CHAPTER I
The Gothic Romance
The real precursor of supernaturalism in modern English literaturewas the Gothic novel. That odd form might be called a brief in behalfof banished romance, since it voiced a protest against the excess ofrationalism and realism in the early eighteenth century. Too greatcorrectness and restraint must always result in proportionate liberty.As the eternal swing of the pendulum of literary history, the ebband flow of fiction inevitably bring a reaction against any extreme,so it was with the fiction of the period. The mysterious twilightsof medievalism invited eyes tired of the noonday glare of Augustanformalism. The natural had become familiar to monotony, hence mencraved the supernatural. And so the Gothic novel came into being._Gothic_ is here used to designate the eighteenth-century novel ofterror dealing with medieval materials.
There had been some use of the weird in English fiction before HoraceWalpole, but the terror novel proper is generally conceded to beginwith his Romantic curiosity, _The Castle of Otranto_. The Gothicnovel marks a distinct change in the form of literature in whichsupernaturalism manifests itself. Heretofore the supernatural elementshave appeared in the drama, in the epic, in ballads and other poetry,and in folk-tales, but not noticeably in the novel. Now, however, fora considerable time the ghostly themes are most prominent in lengthyfiction, contrasted with the short story which later is to supersede itas a vehicle for the weird. This vacillation of form is a distinct andinteresting aspect of the development of supernaturalism in literatureand will be discussed later.
With this change in form comes a corresponding change in the materialsof ghostly narration. Poetry in general in all times has freelyused the various elements of supernaturalism. The epic has certaindistinct themes, such as visits to the lower world, visions ofheaven, and conflict between mortal and divine powers, and brings inmythological characters, gods, goddesses, demigods, and the like. Fateis a moving figure in the older dramas, while the liturgical playsintroduced devils, angels, and even the Deity as characters in theaction. In the classical and Elizabethan drama we see ghosts, witches,magicians, as _dramatis personae_. Medieval romances, prose as well asmetrical and alliterative, _chansons de geste_, _lais_, and so forth,drew considerably on the supernatural for complicating material invarious forms, and undoubtedly much of our present element comes frommedievalism. Tales of the Celtic Otherworld, of fairy-lore, of magic,so popular in early romance, show a strong revival to-day.
The Gothic novel is more closely related to the drama than to the epicor to such poetry as _The Faerie Queene_ or _Comus_. On the otherhand, the later novels and stories, while less influenced by thedramatic tradition, show more of the epic trace than does the Gothicromance. The epic tours through heaven and hell, the lavish use ofangels, devils, and even of Deity, the introduction of mythologicalcharacters and figures which are not seen in Gothic fiction, appear toa considerable extent in the stories of recent times. In Gothicism wefind that the Deity disappears though the devil remains. There are novampires, so far as I have been able to find, though the were-wolf andthe lycanthrope appear, which were absent from the drama (save in _TheDuchess of Malfi_). Other elements are seen, such as the beginningsof the scientific supernaturalism which is to become so prominent inlater times. The Wandering Jew comes in and the elixir of life and thephilosopher's stone achieve importance. Mechanical supernaturalism andthe uncanny power given to inanimate objects seem to have their originshere, to be greatly developed further on. Supernaturalism associatedwith animals, related both to the mythological stories of the past andto the more horrific aspects of later fiction, are noted in the terrorromance.
Allegory and symbolism are present in a slight degree, as in _Melmoth_and Vathek's Hall of Eblis, though not emphasized as in more modernliterature. Humor is largely lacking in the Gothic romance, save asthe writers furnish it unintentionally. In Gothicism itself we havepractically no satire, though Jane Austen and Barrett satirize theterror novel itself in delicious burlesques that laugh it out of court.
=Elements of Gothicism.= In the terror tale the relationship betweensupernatural effect and Gothic architecture, scenery, and weatheris strongly stressed. Everything is ordered to fit the Gothic plan,and the conformity becomes in time conventionally monotonous. HoraceWalpole, the father of the terror novel, had a fad for medievalism,and he expressed his enthusiasm in that extraordinary building atStrawberry Hill, courteously called a Gothic castle. From a study ofGothic architecture was but a step to the writing of romance thatshould reproduce the mysteries of feudal times, for the shadowsof ancient, gloomy castles and cloisters suggested the shades ofghost-haunted fiction, of morbid terrors. _The Castle of Otranto_was the outcome of a dream suggested by the author's thinking aboutmedieval structures.
The Gothic castle itself is represented as possessing all the antiqueglooms that increase the effect of mystery and awe, and its secretpassage-ways, its underground vaults and dungeons, its trap-doors,its mouldy, spectral chapel, form a fit setting for the unearthlyvisitants that haunt it. A feudal hall is the suitable domicile forghosts and other supernatural revenants, and the horrific romancethroughout shows a close kinship with its architecture. The novels ofthe class invariably lay their scenes in medieval buildings, a castle,a convent, a monastery, a chateau or abbey, or an inquisitional prison.The harassed heroine is forever wandering through midnight corridors ofGothic structure. And indeed, the opportunity for unearthly phenomenais much more spacious in the vast piles of antiquity than in ourbungalows or apartment-houses.
Mrs. Radcliffe erected many ruinous structures in fiction. Her_Mysteries of Udolpho_ shows a castle, a convent, a chateau, all Gothicin terror and gloomy secrets, with rooms hung with rotting tapestry,or wainscoted with black larch-wood, with furniture dust-covered anddropping to pieces from age, with palls of black velvet waving in theghostly winds. In other romances she depicts decaying castles withtreacherous stairways leading to mysterious rooms, halls of blackmarble, and vaults whose great rusty keys groan in the locks. Oneheroine says:[2] "When I entered the portals of this Gothic structure achill--surely prophetic--chilled my veins, pressed upon my heart, andscarcely allowed me to breathe."
[2] In _The Romance of the Castle_.
_The Ancient Records of the Abbey of St. Oswyth_[3] says of itssetting: "The damp, cold, awe-inspiring hall seemed to conjure up tenthousand superstitious horrors and terrific imaginary apparitions." InMaturin's _Albigenses_ the knights assemble round the great fire inthe baronial hall and tell ghost tales while the storm rages outside.In _Melmoth, the Wanderer_ the scene changes often, yet it is alwaysGothic and terrible,--the monastery with its diabolical punishments,the ancient castle, the ruined abbey by which the wanderer celebrateshis marriage at midnight with a dead priest for the celebrant, themadhouse, the inquisition cells, which add gloom and horror to thesupernatural incidents and characters. In _Zofloya_,[4] the maiden isimprisoned in an underground cave similar to that boasted by othercastles. This novel is significant because of the freedom with whichShelley appropriated its material for his _Zastrozzi_, which likewisehas the true Gothic setting. In Shelley's other romance he erects thesame structure and has the devil meet his victim by the desolate, dearold Gothic abbey.
[3] By T. J. Horsley-Curties.
[4] By Mrs. Dacre, better known as "Rosa Matilda."
Regina Maria Roche wrote a number of novels built up with crumblingcastles, awesome abbeys, and donjon-keeps whose titles show thearchitectural fiction that dominates them. A list of the names of theGothic novels will serve to show the general importance laid on antiquesetting. In fact, the castle, abbey, monastery, chateau, convent,or inquisition prison occupied such an important place in the storythat it seemed the leading character. It dominated the events and wasa malignant personality, that laid its spell upon those within itsbounds. It shows something of the character that Hawthorne finallygives to his house of seven gables, or the brooding, relentless powerof the sea in Synge's drama.[5] The ancient castle becomes not merel
yhaunted itself but is the haunter as well.
[5] _Riders to the Sea._
Not only is architecture made subservient to the needs of Gothicfiction, but the scenery likewise is adapted to fit it. Before Mrs.Radcliffe wrote her stories interlarded with nature descriptions,scant notice had been paid to scenery in the novel. But she set thestyle for morose landscapes as Walpole had for glooming castles, andthe succeeding romances of the _genre_ combined both features. Mrs.Radcliffe was not at all hampered by the fact that she had never laideyes on the scenes she so vividly pictures. She painted the dreadscenery of awesome mountains and forests, beetling crags and dizzyabysses with fluent and fervent adjectives, and her successors imitatedher in sketching nature with dark impressionism.
The scenery in general in the Gothic novel is always subjectivelyrepresented. Nature in itself and of itself is not the importantthing. What the writer seeks to do is by descriptions of the outerworld to emphasize the mental states of man, to reflect the moods ofthe characters, and to show a fitting background for their crimes andunearthly experiences. There is little of the light of day, of thecheerfulness of ordinary nature, but only the scenes and phenomena thatare in harmony with the glooms of crimes and sufferings.
Like the scenery, the weather in the Gothic novel is alwayssubjectively treated. There is ever an artistic harmony betweenman's moods and the atmospheric conditions. The play of lightning,supernatural thunders, roaring tempests announce the approach andoperations of the devil, and ghosts walk to the accompaniment ofpresaging tempests. In _The Albigenses_ the winds are diabolicallypossessed and laugh fiendishly instead of moaning as they do asseneschals in most romances of terror. The storms usually take placeat midnight, and there is rarely a peaceful night in Gothic fiction.The stroke of twelve generally witnesses some uproar of nature assome appearance of restless spirit. Whenever the heroines in Mrs.Radcliffe's tales start on their midnight ramble through subterraneanpassages and halls of horror, the barometer becomes agitated. Andanother[6] says: "The storm, that at that moment was tremendous, couldnot equal that tempest which passed in the thoughts of the unhappycaptive."
[6] St. Oswyth.
