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None of English literature prior to the eighteenth century, however, was Gothic first and foremost, and even much of the graveyard poetry is hardly Gothic first ...
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Vahe Saraoorian A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate School of Bowling Green State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY December 1970
ii ABSTRACT Although full-length studies have been written about the Gothic novel, no one has undertaken a similar study of poetry, which, if it may not be called "Gothic," surely contains Gothic elements. By examining Gothic elements in eighteenth-century poetry, we can trace through it the background to Horace Walpole's The Castle of Otranto, the first Gothic novel. The evolutionary aspect of the term "Gothic" itself in eighteenth-century criticism was pronounced, yet its various meanings were often related. To the early graveyard poets it was generally associated with the barbarous and uncouth, but to Walpole, writing in the second half of the century, the Gothic was also a source of inspiration and enlightenment. Nevertheless, the Gothic was most frequently associated with the supernatural. Gothic elements were used in the work of the leading eighteenth-century poets. Though an age not often thought remark able for its poetic expression, it was an age which clearly exploited the taste for Gothicism, Alexander Pope, Thomas Parnell, Edward Young, Robert Blair, Thomas and Joseph Warton, William Collins, Thomas Gray, and James Macpherson, the nine poets studied, all expressed notes of Gothicism in their poetry. Each poet con tributed to the rising taste for Gothicism. Alexander Pope, whose influence on Walpole was considerable, was the first poet of significance in the eighteenth century to write a "Gothic" poem. The reputed place of Pope’s contemporary Thomas Parnell, as the first graveyard poet is confirmed. Different approaches to the Gothic, similar to approaches made by later Gothic novelists, can be clarified by analysis of the works of Young, and Blair. The Wartons and Collins had considerable influence on their followers, while Gray and Macpherson were the poets in whom the Gothic spirit culminated. Had Gothic elements never been exploited by the poets of the eighteenth century, Walpole's The Castle of Otranto might not have been written. Walpole's inspiration for the Gothic, though it quite obviously came from more than one source (including of course Gothic architecture), was derived mainly from the taste for Gothicism which found expression in eighteenth-century English poetry.
IV SEVEN THE GREAT PRETENDER: JAMES MCPHERSON 1OU A Literary Artiface 105) "Oarthon" 111 EIGHT THE FIRST GOTHIC NOVEL: HORACE WALPOLE 118 The World that Welcomed Otranto 119 The Castle of Otranto 122 The Eternal Flame 127
I CHAPTER ONE TOWARD A DEFINITION OF GOTHICISM
assertion that Walpole wished, to widen his readers' knowledge of the Middle Ages.^ Clara Reeve, the first important Gothic novelist to follow Walpole, continued this emphasis on the Middle Ages in The Old English Baron (1778), "a Gothic story" and "a picture of Gothic 5 times and manners."-' Like Otranto, The Old English Baron sus tained a medieval atmosphere by the use of haunted castles, se cluded dungeons, lonely towers, knights in armor, and magic. "But to the reading public the outstanding feature... [of both The Castle of Otranto and The Old English Baron]... appears to have been, not their Gothic setting, but their supernatural inci dents This realization may explain why the later Gothic novel ists, especially Matthew Gregory Lewis and Charles Maturin, relied so heavily on the spectral side of Gothicism. Although the supernatural quality of Gothicism, as it evolved from Otranto, did come to be the dominant aspect of the genre, both supernatural and medieval aspects appeared in the first Gothic novel. At the same time the word "Gothic," though it was to come into vogue in the eighteenth century, generally had a rather pejorative meaning prior to the middle of the eighteenth century, for the term was synonymous with barbarism. Throughout the eighteenth century, then, the term "Gothic" can be viewed as having three particular meanings, and although there was a definite evolution of meaning, its three meanings were often related, if only because many in the Age of Johnson - so proud
of their triumphant retreat from what they deemed, the ludicrous superstitions of the seventeenth century - could view the "supernatural" aspects of the "Middle Ages" as indeed little more than "barharous;" Comprehending the equation of Gothicism with barbarism necessitates remembering the Augustan preference for the Classical while also understanding that "Gothic" was in the seventeenth and 7 eighteenth centuries extended to mean Germanic. The era of the Roman emperor Augustus, so envied by the leading Augustans, was historically a period of Roman-German strife. Barbarian tribes continually posed an awesome threat to the Roman empire at this time, and by 476, the year often cited as the date for the fall of the Roman Empire, the last of the Roman emperors was deposed and Rome had a German or Gothic ruler. A look at the definition of "Goth" in Samuel Johnson's cele brated Dictionary illustrates the equation of Gothicism with bar barism in the eighteenth-century mind. With his usual propinquity to Augustan prejudices Dr. Johnson noted a Goth to be "one not 8 civilized, one deficient in general knowledge, a barbarian." For most Augustans, as well as for Dr. Johnson, any association with the Gothic meant little else than "archaic, uncouth, ugly, barbarous."^ Of course the Augustans did not view the Gothic entirely from its earliest historical position; instead, the Augustans, as well as those of the middle and late eighteenth century, saw the Gothic mainly as an aspect of the Middle Ages.
