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''The English Mail-Coach'' is an essay by the English author Thomas De Quincey. A "three-part masterpiece" and "one of his most magnificent works,"〔Judson S. Lyon, ''Thomas De Quincey'', New York, Twayne, 1969; pp. 63, 76.〕 it first appeared in 1849 in ''Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine'', in the October (Part I) and December (Parts II and III) issues. The essay is divided into three sections: *Part I, "The Glory of Motion," is devoted to a lavish description of the mail coach system then in use in England, and the sensations of riding on the outside upper seats of the coaches (in the author's often opium-tinged perceptions). With many digressions (on subjects ranging from Chaucer's poetry to a comparison of the River Thames with the Mississippi), De Quincey discusses the "grandeur and power" of the mail-coach ride; prior to the invention of the railroad, the mail coach represented the ultimate in transportation, in speed and force and controlled energy. Perhaps the most memorable and frequently-cited portion of Part I is De Quincey's comparison of one veteran mail-coachman to a crocodile. The crocodile-coachman's pretty granddaughter is memorialized as "Fanny of the Bath Road." * *The concluding portion of Part I is set apart under the subtitle "Going Down with Victory," and relates the author's sensations as the mail coaches spread news of English victories in the Napoleonic Wars across England — though simultaneously spreading grief, as women learn the fates of men lost in battle. *Part II, "The Vision of Sudden Death," deals in great detail with a near-accident that occurred one night while De Quincey, intoxicated with opium, was riding on an outside seat of a mail coach. The driver fell asleep and the massive coach nearly collided with a gig bearing a young couple. *Part III, "Dream Fugue, Founded on the Preceding Theme of Sudden Death," is devoted to De Quincey's opium dreams and reveries that elaborated on the elements of Parts I and II, the mail coaches, the near accident, national victory and grief. Beginning with a quotation from ''Paradise Lost'' and a clarion ''"Tumultuosissimamente"'', the author introduces his theme of sudden death, and relates five dreams or visions of intense and exalted emotion and radiant language. * *I — At sea, a great English man-of-war encounters a graceful pinnace filled with young women, including one mysterious, recurring, archetypal figure from the narrator's visionary experience. * *II — In a storm at sea, the man-of-war nearly collides with a frigate, the mysterious woman clinging among its shrouds. * *III — At dawn, the narrator follows the woman along a beach, only to see her overwhelmed by shifting sands. * *IV — The narrator finds himself borne with others in a "triumphal car," racing miles through the night as "restless anthems, and Te Deums reverberated from the choirs and orchestras of earth." The "secret word" — ''"Waterloo and Recovered Christendom!"'' — passes before them. The car enters an enormous cosmic cathedral; with three blasts from a Dying Trumpeter, the mysterious female reappears with a spectre of death and her "better angel," his face hidden in his wings. * *V — With "heart-shattering music" from the "golden tubes of the organ," the cathedral is filled with re-awakened "Pomps of life." The living and the dead sing to God, and the woman enters "the gates of the golden dawn...." *A "Postscript" concludes the whole and provides a conceptual frame for "This little paper," the unique literary artifact that precedes it.〔Philip Van Doren Stern, ed., '' Selected Writings of Thomas De Quincey'', New York, Modern Library/Random House, 1949; pp. 913-81.〕 ''The English Mail-Coach'' is one of De Quincey's endeavors at writing what he called "impassioned prose," like his ''Confessions of an English Opium-Eater'' and ''Suspiria de Profundis''. De Quincey had originally intended ''The English Mail-Coach'' to be one part of the ''Suspiria''. Its literary quality and its unique nature have made ''The English Mail-Coach'' a central focus of De Quincey scholarship and criticism.〔Calvin S. Brown, Jr., "The Musical Structure of De Quincey's 'Dream-Fugue'," ''The Musical Quarterly'', Vol. 24 No. 3 (July 1938), pp. 341-50.〕〔Robin Jarvis, "The Glory of Motion: De Quincey, Travel, and Romanticism," ''Yearbook of English Studies'', Vol. 34 (2004), pp. 74-87.〕〔V. A. De Luca, ''Thomas De Quincey: the Prose of Vision'', Toronto, University of Toronto Press, 1980; pp. 96-116.〕〔Robert Lance Snyder, ed., ''Thomas De Quincey Bicentennial Studies'', Norman, OK, University of Oklahoma Press, 1985; see especially pp. 20-33 and 287-304.〕〔David Sundelson, "Evading the Crocodile: De Quincey's ''The English Mail-Coach''," ''Psychocultural Review'', Vol. 1 (1977), p. 10.〕 ==References== 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「The English Mail-Coach」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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