Professional Documents
Culture Documents
by
in
Department of English
October 1976
the Library shall make it freely available for reference and study.
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Department of English!
Date 1 O c t o b e r 1976
Research Supervisor: Professor Ian S. Ross
ABSTRACT
section deals with the history of the term "gothic" from the Renaissance
ii
(1764) with those of Clara Reeve i n The Old English Baron (1777), i n
own society.
and nostalgia. The ambivalent attitude retained much of the modern con-
of the Enquiry and the ensuing controversy are examined for the l i g h t
of aesthetic distance.
iii
The ambivalent attitude and the c a r e f u l e x p l o i t a t i o n of exoticism
through monastic models, and the figure of the criminal or outcast, who
iv
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Chapter Page
Gothic 191
CONCLUSION 256
BIBLIOGRAPHY 264
v
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
vi
CHAPTER I
p o l i t i c a l , s o c i a l , a r t i s t i c , and a r c h i t e c t u r a l , as well as l i t e r a r y ,
examined the means by which such choices were made. The r e s u l t was a
English imagination.
- 1 -
2
a e s t h e t i c , or which a r o s e i n a e s t h e t i c argument, c a r r i e d p o l i t i c a l or
t i o n of t h e i r f i n d i n g s to the l i t e r a r y g o t h i c w i l l be the c h i e f g o a l i n
the f o l l o w i n g d i s c u s s i o n .
explain their o r i g i n :
German influences and allowed for a longer time-span; i t did not make
5
but when he opposes the ' A r c h i t e t t u r a Romana' and ' l a Barbara' i t i s not
despoilers of c u l t u r e .
intruders. For the Three Ages included the golden period of Greek and
7
Roman excellence, the period of decay under foreign influences, and the
r e s u l t , gothic art must have seemed disorderly for two reasons: i t did
of p o l i t i c a l chaos.
a synonym for maniera or opera. Usage indicates that there was a measure
lime (1764), joined those who believed that a l l things which offended
values.
gothic was synonymous with Bad Taste and he applied i t to works regard-
taste has been adequately formed. Thus Gothic comes to mean something
Vasari, for he believed that the term gothic "originated i n the clumsy
charm, and delicacy." The Goths had made a travesty of the mimetic
Since gothic art was defective i n most important aesthetic areas, a taste
for i t did not bode well for a person's general mental balance, and such
The two phases of the controversy over the gothic were e a s i l y mixed
Vasari had begun this strategy by moving away from a detailed, i f mis-
William Whitehead, writing i n The World (No. 12, 1753), neatly associated
gothic. According to Kliger, "the term. 'Gothic' came into extensive use
of the King to absolute right to govern England." The search for prece-
the Goths, by whom they meant the ancestral Germanic peoples, had "founded
the physiological factor explaining Gothic vigor, hardiness, and zeal for
19
which had' been promulgated i n the north since the Protestant Reformation,
12
triumph of Gothic energy and moral purity over Roman torpor and depravity."
Whiggery and admiration for gothic architecture. Addison, who was a Whig,
admit that the favourable, ethnic connotation of gothic did not overcome
the unfavourable ones i n practice, and that the favourable sense was not
"the main or even important cause of the actual building of Gothic struc-
tures." But he does go so far as to claim that "an association had been
Gothic building; per contra, from the opposing Tory point of view, the
cause, but to the Tory establishment, whenever they wanted to set forth
they were part of the larger contradictions that had arisen i n attitudes
examples that a case could be made for both properties belonging to both
gothic or to any of the other new tastes, such as the taste for the
rococo, the Chinese, or the Egyptian, with which the gothic often was
styles.
In trying to sort out the meaning of the gothic, Lovejoy has noted
asserted that: "Every ancient building which i s not i n the Grecian mode
23
The second pattern of usage was more limited but equally inaccurate.
This was the application of the l a b e l gothic to works which would now be
ture, regarding the Goths and Vandals, and the Moors and Arabs, as
the same rubric and given the same designation, gothic. For Evelyn
opposite causes.
common with c r i t i c s of the gothic. Since they saw the gothic as merely
one among several subversive new tastes they were u n l i k e l y to look into
The c r i t i c s ' main target was the Saracenic or modern gothic of the
the English Late Perpendicular and the French Flamboyant s t y l e s ; but the
b a r r i e r to strong impressions.
simple elements of natute and avoided the t r i v i a l , the accidental and the
a r c h i t e c t u r a l analogy:
his emphasis on " S i m p l i c i t y " and "natural Beauties," he pointed out that
were those who would not recognize that imitation of nature was the
proper end of art, or who could not achieve such imitation. Mechanically,
quirks of language.
unusual, when the natural could not be.achieved. The gothic was unaccept-
s i g n i f i c a n t form.
ing was regular meant that i t accorded with the "uniform and exact
20
Modern c r i t i c s who had made no active study of such projects did not
and manor-houses. They did not suspect that most of the features that
result of accidents and the gradual way i n which the building had taken
the gothic even i f they had been able to look into such documents, and
had been moved to do so. They s t i l l could have attacked gothic art for
the evidence.
Both Lovejoy and Robson-Scott also take note of the argument from
have derived some of i t s force from the enduring b e l i e f i n the Three Ages
of Art: the opinions of the "barbarians" of the middle age were obviously
much less important than the examples of the f i r s t , c l a s s i c a l age and the
contends that two connotations of c l a s s i c often were mixed: one was the
i n the former sense. Within the rationale of the new gothicism, i t was
of gothic art were not only interested i n deriding i t s flaws; they were
the dramatic u n i t i e s , and they strove to defend that system against the
natural that the range of objects considered gothic should be very wide,
including not only buildings and l i t e r a r y works but also various kinds
another.
T h i s r e l a t i v e l y l a t e i n t r o d u c t i o n of s t y l i s t i c d i f f e r e n t i a t i o n into
Even a f t e r t h i s i n f i l t r a t i o n of n e o - c l a s s i c a l d i s t a s t e , a b e l i e f i n
persisted:
In c o u n t r y d i s t r i c t s w i t h p l e n t y of n a t u r a l m a t e r i a l s and a
s t r o n g l o c a l t r a d i t i o n , domestic a r c h i t e c t u r e remained
untouched by I t a l i a n i n f l u e n c e s even i n the e i g h t e e n t h
c e n t u r y . . . . Barns and farm b u i l d i n g s were s t i l l r o o f e d
and b u t t r e s s e d i n the G o t h i c way; and c o u n t r y workmen f o l -
lowed Pugin's True P r i n c i p l e s w i t h a n a t u r a l n e s s which he
p r a i s e d but c o u l d never a t t a i n . While m e d i e v a l ornament
was e n j o y i n g i t s modish r e v i v a l i n the town, m e d i e v a l con-
s t r u c t i o n l i v e d an unassuming c o u n t r y l i f e , and Walpole
l i t t l e suspected t h a t the average barn was more t r u l y
G o t h i c than h i s b e p i n n a c l e d S t r a w b e r r y . ^ 7
b u i l d i n g as i t c o n t i n u e d i n t o the e i g h t e e n t h c e n t u r y : i t s d i s t r i b u t i o n
builders. The nature of the work they usually did and t h e i r limited
the issues under dispute. I f , as Clark and Colvin have indicated, the
tracts and contacts would have been with townspeople, merchants, parsons,
derivative. Builders, craftsmen, and most of their patrons did not have
the resources to undertake the Grand Tour, which had promoted the growth
40
of the neo-classical taste i n England. Their exposure to the p r i n c i p l e s
ing practice, such as the Board of Trade where Wren and his pupils were
pseudo-historical way.
eighteenth century, two new ideas had to gain a place: a sense of the
41
their persistence i n using the hybrid gothic mode, their usual lack of
since they treated the gothic as the natural, indigenous style, capable
would not have seen the gothic, at the same time, as merely one optional
For the same reasons, they did not produce a sense of the gothic as
well into the eighteenth century. The r e v i v a l i s t s drew that sense from
cerned not with the novelty of medieval art but with the process of
43
Thomas Hearne between 1710 and 1712. The Britannica of William Camden
the value of the gothic. In 1736, for example, S i r John Clerk berated
they won't believe i t to be only the degeneracy of Greek and Roman Arts
and Sciences. In this view I myself have admired the laborious Dullness
and the harm they had done to the c l a s s i c a l heritage. Frankl has r e -
marked that "the men of the eighteenth century.. . . took their love for
two d i f f e r e n t styles as a sign of indecision and had to excuse them-
47
regime. Since the natural h i s t o r y and the human history of England were
ton's Polyolbion (1622), which magnified the whole nation, was matched
It i s not surprising that antiquaries often delved into the very micro-
bordered on genealogy. The common element was the need to complete the
issues, of which the major one was the use and abuse of medieval a r t i -
tors were not the only opponents with whom the protectors of gothic
buildings had to cope. In 1778, when the new gothic taste had spread i n
attack included both the a f f e c t a t i o n that was papish richness and the
Similar feelings led to the substitution of clear glass for coloured and
which i t bore.
conservation. They salvaged old stained glass that had been discarded.
and with his antiquarian adviser, John Chute, shows, i t was common for
that any one of these separate attitudes antedated any other, or that
any one ever prevailed to the utter exclusion of any other.""^ Clark has
noted that the favour shown medieval architecture by such early journal-
admired because they were impressive or because the fact of their being
and analysed came from two literary sources: the a c t i v i t i e s of the liter-
middle of the eighteenth century. They are Richard Hurd's Moral and
Golden Age of Queen Elisabeth BETWEEN The Hon. Robert DIGBY, Dr. ARBUTHNOT,
59
the Castle:
On their entrance into the inner-court, they were struck
with the sight of many mouldering towers, which preserved
a sort of magnificence even i n their ruins. They amused
themselves with observing the vast compass of the whole,
with marking the uses, and tracing the dimensions, of the
several parts. A l l of which i t was easy f o r them to do,
by the very d i s t i n c t traces that remained of them, and
e s p e c i a l l y by means of DUGDALE'S plans and descriptions,
which they had taken care to consult (pp. 39-40).
them with admiration and kept them s i l e n t f o r some time" (p. 40). Dr.
would not exchange i t , methinks for any brisker sensation." And he won-
ders "how i t i s that the mind, even while i t laments, finds so great a
not; for Digby, although he mostly favours Dr. Arbuthnot's side, seldom
c l a s s i c a l art and medieval customs are not the kind found i n the r e a l
s i g n i f i c a n t that the chivalry and romance (or the tyranny and pomp)
which are so much an issue i n the Dialogue belong to the Tudor period;
of the Greek and Roman golden ages. He compares the organized combat of
the tournaments to the Olympic Games and the spectacles staged i n the
court masques. Through these means Hurd was trying to win a measure of
In that way his work i n the Dialogue resembled that of the popularizer
use of the term gothic, even i f i t does not properly apply to the sub-
jects under discussion. The degree of the change comes across clearly
jumble of Gothic romance and pagan fable" (p. 65) and Arbuthnot's
38
"Gothic T i l t s and Tournaments" (p. 54): Addison makes Gothic and "pagan"
a period. From t h i s point we can see the equation "gothic equals medieval
equals barbarous."
" c l a s s i c " or "Grecian" objects from those which could be grouped loosely
under the heading medieval. By 1771, when James Beattie, i n The Minstrel,
the term showed even i n i t s s p e l l i n g : "the lower case 'g' indicates that
62
English counterpart:
. . . not only were the romances of the Middle Ages p r e t t i -
f i e d but the reading public derived from them and other
second-hand sources a set of idealized notions concerning
"Gothic" l i f e . Writers and readers of the second half of
the century lent to medieval men and women the v i r t u e s that
Tacitus grante'd to the Germans i n order to s a t i r i z e the
vices of Rome. . . . And because for a time nobody was
conscious of r a c i a l or national d i s t i n c t i o n s , even less of
chronological ones, a l l medieval men were pictured„as cour-
ageous, l o y a l , sober, chaste, honest and sincere./-
e a r l i e r times, i n the Third Dialogue, that saves Hurd from any charge of
Hurd carried the ambivalence of the Third Dialogue into his larger
This passage from Letter I also sets out the main purpose of the
again i n l i t e r a r y creation.
40
c h i v a l r i c code which Hurd regarded as the source for the romances. Here
too the older prejudices show up. Hurd s t i l l could see that c h i v a l r i c
admits i n the fourth Letter that he did not learn about chivalry from
umes my s e l f ; much less would I impose the ungrateful attack upon you.
64
knowledge may be obtained at a cheaper r a t e " (p. 94). Hurd thus evaded
the question of why he did not consult the romances himself and of what
and the gothic i n order to prove the value of the l a t t e r . Hurd pursued
contingent.
fablers . . . you w i l l find that the manners they paint, and the super-
stitions they adopt, are the more p o e t i c a l for being Gothic" (p. 114).
