The Tractate Middoth
| "The Tractate Middoth" | |
|---|---|
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| Author | M.R. James |
| Country | England |
| Language | English |
| Genre(s) | Horror short story |
| "The Tractate Middoth" | |
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| A Ghost Story for Christmas episode | |
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| Episode no. | Season 2 Episode 4 |
| Directed by | Mark Gatiss |
| Written by |
M. R. James (story) Mark Gatiss (adaptation) |
| Original air date | 25 December 2013 |
"The Tractate Middoth" is a short ghost story by British author M. R. James. It was published in 1911 in More Ghost Stories, James's second collection of ghost stories.
Mr. Garrett, an employee of a university library, becomes involved in the bizarre search for a missing will, written in code that looks like Hebrew and disguised as a page in a Mishnaic tractate. The missing will supersedes an earlier will that rewards an estate to one of two heirs.
Before knowing the truth about the book, Garrett searches for the tractate for John Eldred, an impatient library patron. He encounters a black-clad clergyman who also seems interested in the book. The clergyman's appearance–his head appears to be enshrouded in cobwebs and he smells of mould and dust–causes Garrett a severe shock and he faints. He is sent home to recover, and later decides to recuperate at the seaside.
On the train to his destination, he meets the elderly Mrs. Simpson and her daughter, proprietors of a boarding house who offer him lodgings. Over the course of his stay, they become very friendly. The Simpsons confide in him that they are losing a struggle with a rival heir to the estate of an eccentric clergyman named Rant, who died two decades earlier. As they describe the situation, Garrett realizes that Eldred is the rival. He decides to help the Simpsons by preventing Eldred from destroying the tractate.
Returning to work, he finds that the tractate has been found already and shipped to Eldred at the Rant estate. He follows the book in another train, but arrives too late to stop Eldred from receiving the parcel. As he stalks Eldred back to the Rant mansion, he sees a dark form emerge from cobwebs at the side of the road, and Eldred drops dead. An inquest finds black dust on the dead man's face and in his mouth, but the official cause of death is heart failure. The tractate becomes evidence. When it appears that Eldred had been tearing out a page when he died, the missing will is discovered and decrypted. By its terms, Mrs. Simpson inherits the estate formerly possessed by Eldred, and Garrett and her daughter marry.
On 7 May 1951, an American television adaptation of the story was broadcast as "The Lost Will of Dr Rant", as part of the Lights Out mystery series. It starred Leslie Nielsen.
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