The Fall of the House of Usher
1991

THE CHORUS
The chorus has often an unenviable role to play, often a distasteful task to perform:
summoned as witness to uncounted crime, she's the silent accomplice of all,
then she turns and comments on the action.

She hears...observes, but must never betray her emotions.
She moves...unseen, the characters oblivious of her presence; a simple stage device.

She cannot hide, cannot take sides.
It is her curse that she must stay and comment on the action...

A young man named Montresor lately received an urgent letter from a dear friend of childhood,
Roderick Usher by name,
in which his friend begged him to come with all speed to the family seat.

So, during the whole of a dull, dark and soundless day in the autumn of the year,
when the clouds hung oppressively low in the heavens,
he had been passing through a singularly dreary tract of country
'til he found himself, as the shades of night drew on,
within view of the melancholy house of Usher.

MONTRESOR
That must be the house. There is no other within many miles.
But surely not...it's just an empty shell, devoid of life;
a sterile outcrop of stone amid the mire.

But there can be no doubt, this is the house!
And yet it looks so dark, so forbidding, so dead.

That great crumbling facade, windows just like vacant eyes
that peer upon the stagnant, glistening blackness of the lake...
I have never seen anything like it!

The gloom, the rotting dankness of the place...
It must be my imagination, the darkness and the cold...

Yet still, far beneath the plane of thought and quite against my will,
my heart begins to tremble in mad anticipation of the House
and I am forced to recognise a consciousness of fear;
a cold and senseless fear,
nameless, formless, chilling to the bone...

No, it's just the leaden air that makes me forget myself, the weather and the dusk.
This must be all that sets my teeth on edge and the hairs at the nape of my neck to attention.

And what of his sister?
This does not speak of her
but I understand she, too, lives with him here in the House of Usher,
home of the family for five hundred years or more.
It's a strange place, a strange house, an even stranger clan;
all either saints or mad, not an ordinary man among them;
geniuses all...

But, all time-honoured as it is,
the Usher race has put forth no enduring branch.
And so from sire to son, from sire to son
the patrimony and the name have been passed.
Through all their ancestry no cousins, aunts of bastards
disturb the singular symmetry of the family tree.

Well then, so I am here; I have come; and it is too late, too dark to run.
But what a chilling sight, this palace crouching in the night...

Ah, there! A light!
I am awaited; I am expected;
I shall not disappoint my friend.

THE VOICES OF THE HOUSE
House. Wet Vaults. Caissons. We breathe...
Undercroft. Abutments. Stones. Wood. Breathe...
Buttresses. Bressumers. Spandrels. We Breathe...
Columns and Pillars. Shafts. Arches. Capitals. Breathe.....

We breathe. We are waiting.
We rise. We are waiting.
We are Usher. House of Usher.

Pilasters. Quoins. Piers.
Spandrels and columns that shaft through the years. House of Usher.
Wainscots. Stairs. Balusters. Cusps and Cornices.
Spandrels and Columns the capital years. House of Usher.

We breathe. We are waiting
We rise. We are waiting.
We are Usher. House of Usher.

Beams. Corbels. Joists. Kingposts. Copings and Chimney-shafts.
Ridge-ribs. Struts. Stanchions. Parapets. Pediments. Mansards and Gargoyles.
The eaves. The dripping eaves...
Cupola. Finials. Gables. Tiles. Lead...

We breathe. We are waiting.
We rise. We are waiting.
We are Usher. House of Usher.
We are Keystone. We are Usher.

RODERICK USHER ("The Sleeper")
The lady sleeps... oh, may her sleep
which is enduring so be deep!
Heaven hold her in its sacred keep!
This chamber changed for one more holy,
this bed for one of melancholy.
I pray to God that she may lie
forever with unopened eye
while the dim, sheeted ghosts go by.

My love, she sleeps. Oh, may her sleep
as it is lasting so be deep!
Soft may the worms around her creep!
Far in the forest, dim and old,
now may some tall vault enfold her;
some vault that oft hath flung its black
and winged panels fluttering back
triumphant o'er the crested palls
of her grand family funerals.....
 