The gothic had the advantage of the c l a s s i c a l " i n producing the sublime"
(p. 117). Early i n the same Letter, Hurd imagined that Homer himself,
given the chance to judge, would have preferred "the manners of the
feudal ages": "And the grounds of this preference would, I suppose, have
been 'The improved gallantry of the feudal times'; and the 'superior
At this point i n the Letters i t i s already clear that Hurd was not
with mild apologies for their strangeness. He had set out to re-introduce
tion by suggesting that there were kinds of superstitions, and that some
could produce stronger effects i n poetry than others. And i f one was to
rather than pagan superstitions; that was another reason for preferring
appeared i n 1754, when Warton was only twenty-six years o l d . This work
would have been before Hurd's mind when he composed h i s own defence; a
year as the Letters. Comparing the defences, Arthur Johnston has noted
that "Warton's work i s the more crabbed and detailed work of the scholar;
fore with Warton, and not with Hurd, that the romances themselves enter
Even when allowing that the Faerie Queene should not be judged as a
43
did not take the bold step of searching the poem for quite other p r i n -
66
c i p l e s of organization and design."
merit i n another way than has been hitherto attempted" (p. 115). Hurd
argument, l i k e the one for superstitions, that there are kinds of "unity
only against these should the work be judged. This idea allowed Hurd to
above the classic" (p. 128). He explained the decline i n esteem for the
r i c manners before they had passed away and become strange, a l l the
distance from the subject. By the time romances were written, the condi-
tions under which they could be appreciated had disappeared; i t was hard
universal, whereas gothic were not. No doubt this was because the
the poets, who are lyars by profession, expect to have their lyes
any capable reader trouble himself about the truth, or even the c r e d i -
did not, and were never l i k e l y to, e x i s t " (pp. 135-136). Reason opposes
these lying wonders, neither i n their own proper shape, nor as masked i n
c r i t i c s and reviewers.
No more than i n the Third Dialogue did Hurd cross over i n the
which had affected the l i t e r a t u r e of his own time. Hurd was not optimis-
Hurd believed that they had to come from the original sources, not from
diluted imitations.
Percy's work was the famous f o l i o manuscript, "containing one hundred and
materials, for the purposes of this study, are these: the manuscripts
Percy and his nephew were convinced that the texts had been corrupted
In his own Preface, Percy gives some sign of the doubts which might
have prevented him from compiling these poems—but did not—and offers a
*.'-'Mr. Addison, Mr. Dryden, and the witty Lord Dorset, &c. See the
Spectator, No. 70. To these might be added many eminent judges now
48
and the new l i t e r a r y Goths (of whom Percy could scarcely have been aware).
Three introductory essays, one for each volume, provide information about
68
Percy's sources, the evolution of ballads and romances from an h i s t o r -
69
the footnotes combined with the separate "Notes and I l l u s t r a t i o n " take
up as much space as the main body of the essay. Percy admitted that "the
desire of being accurate has perhaps seduced him into too minute and
to j u s t i f y this attention.
Percy assured him). The c r i t i c a l reader could find there a poetic form
which he probably had not considered worth his interest before, but which
ways of treating the Religues tended to support each other: the antiquary
received some release from the usual charge that he dealt only i n esoter-
i c a from the fact that the ballads were pleasurable to read, and the
l i t e r a t u r e , to make these seem less distant and vulgar, and more deserv-
about this change. However, Percy not only elevated the ballads and
poetry accessible he made provision for that reaction to change, and for
antiquaries were mainly concerned with the identity of the gothic, the
Inevitably the question of the proper style for ruins arose. Antiquaries
had studied both Roman and medieval ruins i n England, but the l a t t e r ,
obviously, were more numerous. The idea that the gothic was a more
natural s t y l e gave some support to the preference for gothic ruins. The
buildings and the new manner of English gardening which had gained ground
70
and consistency with a sense of what was properly English. (He might
also have pointed out that the gothic was r e l a t e d , through aesthetic
Lord Karnes believed that c l a s s i c a l ruins were less desirable because they
the barbarians had triumphed over the taste of the ancients. As the
Karnes apparently chose not to l i n k the gothic builders with the "barbar-
ians" who had "triumphed over the taste of the ancients"; at any rate,
i t was symbolical. Karnes looked at the gothic ruin which was becoming a
h i s t o r i c a l l y , as he did the c l a s s i c a l r u i n .
we encounter arguments about the gothic that deal not with aesthetic
continuity or consistency (as with Mason), not with erosion by time (as
with Kames), but with s o c i a l change and ancestry, with government and
53
and bad architecture. Both the gothic c a s t l e and gothic tyranny are
spectives which were not e n t i r e l y consistent with each other, and which
Horace Walpole to his friend and protege Richard Bentley. On his way to
Oxford, where "as soon as i t was dark, I ventured out, and the moon rose
Gothic scene, which was not lessened by the monkish appearance of the
73
old fellows stealing to their pleasures."
associations with which Walpole invested the moonlit scene. That they
such as would become common i n the gothic novels' depiction of monks and
ness and absurdity of the comparison between scholars and monks, and h i s
course, aided the fantasizing.) Walpole was delighted i n the same way
chapel and knelt to pray. Walpole was excited that the resemblance was
time's s u p e r i o r i t y — t o them.
make you i s , that my love of abbeys s h a l l not make me hate the Reforma-
Cole, was himself a High Church Tory, a fact that Walpole sometimes had
overt allegiances to Church and party does not remove the importance of
v i s i t to Malvern Abbey where "the woman who showed me the church would
pester me with Christ and King David, when I was hunting for John of
Historic Doubts on the Life and Reign of King Richard III. I t was also
he did not concern himself very much with the doctrines they professed,
interested i n i t for the colour i t provided, for the scandals and hypo-
he had seen at Jerusalem a finger of the Holy Ghost and the snout of a
78
barbarous." The two meanings existed at the same time and acted upon
barbarous, the ostensibly neutral sense of the gothic was "medieval" was
who were glad that they had been able to substitute a better taste f o r
the gothic, accepted the fact that the gothic was the r e s u l t of barbarous
of the gothic started out with this difference i n outlook: they were
unsure that progress had been made, or that i t had been made without
free themselves from the burden of prejudice, they were able to view
58
tions of f i c t i o n .
The works and l i f e of the Middle Ages had been seen through a f i l t e r
the Middle Ages had been very poor. Specific charges i n this general
Superstition
f a i r i e s , who wielded great power over human l i f e and fortune. The cred-
Religion
secretly, enormous temporal power and wealth. The Church hierarchy was
Social Order
violence did not disguise the fact that most people were c h a t t e l s , with-
imitate Roman works, their own ignorance of the rules which governed
their making, and the debased state into which the surviving Roman
accept the charges, often seemed bent on proving them; at least gothic
of the danger, passion, and excitement they could hold f o r the imagina-
tion.
for the Middle Ages and a taste f o r the gothic by making the necessary
believe without reservation that the Church of Rome was an e v i l and per-
i n s t i t u t i o n s , and t r e a c h e r y were s u i t a b l e m a t e r i a l s f o r a w r i t e r o f
And s t r o n g c o n v i c t i o n s , or d i s p l a y o f them, d i d n o t n e c e s s a r i l y
interest.
s o l u t i o n s to v e r y r e a l problems.
t i e s t h a t were d i s c o v e r e d in i t .
inferred from the ruined buildings which remained the most impressive
able i n i t s e l f .
Its loss became a cause for regret and lamentation. The various
and contemplative poetry Macpherson had absorbed tone, theme and imagery:
ing a n t i q u i t i e s .
gothic was made over, transformed into the quaintness of a culture which
had not yet substituted pragmatism f o r chivalry, cash value for honour,
l i t e r a t u r e and architecture.
buted to the imaginary Goths, the previous ages could take on a tory or
respect for law and property, resistance to unjust authority, and defence
and princes, the gorgeousness of pomp and ceremony, and the benevolence
source of both.
was quite glad to have put behind him. Yet many of those horrors still
held the power to provoke fear, and the reader of the gothic novel
more transitory i n their e f f e c t s and more convenient than the sordid and
and imperfection of the modern world, which would cure the sluggishness
elegiac image, could use i t for i t s own purposes, but i n that event the
treatment that the novelists gave i t . They held the nostalgic transfor-
c o n t r a s t i n g t o n a l i t i e s , the l i n k i n g of moments of e x q u i s i t e s e n s i b i l i t y
f i c t i o n a l c o n f r o n t a t i o n s , the l i g h t e r e l e g i a c g o t h i c was n a t u r a l l y
for.
of this study.
70
FOOTNOTES
"^Robson-Scott, p. 12.
18
Quoted i n Arthur 0. Lovejoy, "The F i r s t Gothic Revival," p. 145.
19
K l i g e r , pp. 1-2; see also pp. 7-33.
20
Ibid., p. 3. "The translatio suggested f o r c e f u l l y an analogy
between the breakup of the Roman empire by the Goths and the demands of
the humanist-reformers of northern Europe for r e l i g i o u s freedom, i n t e r -
preted as l i b e r a t i o n from Roman p r i e s t c r a f t . . . the translatio crystal-
l i z e d the idea that humanity was twice ransomed from Roman tyranny and
d e p r a v i t y — i n antiquity by the Goths, i n modern times by their descen-
dants, the German reformers. . . . The epithet 'Gothic' became not only
a polar term i n p o l i t i c a l discussion, a trope for the 'free', but also
i n r e l i g i o u s discussion a trope for a l l those s p i r i t u a l , moral, and
c u l t u r a l values contained for the eighteenth century i n the single word
'enlightenment'" (pp. 33-34).
21
Kliger, pp. 4-6.
22
Lovejoy, p. 136.
23
Both quotations from Lovejoy, p. 137.
24
Lovejoy, pp. 137-139. "In the middle and l a t e eighteenth century
this d i s t i n c t i o n [between 'gothic' and 'Saracenic'] became f a m i l i a r , and
the style which we c a l l Gothic was commonly designated 'Saracenic',
'Arabic', or 'Arabesque'.-. . . Nevertheless, the same writers who, on
occasion, distinguish 'the Gothic' from 'the Saracenic', sometimes con-
tinue to apply the former adjective to the l a t t e r s t y l e also, with or
without the q u a l i f i c a t i o n 'modern'" (Lovejoy, p. 140).
25
B. Sprague A l l e n , i n Ch. XV of Tides in English Taste ("Classical
C r i t i c i s m of 'Gothic Taste'"), notes the ready association of gothic
with chinois or rococo work. Robson-Scott does not agree, however, that
their status i n England was exactly equal. In Germany, he claims, the
primary neo-classical target was the "baroque-rococo," and the recognized
f a u l t s of the old gothic served to warn against the ultimate degeneracy
of the "baroque-rococo." Here the assumed a f f i n i t y was so close that
the term gothic often referred to objects that were, more p r e c i s e l y ,
baroque or rococo. But Robson-Scott argues that no such use of the
gothic as a negative example was possible i n England "where the h o s t i l i t y
to Gothic had nothing to do with a reaction against the baroque-rococo
t r a d i t i o n . On the contrary, i n i t s early stages the Gothic Revival i n
V
73
32
Ibid., p. 147.
33
Robson-Scott, p. 16. The l i s t of objectionable features indicates
that the so-called ."Saracenic" gave the clearest examples of excess.
34
Ibid., p. 14; Lovejoy, p. 148.
35
S. Lang, "The P r i n c i p l e s of the Gothic Revival i n England, JSAH,
25 (1966), 242; see also de Beer, "Gothic: Origin and D i f f u s i o n of the
Term," p. 157, and "Gothic and Some Other A r c h i t e c t u r a l Terms," appendix
to The Diary of John Evelyn, ed. E. S. de Beer (Oxford: OUP, 1955), I,
1-3. Germann sets a r e l a t i v e l y e a r l i e r date for the occurrence of
" s t y l e " i n English than i n other languages, but he makes i t clear that
i t usually referred to continuous,-not r a d i c a l l y c o n f l i c t i n g , modes
(Gothic Revival, p. 27).
Lang, pp. 242-243. Also de Beer, "Origin and D i f f u s i o n , " pp. 156-
162.
37
Kenneth Clark, The Gothic Revival: An Essay in the History of
Taste, 2nd edn.(London: Constable, 1950), pp. 28-29.
38
H. M. Colvin, "Gothic Survival and Gothick Revival," Architectural
Review, 104 (Oct., 1948), 91-92. This practice could overrule other con-
siderations—under neo-Vitruvian doctrines, even the c l a s s i c a l canon
(Germann, p. 181). Clark d i f f e r e n t i a t e s between outright conservatism,
which would have been more d o c t r i n a i r e and self-conscious, and the f e e l -
ing prevalent i n the Oxford design community, that gothic was simply the
natural mode for the type of building required. Colvin c i t e s equally
gothic projects outside Oxford, and l i s t s masons from Yorkshire and
London who worked at Oxford to show that Oxford did not "enjoy a monopoly
of masons who worked i n Gothic" (p. 92).
39
See Colvin, p. 92, Lovejoy, p. 151.
40
It would be unfair, however, to press too far with this connection.
