The Iron Shroud
Encyclopedia
"The Iron Shroud" or less commonly known as the "Italian Revenge" is a short story
of Gothic fiction
written by William Mudford
in 1830 and published in Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine and also as a twenty four page chapbook
.
It is a classic predicament
story about a noble Italian
hero who is confined in a continuously and imperceptibly contracting iron torture chamber
. In the story, the chamber walls and ceiling are slowly contracting, through mechanical means, to the point of eventually crushing and enveloping the victim, thus metaphor
ically becoming his iron shroud. The story is considered to have provided Edgar Allan Poe
with the idea of the shrinking cell in his short story "The Pit and the Pendulum
" and it is viewed as Mudford's most famous tale.
The story takes place in the torture chamber of Tolfi castle in Sicily
. The hero of the story is Vivenzio who is confined into an iron cell built deep inside solid rock by the revenge-seeking Prince of Tolfi. Vivenzio is portrayed as a noble man, a warrior and hero of Naples
but one who fell out of favour with the Prince of Tolfi and now he was about to be subjected to the subtle and remorseless punishment of the Prince. Unbeknownst to the victim, the ceiling and walls of the cell, made of smooth black iron, are imperceptibly contracting through mechanical action. At first the noble victim is unaware of the contracting action of the walls. With the passage of time however the prisoner becomes aware through visual cues that something is afoot. He notices that the irregularly spaced windows of the chamber start decreasing in number each passing day. With only two days left Vivenzio notices an inscription on the iron walls of his cell. The message was written by the engineer of the iron cell, Ludovico Sforza. Sforza explained in his message that at the command of the prince of Tolfi he created the mechanical cell in three years' time. When the chamber was completed, Tolfi ordered the incarceration and death of Sforza in the very chamber he had created. Through a deadly countdown the windows continue decreasing in number, from seven at the beginning of the story, until the end when only one window is left and the iron walls and ceiling contract around him enveloping him in a lethal embrace; the bed in his cell having transformed through mechanical spring action into a "funeral couch or bier
". Ominously a large bell starts tolling loudly and frequently near the end, as his death approaches. The victim's ears are pierced by the sound and the bier gets crushed as the walls reach their final contraction. The flattened bier becomes the iron shroud of Vivenzio's dead body.
mentions that the "Iron Shroud" belongs in a type of horror story which is all the more striking because it is based on natural effects and not on the supernatural
. She describes the suspense in the story as "ingeniously maintained" as the windows disappear one by one until the walls and the "ponderous roof", all finally collapse upon the victim.
In the "Iron Shroud" the hero, Vivenzio, is aware that he will eventually die. The only remaining question is the mode of his death. The uncertainty over the method of the execution and the manner of death creates the narrative tension. As he observes the windows disappearing one by one, he finally realises the method of his death:
J. M. S. Tompkins in his 1927 work "Jane Eyre's 'Iron Shroud'" attributes the metaphor used by Charlotte Brontë
in the thirty-fourth chapter of her work Jane Eyre
:
to the direct influence of Mudford's story. Jerrold E. Hogle in The Cambridge Companion to Gothic Fiction comes to the same conclusion as Tompkins and adds that the young Brontës were avid readers of Blackwood's Magazine
.
John H. Collins
, analysing the influence of Mudford's work, comments that "the Shroud story is a first rate piece of writing comparable to the best half-dozen works by Poe" and that "it should not just be dismissed as a mere potboiler which the genius of Poe transformed." He goes on to mention that he thinks many readers mistakenly think that the "Iron Shroud" is one of Poe's works thus further strengthening Poe's reputation by attributing to him a story that he actually plagiarised.
Edith Birkhead
calls the "Iron Shroud" a "skillfully constructed" story and mentions that Mudford has been described by Sir Walter Scott
as an author who "loves to play at cherry-pit with Satan."; a Shakespearean expression used to indicate familiarity with the Devil.
Alexander Hammond, Associate Professor and Vice Chair of the Department of
English at Washington State University, in his essay "Subverting Interpretation:
Poe’s Geometry in “The Pit and the Pendulum”" suggests that Mudford's countdown of windows in the "Iron Shroud" may have influenced Poe in using numerical and geometrical clues in the "Pit and the Pendulum" to confuse and frighten his narrator.