 

USHER	MONTRESOR
	I didn't mean to interrupt...
Montresor, you came!
	Did you think I'd ignore your letter?
Montresor, you're here!  Come let me help you with your coat.  Sit down and rest yourself.  Oh, it's so good to see you here!  Now tell me all your news...  I see you've changed a bit, my friend...  Now won't you have a drink...
	Yes, yes  but one thing at a time!  First you must tell me what...
But I expect I too have changed.  How many years could it be now  since last we said farewell?
	It must be ten years  since our last meeting,
Yes, it must be ten years
since our last meetiing.	since our last meeting.  Tell me what is wrong?  Your letter spoke  of a malady;  some desperate trial  you could not face alone...
Oh, no, you tell me all your doings!
	Tell me.
Tell me  how you pass your days.	how you pass your days
Tell me  from the beginning.	from the beginning
Tell me  everything  that's happened  since we went our  separate ways.	everything  since we went our  separate ways.
Look at me...  I have not left these walls these three years,  I do not dare to do so!  I am imprisoned and fear is my gaoler.  Each word I speak seems too dangerous.  My slightest act could bring about  the very thing I fear.
	But fear of what?
Hush, and I shall tell you...  tell you...

USHER
I shun the light,
creep in the gloom like a toad, a white worm,
tortured by the faintest gleam of sun.
I hear...
oh God, if you could only know the things I hear!

I hear the lake sucking at the walls,
I hear bats breathing
I hear the sky moan to join with the slime!

And this,
all this like thunder to me,
like thunder!

My senses scream at me:
Sight... Touch... Sight... Touch...
Sound and Taste... Sound and Scent,
All torment and claw at my sanity.

There is no hiding place for me,
for even in the quietest of my rooms, I hear the walls in conversation;
I hear the palpitations of my heart;
I feel all that lives and does not move and know it knows my feeling.

My only peace lies in my music
and then only because it drowns out all other sounds and souls...

You may think that I am mad, but it is not so.
My senses reel beneath the blow of feathers falling
and more...
But no, I see you do not understand.

MONTRESOR
Oh, my poor dear friend, you must see you are not well.
I've read of this before, I think it's called Hyperaesthesis.
I'm no doctor, but it's clear your nerves have gone to pieces.
You need to get away,
you need a holiday,
you need a change of air!
You need an ocean cruise,
you need to be amused!
I tell you plain, this House to me seems most unhealthy.
You're unattached, you're free to go, you're wealthy.
 
 

USHER	MONTRESOR	THE CHORUS	THE HOUSE
	Leave this House.  Leave this House.  Leave this House and come away.  Leave this House
I cannot!
	Leave this House!
I cannot!
	Leave this House!
Here I must stay.  Here I must stay.
		You are wasting  your time.  He will never  leave...
I can never  leave here  therefore do  not ask me
say no more	I've heard of this before
and let me be	I think it's called Hyperaesthesis
I can never	I'm no doctor but it's clear
leave here	your nerves have gone to pieces
therefore do	your nerves have gone to pieces.
not ask me.
Say no more  and let me be  I cannot leave		He cannot leave
The House is I		The House is he
We are as one		They are as one
And I would die		and so must die
	Now you must leave
I		He cannot leave
cannot	Now you must fly
leave		The House is he
	Now you must run
The		They are as one
House is	No-one will die
I		And so must die
I cannot leave
	Now you must leave
		He cannot leave
The House is I
	Now you must fly
		The House is he
We are as one
	Now you must run
		and so must die
and so must die
	No-one will die
			We shall  not let  him go!
			We shall not
	Leave		let him go!
Do not torture me!	this		We shall not
Do not try to persuade!	House		let him go!