By no means a l l the r e s u l t s of the Grand Tour were unfavourable to gothic
architecture. John Evelyn's outburst about the "Crincle-Crancle" of
gothic appeared i n the second, posthumously published e d i t i o n of An
Account of Architects and Architecture, an appendix to his t r a n s l a t i o n
of Freart's P a r a l l e l (1707 ie'dn.,). Previous references to the gothic
i n his Diary were much more p o s i t i v e (see Lang, p. 245, n. 30, and de
Beer, "Architectural Terms," passim.). Lang supposes that Evelyn changed
h i s mind to conform to the change i n fashion: " i t i s clear that about
1700 Gothic was 'out' and the I t a l i a n a t e was ' i n ' " (p. 245). Architects
l i k e Wren and Hawksmoor who were educated i n the I t a l i a n s t y l e s and were
sure of the i n f e r i o r i t y of the gothic used i t , nevertheless, when the
occasion seemed to require i t , both f o r the sake of conformity and conser-
vation and, as Colvin points out (p. 92) for the sake of " s t r u c t u r a l
experiment."
^ Lang, pp. 240-243 and passim.
1
Also de Beer, "Architectural Terms,"
p. 3.
75
42
Lang, pp. 243-245; also Germann, Part I, Ch. 6, "The Concept of
H i s t o r i c a l Development."
43
Robson-Scott notes that "though this i n t e r e s t i s c e r t a i n l y a n t i -
quarian rather than aesthetic i n flavour, i t does at least show that the
Gothic buildings were not forgotten. For the most part these writers
seem to have accepted the Gothic style as a matter of course and even i n
some cases to have evinced a d e f i n i t e l i k i n g f o r i t " (pp. 18-19). And
Maurice Levy: "Les travaux des antiquaires . . . montrent, mieux que l a
construction de rares eglises ou mieux que quelques temoignages oublies,
l a persistance, tout au long de l'epoque classique, d'un interet l i m i t e
mais r e a l pour 1'architecture medievale. Grace a ces erudits furent
redecouverts les grands monuments nationaux d'un passe glorieux . . . "
(Le Roman «Gothique» Anglais, p. 13).
44
Lang, p. 248, c i t i n g T. Kendrick, British Antiquity (London: 1950)
and J . Evans, A History of the Society of Antiquaries (Oxford: 1956).
The Monasticon was the work of S i r William Dugdale (1605-1686) who c o l -
laborated with Roger Dodsworth. Further editions were published i n 1664
and 1673.
45
Quoted i n Lang, pp. 249-250, from S. Piggott, William Stukeley
(Oxford: 1950), p. 56. The Society of Antiquaries had been rejuvenated
i n 1707.
^ L a n g , p. 250.
47
Frankl, The Gothic, p. 395.
48
See B. Sprague A l l e n , Tides in English Taste, I I , Ch. XIV, "The
Challenge of the Middle Ages," Part I, "The P e r s i s t i n g Interest i n
Gothic Architecture before Walpole"; Robson-Scott, pp. 18-24; Charles L.
Eastlake, A History of the Gothic Revival, ed. J . Mordaunt Crook (1872;
rpt. and rev., Leicester: Leicester Univ. Press: 1970), pp. 6-19;
Kenneth Clark, The Gothic Revival, pp. 30-35; Frankl, pp. 396-414;
Lionel Gossmann, Medievalism and the Ideologies of the Enlightenment:
The World and Work of La Curne de Sainte-Palaye (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins
Univ. Press, 1968), p. 329 f f .
49
The topographical work was also carried through by William G i l p i n ' s
picturesgue tours, and h i s essay "On Picturesque Travel," i n Three Essays
(London: R. Blamire, 1792). The new vogue for tours produced a vast
l i t e r a t u r e , including: William Hutchinson, Excursion to the Lakes (1776),
Joseph Budworth, Fortnight's Ramble to the Lakes (1792), William Thompson,
Tour of England and Scotland (1788), and tour descriptions by Daniel
Defoe, John Wilkes, Tobias Smollett, Joseph Warton, and Arthur Young, a l l
of which contained detailed accounts of both natural scenery and a r c h i -
tecture. One of the most p r o l i f i c successors to the topographers was
John B r i t t o n who produced his series The Beauties of England and Wales
i n 18 vols, between 1800 and 1816, and four volumes of The Architectural
A n t i q u i t i e s of Great Britain i n 1814, with a f i f t h i n 1818, i n addition
76
5 0
C l a r k , p. 31.
5 2
A l l e n , I I , 98-99.
53
For Walpole's e c l e c t i c use of salvaged pieces, see Horace Walpole,
A Description of the Villa of Mr. Horace Walpole . . . at Strawberry-
Hill , etc. (1784; facsimile r p t . Farnborough: Gregg, 1969).
54
55
Ibid., pp. 25-26.
"^Horace Walpole, Anecdotes of Painting, i n The Works of Horatio
Walpole, Earl of Orford (London: G. G. & J . Robinson, and J . Edwards,
1798), I I I , 94. Unfortunately, this passage has been read so as to
y i e l d an opinion more favourable to the gothic than Walpole meant to
convey i n the f u l l context i n which i t occurs. Although he c i t e d the
cases of Inigo Jones, Wren, and Kent, who "blundered into the heaviest
and clumsiest compositions whenever they aimed at imitations of the
Gothic," i n order to prove that i t could not be a "despicable" s t y l e ,
Walpole was c a r e f u l to q u a l i f y the force of h i s comparison (see daggered
footnote, pp. 94-95). At the head of the paragraph immediately following
this passage, he wrote: "I c e r t a i n l y do not mean by t h i s l i t t l e contrast
to make any comparison between the r a t i o n a l beauties of regular a r c h i -
tecture and the unrestrained licentiousness of that which i s c a l l e d
Gothic." Walpole's recognition of the power of the gothic was important,
nevertheless, for the kind of f i c t i o n he helped to create.
"^For examination of important works of l i t e r a r y antiquarianism,
see Arthur Johnston, Enchanted Ground: The Study of Medieval Romance in
the Eighteenth Century (London: Athlone Press, 1964). See also Clark,
p. 35, pp. 41-43, and Joan Pittock, The Ascendancy of Taste: The Achieve-
ment of Joseph and Thomas Warton (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1973),
pp. 170-171. Clark and Pittock disagree over the connection between
l i t e r a r y and a r c h i t e c t u r a l developments, Clark arguing that the allow-
ances made for Shakespeare and Spenser i n l i t e r a r y c r i t i c i s m opened the
f i e l d for gothic taste i n architecture, Pittock that antiquarian research
was a more l i k e l y influence.
77
58
J. Mordaunt Crook, i n his introduction to the facsimile r e p r i n t
of Eastlake's History of the Gothic Revival, discusses the r e v i v a l of
interest i n medieval a r t and customs that had already started during the
reign of Elizabeth (pp. <27-28>).
59
Richard Hurd, Letters on Chivalry and Romance, with the Third
Elizabethan Dialogue, ed. Edith J . Morley (London: Henry Frowde, 1911).
A l l l a t e r page references w i l l be given within the text.
^The t r a v e l l e r s would have consulted Dugdale's A n t i q u i t i e s of
Warwickshire (1656).
62
L o n g u e i l , "The Word 'Gothic'','" PP- 456-457.
VITALITY IN FICTION
Comparing the evocative effects of the gothic story and the neo-gothic
- 80 -
81
WALDAVE', 'and I intend that willows and weeping birches s h a l l droop over
2
tableau were genuinely ancient, but the associative concept that governed
he pointed out to the Rev. William Cole, who had been reading The Castle
of Otranto:
You w i l l even have found some t r a i t s to put you i n mind of
this place [Strawberry H i l l ] , When you read of the picture
q u i t t i n g h i s panel, did you not r e c o l l e c t the p o r t r a i t of
Lord Falkland a l l i n white i n my gallery?
82
creation were much the same i n both cases. For this reason, an account
both creations.
thirty-two years old.. He had held the lease on the property for the
two years preceding. Between 1749 and 1790 the estate expanded from f i v e
a m i x t u r e of f e i g n e d d i s i n t e r e s t and r e a l d i s i l l u s i o n m e n t , about an
i n a c h a r a c t e r i s t i c a l l y w h i m s i c a l way.
t i o n a l p l e a s u r e s of g e n t e e l f a r m i n g , r u r a l s e c l u s i o n , and associations
was
and the force of h i s dream prompted him, what matters i s that he pretended
H i l l was the continuation of a dream and was the product of "very imper-
fect r e c o l l e c t i o n . "
was to move the kitchen. Like many architects and builders of the time,
which, although i t might wear out, would not f a l l down." Robinson and
the associations of gothic buildings; his lack of knowledge of, and con-
and outside are s t r i c t l y ancient, but the decorations are modern," and
called the mixture, quoting from Pope, "A Gothic Vatican of Greece and
tombs and portals which formed his bookcases and chimney-pieces, but the
defended the inconsistency between these objects and the rooms they
86
Walpole must have realized the feebleness of the suggestion that he was
that he did not mean "to defend by argument a small capricious house"
the Tudor manner and the r e v i v a l gothic of the time of James I, consider-
19
default.
the subject of vaulting, but the only evidence that Walpole cared about
In assembling the gothic surface for his house, Walpole often used
ruins which became popular i n the 1720's—and which sometimes were mere
Walpole did not expect to go through the trouble and expense of building
pattern for the gothic wallpaper i n the entrance h a l l and staircase was
the China Room was designed by Muntz after one i n the Borghese v i l l a at
the Tribune imitated that of the Chapter House, York Minster; the c e i l i n g
of the Holbein Room was after that of the royal dressing-room i n Windsor
Castle; the entrance screen was copied from the choir of Rouen Cathedral.
tive passion that had made English tourists i n Italy and France g u l l i b l e ,
25
confections of Vauxhall.
26
H a l l , Norfolk. Horace Walpole avoided the Palladian fashion and i t s
89
matters, balance and consistency not among them. The asymmetry of the
27 ,
house, f o r example, Walpole chose d e l i b e r a t e l y . He inserted Essex s
Beauclerc Tower between the existing Round Tower and the long south wing,
corner, for balance. Walpole varied the size of h i s rooms, making them
28
i t i e s of the barbarous a r c h i t e c t s .
served two functions for him, one attached to the contemporary world and
to perform the second function, the house had to include a l l the props
dreams to l i f e .
91
the past held for him. Thus, he wrote to George Montagu, on 5 January
because he was subversive and because his retreat from the mundane was
only temporary, not doctrinaire, i t did not matter so much that his
ments i n luxury" which Walpole valued most was the luxury of being able
of h i s personal avante-garde:
I have not written the book for the present age, which w i l l
endure nothing but cold common sense. I confess to you, my
dear friend, (and you w i l l think me madder than ever,) that
this i s the only one of my works with which I am myself
pleased; I have given reins to my imagination t i l l I became
on f i r e with the v i s i o n s and feelings which i t excited. I
have composed i t i n defiance of r u l e s , of c r i t i c s , and of
philosophers; and i t seems to me just so much the better
for that very r e a s o n . ^
literary career began. This fact helps to explain why he had undertaken
his excursions into the "centuries that cannot disappoint one." In 1765
Conway was secretary bf state, but Conway did not secure for him the
attracted him, he f e l t that they were his proper concern, more a part of
93
might give him the influence as a writer and taste-maker that he had
modating his exotic visions to the views of the more pedestrian world,
berry H i l l — s o many that Walpole had to control them with rules and
cratise Gothic."
this work was never a matter of necessity for him. Both Walpole and
else's bidding l i k e Kent or Wyatt, who attempted the gothic because their
pole shared with Hurd a d i r e c t , personal sense of the banality which had
through r a d i c a l means.
ing that the house, which was i t s e l f a dream-fulfilment, had also inspired
95
The "Gothic story" that made his dream seem "very natural" was com-
between Walpole's dream and his chosen environment was obvious. On the
"great staircase" of Strawberry H i l l was a niche which contained a f u l l
39
suit of armour, and there was a separate Armoury at the head of those
treatment of the marvellous. The dream story suggested the author's lack
his romance followed the method of a dream, the marvellous events and
work.
St. Nicholas at Otranto," the English version supposedly having been made
edition informed the reader that "the following work was found i n the
barbarism" (p. 5). The reader was thus forewarned that he should take
care to separate the tale's content, which was suspect, from the manner
seemed to take i t s truth for granted. But for Walpole's genteel readers
the signals were quite clear: a work which "would enslave a hundred v u l -
gar minds" would not enslave t h e i r s , especially not a work which had
provision for stepping into the author's r o l e should his work receive a
by making i t resemble the adventures and scandals that were the favourite
at the time when the "manuscript" was composed (c. 1529), or at the time
of the story's setting, which "Marshal" placed "between 1095, the aera
wards" (p. 5). Since the supposed translator was simply making available
but not a l l . Thomas Gray wrote to him from Cambridge, where Otranto had
Since Gray had been a party to Walpole's secret, had read the manu-
reaction: his lack of c r i t i c a l acumen (his unnamed friend seems the more
that the f i c t i o n (or the new-gothic building) was a sham. The case of
101
whether one was fooled or not, what was important was that the sham be
modern scruples, while leaving him the chance to exercise them i n the
end. In Otranto the translation device was the chief means of accom-
I have already suggested that, beyond showing the reader that Otranto
notes that Walpole "was bored with the i n s i p i d i t y of Richardson and the
his uneasiness with the idea of authorship i n two other ways: through
pation for a gentleman, but that only a gentleman could afford to take
the subject appeared soon after Otranto was published. For example, he
ity:
exclusively for his own amusement, following his own fashion, " i n d e f i -
have believed that the kind of f i c t i o n that he had written (or invented)
required the author "to play the f o o l " — t h a t his gothic tastes, i n that
that he would take the r i s k involved), but i t did make him cautious enough
edition of Otranto came out, with Walpole the acknowledged author, the
to read the romance, but i t no longer protected Walpole from the dangers
of innovation (and Mason's l e t t e r makes one wonder how well i t ever had).
convey. "Marshal" regretted that his "author" had not founded his story:
. . . on a more useful moral than t h i s : that the sins of
fathers are visited on their children to the third and
fourth generation. I doubt whether, i n his time, any more
than at present, ambition curbed i t s appetite of dominion
from the dread of so remote a punishment. And yet this
moral i s weakened by that less d i r e c t insinuation, that
even such anathema may be diverted, by devotion to St.
