Edgar Poe (I understand he preferred not to be called "Allan" as he and his foster or adopted father of that name didn't get along) wrote a story entitled The Masque of the Red Death. It involved a Duke or Count I think, or some titled person, who held a great ball or entertainment while a deadly plague called as you might expect "The Red Death" raged. It was held behind locked doors; precautions were taken to prevent any uninvited person from entering. As the festivities continued, a red, spectral figure appeared and roamed about. Eventually, all attending died. The story was made into a film starring Vincent Price, who starred in several films sometimes very loosely based on a story by Poe. He wore a red cloak and hood and, with his face painted red, he lurked or stalked about while those unlucky enough to be there feasted and danced and, in the end, died.
Et in Arcadia Ego is a theme of the story, I would think. But it may not be the only, or even the primary theme. Death is everywhere and everyplace, and even in a utopia, especially in a time of sickness or plague. But what is it to purposefully deny or disregard it while reveling in abandon, as Tom Petty would say, or at least said or sang? A display of sangfroid, of despair, of perversity, or callousness--while those barred from the entertainment suffer? Not a display of ignorance, as the risk and even the certainty of death is known by all in the story, but neither is it a display of acceptance, tranquil or regretful.
One thing is certain, and that is that Poe was not interested in expressing any sense of contentment or peaceful resignation in the face of death. Being a writer in Romantic times and partial to grim or mysterious themes, despair would be more likely, or perhaps a rumination on the frivolousness and transience of human life.
A masque is a kind of entertainment. A mask is used to conceal, deceive or frighten. Perhaps the masque, the entertainment, in Poe's story was intended or hoped to be a way to deceive death, or at least the participants in the masque, for a time. The urge to forget. Nepenthe being quaffed as in The Raven.
I can't help but wonder what writers and other artists will make of the great plague of our time, if it proves to be as impressively destructive as those of the past, or even as malaria, or "the pox" as it was called. We've shut out the rest of the world too, but the virus is here and spreading.
What is left, after the slew of shows and movies involving zombie apocalypses, nuclear holocausts and other catastrophes like asteroid impacts? We've already developed "entertainments" about pandemics of several different kinds, or about outbreaks of some deadly bacterial strain or other. We've created so many masques regarding the end of humanity that it's difficult to conceive of new or different such entertainments. Perhaps we've become so accustomed to the idea that the world will end in some spectacular way that we'll lack any concern when and if it actually takes place.
There are of course those who firmly believe in the apocalypse and even eagerly await it. It will be easy enough to construe any disaster as consistent with the Book of Revelation. Those who believe aren't known to be particular in this respect. Pestilence is one of the Four Horsemen, so COVID 19 fits into it rather well, if it should turn out very bad.
Thus do the Four Horseman serve as masks of a kind. They represent the consequences of humanity's ignorance, greed and avarice which are masked by the claim that it was all foretold, all a part of God's plan--inevitable, so why hope or try to avoid it?
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