			We shall not
	Leave		let him go!
It only brings me grief	this		We shall not
	House		let him go!
	Leave this House		We shall not
I cannot leave			let him go!
			We shall not  let him go!  shall not let him go!
	Leave this House
I cannot
	Leave this House
I cannot
Leave this House	Leave this House
	and come with me
			We shall not  let him go.
	Leave this House
I cannot		Never, never
	Leave this House	never!
I cannot
	Leave this House
	and come with me	Never!	Never, never,
			never!
		Never!	Never, never,
			never!
I can never			We are bound
leave here			together
therefore do	for the last time		so never
not ask me	I entreat you	He shall	he shall
say no more		never leave	never leave
and let me be.			We are bound
			together
	for the last time		so never
	I entreat you	He shall	he shall
	Leave!	never leave	never leave.
Do not
talk to me			Never
do not try			never
to persuade	Leave!		never
		He shall	never
		never leave
	Leave this house

Oh Montresor			never never
I beg of you			never never
I can			never never
never leave			never never
I can never			never never
leave this house	Leave this house		never never
I can never		You are wasting	never never
leave this house	Leave this house	your time	never never
I can never		he will never	never never
leave this house	Leave!	leave	never never
			never!
The House
is I.

MADELINE
Carriages at seven
I shall wear the flower he gave me
It's so cold here
deep beneath the lapping water...

________The water
________The water
My love

Head against his shoulder,
'cross the lawn I hear the music...
________Silent blackness,
________In the lake I'm sinking slowly...
Oh, how lovely,
nothing could be more becoming...
________Underwater,
________floating in the icy darkness...
Count the candles
'May I dance with you this evening?'...
________On the surface
________swans are feeding high above me...
Hold him tightly
round and round the floor we're spinning...
________breathing water
________I am drowning
Watch the sun rise
driving home across the meadows...
________All is darkness
________I can feel myself dissolving

________The water
________The water
________The darkness
________The darkness
My love

Head against his shoulder
________Floating in the icy darkness
Hold him tightly
________I can feel myself dissolving
Oh how lovely
________Deep beneath the lapping water
Count the candles
________I am drowning I am drowning
Count the candles
________Floating in the icy darkness
Hold him tightly
________I can feel myself dissolving
Oh how lovely
________Deep beneath the lapping water
Count the candles
________I am drowning
Oh how lovely
________I am drowning I am drowning
Oh how lovely
Oh how lovely
Oh how lovely

MONTRESOR
Stop, Madeline. Look at me!
My god, man, what is wrong with her?

USHER
Yes, it's right you should know,
She is dying!
I have not dared to speak of it.
A chronic catalepsy had drained her of her youth.
I have watched her waste away and could do nothing!

A period of health is followed by sudden coma,
death-like sleep.
It can last a full day or more,
no movement, no colour, no flame in the cheeks.

MONTRESOR
What, then of these dreaming visions?

USHER
The recovery, ah, this is even worse!
She rises and moves about the house
but her mind still sleeps...
You see her now a mindless ghost:
Beautiful, dead eyes stare in sleep, unrecognising.
She speaks in dreams, sees only dreams,
she haunts the house in hideous sleepwalking
and may not be restrained, for like some automaton
she tirelessly thrusts and tears herself against her fetters, heedless of injury.
And so she walks and then she wakes,
remembering nothing, so weak that she can
barely build up strength before she is struck down again.

Month after month each attack worse than the last.
Death will not wait long.
Her final days are flickering past.
Dear God,
helpless,
helpless!

MONTRESOR
But what is the word from her doctors?
Do they hold out no hope, nor offer any treatment?

USHER	MONTRESOR	CHORUS
They do not understand  her case  and cannot treat a case  they do not understand
		He does not understand  You're dealing with a case
	Who is her doctor,  a specialist I trust?
Yes indeed, one of  the foremost rank
		You're dealing  with a case
	Then he will help her,
Montresor	oh, yes,
no more of this	he surely must	you do not understand
now
no more talk		He does not
of cures, please,		understand
or of doctors.  I bless you concern, but know that she  will walk no more tonight.  When she wakes soon she will need my care.  I must be there, so, dear friend, goodnight.

THE HERBALIST
Good evening, sir
And you must be the friend of Mister Usher.
I'm so pleased to meet you, sir, but have little time to spare
for knowledge such as mine is wanted everywhere.
In poor dwellings, yes, but some as great as Usher's.
My card...

