The Black Vampyre: A Legend of St. Domingo

(By Uriah Derick d'Arcy)

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Author	Uriah Derick d'Arcy

“Book Descriptions: In April of 1819, a London periodical, the New Monthly Magazine, published “The Vampyre: A Tale by Lord Byron.” There had been earlier Anglophone accounts of vampires, often in poetry, but this tale, actually written by Byron’s erstwhile friend and physician John Polidori, was a literary sensation. Notice of its publication quickly appeared in papers around the United States. Typical was this short note which appeared in late April, in the Rhode-Island American:

"Lord Byron has published a new prose tale, called ‘The Vampyre.’—It is said to be of the most horrifick nature."

Byron was at the time enjoying remarkable popularity in the United States, where his writings frequently appeared in local editions. A new prose tale supposedly by the famous poet garnered great attention. Reviews positive and negative appeared by June, as did reprintings, for instance in Boston’s Atheneum (Jun 15) and Baltimore’s Robinson’s Magazine (Jun 26). By July, Byron’s denial of authorship was being reported as well, by August Polidori’s authorship was being asserted, and a dramatic adaptation would soon appear. The vampire concept was also beginning to appear as a metaphor for economic or emotional exploitation. The celebrated Irish lawyer Charles Phillips, whose speeches were praised and reprinted, used the image of “the human vampyre” in a famous courtroom speech in March of 1819—shortly before Polidori’s tale appeared. Phillips’s speech was widely circulated in US newspapers, and Philadelphia’s Franklin Gazette (June 24, 1819) prefaced this long oration with a summary highlighting the metaphor:

"The penalty inflicted by the jury, though an inadequate punishment for the detestable deed, marked their execration of the avaricious and atrocious vampyre, whose abandoned conduct, spread desolation over an earthly paradise."

In the meanwhile, an American response, The Black Vampyre, attributed to one Uriah Derick D’Arcy, appeared. Readers seem to have been entertained but also perplexed. As one review put it, "the new publication does not seem intended as a regular burlesque [of the European text], but merely to ridicule the superstition in general; and the absurdity of supposing that any sane woman could fall desperately in love with the character of a Vampyre. Some particular passages are well burlesqued. The superstition, however, does not seem to be conformed to, in every respect."

We don’t know how popular the US text was—many texts at the time circulated primarily in their publication locale, though this one was advertised as far away as Charleston, SC—but it appeared in a second edition within two months. We also do not know who the author was. An 1845 reprinting attributed the work to a Robert C. Sands, but Katie Bray convincingly suggests the author is Richard Varick Dey (1801-1837), who in the summer of 1819 would have been a recent graduate of Columbia. Whoever D’Arcy was, he was quick to use vampirism as a metaphor for a number of concerns of 1819 New York.”