"English taste and manners by means of light banter and gentle persuasion,"^ it becomes apparent that Joseph Addison did much to retard acceptance of the Gothic by reaffirming the Augustan prejudice for the Classical, for simplicity and plainness rather than for ornamentation. It might be expected that Alexander Pope would have shared Addison’s concept of the Gothic, but it is refreshing for students of literary Gothicism to find in the greatest of all Augustan poets a genuine interest in the Gothic. This interest shows itself most noticeably in "Eloisa to Abelard" (which will be studied in detail in the succeeding chapter) and may be accounted for in two ways. First, Pope saw in Shakespeare, whom he of course greatly admired, many elements of Gothicism. Secondly, and perhaps more importantly, Pope was himself an admirer of Gothic architec ture. In his elaborate defense of Shakespeare which prefaces his edition of Shakespeare’s plays, Pope wrote: I will conclude by saying of Shakespeare, that with all his faults, and with all the irregularity of his drama, one may look upon his works, in comparison with those that are more finished and regular, as upon an ancient majestic piece of Gothic architecture compared with a neat modern building; the latter is more elegant and glaring, but the former is more strong and more solemn. It must be allowed, that in one of these there are materials enough to make many of the other. It has much the greater variety, and much the nobler apart ments; though we are often conducted to them by dark, old, and uncouth passages. Nor does the whole fail to strike us with greater reverance; though many of the parts are childish, ill-placed, and unequal to its grandeur. "I
This judgment, which is clearly contrary to Addison’s view of the Gothic, is especially worthy of attention for the focus it gives to some of the component parts of the Gothic mansion. A great master of diction, Pope was no doubt quite selective in his choice of words. His Gothic mansion is "majes tic," though not "elegant"; yet it is "strong" and "solemn." Its apartments are "noble"; its passages "uncouth" and "dark." Were a reader to meet this kind of description in a Gothic romance his imagination would surely roam through these very passages, for it is, in fact, quite true that in Pope's lines there is more than a faint suggestion of Onuphrio Muralto's Castle of Otranto. What makes this significant is that it allows literary Gothicism the distinction of having been an offshoot of the revival in Gothic architecture. Not until the acceptance of Gothic architecture, much as it was accepted by Pope, was there an acceptance of Gothic literature, and not until Walpole made the term applicable to literature was the term "Gothic" applied with any serious intent to anything other than aspects of medieval art. Even then it was not particularly old for it was first applied in English to the architecture of the seventeenth century by Sir Henry Wotton in 162U. Wotton believed Gothic architecture to be the product of a barbarous age.^ Accompanying the new appreciation for the Gothic, and indi- pensable to it, was an awareness of the Middle Ages. Undeniably there was a definite change in taste in the eighteenth century,
the eighteenth century is essential to an understanding of the Gothic spirit. As important to the rise of the Gothic romance as the graveyard poets were, their acceptance depended in large measure on the revival of interest in Shakespeare in the early and mid eighteenth century. Both the graveyard poets and the romance writers were influenced by the more macabre scenes in Shakespeare’s work; like Shakespeare, both employed melodramatic effects, both preternatural and supernatural, to thrill and captivate their audience. Although Shakespeare's popularity in the eighteenth century is often credited to David Garrick, who did average no fewer than forty-four performances of Shakespeare annually between 1747 and 1776, it should be remembered that every great actor, in cluding Betterton at the beginning of the century and Kean at its 17 close, made himself famous portraying Shakespearean characters. With the first edition of Shakespeare's plays having been edited by Nicholas Rowe as early as 1709, and with Pope's edition following in 1725, graveyard poets from Parnell to Gray had more than suffi cient time to assimilate Shakespeare's influence. The debts of the Gothic novelists to Shakespeare came both directly from his plays themselves and, perhaps to a greater de gree, indirectly from the graveyard poets. Even a superficial reading of The Castle of Otranto gives glaring evidence of Shakespeare's influence on Walpole, and if one looks at the works
