijgt een vrouw, Lucy Westenra, de rare gewoonte om ‘s nachts al slaapwandelend het kerkhof te bezoeken. Ze ziet er steeds bleker en lustelozer uit en uiteindelijk wordt ze opgenomen in een ziekenhuis. Mensen uit Lucy’s vriendenkring proberen uit te zoeken wat er nu eigenlijk aan de hand is met hun vriendin. Onder de vrienden Mina, de verloofde van Jonathan, de arts John Seward (eigenaar van een inrichting), Quincey Morris en Arthur Holmwood. Mina ontvangt het bericht dat haar verloofde in een ziekenhuis in Boedapest is opgenomen en besluit hem daar te bezoeken. Ondertussen vraagt arts Seward de hulp van de Amsterdamse arts en vampierenjager Abraham van Helsing. Hij concludeert al snel dat Lucy gebeten is door een vampier en beseft al gauw dat het te laat is om haar te redden. Van Helsing licht de vrienden in over vampieren, hun manier van werken en over graaf Dracula in het bijzonder. Van Helsing weet dat Lucy nu zelf ook een vampier zal worden omdat ze gestorven is aan een vampierenbeet. De vriendengroep wil dat eerst niet geloven tot er altijd meer berichten komen over kinderen die zeggen dat ze aangevallen werden door een dame die sprekend lijkt op Lucy. Seward en Van Helsing sporen Lucy op en vernietigen haar door een staak door haar hart te slaan, de enige manier waarop een vampier tegengehouden kan worden. Mina en Jonathan keren terug uit Boedapest en samen met de andere vrienden beginnen ze jacht te maken op de vampier die Lucy heeft gebeten. Dracula staat al gauw onder verdenking en Van Helsing ontdekt dat de graaf vroeger een prins was die de Turken versloeg. Dracula weet dat de groep jacht op hem maakt en neemt wraak door Mina tot zijn volgende slachtoffer te maken. Mina verandert ook langzaam in een vampier dus de tijd dringt. Van Helsing


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ontdekt dat Mina op een soort telepatische manier verbonden is met Dracula en gebruikt dit gegeven om haar schuilplaats te vinden. Dracula kan ontsnappen en besluit te vluchten naar Transsylvanië. Van Helsing, Seward, Morris en Holmwood zitten hem op de hielen. Dracula roept de hulp in van een groep zigeuners om hem terug naar zijn kasteel te brengen. Net buiten het kasteel komt het tot een veldslag tussen beide groepen. Morris slaagt er in Dracula te doden door hem in zijn hart te raken met een mes. De vampier vergaat tot stof en door zijn dood is ook zijn macht over Mina verbroken. Het gevaar dat ze vampier zal worden is verdwenen. Morris sterft wel aan de verwondingen die hij in het gevecht heeft opgelopen. In de epiloog wordt verteld dat Mina en Jonathan getrouwd zijn. Hun eerste zoon krijgt de naam Quincey, naar hun Amerikaanse vriend Morris die zijn leven gegeven heeft om Mina te redden. Het literair type van de briefroman werd in de tijd dat Dracula verscheen, reeds beschouwd als ouderwets. Stoker koos voor deze manier van schrijven omdat hij vond dat hij op die manier meer diepgang geven aan het verhaal. Het stelde hem ook in staat het verhaal te schrijven vanuit het perspectief van alle personages zonder de alwetende verteller‐stijl te moeten gebruiken. Dracula kan beschouwd worden als een roman over de worsteling tussen traditie en modernisatie tijdens het fin de siècle. Er zijn in het verhaal referenties te vinden naar veranderingen in traditionele gedragspatronen. Zo is Mina Harker een moderne, zelfstandige vrouw voor haar tijd. Daarnaast behandelt de roman ook het conflect tussen de wereld van het verleden met folklore, legendes en religie en de moderne wereld waar technologie, positivisme en secularisatie de kroon spannen. Vooral Van Helsing gebruikt voor die tijd moderne hulpmiddelen zoals bloedtransfusie. Daartegenover gelooft hij wel nog in het bestaan van bovennatuurlijke wezens. Geen van de personages in het boek verwerpt de wetenschap en geeft de voorkeur aan regilie of bijgeloof. Seks is een onderliggend thema in Dracula. James Twitchell (Universiteit van Florida) stelt dat het gaat over seks vanaf de hals en hoger; “Seks zonder geslachtsdelen, seks zonder verwarring, seks zonder verantwoordelijkheid, seks zonder schuld, seks zonder liefde. Sterker nog seks zonder dat het zo wordt genoemd.” Bram Stoker’s Dracula verdraait de eind 19e eeuwse traditionele Engelse opvattingen over met name vrouwelijkheid en burgerschap. Zijn twee vrouwelijke personages, Mina en Lucy, veranderen van brave meisjes in sensuele bloedzuigers als gevolg van de verleiding door de graaf. Freudianen hebben het verhaal geïnterpreteerd als een parabel van onderdrukte seksuele verlangens en de heroriëntering van de seksuele driften. De duistere thema’s van het boek zijn onderdrukking, besmetting, verkrachting, afhankelijkheid en seksuele initiatie. Stoker zelf zag zijn boek eerder als een avonturenroman, een vorm van techno‐fictie van de jaren 1890 met reistypmachines, fonografen en bloedtransfusies. De avonturenroman gaat over een groep goede, eerlijke jongens die hun vrouwvolk verdedigen en geen boodschap hebben aan Oost‐Europeanen die Britten in hun duivels rijk willen vangen. De vampier die Bram Stoker vormgaf in zijn roman is een dode die niet naar het hiernamaals kan en op aarde kwaad aanricht. Hij is onzichtbaar in een spiegel en heeft een afkeer van knoflook en kruisbeelden. Stoker romantiseerde het beeld van de vampier: historische vampieren dronken geen bloed, hadden geen puntoren en


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overgrote hoektanden. In eerste instantie had Stoker zijn roman in Steiermark, een Oostenrijkse deelstaat willen situeren. Door het lezen van modieuze romantische reisverhalen en boeken over Oost‐Europese folklore zocht hij de locatie verder naar het Oosten. Emily Gerard schreef in haar boek The Land Beyond The Forest (1888) over Transsylvanië het volgende: “Nergens anders bloeit de eigenaardige, bedrieglijke plant van de misleiding zo volhardend en in een zo verbijsterende verscheidenheid. Het lijkt bijna of de hele soort van demonen, feeën, heksen en kobolden, door de scepter van de Wetenschap verjaagd uit de rest van Europa, zijn toevlucht heeft genomen tot dit bolwerk van bergen…”. Ook dit zette de auteur aan om zijn verhaal in Oost‐Europa te situeren. Kortverhaal The Vampyre als inspiratiebron voor Dracula The Vampyre is een kortverhaal geschreven door John William Polidori. Het werd de voorloper van een lange reeks vampierenhistories. Het verhaal verscheen voor het eerst op 1 april 1819 in de New Monthly Magazine en werd aanvankelijk gepubliceerd als ‘a tale by Lord Byron’. Polidori, dokter van beroep, schreef het griezelverhaal in het bijzijn van Byron en Percy en Mary Shelley tijdens een verblijf in Genève in 1816. Het volledige verhaal is opgenomen als bijlage bij deze lesmap. Hieronder kun je tevens de korte inhoud lezen. Lees de korte inhoud niet als je je voorneemt het kortverhaal te lezen. Aubrey, een jonge Engelsman, ontmoet Lord Ruthven, een man van mysterieuze afkomst die zich beweegt binnen de Londense Society kringen. Abrey begeleidt Ruthven naar Rome, waar deze de dochter van een gemeenschappelijke kennis verleidt. Abrey reist naar Griekenland, waar hij zich aangetrokken voelt tot Ianthe, de dochter van een herbergier. Iante vertelt Aubrey over de legende van de vampier. Ruthven komt ook en kort daarna wordt Ianthe gedood door een vampier. Aubrey heeft niet door dat Ruthven de vampier is, en vergezelt hem verder op zijn reizen. Het duo wordt aangevallen door bandieten en Ruthven is dodelijk gewond. Voor hij sterft, laat hij Aubrey een eed zweren dat hij nietmand iets zal zeggen over zijn dood vooraleer er een jaar en een dag voorbijgegaan zijn. Terugkijkend op de voorbije gebeurtenissen, realiseert Aubrey zich dat iedereen die met Ruthven in aanraking kwam, geleden heeft. Aubrey keert terug naar Londen en is verbaasd wanneer Ruthven kort daana levend en wel verschijnt. Ruthven herinnert Aubrey aan zijn eed om zijn dood geheim te houden. Ruthven begint dan Aubrey’s zuster te verleiden en Aubrey zelf krijgt een zenuwinzinking wanneer hij vruchteloos tracht zijn zuster te beschermen. Ruthven en Aubrey’s zuster trouwen op de dag dat de eed eindigt. Aubrey schrijft een brief aan zijn zus waarin hij het verhaal onthult over Ruthvens dood, daarna sterft hij. De brief komt niet op tijd aan. Ruthven trouwt met Aubrey’s zuster, doodt haar tijdens de huwelijksnacht en ontsnapt. OPDRACHT: Welk beeld heb jij in je hoofd als je het woord ‘vampier’ hoort? Lees het kortverhaal en vergelijk het beeld van de vampier uit het verhaal met het beeld dat je zelf in je hoofd had. Als je de roman Dracula zou lezen (één hoofdstuk als bijlage en de rest gemakkelijk te vinden in de bibliotheek of op internet), dan kun je ook de vampier‐ beelden uit beide verhalen met elkaar vergelijken.


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De wrede Middeleeuwse heerser Vlad Tepes als inspiratiebron voor Dracula Jaren dacht men dat Bram Stoker zich vooral liet inspireren door het leven van Vlad Tepes bij het schrijven van zijn roman. We zijn niet helemaal zeker dat dat zo was. Hij zou in elk geval wel over dit ‘heerschap’ gelezen hebben. Vlad Tepes leefde in een streek die nu tot Roemenië behoort, in de regio Wallachia. Deze regio lag in de 14e – 15e eeuw tussen het machtige Ottomaanse Rijk en Hongarije. De Turken van het Ottomaanse rijk wilden Europa verder inpalmen en de Hongaren wilden het Christelijke Europa koste wat het kost beschermen. De regio Wallachia moest zien te overleven tussen deze grootmachten. Daarom sloten de heersers van de regio telkens verbonden met één van de rijken. Binnen Wallachia zelf was er ook een voortdurende machtsstrijd om de troon aan de gang. De opvolging was wel erfelijk maar de troon ging niet zomaar over van vader op oudste zoon. Een aantal edelen uit de streek hadden het recht om een troonopvolger te kiezen uit een aantal prinsen uit de koninklijke familie. Politieke moorden waren om die reden niet ongewoon. Binnen dit kader speelde de geschiedenis van Vlad Tepes, beter bekend als Vlad III Dracula of Vlad de Spietser, zich af. De familiegeschiedenis van Vlad was een soap op zich. In de tijd dat Vlad III geboren werd, werd zijn vader door de Hongaarse koning Sigismund benoemd tot gouverneur van Transsylvanië, de regio ten noorden van Wallachia. De vader van Vlad, die ook Vlad heette, was hier niet tevreden mee omdat hij eigenlijk de troon van Wallachia wilde innemen. Daarom vermoordde hij zijn rivaal Alexandru. Vlad III werd geboren in 1431 in een Transsylvaans stadje Sighisoara. Net als de zonen van andere Europese edelen werd hij als kind naar een andere edelman gestuurd als schildknaap. Daar leerde hij vechten en werd vertrouwd met manieren om oorlog te voeren. Tussen 1444 en 1448 verbleef hij (samen met zijn broer) als gijzelaar in het Ottomaanse rijk. Na zijn vrijlating komt Vlad III in 1456 (na een inval in Wallachia) voor een langere periode aan de macht. En juist uit die periode (1456‐1462) komen de verhalen over zijn extreme wreedheid. Vlad had tegen die tijd al veel meegemaakt: oorlog, gevangenneming door de Turken, een vader en broer die vermoord waren. Vlad III ontpopte zich (misschien mede omwille van zijn voorgeschiedenis) als een onmenselijk wrede heerser. Zijn favoriete methode om vijanden te doden was hen aan een paal te spietsen. De wijze waarop hij dat deed was zowaar nog wreder: hij spande de persoon tussen twee paarden om er dan langzaam een geoliede, stompe paal in te drijven. Dat moest langzaam gebeuren om te voorkomen dat de dood te snel zou intreden. Meestal ging de paal van anus naar mond. Bij een andere methode zorgde hij de spies uit andere lichaamsdelen kwam, of dat het slachtoffer ondersteboven hing. Deze spiesmoorden werden niet alleen toegepast op enkelingen, maar ook op grote groepen, zelfs duizenden tegelijk. Vlad Dracula vond het dan ook plezant om de ‘gespietste’ mensen in een patroon rond de stad te laten opstellen. Zo zou hij rond 1460 eens 30.000 mensen tegelijk gespietst hebben. Net zoals veel tijdgenoten was hij daarnaast ook nog verzot op andere martelmethodes zoals ledematen afhakken, ogen uitsteken, neuzen afhakken, spijkers in hoofden slaan enz.