Nicholas. Here, the interest of the Monk p l a i n l y gets the
better of the judgment of the Author.
The " t r a n s l a t o r " hoped, nevertheless, that the romance would s a t i s f y the
sentiments, exempt this work from the censure to which romances are but
fiction. At any rate, those were not the q u a l i t i e s which attracted most
readers to The Castle of Otranto. There remained one good reason for the
moral issue to a r i s e here, and that was Walpole's desire to seem duly
tion from moral scruples. (In addition, Lewis was much more independently
that Walpole's anonymity was gone. A further incentive was the romance's
copies had sold out within three months, there was no overnight fame, and
Walpole carried over some of the important points from the Trans-
veloped. The idea of such a comparison had not originated with Walpole.
the trade-off between fancy and reason almost three years e a r l i e r , i n the
match the o r i g i n a l s .
why he did not may have been the fact that he did not disagree strongly
with the common l i n e of attack against the medieval romances and their
His own hybrid romance depended upon, and reinforced, the prejudice
picaresque use of the romantic types and subjects with that of Cervantes:
53
his readers to the idea that the romances had their own licit pleasures,
which they might enjoy without losing e n t i r e l y their contempt for the
era and the mentality that had produced them. It was the readers' shar-
On the other hand, the frequent note of narrative sarcasm and condescen-
sion implied a voice outside the credulous time of the story and i t s
poraries, especially for those who became gothic enthusiasts, the former
that Walpole made allowance for more familiar tastes or attitudes gave
from the conventional mode. Thus, he could not have "given r e i n s " to
his imagination, unless he was confident that the reins could be grasped
collection.
excess that would not have been as palatable i f he had not offered his
romance and the novel. Unlike the reformer Cervantes who figures i n
Ill
Smollett's history of the romance, Walpole was not mainly worried about
been set upon the scope of f i c t i o n . Since Cervantes had held the romantic
that "the great resources of fancy have been dammed up," h i s desire to
character of his own work i n ways that he did not note i n his Prefaces.
through the values which he did not hold, the conventions which he did
tent not to penetrate much further into the origins of malice and revenge—
figures from a very malleable substance, to put them through rapid changes
from one mask to another, without elaborate preparations to make this seem
While the reader has the suggestion of a tempestuous mind, the minute
the setting for its own sake. Instead, the setting i s instrumental in
which the main characters hurtle, drawing along the reader at the same
precipitous speed, refusing him the chance to situate them within their
tion, the symbolic use of the setting becomes more evident as well. The
giant, whose armour and burgeoning limbs throw Manfred's household into
From the very opening incident, when the great plumed casque crushes out
enters into a contest with Manfred for occupancy of the Castle and for
115
the power which i t represents. The helmet deprives Manfred not only of
his son but also of free use of the Castle. The enormous weight of the
Theodore and the giant i s more accurate than either he or Manfred sup-
legitimate claim to power, and of his true, noble lineage. As the figure
obvious, beyond Manfred's capacity to deny them. The fact that the giant,
curse, which eventually destroys his children and revokes his power. It
enormity of the crimes against him, the heavy burden of conscience upon
Manfred, and the potency of the supernatural forces that guarantee jus-
Alfonso:
Otranto" (p. 145). Here the symbolic value of the Castle i s duly sum-
marized. Although the modern reader might not have brought the same
seen the significance of the Castle, not i n terms of the "vanity of human
important to note that the Castle's symbolic function does not require
that i t be c a r e f u l l y described.
setting, the vague sense that the Castle i s an animate object as well as
mate, actual subject—and that was not the "quality of l i f e " or the
accuracy. Although the plot might have been based, to some extent, on
t i o n and vocabulary (using the older pronoun forms), and to introduce the
interpretation for Otranto (pp. !>8--;.v0- supra). The reading which can
which seizes upon the same themes precisely because they are barbarous
priate responses. For those readers who entertained a proper respect for
their own time and a proper contempt for a l l others, the mere whiff of
119
"to draw such a picture of domestic l i f e and manners, during the feudal
had projected upon Otranto his own bias, for he himself preferred to
guage and dress between the Anglo-Saxons and their Norman overlords,
Scott c e r t a i n l y could not have found any similar depiction of the actual
texture of the past i n The Castle of Otranto, and his admiration for the
instance.
was natural that Walpole should turn for i n s p i r a t i o n , guidance, and jus-
c r i t i c s , who valued the Rules, and English poets, who valued their genius
theatre had already put out roots i n more recent times, reappearing i n
61
audience, for whom they were playing the climax of a dramatic performance
121
Walpole stated i n the second Preface, they do not "think, speak, and act,
positions."
There are several reasons for this apparent discrepancy, aside from
they were cast were unusual, i t was not to be expected that their prob-
able behaviour would be the same as the probable behaviour of the "mere
"absurd dialogue" and absurd behaviour. He did not bring to his charac-
modern novel, they were at least more probable and less whimsical than
Moreover, the context of The Castle of Otranto was not only gothic
the sublime of the one and the naivete of the other, sets the pathetic of
123
the former i n a stronger l i g h t " (p. 15). The main characters' involve-
ment with the sublime and the pathetic, or with the conventions of
and types.
the narrative, Walpole was l e f t with two main areas f o r dramatic develop-
Protestant skeptic.
ters; the romantic triangle of Theodore, Matilda and Isabella; and the
depended upon this desire, and sought to make the reader conscious of i t
with the death of Conrad under the gigantic helmet, and culminates with
vengeance:
with the helmet. Manfred claps his chamber door shut against Matilda,
and wounds him grievously. Isabella flees from the Castle not simply
the servant who brings Manfred the news of Conrad's death does not merely
what was the matter, but anxious for her son, swooned away" (p. 22).
signs that comment upon, and magnify, the human concerns of the charac-
upon Manfred's family fortunes, which has declared "that the Castle and
Lordship of Otranto should pass from the present family whenever the real
owner should be grown too large to.inhabit it" (p. 22). Thus, when Man-
fred makes p l a i n h i s designs upon Isabella, the plume of the great helmet
discover what such a belief would have been like—and many readers were
occurrences, they seem less credible than supernatural ones. Having made
groan, which seemed to come from above, s t a r t l e d the Princess and Theo-
pent-up vapours" (p. 95). In the version of the gothic that, following
two main kinds of gothicism; see above, pp. 62-68), there i s yet another
dimension to their importance. For violence and spectacle are the basic
within the romance, Manfred's l u s t and greed, which are, after a l l , sins
the r e a l centre of interest remains the crime which has brought about the
During the course of the gothic novel's development, the focus of atten-
a report i n anything other than t h e i r own speed and fashion. They have
A bystander often sees more of the game than those that play.
. . . Does your highness think, madam, that his question
about my Lady Isabella was the r e s u l t of mere curiosity?
No, no, madam; there i s more i n i t than you great folks are
aware of (pp. 57-8).
unseen speaker, who turns out to be Theodore, asks Matilda, after the
from the servants, that Isabella has f l e d from the Castle. Since the
she r e p l i e s d i s d a i n f u l l y :
Theodore.
magnified gesture:
that a young man, no matter how earnest, could not simply "get himself
Thus, when Manfred stabs her, instead of Isabella, some of the monks
himself" (p. 140). As Matilda i s borne from the church back to the
Castle, "Theodore supporting her head with h i s arm, and hanging over her
come by "the mightiness of her g r i e f " and swoons. Matilda, who has
already argued with her father over who should forgive whom, c a l l s him
to her side and "seizing h i s hand and her mother's, locked them i n her
own, and then clasped them to her heart. Manfred could not support this
act of pathetic piety. He dashed himself on the ground, and cursed the
day he was born" (p. 142). For fear of subjecting Matilda to an excess
his own claim upon Matilda, rebukes him: "Young man, thou art too
"fond transports" are the main material of which this scene i s composed.
and uttered every expression that despairing love could d i c t a t e " (p. 144).
for the basic excesses i n The Castle of Otranto are a l l sexual. Manfred's
for his dead, true lover. Even Matilda, whose abstinence becomes the
that her meeting with Theodore, breaking her vow never to see him again,
"has drawn down this calamity" upon her (p. 144). F i n a l l y , the mystery
which, though lawful, he deems "incongruous with the holy vow of arms by
romance, The Old English Baron (1778), she stated that her idea of the
gothic novel was the same as Walpole's, but that h i s example had shown
i s intended to excite. Had the story been kept within the utmost verge
Whereas Reeve thought that she had perfected the formula that Walpole
had been able to follow only clumsily, Walpole was not convinced by her
Baron was "a professed imitation of mine, only stripped of the marvellous,
not make me laugh: for what makes one doze, seldom makes one merry." In
as probable.
66
In her l a t e r , f u l l c r i t i c a l work, The Progress of Romance (1785),
violence and supernaturalism. Even The Old English Baron escaped comment,
though modesty had not stopped her from having her f i c t i o n a l disputants
clear enough. Like Walpole, she argued for the legitimacy of a taste
in tragic terms, so Reeve traced the origins of the romance to the epic
could have the same degree of moral seriousness or educative value that
view was already fading from the p e r i o d i c a l reviews, i t was also gaining
f i t to read.
pose. But i n The Old English Baron i t s e l f we can see the increasing
Although the ostensible setting for the novel (during "the minority of
purely human actions and concerns control i t s outcome and mark the l i m i t s
and seasoned with complacency. In the scheme of power and interests that
that bring the criminal to punishment, arrange the exceedingly happy fate
d i r e c t , nonmysterious, and e s s e n t i a l l y r a t i o n a l .
Walpole had imbued The Castle of Otranto, Reeve substituted the canny
137
elements i n The Old English Baron, and of those the issue of courtship
Reeve makes this d i s c r e t i o n seem both comic and masochistic, for Emma,
he and Edmund " r e t i r e from this croud" for they have "business of a more
passion and business upon which the very technique of the novel i s based.
Emma approaches her father, "with tears on her cheek, sweetly blushing
l i k e the damask rose." Baron Fitz-Owen explains to her his need for her
consent:
Emma's reply emphasizes the fitness of her relationship with her father,
such peace and security i s the chief goal, and the common l o t , of Reeve's
139
not only the major a l l i a n c e between Edmund and Emma, but also the lesser
a l l i a n c e s , among the various sons and daughters of the lords who have
capable, when dealing with the spectacular, the supernatural, the exces-
mild and colourless, small compensation for the i n t r i c a t e legal and emo-
l i t y " give the moral theme to the prolonged coda that follows the c i r -
argued, she could not avoid following "a certain creeping and low l i n e
but were rarely unnecessary, since they not only secured her story's
life.
increased between The Old English Baron and The Progress of Romance (see
history and f i c t i o n (as i n Sophia Lee's The Recess), nor for contemptuous
forces may be enacted. Thus, i n The Old English Baron h i s t o r y was ideal-
of the present.
as the gothic method and sense of history that i t r e f l e c t s are the oppo-
factors i n The Castle of Otranto, where they a l l would detract from the
the Middle Ages that was outlined i n the f i r s t part of this study (see
narration becomes part of the matter narrated, for the novel stands at
two removes from the reader: i t i s the work both of Walpole, the modern
the l a t t e r .
143
The alleged barbarity of the gothic holds no appeal for her, either as a
and wonderment mixed. The unrepentant malice of Walter Lovel, for example,
behaviour. These are mere intrusions. Moreover, Reeve does not try to
into the service of the Greek emperor, John Paleologus," becomes moder-
were q u a l i t i e s which embarrassed her when she came to defend the o l d and
and the darker, ambivalent mode, which exploits the otherness of the
works.
145
FOOTNOTES
7
I b i d . , pp. 23-24.
g
Walpole, Description, p. 1, asterisked note.
9
Lewis, Horace Walpole, p. 98.
"^The "Quadruple A l l i a n c e " consisted of Walpole, Thomas Gray, Richard
West, and Thomas Ashton. See Lewis, pp. 46-47.
"'""'walpole, Description, p. i i i .
Ibid., p. i v .
18
W. H. Smith, Architecture in English Fiction, p. 41.
1 9
I b i d . , pp. 36-39.