In _Zofloya_ Victoria's meetings in the forest with the Moor, whois really the devil in disguise, are accompanied by supernaturalmanifestations of nature. The weather is ordered to suit the dark,unholy plots they make, and they plan murders against a backgroundof black clouds, hellish thunder, and lurid lightning. When at lastthe Moor announces himself as the devil and hurls Victoria from themountain top, a sympathetic storm arises and a flood sweeps her bodyinto the river. This scene is accusingly like the one in the lastchapter of Lewis's _Monk_, where the devil throws Ambrosio from thecliff to the river's brink.
Instantly a violent storm arose; the winds in fury rent up rocks and forests; the sky was now black with clouds, now sheeted with fire; the rain fell in torrents; it swelled the stream, the waves over-flowed their banks; they reached the spot where Ambrosio lay, and, when they abated, carried with them into the river the corse of the despairing monk.
No Gothic writer shows more power of harmonizing the tempests of thesoul with the outer storms than does Charles Robert Maturin.[7] AsMelmoth, doomed to dreadful life till he can find some tortured soulwilling to exchange destinies with him, traverses the earth in hissearch, the preternatural aspects of weather both reflect and mockhis despair. As the young nephew alone at midnight after his uncle'sdeath reads the fated manuscript, "cloud after cloud comes sweepingon like the dark banners of an approaching host whose march is fordestruction." Other references may illustrate the motif. "Clouds goportentously off like ships of war ... to return with added strengthand fury." "The dark and heavy thunder-clouds that advance slowly seemlike the shrouds of specters of departed greatness. Peals of thundersounded, every peal like the exhausted murmurs of a spent heart."
[7] In _Melmoth, the Wanderer_ and _The Albigenses_.
In general, in the Gothic novel there is a decided and definite attemptto use the terrible forces of nature to reflect the dark passions ofman, with added suggestiveness where supernatural agencies are at workin the events. This becomes a distinct convention, used with varyingeffectiveness. Nowhere in the fiction of the period is there the powersuch as Shakespeare reveals, as where Lear wanders on the heath inthe pitiless clutch of the storm, with a more tragic tempest in hissoul. Yet, although the idea of the inter-relation of the passions ofman and nature is not original with the Gothicists, and though theyshow little of the inevitability of genius, they add greatly to theirsupernatural effect by this method. Later fiction is less barometric asless architectural than the Gothic.
=The Origin of Individual Gothic Tales.= The psychological origin ofthe individual Gothic romances is interesting to note. Supernaturalismwas probably more generally believed in then than now, and people weremore given to the telling of ghost stories and all the folk-tales ofterror than at the present time. One reason for this may be that theyhad more leisure; and their great open fires were more conducive to theretailing of romances of shudders than our unsocial steam radiators.The eighteenth century seemed frankly to enjoy the pleasures of fear,and the rise of the Gothic novel gave rein to this natural love for theuncanny and the gruesome.
Dreams played an important part in the inspiration of the tales ofterror. The initial romance was, as the author tells us, the result ofan architectural nightmare. Walpole says in a letter:
Shall I even confess to you what was the origin of this romance? I waked one morning from a dream, of which all that I could recall was that I had thought myself in an ancient castle (a very natural dream for a head filled like mine with Gothic story) and that at the uppermost banister of a great staircase I saw a gigantic hand in armor. 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.
Mary Shelley's _Frankenstein_ was likewise born of a dream. "Monk"Lewis had interested Byron, Polidori, and the Shelleys in supernaturaltales so much so that after a fireside recital of German terror storiesByron proposed that each member of the group should write a ghostlyromance to be compared with the compositions of the others. The resultswere negligible save _Frankenstein_, and it is said that Byron was muchannoyed that a mere girl should excel him. At first Mrs. Shelley wasunable to hit upon a plot, but one evening after hearing a discussionof Erasmus Darwin's attempts to create life by laboratory experiments,she had an idea in a half waking dream. She says:
I saw--with shut eyes but acute mental vision--I saw the pale student of unhallowed arts kneeling beside the thing he had put together. I saw the hideous phantasm of a man stretched out, and then, on the working of some powerful engine, show signs of life.... The artist sleeps but he is awakened; and behold, the horrid thing stands at his bedside, looking on him with watery, yellow yet speculative eyes!
And from this she wrote her story of the man-monster.
The relation of dreams to the uncanny tale is interesting. Dreamsand visions, revelatory of the past and prophetic of the future,played an important part in the drama (as they are now widely used inmotion-picture scenarios) and the Gothic novel continues the tradition.It would be impossible to discover in how many instances the authorswere subconsciously influenced in their choice of material by dreams.The presaging dreams and visions attributed to supernatural agencyappear frequently in Gothic fiction. The close relation between dreamsand second sight in the terror novel might form an interesting by-pathfor investigation. Dream-supernaturalism becomes even more prominent inlater fiction and contributes passages of extraordinary power of whichDe Quincey's _Dream-Fugue_ may be mentioned as an example.
The germinal idea for _Melmoth, the Wanderer_ was contained in aparagraph from one of the author's own sermons, which suggested a themefor the story of a doomed, fate-pursued soul.
At this moment is there one of us present, however we may have departed from the Lord, disobeyed His will, and disregarded His word--i
s there one of us who would, at this moment, accept all that man could bestow or earth could afford, to resign the hope of his salvation? No, there is not one--not such a fool on earth were the enemy of mankind to traverse it with the offer!
True, the theme of such devil-pact had appeared in folk-tales andin the drama previously, notably in Marlowe's _Doctor Faustus_, butMaturin here gives the idea a dramatic twist and psychologic poignancyby making a human being the one to seek to buy another's soul to savehis own. A mortal, cursed with physical immortality, ceaselesslyharried across the world by the hounds of fate, forever forced by anirresistible urge to make his impitiable offer to tormented souls, andalways meeting a tragic refusal, offers dramatic possibilities of ahigh order and Maturin's story has a dreadful power.
Clara Reeve's avowed purpose in writing _The Old English Baron_ was toproduce a ghost story that should be more probable and realistic thanWalpole's. She stated that her book was the literary offspring of theearlier romance, though Walpole disclaimed the paternity. She deploredthe violence of the supernatural machinery that tended to defeat itsown impressiveness and wished to avoid that danger in her work, thoughshe announced: "We can conceive and allow for the appearance of aghost." Her prim recipe for Romantic fiction required, "a certaindegree of the marvelous to excite the attention; enough of the mannersof real life to give an air of probability to the work; and enough ofthe pathetic to engage the heart in its behalf." But her ingredientsdid not mix well and the result was rather indigestible though devouredby hungry readers of her time.
Mrs. Anne Radcliffe, that energetic manipulator of Gothic enginery,wrote because she had time that was wasting on her hands,--which may bean explanation for other and later literary attempts. Her journalisthusband was away till late at night, so while sitting up for him shewrote frightful stories to keep herself from being scared. During thatwaiting loneliness she doubtless experienced all those nervous terrorsthat she describes as being undergone by her palpitating maidens,whose emotional anguish is suffered in midnight wanderings throughsubterranean passages and ghosted apartments. There is one report thatshe went mad from over-much brooding on mormo, but that is generallydiscredited.
Matthew Gregory Lewis was impelled to write _The Monk_ by readingthe romances of Walpole and Mrs. Radcliffe, together with Schiller's_Robbers_, which triple influence is discernible in his lurid tale.He defended the indecency of his book by asserting that he took theplot from a story in _The Guardian_,[8] ingeniously intimating thatplagiarized immorality is less reprehensible than original material.Shelley, in his turn, was so strongly impressed by Lewis's _Monk_,and Mrs. Dacre's _Zofloya_ in writing his _Zastrozzi_, and by WilliamGodwin's _St. Leon_ in his _St. Irvyne, or The Rosicrucian_, thatthe adaptation amounts to actual plagiarism. Even the titles showimitation. In writing to Godwin, Shelley said he was "in a state ofintellectual sickness" when he wrote these stories, and no one who isfamiliar with the productions will contradict him in the matter.
[8] "The History of Santon Barsis," _The Guardian_, Number 148.
The influence of the crude scientific thought and investigation of theeighteenth century is apparent in the Gothic novels. _Frankenstein_,as we have seen, was the outcome of a Romantic, Darwinian dream, andnovels by Godwin, Shelley, and Maturin deal with the theme of theelixir of life. William Beckford's _Vathek_ has to do with alchemy,sorcery, and other phases of supernatural science. Zofloya, Mrs.Dacre's diabolical Moor, performs experiments in hypnotism, telepathy,sorcery, and satanic chemistry. And so in a number of the imitative andless known novels of the _genre_ science plays a part in furnishingthe material. There is much interest in the study of the relation ofscience to the literature of supernaturalism in the various periods andthe discoveries of modern times as furnishing plot material. The Gothiccontribution to this form of ghostly fiction is significant, thoughslight in comparison with later developments.
=The Gothic Ghosts.= The Ghost is the real hero or heroine of theGothic novel. The merely human characters become for the readercolorless and dull the moment a specter glides up and indicates awillingness to relate the story of his life. The continuing popularityof the shade in literature may be due to the fact that humanity findsfear one of the most pleasurable of emotions and truly enjoys vicarioushorrors, or it may be due to a childish delight in the sensational.At all events, the ghost haunts the pages of terror fiction, andthe trail of the supernatural is over them all. In addition to itsassociation with ancient superstitions, survivals of animistic ideas inprimitive culture, we may see the classical and Elizabethan influencein the Gothic specter. The prologue-ghost, naturally, is not neededin fiction, but the revenge-ghost is as prominent as ever. The ghostas a dramatic personage, his talkativeness, his share in the action,reflect the dramatic tradition, with a strong Senecan touch. The Gothicphantoms have not the power of Shakespeare's apparitions, nothingapproaching the psychologic subtlety of _Hamlet_ or _Julius Caesar_or the horrific suggestiveness of _Macbeth_, yet they are related tothem and are not altogether poor. Though imitative of the dramaticghosts they have certain characteristics peculiar to themselves and aregreatly worth consideration in a study of literary supernaturalism.