Elizabeth Gaskell
, in Mary Barton
describes an Italian torture chamber where the victim is afforded many luxuries at first but in the end the walls of the cell start closing in and finally they crush him. It is believed that the story has been influenced by the "Iron Shroud". Stephen Derry mentions that Gaskell uses the concept of the shrinking cell to describe John Barton's state of mind but also added the element of luxury in order to further enhance it:
Derry further mentions that Mrs. Gaskell's readers were familiar with the story of "The Iron Shroud" as was Charlotte Brontë.
In the September 1929 issue of Popular Mechanics
an article by Harold T. Wilkins
titled "Secrets of Ancient Torture Chambers" describes the [fictitious] shrinking torture chamber at the Tolfi castle in Sicily
as an example of an ancient torture chamber
and proposes a mechanical model to account for the contracting action of the chamber.
Short story
A short story is a work of fiction that is usually written in prose, often in narrative format. This format tends to be more pointed than longer works of fiction, such as novellas and novels. Short story definitions based on length differ somewhat, even among professional writers, in part because...
of Gothic fiction
Gothic fiction
Gothic fiction, sometimes referred to as Gothic horror, is a genre or mode of literature that combines elements of both horror and romance. Gothicism's origin is attributed to English author Horace Walpole, with his 1764 novel The Castle of Otranto, subtitled "A Gothic Story"...
written by William Mudford
William Mudford
William Mudford , was a British writer, essayist, translator of literary works and journalist. He also wrote critical and philosophical essays and reviews. His 1829 novel The Five Nights of St. Albans: A Romance of the Sixteenth Century received a good review from John Gibson Lockhart, an...
in 1830 and published in Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine and also as a twenty four page chapbook
Chapbook
A chapbook is a pocket-sized booklet. The term chap-book was formalized by bibliophiles of the 19th century, as a variety of ephemera , popular or folk literature. It includes many kinds of printed material such as pamphlets, political and religious tracts, nursery rhymes, poetry, folk tales,...
.
It is a classic predicament
A Predicament (short story)
"A Predicament" is a humorous short story by Edgar Allan Poe, usually combined with its companion piece "How to Write a Blackwood Article." It was originally titled "The Scythe of Time".-Plot summary:...
story about a noble Italian
Italian people
The Italian people are an ethnic group that share a common Italian culture, ancestry and speak the Italian language as a mother tongue. Within Italy, Italians are defined by citizenship, regardless of ancestry or country of residence , and are distinguished from people...
hero who is confined in a continuously and imperceptibly contracting iron torture chamber
Torture chamber
A torture chamber is a room where torture is inflicted.- Methods of coercion :According to Frederick Howard Wines in his book Punishment and Reformation: A Study Of The Penitentiary System there were three main types of coercion employed in the torture chamber: Coercion by the cord, by water and...
. In the story, the chamber walls and ceiling are slowly contracting, through mechanical means, to the point of eventually crushing and enveloping the victim, thus metaphor
Metaphor
A metaphor is a literary figure of speech that uses an image, story or tangible thing to represent a less tangible thing or some intangible quality or idea; e.g., "Her eyes were glistening jewels." Metaphor may also be used for any rhetorical figures of speech that achieve their effects via...
ically becoming his iron shroud. The story is considered to have provided Edgar Allan Poe
Edgar Allan Poe
Edgar Allan Poe was an American author, poet, editor and literary critic, considered part of the American Romantic Movement. Best known for his tales of mystery and the macabre, Poe was one of the earliest American practitioners of the short story and is considered the inventor of the detective...
with the idea of the shrinking cell in his short story "The Pit and the Pendulum
The Pit and the Pendulum
"The Pit and the Pendulum" is a short story written by Edgar Allan Poe and first published in 1842 in the literary annual The Gift: A Christmas and New Year's Present for 1843. The story is about the torments endured by a prisoner of the Spanish Inquisition, though Poe skews historical facts. The...
" and it is viewed as Mudford's most famous tale.
Plot summary
| "As he lay gathered up in lessened bulk, the bell beat loud and frequent--crash succeeded crash -- and on, and on, and on came the mysterious engine of death, till Vivenzio's smothered groans were heard no more! He was horribly crushed by the ponderous roof and collapsing sides--and the flattened bier was his Iron Shroud." |
| William Mudford in the "Iron Shroud" |
The story takes place in the torture chamber of Tolfi castle in Sicily
Sicily
Sicily is a region of Italy, and is the largest island in the Mediterranean Sea. Along with the surrounding minor islands, it constitutes an autonomous region of Italy, the Regione Autonoma Siciliana Sicily has a rich and unique culture, especially with regard to the arts, music, literature,...
