Thank you, Michael! I had been wracking my brain about this - you would think I would have figured it out since 1840 is possibly my favorite storyline, and I watched it again this past Spring! I had also done a google search on "Trask Chapel" and DS, but didn't come up with the answer then, either.

I found my notes regarding Daphne Harridge Collins' funeral in 1841, with the Bible verses read by Catherine Harridge Collins, which I then googled. Not sure which translation they used since none of those that come up in an Internet search precisely match.

"There are many who say, 'O that we might see some good!
Lift up the light of thy countenance upon us, O LORD!"
Thou hast put more joy in my heart
than they have when their grain and wine abound.
In peace I will both lie down and sleep;
for thou alone, O LORD, makest me dwell in safety."
(Psalm 4:6-8)

As recited by Lara Parker, it sounded like a dirge - though that may have been appropriate given the circumstances.

Thanks for notifying us about this, Nancy. I remember a rather lively ... if not heated ... discussion here some time ago about who was responsible for the creation of Barnabas's character. I'm anxious to read Mr. Frid's comments!

Really nicely done article. Thanks for letting us know about it, jimbo!

I think there must have been a real butler involved, though not necessarily named Edward.  Edward Collins had memories of his service with the Earl of Hampshire, for example helping the Earl out when the Earl forgot details.  If the Earl of Hampshire's butler is dead, then the situations of Edward Collins and of Charity Trask after the Kiss of Truth are similar.

A good example of how Dark Shadows keeps us thinking, wondering, by leaving so many things unexplained. Some people attribute this attribute of DS to sloppy writing.

But so often, things are left ambiguous that could very, very easily have been "explained." I really think that this tendency not to explain everything was deliberate, and I find it a very interesting choice for a TV show to make.

The DS viewer was not "spoon fed" all the answers, and everything wasn't wrapped up in a neat little bow.

That's one of the things that makes me appreciate the show.

David, that's so funny, because several years ago I had set aside some other favorite childhood books in an enclosed bookcase, and last week I noticed that one of these was "The Secret of Saturday Cove" by Barbee Oliver Carleton, a hardcover from the Weekly Reader Children's Bookclub. I hadn't realized that I had another book by the author of "The Mystery of the Witches' Bridge." I finished "Witches' Bridge" a few days ago, and leafing through "Saturday Cove," I didn't notice anything very similar to "Witches' Bridge" (not to mention DS) but after what you said, I may want to re-read this one, too. I don't remember any more what it was that made me set it aside a few years ago as I have no memory of the book now.

One of the things I remembered from my childhood reading of "Witches' Bridge was that there was actually nothing supernatural behind the events. That may have disappointed me at the time, especially since this was during the era when DS was first influencing our lives. Re-reading it now, I have a new appreciation for it. If you read it, the scene at Lamie's island is remarkably "deep" ... the earlier chapters reminded me rather of "Jane Eyre." And from the first scene to the last, I pictured the hired man character as JOHN KARLEN. He would have been perfect for playing this character. (Incidentally, I found that someone is writing a screenplay of "Witches' Bridge," so let's hope for a good result.)

The quote "Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live" did recur toward the end of the book, but was definitely not the source of my "memory" of the DS scene that apparently never happened.

The website for tracking down old books is a good resource that I also came across recently. Hope that the book turns out to be the right one, Gothick!

Zahir's mention in another thread about the early English vampire novel "Varney the Vampire" got me thinking ...

I have always taken it as a given that Barnabas Collins was the first vampire to be presented sympathetically. This innovative approach to the vampire has been credited to Jonathan Frid himself for the interpretation he gave the role -- to Art Wallace who said he "created" Barnabas Collins -- and to other DS writers and producers (if I'm not mistaken).

I don't wish to take away anything from those whose contributions made Barnabas such a unique character. It's apparent that the sympathetic and also romanticized approach to later vampires (for example, in "Forever Knight" and in Francis Ford Coppola's "Dracula") was inspired by Barnabas.

But there may have been a very early sympathetic vampire near the beginning of the vampire tradition in English literature. In 1819, John Polidori published "The Vampyr," inspired by a fragmentary tale sketched by Byron (during the time the Shelleys were also visiting Byron in Switzerland). According to an article by British professor Juliette Wood ("Vampires in English Fiction"), Polidori humanizes his anti-hero vampire, Ruthven, arousing both the reader's horror and "sympathy." She says that one can recognize the "romantic figure of the Byronic hero" in Polidori's tale.

It would be interesting to know whether any subsequent depictions of vampires were in this mold of the bordering-on-evil yet sympathetic, romantic anti-hero ... until Barnabas Collins. Anyone?

Zahir: I knew that someone here had to have read the same book those many years back. 

Another DS comparison: the family portraits. One is of the boy's ancestor in Puritan garb, looking very cruel - whom the boy at first mistakes for his reclusive, modern-day uncle because they look identical.

I'm beginning to realize how many clichés of the Gothic genre there are, and that DS was only one forum that used them. Since DS was my first exposure to the Gothic tradition, I didn't realize that DS didn't invent the genre and all of these great details!

Gothick: Your description of ordering those Scholastic books at school probably triggered a few other people's memories, too ...

Thanks for the catch that it was Angelique who quoted "Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live." I did note that in a more recent viewing, and was puzzled because it didn't match my memory of the scene, which I always remembered as the discovery of a Bible laying open on the desk in the drawing room at Collinwood, with a knife stabbed through the pages. Upon discovering this, someone then read the passage indicated by the knife: "Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live." I seemed to remember this as taking place during the present-day Cassandra/Dream Curse story line. When I found the same passage quoted in the book "Mystery of the Witches' Bridge," I thought that might be the answer, but I'll have to read further to see if it comes up again later in the book.

Your points about the witch craze in northeastern France/southwestern Germany are right on target with what I've read. In his research for "The Witches of Lorraine" (2007), Robin Briggs reviewed the records of some 400 trials. And there are many more, many of which have yet to see the light of day; I've come across a couple of these myself. Although Briggs appears to go the route of conflicts between neighbors as an explanation, I agree with you that the causes remain murky. The testimony of witnesses (like my ancestor) isn't easy to explain away or dismiss. I hope to include this and other information on my planned (hopefully within a year) genealogy webpage.

The witch craze in Lorraine and Saarland ended by the early 1600s, about 80 years before Salem Village. A fairly high percentage of men were among the accused.

My comments have probably run their course as far as being relevant to DS ... thanks to the mods for not giving me the nudge