Bram Stoker

“Carrying a Corpse”

​

In the chapter entitled “Carrying a Corpse,” Volume I, Personal Reminiscences of Henry Irving (1906), Bram wrote about working several nights with Henry Irving in preparation for the upcoming Lyceum production of the Romeo and Juliet, trying to determine the best way for Irving to carry the body of Count Paris into the stage’s tomb. Just as Thornley’s surgical expertise informed Bram’s depictions of blood transfusions and cranial surgeries in Dracula, so did George’s battlefield medical experience come in handy in the theatre:

            “Some ten days after, my brother George, who had been all through the Russo-Turkish war as a surgeon in the Turkish service, was in the theatre. He had been Chief of Ambulance of the Red Crescent and had been in the last convoy into Plevna and had brought to Philippopolis all the Turkish wounded from the battle at the Schipka Pass, and had had about as much experience in the handling of dead bodies as any man wants. Irving thought it might be well to draw on his expert knowledge, and after supper asked him what was the easiest way of carrying a dead body, emphasising the “easiest”; accordingly I, who was to enact the part of “body”, lay down again. George drew my legs apart and stooping very low with his back to me, lifted the legs in turn so that the inside of my knees rested on his shoulders. Then catching one of my ankles in each hand, he drew my body up till the portion of my anatomy where the back and legs unite was pressed against the back of his neck. He then straightened his arms and rose up, my body, face outward, trailing down his back and my arms hanging limp. It was just after the manner of a butcher carrying the carcase of a sheep. It was most certainly the easiest way to carry a body - there was no possible doubt about that; but its picturesque suitability for stage purpose was another matter. Irving laughed consumedly, and when next we discussed the matter he had come to the conclusion that the best way was to drag the body into the entrance of the monument. He would then appear in the next scene dragging the body down the stone stair to the crypt. To this end a body was prepared adjusted to the weight and size of Paris so that in every way vraisemblance was secured.”