. The hero of the story is Vivenzio who is confined into an iron cell built deep inside solid rock by the revenge-seeking Prince of Tolfi. Vivenzio is portrayed as a noble man, a warrior and hero of Naples
Naples
Naples is a city in Southern Italy, situated on the country's west coast by the Gulf of Naples. Lying between two notable volcanic regions, Mount Vesuvius and the Phlegraean Fields, it is the capital of the region of Campania and of the province of Naples...
but one who fell out of favour with the Prince of Tolfi and now he was about to be subjected to the subtle and remorseless punishment of the Prince. Unbeknownst to the victim, the ceiling and walls of the cell, made of smooth black iron, are imperceptibly contracting through mechanical action. At first the noble victim is unaware of the contracting action of the walls. With the passage of time however the prisoner becomes aware through visual cues that something is afoot. He notices that the irregularly spaced windows of the chamber start decreasing in number each passing day. With only two days left Vivenzio notices an inscription on the iron walls of his cell. The message was written by the engineer of the iron cell, Ludovico Sforza. Sforza explained in his message that at the command of the prince of Tolfi he created the mechanical cell in three years' time. When the chamber was completed, Tolfi ordered the incarceration and death of Sforza in the very chamber he had created. Through a deadly countdown the windows continue decreasing in number, from seven at the beginning of the story, until the end when only one window is left and the iron walls and ceiling contract around him enveloping him in a lethal embrace; the bed in his cell having transformed through mechanical spring action into a "funeral couch or bier
Bier
A bier is a stand on which a corpse, coffin or casket containing a corpse, is placed to lie in state or to be carried to the grave.In Christian burial, the bier is often placed in the centre of the nave with candles surrounding it, and remains in place during the funeral.The bier is a flat frame,...
". Ominously a large bell starts tolling loudly and frequently near the end, as his death approaches. The victim's ears are pierced by the sound and the bier gets crushed as the walls reach their final contraction. The flattened bier becomes the iron shroud of Vivenzio's dead body.
Analysis
Edith BirkheadEdith Birkhead
Edith Birkhead was a lecturer in English Literature at the University of Bristol and a Noble Fellow at the University of Liverpool. She wrote a pioneering work on Gothic literature: The Tale of Terror...
mentions that the "Iron Shroud" belongs in a type of horror story which is all the more striking because it is based on natural effects and not on the supernatural
Supernatural
The supernatural or is that which is not subject to the laws of nature, or more figuratively, that which is said to exist above and beyond nature...
. She describes the suspense in the story as "ingeniously maintained" as the windows disappear one by one until the walls and the "ponderous roof", all finally collapse upon the victim.
In the "Iron Shroud" the hero, Vivenzio, is aware that he will eventually die. The only remaining question is the mode of his death. The uncertainty over the method of the execution and the manner of death creates the narrative tension. As he observes the windows disappearing one by one, he finally realises the method of his death:
"Yes, yes, that is to be my fate! Yon roof will descend!--these walls will hem me round--and, slowly, slowly, crush me in their iron arms! Lord God! look down upon me, and in mercy strike me with instant death! Oh, fiend--oh, devil--is this your revenge?"The "iron arms" analogy is apt because in the end the mechanical cell will replace everything Vivenzio knew while incarcerated, including his body. His bed, his bier, his iron shroud and even his skeleton which will eventually turn to dust, will disappear because they will all be crushed. Everything will be replaced in the end by the iron walls of the cell, as if there were an exchange of bodies between Vivenzio and the iron cell. In fact the mind of the victim collapses in fear and enacts his death before it actually happens, thus in itself becoming an instrument of oppression and torture.
Response and critical reception
Charlotte Brontë
Charlotte Brontë was an English novelist and poet, the eldest of the three Brontë sisters who survived into adulthood, whose novels are English literature standards...
in the thirty-fourth chapter of her work Jane Eyre
Jane Eyre
Jane Eyre is a novel by English writer Charlotte Brontë. It was published in London, England, in 1847 by Smith, Elder & Co. with the title Jane Eyre. An Autobiography under the pen name "Currer Bell." The first American edition was released the following year by Harper & Brothers of New York...
