I am just very curious about what the inscription at the beginning of The Pit and the Pendulum means. Does anyone know anywhere online that i could find this answer? Does it have any significance to the story? I am guessing it must. Thanks

-- Anonymous, February 16, 2000

Answers

Response to iscription at beginning of The Pit and the Pendulum

It is roughly translated from Latin to this:

"Here in the impious clamor of the torturers, insatiate, fed long its rage of innocent blood. Now happy is the land, destroyed the pit of horror; and where grim death stalked, life and health are revealed."

This was the quatrain composed for the gates of a market to be erected upon the site of the Jacobin Club House at Paris. The Jacobin Club a society of French revolutionists who were in power during the reign of terror. The passage comes to relate that once, innocent people were killed at this place, but now it shall flow with life.

Like most of his opening sentances, Edgar seems to set the mood with this line. Understanding them becomes vital to knowing why the peice was written.

-- Anonymous, February 21, 2000