SOURCE: "Historical Gothic," in The Gothic Quest: A History of the Gothic Novel, Fortune Press, 1938.

[In this excerpt, Summers describes the importance of Walpole's extravagant residence, Strawberry Hill, to understanding The Castle of Otranto and briefly surveys the critical reaction to the novel.]

To The Castle of Otranto "we owe nothing less than a revolution in public taste, and its influence is strong even at the present day. It is hardly an exaggeration to say that to Walpole's romance is due the ghost story and the novel, containing so much of the supernatural and occult, than which no forms of literature are now [1923] more common and applauded. The Castle of Otranto is, in fine, a notable landmark in the history of English taste and English literature."⁵¹ This is high praise, but I bate no jot of it, yet when I wrote more than a decade ago I chose my words carefully to say enough but not too much. We must not, we may not, go beyond what I have said.

As I have already shown, the tendencies of taste which culminated in the Gothic Novel had origins wider and deeper than any one book, even The Castle of Otranto, could develop. The dominant elements in the terror novel of the 1790's, of which the most famous exemplar is The Monk, came from Germany; the historical romance, which we have just examined, accounts for much; the French influences of Baculard d'Arnaud and his "drames monacales" are of the first importance. It is an error, and a fundamental error, to treat The Castle of Otranto as the one and only source of the Gothic Novel.

On June 5th, 1747, Walpole wrote to Horace Mann, I "may retire to a little new farm that I have taken just out of Twickenham,"⁵² which is the first mention of the famous Strawberry Hill. He first rented "this little rural bijou" from Mrs. Chenevix, taking over the remainder of her lease, and in 1748 he bought it by Act of Parliament, it being the property of three minors, named Mortimer. On January 10th, 1750, Walpole says to the same correspondent: "I am going to build a little Gothic castle at Strawberry Hill. If you can pick me up any fragments of old painted glass, arms, or anything, I shall be excessively obliged to you." In September, 1749, Walpole was begging the Duke of Bedford for some windows from the dilapidated Cheneys—"in half the windows are beautiful arms in painted glass.… They would be magnificent for Strawberry Castle." In fact his new Gothic castle gave him a new interest in life, for he had been vastly bored with most things he endured. Yet of Strawberry he never tired. In March, 1753, he proclaims that as Chiswick House "is a model of Grecian architecture, Strawberry Hill is to be so of Gothic." "My house is so monastic," he tells Mann, "that I have a little hall decked with long saints in lean arched windows and with taper columns, which we call the Paraclete, in memory of Eloise's cloister." "Under two gloomy arches, you come to the hall and staircase … the most particular and chief beauty of the castle. Imagine the walls covered with … Gothic fretwork: the lightest Gothic balustrade to the staircase, adorned with antelopes (our supporters) bearing shields; lean windows fattened with rich saints in painted glass, and a vestibule open with three arches on the landing-place … the castle, when finished, will have two-and-thirty windows enriched with painted glass." The living-room had "a bow-window commanding the prospect, and gloomed with limes that shade half each window, already darkened with painted glass in chiaroscuro, set in deep blue glass." In May, 1760, Walpole had "flounced again into building—a round tower, gallery, cloister, chapel, all starting up—" and three years later, "The chapel is quite finished, except the carpet. The sable mass of the altar gives it a very sober air; for, notwithstanding the solemnity of the painted windows, it had a gaudiness that was a little profane."

What wonder that Walpole loved to fit himself to his mock-mediæval world, that now he conceived himself as the 'sensechal' of his castle, and now again he was a friar of orders grey or a swart-cowled monk burying manuscripts under the gnarled oak in his garden-garth or behind some secret panel in his old-new wainscot.

At first he welcomed visitors to his retreat. In May, 1755, he "gave a great breakfast to the Bedford court," the sun shone, "and Strawberry was all gold, and all green. I am not apt to think people really like it, that is understand it." Walpole hated that Strawberry Hill should be laughed at, jeered (although politely and among friends), and regarded as one of the 'lions.' In June, 1755, he writes that Princess Emily was there: "Liked it?" "Oh no!" but peeped and pryed into every corner, even the very offices and servants' rooms. "In short, Strawberry-Hill is the puppet-show of the times."

"The Abbot of Strawberry," as he once signed himself, withdrew more and more to Strawberry and solitude.