:
to the direct influence of Mudford's story. Jerrold E. Hogle in The Cambridge Companion to Gothic Fiction comes to the same conclusion as Tompkins and adds that the young Brontës were avid readers of Blackwood's Magazine
Blackwood's Magazine
Blackwood's Magazine was a British magazine and miscellany printed between 1817 and 1980. It was founded by the publisher William Blackwood and was originally called the Edinburgh Monthly Magazine. The first number appeared in April 1817 under the editorship of Thomas Pringle and James Cleghorn...
.
John H. Collins
John H. Collins
John H. Collins was an American classical scholar.Born in Anaconda, Montana, he attended the University of Illinois and Cornell University, and in 1952 received his doctorate in classical history from Goethe University in Frankfurt-am-Main where he studied under Professor Matthias Gelzer, then a...
, analysing the influence of Mudford's work, comments that "the Shroud story is a first rate piece of writing comparable to the best half-dozen works by Poe" and that "it should not just be dismissed as a mere potboiler which the genius of Poe transformed." He goes on to mention that he thinks many readers mistakenly think that the "Iron Shroud" is one of Poe's works thus further strengthening Poe's reputation by attributing to him a story that he actually plagiarised.
Edith Birkhead
Edith Birkhead
Edith Birkhead was a lecturer in English Literature at the University of Bristol and a Noble Fellow at the University of Liverpool. She wrote a pioneering work on Gothic literature: The Tale of Terror...
calls the "Iron Shroud" a "skillfully constructed" story and mentions that Mudford has been described by Sir Walter Scott
Walter Scott
Sir Walter Scott, 1st Baronet was a Scottish historical novelist, playwright, and poet, popular throughout much of the world during his time....
as an author who "loves to play at cherry-pit with Satan."; a Shakespearean expression used to indicate familiarity with the Devil.
Alexander Hammond, Associate Professor and Vice Chair of the Department of
English at Washington State University, in his essay "Subverting Interpretation:
Poe’s Geometry in “The Pit and the Pendulum”" suggests that Mudford's countdown of windows in the "Iron Shroud" may have influenced Poe in using numerical and geometrical clues in the "Pit and the Pendulum" to confuse and frighten his narrator.
Elizabeth Gaskell
Elizabeth Gaskell
Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell, née Stevenson , often referred to simply as Mrs Gaskell, was a British novelist and short story writer during the Victorian era...
, in Mary Barton
Mary Barton
Mary Barton is the first novel by English author Elizabeth Gaskell, published in 1848. The story is set in the English city of Manchester during the 1830s and 1840s and deals heavily with the difficulties faced by the Victorian lower class.-Plot summary:...
describes an Italian torture chamber where the victim is afforded many luxuries at first but in the end the walls of the cell start closing in and finally they crush him. It is believed that the story has been influenced by the "Iron Shroud". Stephen Derry mentions that Gaskell uses the concept of the shrinking cell to describe John Barton's state of mind but also added the element of luxury in order to further enhance it:
Derry further mentions that Mrs. Gaskell's readers were familiar with the story of "The Iron Shroud" as was Charlotte Brontë.
In the September 1929 issue of Popular Mechanics
Popular Mechanics
Popular Mechanics is an American magazine first published January 11, 1902 by H. H. Windsor, and has been owned since 1958 by the Hearst Corporation...
an article by Harold T. Wilkins
Harold T. Wilkins
-Biography:Educated at Cambridge University in journalism, Wilkins regularly reported on the early television experiments of John L. Baird, during the years 1926—1932....
titled "Secrets of Ancient Torture Chambers" describes the [fictitious] shrinking torture chamber at the Tolfi castle in Sicily
Sicily
Sicily is a region of Italy, and is the largest island in the Mediterranean Sea. Along with the surrounding minor islands, it constitutes an autonomous region of Italy, the Regione Autonoma Siciliana Sicily has a rich and unique culture, especially with regard to the arts, music, literature,...
as an example of an ancient torture chamber
Torture chamber
A torture chamber is a room where torture is inflicted.- Methods of coercion :According to Frederick Howard Wines in his book Punishment and Reformation: A Study Of The Penitentiary System there were three main types of coercion employed in the torture chamber: Coercion by the cord, by water and...
and proposes a mechanical model to account for the contracting action of the chamber.
External links
- "The Iron Shroud" at Project GutenbergProject GutenbergProject Gutenberg is a volunteer effort to digitize and archive cultural works, to "encourage the creation and distribution of eBooks". Founded in 1971 by Michael S. Hart, it is the oldest digital library. Most of the items in its collection are the full texts of public domain books...