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Zijn gruweldaden werden vaak vergoeilijkt als waren ze noodzakelijk omdat zijn vijanden zelf ook gruwelijkdaden begingen of omdat het zogezegd profiteurs waren die teerden op de welvarende regio Wallachia. Vlad vermoordde ook eigen mensen zoals onschuldige boeren en hij genoot van zijn praktijken. Hij haatte de complete hoge adellijke klasse omdat zij hun vader verraden hadden. Hij roeide systematisch adellijke families uit. Vreemd genoeg was Vlad Tepes ook een man van normen en waarden: oneerlijke kooplieden mochten vrezen voor hun leven net als overspelige vrouwen, ongetrouwde meisjes die geen maagd meer waren en weduwen die opnieuw een partner hadden. Zij werden allen gespietst. Toch stond Vlad ook nog lange tijd bekend om zijn dappere strijd tegen de Turken en de latere bewoners ‘vergaten’ zijn gruweldaden. In 1462 slaagden de Turken erin Vlad III te verdrijven. Hij ontsnapte maar werd gauw terug gevangengenomen en zijn vrouw pleegde zelfmoord door van een toren van het kasteel te springen. Het is niet helemaal duidelijk wat er daarna met Vlad gebeurde: bepaalde bronnen zeggen dat hij tot 1474 gevangen was, andere bronnen stellen dat hij later een lid van de koninklijke familie van Hongarije trouwde en nog twee kinderen kreeg. In elk geval had hij tegen 1476 opnieuw voldoende macht om – met medewerking van een Transsylvaanse prins – een inval te doen in Wallachia. De inval werd een succes aangezien zijn rivaal meteen op de vlucht sloeg. Toch kon Vlad niet lang standhouden tegen de Turken die zijn land binnenvielen. Met een leger van slechts 4000 man probeerde hij de Turken te verslaan. In December van 1476 verloor hij daarbij zijn leven. Het is niet duidelijk of hij vermoord werd of eervol stierf op het slagveld. Eenmaal dood werd hij door de Turken onthoofd. Om te bewijzen dat de gruwelijke Vlad III eindelijk dood was, stelden ze zijn hoofd tentoon; ze spietsten het op een staak in Constantinopel. Zijn lichaam werd begraven in een kerk bij Boekarest. De bijnaam Dracula is afkomstig van het Roemeense woord ‘drac’ wat draak of duivel betekent. Vlad II, de vader van Vlad Tepes, was lid van de Orde van de Draak, een geheime orde vergelijkbaar met de beroemde Tempeliers. Het doel van de orde was om het Christendom te verdedigen en het Ottomaanse Rijk van uitbreiding te weerhouden. Door zijn lidmaatschap kreeg Vlad II de bijnaam ‘Dracul’. ‘Dracula’ betekent dan ‘zoon van de draak’ (of voor de vijanden: ‘zoon van de duivel’). Het was een elitaire orde en Vlad II werd voorgedragen vanwege zijn moed en inzet in de strijd tegen de Turken. Hij droeg het embleem van de Orde met grote trots en de munten die hij uitgaf droegen ook dit symbool: een draak met gespreide vleugels, hangend aan een kruis. Zoon Vlad III erfde zijn bijnaam van zijn vader. Vandaag is er in Roemenië een hele toeristenindustrie gebaseerd op de relatie tusen Vlad Tepes en de roman Dracula. Maar Dracula van Stoker is een graaf geboren in Transsylvanië met een kasteel bij de Borgo Pas. Vlad was een prins geboren in Wallachië


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met een kasteel in Poenari, ver van de grens met Transsylvanië. Beide Dracula´s maakten veel slachtoffers, maar Vlad Tepes spant op dat vlak de kroon. Beide heren beleefden wel een pervers plezier aan hun slachtpartijen. Stoker heeft zich laten inspireren door de omgeving waarin Vlad leefde, met de spookachtige ruïnes en kastelen, en bovenal de Middeleeuwse omstandigheden van het gebied ten tijde van Bram Stoker, waar de Turken eigenlijk nog maar net weg waren. In dit gebied is het geloof in vampieren en soortgelijke wezens altijd al aanwezig geweest. VAMPIEREN OP HET WITTE DOEK Een stukje filmgeschiedenis Filmmakers hebben zich vaak laten inspireren door vampierenmythes. Sommigen onder hen benadrukten het oeroude instinct van de goddeloze vampier terwijl anderen meer vampieren gebruikten om een horrorelement toe te voegen aan hun films. Verder werden vampieren geportretteerd op veel verschillende manieren: als ware rocksterren in Queen of the Damded of als de onopvallende buurman in Fright Night, als ruimtewezens Lifeforce en als melancholische aristocraten in Interview with the Vampire of als criminelen in From Dusk till Dawn. Ook de vrouwelijke vampier kreeg verschillende verschijningsvormen: als mooie lesbiennes in Vampyros Lesbos, of als seksuele veelvraten in Vampyres of in Rabid. Bij de vrouwelijke vampier staat erotiek en verleiding meestal voorop. Hun verlangen naar bloed is verweven met hun lust voor plezier. Vampieren comedy is een sub‐genre op zich dat probeert aan te sluiten bij de populaire cultuur. Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Blacula en Jesus Christ Vampire Hunter zijn films die tot deze niche behoren. Vaak worden ze echter als B‐films gecatalogiseerd. Kortom, in de loop van de filmgeschiedenis zijn ontzettend veel vampierenfilms gemaakt. Op internet1 kun je zelfs een rangschikking vinden van de 70 beste vampierenfilms aller tijden. Enkele van deze films hebben toch een belangrijke status weten te verwerven, zoals bijvoorbeeld de Nosferatu film uit 1922. Hieronder nog enkele voorbeelden van bekendere vampierenfilms: Nosferatu (1922) Duitse stille film geregisseerd door F.W. Murnau, de eerste Dracula‐adaptatie en volgens sommigen de meest afschrikwekkende. Graaf Orlok, vormgegeven door acteur Max Schreck is wellicht de meest dierlijke weergave van een vampier ooit gefilmd. Producer en designer Albin Grau zorgde hiermee voor één van de twee belangrijke types van film‐vampieren. Het ‘Nosferatu’‐type is een levend lijk met opvallende lichaamskenmerken (zoals lange vingernagels) die geassocieerd worden met ratten. Het Nosferatu‐type is niet charmant of erotisch aantrekkelijk maar integendeel afstotelijk. De slachtoffers sterven meestal en veranderen niet zelf in vampieren. 1 http://snarkerati.com/movie‐news/top‐70‐vampire‐movies‐of‐all‐time/


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Nosferatu the Vampyre (1979) Regisseur Werner Herzog probeert door middel van gestileerde performances een ander niveau van realiteit te creeëren door het oude verhaal van Graaf Dracula te injecteren met een modern gevoel voor mystiek, verlangen en verwondering. Vormgever Klaus Kinski portretteert het Dracula –karakter met een stille intensiteit en kleedt de vampier zijn onmenselijke monsterheid met een diep gevoel voor pathos en verlangen. De internationale cast bestond uit ondermeer Bruno Ganz en de Franse filmster Isabelle Adjani. Zij spelen een voorheen gelukkig koppeltje dat in de handen valt van Dracula’s lust voor liefde en leven. Dracula (1931) Vroege Dracula verfilming in een regie van Tod Browning. Na een lange rit door de Karpatische Bergen in Oost‐Europa, komt Renfield het kasteel van Dracula binnen om de overdracht te finaliseren van Carfax Abbey in London. Graaf Dracula, die eigenlijk een vampier is, drogeert en hypnotiseert Renfield en maakt van hem een van zijn volgelingen en beschemt hem gedurende zijn zeereis terug naar London. Na het bloed te hebben opgezogen van de jonge Lucy Weston en haar in een vampier te veranderen, richt hij zich op haar vriendin Mina Seward, dochter van Dr. Seward die vervolgens een specialist, Dr. Van Helsing inroept om de plotselinge achteruitgang van Mina’s gezondheid te verklaren. Van Helsing, die zich realiseert dat Dracula inderdaad een vampier is, probeert de verloofde van Mina, John Harker en Dr. Seward te verwittigen voor wat nog komt en maatregelen te nemen om te voorkomen dat Mina effectief in één van de ‘ondoden’ verandert. Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1992) Deze versie van Dracula, geregisseerd door Francis Ford Coppola is een trouwe verfilming van de roman van Stoker. Een jonge advocaat, Jonathan Harker moet voor een opdracht naar het mistige Oost‐Europa. Hij wordt gevangengenomen door de vampier Dracula, die naar London reist na het zien van een foto van de verloofde van Harker, Mina Murray. In Groot‐Britannië begint Dracula een heerschappij van verleiding, terreur en hij zuigt het leven uit één van Mina’s beste vriendinnen, Lucy Westenra. Lucy’s vrienden werken samen om Dracula weg te krijgen.


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Interview with the Vampire (1994) In 1791 is plantage eigenaar Louis De Pointe Du Lac ongelukkig met het leven dat hij heeft, tot Lestat De Lioncourt in zijn leven komt. Lestat, een vampier, laat Louis een keuze maken tussen sterven of eeuwig leven als vampier. Voor hij de kans heeft om te beslissen, is hij al vampier geworden. Hij wil geen menselijk leven nemen en staat op het punt Lestat te verlaten. Maar deze, uitgekookt als hij is, verandert een klein weesmeisje in een vampier om Louis te doen blijven. De regie was in handen van Neil Jordan. Mega‐filmsterren Brad Pitt en Tom Cruise hadden de hoofdrol. OPDRACHT: zoek enkele fragmenten van vampierenfilms op op YOUTUBE en beschrijf hoe de vampier vormgegeven wordt. Wat zijn de belangrijkste kenmerken van de vampier per film. Zijn er verschillende types van vampieren of zien ze er in elke film hetzelfde uit? GHIANG‐SHIH De Chinese versie van de vampier De Ghiang‐Shih is als het ware de Chinese versie van de vampier. De Chinezen geloofden dat elke persoon twee zielen heeft: een superieure, rationele ziel en een inferieure, irrationele ziel. De superieure ziel kon een slapend lichaam verlaten en terugkomen als een dubbelganger van het lichaam. Ze kon ook het lichaam van iemand anders overnemen. De inferieure ziel, de p’ai of p’o was de ziel die de foetus bewoonde tijdens de zwangerschap en vaak vertoefde in lichamen van dode mensen. Men dacht dat deze ziel zorgde voor de bewaring van het dode lichaam. Als de P’ai sterk genoeg was, kon ze een dood lichaam voor een langere tijd bewonen en dat lichaam gebruiken. Een lichaam dat door de P’ai gebruikt wordt, werd een Ghiang‐Shih genoemd. Ghiang‐Shih (soms ook Kiang‐shi of jiangshi) zijn in de populaire Chinese mythologie dus dode, opgestane lichamen die rondspringen, levende wezens doden en hun levenskracht absorberen. Door Westerlingen worden ze soms ook springende lichamen of Chinese vampieren genoemd. Sommigen zien eruit als normale mensen terwijl anderen een groene fluoriscerende gloed hebben met lelijke tanden. Ze hebben het moeilijk om te lopen omwille van de pijn en stijfheid van het dood zijn en daarom springen ze in plaats van gewoon te lopen. Ze zijn bleker dan levende mensen en ze hebben donkere cirkels onder hun ogen. In films worden ze weergegeven met gestrekte armen omwille van rigor mortis. Net zoals Westerse vampieren hebben ze ook een lange tong en lange vingernagels.


