Which Poe story features a character named Prince Prospero?

The Poe story featuring a character named Prince Prospero is “The Masque of the Red Death.” Poe’s 1842 tale follows Prospero, a wealthy prince who retreats with about 1,000 nobles to a fortified abbey to escape a plague called the Red Death.

Prospero hosts a lavish masquerade in seven colored rooms. The final chamber is black, lit by scarlet windows, and contains a large ebony clock whose hourly chimes unsettle the guests. At midnight, a mysterious figure dressed like a victim of the plague appears among them.

Prospero pursues the stranger into the black room, where he collapses and dies. When the guests remove the figure’s costume, they find nothing beneath it: the Red Death itself has entered the abbey. The story’s central idea is that wealth, walls, and celebration cannot keep mortality away.

The title is sometimes confused with “The Mask of the Red Death,” the story’s original title. “Hop-Frog,” “The Pit and the Pendulum,” and “The Cask of Amontillado” are separate Poe works.