of Mrs. Radcliffe, easily the foremost representative of the Gothic novelists, the influence of Shakespeare is likewise ines capable. Clara McIntyre, one of the twentieth century's earliest scholars of Gothicism, considered Shakespeare to be the predom inant influence on the Gothic novelists. Seeing the great drama tist as representative of the Renaissance, she wrote: The novels of Mrs. Radcliffe and her followers... are not an expression of the life and spirit of the Middle Ages, if this is what the term (Gothic) means. They are, rather, a^expression of the life and spirit of the Renaissance. Professor McIntyre elaborated by saying that "there is nothing truly medieval in Mrs. Radcliffe's stories, except her gothic abbeys and subterranean dungeons and the gothic windows 19 through which her heroines gaze at the moonlight." This des cription is not entirely accurate, for Mrs. Radcliffe employed other devices, including the use of monks, to capture the spirit of the Middle Ages. Yet even if what Professor McIntyre said is accepted without alteration, she has allowed Mrs. Radcliffe the one ingredient which is basic to the Gothic romance: atmosphere. The Gothic novelists never hoped to recapture the past by pious observation to particulars. Basically, the Gothic novel of the eighteenth century was the sentimental novel of Richardson to which were added, among other things, "gothic abbeys," "subter ranean dungeons," and "gothic windows." Surely Professor McIntyre gave a more astute definition of the Gothic when writing:
Because the Middle Ages was a period of great superstition, superstition plays a major role in Gothic literature. Gothic writers were not superstitious themselves, as it was "the fashion of the times," according to Boswell, "to laugh at as a matter of 22 absurd credulity" the belief in ghosts. Even witchcraft was thought absurd, and though "witches" were burned with frequency in the seventeenth century,, "an act of George I in 1736 declared all witchcraft imaginary." 23 Long before this The Spectator cam paigned to abolish belief in witchcraft, which, in retrospect, appears justifiable for a paper that hoped to quicken the transi tion from faith to reason. Rational or not, however, the super natural, even to Joseph Addison, was understood to fill many imaginations. In a Spectator paper of 1711 Addison wrote: When night heightens the Awfulness of the Place, and pours out her supernumerary Hours upon every thing in it, I do not at all doubt that weak Minds fill it with Spectres and Apparations. Dr. Johnson was perhaps more honest in his appraisal of departed spirits when he said: "All argument is against it; but 25 all belief is for it*" It was on this assumption, evidently, that the Gothic poets and novelists alike made use of the super natural. The use of it reached absurd proportions in the Gothic novels, but its use by eighteenth-century poets, especially those of the graveyard school, was to bring the Age of Johnson a full step further on the road to Otranto. In conclusion, if the Gothic highway had its conception in
the German warriors who pillaged Rome, it was given birth with Gothic architecture in the Middle Ages, The eighteenth century- revival of Shakespeare, Spenser, and Milton—the latter two having been cited by Devendra Varma as "the earliest poets to exploit the Gothic mood"^^—added to the interest in Gothicism, Bishop Hurd, the great champion of Gothic taste in the sixties, called The Faerie Queene "an epic with Gothic materials," 2? None of English literature prior to the eighteenth century, however, was Gothic first and foremost, and even much of the graveyard poetry is hardly Gothic first and foremost. But by the time literary history reached the poets of the seventeen- forties, literary Gothicism had deep-rooted traditions from which it spread. The first significant eighteenth-century poet to dabble in Gothicism was Alexander Pope, who in spite of his Augustanism nevertheless employed Gothic elements. Gothicism, as we have seen, need not be identified with a particular poetic theory of any age. If the definition of Gothicism as seen in this chapter is applied to other writers, one will be able to identify Gothic elements in such diverse authors as Spenser, a Classical writer with a strong didactic message, Joseph and Thomas Warton, pre- Romantics opposed to didacticism in verse, Wordsworth (especially 28 "The Vale of Esthwaite," "Salisbury Plain," and The Borderers). and Coleridge ("Kubla Khan," "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner," and "Christabel"), just as one will be able to identify Gothic
Twickenham Gothic The visitor to Strawberry Hill now drives from London to Twickenham for the greater part of the way through crowded and noisy streets. He will scarcely pass along any road which is not lined with houses or shops. In the whole of his drive he will not see a green field or an untrimmed hedge. He will pass through Twickenham without noticing anything to suggest that it was at one time a prosperous and self-contained little town, clustering round its church, with the elegant and fanciful villas of the wealthy scattered on its out skirts and along the banks of the Thames. In 1747 Horace Walpole first moved to Strawberry Hill, where, before long, he was soon engaged in constructing his show piece of venerable barbarism. Only a few hundred yards away, amid the grandeur of Twickenham’s fashionable homes, was Pope’s villa, and although Pope had died two years before Walpole’s arrival at Strawberry Hill, his property was still unaltered. Always a great admirer of Pope, Walpole's new surroundings kept Pope alive in both his memory and imagination. In a letter to his friend Conway, written early in June of 1747, Walpole in des cribing his new home made an unusual reference to the great poet: It is a little plaything-house that I got out of Mrs. Chenevix’s shop, and is the prettiest bauble you ever saw. It is set in enamelled meadows, with filigree hedges: A small Euphrates through the piece is rolled And little finches wave their wings in gold. Two delightful roads, that you would call dusty, supply me continuously with coaches and chaises: barges as