MONTRESOR
'J. Ducrow, Esq. Herbalist,
Doctor of Natural Medicine'...

HERBALIST
At you service, and it could be, sir,
that you have need of my panaceas now...
I have Mandrake juice that will slake any fever,
cures to convince you though you be an unbeliever now...

Laugh - would you? - at these seeds of mine,
You question the cure's causes,
but Logic and Reason do not answer,
and Nature runs her courses.

I have purest poppy for the soundest of sleeps;
a pure cake of hemp plant
that's a warranted surcease of worldly sorrow.
Lying words will be believed
if perfumed by this pastil,
or my elixir's guaranteed
to bend the will of fairest womankind.

Scheme, would you, for a worldly gain?
Lust after a frigid virgin?
My herbs can grant your secret cravings
and my price is modest!

MONTRESOR
No! No!

HERBALIST
And my price is modest...

MONTRESOR
No, thank you! No!

HERBALIST
Oh it's very modest...

MONTRESOR
No, no thank you!
No!
No thank you,
No!

HERBALIST
Perhaps a poultice of Toadbane for weakness of the manly parts,
caused by too much wine, or age,
perhaps by over-frequent natural indulgence...

Applied with skill, it will
revive the fleshy passions of a corpse...
...of a corpse

MONTRESOR
I said no
I meant no!

HERBALIST
Well then, Good-day...

MONTRESOR
So that is Usher's idea of a doctor!
That wretched mountebank can't help them.
I confront madness face to face!
And whatever its cause, it lies within this place
I breathe an atmosphere of sorrow; an alien despair makes my courage fail,
like the collapse of an opium vision, the hideous dropping of the veil

CHORUS
Tormented by a thousand doubts and fancies, he will not sleep tonight.
Chilled by the gloom of his surroundings,
mortal, half-dead mortar.

MONTRESOR	CHORUS
	He will not sleep!
I see simple solutions,
	He will not sleep!
state them loud and clear,
but the echoes of the House	He will not sleep!
shout 'Unreason!'  the one thing that I fear.
	The evil that is done  cannot be undone.  The evil that will come  cannot be prevented.
	The evil that is done
Yet somehow I must help  these two tormented souls,
	cannot be undone.
for if I cannot, who will?
	The evil that will come
These are the friends  I've loved so dearly...
	cannot be prevented  Leave!
No! What a monstrous thought!
	Depart!
How could I even think of it!
	Go!
Abandon those who have need of me!
	Leave!
Oh, but what a temptation,
	Depart!
to run like a thief in the night,
	Go!
And yet now I cannot
because it is too late,	Before it is too late,
I feel myself bound up in	before you are bound up in
the web of fear and pain,	the web of fear and pain,
the evil that surrounds me.	the evil that surrounds you.
	It cannot be undone,  it cannot be undone.  The evil that will come  cannot be prevented.

MADELINE
That must be Montresor...
Good morning! Oh, how lovely to see you -
since Roderick told me you were coming
I have been so excited.
Now you are here, all will be well once more.
I was not here last night to greet you,
you must think me ill-mannered,
but sadly I am not enjoying the good health I used to...

MONTRESOR
Yes,
Madeline, I must confess it's hard finding words
that say what I feel...

MADELINE
Oh, Montresor, you're being solemn and it's all quite uncalled for.
I feel quite sure I'm growing stronger
and the doctor agrees with me -
so you see all will be well once more.

Five years ago we were a very different family,
but how things change!
Roderick and I were both living abroad when father died.
We both returned from Florence to take up Roderick's inheritance.
The House was dark and so full of sadness.

But you know my brother and how sensitive he is.
He lives in the music of his wild melodies.
Now as time went by so his songs grew sadder,
now he never smiled as he played.
Now he sings of death and some things even madder;
shuts himself away, brooding to himself, comes to me at night,
staring at my face 'till I feel afraid.

MADELINE	MONTRESOR
When I am better we must all holiday together
as in the old days.	Yes, you know
	how much I'd love that.
You would be good for us both,  as good for us both as before
	You look so much the same!
I must confess that you have changed...
Do you remember?	Everything.
	The fragile hour,  the silent walk with a friend.