There are several clearly marked classes of ghosts in Gothicism. Thereis the real ghost that anybody can pin faith to; there is the imaginedapparition that is only a figment of hysterical fear or of a guiltyconscience; and there is the deliberate hoax specter. There are ghoststhat come only when called,--sometimes the castle dungeons have to bepaged for retiring shades; others appear of their own free will. Somehave a local habitation and a name and haunt only their own properpremises, while others have the wanderlust. There are innocent spiritsreturning to reveal the circumstances of their violent demise and toask Christian burial; we meet guilty souls sent back to do penance fortheir sins in the place of their commission; and there are revengeghosts of multiple variety. There are specters that yield to prayersand strong-minded shades that resist exorcism. It is difficult toclassify them, for the lines cross inextricably.
The genealogical founder of the family of Gothic ghosts is the giantapparition in _The Castle of Otranto_. He heralds his coming by anenormous helmet, a hundred times larger than life size, which crashesinto the hall, and a sword which requires a hundred men to bear it in.The ghost himself appears in sections. We first see a Brobdignagianfoot and leg, with no body, then a few chapters later an enormous handto match. In the last scene he assembles his parts, after the fashionof an automobile demonstration, supplies the limbs that are lackingand stands forth as an imposing and portentous shade. After receivingAlfonso's specter--Alfonso will be remembered as the famous statueafflicted with the nose-bleed--he "is wrapt from mortal eyes in a blazeof glory." That seems singular, considering the weighty material ofwhich he and his armor are made. There is another interesting specterin the castle, the monk who is seen kneeling in prayer in the gloomychapel and who, "turning slowly round discovers to Frederick thefleshless jaws and empty sockets of a skeleton wrapped in a hermit'scowl."
Clara Reeve's young peasant in _The Old English Baron_, theunrecognized heir to the estate, who is spending a night in thehaunted apartment, sees two apparitions, one a woman and the other agentleman in armor though not of such appalling size as the revenantin _Otranto_. The two announce themselves as his long-lost parentsand vanish after he is estated and suitably wed. Mrs. Radcliffe[9]introduces the shade of a murdered knight, a chatty personage whohaunts a baronial hall full of men, and at another time engages in atournament, slaying his opponent.
[9] In _Gaston de Blondeville_.
Mrs. Bonhote[10] shows us a migratory ghost of whom the old servantcomplains in vexation:
Only think, Miss, of a ghost that should be at home minding its own business at the Baron's own castle, taking the trouble to follow him here on special business it has to communicate! However, travelling three or four hundred miles is nothing to a ghost that can, as I have heard, go at the rate of a thousand miles a minute on land or sea.
[10] In _Bungay Castle_.
"A deep groan issues from the coffin and a voice exclaims, 'You hurtme! Forbear or you will crush my bones to powder!'" He knocks thecoffin in pieces, whereupon the vocal bones demand decent burial andhis departure from the castle. Later the baron sees the ghost of hisfirst wife, who objects to his making a third matrimonial venture,though she has apparently conceded the second. In the same story ayoung woman's spook pursues one Thomas, almost stamping on his heels,and finally vanishing like a sky-rocket, leaving an odor of brimstonebehind. A specter rises from a well in _The History of Jack Smith, orthe Castle of Saint Donats_,[11] and shakes its hoary head at a groupof men who fire pistols at it.
[11] By Charles Lucas, Baltimore.
_The Castle of Caithness_[12] shows a murdered father indicating hiswounds to his son and demanding vengeance. An armored revenge ghostappears in _Count Roderick's Castle_, or _Gothic Times_, an anonymousPhiladelphia novel, telling his son the manner of his murder, andscaring the king, who has killed him, to madness. The revenge ghosts inthe Gothic do not cry "Vindicta!" as frequently as in the early drama,but they are as relentless in their hate. In _Ancient Records_, or _TheAbbey of St. Oswyth_,[13] the spirit of a nun who has been wrongedand buried alive by the wicked baron returns with silent, tormentingreproach. She stands beside him at midnight, with her dead infant onher breast.
Suddenly the eyes of the specter become animated. Oh!--then what flashes of appalling anger dart from their hollow orbits on the horror-stricken Vortimer! Three dreadful shrieks ring pealing through the chamber now filled with a blaze of sulphurous light. The specter suddenly becomes invisible and the baron falls senseless on his couch.
Scant wonder! In the same story Rosaline, the distressed heroine, isabout to wed against her will, when a specter appears and forbids thebans. Again, Gondemar has a dagger at her throat with wicked intent,when a spook "lifts up his hollow, sunken countenance and beckons withangry gestures for his departure." Gondemar departs!
[12] By F. H. P.
[13] By T. J. Horsley-Curties.
Another revenge ghost creates excitement in _The Accusing Spirit_. Amurdered marquis appears repeatedly to interested parties and demandspunishment on his brother who has slain him. Another inconsideratespecter in the same volume wakes a man from his sleep, and beckoninghim to follow, leads him to a subterranean vault, stamps his foot ona certain stone, shows a ghastly wound in his throat and vanishes. Oninvestigation, searchers find a corpse in a winding-sheet beneath theindicated spot. Another accusing spirit appears in the same story--thatof Benedicta, a recreant nun, who glides as a headless and mutilatedfigure through the cloisters and hovers over the convent bed whereshe "breathed out her guilty soul." The young heroine who has takentemporary refuge in the convent and has to share the cell with thisdisturbing room-mate, is informed by an old nun that, "Those damnedspirits who for mysterious purposes receive permission to wander overthe earth can possess no power to injure us but that which they mayderive from the weakness of our imagination." Nevertheless, the nervousgirl insists on changing her room! Another famous cloistered ghost,one of the pioneer female apparitions of note, is the Bleeding Nunin Lewis's _The Monk_, that hall of Gothic horrors. He provides anunderstudy for her, who impersonates the nun in times of emergency,providing complicating confusion for the other characters and for thereader.
Ghosts begin to crowd upon each others' heels in later Gothic novels.No romance is so poor as not to have a retinue of specters, or atleast, a ghost-of-all-work. Emboldened by their success as individuals,spooks appear in groups and mobs. William Beckford in his _Vathek_presents two thousand specters in one assembly. Beckford was noniggard! In Maturin's _The Albigenses_, de Montfort, passing alonethrough a dark forest, meets the phantoms of countless victims of hisreligious persecution. Men, women, young maidens, babes at the breast,all move toward him with unspeakable reproach, with "clattering bones,eyeless sockets, bare and grinning jaws." Aside from Dante the mostimpressive description of unhappy spirits in a large number is givenin _Vathek_ in that immortal picture of the Hall of Eblis. Beckfordshows here a concourse of doomed souls, each with his hand foreverpressed above his burning heart, each carrying his own hell within him,having lost heaven's most precious boon, the soul's hope! In the Hallof Eblis there are the still living corpses, "the fleshless forms ofthe pre-adamite kings, who still possess enough life to be consciousof their deplorable condition; they regard one another with looks ofthe deepest dejection, each holding his right hand motionless above hisheart." The prophet Soliman is there, from whose livid lips come tragicwords of his sin and punishment. Through his breast, transparent asglass, the beholder can see his heart enveloped in flames.
In James Hogg's _The Wool-Gatherer_, a man of very evil life is hauntedby the wraiths of those he has wronged. As he lies on his death-bed,not only he, but those around him as well, hear the pleading voices ofwomen, the pitiful cries of babes around his bed, though nothing isvisible. We have here a suggestion of the invisible supernaturalismthat becomes so frequent and effective a motif in later fiction. Afterthe man is dead, the supernatural sounds become so dreadful that "thecorpse sits up in the bed, pawls wi' its hands and stares round wi' itsdead face!" When the watchers leave the room for a few moments, thebody mysteriously disappears and is never found. A somewhat similarinstance occurs in one of Ambrose Bierce's modern stories of deadbodies.
There is some attempt to exorcise restless spirits in a number ofGothic novels. On various occasions the priests come forth withbell, book, and candle to pronounce anathema against the troublesomevisitants. In one story a monk crosses his legs to scare away thespecter, but forgets and presently tumbles over. In another,[14] thepriest peremptorily bids the ghosts depart and breaks the news firmlyto them that they cannot return for a thousand years. But one bogle,whether of feeble understanding or strong will, comes in to break upthe ceremonies of incantation, and scares the priest into hysterics.
[14] _The Spirit of Turrettville._
The imagined ghost appears in many of the Gothic tales, whose writerslack the courage of their supernaturalism. Mrs. Radcliffe, forinstance, loves to build up a tissue of ghostly horrors, yet explainsthem away on natural grounds after the reader fancies he sees a spiritaround every corner.
The ghosts that are deliberately got up for the purposes of deceptionform an interesting feature of Gothic methods. The reasons behindthe spectral impersonations are various, to frighten criminals intorestitution after confession, to further crime, or merely to enliventhe otherwise lagging story. In _The Spirit of Turrettville_ two youthsfollow the sounds of plaintive music till, in a deserted, spookishapartment, they see a woman playing at an old harp. As they draw near,they see only skeleton hands on the keys and the apparition turnstoward them "a grinning, mouldering skull." She waves her hands withhaughty rebuke for their intrusion and "stalks" out of the oratory. Shegives further performances, however, singing a song composed for theoccasion. But the reader, after such thrills, resents finding out laterthat she is the living wife, attempting to frighten the villain intoconfession.