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Ghiang‐Shihs waren nachtelijke creaturen die het moeilijk hadden om lopend water over te steken. Ze waren erg slecht en rukten het hoofd of de ledematen van hun slachtoffers af. Ze hadden een sterke seksuele drive waardoor ze vrouwen aanvielen en verkrachtten. Na een periode van aansterken konden de Ghiang‐Shihs ook vliegen, ze kregen lang wit haar en konden soms zelfs in wolven veranderen. Ze kunnen om de tuin geleid worden door je adem in te houden. Ze zijn namelijk blind en sporen levende wezens op door hun adem op te sporen. Mensen beschermen zichzelf voor Ghiang‐shih door look of zout te gebruiken. Ze werden ook weggejaagd door luide geluiden en men dacht dat de bliksem hen kon doden. Met borstels werden ze terug in hun graf geveegd terwijl ijzer, rijst en rode bonen gebruikt werden als grens om hen daar te houden. Eénmaal Ghiang‐shih zijn vliegende, witharige hoedanigheid bereikte, kon het alleen nog door een kogel of donder gedood worden. Dan moest hun lichaam gecremeerd worden. De Ghiang‐Shih ontstaan wanneer de ziel van een overleden persoon er niet in slaagt het lichaam van de dode te verlaten. Meestal gebeurde dat na een erg gewelddadige dood zoals zelfmoord, ophanging, verdrinking of stikking. Het kon ook het resultaat zijn van een ongepaste begrafenis aangezien men dacht dat de doden rusteloos zouden worden als hun begrafenis bijvoorbeeld uitgesteld werd. Dieren en zeker katten werden weggehouden van lijken die nog niet begraven waren uit vrees dat ze over het lijk zouden springen waardoor het als een Ghiang‐Shih zouden terugkomen. Ghiang‐Shih verrezen niet uit hun graf dus hun transformatie had plaats nog voor de begrafenis. De invloed van Westerse vampieren verhalen zorgde voor een toevoeging van het aspect van bloed‐zuigen bij de Chinese mythe in de moderne tijd. De traditionele Ghiang‐Shih stal de adem van het slachtoffer, de moderne zoog ook bloed. Dracula werd in het Chinees vertaald als ‘bloedzuigende Jiangshi’. De bloeddorst werd hier benadrukt omdat het niet om een traditionele Jiangshi gaat. VAMPIER VAN VENETIE Een vreemde archeologische ontdekking Een tijd geleden is bij archeologisch onderzoek een vrouw opgegraven met een baksteen tussen haar tanden. Hieronder zijn enkele artikels en een BBC‐nieuwsbericht filmpje te vinden over deze merkwaardige vondst.


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OPDRACHT: lees de onderstaande artikels en bekijk het filmpje over de archeologische ontdekking. Leggen alle artikels de zelfde klemtoon? Zijn ze even uitgebreid? Trekken ze allemaal dezelfde conclusies? Is er een verschil volgens het type krant/magazine? Schrijf op basis van alle onderstaande informatie je eigen versie van het nieuwsbericht. Bepaal op voorhand voor welke krant of welk magazine je je artikel schrijft. Je zou bijvoorbeeld ook kunnen kiezen voor de schoolkrant of voor een magazine van vampierenfanaten bijvoorbeeld.

Venetiaanse 'vampier' opgegraven en onderzocht Het Laatste Nieuws 13 maart 2009 De Venetiaanse vampier is opgegraven en onderzocht. In feite gaat het om het lichaam van een vrouw uit de 16de eeuw, die is gevonden met een baksteen tussen haar kaken. Waarschijnlijk dacht men in de Middeleeuwen dat de vrouw een vampier was. Het lijk werd in 2006 al ontdekt, maar pas nu is het onderzoek ernaar afgerond. Matteo Borrini onderzocht het lichaam de afgelopen twee jaar. "Voor het eerst hebben we bewijzen gevonden van een exorcisme tegen een vampier." Massagraf na pestuitbraak Het goed geconserveerde lichaam werd ontdekt in een massagraf op het eiland Lazzaretto Nuovo, ten noorden van Venetië. Het massagraf werd gegraven toen de stad in 1576 werd getroffen door een uitbraak van de pest. Ontbinding Middeleeuwse teksten, vertelde Borrini, tonen aan dat het geloof in vampiers werd aangewakkerd door het verontrustende gezicht van ontbindende lijken. Gedurende epidemieën werden massagraven vaak heropend om nieuwe lichamen te begraven. De kans bestond dat de gravers oude lijken tegenkwamen, die opgezwollen waren, waarbij het bloed uit de mond liep en waarvan de lijkwade ter hoogte van het gezicht was opengegaan. "Dat heeft allemaal te maken met de manier waarop lichamen vergaan", aldus Borrini. "Maar wat ze zagen was een dik, dood iemand, onder het bloed en met een gat in de wade, dus wat ze dan zeiden was: 'deze leeft nog, hij drinkt bloed en hij eet zijn wade op.'" Tegenwoordig is bekend dat ontbindende lichamen door gassen opzwellen, dat de vloeistof uit de mond wordt geperst door ontbindende organen en dat het lijkkleed wordt weggevreten door bacteriën in de mondstreek.


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Verhongeren Om deze zombies te doden was de bekende houten spies in het hart niet afdoende. Er moest een steen of baksteen in de mond van de vampier worden geduwd, zodat hij of zij zou verhongeren. En dat is wat er waarschijnlijk is gebouwd met de vrouw die op Lazaretto werd opgegraven. 60 jaar Uit onderzoek is gebleken dat de vrouw ongeveer zestig jaar was toen ze overleed aan de pest, tijdens dezelfde epidemie die ook de schilder Titiaan het leven kostte. Veel later, toen het graf werd heropend plaatste iemand een baksteen in haar mond. Mogelijk is dat gedaan door een priester, zoals indertijd wel meer voorkwam. Borrini zei dat de 'echte' vampier uit het volksgeloof van de late middeleeuwen en de renaissance wel heel sterk afweek van de elegante, aristocratische Dracula uit de roman van Bram Stoker uit 1897 en uit de vele daarop gebaseerde verfilmingen van de 20e eeuw. "De echte vampier was een ontbindend lijk", aldus Borrini. (belga/edp)

National Geographic Daily News "Vampire of Venice" Unmasked: Plague Victim & Witch? Published February 26, 2010 ON TV Vampire Forensics airs Saturday, February 27, at 7 p.m. ET/PT on the National Geographic Channel. Preview Vampire Forensics >> A female "vampire" unearthed in a mass grave near Venice, Italy, may have been accused of wearing another evil hat: a witch's. The 16th-century woman was discovered among medieval plague victims in 2006. Her jaw had been forced open by a brick—an exorcism technique used on suspected vampires in Europe at the time. The discovery marked the first time archaeological remains had been interpreted as those of an alleged vampire, project leader Matteo Borrini, a forensic archaeologist at the University of Florence in Italy, said when the skull was first revealed in March 2009. New investigations have now shed light on who this "vampire" was, why people may have suspected her of dabbling in the dark arts, and even what she looked like. "There is a piece of history to rewrite, to see this individual again after 500 years and also try to understand why the myth of vampire started," Borrini says in a new National Geographic Channel documentary. (The National Geographic Channel is part-owned by the National Geographic Society, which owns National Geographic News.)


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Vampire Myth Born of "Blood" Borrini found the vampire skull while digging up mass graves on the Venetian island of Lazzaretto Nuovo. (See pictures of plague victims' mass graves on another island near Venice.) Belief in vampires was rampant in the Middle Ages, mostly because the process of decomposition was not well understood, Borrini says. For instance, as the human stomach decays, it releases a dark "purge fluid." This bloodlike liquid can flow freely from a corpse's nose and mouth. Since tombs and mass burials were often reopened during plagues to add new bodies, Italian gravediggers saw these decomposing remains and may have confused purge fluid with traces of vampire victims' blood. In addition, the fluid sometimes moistened the burial shroud near the corpse's mouth so that the cloth sagged into the jaw. This could create tears in the cloth that made it seem as if the corpse had been chewing on its shroud. Vampires were thought by some to be the causes of plagues, and the superstition took root that shroud-chewing was the "magical way" that vampires infected people, Borrini said. Inserting objects—such as bricks and stones—into the mouths of alleged vampires was thought to halt the spread of disease. Surprisingly Elderly "Vampire" To flesh out more details about the Venice vampire, Borrini assembled a team of scientists. Paleonutritionists pulverized some of the woman's remains—discovered along with the skull—to look for certain elements in food that settle in the bones and endure after death. The team found that the woman had eaten mostly vegetables and grains, suggesting a lower-class diet. DNA analysis revealed that the woman was European, and a forensic odontologist ascertained the woman's age by examining the skull's long canine teeth with an advanced digital x-ray device. The results showed that the woman was between 61 and 71 years old when she died. Borrini was "quite shocked" by this finding—most women didn't reach such advanced ages in the 16th century, he says in the documentary. In medieval Europe, when fear of witches was widespread, many people believed the devil gave witches magical powers, including the ability to cheat death.


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That means such a relatively old woman—suspected after death of being a vampire—may have been accused in life of being a witch, the researchers say. Witches Were Child-Eaters? But old age alone probably wouldn't spur an accusation of witchcraft, said Jason Coy, an expert in European witchcraft and superstition at the College of Charleston in South Carolina, who was not part of the new study. Though average life expectancy in 16th-century Europe was low, around 40, that doesn't mean most people died at 40, he said via email. It means infant mortality was high, bringing down the average. If people lived past childhood, they stood a good chance of living into their 60s. So the Venice vampire was old, but not "freakishly so," Coy said. Rather, Europe's misogynistic society specifically linked old women with witchcraft, because people "assumed that old women—especially widows—were poor, lonely, weak, and unhappy, and thus could be lured by the devil's promises of wealth, sex, and power into forming a pact with him," Coy said. At the height of the European witch-hunts, between A.D. 1550 and 1650, more than 100,000 people were tried as witches and 60,000 were executed—the vast majority of them old women. Germany was the witch-hunt heartland, Coy said. Italy was relatively "mild" in its treatment of witches, although the country was also rife with superstitions and protective charms. (Related: "Halloween Shines Light on Witchcraft Today.") In many historical references of the time, witches were said to eat children—possibly the origin of the Hansel and Gretel story, he added. "So you could say that there is a tenuous link between flesh-eating zombies like your 'Venetian vampire' and witches: They were both feared for breaking the ultimate taboo—eating human flesh." "Vampire of Venice" an Ordinary Woman For the last step in forensic archaeologist Borrini's work, he called on 3-D imaging experts to produce a digital model of the skull. He then put markers where muscle attachments would have existed to reconstruct and rebuild the Venice vampire's face. The result was the face of an "ordinary woman," which perhaps brings the accused some "historical justice" centuries after her death, he said. "It's very strange to [leave] her now," he lamented, "because after this year it's sort of a friendship that's created between me and her."


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Venetiaanse ’vampier’ opgegraven Vampier was ontbindend lijk. Trouw, 16 maart 2009 Archeologen hebben bij Venetië het lichaam van een 16de-eeuwse vrouw opgegraven met een baksteen tussen haar kaken. Waarschijnlijk dacht men indertijd dat zij een vampier was. Het lijk werd in 2006 al ontdekt, maar pas nu is het onderzoek ernaar afgerond. Het goed geconserveerde lichaam werd gevonden in een massagraf op het eiland Lazzaretto Nuovo, ten noorden van Venetië. Dat graf stamt uit 1576, toen er een uitbraak van de pest was. Middeleeuwse teksten, vertelt onderzoeker Matteo Borrini, tonen aan dat het geloof in vampiers werd aangewakkerd door het verontrustende gezicht van ontbindende lijken. Gedurende epidemieën werden massagraven heropend om nieuwe lichamen te begraven. Gravers kwamen oude lijken tegen, die opgezwollen waren, waarbij het bloed uit de mond liep en waarvan de lijkwade bij de mond was opengegaan. „Ze zagen een dik, dood iemand, onder het bloed en met een gat in de wade, en zeiden: ’Deze leeft nog, hij drinkt bloed en eet zijn wade op.”’ Tegenwoordig is bekend dat ontbindende lichamen door gassen opzwellen, dat de vloeistof uit de mond wordt geperst door ontbindende organen en dat het lijkkleed wordt weggevreten door bacteriën in de mondstreek. Maar destijds, zei Borrini, stond er in teksten die toen als wetenschappelijk werden gezien, dat de ’kleedvreters’ vampiers waren die zich voedden met de wade en een vloek uitspraken om de pest te verspreiden, zodat er nog meer ’ondoden’ zouden ontstaan. Om deze zombies te doden was de bekende houten spies in het hart niet afdoende. Er moest een steen of baksteen in de mond van de vampier worden geduwd, zodat hij of zij zou verhongeren. De ’vampier’ van Lazzaretto Nuovo was rond de zestig toen ze overleed aan de pest. Veel later plaatste iemand een baksteen in haar mond. Mogelijk een priester, zoals indertijd wel meer voorkwam.

© Trouw 2010, op dit artikel rust copyright.