20
Walpole, Description, p. 55. See Agnes Addison, Romanticism and
the Gothic Revival (1938; r e p r i n t , New York: Gordian Press, 1967), p. 41:
"the post-Viollet-le-Duc mediaevalists shuddered when they found b u i l d -
ings which pretended to be i n the Gothic manner and yet were not stone
vaulted, but were constructed i n the simplest manner l i k e a cardboard
box and then plastered over with pinnacles and crockets and a few pointed
arches." Michael Sadleir, " ' A l l Horrid? 1
Jane Austen and the Gothic
Romance," i n Things Past (London: Constable, 1944), relates the a r c h i -
tectural and the l i t e r a r y superimpositions of exotic elements upon a
f a m i l i a r base: "the sound of a strange language a l l u r e d the ear, but i t s
grammar (and indeed much of i t s meaning) were ignored" (p. 178).
21
James Essex, Journal of a Tour Through Part of Flandres and France
in August [and Sept.], 1773, ed. W. M. Fawcett (Cambridge: 1888).
22
Lewis, "Genesis," p. 83. Walpole wrote to Thomas Barret (5 June
1788): " . . . neither Mr. Bentley nor my workmen had studied the science,
and I was always too desultory and impatient to consider that I should
please myself more by allowing time, than by hurrying my plans into
expectation before they were ripe. My house therefore i s but a sketch
by beginners."
23
Walpole, Description, p. 47.
24
Walpole to Mann, Selected Letters, p. 44.
25
For an account of the new connoisseurs' purchasing habits, see
Elizabeth Manwaring, Italian Landscape in Eighteenth-Century England
(l*-9«2Spireprint!,*- Londonc:•.•ErarikaCass, 1965), pp. 14-34.
26
For plans see Walpole, Aedes Walpolianae (1747), reprinted i n
Works (1798); plans for Strawberry H i l l appeared i n the Description and
are reproduced i n Lewis, Horace Walpole.
27
Walpole wrote to Mann (12 June 1753): "This view of the castle i s
what I have just finished, and i s the only side that w i l l be at a l l
regular" (SL, p. 43). This would suggest that Walpole had a p a r t i c u l a r
external effect i n mind even at this early stage.
147
28
Ibid., p. 45: ". . . i t i s r e a l l y incredible how small most of the
rooms are. The only two good chambers I s h a l l have, are not yet b u i l t ;
they w i l l be an eating-room and a l i b r a r y , each 20 by 30, and the l a t t e r
15 feet high." W. S. Lewis associates the increase i n room size with
Walpole's "larger income and expanding knowledge" of the gothic, after
1762. See Preface to Correspondence with Cole, p. x x x i i .
29
Allen, Tides in English Taste, I I , p. 75.
30
102.
Walpole to Mann, SL, pp. 43-45; Walpole to Montagu, Corr., 9,
31
S i r Terry Robsart, according to Walpole, was "an ancestor of S i r
R.W. [Robert Walpole], who was Knight of the Garter." (Lewis, Horace
Walpole, pp. 104-105, quoting Walpole's note to his l e t t e r to Mann, 12
June 1753.) S i r Terry symbolized Walpole's romantic and noble ancestry.
32
Walpole to George Montagu, Corr., 10, 192.
33
Walpole to Deffand, quoted i n Scott, " L i f e of Walpole," On
Novelists and F i c t i o n , p. 86.
34
Memoirs of George III, I I , 149, quoted by Lewis, Horace Walpole,
p. 74; for an assessment of Walpole's p o l i t i c a l career, see Lewis, pp.
69-95. For an account of Walpole's actual, considerable p o l i t i c a l i n f l u -
ence, even after h i s disappointment i n Conway, see John Brooke's entry
for "Hon. Horatio Walpole of Strawberry H i l l , " i n The History of P a r l i a -
ment: The House of Commons, 1754-1790, i i i (Members K-Y), eds. S i r Lewis
Namier and John Brooke (London: History of Parliament Trust, 1964),
595-597. The r e a l i t y of this power did not necessarily detract from the
r e a l i t y of Walpole's disappointment and disillusionment with p o l i t i c a l
life.
35
Clark, Gothic Revival, pp. 81-82; Agnes Addison, p. 42.
36
Walpole to Richard Bentley, Selected L e t t e r s , p. 48. For an
account of M i l l e r ' s works, see Eastlake, pp. <41-43> (Introduction).
C l a r k , p. 35, pp. 41-42.
3 7
38
Walpole to Cole, 9 March 1765, Corr., 1, 88.
39
The armour had belonged to King Francis I of France, and Walpole
bought i t i n 1772, after h i s dream. See Walpole, Description, p. 31 and
figure opposite.
Ibid., p. 32.
41
Walpole to Cole, 9 March 1765; Walpole repeated the story to Mason,
in b r i e f e r form, without mentioning the d e t a i l s of the dream. He contin-
ued to claim that the writing took two months, adding that he had decided
148
to publish his work only after Gray encouraged him (Walpole to Mason,
17 A p r i l 1765, Con., 28, 7). In the Walpoliana i s the c o n f l i c t i n g
claim that he "wrote the 'Castle of Otranto' i n eight days, or rather
eight nights" (walpoliana, 2nd edni,, London: for R. P h i l i p s , 1804, I,
22). The c o n f l i c t probably arises from the difference between the time
necessary for a f i r s t draft versus that for a completed draft. "HW
showed the MS to Gray i n August [1764], and Gray encouraged HW to print
i t . . . . 'At f i r s t i t was universally believed to be Mr. Gray's' (HW to
Hertford, 26 March 1765)." (Corr., 14, 137, editor's note 1.)
42
The publisher's imprint for the f i r s t edition reads: "LONDON:
Printed for Tho. Lownds i n Fleet-Street, MDCCLXV," but Montague Summers
records the actual date of publication as 24 December 1764. See Horace
Walpole, The Castle of Otranto and The Mysterious Mother, ed. Montague
Summers (London: Constable & Co,,, 1924), p. xxv. Summers' edition
combines the various editions published under Walpole's supervision.
Subsequent page references w i l l appear within text, and w i l l be to this
edition. In the f i r s t edition (1764), the romance i s subtitled "A
Story"; i n the Works (1798) i t appeared as "A Gothic Story." S i r Walter
Scott, i n his " L i f e of Walpole," pointed out that "Onuphrio Muralto" was
"a sort of anagram, or translation, of the author's own name"—and, I
would add, a deliberately transparent one. (See Scott, p. 85.)
43
Gray to Walpole, 30 December 1764, Corr., 14, 137.
44
Although i t was a f r i e n d l y detachment, Gray's report was l i g h t e r
and less enthusiastic than i t would have been had he been more of a
f l a t t e r e r . Walpole had also sent copies of the romance to other friends:
E l i e de Beaumont, Hertford, Montagu, Cole, Thomas Warton, and Mason.
45
Mason to Walpole, 14 A p r i l 1765, Corr., 28, 5-6. The "episcopal
evidence" i s supposed to be from William Warburton, Bishop of Gloucester
(p. 5, n. 2). Mason here notes i n passing one of Walpole's other precau-
tions, that of committing his MS to another printer rather than issuing
i t through the Strawberry H i l l Press. Apparently the hoax had some
enduring appeal, for Peter Burra attests: "I have seen a publisher's
catalogue which as l a t e as 1801 advertised The Castle of Otranto as by
Muralto, although Walpole had admitted h i s authorship i n 1765," a decep-
tion which he attributes to the usefulness of such "non-existent crea-
tures" i n making "the productions seem more strange." ("Baroque and
Gothic Sentimentalism," Farrago, 3 [Oct. 1930], 168.)
46
Walpoliana, I, 23. See also L. B. Seeley, Horace Walpole and His
World (London: Seeley & Co., 1895), pp. 24-25; Lewis, Horace Walpole,
p. 161. Before presenting "Two Unpublished Fairy Tales by Horace Wal-
pole," i n Horace Walpole: Writer, P o l i t i c i a n , and Connoisseur, ed.
W. H. Smith (New Haven & London: Yale Univ. Press, 1967), p. 241,
A. Dayle Wallace notes that " i t i s s i g n i f i c a n t that Walpole made no
c o l l e c t i o n of f i c t i o n comparable to his c o l l e c t i o n of the plays, poems,
and tracts of the reigns of George II and George I I I , " c i t i n g this as
evidence that he "took comparatively l i t t l e i n t e r e s t " i n the development
149
anticipated a l l the attacks which would be made upon his work when he
wrote the f i r s t , Walpole also used this opportunity to put i t " i n the
best l i g h t possible." In addition, however unrelated his theories may
be to his actual achievement, they exerted a strong influence, neverthe-
l e s s , upon l a t e r c r i t i c s ' (e.g. Scott's, the Aikins') views on Otranto
and the gothic genre.
52
Tobias Smollett, The Adventures of Roderick Random, i n Miscel-
laneous Works (London: Mundell, 1796), I, l x v i i i .
53
Levy, Le Roman «Gothique», pp. 47-53.
54
For Walpole's c r i t i c i s m of the dullness of Richardson, see Heidler,
p. 131.
I b i d . , p. 39.
5 6
""^Montague Summers, The Gothic Quest (New York: Russell & Russell,
1964), p. 184. Summers notes several p a r a l l e l s between the infamous
career of the f i c t i o n a l Manfred and that of Manfred or Manfroi, "a
natural son of the Emperor Frederick I I . " The p a r a l l e l s include usurpa-
tion and the mysterious disappearance of a r i g h t f u l h e i r , but Summers
remains r e l a t i v e l y unmoved by them; moreover, he does not provide any
evidence that Walpole knew about the h i s t o r i c a l Manfred, or had him i n
mind when he composed The Castle of Otranto.
58
In Gothic Drama from Walpole to Shelley, Evans notes that Otranto
and the genre i t i n i t i a t e d erupted from two related ideas: f i r s t , medi-
eval l i f e was dark, gloomy, and barbarous; second, i t would be t e r r i f y i n g
i f enlightened gentlemen and 'sensible' ladies were transported from con-
temporary society and suddenly thrust into that e a r l i e r time" (p. 8).
The f i r s t idea was a source of reassurance, the second, of excitement and
imaginative stimulation.
59
A l i c e Chandler, " S i r Walter Scott and the Medieval Revival,"
pp. 324-326.
60
See Walpole's argument against V o l t a i r e , Otranto, pp. 15-20.
C l a r a Mclntyre, "Were the Gothic Novels Gothic?" PMLA, 36 (1921),
6 1
68
Tompkins, The Popular Novel in England, pp. 70-72: " i n 1770 the
Critical found i t s e l f unable to follow Bancroft i n his l o g i c a l conten-
t i o n that, since the main business of a novel i s to teach, i t had better
not be too i n t e r e s t i n g , " and the Monthly remarks i n a review of 1772:
"'The excellent lessons of morality which this work inculcates w i l l not
be able to save i t from o b l i v i o n " ' (p. 72).
1
69
See M. J . Quinlan, Victorian Prelude, A History of English Man-
ners 1700-1830 (1941; r e p r i n t , London: Frank Cass & Co., 1965), and
Aridr-.e Parreaux, The Publication of the Monk (Paris: L i b . Marcel Didier,
1960). Quinlan i s somewhat more interested i n the p o l i t i c a l views of
both groups during the Napoleonic period, Parreaux vin>. their actions to
enforce moral standards.
^ T y p i c a l of this r e s t r a i n t i s the sequel to Emma's learning that
Edmund i s also "the man i n whose behalf I once presumed to speak," that
his fortune and lineage might permit them to marry: "From this period,
the young pair behaved with solemn respect to each other, but with
apparent reserve" (p. 134). When S i r Robert, "with tears on h i s cheeks"
and f i l i a l obedience on h i s l i p s , seeks r e c o n c i l i a t i o n with his father,
the witnesses to the scene respond mildly, impersonally, decorously, as
i f to a dramatic piece: "The company rose, and congratulated both
father and son" (p. 139). S i r Robert i s promptly matched with Lord
C l i f f o r d ' s daughter.
7
^ S c o t t , " L i f e of Reeve," On Novelists and F i c t i o n , p. 100.
72
Tompkins, The Popular Novel in England, p. 231. Cooke ("Side
Lights," p. 433) goes further i n drawing a p o l i t i c a l meaning from the
Memoirs:
Miss Reeve . . . hoped her narrative would stimulate a few
readers to imitate the virtues of olden days, and would
convince them that the new ideas of the French Revolutionists
were not as well founded as many people believed. Thus she
attempted to convert the Gothic romance into a weapon of
propaganda against the doctrines of the French Revolution
and to make i t the conservative and romantic counterpart of
the contemporary, r e a l i s t i c novel of purpose, which was
being currently used to propagandize the new r a d i c a l ideas.
The lead was not followed, Cooke claims, because "the romance writers of
the 1790's were more interested i n t e r r i f y i n g their readers than i n
g l o r i f y i n g the old order of things." I do not believe that these two
purposes are necessarily d i s t i n c t .
73
This tension evidently affected Clara Reeve h e r s e l f . In The
English Novel (London: Constable, 1960) , L i o n e l Stevenson notes that
Reeve's next novel, The Exiles, or Memoirs of Count de Cronstadt,
'"departed from the p l a c i d i t y of her Old English Baron i n favour of
emotional despair and t e r r i f y i n g p e r i l s " (p. 163). This was not, how-
ever, her ultimate technical or c r i t i c a l preference.
