See "Whirlpool" in the Britannica.
105. 2. what a scene it was to light up! Interest in the
narrative should not hurry the reader too much to appreciate this
scene,--the magnificent setting of the adventure.
109. 10. tottering bridge, etc.: Al Sirat, the bridge from
earth over the abyss of hell to the Mohammedan paradise. It is as
narrow as a sword's edge, and while the good traverse it in safety,
the wicked plunge to torment.
111. 35. Archimedes of Syracuse (i.e. 287--212) was the
greatest of ancient mathematicians; the work to which Poe refers deals
with floating bodies.
THE MASQUE OF THE RED DEATH (Page 113)
First published in _Graham's Magazine_ for May, 1842 (see comment in
the Introduction, page xxvii).
113. The "Red Death" is a product of Poe's own imagination;
there is no record of such a disease in medical history.
113. 3. avatar: a word from Hindoo mythology, in which it means
an incarnation. The word is used here in its secondary sense,--a
visible manifestation.
113. 11. This paragraph suggests the circumstances under which
Boccaccio represents the stories of his famous "Decameron." A
comparison will be interesting.
116. 3. decora: possibly used as a plural of "decorum,"
propriety; probably it is intended to suggest ornamentation.
116. 14. Hernani: a well-known tragedy by the great French
writer, Victor Hugo (1802-1885).
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