The fact is that Strawberry Castle—"my child Strawberry"—was infinitely precious to him, it was his own creation, the summum of his own life, the actual and external embodiment of his own dreams. Here he had built his love of Gothic, as he understood it, his romantic passion for old castles and ruined abbeys, his dreams of a mediæval world. "Tread softly," says the poet, "Tread softly because you tread upon my dreams." Strawberry, as Walpole himself wrote, "was built to please myself in my own taste, and in some degree to realize my own visions." As he wrote to Madame Du Deffand: "de tous mes ouvrages, c'est l'unique oú je me sois plu; j'ai laissé courir mon imagination; les visions et les passions m'échauffaient." The Castle of Otranto is Strawberry in literature. As the years went by he withdrew more and more into his retreat; the world of his dreams became more and more the real world for him, the only thing that counted. Night after night he would sit up reading into the small hours, not a little conscious of his own isolation, his mental and spiritual detachment, and at times not a little weary. In some such mood he began to put his dreams upon paper, his midsummer dreams. The Castle of Otranto was commenced in June, 1764, and finished on the following August 6th. It was published in an edition of five hundred copies on Christmas Eve of the same year, the most apposite of days, and in January, 1765, sending a copy to the Earl of Hertford, he is able proudly to boast, "the enclosed novel is much in vogue."

In a letter dated March 9th, addressed to the Reverend William Cole, he gives the famous account of his original inspiration. "Your partiality to me and Strawberry have, I hope, inclined you to excuse the wildness of the story. You will ever have found some traits to put you in mind of the place. When you read of the picture quitting its panel, did you not recollect the portrait of Lord Falkland, all in white, in my gallery? Shall I even confess to you, what was the origin of this romance? I waked one morning, in the beginning of last June, from a dream, of which all I could recover was, that I had thought myself in an ancient castle (a very natural dream for a head like mine filled with Gothic story), and that on the uppermost banister of a great staircase I saw a gigantic hand in armour. In the evening I sat down, and began to write, without knowing in the least what I intended to say or relate. The work grew on my hands and I grew so fond of it that one evening, I wrote from the time I had drunk my tea, about six o'clock, till half an hour after one in the morning, when my hand and fingers were so weary, that I could not hold the pen tso finish my sentence, but left Matilda and Isabella talking in the middle of a paragraph. In short, I was so engrossed with my Tale, which I completed in less than two months."

People, even the best people, had laughed at Strawberry Hill, and Walpole, fearing ridicule, published The Castle of Otranto as a "Story Translated by William Marshal, Gent. From the Original Italian of Onuphrio Muralto, Canon of the Church of St. Nicholas at Otranto." An elaborate translator's preface relates how "The following work was found in the library of an ancient Catholic family in the north of England. It was printed at Naples, in the black letter, in the year 1529 … the style is the purest Italian."⁵³

On March 26th, 1765, Walpole, writing to the Earl of Hertford, mentions with some pride The Castle of Otranto, "the success of which has, at last, brought me to own it," although he was (he confesses) for a long while terribly afraid of being bantered, "but it met with too much honour, for at first it was universally believed to be Mr. Gray's."

The second edition appeared on April 11th, 1765, an issue of five hundred copies. In the Preface, Walpole entirely discards the mask; he explains his reasons for pretending the book was a translation, and incontinently dismisses William Marshal and Canon Onuphrio Muralto. The Monthly Review was obviously at a loss how to treat the new romance, and whilst praising the performance as written with no common pen, allowing that the language was accurate and elegant, and proclaiming that the adventures provided considerable entertainment, the critic, forgetful of the Scriptures, objected that the moral "visiting the sins of the fathers upon the children" was useless and very insupportable.

The Critical Review was extremely unfriendly and cantankerous: "The publication of any work at this time, in England composed of such rotten materials, is a phenomenon we cannot account for," whilst the supernatural machinery is ridiculed in most clumsy fashion. None the less, the enthusiasm which greeted The Castle of Otranto permeated all ranks of society and did not wane.