CHAPTER III
Sensational and exotic elements were not the sole property of gothic
novels but the common stock of many kinds of popular f i c t i o n and sub-
exoticism for the two main gothic strategies that I have already iden-
- 153 -
154
the g o t h i c i s t s as a group:
Origin of our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful (1757). The fact of
Dennis 1
Grounds of Criticism in Poetry (1704); and the p r i n c i p l e s of a
formed. "^
language and ideas throughout the period when the gothic flourished i s
danger, and they are the most powerful of a l l the passions." Hume
"But nothing can furnish to the poet a variety of scenes, and incidents,
t i o n a l d e f i n i t i o n of the sublime:
Whatever i s f i t t e d i n any sort to excite the ideas of pain, and
danger, that i s to say, whatever i s i n any sort t e r r i b l e , or i s
conversant about t e r r i b l e objects, or operates i n a manner
analogous to terror, i s a source of the sublime; that i s , i t
i s productive of the strongest emotion which the mind i s capable
of f e e l i n g . I say the strongest emotion, because I am s a t i s f i e d
the ideas of pain are much more powerful than those which enter
on the part of pleasure. Without a l l doubt, the torments which
we may be made to suffer, are much greater i n their effect on
the body and mind, than any pleasures which the most learned
voluptuary could suggest, or than the l i v e l i e s t imagination,
and the most sound and exquisitely sensible body could enjoy.
. . . But as pain i s stronger i n i t s operation than pleasure,
so death i s i n general a much more a f f e c t i n g idea than pain
(pp. 58-60).
The l i n k between terror and sublimity i s strengthened through r e p e t i t i o n :
Whatever therefore i s t e r r i b l e . . . i s sublime too . . . for
i t i s impossible to look on anything as t r i f l i n g , or contempt-
i b l e , that may be dangerous. . . . Indeed terror i s i n a l l
cases whatsoever, either more openly or l a t e n t l y the r u l i n g
p r i n c i p l e of the sublime (pp. 96-97).
Burke even goes so f a r as to try to show a l i n g u i s t i c connection between
157
tual surrender akin to the gothic victim's and the gothic reader's.
sublime as i s a r t i f i c i a l terror:
( . 257)..-;:...
P
theorists. For example, i n her essay "On the Pleasure Derived from
Burkean nerve theory: "A strange and unexpected event awakens the mind,
gothic.
they "keep their chief as much as may be from the public eye." Further-
more, "the p o l i c y has been much the same i n many cases of r e l i g i o n "
(pp. 101-102).
Burke's emphasis upon the effect of the obscure and the hidden
agent of terror evidently coincided with the gothic n o v e l i s t s ' and was
between terror and horror: "Terror and horror are so f a r opposite, that
plainly.
threat of force. Burke affirms that, aside from objects which are them-
axiom i s simple: " I t i s one thing to make an idea clear, and another to
obscure kind" (p. 106). For this reason, poetry i s superior to painting,
unsuited to the new gothicism. Burke demonstrates that the less accurate
Enquiry:
162
forth the same sort of claim as Hurd does f o r the gothic, i n the Third
23
(p. 125) which also happen to be the conditions of that central exper-
tions are also present i n the graphic monument of what Levy c a l l s the
163
24
and darkness, Burke observes: "And this i s not the only instance wherein
duce them. The ultimate art should stimulate the ultimate response."
Chief among the adaptors were Uvedale P r i c e , who b u i l t also upon Van-
brugh's and Reynolds' ideas, and the Rev. John Milner, who claimed that
the Gothick struck one most f o r c i b l y , the Grecian delighted one more
28
lime.
166
invention.
metaphorical, and Burke introduces most of the key objects that would
religious beliefs.
D e i s t i c piety.
claim which leads him to conclude that "the appearance of terror i n the
34
was p r a c t i c i n g .
gothicism.
mimesis but the stimulation of strong feelings. Burke does not treat
this as an i n f e r i o r purpose.
169
pleasure.
of r u t h l e s s power, w i t h o u t s e n t i m e n t a l i t y or n o s t a l g i a i n t e r v e n i n g .
sensations.
sense of v u l n e r a b i l i t y and h e l p l e s s n e s s , i n h i s d e l i g h t at a t h r e a t
Both Burke and Freud agree that the fundamental human desire i s to sur-
aspects of the psyche. Yet, i f the Enquiry does give a rationale for
The most persistent problem was setting out boundaries for the
revulsion. For the gothic, this problem coincides with the central con-
sources of power.
become and how many negative cases she saw around her:
opinion:
essay "On Romances: An Imitation." Here she inquires into the reasons
sufferings aids the reader i n bearing his own r e a l ones; and that the
ity. Unfortunately, Mrs. Barbauld does not present her own positive
shocka techniques.
find measure of consistency i n her suspicion of strong scenes and
174
escape, perhaps, but not of a kind "highly soothing to the wearied mind."
where Drake made i t clear that his contemporaries could only be expected
even the simplest and most popular superstitions would cause "our
175
Walpole's, and Burke's. There i s the same delight i n fantasy, the same
dread of banality and mere common-sense, the same enthusiasm for gothic
stition:
. . . although this kind of s u p e r s t i t i o n be able to arrest
every f a c u l t y of the human mind, and to shake, as i t were,
a l l nature with horror, yet does i t also delight i n the
most sportive and elegant imagery. . . . The vulgar Gothic
. . . turns c h i e f l y on the awful m i n i s t r a t i o n of the Spectre,
or the innocent gambols of the Faery.^
beings, and form a part of every system of mythology, and into those
which depend upon natural causes and events for their production.""'"'"
agents were involved i n causing them, natural terrors were more probable
gothic novels.
Ann R a d c l i f f e , Sophia Lee), (4) open approval yet moderate use (e.g.,
approval (e.g., Burke, Scott, Coleridge), and (6) open approval and
the main gothic aims and strategies, this l i s t reduces to two basic
positions.
Though she did not shrink from depicting physical sufferings and tor-
tures quite graphically, she was careful not to allow any such events
preserved her worthy characters free from a l l stain which would prevent
with, and dependent upon, those features of the imaginary gothic world
tudes towards the putative gothic ancestors and their environment. The
world, which does not permit him to lend too much credence to the fanta-
rarely present. Scott has explained the value of the exotic f o r ambiva-
pattern.
extend the idea of exoticism beyond the geographical. Evans sees the
they had been uprooted from their proper society and, with
contemporary emotional and i n t e l l e c t u a l patterns i n t a c t ,
thrust into that era which was "barbarous." Subjected to the
various menaces of the Dark Ages, they served as projections
of the nervous system of their own time, as s e n s i t i v e r e g i s -
ters of emotional reaction to horrors, and, c l e a r l y , as
transmitters of the t h r i l l s of their exposure. When they
shuddered, their home-bound contemporaries shuddered. co
of repair we may i n f e r much about the time and place that we, and the
also represent the presence of outmoded tastes and manners i n the midst
the gothic novel as i n common usage; i n the novel, i t serves to mark off
of Udolphg (17,94). The heroine, Emily St. Aubert, and her aunt, who has
just become Mme. Montoni, are crossing the Alps into I t a l y . This par-
the passage and disgusted by the chaos of rock and snow around her.
the novel that R a d c l i f f e was not wholly i n sympathy with this opinion.
that the c l i f f s , the high wind, the roar of the r i v e r and the force of
ascent of Skiddaw she has trouble enjoying the sublime f u l l y : "But our
rewarded through her marriage to the ruthless Montoni, whose tastes are
s e n s i b i l i t y — s h e also must bear the weaknesses of that time and the type.
So the confrontation's meaning cuts both ways. Although both the aunt
part of the terror i n Emily's encounter with Montoni comes from the
beauty and sublimity are rendered rather s i l l y . They w i l l not save her
from him; for a time they prevent her from thinking inventively of her
taste. The advantage gained i s the same: a new area i s claimed for the
exploring imagination.
FOOTNOTES
Ibid., p. x x i i i .
187
17
H i p p l e , pp. 91-92.
18
Miscellaneous Pieces in Prose by J . and A. L. A i k i n , 2nd edn.
(London: J . Johnson, 1775), p. 125.
19
"On the Supernatural i n Poetry. By the l a t e Mrs. R a d c l i f f e , "
New Monthly Magazine, 16, 62 (1826), 149-150. As the editor explains,
this i s not r e a l l y an essay but an extract from the introduction to
Radcliffe's l a s t published work, the novel Gaston De B l o n d e v i l l e , which
also appeared i n 1826.
20
Mario Praz, The Romantic Agony (1933; 2nd edn. rpt., New York:
Meridian, 1956), trans. Angus Davidson, p. 27. The only d i r e c t r e f e r -
ence to Burke comes i n the Introduction, p. 20, n. 15.
21
See Boulton, p. l v i i i ; K i e l y , pp. 12-13.
188
22
K i e l y , p. 13.
23
Ibid., p. 15.
24
Giovanni B a t t i s t a Piranesi (1720-1778) published the second,
greatly revised edition of the Carceri i n 1765. See Drawings and Etch-
ings at Columbia University (New York: Columbia Univ., 1972); Aldous
Huxley, Prisons with the "Carceri" Etchings by G. B. Piranesi (London:
Trianon Press, 1949); for a response to P i r a n e s i from within the neo-
gothic period, see the "Pains of Opium" section of Thomas De Quincey,
Confessions of an English Opium Eater, 1st edn. (1821; r p t . , ed. Alethea
Hayter, Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1973), pp. 105-107. I t i s s i g n i f i c a n t
that De Quincey mistakenly c a l l s Piranesi's a r c h i t e c t u r a l fantasies
"Gothic h a l l s . "
25
K i e l y , p. 13; also see W. J . Bate, From C l a s s i c to Romantic:
Premises of Taste in Eighteenth-Century England (1946; r p t . , New York:
Harper Torchbook, 1961), pp. 153-156.
Boulton, p. e v i l .
27
Ibid., p. c v i i . Boulton quotes from Milner's introductory l e t t e r ,
"Means necessary f o r further i l l u s t r a t i n g the E c c l e s i a s t i c a l Architec-
ture of the Middle Ages," contained i n the symposium, Essays on Gothic
Architecture (1800).
28
Thraliana, quoted i n Boulton, p. x c i i .
29
The actual discussion of horizontal and v e r t i c a l comes i n Part
Two, Section VII of the Enquiry under "vastness." The difference
between vastness and i n f i n i t y i s n e g l i g i b l e .
30
Peter Quennell, Romantic England: Writing and Painting, 1717-1851
fLondon: Weidenfeld and Nicblson, 1970), pp. 28-32; John Rutter, Deline-
ations of Fonthill and Its Abbey (Shaftesbury: p r i v a t e l y printed, 1823).
31
Levy, pp. 641-642.
32
R a d c l i f f e describes this process i n "On the Supernatural,"
pp. 149-150.
33
Samuel Holt Monk, The Sublime: A Study of Critical Theories in
XVIII-Century England (1935; r p t . , Ann Arbor: Univ. of Michigan Press,
1960), Chs. I, IV, & X; Hippie, pp. 13-24; Henry V. S. & Margaret S.
Ogden, English Taste in Landscape in the 17th Century (Ann Arbor: Univ.
of Michigan Press, 1955), pp. 134-167; Marjorie Hope Nicolson, Mountain
Gloom and Mountain Glory (Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell Univ. Press, 1959);
Ernest Lee Tuveson, The Imagination as a Means of Grace (Berkeley:
Univ. of C a l i f o r n i a Press, 1960).
W. F. Wright, p. 96.
189
3 8
K i e l y , p. 17.
39
Anna L a e t i t i a Barbauld, "An.Inquiry into Those Kinds of Distress
which Excite Agreeable Sensations," The Works of Anna Laetitia Barbauld,
ed. with a Memoir by Lucy A i k i n (London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme,
Brown, and Green, 1825), I I , 214. This essay also appeared i n Miscel-
laneous Pieces in Prose.
I b i d . , I I , 215-216.
4 0
4 1
I b i d . , I I , 217-225.
42
"On Romances: An Imitation," Works, II, 171-175.
43
Compare Addison, Spectator, #418.
44
Nathan Drake, M.D., Literary Hours: or Sketches, Critical,
Narrative, and Poetical, 4th edn. (London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme,
and Brown, 1820), I, v i (preface). The preface i s dated August 1798.
45
Drake, "On Gothic Superstition," with "Henry Fitzowen, a Gothic
Tale," Literary Hours, I, 105.
46
Drake, "On the Government of the Imagination: On the Frenzy of
Tasso and C o l l i n s , " Literary Hours, I, 12-13.
47
Burke "On Gothic Superstition," p. 108. Note the close paraphrase of
48
Ibid., p. 112.
49
Ibid., p. 106.
5 Q
L i t e r a r y Hours, I, 269-275.
5 1
I b i d . , p. 269.
190
5 2
I b i d . , p. 271.
5 3
I b i d . , pp. 273-274.
54
Sir Walter Scott, "On the Supernatural i n F i c t i t i o u s Composition;
and P a r t i c u l a r l y on the Works of Ernest Theodore William Hoffmann,"
o r i g i n a l l y published i n the Foreign Quarterly Review, collected i n On
Novelists and Fiction, pp. 312-353.
