# King Pest explained — Short Fiction

> Chapter companion for Short Fiction by Edgar Allan Poe.

## What happens

Two drunken seamen, Legs and Hugh Tarpaulin, flee from a tavern and stumble into a plague-quarantined district of London. They break into an undertaker's shop where they encounter a grotesque company of six figures seated around a table, presided over by a gaunt, emaciated figure in a pall and hearse-plumes.

## Themes in this chapter

### Death and Mortality

The plague-ridden district, skeletons, corpses, and the undertaker's shop underscore the omnipresence of death.

### The Supernatural and the Gothic

The eerie, desolate setting and the grotesque, almost spectral company in the undertaker's shop evoke a Gothic atmosphere.

## Character check-ins

### Hugh Tarpaulin

A short, stout seaman who accompanies Legs into the plague district and the undertaker's shop.

### Unknown Narrator

The narrator describes the adventures of Legs and Tarpaulin, and the scene in the undertaker's shop.

## Key lines

> At the epoch of this eventful tale, and periodically, for many years before and after, all England, but more especially the metropolis, resounded with the fearful cry of 'Plague!'

During the time of this story, and for many years around it, the cry of 'Plague!' was heard throughout England, especially in London.

_Establishes the historical context of the plague._

> The room within which they found themselves proved to be the shop of an undertaker; but an open trapdoor, in a corner of the floor near the entrance, looked down upon a long range of wine-cellars, whose depths the occasional sound of bursting bottles proclaimed to be well stored with their appropriate contents.

The room they entered was an undertaker's shop, with a trapdoor revealing wine cellars below, from which the sound of bursting bottles indicated they were well stocked.

_Describes the macabre yet ironically festive setting._

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/short_fiction_14_se/chapters/king-pest
- Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/short_fiction_14_se
- All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/short_fiction_14_se/chapters