MONTRESOR & MADELINE
As we walk so we tread
on the words left unsaid
I can't say them no matter how hard I try.

We chatter on, then the moment's gone,
the one for which I've hoped
and I've prayed and I've planned.
Stop the clock's advance!
I need a second chance,
I need that second's glance
when my hand touched you hand.

I'd take you in my arms and say 'I love you'
but it won't come back to me.

It's over now,
it's over now,
it's over now, you see.

If I hadn't been afraid to touch you
would you have been afraid to fall in love with me?
Would it be over?
Would it be over now?
Perhaps it wouldn't be.

And each hour limits choice
in so gentle a voice
'till the hour that we realise no choice remains.

So we await
just one chance to cheat our fate,
but then if we hesitate
we lose the power to act at all.
For once that moment's past
we simply stand aghast
as life rolls to disaster
and we stand and watch it fall.
I'd take you in my arms and say 'I love you'
but I think we both agree.

It's over now,
it's over now, you see.
It's over now,
it's over now, you see.

If I hadn't been afraid to touch you
would you have been afraid to fall in love with me?
Would it be over?
Would it be over now?
Perhaps it wouldn't be.

If I hadn't been afraid to touch you
would you have been afraid to fall in love with me?
Would it be over?
Would it be over now?
The way it seems to be.

USHER	MONTRESOR
Yes, she does not know yet;
	Perhaps for the best
so sure she will recover
and so full of life	full of life
full of life,
my brave	my brave
Madeline	Madeline
This House devours her
	so take her from this place
preparing the final torment
of its empty space	empty space
a silent, empty space	silent empty space
without
	without
Madeline	Madeline
Madeline
	This is only a house my friend

USHER
Which, by dint of long an undisturbed endurance,
by its mere form and substance,
has obtained an influence, a silent yet importunate and terrifying hold
which, for centuries,
has moulded the destiny of my family and now makes of me whatever it is I am.

The House is Usher and Usher is the House: the two are indivisible.
It was born with us, prospered with us, suffered too.
And it will, in some way, die with us, soon.

I am the last of the Usher,
mine is the last drop of Usher blood,
The last of the Usher!

The House has told me in midnight breathings from my chamber walls,
the House has told me in the secret murmur of the stones that none can hear save I.

I am the last of the Usher,
my sister's death shall leave me so;
I am the last of the Usher,
so in Usher's House I will wait alone.

MONTRESOR
Roderick, this is nightmare talk.
Come back with me, both of you, while you're yet able.
You can't stay here and rot!

USHER
There will be no rot!
No rot in Usher!
We have lived with thunder, and with thunder shall we fall!

MONTRESOR
I cannot make you come but hear what I say.
Send Madeline with me to some healthy place.

USHER
No rot! No rot in Usher!
We have lived by lightning and by lightning shall we fall!

No slide into slow decay,
no shrivelling splendour
no gradual ebbing away,
no quiet surrender!

No rot! No rot in Usher!
We have lived as Titans and as Titans we must fall!

USHER	MONTRESOR
Don't talk of rot
	Stop!
No rot in Usher!
	Stop!
	Roderick, try and calm yourself
Just tell me why I should!	this cannot do you good.
	These thoughts...
No!
	are folly.
No!
Everything I've tried to	I have tried to help you
tell you, you've misunderstood	I've done everything I could.
Come, why should we fight  this way  we have enough troubles.
What was it we used to say?	What was it we used to say?
A problem shared is doubled!	A problem shared is doubled!
Ushers do not flee!	Ushers to not flee!
Montresors stand firm!	Montresors stand firm!
So we stand together,	So we stand together,
stand together	stand together
By dint of long  and undisturbed endurance...
	we could defeat the House,  my friend.

VOICES OF THE HOUSE
We shall not
let him go!
We shall not let him go!