In 1767 the romance was translated into French by M. E., Marc-Antoine Eidous, but the dialogue had been abbreviated, and the Amsterdam edition of 1777, Le Chfiteau d'Otrante, translated from the second English edition of 1765, is far better done and more exact. In 1791 was printed at Parma Bodoni's fine edition, whilst in 1795 Sivrac issued his well-known Italian version, II Castello di Otranto, with seven illustrations which, beautifully coloured, were used in Jeffery's fine edition of 1796.⁵⁴

In his first Preface, 1765, the anonymous Walpole says: "The scene is undoubtedly laid in some real castle." There needs no detailed comparison between Otranto and Strawberry Hill, suffice to say that in a hundred touches the galleries, the staircases, even the very rooms, are particularized.⁵⁵ Thus in Walpole's letters there are several references to the Blue Room at Strawberry. On January 7th, 1772, he writes to the Hon. Henry Conway how an explosion injured the Castle but providentially the windows in the "gallery, and blue room, and green closet, &c.," escaped. In the romance, Chapter V, Bianca was going to the Lady Isabella's chamber—"she lies in the watchet-coloured chamber, on the right hand, one pair of stairs."

The Castle of Otranto is none other than Strawberry Hill, which, indeed, Walpole explicitly acknowledged when he said that Strawberry was "a very proper' habitation of, as it was the scene that inspired, the author of the Castle of Otranto."

Yet Amédé Pichot wrote of Strawberry Hill as "ce chateau, modèle du gout et d'élégance, serait plutôt une miniature gothique. C'est encore plus la villa du grand seigneur homme du monde, que le manoir du baron féodal."⁵⁶

In November, 1786, when Lady Craven sent Walpole a delightful drawing of the Castle of Otranto, made on the spot, he told her: "I did not even know that there was a castle of Otranto. When the story was finished, I looked into the map of the kingdom of Naples for a well-sounding name, and that of Otranto was very sonorous." At the same time it seems difficult to suppose that Walpole had never heard of Otranto and its castle. Perhaps during his stay in Italy he had even seen some pictures of it, and he may have retained the name and the views quite subconsciously. In his Translator's Preface to the first edition he vaguely plans the incidents as having happened "between 1095, the ara of the first crusade, and 1243, the date of the last, or not long afterwards." "Manfred, Prince of Otranto," may even have a historical counterpart in Manfred or Manfroi,⁵⁷ a natural son of the Emperor Frederick II. Manfred, who was born in 1233 and killed in battle 1266, usurped the throne of Sicily in 1258, spreading a report that Conrad II, a mere child, was dead. He also bore the title Prince of Otranto. In the romance Manfred has seized the possessions of Frederic of Vincenza, who is supposed to have perished in Palestine, but who reappears upon the scene. The historical Manfred unlawfully acquired the heritage of Frederick II, who common rumour had it did not die in 1250, as was supposed. In 1259 a certain hermit, who much resembled the late Emperor, raised a revolt against Manfred in the South of Italy, and many hostile barons espoused his cause.

It were equally easy and equally futile to suggest sources for various incidents in the story. To write that Sidney's Arcadia is the original of "a part of the supernatural element" is quite absurd.⁵⁸ Walpole was, moreover, very much in earnest in his narrative, and, grotesque as the vast size of the enchanted casque, of the gigantic greaved leg, and the great hand in armour may appear, it is ridiculous to suppose that Walpole had these phantoms of unwieldy horror from Les Quatre Facardins.⁵⁹ Actually, of course, all this is from the romances of chivalry, Primaleon, Palmerin of England, Felixmarte of Hyrcania, and Tirante the White.

To give any analysis of the plot of The Castle of Otranto were superfluous.

"Horace Walpole wrote a goblin tale which has thrilled through many a bosom," says Scott in the Dedicatory Epistle to Ivanhoe, and however awkward to modern taste may seem the handling of certain incidents, however naive the development of the narrative in certain particulars, there can be no doubt that Walpole has achieved a great and most remarkable work. As I have said elsewhere, The Castle of Otranto is "a notable landmark in the history of English taste and English literature."

In his notes to Pope's Imitations of Horace, Warburton remarked that The Castle of Otranto was "a Master piece, in the Fable," at any rate. "The scene is laid in Gothic Chivalry where a beautiful imagination, supported by strength of judgement, has enabled the author to go beyond his subject, and to effect the full purpose of the Ancient Tragedy, that is, to purge the passions by pity and terror, in colouring as great and harmonious as in any of the best dramatic Writers."

This is no light praise, at least. Scott, also, concludes his admirable Essay upon Walpole with the following: "The applause due to chastity and precision of style—to a happy combination of supernatural agency with human interest—to a tone of feudal manners and language, sustained by characters strongly drawn and well discriminated—and to unity of action, producing scenes alternately of interest and of grandeur—the applause, in fine, which cannot be denied to him who can excite the passions of fear and of pity, must be awarded to the author of The Castle of Otranto."