"'"'Thorp, "Stage Adventures"; compare Robert D. Mayo, "Gothic
Romance i n the Magazines," PMLA, 65 (1950), 762-789, "The Gothic Short
Story i n the Magazines," MLR, 37 (1942), 448-454, The English Novel in
the Magazines, 1740-1815 (Evanston, 111.: Northwestern Univ. Press,
1962); Dorothy Blakey, The Minerva Press: 1790-1820 (London: Printed for
the Bibliographical Society by Oxford Univ. Press, 1939).
56
W. F. Wright, pp. 107-108; see also Tompkins, pp. 258-259.
his career usually has sexual overtones and consequences. The thwarting
- 191 -
192
the most. The ambivalent view of the gothic period requires, for p o l i -
2
be h o r r i b l y p a i n f u l i f approached d i r e c t l y and r e a l i s t i c a l l y .
effect that monasteries and convents were havens for criminals and
194
case of conventual tyranny and meant to expose and combat the genuine
advocate for the heroine Suzanne, raises many of the same objections
tion.
of i t s unwilling members.
many helpless young women i n gothic novels she i s pressured to take the
munity after her father's death, and she i s treated well there, but s h e —
natural beauty that Emily herself admires so much, without her opportun-
house, the convent of the Santa della Pieta, which i s run according to
Lady of Pity was such as a convent does not often shroud." In f a c t , the
Abbess with the treachery and ruthlessness of the Ursaline abbess from
idealized female community very much l i k e the most successful real con-
vents. The convent of the Santa della Pieta i s an- authentic matriarchy,
ents. The Abbess of the Santa della Pieta temporarily f i l l s the place
198
U r s a l i n e s , who remains unknown to her through most of the novel, and who
ments of sensationalism.
comments with which the narrative i s laced seem to reinforce the stereo-
scious forces, on a minor scale. The corruption of the " v i l l a i n " finds
their heroism much less certain. Lewis even raises the p o s s i b i l i t y that
a t t r a c t i v e — l i n e i s the one the mob and the "heroic" figures take, the
career.
ganda. The reader i s not allowed to lend any credence to the trappings
of piety, nor to develop any nostalgic interest i n them, for they are
Lewis sets the f i r s t scene i n the Abbey Church of the Capuchins where a
Do n o t e n c o u r a g e t h e i d e a t h a t t h e Crowd was a s s e m b l e d
e i t h e r from motives of p i e t y or t h i r s t of i n f o r m a t i o n . But
v e r y few w e r e i n f l u e n c e d by t h o s e r e a s o n s ; and i n a c i t y
w h e r e s u p e r s t i t i o n r e i g n s w i t h s u c h d e s p o t i c sway a s i n
M a d r i d , t o seek f o r t r u e d e v o t i o n would be a f r u i t l e s s a t -
tempt. The A u d i e n c e now a s s e m b l e d i n t h e C a p u c h i n C h u r c h
was c o l l e c t e d b y v a r i o u s c a u s e s , b u t a l l o f them w e r e
f o r e i g n to the o s t e n s i b l e m o t i v e . The Women came t o show
t h e m s e l v e s , t h e Men t o s e e t h e Women: Some w e r e a t t r a c t e d
b y c u r i o s i t y t o h e a r a n O r a t o r so c e l e b r a t e d ; Some came
b e c a u s e t h e y h a d n o t b e t t e r means o f e m p l o y i n g t h e i r t i m e
t i l l t h e p l a y b e g a n ; Some f r o m b e i n g a s s u r e d t h a t i t w o u l d
be i m p o s s i b l e t o f i n d p l a c e s i n t h e C h u r c h ; and one h a l f o f
M a d r i d was b r o u g h t t h i t h e r b y e x p e c t i n g t o meet t h e o t h e r
half. The o n l y p e r s o n s t r u l y a n x i o u s t o h e a r t h e P r e a c h e r
were a few a n t i q u a t e d d e v o t e e s , and h a l f a d o z e n r i v a l
O r a t o r s , d e t e r m i n e d t o f i n d f a u l t w i t h and r i d i c u l e t h e
discourse. A s t o t h e r e m a i n d e r o f t h e A u d i e n c e , t h e Sermon
might have been o m i t t e d a l t o g e t h e r , c e r t a i n l y w i t h o u t t h e i r
b e i n g d i s a p p o i n t e d , and v e r y p r o b a b l y w i t h o u t t h e i r p e r -
c e i v i n g the o m i s s i o n (p. 7).
reader that the curious behaviour of the Spaniards should not surprise
comedy o f the initial Church scene does not dilute t h e menace flowing
later reconsideration.
p h e r a l c h a r a c t e r s and p l o t - l i n e s . It i s an a p p a r e n t l y comic i n c i d e n t in
202
tion, the encounter with Lorenzo and i t s dream-sequel seem less innocuous
match and f i n a l l y drove the couple into e x i l e i n the West Indies. The
union brings not only Antonia into the world but also her ravisher and
that helps give the one control over the other. E l v i r a i s the v i c t i m of
and moral positions are freely substituted. The structure of The Monk
reader soon discovers that he must read a story l i k e Leonella's both for
204
Ambrosio which sets him forthaas just such a perfect being, but at the
same time i t i s clear that he has paid the price of unnaturalness for
his perfection:
ease with which Ambrosio may lose his v i r t u e . Where there are no saints,
evil. The epigraph of The Monk i s drawn from Measure for Measureand
i s t ' s painstaking attention, that keeps the reader perched on the edge
immersion i n the world and befoulment by i t that occupies the bulk of the
novel.
face "seemed to announce the Man equally unacquainted with cares and
enterprise, he does not always know how best to use his enthusiasm and
that Lorenzo i s also "at that period of l i f e when the passions are most
too i s on t r i a l .
own motives and desires that prevents Lorenzo from using f u l l y the warn-
ings he receives about Ambrosio and Antonia. Not only does he ignore
After the meeting with Antonia and Leonella and an interview during
able. The reverie deepens into sleep, and Lorenzo dreams of subjects
The monster attempts to ravish Antonia upon the a l t a r , but before Lorenzo
radiance.
receives three of them at one time) and i n The Old English Baron—for
r e a l dreams, the dreamer may obtain knowledge he wants, but often this
message: Take care of Antonia or she may be swept away. A more pene-
and "the Monster": the swarthy complexion, the burning eyes, the v i c i o u s -
ness that Lorenzo has already foreseen as a trap set before the monk.
more remarkable because Lorenzo has not yet had a chance to form any
of desire and revulsion with which Lewis i s fascinated, the pattern that
13
mind) i s suited only for death. I f she was perfect before, she must be
run through the fantasies: there are whores and angels, they are trea-
This i s not to say that Lorenzo would also l i k e to rape her .(the
when he encounters the "Man wrapped up i n his Cloak" who turns out to be
Matilda uses witchcraft to entrap her jaded lover with the sight of
and enticing than what the monk has already imagined without her a i d .
cient .
212
to be" (p. 38), she suspects nothing: "The Gypsy's prediction had also
taken place" (p. 39). Familiar gothic conventions make this omission
spoken and the more urgent the need for i t , the more quickly i t must be
ignored.
Lorenzo. The tale i s interpolated at. precisely the moment when Ambrosio
i s about to enjoy sex with Matilda for the f i r s t time. Tension between
the two and within the monk has been building toward this moment, the
tedious and puzzling.'*'"' But the story of the Bleeding Nun has a p o s i -
succubus cannot gloss over the basic sexual dilemma with f a l s e symbolism
or sentimentality. Raymond must help remove the curse, but i n his own
on Raymond."*"^
Lewis does not give an explanation for Raymond's and Lorenzo's lack
he condemns i n Ambrosio.
and t h e a t r i c a l spectacle.
monk's character (p. 235 f f . ) . The account meshes well enough with
monks, who w i l l also betray him by refusing to give him proper emotional
his duties i n the Order, such as compassion and mercy, are suppressed,
while v i c e s , such as pride and envy, though not nurtured, are overlooked.
goth.
216
Although many of the features of this account are part of the usual
Lewis shows how they have been wasted. His upbringing by the Capuchins
tery precludes any s o c i a l l y useful pursuit and requires instead that the
and the Faustian c r i s e s into an empty show; for the Church has stolen
remorse. The irony i s accentuated by the c h i l d ' s eagerness for his own
corruption and for the rewards of the eventual crime. By the time
bidity.
so pure of mind that he does not know the difference between man and
woman; Leonella adds that Antonia too i s uninformed, and there i s some
argument about whether she should be. Yet, even when Ambrosio has seen
the difference, i n the form of Matilda's bare breast, and has partaken
Rosario/Matilda.
desires the same pleasure that Ambrosio cannot quite j u s t i f y for himself.
whore and the angel; only the s h i f t i n g , blending ppposites are l e f t for
him i n his world of extremes. That Lewis manages to delve beneath that
same time.
image of the Madonna that has been the object of the monk's constant
such f a n t a s t i c reversals as the monk r i p s the icon from the wall of his
That i s not the only reason, but i t i s the primary one. Compliant
ology for the tortuous fantasy l i f e that i t leads to. Lewis' evident
and the reader must share i t with Ambrosio because Lewis himself i s so
that release Ambrosio from blame for whatever crimes she causes him to
commit? And does she r e a l l y cause him to do anything or does she simply
that Matilda i s the lure i n a great demonic plan, for example, comes
with which she urges their union depend upon the defects i n h i s character,
not, and f e l t her heart throb under i t " (p. 90). So great i s Matilda's
The fantasy that women compel, h i s desire dominates the monk's very
are thus equated, not contrasted, through a common capacity for mastering
Ambrosio's imagination.
monk's chances for varying h i s steady diet of Matilda, and finds him
become f a i r game for his imagination. Rather than face the r e a l extent
tion, and supposes that the women he most desires seek to provoke him.
already i t i s she who has burned the hunter. When Antonia, accompanied
applied to Antonia, with the effect that the reader i s placed discon-
the tomb. Not only i s this the imaginative terminus for sensationalism
sions and denials on which the emotional l i f e of The Monk i s based. If,
as i n most pornography., desire does not conclude with any single event
extending power, a process which may culminate with the death, and thus
a l s o the n a t u r e o f h i s s o u l .
For example, the mission that frees Agnes i s accompanied by mob sadism
our s a t i s f a c t i o n with the rescue and sympathy with the happiness of the
tempt for the Prioress of St. Clare's cannot quite j u s t i f y the manner of
her murder.
that she i s "damaged goods" and cannot marry Lorenzo. However, Lewis'
226
declaration that, "deprived of honour and branded with shame, Death was
to l i v e on the surface.
from the ludicrous band of nuns whom Lorenzo had discovered trapped i n
the crypts. She w i l l replace Antonia as Lorenzo's bride. The match has
been promoted by Agnes and the Duke de Medina, and V i r g i n i a ' s name d i s -
f l a t t e r e d to learn that her lover has nearly pined away for her sake,
short order. We are told that "Antonia's image was gradually effaced
from his bosom; and V i r g i n i a became sole Mistress of that heart, which
his satanic rescue fade from public interest and he i s soon forgotten.
summons, now stands forth as the jaded, hideous Lucifer and exposes the
the ironies which the d e v i l unravels are rather mechanical and super-
mythic terms (there are obvious allusions to Prometheus and the Creation),
themes.