CHORUS
Late that evening the Lady Madeline
again succumbed to the power
of her dark affliction.
Her brother and her friend sat by her
and Montresor, although familiar with many
of the gross and wonderful
phenomena of morbid flesh
marvelled at the depth and completeness of her coma.
Life so exactly mirroring death that only the merest of involuntary pulses
betrayed the presence of a Spirit hiding within.
In the cold hours before dawn they broke their vigil
and Montresor retired to a restless sleep
only to be woken as a grey light spread from the east
across the leaden tarn.

USHER
Montresor,
she is dead.

She is dead,
I sat by her,
I watched her;
I am alone.

USHER, MONTRESOR, HERBALIST
That she should die so,
that she should die so young,
fate is cruel, fate is hard.

Why must innocence be punished?
Need a flower fall so fast?
Why must innocence be punished?
Was her soul too good to last?
Now the punishment is finished
And the fever... the fever called 'Living'...
that fever's conquered at last.

USHER
Will you do something for me?

MONTRESOR
With all my heart

USHER
I wish my sister to be entombed
in one of the vaults beneath the House.

The family burial ground is remote,
to lead her cortege there would require a strength of will I do not command.
Will you help me bear her?

MONTRESOR
Of course, of course I will...

USHER
Come then, before I fully realise my loss.

CHORUS
Three endless days of bitter grief passed
and Montresor abandoned any attempt to cheer his friend.
Then came a sudden change in Usher's
demeanour, whose significance he was soon to comprehend.

Now Usher stands for hour on hour
with head inclined and eyes half-closed, as if beneath the deep and sullen silence
a sound exists for which he listens; a sound without end.

Now Usher walks for hour on hour.
With ashen face and trembling step, he climbs each stair,
he climbs each tower; still hears it there.

CHORUS AND THE VOICES OF THE HOUSE
No. It's only the
beating of the heart,
heart of the House of Usher,
beating of the heart,
heart of the House of Usher.

USHER	MONTRESOR
	Roderick is that you?
I could not sleep.
	Nor I.  Listen to the storm!  Did you ever hear  such a dreadful sound?
Indeed.  Indeed I have!  But this sound you can hear;  the tempest beats upon the House  as it would beat upon a drum,  that is no sound to fear.  For the sounds to fear
	It beats upon the house.
walk softly when they come
	The thunder seems so near
But it's only the	But it's only the
beating of the heart,	beating of the heart,
heart of the House of Usher.	heart of the House of Usher.

USHER	MONTRESOR	VOICES OF THE HOUSE
	Oh the lake is	Beating of the heart,
	in frenzy, I	heart of the House
	can feel the waves	of Usher,
	beat on the walls	Beating of the heart
The breaking of the heart!		heart of the House
	These giant stones	of Usher.
	are trembling in	Beating of the heart
	the savage lashing	heart of the House
	of the storm.	of Usher.
The breaking of the heart!		Beating of the heart
		heart of the House  of Usher.
Why is that other sound		The House
not hidden by		of Usher
echoes of the storm?		shall stand.
		The House
But understand we only		of Usher
hear the House		shall stand.
Speaking of a storm.		The House
This is the storm itself!		of Usher
		shall stand.  The House of Usher  The House of Usher

MONTRESOR
We've seen enough, I'll close the window.
The gale is chill and grows yet stronger.
These walls are shaking!
You shall play something for me;
you shall play and I shall listen,
so we will pass away this dreadful night.

USHER
Yes I shall play,
yes, I shall play!

("The Haunted Palace")

In the greenest of our valleys
by good angels tenanted
once a fair and stately palace -
radiant palace - reared its head.
In the monarch, Thought's dominion
like a jewel it stood there.
Never seraph spread a pinion
over fabric half so fair.

Wanderers in that happy valley
through two luminous windows saw
spirits moving musically
to a lute's well-tuned law,
round about a throne where sitting,
side by side with his fair queen,
in state his glory well befitting,
the ruler of the realm was seen.

USHER	MONTRESOR
	Wait!  Did you hear it?  What was it?
It's nothing.
	What was that  distant sound?
I say, I heard nothing

All with pearl and ruby glowing
was the glorious palace door
through which came flowing, flowing,
flowing and sparkling evermore
a troop of echoes, whose sweet duty
night and day was but to sing
in voices of surpassing beauty
the wit and wisdom of their king.