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BBC reportage:

'Vampire of Venice' skull found Scientists in Italy have found the skull of a woman with a brick in her mouth, suggesting she may have been considered a vampire. The skull, discovered in Venice, dates from the middle ages and the brick was probably an attempt to prevent her rising from the grave. Duncan Kennedy reports: (bekijk het filmpje op:)

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7941114.stm BIJLAGE Chapter 1 uit Dracula/Bram Stoker Jonathan Harker's Journal May 3. Bistritz.‐‐ Left Munich at 8:35 P.M., on 1st May, arriving at Vienna early next morning; should have arrived at 6:46, but train was an hour late. Buda‐Pesth seems a wonderful place, from the glimpse which I got of it from the train and the little I could walk through the streets. I feared to go very far from the station, as we had arrived late and would start as near the correct time as possible. The impression I had was that we were leaving the West and entering the East; the most western of splendid bridges over the Danube, which is here of noble width and depth, took us among the traditions of Turkish rule. We left in pretty good time, and came after nightfall to Klausenburgh. Here I stopped for the night at the Hotel Royale. I had for dinner, or rather supper, a chicken done up some way with red pepper, which was very good but thirsty. (Mem. get recipe for Mina.) I asked the waiter, and he said it was called "paprika hendl," and that, as it was a national dish, I should be able to get it anywhere along the Carpathians. I found my smattering of German very useful here, indeed, I don't know how I should be able to get on without it. Having had some time at my disposal when in London, I had visited the British Museum, and made search among the books and maps in the library regarding Transylvania; it had struck me that some foreknowledge of the country could hardly fail to have some importance in dealing with a nobleman of that country. I find that the district he named is in the extreme east of the country, just on the borders of three states, Transylvania, Moldavia, and Bukovina, in the midst of the Carpathian mountains; one of the wildest and least known portions of Europe. I was not able to light on any map or work giving the exact locality of the Castle Dracula, as there are no maps of this country as yet to compare with our own Ordnance Survey Maps; but I found that Bistritz, the post town named by Count Dracula, is a fairly well‐


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known place. I shall enter here some of my notes, as they may refresh my memory when I talk over my travels with Mina. In the population of Transylvania there are four distinct nationalities: Saxons in the South, and mixed with them the Wallachs, who are the descendants of the Dacians; Magyars in the West, and Szekelys in the East and North. I am going among the latter, who claim to be descended from Attila and the Huns. This may be so, for when the Magyars conquered the country in the eleventh century they found the Huns settled in it. I read that every known superstition in the world is gathered into the horseshoe of the Carpathians, as if it were the centre of some sort of imaginative whirlpool; if so my stay may be very interesting. (Mem., I must ask the Count all about them.) I did not sleep well, though my bed was comfortable enough, for I had all sorts of queer dreams. There was a dog howling all night under my window, which may have had something to do with it; or it may have been the paprika, for I had to drink up all the water in my carafe, and was still thirsty. Towards morning I slept and was wakened by the continuous knocking at my door, so I guess I must have been sleeping soundly then. I had for breakfast more paprika, and a sort of porridge of maize flour which they said was "mamaliga", and egg‐plant stuffed with forcemeat, a very excellent dish, which they call "impletata". (Mem., get recipe for this also.) I had to hurry breakfast, for the train started a little before eight, or rather it ought to have done so, for after rushing to the station at 7:30 I had to sit in the carriage for more than an hour before we began to move. It seems to me that the further east you go the more unpunctual are the trains. What ought they to be in China? All day long we seemed to dawdle through a country which was full of beauty of every kind. Sometimes we saw little towns or castles on the top of steep hills such as we see in old missals; sometimes we ran by rivers and streams which seemed from the wide stony margin on each side of them to be subject ot great floods. It takes a lot of water, and running strong, to sweep the outside edge of a river clear. At every station there were groups of people, sometimes crowds, and in all sorts of attire. Some of them were just like the peasants at home or those I saw coming through France and Germany, with short jackets, and round hats, and home‐made trousers; but others were very picturesque. The women looked pretty, except when you got near them, but they were very clumsy about the waist. They had all full white sleeves of some kind or other, and most of them had big belts with a lot of strips of something fluttering from them like the dresses in a ballet, but of course there were petticoats under them. The strangest figures we saw were the Slovaks, who were more barbarian than the rest, with their big cow‐boy hats, great baggy dirty‐white trousers, white linen shirts, and enormous heavy leather belts, nearly a foot wide, all studded over with brass nails. They wore high boots, with their trousers tucked into them, and had long black hair and heavy black moustaches. They are very picturesque, but do not look prepossessing. On the stage they would be set down at once as some old Oriental band of brigands. They are, however, I am told, very harmless and rather wanting in natural self‐assertion. It was on the dark side of twilight when we got to Bistritz, which is a very interesting old place. Being practically on the frontier‐‐for the Borgo Pass leads from it into Bukovina‐‐


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it has had a very stormy existence, and it certainly shows marks of it. Fifty years ago a series of great fires took place, which made terrible havoc on five separate occasions. At the very beginning of the seventeenth century it underwent a siege of three weeks and lost 13,000 people, the casualties of war proper being assisted by famine and disease. Count Dracula had directed me to go to the Golden Krone Hotel, which I found, to my great delight, to be thoroughly old‐fashioned, for of course I wanted to see all I could of the ways of the country. I was evidently expected, for when I got near the door I faced a cheery‐looking elderly woman in the usual peasant dress‐‐ white undergarment with a long double apron, front, and back, of coloured stuff fitting almost too tight for modesty. When I came close she bowed and said, "The Herr Englishman?" "Yes," I said, "Jonathan Harker." She smiled, and gave some message to an elderly man in white shirtsleeves, who had followed her to the door. He went, but immediately returned with a letter: "My friend.‐‐Welcome to the Carpathians. I am anxiously expecting you. Sleep well tonight. At three tomorrow the diligence will start for Bukovina; a place on it is kept for you. At the Borgo Pass my carriage will await you and will bring you to me. I trust that your journey from London has been a happy one, and that you will enjoy your stay in my beautiful land.‐‐ Your friend, Dracula." May 4‐‐I found that my landlord had got a letter from the Count, directing him to secure the best place on the coach for me; but on making inquiries as to details he seemed somewhat reticent, and pretended that he could not understand my German. This could not be true, because up to then he had understood it perfectly; at least, he answered my questions exactly as if he did. He and his wife, the old lady who had received me, looked at each other in a frightened sort of way. He mumbled out that the money had been sent in a letter,and that was all he knew. When I asked him if he knew Count Dracula, and could tell me anything of his castle, both he and his wife crossed themselves, and, saying that they knew nothing at all, simply refused to speak further. It was so near the time of starting that I had no time to ask anyone else, for it was all very mysterious and not by any means comforting. Just before I was leaving, the old lady came up to my room and said in a hysterical way: "Must you go? Oh! Young Herr, must you go?" She was in such an excited state that she seemed to have lost her grip of what German she knew, and mixed it all up with some other language which I did not know at all. I was just able to follow her by asking many questions. When I told her that I must go at once, and that I was engaged on important business, she asked again: "Do you know what day it is?" I answered that it was the fourth of May. She shook her head as she said again: "Oh, yes! I know that! I know that, but do you know what day it is?" On my saying that I did not understand, she went on: "It is the eve of St. George's Day. Do you not know that tonight, when the clock strikes midnight, all the evil things in the world will have full sway? Do you know where you are going, and what you are going to?" She was in such evident distress that I tried to


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comfort her, but without effect. Finally, she went down on her knees and implored me not to go; at least to wait a day or two before starting. It was all very ridiculous but I did not feel comfortable. However, there was business to be done, and I could allow nothing to interfere with it. I tried to raise her up, and said, as gravely as I could, that I thanked her, but my duty was imperative, and that I must go. She then rose and dried her eyes, and taking a crucifix from her neck offered it to me. I did not know what to do, for, as an English Churchman, I have been taught to regard such things as in some measure idolatrous, and yet it seemed so ungracious to refuse an old lady meaning so well and in such a state of mind. She saw, I suppose, the doubt in my face, for she put the rosary round my neck and said, "For your mother's sake," and went out of the room. I am writing up this part of the diary whilst I am waiting for the coach, which is, of course, late; and the crucifix is still round my neck. Whether it is the old lady's fear, or the many ghostly traditions of this place, or the crucifix itself, I do not know, but I am not feeling nearly as easy in my mind as usual. If this book should ever reach Mina before I do, let it bring my goodbye. Here comes the coach! May 5. The Castle.‐‐The gray of the morning has passed, and the sun is high over the distant horizon, which seems jagged, whether with trees or hills I know not, for it is so far off that big things and little are mixed. I am not sleepy, and, as I am not to be called till I awake, naturally I write till sleep comes. There are many odd things to put down, and, lest who reads them may fancy that I dined too well before I left Bistritz, let me put down my dinner exactly. I dined on what they called "robber steak"‐‐bits of bacon, onion, and beef, seasoned with red pepper, and strung on sticks, and roasted over the fire, in simple style of the London cat's meat! The wine was Golden Mediasch, which produces a queer sting on the tongue, which is, however, not disagreeable. I had only a couple of glasses of this, and nothing else. When I got on the coach, the driver had not taken his seat, and I saw him talking to the landlady. They were evidently talking of me, for every now and then they looked at me, and some of the people who were sitting on the bench outside the door‐‐ came and listened, and then looked at me, most of them pityingly. I could hear a lot of words often repeated, queer words, for there were many nationalities in the crowd, so I quietly got my polyglot dictionary from my bag and looked them out. I must say they were not cheering to me, for amongst them were "Ordog"‐‐Satan, "Pokol"‐‐hell, "stregoica"‐‐witch, "vrolok" and "vlkoslak"‐‐both mean the same thing, one being Slovak and the other Servian for something that is either werewolf or vampire. (Mem., I must ask the Count about these superstitions.) When we started, the crowd round the inn door, which had by this time swelled to a considerable size, all made the sign of the cross and pointed two fingers towards me. With some difficulty, I got a fellow passenger to tell me what they meant. He would not answer at first, but on learning that I was English, he explained that it was a charm or guard against the evil eye. This was not very pleasant for me, just starting for an


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unknown place to meet an unknown man. But everyone seemed so kind‐hearted, and so sorrowful, and so sympathetic that I could not but be touched. I shall never forget the last glimpse which I had of the inn yard and its crowd of picturesque figures,all crossing themselves, as they stood round the wide archway, with its background of rich foliage of oleander and orange trees in green tubs clustered in the centre of the yard. Then our driver, whose wide linen drawers covered the whole front of the boxseat,‐‐ "gotza" they call them‐‐cracked his big whip over his four small horses, which ran abreast, and we set off on our journey. I soon lost sight and recollection of ghostly fears in the beauty of the scene as we drove along, although had I known the language, or rather languages, which my fellow‐passengers were speaking, I might not have been able to throw them off so easily. Before us lay a green sloping land full of forests and woods, with here and there steep hills, crowned with clumps of trees or with farmhouses, the blank gable end to the road. There was everywhere a bewildering mass of fruit blossom‐‐ apple, plum, pear, cherry. And as we drove by I could see the green grass under the trees spangled with the fallen petals. In and out amongst these green hills of what they call here the "Mittel Land" ran the road, losing itself as it swept round the grassy curve, or was shut out by the straggling ends of pine woods, which here and there ran down the hillsides like tongues of flame. The road was rugged, but still we seemed to fly over it with a feverish haste. I could not understand then what the haste meant, but the driver was evidently bent on losing no time in reaching Borgo Prund. I was told that this road is in summertime excellent, but that it had not yet been put in order after the winter snows. In this respect it is different from the general run of roads in the Carpathians, for it is an old tradition that they are not to be kept in too good order. Of old the Hospadars would not repair them, lest the Turk should think that they were preparing to bring in foreign troops, and so hasten the war which was always really at loading point. Beyond the green swelling hills of the Mittel Land rose mighty slopes of forest up to the lofty steeps of the Carpathians themselves. Right and left of us they towered, with the afternoon sun falling full upon them and bringing out all the glorious colours of this beautiful range, deep blue and purple in the shadows of the peaks, green and brown where grass and rock mingled, and an endless perspective of jagged rock and pointed crags, till these were themselves lost in the distance, where the snowy peaks rose grandly. Here and there seemed mighty rifts in the mountains, through which, as the sun began to sink, we saw now and again the white gleam of falling water. One of my companions touched my arm as we swept round the base of a hill and opened up the lofty, snow‐covered peak of a mountain, which seemed, as we wound on our serpentine way, to be right before us. "Look! Isten szek!"‐‐"God's seat!"‐‐and he crossed himself reverently. As we wound on our endless way, and the sun sank lower and lower behind us, the shadows of the evening began to creep round us. This was emphasized by the fact that the snowy mountain‐top still held the sunset, and seemed to glow out with a delicate cool pink. Here and there we passed Cszeks and slovaks, all in picturesque attire, but I noticed that goitre was painfully prevalent. By the roadside were many crosses, and as we swept by, my companions all crossed themselves. Here and there was a peasant man or woman kneeling before a shrine, who did not even turn round as we approached, but seemed in the self‐surrender of devotion to have neither eyes nor ears for the outer world. There were many things new to me. For instance, hay‐ricks in the trees, and here