26
with the family of La Luc i n The Romance of the Forest, Ellena's period
the heroines seem to have found a way back from the terror that encircles
them, but the i d y l l ends and the figures within i t are altered: La Luc's
unfeeling aunt. Nostalgic attitudes have some play i n the novels, but
they remain a l i m i t e d , secondary mode, because they are the raw material
28
present-day reader.
natural, however, that one mode of response should be nostalgic, for the
of the secure boundaries of childhood, and any means that may restore
false. In any event, the children are thrown back on their own slim
ceive to be h o s t i l e .
for their young charges, while others reverse the relationship between
delivers both herself, and her niece, Emily, into Montoni's power; when
whom she believes during most of the narrative to be her r e a l father but
who has been given custody of Adeline by the Marquis de Montalt, her
where she i s eventually handed over to the outlaw La Motte over whom
Adeline, yet he i s insecure and powerless; the Marquis holds the threat
31
believes him to be her father, we are even more puzzled by the Marquis'
goodness of others was her weakness" and receive an example of this con-
are denied parental care. Sometimes, indeed, these losses are combined,
O l i v i a before she can discover that the d e l i g h t f u l woman, who has suf-
heroine.
for balance maintained between the persecutor's and the victim's sense
of being trapped i n the situation. With the cruel Marquis of The Sicil-
parental tyrants which culminates i n The Italian. Here she attempts her
children; the novel i s centred on the subject, the various episodes and
nostalgic mode i n the forming of her novels, prevents her from represent-
father has asked her to destroy after his death, Emily suspects that he
i t y figures, but they also transfer the idea of crimes against sexuality
overlook the connection between V i v a l d i ' s parents and the lovers' mis-
Marchesa set i n motion the scheme against Ellena because Schedoni appro-
priates the scheme, and i t s rewards, for himself. The monumental scale
emotional tension and our interest. We are released only when the l a s t
his proportions and deepening the mystery that surrounds him, but also
somehow reconciled with her son without need for repentance; even then,
simply consults with her confessor, sharing anxieties about her son's
complicit i n one murder and greedy for the power that the Marchesa can
he shows her, however, i s the image of her own desire. It does not
assume. Once her dark purpose has been given over to a w i l l that i s not
But the process does not stop with projection, with the monk taking
up wishes which the lady does not acknowledge. The r e a l terror of the
to keep i t going become more and more extreme, u n t i l the crime turns
against Schedoni and i s too enormous for him to handle. This process of
and the Marchesa: the more purely gothic figure i s a distorted, magnified
image of the more f a m i l i a r , less barbarous one. At the same time, the
more purely gothic figure i s an outlet for the unrealized forces i n the
s i s t e r l y harmony:
especially threatening:
taking the v e i l are simply an answer to the Marchesa's desire that the
has led him to r u i n . For the sake of his brother's power and h i s wife,
delight.
off as much as possible from the physical world. There are several out-
imagination, and the contrast between the monk and Ellena, as they r i d e
of his order, and does not spare himself any occasion for confession and
duct with mingled awe and suspicion, for his severity makes him both a
the minor weaknesses around him that remind him of the great torturing
weakness within.
that his nerve f a i l s ; a n d the powers of reason and detection lead him
pierce her breast, a locket which would declare Ellena his own daughter.
that the monk has narrowly avoided a sexual attack. We have been
his best chance for securing the influence that he desires. He saves
Ellena, not for the sake of.compassion, but for the sake of greed; he i s
or lack of f e e l i n g s .
ate game of cat-and-mouse with his master, but his most stinging remarks
greater, more obscure, more i n s c r u t i b l e than his own, he does not expect
monks of his order, but he does not have as much power or awareness as
Church, but i t s secret workings and manipulations are even more devious
impending danger.
fear.
real. The protagonists are eventually removed from the influence of the
242
internal r e a l i t y of terror.
i n Melmoth, which often reveals how fear and pain, are self-made, obscur-
but the novel holds out no firm evidence of that, speaking mainly of
Hell.
v i c t i m or vicarious sufferer.
porary "present" the narrative reaches back to the time of the Wanderer's
the Indian Ocean—and those are only the encounters werare told about.
47
accused madman Staunton. Similarly, i n the middle of the a n t i - i d y l l
for someone who w i l l take over his burden. Lewis takes a man who i s
already cut o f f from the world and drives him deeper into i t i n order
takes a man who has set himself a d r i f t from the world—with the purpose,
the world on his own terms. Melmoth can save himself ( i . e . , die i n
view of l i f e , has denied him; yet, he undertakes each contact with the
mately destructive.
well-equipped to bring him word from that element, however, for Moncada
John Melmoth has arrived at the western I r i s h coast to await the death
ness seems to be the family heritage, for the uncle has a reputation for
cludes our finding out whether John Melmoth has been moved or educated
elements are varied and compounded. The constant theme i s the perver-
fears encouraged by the ministers of the Church. More than any other
the other narratives: on the Jewish magician Adonijah i n the form of the
and r e l i g i o u s war.
the poor victims whom the Wanderer t r i e s to tempt into changing places
tion Moncada and John Melmoth are busy putting together, the Wanderer i s
should respond with g r i s l y humour and a teasing of his prey. That pro-
whom he dares to love him, while warning her i n d i r e c t l y about the conse-
quences, and cursing himself for the game he must play with her. Maturin
goes to some length to disclaim any i d e n t i f i c a t i o n with Melmoth's blas-
53
of unbelief.
with a murderer for his guide. There i s the midnight mock wedding cere-
the naive female victims, the subterranean adventures, the reversals and
249
factory means of distancing his objects of terror because they are not
he represents are the manners of the gothic ancestors who tortured their
children and murdered each other out of passion, who ignored their
theologically, yet he also makes the view of i t , from the inside, spec-
nostalgia as shown i n the selected gothic novels that have been con-
sidered here.
250
FOOTNOTES
7
Ann R a d c l i f f e , The I t a l i a n (Oxford Univ. Press, 1968), p. 299.
9
Matthew Gregory Lewis, The Monk: A Romance, ed. Howard Anderson
(London: Oxford Univ. Press, 1973). Anderson follows the text of the
manuscript version of The Monk i n the c o l l e c t i o n of the Wisbech and
Fenland Museum, a version which comes closer to the f i r s t published
editions (1>795, 1796) than to subsequent editions that Lewis was com-
pelled to expurgate. O r i g i n a l orthography i s preserved. A l l citations
refer to this edition and w i l l be given within the text.
27
Tompkins, Popular Novel, p. 131.
28
R a d c l i f f e pretends to assign each novel a s p e c i f i c h i s t o r i c a l
setting; i n The Romance of the Forest, for example, she adopts an e l a -
borate and irrelevant e d i t o r i a l device i n order to suggest that the
f i c t i o n i s based on plausible fact derived from documentary sources.
Such e f f o r t s have l i t t l e effect on the actual conduct of the novels,
nor do Radcliffe's h i s t o r i c a l interests produce more than s u p e r f i c i a l
knowledge of other times and places.
29
Udolpho, pp. 662-663. The deception continued to prey on the
g u l l i b l e . In Chapter 6 of Northanger Abbey, Catherine Morland, reading
Udolpho for the f i r s t time, exclaims to her new friend Miss Thorpe, a
more experienced reader of the gothic: "Oh! the dreadful black v e i l !
My dear Isabella, I am sure there must be Laurentina's skeleton behind
i t " (Penguin edn., 1972, p. 62).
30
Schedoni rather contemptuously explains to V i v a l d i how he has
r e l i e d on the young man's superstitious fear i n his schemes to keep
V i v a l d i away from Ellena (Italian, p. 397).
31
La Motte "knew himself to.be i n the power of the Marquis, and he
dreaded that power more than the sure, though distant punishment that
awaits upon g u i l t " (Romance of the Forest, p. 247).
32
Ibid., p. 49.
33
In Chapter 23 of Northanger Abbey, Catherine cannot quite accept
General Tilney's explanation for his wakefulness while she goes to b e d —
that he has many p o l i t i c a l pamphlets to read. Her own ideas are t y p i -
c a l l y gothic: "There must be some deeper cause: something was to be done
which could be done only while the household slept; and the p r o b a b i l i t y
that Mrs. Tilney yet l i v e d , shut up for causes unknown, and receiving
from the p i t i l e s s hands of her husband a nighly supply of coarse food,
was the conclusion which necessarily followed" (p. 191). The fantasy i s
l i f t e d d i r e c t l y from The S i c i l i a n Romance.
34
Tompkins, p. 84 f f . , pp. 147-148.
35
The coyness of Radcliffe's technique i s a d i r e c t product of
ambivalent attitudes. During most of The Romance of the Forest Rad-
c l i f f e suggests a measure of incestuous, aggressive intent i n the suc-
cession of f a l s e fathers, and the suggestion i s made e x p l i c i t when the
Marquis de Montalt i s i d e n t i f i e d as Adeline's r e a l father. R a d c l i f f e
leaves the puzzle of his motives unsolved only long enough to impress
Adeline—and the reader—with the pain of mistaken connection; when
Adeline's distress has been s u f f i c i e n t l y aggravated, she retracts the
threatening information.
36
Nelson C. Smith, "Sense, S e n s i b i l i t y and Ann R a d c l i f f e , " p. 590.
The idea of an education i n e r o t i c r e a l i t i e s i s c a r e f u l l y examined i n
254
R. W. Mise, "The Gothic Heroine and the Nature of the Gothic Novel,"
Ph.D. d i s s e r t a t i o n , Univ. of Washington, 1970.
37
The Abate who pretends to a i d Ellena and V i v a l d i speaks of the
young man's heroic pretensions as an anachronism: "'You are a knight of
chivalry, who would go about the earth f i g h t i n g with every body by way
of proving your right to do good; i t i s unfortunate that you are born
somewhat too l a t e ' " (Italian, p. 122).
38
There have been frequent, usually unsupported claims that Rad-
c l i f f e wrote The Italian i n outrage against the excesses of The Monk.
Tompkins, for example, argues that. The Italian, was an ilattempt to redeem
the subject of monastic tyranny, and to treat i t i n a manner that should
be quite t e r r i b l e and yet consistent with perfect delicacy. In The
I t a l i a n there i s no lust and no luxurious cruelty; i n place of them
there i s bigotry and ambition" (p. 278). This l a s t contrast i s p a r t i c u -
l a r l y inaccurate.
39
R a d c l i f f e , The Italian, p. 64.
40
Ibid., p. 65.
41
Ibid., p. 68.
42
Ellena's imagination, as she watches one of the nuns, makes this
transformation e x p l i c i t : she sees "the countenance of the nun character-
ised by gloomy malignity, which seemed ready to i n f l i c t upon others some
portion of the unhappiness she herself suffered. As she glided forward
with soundless steps, her white drapery, f l o a t i n g along these solemn
avenues, and her hollow features touched with the mingled l i g h t and
shadow which the p a r t i a l rays of a taper she held occasioned, she seemed
l i k e a spectre newly r i s e n from the grave, rather than a l i v i n g being"
(Italian, pp. 66-67).
43
For a comparison of the monastic recluse and the noble hermit, see
Tompkins, p. 286.
44
R a d c l i f f e , The I t a l i a n , pp. 62-63.
45
Schedoni,'Ellena and the peasant guide enter a v i l l a g e where
Carnival i s being celebrated. Part of the f e s t i v i t i e s i s a performance
of John Webster's Appius and Virginia. Schedoni i s disturbed by two
remarks from the guide. F i r s t he delights i n the s k i l l of a juggler
who '"has turned a monk into a d e v i l already, i n the twinkling of an
eye.'" At the climax of the dramatic performance, the guide exclaims,
as i f i n accusation against Schedoni's contemplated deed: "'Look! Signor,
see! Signor, what a scoundrel! what a v i l l a i n ! See! he has murdered his
own daughter!'" (p. 274).
46
Ibid., p. 58.
255
47
Charles Robert Maturin, Melmoth the Wanderer (London: Oxford
Univ. Press, 1968), p. 28 f f . (Vol. I, Chapter 3).
48
A similar pattern has been noted i n Mary Shelley's Frankenstein,
or the Modern Prometheus; see L. J . Swingle, "Frankenstein's Monster and
Its Romantic Relations: Problems of Knowledge i n English Romanticism,"
Texas Studies in Literature and Language, 15, 1 (Spring 1973), 51-65;
Martin Tropp, Mary Shelley's Monster: The Story of Frankenstein (Boston:
Houghton M i f f l i n , 1976). The relationship between Walton and Victor
Frankenstein, however, i s considerably more complex and equivocal.
49
Tompkins, pp. 281-285; compare the Marquis von Grosse's Horrid
Mysteries, t r . Peter W i l l (1796; rpt. London: F o l i o Press, 1968).
"^Johann Christoph F r i e d r i c h von S c h i l l e r , "The Ghost-Seer: or
A p p a r i t i o n i s t , " Schiller's Complete Works, t r . and ed. Charles J . Hemple
(Philadelphia: Kohler, 1861), I I , 294.
i t has shown that, once the imaginative value of the gothic had been
the ideals that the present age had f a i l e d to preserve. As the short-
- 256 -
257
refuge from violence and revolution. For some i t also l i f t e d the banal-
i t y of everyday life. 2
are not simply, exclusively nostalgic, as The Old English Baron, The
La Vallee and i n the Alps (udolpho, 1794), at the convent of Santa della
the nostalgic treatment usually selects outlets for i t which are not
threatening or sensational.
past.
I t i s the perfect parent, and hence the perfect childhood, that the
the danger from the gothic world altogether, as Clara Reeve t r i e d to do.
nostalgic attitude locates the essence of the gothic safely beyond the
The Monk, The Italian, or Melmoth (1820) drew support from the b e l i e f
not i n i t s r e c e p t i v i t y to imposed s o c i a l , p o l i t i c a l or r e l i g i o u s i d e a l s ,
a s s o c i a t i o n s of t h e same k i n d . When L e w i s r a i s e d t h e o l d s p e c t r e of
s u p e r f i c i a l moralism (Radcliffe). We h a v e a l r e a d y n o t i c e d , h o w e v e r , in
of their own.
gothic has not been to devise yet another system for categorizing the
and characterization which are so unusual that they tempt one to dismiss
to them.
263
FOOTNOTES
"""See, for example, John Ruskin, The Nature of Gothic, with preface
by William Morris (London: George A l l e n , 1899).
2
For various opinions on the relationship between r e a l violence and
revolution ( i . e . , the French Revolution) and the gothic novel, see Par-
reaux, p. 36 f f . Parreaux c i t e s Sade's essay on the gothic i n Idees sur
les Romans, i n which Sade argues that the violence of contemporary l i f e
forced the gothic novelists to outdo r e a l i t y .
3
Duncan Simpson, "Introductory Essay," Gothick (Catalogue) (Brighton:
Royal P a v i l i o n , Art Gallery and Museums, 1975), pp. 14-15.
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