The prince of darkness is a gentleman

“The prince of darkness is a gentleman” appears as an epigraph attributed to Shakespeare’s King Lear. Its compact paradox gives darkness the manners of a gentleman, making civility and menace occupy the same phrase. The expression introduces an autumn episode in which the narrator sees Aglie examining a file of Manutius authors in Signora Grazia’s office, a quiet, ambiguous scene that lends the epigraph an air of insinuation without explaining it outright.

Text and attribution

The expression is presented as a standalone line, followed by its attribution to Shakespeare’s King Lear, Act III, scene iv. The surrounding exchange immediately before it concerns people who put bombs on trains because they are looking for God; the reply accepts that possibility. The epigraph thus follows talk that links violence with religious searching, but does not explicitly interpret or resolve that connection.

Placement and narrative effect

After the epigraph, the narrative moves to autumn. The narrator goes to Via Marchese Gualdi to obtain Signor Garamond’s authorization to order color photographs from abroad. There, he glimpses Aglie bent over the file of Manutius authors in Signora Grazia’s office. Because he is late for a meeting, he does not interrupt Aglie; only after finishing his business does he ask Signor Garamond what Aglie was doing in the secretary’s office.

The placement makes the epigraph resonate with the scene’s restrained uncertainty. Aglie’s presence at a file is an observed fact, while the reason for his attention remains a question. The gentlemanly surface of the phrase and its dark implication suit a narrative moment built around an unexplained action, but the passage offers no answer that would establish what Aglie intended.