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and there very beautiful masses of weeping birch, their white stems shining like silver through the delicate green of the leaves. Now and again we passed a leiter‐wagon‐‐the ordinary peasant's cart‐‐with its long, snakelike vertebra, calculated to suit the inequalities of the road. On this were sure to be seated quite a group of homecoming peasants, the Cszeks with their white, and the Slovaks with their coloured sheepskins, the latter carrying lance‐fashion their long staves, with axe at end. As the evening fell it began to get very cold, and the growing twilight seemed to merge into one dark mistiness the gloom of the trees, oak, beech, and pine, though in the valleys which ran deep between the spurs of the hills, as we ascended through the Pass, the dark firs stood out here and there against the background of late‐lying snow. Sometimes, as the road was cut through the pine woods that seemed in the darkness to be closing down upon us, great masses of greyness which here and there bestrewed the trees, produced a peculiarly weird and solemn effect, which carried on the thoughts and grim fancies engendered earlier in the evening, when the falling sunset threw into strange relief the ghost‐like clouds which amongst the Carpathians seem to wind ceaselessly through the valleys. Sometimes the hills were so steep that, despite our driver's haste, the horses could only go slowly. I wished to get down and walk up them, as we do at home, but the driver would not hear of it. "No, no," he said. "You must not walk here. The dogs are too fierce." And then he added, with what he evidently meant for grim pleasantry‐‐ for he looked round to catch the approving smile of the rest‐‐"And you may have enough of such matters before you go to sleep." The only stop he would make was a moment's pause to light his lamps. When it grew dark there seemed to be some excitement amongst the passengers, and they kept speaking to him, one after the other, as though urging him to further speed. He lashed the horses unmercifully with his long whip, and with wild cries of encouragement urged them on to further exertions. Then through the darkness I could see a sort of patch of grey light ahead of us,as though there were a cleft in the hills. The excitement of the passengers grew greater. The crazy coach rocked on its great leather springs, and swayed like a boat tossed on a stormy sea. I had to hold on. The road grew more level, and we appeared to fly along. Then the mountains seemed to come nearer to us on each side and to frown down upon us. We were entering on the Borgo Pass. One by one several of the passengers offered me gifts, which they pressed upon me with an earnestness which would take no denial. These were certainly of an odd and varied kind, but each was given in simple good faith, with a kindly word, and a blessing, and that same strange mixture of fear‐meaning movements which I had seen outside the hotel at Bistritz‐‐ the sign of the cross and the guard against the evil eye. Then, as we flew along, the driver leaned forward, and on each side the passengers, craning over the edge of the coach, peered eagerly into the darkness. It was evident that something very exciting was either happening or expected, but though I asked each passenger, no one would give me the slightest explanation. This state of excitement kept on for some little time. And at last we saw before us the Pass opening out on the eastern side. There were dark, rolling clouds overhead, and in the air the heavy, oppressive sense of thunder. It seemed as though the mountain range had separated two atmospheres, and that now we had got into the thunderous one. I was now myself looking out for the conveyance which was to take me to the Count. Each moment I expected to see the glare of lamps through the blackness, but all was dark. The only light was the flickering rays of our own lamps, in which the steam from our hard‐driven horses rose in a white cloud. We could see now


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the sandy road lying white before us, but there was on it no sign of a vehicle. The passengers drew back with a sigh of gladness, which seemed to mock my own disappointment. I was already thinking what I had best do, when the driver, looking at his watch, said to the others something which I could hardly hear, it was spoken so quietly and in so low a tone, I thought it was "An hour less than the time." Then turning to me, he spoke in German worse than my own. "There is no carriage here. The Herr is not expected after all. He will now come on to Bukovina, and return tomorrow or the next day, better the next day." Whilst he was speaking the horses began to neigh and snort and plunge wildly, so that the driver had to hold them up. Then, amongst a chorus of screams from the peasants and a universal crossing of themselves, a caleche, with four horses, drove up behind us, overtook us, and drew up beside the coach. I could see from the flash of our lamps as the rays fell on them, that the horses were coal‐black and splendid animals. They were driven by a tall man, with a long brown beard and a great black hat, which seemed to hide his face from us. I could only see the gleam of a pair of very bright eyes, which seemed red in the lamplight, as he turned to us. He said to the driver, "You are early tonight, my friend." The man stammered in reply, "The English Herr was in a hurry." To which the stranger replied, "That is why, I suppose, you wished him to go on to Bukovina. You cannot deceive me, my friend. I know too much, and my horses are swift." As he spoke he smiled,and the lamplight fell on a hard‐looking mouth, with very red lips and sharp‐ looking teeth, as white as ivory. One of my companions whispered to another the line from Burger's "Lenore"."Denn die Todten reiten Schnell." ("For the dead travel fast.") The strange driver evidently heard the words, for he looked up with a gleaming smile. The passenger turned his face away, at the same time putting out his two fingers and crossing himself. "Give me the Herr's luggage," said the driver, and with exceeding alacrity my bags were handed out and put in the caleche. Then I descended from the side of the coach, as the caleche was close alongside, the driver helping me with a hand which caught my arm in a grip of steel. His strength must have been prodigious. Without a word he shook his reins, the horses turned, and we swept into the darkness of the pass. As I looked back I saw the steam from the horses of the coach by the light of the lamps,and projected against it the figures of my late companions crossing themselves. Then the driver cracked his whip and called to his horses, and off they swept on their way to Bukovina. As they sank into the darkness I felt a strange chill, and a lonely feeling come over me. But a cloak was thrown over my shoulders, and a rug across my knees, and the driver said in excellent German‐‐"The night is chill, mein Herr, and my master the Count bade me take all care of you. There is a flask of slivovitz (the plum brandy of the country) underneath the seat, if you should require it." I did not take any, but it was a comfort to know it was there all the same. I felt a little strangely, and not a little frightened. I think had there been any alternative I should have taken it, instead of prosecuting that unknown night journey. The carriage went at a hard pace straight along, then we made a complete turn and went along another straight road. It seemed to me that we were simply going over and over the same ground again, and so I took note of some salient point, and found that this was so. I would have liked to have asked the driver what this all meant, but I really feared to do so, for I thought that, placed as I was, any protest would have had no effect in case there had been an intention to delay.


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By‐and‐by, however, as I was curious to know how time was passing, I struck a match, and by its flame looked at my watch. It was within a few minutes of midnight. This gave me a sort of shock, for I suppose the general superstition about midnight was increased by my recent experiences. I waited with a sick feeling of suspense. Then a dog began to howl somewhere in a farmhouse far down the road, a long, agonized wailing, as if from fear. The sound was taken up by another dog, and then another and another, till, borne on the wind which now sighed softly through the Pass, a wild howling began, which seemed to come from all over the country, as far as the imagination could grasp it through the gloom of the night. At the first howl the horses began to strain and rear, but the driver spoke to them soothingly, and they quieted down, but shivered and sweated as though after a runaway from sudden fright. Then, far off in the distance, from the mountains on each side of us began a louder and a sharper howling, that of wolves, which affected both the horses and myself in the same way. For I was minded to jump from the caleche and run, whilst they reared again and plunged madly, so that the driver had to use all his great strength to keep them from bolting. In a few minutes, however, my own ears got accustomed to the sound, and the horses so far became quiet that the driver was able to descend and to stand before them. He petted and soothed them, and whispered something in their ears, as I have heard of horse‐tamers doing, and with extraordinary effect, for under his caresses they became quite manageable again, though they still trembled. The driver again took his seat, and shaking his reins, started off at a great pace. This time, after going to the far side or the Pass, he suddenly turned down a narrow roadway which ran sharply to the right. Soon we were hemmed in with trees, which in places arched right over the roadway till we passed as through a tunnel. And again great frowning rocks guarded us boldly on either side. Though we were in shelter, we could hear the rising wind, for it moaned and whistled through the rocks, and the branches of the trees crashed together as we swept along. It grew colder and colder still, and fine, powdery snow began to fall, so that soon we and all around us were covered with a white blanket. The keen wind still carried the howling of the dogs, though this grew fainter as we went on our way. The baying of the wolves sounded nearer and nearer, as though they were closing round on us from every side. I grew dreadfully afraid, and the horses shared my fear. The driver, however, was not in the least disturbed. He kept turning his head to left and right, but I could not see anything through the darkness. Suddenly, away on our left I saw a fain flickering blue flame. The driver saw it at the same moment. He at once checked the horses, and, jumping to the ground, disappeared into the darkness. I did not know what to do, the less as the howling of the wolves grew closer. But while I wondered, the driver suddenly appeared again, and without a word took his seat, and we resumed our journey. I think I must have fallen asleep and kept dreaming of the incident, for it seemed to be repeated endlessly, and now looking back, it is like a sort of awful nightmare. Once the flame appeared so near the road, that even in the darkness around us I could watch the driver's motions. He went rapidly to where


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the blue flame arose, it must have been very faint, for it did not seem to illumine the place around it at all, and gathering a few stones, formed them into some device. Once there appeared a strange optical effect. When he stood between me and the flame he did not obstruct it, for I could see its ghostly flicker all the same. This startled me, but as the effect was only momentary, I took it that my eyes deceived me straining through the darkness. Then for a time there were no blue flames, and we sped onwards through the gloom, with the howling of the wolves around us, as though they were following in a moving circle. At last there came a time when the driver went further afield than he had yet gone, and during his absence, the horses began to tremble worse than ever and to snort and scream with fright. I could not see any cause for it, for the howling of the wolves had ceased altogether. But just then the moon, sailing through the black clouds, appeared behind the jagged crest of a beetling, pine‐clad rock, and by its light I saw around us a ring of wolves, with white teeth and lolling red tongues, with long, sinewy limbs and shaggy hair. They were a hundred times more terrible in the grim silence which held them than even when they howled. For myself, I felt a sort of paralysis of fear. It is only when a man feels himself face to face with such horrors that he can understand their true import. All at once the wolves began to howl as though the moonlight had had some peculiar effect on them. The horses jumped about and reared, and looked helplessly round with eyes that rolled in a way painful to see. But the living ring of terror encompassed them on every side, and they had perforce to remain within it. I called to the coachman to come, for it seemed to me that our only chance was to try to break out through the ring and to aid his approach, I shouted and beat the side of the caleche, hoping by the noise to scare the wolves from the side, so as to give him a chance of reaching the trap. How he came there, I know not, but I heard his voice raised in a tone of imperious command, and looking towards the sound, saw him stand in the roadway. As he swept his long arms, as though brushing aside some impalpable obstacle, the wolves fell back and back further still. Just then a heavy cloud passed across the face of the moon, so that we were again in darkness. When I could see again the driver was climbing into the caleche, and the wolves disappeared. This was all so strange and uncanny that a dreadful fear came upon me, and I was afraid to speak or move. The time seemed interminable as we swept on our way, now in almost complete darkness, for the rolling clouds obscured the moon. We kept on ascending, with occasional periods of quick descent, but in the main always ascending. Suddenly, I became conscious of the fact that the driver was in the act of pulling up the horses in the courtyard of a vast ruined castle, from whose tall black windows came no ray of light,and whose broken battlements showed a jagged line against the sky.


