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h p lovecraft - Who is sample No. 118 in The Case of Charles Dexter Ward?


In H. P. Lovecraft's The Case of Charles Dexter Ward, Dr. Willett



Enters Joseph Curwen's dungeon and resurrects a dead person identified as No. 118 by reciting the incantation of the Ascending Node over his salts.



Dr. Willett is told by




The resurrected Joseph Curwen, impersonating Charles Dexter Ward, who he secretly murdered,



that


" 'twas Number 118, and I conceive you would have shook had you looked it up in my list in t'other room."


No. 118 himself gives Dr. Willett a note asking the doctor to



kill Joseph Curwen.



It soon becomes clear that No. 118 is opposed to the nefarious dealings that have been transpiring and desirous of being an ally of Dr. Willett.



Who is No. 118?


Earlier in the story,



The grave of Ezra Weeden, a primary instigator in Joseph Curwen's initial downfall and the romantic rival of Curwen, is robbed. There doesn't seem to be any other mention of Weeden in the 20th century occurrences, so without a further connection the passage seems superfluous.



The shared goals of these two people seem to indicate that No. 118 may, in fact, have been that person, but the



Note given by No. 118 to Dr. Willett in eighth century Latin seems to indicate someone much older than Ezra Weeden.



It also occurred to me that No. 118 could be




The recently murdered Charles Dexter Ward himself. Ward's reference to killing Dr. Allen (who is actually an alias of Curwen) and dissolving his body with acid and No. 118's mention of doing the same to Curwen seem to support the idea, but that still doesn't explain the archaic note. Ward is described as writing in a somewhat modern style, at least as opposed to Curwen. It also doesn't explain why Curwen would want to murder Ward if he was going to resurrect him later anyway.




Answer



We're talking about a very powerful wizard from the Dark Ages. Most of the wizards in Lovecraft's work would have wanted to get on the Curwen bandwagon. The display of power in attacking Curwen's partners would seem to rule out Weeden or Ward. It also appears that Dr. Willett would have recognized the name.


So, we're dealing with a well-known European Dark Ages wizard of great power not associated with any Mythos plot. I'm going with Merlin, but I'm open to other suggestions.


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