In _The Accusing Spirit_ a bogus spook is constructed by means ofphosphorus, aided by a strong resemblance between two men, to accusean innocent man of murder. The apparition dramatically makes hischarge, but is unmasked just in time to save the victim's life. A tall,cadaverous young man makes up for a ghost in an anonymous novel,[15]while a mysterious woman in a black veil attends a midnight funeral inthe castle, then unaccountably disappears.
[15] In _Ariel, or the Invisible Monitor_.
In _Melmoth_ the monks persecute a despised brother by impersonatingspirits in his cell. They cover the walls with images of fiends, overwhich they smear phosphorus, and burn sulphur to assist the deception.They utter mocking cries as of demons, seeking to drive him mad. InLewis's _Monk_ there is a false Bleeding Nun as well as the _bonafide_ s
pecter. In other Gothic novels there are various spectral fraudscleverly planned, and then revealed, but their explanation does notaltogether dispel the uncanny impression they make.
The ghost that stays at home in a definite place, haunting its owndemesne, is a familiar figure in the fiction of the period. Everycastle has its haunted tower or dungeon or apartment with its shadethat walks by night. Several appear carrying candles or lamps tolight them through the blackness of architectural labyrinths. Severalevince a fondness for bells and herald their coming by rings. In oneromance,[16] the ghost takes the form of a white cow. (Doubtless manyghosts in real life have had a similar origin.) In another,[17] aspecter in armor appears to terrify his murderer, and supernaturallightning aids in his revenge.
[16] _The Spirit of the Castle._
[17] _Ethelwina, or the House of Fitz-Auburne_, by T. J. Horsley-Curties.
It would be impossible to designate all the ghosts in Gothic fictionfor there is wholesale haunting. They appear in the plot to warn, tocomfort or command, and seem to have very human characteristics on thewhole. Yet they are not so definitely personated, not so individual andrealistic as the spirits in later fiction, though they do achieve somecreepy effects. It is not their brute force that impresses us. We areless moved by the armored knight and the titanic adversary in Otrantothan by the phantoms in the Hall of Eblis. The vindictive ghosts,mouldy from the vault, are less appalling than the bodiless voices ofwronged women and children that haunt the death-bed and bring a corpseback to dreadful life. The specters with flamboyant personality, thatoppress us with their egotistic clamor, may be soon forgotten, but theghostly suggestiveness of other spirits has a haunting power that isinescapable. Some of the Gothic ghosts have a strange vitality,--and,after all, where would be the phantoms of to-day but for their earlyservices?
=Witches and Warlocks.= While not at all equal in importance to theghosts, witches and warlocks add to the excitement in Gothic fiction.There is but little change from the witch of dramatic tradition, forwe have both the real and the reputed witch in the terror novel, thegenuine antique hag who has powers given her from the devil, and thebeautiful young girl who is wrongly suspected of an unholy alliancewith the dark spirits.
In _Melmoth_, there is an old woman doctor who has uncanny ability.She tells fortunes, gives spells against the evil eye and producesweird results "by spells and such dandy as is beyond our element."She turns the mystic yarn to be dropped into the pit, on the brink ofwhich stands "the shivering inquirer into futurity, doubtful whetherthe answer to her question 'Who holds?' is to be uttered by thevoice of a demon or lover." In _The Albigenses_ three Weird Sistersappear that are not altogether poor imitations of Shakespeare's own.Matilda in _The Monk_ possesses daemonic power of enchantment and inthe subterranean passages of the monastery she works her unhallowedarts. The hag Carathis, in _Vathek_, is a witch of rare skill, whoconcocts her magic potions and by supernatural means forces all thingsto her will. There are several witches and warlocks in James Hogg's_The Hunt of Eildon_, who work much mischief but at last are capturedand convicted. They have the choice of being burned alive or beingbaptized, but with wild cries they struggle against the holy water andface the flames.
In Hogg's _Brownie of Bodbeck_, Marion Linton believes her own daughteris a witch and thinks she should be given the trial by fire or water.There is an innocent young reputed witch in _The Hunt of Eildon_, whois sentenced to death for her art.
=The Devil.= The devil incarnate is one of the familiar figures in theterror novel. Here, as in the case of the ghost, we see the influenceof the dramatic rather than of the epic tradition. He is akin toCalderon's wonder-working magician and Marlowe's Dr. Faustus ratherthan to the satanic creations of Dante and Milton. He is not a dread,awe-inspiring figure either physically or as a personality, though hedoes assume terrifying, almost epic proportions in the closing scenesof _The Monk_ and _Zofloya_. Neither is he as human, as appealing toour sympathies as the lonely, misjudged, misunderstood devils in laterfiction. We neither love nor greatly fear the Gothic demon. Yet he doesappear in interesting variants and deserves our study.
In Hogg's _Hunt of Eildon_ the devil comes in as a strange old man whoyet seems curiously familiar to the king and to everyone who sees him,though no one can remember just when he knew him. There is a cleverpsychologic suggestiveness here, which perhaps inspired a similar ideain a recent play, _The Eternal Magdalen_. Later he is recognized andholy water thrown on him.
The whole form and visage of the creature was changed in a moment to that of a furious fiend. He uttered a yell that made all the abbey shake to its foundations and forthwith darted away into the air, wrapt in flames. As he ascended, he waved his right hand and shook his fiery locks at his inquisitors.
There is nothing dubious about his personality here, certainly!
Satan appears dramatically in _The Monk_ as well. His first visitsare made in the form of attractive youth. Ambrosio, who has been ledinto sin by the daemonic agent, Matilda, is awaiting death in theInquisition cell, when she comes to see him to urge that he win releaseby selling his soul to the devil. But the repentant monk refuses heradvice, so she departs in a temper of blue flame. Then he has a moredread visitant,--Lucifer himself, described as follows:
His blasted limbs still bore the marks of the Almighty's thunders; a swarthy darkness spread itself over his gigantic form; his hands and feet were armed with long talons.... Over his huge shoulders waved two enormous sable wings; and his hair was supplied by living snakes which twined themselves with frightful hissings. In one hand he held a roll of parchment, and in the other an iron pen. Still the lightnings flashed around him and the thunder bursts seemed to announce the dissolution of nature.
Ambrosio is overawed into selling his soul and signs the compact withhis blood, as per convention.
The devil doesn't keep to his agreement to release him, however, forLewis tells us that taking his victim to the top of a mountain and"darting his talons into the monk's shaven crown, he sprang with himfrom the rock. The caves and mountains rang with Ambrosio's shrieks.The demon continued to soar aloft till, reaching a dreadful height,he released the sufferer. Headlong fell the monk." He plunges to theriver's brink, after which a storm is evoked by the devil and his bodyswept away in the flood.
A similar daemonic manifestation occurs in _Zofloya_. Victoria has beeninduced to bind herself to the Evil One, who has appeared as a Moorishservant of impressive personality and special powers. He grants herwishes hostile to her enemies, holding many conferences with her inthe dark forest where he is heralded by flute-like sounds. He appearssometimes like a flame, sometimes like a lightning flash. He comes withthe swiftness of the wind and tells her that her thoughts summonedhim. At last, he announces himself as Satan, and assumes his ownhideous form of gigantism.
Behold me as I am, no longer that which I appeared to be, but the sworn enemy of all created nature, by men called Satan. Yes, it was I that under semblance of the Moor appeared to thee.
As he spoke, he grasped more firmly the neck of Victoria, with one push he whirled her headlong down the dreadful abyss!--as she fell his loud daemonic laugh, his yells of triumph echoed in her ears; and a mangled corpse she fell, she was received into the foaming waters below.
The devil is seen in _Vathek_ as a preternaturally ugly old man withstrange powers. James Hogg has rather a penchant for the demon, for heuses him in The _Wool-Gatherer_, and in _Confessions of a JustifiedSinner_, which is a story of religious superstition, of the use ofdiablerie and witchcraft, introducing a satanic tempter. On the whole,the appearances of the devil in Gothic fiction lack impressiveness, areweak in psychologic subtlety, and have not the force either of the epicor of the dramatic representations. Nor have they the human appeal thatthe incarnations of the devil in later fiction make to our sympathies.
In addition to the unholy powers possessed by the devil and given byhim to his agents, the witches, warlocks and magicians, we see inGothic
fiction other aspects of daemonology, such as that associatedwith animals and with inanimate objects. Supernaturalism in the horrornovel is by no means confined to human beings, but extends to beastsas well. Animals are supposed to be peculiarly sensitive to ghostlyimpressions, more so than men, and the appearance of a specter isoften first announced by the extreme terror of some household pet,or other animal. Gothic dogs have very keen noses for ghosts and howllugubriously when an apparition approaches. Ravens are represented asshowing the presence of evil powers, somewhat as the Southern darkeybelieves that the jay-bird is the ally of the devil and spends everyFriday in torment. And one does not forget the snaky coiffure thatwrithed around the demon's head in _The Monk_.
Maturin's _Albigenses_ introduces the story of a gruesome loup-garou,or werewolf, which figures extensively in folk-tales. In this casethe husband of a beautiful young woman is a werewolf who during hissavage metamorphosis tears her to pieces then disappears to return nomore. This is suggestive--with a less satisfactory ending--of Marie deFrance's charming little _lai_, _Le Bisclavret_. Professor Kittridgehas shown the frequency of the werewolf motif in medieval story, bythe variants he brings together in his _Arthur and Gorlogon_. In _TheAlbigenses_ a lycanthrope also is described, a hideous human being thatfancies himself a mad wolf.