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BIJLAGE The Vampyre – John Polidori The Vampyre It happened that in the midst of the dissipations attendant upon London winter, there appeared at the various parties of the leaders of the ton a nobleman more remarkable for his singularities, than his rank. He gazed upon the mirth around him, as if he could not participate therein. Apparently, the light laughter of the fair only attracted his attention, that he might by a look quell it and throw fear into those breasts where thoughtlessness reigned. Those who felt this sensation of awe, could not explain whence it arose: some attributed it to the dead grey eye, which, fixing upon the object's face, did not seem to penetrate, and at one glance to pierce through to the inward workings of the heart; but fell upon the cheek with a leaden ray that weighed upon the skin it could not pass. His peculiarities caused him to be invited to every house; all wished to see him, and those who had been accustomed to violent excitement, and now felt the weight of ennui, were pleased at having something in their presence capable of engaging their attention. In spite of the deadly hue of his face, which never gained a wanner tint, either from the blush of modesty, or from the strong emotion of passion, though its form and outline were beautiful, many of the female hunters after notoriety attempted to win his attentions, and gain, at least, some marks of what they might term affection: Lady Mercer, who had been the mockery of every monster shewn in drawing‐rooms since her marriage, threw herself in his way, and did all but put on the dress of a mountebank, to attract his notice ‐ though in vain; ‐ when she stood before him, though his eyes were apparently fixed upon hers, still it seemed as if they were unperceived; ‐ even her unappalled impudence was baffled, and she left the field. But though the common adultress could not influence even the guidance of his eyes, it was not that the female sex was indifferent to him: yet such was the apparent caution with which he spoke to the virtuous wife and innocent daughter, that few knew he ever addressed himself to females. He had, however, the reputation of a winning tongue; and whether it was that it even overcame the dread of his singular character, or that they were moved by his apparent hatred of vice, he was as often among those females who form the boast of their sex from their domestic virtues, as among those who sully it by their vices. About the same time, there came to London a young gentleman of the name of Aubrey: he was an orphan left with an only sister in the possession of great wealth, by parents who died while he was yet in childhood. Left also to himself by guardians, who thought it their duty merely to take care of his fortune, while they relinquished the more important charge of his mind to the care of mercenary subalterns, he cultivated more his imagination than his judgment. He had, hence, that high romantic feeling of honour and candour, which daily ruins so many milliners' apprentices. He believed all to sympathise with virtue, and thought that vice was thrown in by Providence merely for the picturesque effect of the scene, as we see in romances: he thought that the misery of a cottage merely consisted in the vesting of clothes, which were as warm, but which were better adapted to the painter's eye by their irregular folds and various coloured patches. He thought, in fine, that the dreams of poets were the realities of life. He was handsome, frank, and rich: for these reasons, upon his entering into the gay circles, many mothers surrounded him, striving which should describe with least truth their languishing or romping favourites: the daughters at the same time, by their brightening countenances


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when he approached, and by their sparkling eyes, when he opened his lips, soon led him into false notions of his talents and his merit. Attached as he was to the romance of his solitary hours, he was startled at finding, that, except in the tallow and wax candles that flickered, not from the presence of a ghost, but from want of snuffing, there was no foundation in real life for any of that congeries of pleasing pictures and descriptions contained in those volumes, from which he had formed his study. Finding, however, some compensation in his gratified vanity, he was about to relinquish his dreams, when the extraordinary being we have above described, crossed him in his career. He watched him; and the very impossibility of forming an idea of the character of a man entirely absorbed in himself, who gave few other signs of his observation of external objects, than the tacit assent to their existence, implied by the avoidance of their contact: allowing his imagination to picture every thing that flattered its propensity to extravagant ideas, he soon formed this object into the hero of a romance, and determined to observe the offspring of his fancy, rather than the person before him. He became acquainted with him, paid him attentions, and so far advanced upon his notice, that his presence was always recognised. He gradually learnt that Lord Ruthven's affairs were embarrassed, and soon found, from the notes of preparation in __ Street, that he was about to travel. Desirous of gaining some information respecting this singular character, who, till now, had only whetted his curiosity, he hinted to his guardians, that it was time for him to perform the tour, which for many generations has been thought necessary to enable the young to take some rapid steps in the career of vice towards putting themselves upon an equality with the aged, and not allowing them to appear as if fallen from the skies, whenever scandalous intrigues are mentioned as the subjects of pleasantry or of praise, according to the degree of skill shewn in carrying them on. They consented: and Aubrey immediately mentioning his intentions to Lord Ruthven, was surprised to receive from him a proposal to join him. Flattered such a mark of esteem from him, who, apparently, had nothing in common with other men, he gladly accepted it, and in a few days they had passed the circling waters. Hitherto, Aubrey had had no opportunity of studying Lord Ruthven's character, and now he found, that, though many more of his actions were exposed to his view, the results offered different conclusions from the apparent motives to his conduct. His companion was profuse in his liberality; ‐ the idle, the vagabond, and the beggar, received from his hand more than enough to relieve their immediate wants. But Aubrey could not avoid remarking, that it was not upon the virtuous, reduced to indigence by the misfortunes attendant even upon virtue, that he bestowed his alms; ‐ these were sent from the door with hardly suppressed sneers; but when the profligate came to ask something, not to relieve his wants, but to allow him to wallow in his lust, to sink him still deeper in his iniquity, he was sent away with rich charity. This was, however, attributed by him to the greater importunity of the vicious, which generally prevails over the retiring bashfulness of the virtuous indigent. There was one circumstance about the charity of his Lordship, which was still more impressed upon his mind: all those upon whom it was bestowed, inevitably found that there was a curse upon it, for they were all either led to the scaffold, or sunk to the lowest and the most abject misery. At Brussels and other towns through which they passed, Aubrey was surprised at the apparent eagerness with which his companion sought for the centres of all fashionable vice; there he entered into all the spirit of the faro table: he betted and always gambled with success, except where the known sharper was his antagonist, and then he lost even more than he gained; but it was always with the same unchanging face, with which he


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generally watched the society around: it was not, however, so when he encountered the rash youthful novice, or the luckless father of a numerous family; then his very wish seemed fortune's law ‐ this apparent abstractedness of mind was laid aside, and his eyes sparkled with more fire than that of the cat whilst dallying with the half‐dead mouse. In every town, he left the formerly affluent youth, torn from the circle he adorned, cursing, in the solitude of a dungeon, the fate that had drawn him within the reach of this fiend; whilst many a father sat frantic, amidst the speaking looks of mute hungry children, without a single farthing of his late immense wealth, wherewith to buy even sufficient to satisfy their present craving. Yet he took no money from the gambling table; but immediately lost, to the ruiner of many, the last gilder he had just snatched from the convulsive grasp of the innocent: this might but be the result of a certain degree of knowledge, which was not, however, capable of combating the cunning of the more experienced. Aubrey often wished to represent this to his friend, and beg him to resign that charity and pleasure which proved the ruin of all, and did not tend to his own profit; but he delayed it ‐ for each day he hoped his friend would give him some opportunity of speaking frankly and openly to him; however, this never occurred. Lord Ruthven in his carriage, and amidst the various wild and rich scenes of nature, was always the same: his eye spoke less than his lip; and though Aubrey was near the object of his curiosity, he obtained no greater gratification from it than the constant excitement of vainly wishing to break that mystery, which to his exalted imagination began to assume the appearance of something supernatural. They soon arrived at Rome, and Aubrey for a time lost sight of his companion; he left him in daily attendance upon the morning circle of an Italian countess, whilst he went in search of the memorials of another almost deserted city. Whilst he was thus engaged, letters arrived from England, which he opened with eager impatience; the first was from his sister, breathing nothing but affection; the others were from his guardians, the latter astonished him; if it had before entered into his imagination that there was an evil power resident in his companion these seemed to give him almost sufficient reason for the belief. His guardians insisted upon his immediately leaving his friend, and urged that his character was dreadfully vicious, for that the possession of irresistible powers of seduction, rendered his licentious habits more dangerous to society. It had been discovered, that his contempt for the adultress had not originated in hatred of her character; but that he had required, to enhance his gratification, that his victim, the partner of his guilt, should be hurled from the pinnacle of unsullied virtue, down to the lowest abyss of infamy and degradation: in fine, that all those females whom he had sought, apparently on account of their virtue, had, since his departure, thrown even the mask aside, and had not scrupled to expose the whole deformity of their vices to the public gaze. Aubrey determined upon leaving one, whose character had not shown a single bright point on which to rest the eye. He resolved to invent some plausible pretext for abandoning him altogether, purposing, in the mean while, to watch him more closely, and to let no slight circumstances pass by unnoticed. He entered into the same circle, and soon perceived, that his Lordship was endeavouring to work upon the inexperience of the daughter of the lady whose house he chiefly frequented. In Italy, it is seldom that an unmarried female is met with in society; he was therefore obliged to carry on his plans in secret; but Aubrey's eye followed him in all his windings, and soon discovered that an assignation had been appointed, which would most likely end in the ruin of an innocent, though thoughtless girl. Losing no time, he entered the apartment of Lord


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Ruthven, and abruptly asked him his intentions with respect to the lady, informing him at the same time that he was aware of his being about to meet her that very night. Lord Ruthven answered, that his intentions were such as he supposed all would have upon such an occasion; and upon being pressed whether he intended to marry her, merely laughed. Aubrey retired; and, immediately writing a note, to say, that from that moment he must decline accompanying his Lordship in the remainder of their proposed tour, he ordered his servant to seek other apartments, and calling upon the mother of the lady informed her of all he knew, not only with regard to her daughter, but also concerning the character of his Lordship. The assignation was prevented. Lord Ruthven next day merely sent his servant to notify his complete assent to a separation; but did not hint any suspicion of his plans having been foiled by Aubrey's interposition. Having left Rome, Aubrey directed his steps towards Greece, and crossing the Peninsula, soon found himself at Athens. He then fixed residence in the house of a Greek; and soon occupied himself in tracing the faded records of ancient glory upon monuments that apparently, ashamed of chronicling the deeds of freemen only before slaves, had hidden themselves beneath the sheltering soil or many coloured lichen. Under the same roof as himself, existed a being, so beautiful and delicate, that she might have formed the model for a painter, wishing to portray on canvass the promised hope of the faithful in Mahomet's paradise, save that her eyes spoke too much mind for any one to think she could belong to those who had no souls. As she danced upon the plain, or tripped along the mountain's side, one would have thought the gazelle a poor type of her beauties; for who would have exchanged her eye, apparently the eye of animated nature, for that sleepy luxurious look of the animal suited but to the taste of an epicure. The light step of Ianthe often accompanied Aubrey in his search after antiquities, and often would the unconscious girl, engaged in the pursuit of a Kashmere butterfly, show the whole beauty of her form, boating as it were upon the wind, to the eager gaze of him, who forgot the letters he had just decyphered upon an almost effaced tablet, in the contemplation of her sylph‐like figure. Often would her tresses falling, as she flitted around, exhibit in the sun's ray such delicately brilliant and swiftly fading hues, as might well excuse the forgetfulness of the antiquary, who let escape from his mind the very object he had before thought of vital importance to the proper interpretation of a passage in Pausanias. But why attempt to describe charms which all feel, but none can appreciate? ‐ It was innocence, youth, and beauty, unaffected by crowded drawing‐ rooms and stifling balls. Whilst he drew those remains of which he wished to preserve a memorial for his future hours, she would stand by, and watch the magic effects of his pencil, in tracing the scenes of her native place; she would then describe to him the circling dance upon the open plain, would paint to him in all the glowing colours of youthful memory, the marriage pomp she remembered viewing in her infancy; and then, turning to subjects that had evidently made a greater impression upon her mind, would tell him all the supernatural tales of her nurse. Her earnestness and apparent belief of what she narrated, excited the interest even of Aubrey; and often as she told him the tale of the living vampyre, who had passed years amidst his friends, and dearest ties, forced every year, by feeding upon the life of a lovely female to prolong his existence for the ensuing months, his blood would run cold, whilst he attempted to laugh her out of such idle and horrible fantasies; but Ianthe cited to him the names of old men, who had at last detected one living among themselves, after several of their near relatives and children had been found marked with the stamp of the fiend's appetite; and when she found him so incredulous, she begged of him to believe her, for it had been remarked, that those who had dared to question their existence, always had some proof given, which obliged