Bishop Warburton, again, in his additional notes to Pope's Works, pregnantly observed that "the plan of The Castle of Otranto was regularly a drama," and Robert Jephson, an applauded dramatist of the day, in the autumn of 1779, fitted Walpole's Romance for the stage. He duly submitted his adaptation to the author, and so far engaged Walpole's interest, and even enthusiasm, that when The Count of Narbonne went into rehearsal at Covent Garden the exquisite recluse was actually attracted from Strawberry Hill to attend and advise. Produced on Saturday, November 17th, 1781, the new tragedy proved a veritable triumph. The play kept the stage for some forty years, and it certainly is not without merit. Kemble and Mrs. Siddons were more than once seen in the principal rôles, which they acted with great power and effect.

The Castle of Otranto, "a grand romantic extravaganza" given at the Haymarket, on Monday, April 24th, 1848, by way of an Easter novelty, to us seems a vapid burletta without fun or consequence, but it was greeted with applause, which one supposes must have been due to the acting of Keeley, Priscilla Horton, and Mrs. W. Clifford. At any rate it is interesting to note that as late as the middle of the last century a burlesque founded upon The Castle of Otranto was received with general favour, and this goes far to show how popular the romance still remained with the larger public, for to those who were not well acquainted with Walpole's original such a travesty must have been utterly pointless and a bore.⁶⁰

It is surprising that a decade and more passed before the influence of The Castle of Otranto made itself really felt in literature.⁶¹ It is, of course, possible to trace some resemblances in The Hermit, by Lady Atkyns, 2 vols., 1769; in The Prince of Salerno, 1770; and in William Hutchinson's The Hermitage, 1772; but these are nugatory and superficial. The famous Sir Bertrand, 1773, is merely A Fragment.

In 1797, T. J. Matthias could jeer the virtuoso Walpole, who "mus'd o'er Gothick toys through Gothick glass," and in a gloss could declare that "his Otranto Ghosts have propagated their species with unequalled fecundity. The spawn is in every novel shop."⁶²

Notes

⁵¹The Castle of Otranto, edited, with an Introduction and Notes, by Montague Summers, 1924, Introduction, p. Ivii.

⁵²The Letters of Horace Walpole … e d i t e d … by Mrs. Paget Toynbee. Sixteen Volumes, Oxford, 1903-5. Vol. II, p. 278. All my references are to this edition, but I have dispensed with notes, as the passages in question can be immediately turned up from the dates and Mrs. Toynbee's indexes in Vol. XVI, whilst continual reference numbers could only serve to chafe the reader.

⁵³ It is just possible that Walpole remembered a Croxall publication, The Secret History of Pythagoras, Part I. "Translated from the original copy lately found at Otranto in Italy. By J. W. M. D.," 1721. There was a reprint of this in 1751.

⁵⁴ There have, of course, been a very great many reprints of The Castle of Otranto. "Constable's Edition of The Castle of Otranto and The Mysterious Mother," was edited by Montague Summers, 1924,

⁵⁵A Description of the Villa of Mr. Horace Walpole, 1784, Preface, p. iii. Walpole speaks of Miss Hickes desiring "to see The Castle of Otranto"; in other words, visiting him at Strawberry Hill.

⁵⁶ Amede Pichot, Voyage historique et litéraire en Angleterre et en Ecosse, Paris, 3 tomes, 1825; Tome I, p. 214.

⁵⁵ Dante, Purgatorio, III, pp. 121-4.

⁵⁸ Mehrotra, Horace Walpole and the English Novel, 1934, pp. 15-16.

⁵⁹ A casual surmise of Mrs. Barbauld, 1810, echoed without acknowledgement as his own bright suggestion by Mr. Mehrotra, 1934.

⁶⁰ For a fuller account of Jephson and his tragedy, and the burletta of 1848, see the Introduction to my edition of The Castle of Otranto.

⁶¹ In French: Le Château d'Otrante, trad. sur la 2e edition by Marc-Antoine Eidous, sur 1767, 12mo, Paris, and 12mo, 1774; as Isabelle et Theodore, an anonymous version, Paris, 1797, 2 vols., 12mo, and 2 vols., 18mo; Le Château d'Otrante, Paris, 1798.

⁶²The Pursuits of Literature, the Sixth Edition, 1798, p. 343.