There is much use of animal supernaturalism in James Hogg's romances.In one,[18] Sandy is saved from going over a precipice by the warningof a hare that immediately after vanishes, having left no tracks inthe snow. In another,[19] the two white beagles that the king uses inhunting are in reality maidens bound by enchantment, who are forcedto slay human beings then transform them into deer for the king andhis company to eat. The other dogs are aware of the unnatural stateof affairs, while the men are too stupid to realize it. The clownishCroudy is changed into a hog, which brings amusing and almost tragiccomplications into his life. His old dog knows him and follows himpathetically, and a drove of cows go off in a stampede at his approach,for they, too, sense the supernatural spell. Croudy is put on theblock to be killed for pork, when the fairy changes him back suddenlyto the consternation of the butcher. But Croudy does not behave wellafter his transformation, so he is changed into a cat with endlesslife. He may resume mortal shape one night in the year and relate hisfeline experiences.
[18] _The Wool-Gatherer._
[19] _The Hunt of Eildon._
In the same story the king of Scotland is proposing a toast when hisfavorite dog dashes the cup from his hand. This is repeated severaltimes, till the king learns that the drink is poisoned, and the dog hasthus by supernatural knowledge saved his life. An innocent young girl,sentenced to death for witchcraft because a fairy has taken her formand worked enchantment, and her lover are transformed into white birdsthat fly out of the prison the night before the execution and liveeternally on the shores of a far lake.
The ghostly power extends to inanimate objects as well as to humanbeings and animals. Armor and costumes seem to have a materialimmortality of their own, for it is quite common to recognizespectral visitants by their garments or accouterments. Armor clanksaudibly in the terror scenes. In _The Castle of Otranto_, the giantghost sends his immense helmet crashing into the hall to shatter thewould-be-bridegroom and the hopes of his father. The head-gear haspower of voluntary motion and moves around with agility, saves theheroine from danger by waving its plumes at the villain and generallyadds excitement to the scenes. Later a titanic sword leaps into placeof itself, after having been borne to the entrance by a hundred menfainting under the weight of it, while a statue of Alfonso sheds threedrops of blood from its nose and a portrait turns round in its frameand strolls out into the open.
Pictures in general take a lively part in horrific fiction. Theportrait of a murdered man in _The Spirit of the Castle_ picks itselfup from the lumber heap where it has been thrown, cleans itself andhangs itself back on the wall, while[20] a portrait in a desertedchamber wags its head at a servant who is making the bed. The portraitof Melmoth is endowed with supernatural power, for its eyes follow thebeholder with awful meaning, and as the nephew in desperation tearsit from its frame and burns it, the picture writhes in the flames,ironically, and mocks him. This might be compared with Oscar Wilde's_Picture of Dorian Gray_ and with other later stories.
[20] In _The Spirit of Turrettville_.
The statue of Alfonso in Walpole's _Castle_ moves from its place withno visible means of support, and[21] a great effigy of black marbleis said to "march all round and come back into its place again with agreat groan." In _St. Oswyth_ the soil of the abbey grounds obtainedby gross injustice is haunted by the ghost of the wronged nun whoinflicts a curse upon it, rendering it "spell-blighted, unprolific,and impossible to till." The key to the room in the old house in whichMelmoth's diabolic portrait is kept, turns in its lock with a soundlike the cry of the dead.
[21] In _Ariel_.
Gothic romance contains magic mirrors wherein one can see any personhe wishes no matter how distant he may be, and watch his movementsafter the fashion of a private moving-picture show,--such as that usedby Ambrosio.[22] There are enchanted wands with power to transformmen to beasts or _vice versa_, as in _The Hunt of Eildon_. Thereare crystal balls that reveal not only what is going on in distantparts, but show the future as well.[23] The same volume describesmagic swords that bear changing hieroglyphics to be read only byenchantment and other uncanny objects. These will serve to illustratethe preternatural powers possessed by inanimate objects in the terrorliterature. In some instances the motif is used with effectiveness,definitely heightening the impression of the weird in a way thathuman supernaturalism could not accomplish. We do not see here themechanistic supernaturalism, which is to become important in latertales, and the effects here are crude, yet of interest in themselvesand as suggesting later uses of the idea.
[22] In _The Monk_.
[23] As in _Vathek_.
Daemonology manifests itself in the supernatural science in the Gothicnovels as well as in the characterization of the devil and hisconfreres. We have diabolical chemistry besides alchemy, astrology,hypnotism, ventriloquism, search for the philosopher's stone, infernalbiology, and the other scientific twists of supernaturalism. In_Vathek_, where we have a regular array of ghostliness, we see a magicpotion that instantly cures any disease however deadly,--the progenitorof the modern patent medicine. There is an Indian magician who writeshis messages on the high heavens themselves. Vathek's mother is anindustrious alchemist strangling an assembly of prominent citizens inorder to use their cadavers in her laboratory, where she stews themup with serpent's oil, mummies, and skulls, concocting therefrom apowerful potion. Vathek has an uncurbed curiosity that leads him intovarious experiments, to peer into the secrets of astrology, alchemy,sorcery, and kindred sciences. He uses a magic drink that gives thesemblance of death, like that used later in _The Monk_, as earlier, ofcourse, in _Romeo and Juliet_, and elsewhere.
The Moor in _Zofloya_ is well versed in daemonic science. He tells ofchemical experiments where he forces everyone to do his will or die.By his potions he can change hate into love or love into hate, andcan give a drug which produces semi-insanity. Under the influence ofthis a man weds a daemonic temptress thinking her the woman he loves,then commits suicide when he wakes to the truth. This reminds us ofSax Rohmer's Fu-Manchu stories of diabolic hypodermics that produceinsanity.
In _Ankerwich Castle_ a woman lying at the point of death ismiraculously cured by a drug whose prescription the author neglectsto state. In the same story a child is branded in a peculiar fashion.A new-born babe whose birth must remain secret yet who must berecognizable in emergency, is marked on its side with letters burnt inwith a strange chemical, which will remain invisible till rubbed with acertain liquid. Matilda in _The Monk_ dabbles in satanic chemistry andcompounds evil potions in her subterranean experiments.
Mary Shelley uses the idea of supernatural biology in her story of theman-monster, _Frankenstein_, the story of the young scientist who
aftermorbid study and experiment, constructs a human frame of supernaturalsize and hideous grotesqueness and gives it life. But the thing createdappalls its creator by its dreadful visage, its more than human size,its look of less than human intelligence, and the student flees inhorror from the sight of it. Mrs. Shelley describes the emotions of thelonely, tragic thing thrust suddenly into a world that ever recoilsshuddering from it. She reveals the slow hate distilled in its heartbecause of the harsh treatment it meets, till at last it takes diabolicrevenge, not only on the man who has created it but on all held dearby him. The struggles that rend his soul between hate and remorse areimpressive. The wretched being weeps in an agony of grief as it standsover the body of Frankenstein whom it has harried to death, then goesaway to its own doom. The last sight of it, as the first, is effective,as, in tragic solitude, towering on the ice-floe, it moves toward thedesolate North to its death.
In the characterization of this being, as in the unusual conception,Mrs. Shelley has introduced something poignantly new in fiction. Itwas a startling theme for the mind of a young girl, as were _Vathek_and _The Monk_ for youths of twenty years, and only the abnormalpsychological conditions she went through could have produced it. Thereis more curdling awfulness in Frankenstein's monster than in the museumof armored ghosts, Bleeding Nuns, and accompanying horrors of the earlyGothic novels. The employment of the Frankenstein motif in a playproduced recently in New York,[24] illustrates anew the vitality of theidea.
[24] _The Last Laugh._
The search for the philosopher's stone appears in various novels ofthe period. _St. Leon_, by William Godwin, relates the story of a manwho knew how to produce unlimited gold by a secret formula given himby a mysterious stranger who dies in his home. Shelley[25] bringsin this power incidentally with the gift of endless life. There isan awe-inspiring use of ventriloquism in Charles Brockden Brown'snovel, _Wieland_, while _Arthur Mervyn_ gives a study in somnambulism._Zofloya_ suggests hypnotism or mesmerism by saying that Victoria'sthought summoned the Moor to her,--that they could have brought himhad he been "at the further extremity of this terrestrial globe." Thisseems a faint foreshadowing of Ibsen's idea in The _Master Builder_.These may illustrate the use of science in Gothicism.
[25] In _St. Irvyne_.
The elixir of life is brewed in divers Gothic novels. Dramatic andintense as are the psychological experiences connected with thediscovery of the magic potion, the effects of the success are morepoignant still. The thought that endless mortality, life that may notbe laid down, becomes a burden intolerable has appeared in fictionsince Swift's account of the Struldbrugs, and perhaps before. Godwin's_St. Leon_ is a story of the secret of perpetual life. The tiresomeGodwinistic hero is visited by a decrepit old man who wishes to tellhim on a pledge of incommunicability what will give him the power ofendless life and boundless wealth. The impoverished nobleman acceptswith consequences less enjoyable than he has anticipated.
Shelley's hectic romance,[26] whose idea, as Shelley admitted toStockdale, came from Godwin's book, uses the same theme. The youngstudent with burning eyes, who has discovered the elixir of life, maybe compared with Mary Shelley's later picture of Frankenstein. Eventsare rather confused here, as the villain falls dead in the presence ofthe devil but comes to life again as another character later in thestory,--Shelley informing us of their identity but not troubling toexplain it.