USHER	MONTRESOR
	No!  There's something,  I heard it  quite clear,
It's nothing	a voice crying.
I say  but the wind!  You heard the wind,
just heard	Within the House!
the wild wind crying.

But evil things, in robes of sorrow
assailed the monarch's high estate;
let us mourn, for never morrow
dawn upon him, desolate;
round about his home the glory
that had always blushed and bloomed
is but a dim-remembered story
of the olden time entombed.

USHER	MONTRESOR
	There!  Yes, you heard it!  There is someone else -
There's nothing	something else
I say,	down there!
You hear nothing!  There's no-one there.
It is the storm	Are we
that you hear.	alone here?

Travellers now within that valley
through red-litten windows see
vast forms that move fantastically
to a discordant melody
while like a rapid, ghastly river
through the ever open door
a hideous throng rush out forever
and laugh - but smile no more!
And laugh - but smile no more!
And laugh - but smile no more!

USHER
No! No! No!

Yes, I hear it! Yes, I have heard it
long, long - many minutes, many hours, but I dared not speak:
I tell you I dared not speak.

No more cant from you,
you thick-skinned obtuse fool, damn your compassion!
For now I say you will hear the wicked truth
We put her living in the tomb!
But I dared not, I dared not speak!
Yes, have I not heard her footsteps on the stair?
Yes, do I not distinguish the heavy and horrible beating of her heart?
Yes, she is coming.
She has woken in the darkness, in her mindless, relentless strength.
Now she has broken from the tomb.
Now she has burst from the tomb.

Days ago I heard her first feeble movements in the hollow coffin -
said I not that my senses were acute?
I heard the scraping, the scraping of her nails - but I dared not, I dared not speak!
Madman! Madman!
I tell you that she now comes towards the door!
 
 

USHER	MONTRESOR	CHORUS	VOICES OF THE HOUSE
	No, what a		House
	Monstrous thought!		We
	Now the punishment		breathe!
	is finished.	The evil that	House
	You said	is done	we are!
	she was dead...	cannot be	We
	You watched	undone.	could not
	her dying!
It's over now		It's over now
	What evil have		let
	you done?	It could not
		be prevented	them go!
	God, what a  monstrous thought!
It's over now		It's over now.	We
		The evil that
	Why must innocence	is done	could
	be punished?
	Could this have		not
	been prevented?
It's over now		It's over now
	The evil that	The evil that	We
	is done...	is done	could not
		could not
		be prevented	let
	could this have	could never
	been prevented?	be prevented
			them go!
I dare not	could this have	it could not
I dared not speak!	been prevented?	be prevented!
Madman!  Madman!  I tell you  that she now stands  outside the door!

USHER	MADELINE	MONTRESOR	CHORUS
	I'm looking
Now,		No,
Madeline!		Madeline!
	I have counted  to a hundred  with my eyes closed  and I'm coming
I am the last	now to find you...		Leave!
of the Usher!			Depart!
my sister's death			Go!
shall leave me so.
	Where are you	It's over now
	hiding?
I am		If I wasn't so
the last		afraid I'd
Usher	Roderick	touch her	Leave!
I feel	where are you?	It's over now	Depart!
the sky		I see.	Go!
	Now he sings
	of death,	the evil	the evil
	some things even	that is done	that is one
I feel	madder	cannot be	cannot be
the sky		undone	undone
moan	shuts himself away	the evil	the evil
to join	shuts himself away	that is come	that is come
with the slime!
	He shut	could not	could not
	himself away!	be prevented.	be prevented.

 
 

THE VOICES OF THE HOUSE

beams	buttresses	plaster	copings	We	We
corbels	bressumers	quoins	chimney-	breath	are
joists	arches	wainscot	shafts	We rise	Usher
king-posts	piers	stairs	parapets
ridge-ribs	spandrels	banister	pediments
struts	columns	cusps	mansard
stanchions		cornices	gargoyle
king-posts			eaves

 
 
 

[Discografia PH 70 | VdGG] Discografia PH 80 | Discografia PH 90 | PH]