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them, with grief and heartbreaking, to confess it was true. She detailed to him the traditional appearance of these monsters, and his horror was increased by hearing a pretty accurate description of Lord Ruthven; he, however, still persisted in persuading her, that there could be no truth in her fears, though at the same time he wondered at the many coincidences which had all tended to excite a belief in the supernatural power of Lord Ruthven. Aubrey began to attach himself more and more to Ianthe; her innocence, so contrasted with all the affected virtues of the women among whom he had sought for his vision of romance, won his heart and while he ridiculed the idea of a young man of English habits, marrying an uneducated Greek girl, still he found himself more and more attached to the almost fairy form before him. He would tear himself at times from her, and, forming a plan for some antiquarian research, would depart, determined not to return until his object was attained; but he always found it impossible to fix his attention upon the ruins around him, whilst in his mind he retained an image that seemed alone the rightful possessor of his thoughts. Ianthe was unconscious of his love, and was ever the same frank infantile being he had first known. She always seemed to part from him with reluctance; but it was because she had no longer any one with whom she could visit her favourite haunts, whilst her guardian was occupied in sketching or uncovering some fragment which had yet escaped the destructive hand of time. She had appealed to her parents on the subject of Vampyres, and they both, with several present, affirmed their existence, pale with horror at the very name. Soon after, Aubrey determined to proceed upon one of his excursions, which was to detain him for a few hours; when they heard the name of the place, they all at once begged of him not to return at night, as he must necessarily pass through a wood, where no Greek would ever remain, after the day had closed, upon any consideration. They described it as the resort of the vampyres in their nocturnal orgies and denounced the most heavy evils as impending upon him who dared to cross their path. Aubrey made light of their representations, and tried to laugh them out of the idea; but when he saw them shudder at his daring thus to mock a superior, infernal power, the very name of which apparently made their blood freeze, he was silent. Next morning Aubrey set off upon his excursion unattended; he was surprised to observe the melancholy face of his host, and was concerned to find that his words, mocking the belief of those horrible fiends, had inspired them with such terror. When he was about to depart, Ianthe came to the side of his horse, and earnestly begged of him to return, ere night allowed the power of these beings to be put in action; ‐ he promised. He was, however, so occupied in his research, that he did not perceive that day‐light would soon end, and that in the horizon there was one of those specks which, in the warmer climates, so rapidly gather into a tremendous mass, and pour all their rage upon the devoted country. ‐ He at last, however, mounted his horse, determined to make up by speed for his delay: but it was too late. Twilight, in these southern climates, is almost unknown; immediately the sun sets, night begins: and ere he had advanced far, the power of the storm was above ‐ its echoing thunders had scarcely an interval of rest; ‐ its thick heavy rain forced its way through the canopying foliage, whilst the blue forked lightning seemed to fall and radiate at his very feet. Suddenly his horse took fright, and he was carried with dreadful rapidity through the entangled forest. The animal at last, through fatigue, stopped, and he found, by the glare of lightning, that he was in the neighbourhood of a hovel that hardly lifted itself up from the masses of dead leaves and brushwood which surrounded it. Dismounting, he approached, hoping to find some one


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to guide him to the town, or at least trusting to obtain shelter from the pelting of the storm. As he approached, the thunders, for a moment silent, allowed him to hear the dreadful shrieks of a woman mingling with the stifled, exultant mockery of a laugh, continued in one almost unbroken sound; ‐ he was startled: but, roused by the thunder which again rolled over his head, he, with a sudden effort, forced open the door of the hut. He found himself in utter darkness: the sound, however, guided him. He was apparently unperceived; for, though he called, still the sounds continued, and no notice was taken of him. He found himself in contact with some one, whom he immediately seized; when a voice cried, "Again baffled!" to which a loud laugh succeeded; and he felt himself grappled by one whose strength seemed superhuman: determined to sell his life as dearly as he could, he struggled; but it was in vain: he was lifted from his feet and hurled with enormous force against the ground: ‐ his enemy threw himself upon him, and kneeling upon his breast, had placed his hands upon his throat when the glare of many torches penetrating through the hole that gave light in the day, disturbed him; ‐ he instantly rose, and, leaving his prey, rushed through the door, and in a moment the crashing of branches, as he broke through the wood, was no longer heard. The storm was now still; and Aubrey, incapable of moving, was soon heard by those without. They entered; the light of their torches fell upon mud walls, and the thatch loaded on every individual straw with heavy flakes of soot. At the desire of Aubrey they searched for her who had attracted him by her cries; he was again left in darkness; but what was his horror, when the light of the torches once more burst upon him, to perceive the airy form of his fair conductress brought in a lifeless corpse. He shut his eyes, hoping that it was but a vision arising from his disturbed imagination; but he again saw the same form, when he unclosed them, stretched by his side. There was no colour upon her cheek, not even upon her lip; yet there was a stillness about her face that seemed almost as attaching as the life that once dwelt there: ‐ 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!" A litter was quickly formed, and Aubrey was laid by the side of her who had lately been to him the object of so many bright and fairy visions, now fallen; with the flower of life that had died within her. He knew not what his thoughts were ‐ his mind was benumbed and seemed to shun reflection and take refuge in vacancy; ‐ he held almost unconsciously in his hand a naked dagger of a particular construction, which had been found in the hut. They were soon met by different parties who had been engaged in the search of her whom a mother had missed. Their lamentable cries as they approached the city, forewarned the parents of some dreadful catastrophe. ‐ To describe their grief would be impossible; but when they ascertained the cause of their child's death, they looked at Aubrey and pointed to the corpse. They were inconsolable; both died brokenhearted. Aubrey being put to bed was seized with a most violent fever, and was often delirious; in these intervals he would call upon Lord Ruthven and upon Ianthe ‐ by some unaccountable combination he seemed to beg of his former companion to spare the being he loved. At other times he would imprecate maledictions upon his head, and curse him as her destroyer. Lord Ruthven chanced at this time to arrive at Athens, and from whatever motive, upon hearing of the state of Aubrey, immediately placed himself in the same house, and became his constant attendant. When the latter recovered from his delirium, he was horrified and startled at the sight of him whose image he had now combined with that of a Vampyre; but Lord Ruthven, by his kind words, implying almost repentance for the fault that had caused their separation, and still more by the attention, anxiety, and care which he showed, soon reconciled him to his presence. His lordship


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seemed quite changed; he no longer appeared that apathetic being who had so astonished Aubrey; but as soon as his convalescence began to be rapid, he again gradually retired into the same state of mind, and Aubrey perceived no difference from the former man, except that at times he was surprised to meet his gaze fixed intently upon him, with a smile of malicious exultation playing upon his lips: he knew not why, but this smile haunted him. During the last stage of the invalid's recovery, Lord Ruthven was apparently engaged in watching the tideless waves raised by the cooling breeze, or in marking the progress of those orbs, circling, like our world, the moveless sun; ‐ indeed, he appeared to wish to avoid the eyes of all. Aubrey's mind, by this shock, was much weakened, and that elasticity of spirit which had once so distinguished him now seemed to have fled for ever. He was now as much a lover of solitude and silence as Lord Ruthven; but much as he wished for solitude, his mind could not find it in the neighbourhood of Athens; if he sought it amidst the ruins he had formerly frequented, Ianthe's form stood by his side; ‐ if he sought it in the woods, her light step would appear wandering amidst the underwood, in quest of the modest violet; then suddenly turning round, would show, to his wild imagination, her pale face and wounded throat, with a meek smile upon her lips. He determined to fly scenes, every feature of which created such bitter associations in his mind. He proposed to Lord Ruthven, to whom he held himself bound by the tender care he had taken of him during his illness, that they should visit those parts of Greece neither had yet seen. They travelled in every direction, and sought every spot to which a recollection could be attached: but though they thus hastened from place to place, yet they seemed not to heed what they gazed upon. They heard much of robbers, but they gradually began to slight these reports, which they imagined were only the invention of individuals, whose interest it was to excite the generosity of those whom they defended from pretended dangers. In consequence of thus neglecting the advice of the inhabitants, on one occasion they travelled with only a few guards, more to serve as guides than as a defence. Upon entering, however, a narrow defile, at the bottom of which was the bed of a torrent, with large masses of rock brought down from the neighbouring precipices, they had reason to repent their negligence; for scarcely were the whole of the party engaged in the narrow pass, when they were startled by the whistling of bullets close to their heads, and by the echoed report of several guns. In an instant their guards had left them, and, placing themselves behind rocks, had begun to fire in the direction whence the report came. Lord Ruthven and Aubrey, imitating their example, retired for a moment behind the sheltering turn of the defile: but ashamed of being thus detained by a foe, who with insulting shouts bade them advance, and being exposed to unresisting slaughter, if any of the robbers should climb above and take them in the rear, they determined at once to rush forward in search of the enemy. Hardly had they lost the shelter of rock, when Lord Ruthven received a shot in the shoulder, which brought him to the ground. Aubrey hastened to his assistance; and, no longer heeding the contest or his own peril, was soon surprised by seeing the robbers' faces around him ‐ his guards having, upon Lord Ruthven's being wounded, immediately thrown up their arms and surrendered. By promises of great reward, Aubrey soon induced them to convey his wounded friend to a neighbouring cabin; and having agreed upon a ransom, he was no more disturbed by their presence ‐ they being content merely to guard the entrance till their comrade should return with the promised sum, for which he had an order. Lord Ruthven's strength rapidly decreased; in two days mortification ensued, and death


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seemed advancing with hasty steps. His conduct and appearance had not changed; he seemed as unconscious of pain as he had been of the objects about him: but towards the close of the last evening, his mind became apparently uneasy, and his eye often fixed upon Aubrey, who was induced to offer his assistance with more than usual earnestness ‐ "Assist me! you may save me ‐ you may do more than that ‐ I mean not life, I heed the death of my existence as little as that of the passing day; but you may save my honour, your friend's honour." ‐ "How? tell me how? I would do any thing," replied Aubrey. ‐ "I need but little, my life ebbs apace ‐ I cannot explain the whole ‐ but if you would conceal all you know of me, my honour were free from stain in the world's mouth ‐ and if my death were unknown for some time in England ‐ I ‐ I ‐ but life." ‐ "It shall not be known." ‐ "Swear!" cried the dying man raising himself with exultant violence. "Swear by all your soul reveres, by all your nature fears, swear that for a year and a day you will not impart your knowledge of my crimes or death to any living being in any way, whatever may happen, or whatever you may see." ‐ His eyes seemed bursting from their sockets; "I swear!" said Aubrey; he sunk laughing upon his pillow, and breathed no more. Aubrey retired to rest, but did not sleep; the many circumstances attending his acquaintance with this man rose upon his mind, and he knew not why; when he remembered his oath a cold shivering came over him, as if from the presentiment of something horrible awaiting him. Rising early in the morning, he was about to enter the hovel in which he had left the corpse, when a robber met him, and informed him that it was no longer there, having been conveyed by himself and comrades, upon his retiring, to the pinnacle of a neighbouring mount, according to a promise they had given his lordship, that it should be exposed to the first cold ray of the moon that rose after his death. Aubrey astonished, and taking several of the men, determined to go and bury it upon the spot where it lay. But, when he had mounted to the summit he found no trace of either the corpse or the clothes, though the robbers swore they pointed out the identical rock on which they had laid the body. For a time his mind was bewildered in conjectures, but he at last returned, convinced that they had buried the corpse for the sake of the clothes. Weary of a country in which he had met with such terrible misfortunes, and in which all apparently conspired to heighten that superstitious melancholy that had seized upon his mind, he resolved to leave it, and soon arrived at Smyrna. While waiting for a vessel to convey him to Otranto, or to Naples, he occupied himself in arranging those effects he had with him belonging to Lord Ruthven. Amongst other things there was a case containing several weapons of offence, more or less adapted to ensure the death of the victim. There were several daggers and ataghans. Whilst turning them over, and examining their curious forms, what was his surprise at finding a sheath apparently ornamented in the same style as the dagger discovered in the fatal hut; ‐ he shuddered; hastening to gain further proof, he found the weapon, and his horror may be imagined when he discovered that it fitted, though peculiarly shaped, the sheath he held in his hand. His eyes seemed to need no further certainty ‐ they seemed gazing to be bound to the dagger, yet still he wished to disbelieve; but the particular form, the same varying tints upon the haft and sheath were alike in splendour on both, and left no room for doubt; there were also drops of blood on each. He left Smyrna, and on his way home, at Rome, his first inquiries were concerning the lady he had attempted to snatch from Lord Ruthven's seductive arts. Her parents were in distress, their fortune ruined, and she had not been heard of since the departure of his lordship. Aubrey's mind became almost broken under so many repeated horrors; he was