[26] _St. Irvyne or the Rosicrucian._
The most impressive instance of the theme of fleshly immortality inthe early novels is found in _Melmoth_. Here the mysterious wandererpossesses the power of endless life, but not the right to lay it downwhen existence becomes a burden. Melmoth can win the boon of deathonly if he can find another mortal willing to change destinies withhim at the price of his soul. He traverses the world in his search andoffers the exchange to persons in direst need and suffering the extremetorments, offering to give them wealth as well as life eternal. Yet noman nor woman will buy life at the price of the soul.
=Aids to Gothic Effect.= Certain themes appear recurringly as firstaids to terror fiction. Some of them are found equally in laterliterature while others belong more particularly to the Gothic. Aninteresting aspect of the supernatural visitants is gigantism, orthe superhuman size which they assume. In _The Castle of Otranto_,the sensational ghost is of enormous size, and his accouterments arecolossal. In the last scene he is astounding:
A clap of thunder shook the castle to its foundations; the earth rocked and the clank of more than mortal armor was heard behind.... The walls of the castle behind Manfred were thrown down with a mighty force, and the form of Alfonso, dilated to an immense magnitude, appeared in the center of the ruins. "Behold the true heir of Alfonso!" said the vision.
This reminds one of an incident in F. Marion Crawford's _Mr. Isaacs_,where the Indian magician expands to awful size, miraculously drawsdown a mist and wraps it round him as a cloak. Zofloya is frequentlyspoken of as immense, and it is said that "common objects seem tosink in his presence." In the last scene the wicked Victoria seesthe Moor change from a handsome youth to a fierce gigantic figure. Adiabolic apparition eight or nine feet high pursues a monk,[27] and theknight[28] engages in combat with a daemonic giant who slays him. Thedevil in _The Monk_ is represented as being of enormous stature, andmuch of the horror excited by the man-monster that Frankenstein createdarises from the creature's superhuman size. In most cases gigantismconnotes evil power and rouses a supernatural awe in the beholder. Thegiant is an Oriental figure and appears in _Vathek_, along with genii,dwarfs, and kindred personages, but the Gothic giant has more diabolismthan the mere Oriental original. He seems to fade out from fiction,appearing only occasionally in later stories, while he has practicallyno place in the drama, owing doubtless to the difficulties of stagepresentation.
[27] In _The Spirit of the Castle_.
[28] In _The Spirit of Turrettville_.
* * * * *
Insanity as contributing to the effect of supernaturalism affords manygruesome studies in psychiatry. Madness seems a special curse of thegods or torment from the devil and various instances of its use occurin Gothic fiction. The devil in _Zofloya_, at Victoria's request, givesHenrique an enchanted drug which renders him temporarily insane,during which time he marries Victoria, imagining her to be Lilla whomhe loves. When he awakes to the realization of what he has done, realmadness drives him to suicide. In _The Castle of Caithness_ the wickedmisanthrope goes mad from remorse. He imagines that the differentones he has murdered are hurling him into the pit of hell, until, ina maniac frenzy, he dashes his brains out against the prison walls.In _Ethelwina_ the father who has sold his daughter to dishonor fliesshrieking in madness through the corridors of the dungeon to escape thesight of his child's accusing specter. Poor Nanny in Hogg's _Brownie ofBodbeck_ is described as having "a beam of wild delight in her eye, thejoy of madness." She sings wild, unearthly songs and talks deliriouslyof incomprehensible things, of devilish struggles.
Melmoth uses the idea with special effectiveness. The insanity of theyoung husband whose bride is mysteriously slain on their wedding dayby the supernatural power accompanying Melmoth, may be compared withthe madness of the wife in Scott's _Bride of Lammermoor_. Maturinalso shows us a scene in a mad-house, where a sane man, Stanton, isconfined, whom Melmoth visits to offer exchange of destinies. Melmothtaunts him cruelly with his hopeless situation and prophecies that he,too, will go mad from despair. We hear Stanton's wild cry, echoed by ahundred yells like those of demons, but the others are stilled when themad mother begins her lamentation,--the mother who has lost husband,home, children, reason, all, in the great London fire. At her appallingshrieks all other voices are hushed. Another impressive figure in themad-house is the preacher who thinks himself a demon and alternatelyprays and blasphemes the Lord.
Charles Brockden Brown rivals Maturin in his terrible use of insanityfor supernatural effect. The demented murderer in _Edgar Huntley_gives an impression o
f mystery and awe that is unusual, while _Wieland_with its religious mania produced by diabolic ventriloquism is evenmore impressive. Brown knew the effect of mystery and dread on thehuman mind and by slow, cumulative suggestion he makes us feel acreeping awe that the unwieldy machinery of pure Gothicism never couldachieve. In studies of the morbid mentality he has few equals. Forpsychologic subtlety, for haunting horror, what is a crashing helmetor a dismembered ghost compared with Brown's Wieland? What are therackings of monkish vindictiveness when set against the agonies of anunbalanced mind turned in upon itself? What exterior torture couldso appeal to our sympathies as Wieland's despair, when, racked withreligious mania, he feels the overwhelming conviction that the voice ofGod--which is but the fiendish trick of a ventriloquist--is calling himto murder his wife and children as a sacrifice to Deity? Such a tragedyof dethroned reason is intolerably powerful; the dark labyrinths ofinsanity, the gloom-haunted passages of the human mind, are moreterrible to traverse than the midnight windings of Gothic dungeons. Wefeel that here is a man who is real, who is human, and suffering theextremity of anguish.
Perhaps the most hideous aspect of insanity in the terror novel isthat of the lycanthrope in _The Albigenses_. The tragic wolf-manimagines himself to be a mad wolf and cowers in his lair, glaring withgleaming, awful eyes at all who approach him, gnawing at a human headsnatched from the graveyard. There are various other uses of insanityin the novel of the period, but these will serve to illustrate. Therelation between insanity and the supernatural has been marked in laterliterature.
* * * * *
The use of portents is a distinct characteristic of the horror romance.Calamity is generally preceded by some sign of the supernaturalinfluence at work, some presentment of dread. Crime and catastropheare forefelt by premonition of woe and accompaniment of horror. In_The Accusing Spirit_ supernatural thunder heralds the discovery ofthe corpse in its winding-sheet, and the monk says, "Yes, some dreaddiscovery is at hand. These phenomena are miraculous; when the commonlaws of nature are violated, the awful portents are not sent in vain."In _The Romance of the Castle_, an anonymous story, a woman hears theclock strike two and announces that she will be dead at three.
This night an awful messenger sent from that dread tribunal from whose power there is no appeal, by signs terrific foretold my fate approached--foretold my final moment. "Catherine, behold!" was all that issued from the specter's lips, but in its hand it held a scroll which fixed my irrevocable doom, in letters which fascinated while they appalled my sight.
She keeps her appointment promptly. Her experience might be comparedwith the vision which revealed his date of death to Amos Judd in JamesMitchell's novel of that name, and to the foreknowledge in GeorgeEliot's _The Lifted Veil_.
In _The Spirit of the Castle_,[29] the ghost of the old marquis knocksthree times on the door preceding the arrival of the heir, and a blackraven flies away as he enters. At the approach of the true heir to theestate from which he has been kept by fraud in _The Old English Baron_,the doors of the ancient castle fly open, upon which the servants cry,"The doors open of themselves to receive their master!" When Walpole'susurping Manfred sees the plumage on the miraculous casque shakenin concert with the brazen trumpet, he exclaims, "What mean theseportents? If I have offended----" At this point the plumes are shakenstill more strenuously, and the helmet is equally agitated when thegreat sword leaps in. Manfred cries to the apparition, "If thou art atrue knight, thou wilt scorn to employ sorcery to carry thy power. Ifthese omens be from heaven or hell, Manfred trusts to righteousness toprotect his cause." But the omens bring bad luck to Manfred.
[29] By W. C. Proby.
There is much use of portent in _Melmoth_. The specter of the Wandererappearing just before the old man's death predicts the spiritual doomof the dying. As the old uncle is almost breathing his last, he criesout, "What the devil brings you here?" at which the servants crossthemselves and cry, "The devil in his mouth!" Melmoth, the Wanderer,is a walking portent of evil, for the priest is unable to pray in hispresence, the communion bread turns viperous when he is there andthe priest falls dead in the attempt to exorcise the fiendish power.Mysterious strains of music sound as heralds of disaster in severalGothic novels, as[30] where the inexplicable strains are heard only bythe bride and groom preceding the strange tragedy that befalls them.
[30] In _Melmoth_.
At the approach of a supernatural visitant in the terror novel the firealways burns blue,--where there is a fire, and the great hearth usuallyaffords ample opportunity for such portentous blaze. The thermometeritself tends to take a downward path when a ghost draws near. Thethree drops of blood shed from the statue's nose in _Otranto_, whileridiculed by the critics, are meant simply as a portent of evil. Prof.William Lyon Phelps points out[31] that the idea did not originatewith Walpole, but was familiar as a superstition regarding premonitionof ill, as referred to in Dryden's _Amboyna_, IV., 1. This instancemay be compared with the much more skillfully handled omens in laterdrama, as Maeterlinck's and Ibsen's, particularly in _The Emperor andGalilean_. Various other portents of ill appear in Gothic fiction.[32]
[31] In his _Beginnings of the English Romantic Movement_, p. 108.
[32] Eliza Heywood's romance, _Lasselia: or, the Self-Abandoned_, shows a similar portent, as Dr. George Frisbee Whicher notes in his _The Life and Romances of Mrs. Eliza Heywood_.
Professor Ashley H. Thorndike, in his _Tragedy_, in speaking of the plays of the Restoration dramatist John Banks (p. 273), says: "Even the portents are reduced to a peculiar decorum:--
"Last night no sooner was I laid to rest Than just three drops of blood fell from my nose!"
These three drops of blood probably have a much more extended history in romance and the drama, which it would be interesting to trace out.
The symbols of dread and the ghostly are used to good effect inthe terror romance. The cumulative effects of supernatural aweare carefully built up by the use of gruesome accompaniments andsuggestions. The triple veil of night, desolation, and silence usuallyhangs over the haunter and the haunted, predisposing to an uncannypsychosis. The Gothic ghost does not love the garish day, and theterror castle, gloomy even under the brightest sun, is of unimaginabledarkness at night. Certain houses add especially to the impression offear. At crucial moments the stroke of twelve or one o'clock is sureto be sounded appallingly by some abbey bell or castle clock or otherrusty horologue. In addition to its services as time-keeper, the bellhas a predisposition to toll.
Melancholy birds fly freely through these medieval tales, their darkwings adding to the general gloom. The principal specimens in theGothic aviary are the common owl, the screech or "screeching" owl, thebat and the raven, while the flock is increased by anonymous "birds ofprey," "night birds," "gloomy birds" and so forth. In _St. Oswyth_,as the murderer steals at midnight through the corridor toward hishelpless victim, "the ill-boding bird of night that sat screeching onthe battlement of the prison tower, whose harsh, discordant notes wereechoed by the hoarse croaking of the ominous raven" terrifies but doesnot deter the villain.
The "moping, melancholy screech owl" is one of the prominent personagesin _The Accusing Spirit_, emphasizing the moments of special suspense,as in _St. Oswyth_ as the wicked baron lies quaking in remorse forhaving caused a nun to be buried alive, the condemning cry of thedoleful birds increases his mental anguish. Similar instances, withor without special nomenclature, occur in countless Gothic novels.Much use is also made of the dark ivy in its clambering over medievalarchitecture, shutting out the light and adding to the general gloom.The effect of horror is increased frequently by the location of thescenes in vaults and graveyards with all their gruesome accessories,and skulls are used as mural ornaments elsewhere, or as libraryappointments by persons of morbid temperament. Enough skeletons areexhumed to furnish as large a pile of bones as may be seen in certainantique churches in Italy and M
exico.
* * * * *
The element of mystery and mystification is another family feature ofthe novel of suspense. There is no proper thrill without the suspenseattained by supernatural mystery. Even the novels that in the endcarefully explain away all the ghostly phenomena on a natural basisstrive with care to build up plots which shall contain astoundingdiscoveries. Mrs. Radcliffe and Regina Maria Roche are noted in thisrespect. They have not the courage of their ghosts as such but, afterthey have thrilled the reader to the desired extent, they tear down thefabric of mystification that they have constructed and meticulouslyexplain everything.
The black veil constitutes a favorite method of suspense with Mrs.Radcliffe. On various occasions Emily pales and quivers before a darkvelvet pall uncannily swaying in the midnight wind, and on one suchramble she draws aside the curtain and finds a hideous corpse, putridand dropping to decay, lying on a couch behind the pall. Many chaptersfurther on she learns that this is a wax figure made to serve aspenance for an ancient sinner. Again she shivers in front of the inkycurtain, watching its fold move unaccountably, when a repulsive facepeers out at her. She shrieks and flees, thinking she has seen a ghost,but discovers later that it is _only_ one of a company of bandits thathave taken up their secret abode in the house. Black veils are infashion in all of Mrs. Radcliffe's romances and she drapes them veryeffectively, while the arras waves likewise in other tales as well.
Mysterious manuscripts are another means of mystification. Mrs.Radcliffe's novels also abound in such scripts. In _The Romance ofthe Forest_ Adeline discovers a decaying paper which reads, "Oh, ye,whoever ye are, that chance or misfortune may direct to this spot, toyou I speak, to you reveal the story of my wrongs and ask you to avengethem." This injunction to avenge wrongs is a frequent assignment,though rather much to ask in most cases. _The Spirit of the Castle_ hasits dusty document that starts off: "Already my hand brandishes thedagger that shall close my eyes forever. (Mysterious manuscripts arenot strong on grammar and make slight attempt to avoid mixed figures.)I will expire by the side of the clay-cold corpse of my Antoinette." In_St. Oswyth_ the paper says, "Beneath the deep foundations of the ruinthe recorded mystery of the house of Oswyth lies buried from all mortaldiscovery." But the most impressive manuscript is the one in _Melmoth_that records the wanderings of the agonized fate-harried man and thosewhose tortures he witnesses. A codicil to the old uncle's will adviseshis nephew against reading the document, but of course he does readit, since what are mouldy manuscripts in Gothic novels for, but to bedeciphered by the hero or heroine?
Reference to dread secrets occur otherwise than in written form. In onefavored tale,[33] we are told of "a mystery whose elucidation I nowhave a presentiment would fill me with horror!" In another,[34] Vincenton his death-bed speaks of "a horrid secret which labors at my breast,"and the Abate speaks to the marquis of "a secret which shall makeyour blood run cold!" In _St. Oswyth_ we hear that "an impenetrablecloud of cureless sorrow hung over Sir Alfred and there was a dreadfulmystery in his life destiny, unknown, as it should seem, to any one,and which he was unwilling should be questioned." The dungeonedprisoner in _Bungay Castle_ cries, "Were I at liberty to speak I coulda tale unfold would tempt you to curse the world and even detest thoseclaims which bind man to man. You would be ready to forego the ties ofnature and shun society. Time must, it will develop the whole of thismystery!" And so on.
[33] Regina Maria Roche's _Clermont_.
[34] _A Sicilian Romance_, by Mrs. Radcliffe.
Inexplicable music forms one of the commonest elements of mystificationin these romances. Its constant recurrence suggests that theremust have been victrolas in medieval times. The music is chieflyinstrumental, sometimes on a harp, sometimes on a violin, thoughoccasionally it is vocal. Mrs. Radcliffe and Regina Maria Rocheaccompany the heroine's musings at all hours with doleful strainssuspected to be of supernatural performance. The appearance of thedevil masquerading as the Moor[35] is heralded by flute-like sounds,and in _The Spirit of Turrettville_ the specter plays on the harp andsings. The recurrence of the theme is so constant that it acquires themonotony of a tantalizing refrain.
[35] In _Zofloya_.
Groans and wails of unexplained origin also aid in building upsuspense. In fact, a chorus of lugubriousness arises so that the Gothicpages groan as they are turned. Mysterious disappearances likewiseincrease the tension. Lights appear and vanish with alarming volition,doors open and close with no visible human assistance, and variousother supernatural phenomena aid in Gothic mystery and mystification.
* * * * *
Although the ghosts and devils occupy the center of interest in thehorrific romance, the human characters must not be lightly passed over.There are terror temperaments as well as Gothic castles, tempests, andscenes. The interfering father or other relative, brutal in threatsand breathing forth slaughter, comes in frequently to oppress thehero or heroine into a loathed marriage. The hero is of Radcliffiangloom, a person of vague past and saturnine temper, admired andimitated by Byron. Sir Walter Raleigh,[36] says, "The man that Byrontried to be was the invention of Mrs. Radcliffe." The officials ofthe Inquisition and the dominant figures in convents and monasteriesshow fiendish cruelty toward helpless inmates, gloating in Gothicdiabolism over their tortures. There are no restful human shades ofgray, only unrelieved black and white characters. The Romantic heroineis a peculiar creature, much given to swooning and weeping, yet alwaysimpeccably clad in no matter what nocturnal emergency she is surprised.She tumbles into verse and sketching on slight provocation, but herworst vice is that of curiosity. In her search for supernatural horrorsshe wanders at midnight through apartments where she does not belong,breaks open boxes, desks, and secret hiding-places to read whateverletters or manuscripts she can lay her hands on, behaving generallylike the yellow journalist of fiction.
[36] In _The English Novel_, p. 228.
The pages of the Gothic novel are smeared with gore and turn withghostly flutter. The conversation is like nothing on land or sea orin the waters under the earth, for the tadpoles talk like Johnsonianwhales and the reader grows restless under Godwinistic disquisitions.The authors are almost totally lacking in a sense of humor, yet theGothic novel, taken as a whole, is one of the best specimens ofunconscious humor known to English literature.
=Conclusion.= Perhaps the most valuable contribution that the Gothicschool made to English literature is Jane Austen's inimitable satireof it, _Northanger Abbey_. Though written as her first novel and soldin 1797, it did not appear till after her death, in 1818. Its purposeis to ridicule the Romanticists and the book in itself would justifythe terroristic school, but she was ahead of her times, so the editorfeared to publish it. In the meantime she wrote her other satires onsociety and won immortality for her work which might never have beenbegun save for her satiety of medieval romances. The title of the storyitself is imitative, and the well-known materials are all present,yet how differently employed! The setting is a Gothic abbey temperedto modern comfort; the interfering father is not vicious, merelyill-natured; the pursuing, repulsive lover is not a villain, only asilly bore. The heroine has no beauty, nor does she topple into sonnetsnor snatch a pencil to sketch the scene, for we are told that she hasno accomplishments. Yet she goes through palpitating adventures mostlymodelled on Mrs. Radcliffe's incidents. She is hampered in not beingsupplied with a lover who is the unrecognized heir to vast estates,since all the young men in the county are properly provided withparents.