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afraid that this lady had fallen a victim to the destroyer of Ianthe. He became morose and silent; and his only occupation consisted in urging the speed of the postilions, as if he were going to save the life of some one he held dear. He arrived at Calais; a breeze, which seemed obedient to his will, soon wafted him to the English shores; and he hastened to the mansion of his fathers, and there, for a moment, appeared to lose, in the embraces and caresses of his sister, all memory of the past. If she before, by her infantine caresses, had gained his affection, now that the woman began to appear, she was still more attaching as a companion. Miss Aubrey had not that winning grace which gains the gaze and applause of the drawing‐room assemblies. There was none of that light brilliancy which only exists in the heated atmosphere of a crowded apartment. Her blue eye was never lit up by the levity of the mind beneath. There was a melancholy charm about it which did not seem to arise from misfortune, but from some feeling within, that appeared to indicate a soul conscious of a brighter realm. Her step was not that light footing, which strays where'er a butterfly or a colour may attract ‐ it was sedate and pensive. When alone, her face was never brightened by the smile of joy; but when her brother breathed to her his affection, and would in her presence forget those griefs she knew destroyed his rest, who would have exchanged her smile for that of the voluptuary? It seemed as if those eyes, that face were then playing in the light of their own native sphere. She was yet only eighteen, and had not been presented to the world, it having been thought by her guardians more fit that her presentation should be delayed until her brother's return from the continent, when he might be her protector. It was now, therefore, resolved that the next drawing‐ room, which was fast approaching, should be the epoch of her entry into the "busy scene." Aubrey would rather have remained in the mansion of his fathers, and feed upon the melancholy which overpowered him. He could not feel interest about the frivolities of fashionable strangers, when his mind had been so torn by the events he had witnessed; but he determined to sacrifice his own comfort to the protection of his sister. They soon arrived in town, and prepared for the next day, which had been announced as a drawing‐ room. The crowd was excessive ‐ a drawing‐room had not been held for long time, and all who were anxious to bask in the smile of royalty, hastened thither. Aubrey was there with his sister. While he was standing in a corner by himself, heedless of all around him, engaged in the remembrance that the first time he had seen Lord Ruthven was in that very place ‐ he felt himself suddenly seized by the arm, and a voice he recognized too well, sounded in his ear ‐ "Remember your oath." He had hardly courage to turn, fearful of seeing a spectre that would blast him, when he perceived, at a little distance, the same figure which had attracted his notice on this spot upon his first entry into society. He gazed till his limbs almost refusing to bear their weight, he was obliged to take the arm of a friend, and forcing a passage through the crowd, he threw himself into his carriage, and was driven home. He paced the room with hurried steps, and fixed his hands upon his head, as if he were afraid his thoughts were bursting from his brain. Lord Ruthven again before him ‐ circumstances started up in dreadful array ‐ the dagger ‐ his oath. ‐ He roused himself, he could not believe it possible ‐ the dead rise again! ‐ He thought his imagination had conjured up the image his mind was resting upon. It was impossible that it could be real ‐ he determined, therefore, to go again into society; for though he attempted to ask concerning Lord Ruthven, the name hung upon his lips and he could not succeed in gaining information. He went a few nights after with his sister to the assembly of a near relation. Leaving her under the protection of a matron, he retired into


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a recess, and there gave himself up to his own devouring thoughts. Perceiving, at last, that many were leaving, he roused himself, and entering another room, found his sister surrounded by several, apparently in earnest conversation; he attempted to pass and get near her, when one, whom he requested to move, turned round, and revealed to him those features he most abhorred. He sprang forward, seized his sister's arm, and, with hurried step, forced her towards the street: at the door he found himself impeded by the crowd of servants who were waiting for their lords; and while he was engaged in passing them, he again heard that voice whisper close to him ‐ "Remember your oath!" ‐ He did not dare to turn, but, hurrying his sister, soon reached home. Aubrey became almost distracted. If before his mind had been absorbed by one subject, how much more completely was it engrossed now that the certainty of the monster's living again pressed upon his thoughts. His sister's attentions were now unheeded, and it was in vain that she intreated him to explain to her what had caused his abrupt conduct. He only uttered a few words, and those terrified her. The more he thought, the more he was bewildered. His oath startled him; ‐ was he then to allow this monster to roam, bearing ruin upon his breath, amidst all he held dear, and not avert its progress? His very sister might have been touched by him. But even if he were to break his oath, and disclose his suspicions, who would believe him? He thought of employing his own hand to free the world from such a wretch; but death, he remembered, had been already mocked. For days he remained in state; shut up in his room, he saw no one, and ate only when his sister came, who, with eyes streaming with tears, besought him, for her sake, to support nature. At last, no longer capable of bearing stillness and solitude, he left his house, roamed from street to street, anxious to fly that image which haunted him. His dress became neglected, and he wandered, as often exposed to the noon‐day sun as to the mid‐night damps. He was no longer to be recognized; at first he returned with evening to the house; but at last he laid him down to rest wherever fatigue overtook him. His sister, anxious for his safety, employed people to follow him; but they were soon distanced by him who fled from a pursuer swifter than any ‐ from thought. His conduct, however, suddenly changed. Struck with the idea that he left by his absence the whole of his friends, with a fiend amongst them, of whose presence they were unconscious, he determined to enter again into society, and watch him closely, anxious to forewarn, in spite of his oath, all whom Lord Ruthven approached with intimacy. But when he entered into a room, his haggard and suspicious looks were so striking, his inward shuddering so visible, that his sister was at last obliged to beg of him to abstain from seeking, for her sake, a society which affected him so strongly. When, however, remonstrance proved unavailing, the guardians thought proper to interpose, and, fearing that his mind was becoming alienated, they thought it high time to resume again that trust which had been before imposed upon them by Aubrey's parents. Desirous of saving him from the injuries and sufferings he had daily encountered in his wanderings, and of preventing him from exposing to the general eye those marks of what they considered folly, they engaged a physician to reside in the house, and take constant care of him. He hardly appeared to notice it, so completely was his mind absorbed by one terrible subject. His incoherence became at last so great that he was confined to his chamber. There he would often lie for days, incapable of being roused. He had become emaciated, his eyes had attained a glassy lustre; ‐ the only sign of affection and recollection remaining displayed itself upon the entry of his sister; then he would sometimes start, and, seizing her hands, with looks that severely afflicted her, he would desire her not to touch him. "Oh, do not touch him ‐ if your love for me is aught, do not


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go near him!" When, however, she inquired to whom he referred, his only answer was, "True! true!" and again he sank into a state, whence not even she could rouse him. This lasted many months: gradually, however, as the year was passing, his incoherences became less frequent, and his mind threw off a portion of its gloom, whilst his guardians observed, that several times in the day he would count upon his fingers a definite number, and then smile. The time had nearly elapsed, when, upon the last day of the year, one of his guardians entering his room, began to converse with his physician upon the melancholy circumstance of Aubrey's being in so awful a situation, when his sister was going next day to be married. Instantly Aubrey's attention was attracted; he asked anxiously to whom. Glad of this mark of returning intellect, of which they feared he had been deprived, they mentioned the name of the Earl of Marsden. Thinking this was a young Earl whom he had met with in society, Aubrey seemed pleased, and astonished them still more by his expressing his intention to be present at the nuptials, and desiring to see his sister. They answered not, but in a few minutes his sister was with him. He was apparently again capable of being affected by the influence of her lovely smile; for he pressed her to his breast, and kissed her cheek, wet with tears, flowing at the thought of her brother's being once more alive to the feelings of affection. He began to speak with all his wonted warmth, and to congratulate her upon her marriage with a person so distinguished for rank and every accomplishment; when he suddenly perceived a locket upon her breast; opening it, what was his surprise at beholding the features of the monster who had so long influenced his life. He seized the portrait in a paroxysm of rage, and trampled it under foot. Upon her asking him why he thus destroyed the resemblance of her future husband, he looked as if he did not understand her; ‐ then seizing her hands, and gazing on her with a frantic expression of countenance, he bade her swear that she would never wed this monster, for he ‐ But he could not advance ‐ it seemed as if that voice again bade him remember his oath ‐ he turned suddenly round, thinking Lord Ruthven was near him but saw no one. In the meantime the guardians and physician, who had heard the whole, and thought this was but a return of his disorder, entered, and forcing him from Miss Aubrey, desired her to leave him. He fell upon his knees to them, he implored, he begged of them to delay but for one day. They, attributing this to the insanity they imagined had taken possession of his mind endeavoured to pacify him, and retired. Lord Ruthven had called the morning after the drawing‐room, and had been refused with every one else. When he heard of Aubrey's ill health, he readily understood himself to be the cause of it; but when he learned that he was deemed insane, his exultation and pleasure could hardly be concealed from those among whom he had gained this information. He hastened to the house of his former companion, and, by constant attendance, and the pretence of great affection for the brother and interest in his fate, he gradually won the ear of Miss Aubrey. Who could resist his power? His tongue had dangers and toils to recount ‐ could speak of himself as of an individual having no sympathy with any being on the crowded earth, save with her to whom he addressed himself; ‐ could tell how, since he knew her, his existence had begun to seem worthy of preservation, if it were merely that he might listen her soothing accents; ‐ in fine, he knew so well how to use the serpent's art, or such was the will of fate, that he gained her affections. The title of the elder branch falling at length to him, he obtained an important embassy, which served as an excuse for hastening the marriage (in spite of her brother's deranged state), which was to take place the very day before his departure for the


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continent. Aubrey, when he was left by the physician and his guardians, attempted to bribe the servants, but in vain. He asked for pen and paper; it was given him; he wrote a letter to his sister, conjuring her, as she valued her own happiness, her own honour, and the honour of those now in the grave, who once held her in their arms as their hope and the hope of their house, to delay but for a few hours that marriage, on which he denounced the most heavy curses. The servants promised they would deliver it; but giving it to the physician, he thought it better not to harass any more the mind of Miss Aubrey by, what he considered, the ravings of a maniac. Night passed on without rest to the busy inmates of the house; and Aubrey heard, with a horror that may more easily be conceived than described, the notes of busy preparation. Morning came, and the sound of carriages broke upon his ear. Aubrey grew almost frantic. The curiosity of the servants at last overcame their vigilance; they gradually stole away, leaving him in the custody of an helpless old woman. He seized the opportunity, with one bound was out of the room, and in a moment found himself in the apartment where all were nearly assembled. Lord Ruthven was the first to perceive him: he immediately approached, and, taking his arm by force, hurried him from the room, speechless with rage. When on the staircase, Lord Ruthven whispered in his ear ‐ "Remember your oath, and know, if not my bride to day, your sister is dishonoured. Women are frail!" So saying, he pushed him towards his attendants, who, roused by the old woman, had come in search of him. Aubrey could no longer support himself; his rage not finding vent, had broken a blood‐vessel, and he was conveyed to bed. This was not mentioned to his sister, who was not present when he entered, as the physician was afraid of agitating her. The marriage was solemnized, and the bride and bridegroom left London. Aubrey's weakness increased; the effusion of blood produced symptoms of the near approach of death. He desired his sister's guardians might be called, and when the midnight hour had struck, he related composedly what the reader has perused ‐ he died immediately after. 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! TOEMAATJE Nog een artikeltje uit de krant De morgen, 6 mei 2010

Drie 'vampieren' bijten man en drinken zijn bloed Twee mannen en een vrouw van rond de twintig zijn in Nieuw-Zeeland aangeklaagd voor het bijten van een man en het drinken van zijn bloed. De "vampieraanval" vond plaats aan Wellington's Mt Victoria. James Phillip Brooks (22), Gregoriana Borichevsky (19) en James Eric Orr


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(19) riskeren elk 14 jaar cel. Brooks zegt dat hij alleen gebeten heeft, en dat ze de man aanpakten omdat die geprobeerd had zijn lief te versieren. Orr verscheen niet in de rechtszaal, hij is nog op de vlucht voor de autoriteiten. Boeiend proces Het slachtoffer ging tijdens de aanval van zijn stokje. Hij blijft anoniem. De pleidooien in de rechtbank spreken wel tot de verbeelding. Zo kwamen verschillende specialisten vertellen wat er gebeurt als je iemand bijt en z'n bloed drinkt, terwijl anderen uitleg gaven over het fenomeen vampieren door de eeuwen heen en waarom sommige mensen ("een extreem kleine minderheid") denken dat ze een vampier zijn. Eén "expert" beweerde dat zes procent van de bevolking daadwerkelijk gelooft in vampieren, een andere stak de schuld op de recente hype met vampierenfils zoals Twilight, en nog een andere verklaarde dat aanhangers van de goth-cultuur aangetrokken zijn om zich als vampier te gedragen omdat het hun afkeer ten opzichte van de maatschappij te manifesteren. Saai was het in elk geval niet daar in de rechtszaal. (mvl)

BIBLIOGRAFIE

GREEN, Stanley; Broadway Musicals Show by Show, Hal Leonard Corporation, New York, 2008. McNALLY, Raymond T; FLORESCU, Radu; In Search of Dracula: The History of Dracula and Vampires, Houghton Mifflin Co., Boston, 1994. TREPTOW, Kurt T; Vlad III Dracula: The Life and Times of the Historical Dracula, Center of Romanian Studies, Portland Oregon, 2000. http://snarkerati.com/movie‐news/top‐70‐vampire‐movies‐of‐all‐time/ http://www.online‐literature.com/stoker/dracula/1/ http://www.ucs.mun.ca/~emiller/tepes.htm http://istina.rin.ru/eng/ufo/text/666.html http://www.monstropedia.org/index.php?title=Chiang‐shih (allen laatst geconsulteerd op 24 augustus 2010)

Dans der Vampieren Lesmap

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