The delicious persiflage in which Jane Austen hits off the fiction ofthe day may be illustrated by a bit of conversation between two younggirls.
"My dearest Catherine, what have you been doing with yourself all the morning? Have you gone on with _Udolpho_?"
"Yes; I have been reading it ever since I woke, and I have got to the black veil."
"Are you, indeed? How delightful! Oh, I would not tell you what is behind that black veil for
the world! Are you not wild to know?"
"Oh, yes, quite! What can it be? But do not tell me--I would not be told on any account. I know it must be a skeleton; I am sure it is Laurentina's skeleton. Oh, I am delighted with the book! I should like to spend my whole life reading it, I assure you. If it had not been to meet you, I would not have come away from it for the world."
"Dear creature! How much obliged I am to you; and when you have finished _Udolpho_, we will read _The Italian_ together; and I have made out a list of ten or twelve more of the same kind for you."
"Have you, indeed? How glad I am! What are they all?"
"I will read you their names directly; here they are, in my pocket-book: _Castle of Wolfenbach_, _Clermont_, _Mysterious Warnings_, _Necromancer of the Black Forest_, _Midnight Bell, Orphan of the Rhine_, and _Horrid Mysteries_. These will last us some time."
"Yes, pretty well; but are they all horrid? Are you sure they are all horrid?"
"Yes, quite sure; for a particular friend of mine, a Miss Andrews--a sweet girl, one of the sweetest creatures in the world--has read every one of them!"
Mr. George Saintsbury[37] expresses himself as sceptical of this listas a catalogue of actual romances, stating that he has never read oneof them and should like some other authority than Miss Andrews fortheir existence. He is mistaken in his doubt, however, since duringthe progress of this investigation four out of the eight have beenidentified as to authorship, and doubtless the others are lurking insome antique library. _Clermont_ is by Maria Regina Roche; _MysteriousWarnings_ by Mrs. Parsons, in London, 1796; _Midnight Bell_ by FrancisLatham; and _Horrid Mysteries_ by Marquis Grosse, London, 1796.
[37] In his introduction to his pocket volume of _Tales of Mystery_.
Jane Austen's stupid bore, John Thorpe, and Mr. Tilney, the impeccable,pedantic hero, add their comment to Gothic fiction, one saying with ayawn that there hasn't been a decent novel since _Tom Jones_, except_The Monk_, and the other that he read _Udolpho_ in two days with hishair standing on end all the time.
But the real cleverness of the work consists in the burlesque of Gothicexperiences that Catherine, because of the excited condition of hermind induced by excess of romantic fiction, goes through with on hervisit to Northanger Abbey. She explores secret wings in a search forhorrors, only to find sunny rooms, with no imprisoned wife, not asingle maniac, and never skeleton of tortured nun. Mr. Tilney's ironicjests satirize all the elements of Gothic romance. Opening a blackchest at midnight, she finds a yellowed manuscript, but just as she isabout to read it her candle flickers out. In the morning sunshine shefinds that it is an old laundry list. The only result of her suspiciousexplorings is that she is caught in such prowlings by the young manwhose esteem she wishes to win. He sarcastically assures her that hisfather is not a wife-murderer, that his mother is not immured in adungeon, but died of a bilious attack. These delicately tipped shaftsof ridicule riddle the armor of medievalism and give it at the sametime a permanency of interest because of Jane Austen's treatment ofit. The Gothic novel will be remembered, if for nothing else, for herparody of it.
But Miss Austen is not the only satirist of the _genre_. In _TheHeroine_, Eaton Stannard Barrett gives an amusing burlesque of it.It is interesting to note in this connection that while _NorthangerAbbey_ was written and sold in 1797 it was not published till 1818, andBarrett's book, while written later, was published in 1813.
In the introduction, an epistle, supposed to be endited by oneCherubina, says:
MOON, May 1, 1813.
Know that the moment that a mortal manuscript is written in a legible hand and the word End or Finis attached thereto, whatever characters happen to be sketched therein acquire the quality of creating a soul or spirit which takes flight and ascends immediately through the regions of the air till it arrives at the moon, where it is embodied and becomes a living creature, the precise counterpart of the literary prototype.
Know farther that all the towns, villages, rivers, hills, and valleys of the moon also owe their origin to the descriptions which writers give of the landscapes of the earth.
By means of a book, _The Heroine_, I became a living inhabitant of the moon. I met with the Radclyffian and Rochian heroines, and others, but they tossed their heads and told me pertly that I was a slur on the sisterhood, and some went so far as to say that I had a design on their lives.
Cherry, an unsophisticated country girl, becomes Cherubina afterreading romantic tales. She decides that she is an heiress kept inunwarranted seclusion, and tells her father that he cannot possibly beher father since he is "a fat, funny farmer." She rummages in his deskfor private papers, discovering a torn scrap that she interprets to herdesires. She flies, leaving a note to tell the fleshy agriculturistthat she is gone "to wander over the convex earth in search of herparents," with what comic experiences one may imagine. There ismuch discussion of the Gothic heroine, particularly those from Mrs.Radcliffe's and Regina Maria Roche's pages. The girl sprinkles herletters with verse. She passes through storms, explores desertedhouses, and comes to what she thinks is her ancestral castle in London,but is told that it is Covent Garden Theatre. She decides that she isNell Gwynne's niece and goes to that amiable person to demand all herproperty. She pokes around in the cellar to find her captive mother,and discovers an enormously fat woman playing with frogs, who drunkenlyinsists that she is her mother. Leaving that place in disgust she takespossession of somebody else's castle and orders it furnished in Gothicstyle, according to romance. She has the fat farmer shut up in themadhouse.
The book is very amusing, and a more pronounced parody on Gothicismthan _Northanger Abbey_ because the whole story turns round thattheme,--but, of course, it is not of so great literary value. It seemsstrange, however, that it is so little known. It burlesques everyfeature of terror fiction, the high-flown language, the excited oaths,the feudal furniture, the medieval architecture, the Gothic weather,the supernatural tempers, the spectral apparitions--one of which isso muscular that he struggles with the heroine as she locks him in acloset, after throwing rapee into his face, which makes him sputter ina mortal fashion. Cherubina finds a blade bone of mutton in some Gothicgarbage and takes it for a bone of an ancestor. Radcliffian adjectivesreel across the pages and the whole plays up in a delightful parody theludicrous weaknesses and excesses of the terror fiction.
Likewise the Anti-Jacobin parodies the Gothic ghost and there isconsiderable satire directed at the whole Gothic _genre_ in Thomas LovePeacock's novel _Nightmare Abbey_.
In general, Gothicism had a tonic effect on English literature, andinfluenced the continental fiction to no small degree. By giving aninterest and excitement gained from ghostly themes to fiction, theterror writers made romance popular as it had never been before andimmensely extended the range of its readers. The novel has never lostthe hold on popular fancy that the Gothic ghost gave to it. Thisinterest has increased through the various aspects of Romanticismsince then and in every period has found some form of supernaturalismon which to feed. True, the machinery of Gothicism creaks audiblyat times, some of the specters move too mechanically, and thereis a general air of unreality that detracts from the effect. Thesupernaturalism often lacks the naturalness which is necessary. Yetit is not fair to apply to these early efforts the same standardsby which we judge the novels of to-day. While their range is narrowthey do achieve certain impressive effects. Though the class becameconventionalized to an absurd degree and the later examples arelaughable, while a host of imitations made the type ridiculous, theGothic novel has an undeniable force.
Besides the bringing of supernaturalism definitely into fiction, whichis a distinct gain, we find other benefits as well. In Gothicism,if we examine closely, we find the beginnings of many forms ofsupernaturalism that are crude here, but that are to develop intospecial power in later novels and short stories. The terror novelexcites our ridicule in some respects, yet, like other things thatarouse a certain measure of laughter, it has
great value. It seems afar cry from the perambulating statue in _Otranto_ to Lord Dunsany'sjade gods that move with measured, stony steps to wreak a terriblevengeance on mortals who have defied them, but the connection may beclearly enough seen. The dreadful experiments by which Frankenstein'smonster is created are close akin to the revolting vivisections ofWells's Dr. Moreau, or the operations described by Arthur Machenwhereby human beings lose their souls and become diabolized, givenover utterly to unspeakable evil. The psychic elements in _Zofloya_are crudely conceived, yet suggestive of the psychic horrors of thework of Blackwood, Barry Pain, and Theodore Dreiser, for example. Theanimal supernaturalism only lightly touched on in Gothic novels is tobe elaborated in the stories of ghostly beasts like those by EdithWharton, Kipling, Ambrose Bierce, and others. In fact, the greaternumber of the forms of the supernatural found in later fiction andthe drama are discoverable, in germ at least, in Gothic romance. Thework of this period gave a tremendous impetus to the uncanny elementsof romanticism and the effect has been seen in the fiction and dramaand poetry since that time. Its influence on the drama of its daymay be seen in Walpole's _Mysterious Mother_ and Lewis's _CastleSpecter_. Thomas Lovell Beddoe's extraordinary tragedy, _Death's JestBook_, while largely Elizabethan in materials and method, is closelyrelated to the Gothic as well. It would be impossible to understand orappreciate the supernatural in the nineteenth-century literature andthat of our own day without a knowledge of the Gothic to which most ofit goes back. Like most beginnings, Gothicism is crude in its earlierforms, and conventional in the flood of imitations that followed thesuccessful attempts. But it is really vital and most of the ghostlyfiction since that time has lineally descended from it rather than fromthe supernaturalism of the epic or of the drama.
The Supernatural in Modern English Fiction Page 2
